Aim

Create a believable illusion of space and depth in two dimensions.

Correct any over-reliance of outline to give a sense of volume and space.

Method

Cover a whole sheet of paper with charcoal creating a black rectangle. Draw into the charcoal with a selection of rubbers to make a drawing from your choice of subject. Work for about an hour then go back to charcoal and redraw in darker tones using charcoal. Continue until you have a drawing you are happy with. Avoid using outlines and build up patches of tone. Bear in mind that as you move along the object's silhouette, the relationships might change, and the outline (if used) might switch allegiance.

I am currently working on quite a tight, detailed drawing for my parallel project so thought it would be a great contrast to run this exercise alongside. I have again decided to work on A1 paper as I want to experiment with larger, gestural mark making in complete contrast to the tight pencil marks I am using in my A4 sketchbook.

My initial findings at this early stage is that I shouldn't have used a subject which has a light background as the charcoal is quite hard to lighten to any degree without going in hard with my eraser. I got to this point using an eraser and white tack which I find to be a good substitute for a putty eraser which dries out quickly.

Pretty sceptical about this exercise I left it and went out to lunch with my Dad. Returning to it a few hours later I decided to work into the charcoal with my pencil eraser and charcoal stick. One of the instructions was to avoid line but, with the subject I have chosen it is pretty difficult to avoid the use of line as there are extreme light areas and dark shadows along the thin roots. I did however make a very strong attempt to stop them looking like an outline of the plant. Just creating blocks of colour wasn't satisfying my preferred aesthetic and so I began to look at texture and bring that out in the drawing with my eraser. It was at this point that the drawing began to come to life for me.

I am asked to reflect on whether I have managed to create a sense of depth. In the earlier stages definitely not but, after lightening the background and then adding the darker tones with charcoal and texture with the pencil eraser I feel there is now depth created, certainly in the centre of the drawing. This is aided by the dark shadow and the crescent of light under the central horizontal root that helps it to lift off the page.

Whilst I have 'ticked the box' for this exercise I feel driven to explore this erasure technique further with different materials. These will be less about making a finished drawing and more about exploring the different textures I can make with different materials and an eraser.

I began with chalk pastels. The putty rubber didn't work at all but the harder eraser worked well together with my finer pencil eraser. Working back into the drawing with a darker pastel I can see the potential for making drawings in this way. I did notice that the coloured pastel did leave pigment on the paper which is impossible to remove so it is very difficult to get a very light tone.

The experiment with colour pencils was awful, I feel it is too finer a dry medium to really respond to this type of treatment on a large scale. Again, the pencil left quite a substantial amount of pigment on the paper after using the eraser. I needed to add lines to get any definition. As you can tell, I lost interest in developing this.

Off the back of my tutorial and my tutor's suggestion to explore materials and fluid media I wondered what would happen if I added water to soft pastels. I covered a piece of watercolour paper with bright soft pastel then ran through it with some clear water. I needed to scrub a little to remove pigment, but I liked the effect.

I dropped in a little diluted Indian ink and allowed it to bleed into the damp areas. I was pleased with the effect and was going to stop here.

The advantage of taking progress photographs is that you can go back and work on something without the worry of ruining it. Reflecting on the drawing I realised I wasn't happy with the rough treatment of the background so decided to blend the pastel. The result was that I lost some of the definition of the lines and so I worked into the edges with my pencil eraser which worked well. I am not sure how I could incorporate this technique into my own practice, but I am finding that I am starting to have a slowly emerging appreciation for soft pastel which I have never had before.

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