Cat O'Neill
I love the way Cat has used mark making and pattern in her observational work to be descriptive of forms' textures and contours. A thick brush with ink to describe the tilled fields, allowing the ink to scrape across and get drier in the background showing the sense of depth and distance, is such a clever and minimal way to achieve it. The flow of the land is easy to see because of how the brush has been moved from left to right and those contours show where land is raised and bathes in sunlight. The swirling mountains are particularly nice too, where our eye is lead towards, and there is evident description of their flowing shape. Such a minimal but powerful piece of illustration. I also love the mark making for the trees and how movement and motion have been implied in the direction of the flicked strokes. Using minimal ink pens is something I have discovered enjoying earlier in the visual language sessions and combining that with mark making is what I hope to experiment with tomorrow.
Nina Cosford
I've selected 3 of my favourite observational drawings from Nina that each focus on a different element - shape and colour, line and texture. In the first illustration, Nina has used basic shapes and forms to describe the skyscrapers and architecture in New York in a very simple and free-form way. Variation in thicker and thinner lines convey the windows and ridges on the side of the buildings. These few simple components, used in a very primary way, still communicate Modernist skyscrapers - with the addition of a bright yellow taxi, angled backwards to represent speed and motion, connects with the audience to automatically allude to New York. Her second observational piece provides more perspective and exploration of line quality; thicker lines outlining meeting points between objects - where the underneath of the roof meets the bricks of the house, or the edges of the brick wall of the fence end to meet the gate. A few marks and patterns are used to describe different trees and plants, different surface areas and textures. Simple, lots of white space, but very charming. It is a little over-worked I think, and some of the background trees could have been omitted in my opinion. The third drawing shows the texture, light and shadow of the mountains really nicely through the use of a fine, cross-hatched pencil. More pressure is applied to show peaks and the lighter areas show the angles and ridges. The ramblers at the front of the composition are sketched in pen to make the darker and closer to the viewer. Nina's simple use of line, shape and texture is something I want to employ during tomorrow's session.
Ahead of the York trip tomorrow, I wanted to look at some other illustrators' reportage and observational drawings on location to give me some inspiration. I want to identify what has made their work a success; is it their ability to adopt good line quality? Pattern, texture and mark making? Shape and form? Colour?
I've selected 3 of my favourite observational drawings from Nina that each focus on a different element - shape and colour, line and texture. In the first illustration, Nina has used basic shapes and forms to describe the skyscrapers and architecture in New York in a very simple and free-form way. Variation in thicker and thinner lines convey the windows and ridges on the side of the buildings. These few simple components, used in a very primary way, still communicate Modernist skyscrapers - with the addition of a bright yellow taxi, angled backwards to represent speed and motion, connects with the audience to automatically allude to New York. Her second observational piece provides more perspective and exploration of line quality; thicker lines outlining meeting points between objects - where the underneath of the roof meets the bricks of the house, or the edges of the brick wall of the fence end to meet the gate. A few marks and patterns are used to describe different trees and plants, different surface areas and textures. Simple, lots of white space, but very charming. It is a little over-worked I think, and some of the background trees could have been omitted in my opinion. The third drawing shows the texture, light and shadow of the mountains really nicely through the use of a fine, cross-hatched pencil. More pressure is applied to show peaks and the lighter areas show the angles and ridges. The ramblers at the front of the composition are sketched in pen to make the darker and closer to the viewer. Nina's simple use of line, shape and texture is something I want to employ during tomorrow's session.
Ahead of the York trip tomorrow, I wanted to look at some other illustrators' reportage and observational drawings on location to give me some inspiration. I want to identify what has made their work a success; is it their ability to adopt good line quality? Pattern, texture and mark making? Shape and form? Colour?
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