2.
Landscape Textures
Touch is a sense that we all possess, yet we often take it very much for granted. We are constantly using touch, and, even if at an unconscious level, we are being made aware all the time of our immediate textural environment. This experience is automatically stored in the mind for future reference, and we can very easily access our memory of textural information.
Artists throughout history and across cultures have been fascinated by the challenge of recreating a sense of touch. Whether consciously or unconsciously, their focus has been pulled towards the surface qualities of the scene portrayed. Texture may not have been the primary concern of the artist, but that did not stop them trying to excel at describing it. There are many good examples, but the following, in particular, will help you to understand the issues raised in this chapter: the drawings by the Chinese artist Xu Xi (c.1020–90) of early spring and winter landscapes; the mountain landscapes, studies of rocks, a storm, water and eddies, and numerous studies of plants by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519); studies of trees by Titian (1488–1576); the landscapes of Pieter Breughel the Elder (c.1525–69) and Rembrandt (1606–69); the landscape and seascape drawings of Vincent van Gogh (1853–90); and the dreamlike textural landscapes of Max Ernst (1891–1976). All these drawings have great intensity expressed through variation in mark-making. They are also visually exciting drawings that can hold the viewer’s attention.
The experience and understanding of mark-making that the following projects provide should enable you to create landscape drawings that express texture, surface, space, and form. The projects provide a number of clear procedures to give confidence in drawing the landscape using a textural approach, and in mark-making through experimentation with different mediums. They involve some closely observed individual studies of the different types of objects encountered in the landscape, a more complete study of the landscape that expresses the texture, space, and form observed there, and the technique of frottage used to construct a landscape drawing.
Project One
DEVELOPING MARK-MAKING
One one- to two-hour session
Materials: sketchbook, pencils (2H-6B), graphite sticks, charcoal, compressed charcoal, inks and dip pens, felt-tip pens, plastic and kneaded erasers, and any other drawing material you want to work with
You need to know what your medium is capable of in terms of mark-making. Far too often, people take things for granted, in particular the way in which they hold the drawing tool and how they use it. Because of this, they persistently make the same statement. This project demands that you break with these ingrained habits and develop your own vocabulary of marks. Endeavor to make an inventory of marks that you can refer to later – like a dictionary divided into sections: one for pencil marks, one for graphite marks, one for charcoal marks, and so on.
For example: take the charcoal and, instead of drawing with the end to make a line, place it flat on its side and pull it down the paper. Notice what a fine, tight line this makes. Lay the charcoal on the paper in the same way and drag it sideways; look at the different impression made. Repeat the process again, but this time instead of dragging the charcoal, twist it as though you were using a compass. There are many more ways in which to develop and use the medium. Think of making as varied a collection of statements as possible: fluid marks, rigid marks, dark marks, light marks, hard marks, and soft marks. Position these experiments on the paper so that you have marks next to each other that create an obvious contrast. And think about how you hold the drawing tool to make your marks. Be open in your attitude and approach towards this and try different methods. This research will enable you to broaden and develop your mark-making and prepare you for the next two projects.
Project Two
CLOSE-UP STUDIES OF NATURE
Each study no longer than thirty minutes Materials: 22- x 30-in paper, any of the drawing materials used in Project One (page 153)
Having done some research in mark-making, you should be ready to attempt a close-up drawing from nature. Go into the landscape and collect examples to bring home and draw. It is usually possible to find various fungi, a broken branch with interesting bark, a thistle, and so on. If you live near the sea, you can scour the beaches for interesting textural objects.
Select an object and lay it on a neutral ground, such as a piece of white paper. Observe and analyze this object closely, becoming very familiar with what it looks like. You need to understand its form and texture, and how that texture is constructed. Once you have sufficient understanding of the subject, you can think about how to draw it.
In the first part of the drawing, you should deal with the structure of the object. Use line to describe the basic proportions and to give a sense of the underlying fundamental form. For example, the fundamental form of a thistle-head is a sphere. Use cross-sectional analysis to describe the form. Not all objects will have an obvious form: if you are drawing a flat object such as a leaf, you would not draw the form but the shape, and then proceed to imply the texture within that shape.
Observe closely. Understand your observations, and analyze how the object is texturally constructed. Then draw that understanding, not the literal observation. For example, if you are drawing a piece of wood, the grain of the wood should echo its form. It would not just lie flat over the surface (unless, of course, the surface is flat).
Draw the object larger than life-size. This will make your drawing easier and less fiddly. Once you have drawn the basic outline, begin to put in the different textures. Students often make the mistake of including every detail that they see. If you do this, however, your drawing will soon become laborious and uninteresting. A certain type of concentration and understanding are required for this drawing. You need to draw a textural metaphor; that is, you need to invent a visual language of marks to describe what you see and understand.
First draw objects individually; then together, to give textural comparisons.
Project Three
STUDIES OF OBJECTS IN THE LANDSCAPE
Each study no longer than thirty minutes Materials: 81/2- x 11-in hardback sketchbook, pencils (2H–5B), graphite sticks, pencil sharpener, plastic and kneaded erasers, felt-tip pens, pen and inks (not charcoal or compressed charcoal because they are too cumbersome on a small page) The aim is to select individual objects within the landscape to draw, and to make studies of these objects as with the objects that you took home.
Choose an object, for example a tree. Draw it in isolation on the sketchbook page, making a textural observation of it. Use the methods described in the previous project to approach these studies. In your sketchbook, continue to experiment with different ways of making marks, as you did in Project One. You should become gradually more familiar with the elements that occupy your chosen landscape. Look at the landscape drawings of John Constable (1776–1837) and his studies of clouds, Titian’s studies of trees, and Leonardo’s studies of water running around a post. Make lots of studies, as this will broaden your textural experience and give you the confidence to approach the next drawing: a full landscape.
Project Four
THE LANDSCAPE
One five-hour drawing
Materials: 18- x 24-in hardback sketchbook, pencils (2B–5H) graphite sticks, pencil sharpener, plastic and kneaded erasers, felt-tip pens, pen and inks, charcoal or compressed charcoal, window-mount
You are going to draw a selected part of the landscape and you will be in this position for some time, so it is essential to be comfortable.
Use the window-mount to choose your composition, and begin to draw the outline of the objects within it. While doing this, you should establish the relationship of the objects to each other, in space and proportions, so that you have the basic layout. Now start to deal with the main issue – texture. Begin to draw the contrasting textures that the landscape and the objects within it imply. Think back to the mark-making project, and on another page in your sketchbook make experimental marks that could be used in this drawing.
The difference between this and the previous drawing is one of context. Each object is drawn both in space and in context with the other objects, rather than in isolation. The way that you draw texture should work not only texturally, but should also imply spatial understanding. For example, if you are drawing the bark of a tree close to you, and you are also drawing the same type of tree further away, you can use the same mark for both trees, but the scale and weight of the marks should be different. The scale of the mark in the distance should be smaller and lighter in tone than the scale of the mark for objects close to you. This drawing is quite intense, and needs a lot of attention and concentration, so be prepared for a long session.
Project Five
FROTTAGE AND COLLAGE
One five-hour drawing
Materials: about twelve sheets of 22- x 30-in newsprint paper; 22- x 30-in paper; graphite sticks, charcoal, or compressed charcoal; water-based glue (PVA); brush
In this project you are going to construct a collage landscape using a technique called frottage (see page 74). Gather a lot of examples of frottage on newsprint. Go around the house and outdoors, taking impressions from any textured surface by laying the paper over the surface and scribbling on the paper with a pencil or other drawing material.
This gives the impression of the texture underneath. Make these areas of frottage quite large – about half a page of newsprint each. Whichever medium you start with, such as graphite (which works particularly well for this), stay with it for the whole project. Make different types of textures, as you are going to use them to construct a landscape.
Take a 22- x 30-in piece of paper and draw the plan of a landscape on it. You can do this at home using a landscape drawing from your sketchbook. Once you have this plotted out, cut and tear the frottage pieces and begin to stick them down on the landscape in appropriate places (see illustration overleaf). Select frottage that is appropriate for the area that it is describing.
For instance, when doing tree bark, select frottage that you think best describes that tree bark. Also, as you arrange the collage, try to emphasize contrasts in textures, both in scale and in weight of mark, so that they create a spatial and textural metaphor for the landscape.
Always start from the furthest point in the landscape because, as you build forwards, you will enhance the sense of space by the physical action of overlapping. You can do any number of these drawings.
