Drawing in the style of . . .

My project work earlier this year with the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru involved using iPads for drawing. I was interested in using the iPad again on the art walk I went on recently but on this occasion challenged myself to use a much broader “pencil”.

I had asked some of the children on the Josef Herman project to do this in order to emulate Herman’s style more closely. For myself,  I thought that it might help me to find a way of working with the iPad that I felt was more suited to the characteristics of  the implement.

However, I think I would have to do a lot more in this way to achieve a better degree of comfort with the iPad as a tool for drawing. As I will be returning it to its owner very soon, this is not likely to happen. It’s a good job that real paper and pencil / charcoal is lot cheaper!

cranes iPad drawing

 

cranes iPad drawing

sketch

Drawing and the iPad – Conclusions

I was in the shade of Cwn Nash woods when I did the last of my iPad drawings on the Walk and Draw day on the South Wales coast and so it was done in more comfort than the previous ones.

My conclusions, for now, regarding the iPad as a tool for drawing are that I will not be splashing out on one just yet. I prefer using pencil or charcoal on paper. However, if I were to get one, it would be with the purpose of finding other approaches to drawing with it. I have no interest in trying to produce a “watercolour” or “pastel” drawing with the iPad, but as David Hockney showed, it can be used very effectively as a medium in itself and not as a means to imitate others.

Round Stones and Flat Rocks

The pattern created by these smooth round stones was the second thing that interested me about this small area at the foot of the cliffs near Monknash on the South Wales coast.

I took a closer look and, on my iPad, I started a couple of sketches of the the harsh light and shade.

This revealed the disadvantage of recording observations with this method – namely heat! The sun was shining and it was a blistering day. Although I started my drawing from a vantage point in the shade, the sun soon moved round and I found that the glass of the iPad got extremely hot to the touch quite quickly. Had I been using a stylus, I might not have realised what was happening which may well have done some lasting harm to the iPad.

Click below to view the iPad animation of one of my attempts at drawing these stones on the iPad using SketchBook Pro.

Monknash stones

flat rocks

Flat Rocks

Rockpool

Layers and Layers – Recording Observations 2

I took a small sketchbook with me on our walk and draw day on the cliff lined shore near Monknash on the South Wales coast – and I found it much easier to work with traditional drawing media than with the iPad. However, I have not had much practice with the iPad in this way.

One of the reasons for bringing the iPad was to get a bit more experience and make a better assessment of it when using it with a traditional approach to drawing – i.e. the SketchBook Pro program I used was set to use a “pencil” at 50% opacity. It would have been easier if I’d had a stylus! I found the strata of the rocks quite a difficult subject but that may have been my lack of practice!

I first used the iPad for drawing when preparing for the Josef Herman Art Foundation Schools Award 2014 project. My first attempts were tentative, but practice obviously helps. Restricting myself (and the children) to using the “pencil” tool was intended to help us learn the basics and become familiar with working in this way. One thing I thought might be useful was the ability to record the process of drawing as an animation.

Below are two of my earliest drawings on the iPad. I hope the viewpoint of the first is clear and the second is of one of the Rosa Mundi flowers in our garden. The flower is the one that would make attempt using colour on the iPad!

iPad drawing of my foot

Rosa Mundi iPad drawing

Walking and Drawing – Thoughts and Observations

Following the production walk for the “Breakers Walk” StillWalks video (see yesterday’s post), I recently spent a day with three of the other artists involved in the research project “Walk and Draw for Health and Wellbeing”. The project, led by Cathy Treadaway from CARIAD, involved us on this occasion, all going for a walk through Cwm Nash woods down to the seashore and the cliffs on the South Wales coast and spending some time drawing.

I took a small sketchbook and an iPad. I have been working with drawing and iPads on the recent Josef Herman Art Foundation Schools Award project for 2014 and wanted to continue with my assessment of the iPad as another instrument for drawing. I have not reached a clear conclusion about this medium yet, other than to say it is quite different to other methods of recording observation.

The one thing the iPad has in common with all visual recording methods is that you still have to look. You can, of course, use the iPad camera to take a photo and then use that image to “trace” aspects of the subject but, to my mind, with that approach you lose the advantages gained in looking . . . or do you? After all,  observation has to be used in order to decide on the photograph to be taken and that is an essential element of StillWalks.

What are the advantages of visually recording observations? What are advantages of the different methods of visually recording observations? And what are the disadvantages of not recording observations?

More thoughts on this to come . . . 

Down on the beach

Rocky shore

breakers

Josef Herman Schools Award 2014 Exhibition

The Josef Herman Schools Award is an annual project hosted by the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru which employs different artists each year to work with four South Wales primary schools. This year the Foundation is working with the Tate on a two-year project called Mining Josef Herman; part of a Transforming Tate Britain: Archives and Access programme.

The children enjoyed a promenade performance by Lighthouse Theatre followed by a series of drawing workshops with me in school and in Ystradgynlais, where Herman lived for 11 years. We worked with iPads and traditional drawing materials.

The children researched selected works by Herman provided by the Tate Gallery, London, and made presentations which were recorded on iPads. The exhibition features a selection of their drawing on paper and two TV screens showing both their presentations and animations of the iPad drawings they produced. The exhibition is at The Welfare in Ystradgynlais and will continue until mid September.

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman project logos

Josef Herman Schools Award Project 2014

Art education is wide ranging and there are many different approaches to it, but at its core is learning to see. The primary and most effective way to learn to see is to draw. This, surely, must be at the beginning of every artist’s career – i.e. the moment, as children, we pick up a pencil, crayon, brush and make a mark with it.

Last week I was working with the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru on their 2014 Schools Award project. Following a tour of Ystradgynlais with Josef (1911 – 2000) played by actor Adrian Metcalfe and the “Clerk to the District Council” played by Sonia Beck, both from Lighthouse Theatre in Swansea, we ran workshops in drawing. We viewed the Foundation’s collection of Herman’s works in “The Welfare” and referenced a set of images provided by the Tate Museum for our drawing. We used both traditional drawing materials (pencil and charcoal on paper) and iPads. Sketchbook Pro has the facility to record the drawing you do on the iPad and you can see a couple of examples from the children at the bottom of this post.

Sonia invited us all back to the year 1954 when Josef Herman lived and worked in Ystradgynlais (for 11 years). She and Adrian did an excellent job of drawing us into believing that they were the real people which confused some of the children as they knew that he had died in 2000!

Adrian Metcalf as Josef Herman

Adrian Metcalf and Sonja Beck

Ystradgynlais

Looking Josef Herman artworks

Drawing workshop