Viewpoint & Depth: Practical Task

Aims/initial Ideas

For this task we were asked to create a compositional A3 image with colouring pencils only as our media, focusing on viewpoint and depth. I decided very early on that I wanted to branch away from my visual theme of "Cowboys and Indians" and create something entirely different. Having the freedom to explore new ideas at this point was really beneficial for me as I felt I had exhausted a lot of my inspiration for my visual subject and so after having a little search in the library I thought it would be an interesting idea to draw some ramblers in the Peaks. The setting of high hills and scenery with 3 figures could lend itself really well to the idea of depth and viewpoint and the long walks in the Peak District have been a great source of inspiration in my recent work.

As this was another in studio task, I felt the time limit really helped motivate me to be quick yet productive with my roughs and ideas. I really wanted to have a final image produced by the end of the session, so I made sure I didn't get bogged down with the details and just drew my very rough ideas as they came to me. Roughs/scamps are becoming increasingly useful to me in work as i am able to work loosely and without limits, to really make the most of the layout and composition within my final image. It is a really important part of the development process and i feel it really pushes my ideas further, resulting in a more successful final piece.

Roughs

After exploring and experimenting with different layouts of information and viewpoints within my roughs, I decided to go for a simple yet hopefully effective viewpoint, where all elements were clear and the sense of depth could be emphasised by the foreground, mid-ground and background detail of the peaks and the walkers in their surroundings.

Final Image

Successes/Failures

For this task I really enjoyed working in one medium, and despite having not worked in coloured pencil very often in my past work, I feel the overall image benefitted from the colour and texture as a result of this media and I would like to work with coloured pencil a lot more in the future.

I am quite pleased with how the 3 figures in my final image turned out as I really struggle with human figures, characters and anatomy. I also really like the balance within my image and feel all of the compositional elements such as layering and viewpoint work well together to create a sense of depth and realistic surroundings.

As this was essentially one of the first pieces I have created using coloured pencil only, I wish I had experimented a little more with the mark making process as there are a lot of interesting ways to use this media. If I was to do this image again, I would like to use bold colours to create more shadow and a stronger sense of depth to help separate the foreground, mid-ground and background.

Overall, I know my working pattern and bad habits all too well, and know I work pretty slowly when it comes to creating final imagery. It is because of this that I am elated that I was able to create this final piece within the given timeframe of our studio session. This is so rare for me and i feel that what I was able to create was a complete success because of my efforts.