Observational Drawing & Mark-Making Project Evaluation

During this project, I have learnt drawing and mark-making techniques such as scraffito, continuous line, and bleach over dark ink, coloured pencil over a collaged background, coloured pencil over ink and pencil over white acrylic. Some techniques are new to me—scraffito, and using bleach over dark ink. To be honest I didn’t particularly like using the bleach, I feel like you can’t achieve much detail using it.

I applied coloured pencil to a collaged background to explore and achieve different affects and mark-making. I tried coloured pencil on black paper, I feel this went well because of the vivid colours I used.

With the four studies on different backgrounds, I feel as if the first study, coloured pencil on parcel paper and newspaper, wasn’t very effective. It was difficult using the coloured pencil over the parcel paper, and it was awkward using the pencil without ripping the background; I feel I didn’t glue it down well enough. Similarly, I wasn’t pleased with the second study, coloured pencil on inks, because of the colours I chose to work with; it was difficult to get the colours to show up against the background. However, I feel that the third study—pencil on white emulsion—was effective because the dark pencil showed up well against the white, and the texture it gave looked interesting. Lastly, with the bleach on dark inks, I was slightly uncertain and unconfident with this study due to never having used this technique before, therefore I don’t think it was very effective because I was hesitant to use it.

I found using other tools to mark-make with to be fun and interesting, because it was the first time I’d used something other than a pencil, paintbrush, pen or pastel to achieve mark-making; for example, using a compass for the scraffito. I also found the drawing expressively to be enjoyable and interesting.

I find that the colours on my scraffito drawing are effective due to them being vivid and eye-catching; it makes the objects stand out. However, I found this technique to be frustrating, because mistakes can’t be erased— again, I wasn’t too confident.

I think that my homework studies are quite successful; I found each homework study to be interesting and engaging. Although, with some studies, I don’t believe I spent enough time on them.

I feel that my observational drawing skills have improved because I have learnt that objects can be drawn in ways other than the usual techniques I would use (the bleach, for example.) Moreover, I have learnt to study still lives and objects more closely.

I feel that I managed my time very badly throughout this project, to try and improve my time management and time spent on work I visited the head of Arts and Crafts, and we produced a time management sheet for me to follow.

I don’t believe I produced the best drawing and mark-making outcomes possible within the given time frame. I was unconfident using most of the techniques due to them being new to me; stress and hesitation to try the new techniques hindered my progress—I have learnt to have more of an open mind when learning new techniques, and I’m going to try and be more confident.

Spattering is a technique I would like to explore (using a toothbrush to gain different effects.)

I really enjoyed this project, because although I was hesitant to try the new techniques, I enjoyed learning them, and it was interesting to try and portray the still lives that I set up in different ways. I have learnt that I must manage my time more efficiently to gain a better interaction and understanding with this type of project.