Exercise 2.5

Drawing with objects

I approached this task by taking my sketchbook everywhere with me on a normal day and visually recording my journey. On the way, I collected objects and photographed these when the journey was over (or in their location if I could not remove them). Looking back over my journey, I tried to capture the “main” moments of the day, but I feel that it might have been interesting to capture some more mundane, everyday moments. Location was a key focus in this task, so I tended to draw scenes that included buildings, nature and roads. The journey took me from my home to the shops to the park and to the local leisure centre. In hindsight, perhaps my ‘journey’ was too broad and it would have been more beneficial to look more closely at a shorter journey (however, was conscious about collected objects to use and felt a longer journey/time frame would give me more chances).

Below are the pages from my sketchbook where I recorded my journey. The paint was added at home, but the drawings and writing were completed on location.

In my sketchbook, I considered the properties of each object I had collected and started playing with ideas for illustrations of the places where they were sourced. Thinking back to Christoph Niemann, lots of his Sunday sketches are spontaneous; he looks at the object and incoporates it into an image that he “sees”, not necessarily with a specific goal in mind. I found it quite difficult to tie each object back to its source, and be inventive.

I jotted down and sketched out a few ideas. Even at this stage, I was happier with the options that used the object in a more unusual way, like painting the rim of a plastic container to create trolley wheels. The feathers for trees seemed too obvious and not interesting enough.

The illustrations

Below I outline the processes involved in each illustration and reflect on the ideas.

This was created by painting the rim of a plastic container from the supermarket and pressing it onto the page to create the wheels of the trolley. I used fine liners for the drawing (relatively quick). I quite like the bold colours and slightly distorted shapes; it is still recognisable as a trolley. Although this technically used an object to portray another object, I think the trolley has strong associations with the supermarket location.

I also photographed the container and drew over the photo to create a shopping basket image. I was not as happy with this – the shape of the container does not immediately remind me of a basket, so it was a bit of a stretch.

For this image from my walk around the park, I tried using feathers as trees (which seemed too obvious to me). The texture of the grass was created with a sponge. The leaves and text came from a magazine I bought that day (not necessarily from that location but on the journey). I’m not sure how readable this image is (I only know what it is meant to be because I created it). I think it definitely speaks about nature and has some perspective, but it is far from my comfort zone.

The only object I collected from the leisure centre was my receipt. I decided to try folding the receipt to create the building, then added detail using markers. The “pop-up” effect reminded me of my tutor’s feedback about exploring books that use hidden flaps and 3D effects; I liked the way depth was immediately created by folding, ripping and rolling the receipt. Again, I know it is supposed to be the leisure centre; I hope it is recognisable as a building at least! I deliberately folded one of the pieces to show the text “Queen’s Park Sports Centre”, so, if someone was observing closely, they would get this clue.

After using the circular plastic container for the trolley, I was inspired to try using another plastic container to create an image of the car park to the supermarket. For the ceiling, I used more of a ‘dabbing’ motion, whereas for the floor, I loaded more paint on the page and scraped it across, as I might do with a palette knife. I really enjoyed creating this piece, because it felt instinctive and did not take too long. It is quite simplistic and abstract, so I don’t know if it would be recognisable as a carpark. I asked two people and they both talked about a building, then noticed the markings on the ground and said car park.

I had an ice cream on my walk, so I was thinking about ways to create something using the stick. The idea of melting ice cream or a dropped/splattered ice cream appealed to me, and I remembered researching Marion Deuchars and trying blowing paint with straws. With this technique in mind, I created two “trees”. The colours are vivid – I think the green is more recognisable as a tree, but the effect is interesting.

This was a quick drawing with fine liners, building on the image of my sunglasses, which I wore in the car. It’s recognisable, but I also like the “face” of the car – it looks like it could be a character.
Using photographs of the pieces of bark from the tree, I created another “tree” image. The bark was useful for other pieces to create rubbings, but for this piece, I used crayons to rub over leaves from the walk for the tree. This was the most literal and least inventive of my illustrations, but I enjoy the textures.
I enjoyed this drawing! I decided to use the water bottle image as a lift shaft, and draw the insides. It isn’t particularly detailed, refined or accurate, but every person I asked could identify it as a lift. I was inspired in part by Johnny Hardstaff’s sketchbooks (although my water bottle lift is not nearly as intricate as Hardstaff’s drawings!)
Finally, I used the elastic band I found on my walk and the ribbon I found in my bag to create the arch entrance to the park. The path was created by rubbing over the bark with crayons. The leaves and trees and bushes were depicted using fine liners and markers, which blended together quite well over the acrylic paint sky. Again, this is textured and “rough” – it is recognisable to me but perhaps not to others. I think it has points of interest though, and the eye is drawn into the arch.

Overall, I found this task challenging, especially using the objects inventively in illustrations of the locations. I’m particularly pleased with the trolley image, the ice cream trees, the car and the car park – these are all very varied in style, but I think they fit the brief of using the materials in an interesting way and representing the moment or place where they were found or used. The process of observing my surroundings and actively collecting objects definitely helped me to notice things I wouldn’t usually notice. This process of recording my day, my location and the items I saw gave me a wealth of material to work with later.

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