Monday 23 November 2009

Water Mill - Lower Slaughter

Lower Slaughter is a small village in the beautiful area of England known as The Cotswolds. The scene is of the mill and a couple of typical Cotswold Stone cottages This drawing was copied from a photograph submitted by one of my forum members for use as a painting project.

This is my first line drawing. I've often read of the theory of hatching but this is my first attempt at creating blocks of tone entirely from 'lines'. Though there are some area's I wish I'd done differently, I'm extremely pleased with the result and consider this to be one of my better creations. Now I need to do some research and read more on how I should have tackled the grass area's and some of the brickwork. It would be good to receive critiques from any artists conversant with this medium. (A larger version of the picture can be seen here.)

4 comments:

  1. It looks very good to me John. Very well done for your first attempt. It's interesting how many different tonal values can be achieved with just ink lines - The white gable end actually looks brighter than the sky to me!

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  2. Thanks Keith. As you are aware, I've used pen with washes, but not a line drawing such as this. I'm very pleased with the result and this is something I shall do a lot more of.

    I also noticed the lightness of the white gable end and conclude it is the effect of the darker tones around it. Another lesson learned that I shall make use of in the future.

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  3. This must have taken you ages John, drawing every little brick! Many years back in school, I remember making lino prints where you gouged grooves and shapes into the lino, then rolled ink over it to make lined prints. Best of all you could make as many as you liked from the same piece. Wonder if anyone still does that now?

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  4. Frank, it took a while compared to a watercolour, but nowhere near as long as you'd expect. From memory I think it took 3 or 4 2-hour sessions.

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