I have started using my car as a tool for drawing. I travel down the A507, to Bedford, every week to visit my poorly dad. This winding road has a multitude of amazing views. The only issue is that there are few places to stop and draw them. I have found a couple of good places and use my journeys down this road to stop and make very quick sketches. I used one of these sketches to develop into the Foreground, Middle Ground, Background exercise. I used Hockney’s landscape paintings as inspiration, as in many cases the incorporate a road and suggest to me Hockney was also interested in views as he drove? The sketch I have used to develop was initially made at a side road called Buttermilk Farm, near Cottered. The side road allows parking a gives a great view of surrounding farmland – with rolling hills, fields and a big sky. I used grey pastel shades for the background of a rolling grey cold cloudy sky. Thick clouds moving oppressively across the top half of the view. The side of a pastels allow the colour to be put on like a thick blanket. The background of the land is distant clumps of trees – using a black drawing pen to keep the detail small but somewhat structures in shape. The middle ground is sweeps of brown pastel , overlaid with pastel pencil to show the furrows of the ploughed field. The foreground is detailed black line pen drawing of tall weeds.
WHAT WORKS
The Clouds – Drawn spontaneously with energy.
The little trees in the far background – Hint at distance and expanse
The weeds in the foreground – bring the viewer right to the front of the picture. The black pen allows them to be more detailed in structure.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK
The Midground – The technique with the pastel is too heavy and lumpy. Probably should have used drawing pencils rather than a block of colour as the midground shouldn’t shout as loudly as the fore ground.
Inspiration – see various Hockney below
I love Hockney’s use of colour and the way he composes the pieces. They are rather hyperactive in colour, but excite the senses. I can relate to Hockney wanting to create a series of drawings. The different aspects help create a reel feel for the area they are based in (Yorkshire). I would like to maybe develop a similar series on the A507!
Above is another sketch I did at the same location (facing a different direction) to demonstrate fore, mid and background. I didn’t develop this sketch further, but I think it also demonstrates three layers of composition. I actually prefer this rough sketch, to the piece at the top of this page.
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