Not so long ago, I wrote about a snowfall and the photographs I took then (see Wednesday, January 2, 2013: "Snow: Birds and Landscape"). I wondered how one goes about drawing snow. It occurred to me that I had never tried to draw snow - a white (snow) on white (paper) project. Today I tried it.
Here's the photograph from which I worked:
A small bush near the corner of our house is loaded with the newly fallen snow, but one can clearly see both snow and branches. To compound the problem presented in capturing the look of this bush is the unrelieved snowy background.
First, I had problems trying to get my pens to work (you'll see a black blob of ink in the upper right hand side of the drawing below). Second, I then tried to use some of that ink for my background by pulling it with a brush across the top of the paper. Neither of those two attempts were wholly successful. My pens did a start and stop throughout this exercise and by employing the same strokes I used for drawing water, my background failed (also the way I unthinkingly drew the snow on the branches before reworking them to what you'll see now).
Third, I had figured that my best bet was to draw some of the branches to give me the shape I wanted and the character I see in this bush. After that I would use the ink of the branches to draw the snow with a wet brush. Later I could go back in and draw some more of the branches - not all of them! Just enough to hint at the tangle within the bush that actually supported a lot of the snow. Class was over before the later happened, and this is what I have.
I think that since you know what I tried to draw you'll be able to see it in the sketch above. But what if you didn't know? My teacher did give me advice that changed the snow I had and made my subsequent work on it much better. She also suggested going back in to add more branches and lighten the overly heavy main branch on the right (created while still trying to get my pen to work as I wished and expected it to!).
My plan is to do another study of this bush taking in her advice, my own experience with the study you see, and new tools! Sharon has lent me two dip pens (the kind you dip in a bottle of ink - hence their name) and some ink. I'm looking forward to trying them out; they are what I used in the distant past when I first did pen and ink drawings.
I hope my next experiment results in a better drawing of snow.
That's really quite interesting. Have fun with the dipping pen. Imagine having to write letters that way. Yikes! I remember the ink cartridges. I'll bet you do, too!
ReplyDeleteNoel. your pen and ink of the bush in snow really worked out well. At first glimpse in its small stage, I thought it to be another photograph. You captured the softness of the snow on the branches. It's hard to make snow look believable when your background is also snow. But you did it.
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