We are delighted to share the very first assignment from Melissa Taylor, who has recently joined our Coloured Pencil Drawing Certificate Course.
Melissa describes herself as a complete beginner, but you would never guess it from this confident and charming set of work. She was inspired to start drawing after discovering the work of coloured pencil artist Petra Smith, and her enthusiasm for the medium absolutely shines through in these first pieces.
For Exercise 1, Melissa chose a beautiful floral mug with a spoon resting inside it, a wonderfully ambitious subject for a first attempt. Working with Derwent Artists coloured pencils on Shore and Marsh Premium Artist paper, the result is a real delight, with the purple irises and red tulip on the mug’s surface rendered with real care and colour sensitivity. What caught our eye immediately is the shadow cast by the spoon falling across the inside of the mug. It is beautifully observed, that soft, curved shadow doing exactly the right job of telling us the spoon is round and the mug is deep. It is the kind of detail that shows Melissa is already looking carefully and translating what she sees, which is the mark of a developing artist. Melissa herself notes that she found blending a challenge and feels she could have chosen a simpler subject to start with, but we think her ambition in tackling such a detailed, decorated mug for her very first exercise is something to be celebrated. The black and white pencil version of the same subject shows great tonal awareness too, with lovely contrast between the dark interior of the mug and the lighter decorated body.
Exercise 2, a banana curving around a squash, was completed outdoors so that Melissa could make the most of natural light, a lovely instinct that any experienced artist would be proud of. Working with Faber-Castell Polychromos and Derwent Chromaflow pencils on Strathmore Pastel paper, the colour version is particularly pleasing, with warm pinks and oranges in the squash complementing the soft yellows and greens of the banana. Getting two objects to sit convincingly together in the same space is not as easy as it looks, and Melissa has handled the composition with a natural sense of balance.
Exercise 3 takes on something altogether more challenging, a crushed Barr’s can alongside a glass. Reflective and transparent surfaces are notoriously tricky, and Melissa worked on this piece over around four hours, showing real persistence and dedication. She notes that drawing the crushed can was particularly difficult to get the shaping right, but the finished result shows a genuine understanding of form and the way light wraps around curved metallic surfaces. The fact that she tackled both reflective and transparent objects in the same drawing for her very first assignment speaks volumes about her ambition and her eye.
This is a wonderful start, and with her natural curiosity about materials and her willingness to push herself, we cannot wait to see where this course takes Melissa next. Welcome to the London Art College!
If you would like to receive a roundup of all of our blog posts once a week to keep you inspired in your inbox, why not sign up to our newsletter. You can access our sign up at the top of our page. If you are a London Art College student and you would like your artwork featured here, drop us a line at any time.
