Saturday 27 December 2008

Nocturnes, finally

One step up from blurry photos: my attempts at drawing in the dark. They definitely qualify for experimental drawings, but not as plein airs. They were done from inside the house in darkness or candle light. That was enough of a logistical challenge. So, the sky turned green and other unexpected mix-ups since dark pastels do look strangely alike in darkness.

Nocturne #1
Nocturne #1,
pastel on board, 30x25cm

I do like the larger one, where it looks as if I used every pastel stick exactly once. LOL. Another logistical discovery: there is no point in trying to draw with black ink on a dark grey page in darkness. You will see nothing! But: purple works well, as per usual.

Nocturne #2
Nocturne #2,
pastel and ink in Moleskine, 24x21cm

Nocturne #3
Nocturne #3,
pastel in Moleskine, 24x21cm

Do you notice: the view is the same in all three of them. From the dining room, looking westwards.

4 comments:

Making A Mark said...

I find the problem with nocturnes plein air is you can't see the colour of whatever you pick up, you can't see the colour of whatever you put down and the interesting bit is when you get back into the light to see what you actually did. I then decided that it's probably more productive to opt for mono media for the most part!

However I've never thought of doing nocturnes from indoors before - clever!

Gesa said...

:) yes, I discovered the experimental aspects from start, middle, and end, and that it's is really a piece of surrealism. With mono media you mean monochrome? Yes, I noticed that some people concentrate either on composition or on colour, and prepare the other accordingly.

The indoors option works well here because there is so little else so see outside: open views, few light sources. And it is warm :)

Anonymous said...

I think the bottom two are really interesting - I hope we get to see more of these.

Gesa said...

Thank you, Cath! Process-wise I like the top one... because it is so full of nothingness. But I agree, the two in the sketchbook have more form, and I find them useful for colour choice. I want to do more of these, but they may be less plein air, more memory as for the near future: outdoor darkness in the city is a bit more difficult to come by, somehow.