Exercise 3.0: Observation- topography where to draw. What to draw.

Exercise 3.0 Observation

The aim of this task was to strengthen my observational skills and to represent what I see during my everyday into a sketchbook, helping to develop my confidence in sketching fragments of daily life, “building images that report or described what was witnessed, as an event or place” and creating a sense of narrative around a subject, all attributes of what is called as Reportage Illustration.

Main points of the brief:

•  “Working in sequence and there could be more that 20 sketches in all”
• Choosing a sketchbook that  will accommodate this number or drawings;
• Choosing two locations with a start and end point
• Choosing a route with visual diversity such as with different arquitectural details, street furniture, scale of content as well as a range of material properties (colours, textures)
• Making visual notes and sketches regarding key buildings, visual landmarks and aspects of the route.
• To look multi-directionally and choosing materials that I feel confident with.
• Don’t need to make resolved or very detailed drawings
• Do both quick drawings(in sequence) and slow drawings (taking more time to add details and further elaborate them)

Process

This task was made in two days and used different materials on separate sequences of drawings. Before I started I looked at some of the work made by Veronica Lawlor, George Butler, Lucinda Rogers, Paul Hogarth, Olivier Kugler and David Gentleman to get some inspiration.

My route on day 1 was around the block of flats where I live in Rickmansworth Road, Watford. There was a variety of architectural features on the houses and industrial areas around me but not enough to produce a big batch of sketches based on that alone. I looked up, down, left and right, searching for interesting angles, shapes and colour contrasts that would fit on my hand-shaped view finder and would help to make intestesting compositions.
I aimed at doing quick sketches, timing them for 5 minutes.

It took me around 3 hours to complete this first set of sketches. Used my iPad  with the Procreate software to make the sketches and took advantage of the occasion to explore different brushes , layering techniques and drew on a 11”-17” canvas to accommodate all the sketches in form of panels.

For day 2, I went further away from my house, being in lockdown, I used google earth on street view, to explore the area around me in a 3 mile radius, these areas being  bit crowded weighed on my decision to not be there physically. 

I resorted to a traditional A4 sketchbook, worked mostly with watercolours, pen, and waterbrush, a kit I would usually use had I actually left the house to sketch, plus I used some watersoluble brush markers in a few sketches.
 I made a mixture of quick and slow sketches.


Day 1

Sketches Day 1 - a walk around Savanna court in Rickmansworth road in Watford

Notes from sketches day 1

1- Did a 2 minute sketch around a postbox near my flat, felt sketch was a  bit empty upon completion so I played around with layers, trying some collage of an old newspaper and layer masking of some textured windows with odd shaped brushes.

2-3-5-6-Sketches are made from the views l ooking front, right, left and up when leaving the main hall of my flat.

4-7-8-Some views around entrance towards the parking lot behind the flat.

9- Up-view of a bricked warehouse with windows and a chimney  located across the road from my apartment building. 

Day 2

Using Google earth, went northbound in Rickmansworth Road on street view, exactly what I would see had I walked normally.

Map of the route, 2 hour walk

Sketch 11 - Walking northbound, parallel to Rickmansworth road through a residential road. A slower sketch, warming up using the watercolour.

Sketch 12 -3 minute timed sketch. Bluebox storage warehouse across the road from my apartment, made with watercolour and pen .
Added some people in the drawing to add depth

Sketch 13 -5 minute sketch. Front view of my apartment building, road was empty so drew people walking by..

Sketch 14 -  A view from Watford Junction going southbound towards the town centre

Sketch 15 - 5 minute sketch of Worms-eye view of the Palace theatre in Clarendon road, going towards the town centre

Sketch 16 -Slow-drawing. Front view of a few shops in Watford  High street , vibrant colour contrast  among  the different buildings , juxtaposition of rectangles and triangles caught my attention.

Sketch 17- Another front view of a set of shops located in the high street, could have added a crowd walking to give more energy to contrast the dull architecture .

Sketch 18 - Elim Pentecostal church and a few shops, I added a few cars driving by and a crowd,  inspired by Veronica Lawlor. Attempted to get looser using the watercolour by giving broader strokes instead of colouring in detail every single element of the drawing. 

There were times I had to remind myself it was a sketch and not to worry much about refining, trying to stick with the essence of the task.

Sketch 19 - A petrol station in Saint Albans road. As with some of Veronica Lawlor’s sketches, I was focused on adding a vibrant colour to my main subject in the picture to differentiate from its surroundings. Also strived to keep the pen moving quick, not to stop too long to detail a particular part of the sketch. 

Sketch 20 - Eastbound view of Vicarage Road Stadium, tried to make a quick sketch but I had to work slower by adding the cars parked, add perspective to the letters up in the stadium. The crowd was drawn quickly to portray energy, bearing in mind that there’s no people in the reference Google earth view, had to make up. My approach to do that was similar to the fast drawings exercise where I kept the pen moving quickly and not stopping to think.

After these series of sketches I felt the need to change materials or do different combinations as well as timing them to make quicker sketches.

Sketches 21/22/23 - Returning to base. Some houses caugh whilst looking left, right and front of me. In these last sketches, my concern was to make them in the least time possible and balancing it with  some clarity in what I attempted to show.

Sketches 24/25/26/27 -  Tried to stay disciplined in keeping my sketches loose not worrying much about lack of detail.

What went well:

• Became more confident in using watercolour  and combining them with an ink pen or brush pen. Use of the iPad to sketch and exploring layers and brushes which I ignored previously.
• I liked the choice of subject despite not having much architecturally striking features around me, focusing on the mundane everyday buildings and ways to portray them more interestingly;
• I was happy with the amount of sketches produced in a short period of time;
• Towards the end I was getting more confortable with making quick sketches and annotating the locations and materials, slowly ignoring the adding of details and instead keeping them loose.
• Whilst in fast sketch mode, I think I portrayed well what I wanted.

Even better if...

• I could get a thicker sketchbook paper  that can withstand watercolour without bending it.
• Explored more textures and material combinations
• My slow sketches were made in fast sketching mindset, before starting a sketch , sometimes I wasn’t Deciding whether to do it fast or slow, just making them as quick as I could whilst detailing them at the same time thus defeating the purpose of some sketches.
• Being in lockdown, had to resort to Google earth sources as reference, thus limiting the quality of view details important to then add textures, also the camera distortion affected the outcome of the image.