Drawing Lichfield Cathedral Learning the Hard Way 10th October.

 
Lichfield Cathedral - Learning the Hard Way 10th October

Today's Friday drawing lesson was about having a close look at the drawings and photos from the trip to Lichfield Cathedral. It was also about why the Cathedral was built.

We started by talking about what we took away from last week's trip and what we focused on in our drawings. I personally was amazed by the detail of the sculptures, in fact all the details in every inch of the building. I'd made a lot of sketches of the stone sculptures and their different styles, trying to capture their solid and smooth feel. I also tried drawing the vast expanse of the main space. This was a good exercise on perspective, as I sketched the sides of the Cathedral inline, showing how they gradually appeared to get smaller in the distance.

With the talk over I had to print out my photos from the Lichfield Cathedral trip so I could then start my drawings. We were then given a choice of different size paper and materials to use, as well as a choice of working on a table, easel or wall. As most of my work up until now has been on the wall on big pieces of paper, I chose to stick with that as I'm still getting used to drawing that way. The more practice I get, the better.

I looked at a photo of the top of one of the arches. It had some great detail I wanted to capture. I made a few sketches concentrating on different aspects of the same photo. Sadly it didn't go very well. The first drawing was using black and white charcoal. It was a bit messy and I couldn't get the detail in. The problem was that I'd drawn it too small for the amount of detail I wanted to add. I left it unfinished and moved on to another drawing. In this one I concentrated on a detail of part of the first one. It was a little better, but I was still unhappy with the outcome. I just couldn't get the detail right. Aside from that, the tonal work wasn't the best I could do. The charcoal wasn't behaving itself. I tried to smudge it, but it didn't create the effect I wanted.

This was not some of my best work and I didn't know why. I was concentrating on what I have learnt the past few weeks, but nothing seemed to be going to plan. The last of my works was by far the worse. For some reason I wasn't getting on with the charcoal today, so I tried my hand with an ink wash. It was my first time using ink in this way and it went horribly wrong. The only positive thing I could say was that I'd tried a new technique. At least I now know how not to use a ink wash. I also learned not to use bright purple just because it's the only one left, and that I should map out my drawing a bit better before I put the ink on the paper. After trying to make it work, and failing, I called the tutor over to ask his advice. He gave me some brown ink which helped tone down the bright purple. After lunch he showed me how to layer some different colours on top of it to achieve more variety in tone and texture. This helped a lot and made it match more with the other two drawings. I did attempt layering the last drawing with different media; ink, charcoal and pastels, which at least was another good thing I tried. However, I was not happy with the overall end result. It wasn't the look I was hoping to achieve. I was annoyed and frustrated in the end.

In five hours I did three drawings that weren't finished, and I wasn't happy with any of them. On Wednesday I finished four drawings in just two hours. One of the tutors even commented on them being some of my best work he'd seen me do. It was quite a contrast.

One thing I thought about, and now realise, is that not every drawing I do can be a great artwork. I understand that days like today are a time for me to learn from my mistakes. I have to see what doesn't work in order to know what does, so the next time I try something like this, I have an understanding of what I could do better.