Line: Cowboys & Indians

I chose the theme 'Cowboys & Indians' to work on during our visual language sessions because I really wanted a challenge. I am not the most confident when it comes to drawing figures and faces, but this theme really inspired me when it came to mark making and progressing my drawing skills.

I began by searching for reference material so that I could get an idea of what Cowboys and Indians look like, what they wear and trinkets / accessories and props usually associated with them. In the library I managed to find one book (after lots and lots of searching) on the American West which had one image of a 'Cowboy' in it. The pose of the subject wasn't particularly dynamic as this task had asked for so I turned to internet sources for more reference options.

After choosing my 4 images ( 2 Cowboy images, 2 Indian images), I decided on what media I wanted to use. As I knew the task of drawing these figures and faces was going to be hard, I chose to do 1 set of images in a media I am comfortable with - fine liner. This was so that I could really focus on the quality of line work without having too much difficulty with the media. The second set of images I chose to do with ink and brush which I have not used very often, and the third set of images I chose to complete in a medium I have hardly ever used - charcoal.

Indian man, Indian woman - Charcoal

Cowboy left - Brush and Ink
Cowboy right - Charcoal

I started with the hardest media - charcoal, began to draw all 4 images I had chosen and found it really difficult. The grain of the paper I used really did not lend itself well to using the charcoal and precise lines that I had in mind just didn't happen. I did enjoy using this media though, and slowly got more confident with it the more I used it. I really liked the texture it gave to the images, however in the future I think I will look at using charcoal for work geared towards tone and gesture instead of precise line work.

Cowboy left - Brush and Ink
Cowboy right - Charcoal

Indian man, Indian woman
- Brush and Ink

Using the charcoal introduced me to the images I was working with, so moving onto brush and ink increased my confidence in the lines I was making. For me, I would have liked to use a smaller tipped brush with this medium to achieve the high level of detail I like in my images, but overall I really liked the effect that the different tones of ink achieved and feel I was able to create quite strong and defined lines. I also felt quite free when using the brush, which helped me explore a more fluid, loose and expressive approach to image making.

Cowboys - Fine liner

Moving lastly on to the fine liner was really fun. I knew the images well enough now to play with the information I translated from the reference and put my own marks down. I feel the images created with the fine liner were the most successful as I like the detail I managed to achieve and also managed to draw the Indian faces in particular quite successfully which is a big step for me.

Indian man, Indian woman - Fine liner