Illustration 1: Key steps in illustration- Part 2: Ideas- Exercise 7: An objective drawing
Take an item from the list above and explore it visually to become aware of its textures, physical qualities and function. What is the item for – what does it do?
Using a pencil or fine liner do an objective drawing of your object on an A4 sheet. You are trying to achieve a drawing that has a high degree of visual accuracy and is technically controlled. Be analytical and use drawing to clearly convey this visual information.
You are trying to record what you see in this drawing so be aware of the relative scale of different elements of your object and position of component parts. Use marks that describe the texture of the object and vary line quality to suggest its contours. You may find that if you place your item on a white surface you can observe it more easily. Colour is reflected by white and you will be less distracted by background contrasts.
I haven’t drawn in years and found this task challenging but very interesting. I began by choosing the most interesting object to me from the list- a shoe. A shoe is full of meaning and metaphors, something you struggle forwards through life wearing, a snippet of your history. I found a shoe I now use to paint/sculpt in which I used to wear daily as a late teenager, they have been heavily used and have some character. I placed the shoe on my desk, took an image of it and then drew from the shoe in person and from the image. I tried to capture the shoe the best I could within a few hours, including the scrapes, paint marks and texture. I found the use of shadows/adding texture hard and also the whole perspective of position of the shoe. I think that I will try another drawing of a different object or another shoe to practise further. The end result was interesting and I would definitely like to try another shoe or object to improve my drawing skills. Looking forwards at the next task, I am interested to use my experience of analysing the shoe to look at another object and create a more subjective/abstract design.
