Still life with objects which are meaningful to you in some way.
The objects I chose were:
A piece of lapis lazuli which is meaningful to me because of it’s association with the Medicine Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism.
A bowl which is one of a pair I bought for my Mum and I when we had a little holiday in Whitstable earlier this year.
A stone found on a beach with my sons.
A mini school photo of my sons from a couple of years ago.
A copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, one of a dozen copies I own as it’s been my favourite book since I was 8 years old.
A necklace given to me by my late Nan which I wore on my wedding day.
A crystal rock I found in Australia when I was travelling there 18 years go.
A Mani stone – a stone on which the Mani Mantra is written, these stones are scattered all over Tibet (on mountains, in villages, along paths etc). My husband bought this for me, our oldest son’s name is Mani.
All set up on a child’s wooden chair which my sons have now outgrown, but we haven’t quite let go of yet.
Part of the point of the exercise is to utilise the different techniques already practised in this first part of the course. I’ve made use of lines and cross hatching as well as frottage. Although it’s been fairly affective in creating shade, I wonder if my use of charcoal on the larger areas and for the shading throughout, has made the image too messy. I used a range of media on the different objects, namely fine point pen, conte stick, soft pastel, pencil and oil pastel. I wanted to introduce colour because to me this give the objects added life and possibly imbues them with the feelings I have when drawing them. Also partly for the same reason, I chose to keep the chair monotone because, although it reminds me of my children as they were when they were younger, I’m aware the time has gone and no longer has ‘colour’.
I wasn’t happy with the leg on the right for most of the composition, and have repositioned it twice, other than that I’m more or less content with the angles, sizes and perspective of the composition. Except perhaps for the book where I could have brought down the top left hand corner. The photo of my sons is a bit lost in the composition too. I tried to be as confident and bold as possible in my use of the different media, as I mentioned, I wonder if my use of the charcoal is on the untidy side.
Below are the preparatory sketches I made for this assignment
I’m including a photograph of the still life for future reference.
Ruth Beech - Mindful Movement, Meditation and Art 