Part 2: A Subjective Drawing

Final drawing: 



Exercise details:

This exercise involves creating a subjective drawing of a chosen object.  In the previous pages of the handbook, subjective (drawing) was defined as being, "based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinions."

The object I would really like to draw for this exercise is not an inanimate object at all, but an owl.  I am not entirely sure of the subconscious reason I fancy drawing a bird for this exercise; but perhaps it is the seemingly endless still life of Drawing 1 has compelled me to do something different from an household object sat on a table.  Anyway, I'm going with my instinctive calling and seeing how things turn out!

Explorations:

Stage 1 - Mind Map:
Below is a mind-map of my brainstorming around the word owl. It was important to me to avoid typical cliches such as "old wise owl":


What immediately struck me from the brainstorming was the notion of the owl as a vicious killer, and perhaps I could explore and enhance that fact in my drawing.  I started pondering that I wanted to, "portray the owl as a frightening swooping assassin bringing death to those beasts unlucky enough to see those sharp talons looming over them."    Perhaps in writing that sentence I've just defined my own brief?

Stage 2 - Moodboard:
I wanted to collect some images of swooping owl, talons, etc and see what kind of imagery and composition could start coming to mind.


Stage 3 - Sketchbook ideas:
Next step was the problem solving and creative thinking; exploring ideas in my sketchbook. It very much feels like the brainstorming/word mind-map sets the compass direction for the whole illustration. And then the task is to start consciously and consciously bringing things together from the ideas that form from the visual stimulus of the moodboard stage.  And I say subconscious because I think imagery, emotions, associations and visuals stored by the brain come into play to directly form the illustration ideas.  I possibly see the process of creative problem solving as being a dynamic between conscious and subconscious factors.  And I think the brainstorm is critical for stimulating the subconscious brain to form ideas and give those "ahh-ahh..." moments of inspiration.

Sketchbook page:

The first thumbnail drawing in the sketchbook started to form as a bit of surprise.  I started drawing quite fast marks and it seemed to signify speed and motion. Perfect!  That is exactly the kind of visual representation that I wanted for this.  As this is a subjective drawing, I'm placing my thoughts of "deadly", "swooping", "speed", to the fore and trying to enhance these aspects with my mark making.

With the sketchbook/thumbnails it immediately became apparent that a reversal would work better. White lines or ink on dark paper.


Reflections on final drawing:

 The key thing that was in my mind when drawing this was putting myself as the mouse.  Looking up and seeing the owl swooping down from the night sky.  A blur of feathers and motions.  But steely clear talons and eyes pinpointed on target.

Media used: 
I wanted to push my boundaries and experiment with my media...
I've done a few drawings before on black paper, but it somewhat intimidates me (and I'm relatively unfamiliar with working with it). However, for this drawing I felt that black paper would be perfect for the drawing, and also push my boundaries to try something different.  The black paper is perfect for representing the bird swooping down out the dark night sky.

The drawing was done with conte crayon and a white ink (pen).  In the previous exercise, I said that dusty media are not my thing and I find them difficult to work with.  So I forced myself to try this drawing out with conte - and do something that makes me uncomfortable.  It was a happy experiment for me. I was quite surprised by the level of control and the precision of the marks.  The crisp contrast with the dark paper was also pleasing.

For some fine line work - e.g. the lines in the eyes and around the talons - I switched to drawing with ink from a fine line pen. This gave the precision that I needed for those parts of the drawing.

Digital:
The marks on paper are white, but I found that a little bit of manipulation in Adobe Lightroom was giving me an off-white tint that indicates the brown tints of a barn owl.  A barn owl is not evenly coloured, nor has the tufted ears that are represented here in my drawing.  My drawing is a subjective interpretation of a species; a hybrid if you like.

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