Part 2: Exercise - A Rose by any other name

For this exercise we were to choose a house plant, plant cutting or bunch of flowers to draw in detail using a small area to focus on.

Initially I was going to choose my favourite flower roses but I wanted to do something different to what I am used to and in the recent years I've developed my love of cactus' and succulents. I have a particularly interesting cactus in my art studio and knew it would give me several interesting angles to draw from.

I started by using different graphite pencils to sketch a detailed drawing. I wanted to see which type of pencil would work best that would help me to get a realistic looking drawing of this cactus. 

Then I began to think how to colour these sketches, I wanted to try a variety of mediums as it is a personal goal of mine to use more traditional media in my sketchbooks and learn more about each one. I'm not very experienced with watercolours but tried this first, then coloured pencils, which I am more familiar with.

First watercolour layers.

Finished graphite sketch with watercolours, coloured pencil and Acryl gouache.

Graphite and coloured pencil.

Further experiments with alcohol markers, coloured pencils and then on another drawing I played around with removing the initial sketch lines and used a mix of wax oil crayons, watercolour and pencils. I wanted to see which medium would look more realistic at my current skill level.

I wasn't very happy with how these ones came out, I prefer my first watercolour drawing because it shows the details better and seems more accurate. I'm glad I tried these other mediums as well though because it is another step towards learning how to use them.

Having thought about the mediums I had already used and moving onto the next part of this exercise; to draw the same plant in a more stylized way, I decided to try using Micron pen. After a few test scribbles I went for the thicker 08 nib as I wanted quite a bold, thick line. I was going to leave it as a line drawing but then got curious about adding watercolour.

The bold lines of the Micron pen with the subtle watercolour work really well together, I finished it off with some white Acryl gouache to add highlights and the whiter areas.

I tried coloured pencils with the Micron pen but didn't like it as much as the watercolour, it felt too simple.

Lastly I used a soft charcoal pencil to create a bold line drawing of the cactus, smudging areas with my finger and using the tip to create sharp lines for the prickles. I think this is quite a fun medium and I like the effect it gave for this drawing.

Reflection:

I really enjoyed this exercise it was a subject I am quite passionate about and using the different mediums to sketch different sections of the cactus was interesting and challenging. I'd like to experiment more with watercolours in my sketchbook and also pen drawings. I've used these mediums in previous exercises and enjoyed them. Drawing the cactus as accurately as I could was very challenging. I enjoy looking at the details of plants and the intricate lines, shapes and patterns they have but I did find myself slipping into stylizing quite often. Naturally I like quite quick strokes of my pencil and drawing detail can be quite intense for me. Overall I think my watercolour drawing came out fairly realistic and I believe others would definitely know it is a cactus, therefore answering the brief.

My stylized versions of the cactus also communicate it's form and essence quite clearly using simpler lines with some bold strokes of colour.