Find a handful of small objects, e.g. pebbles, shells, buttons, toys.  Cluster these objects together and focus in on a cropped area.  Experiment with using a frame for this.  Make a large drawing which gives the impression of a landscape view or architectural detail, using these objects as your source material.  Tiny pebbles can become enormous rocks, shells can become cliffs and sea caves….By cropping your subject you’ll ensure that the whole composition has power and energy. 

I started this project by gathering together some shells and stones and drawing them in a normal scale with charcoal.

I then focussed in on one smaller area and drew this in charcoal.

From there I focussed on one area of a shell and drew it, this time with soft pastels.  This wasn’t very exciting looking.

From there I tried enlarging some stones.  I worked on A3 size cartridge paper with black Pitt pen initially, then worked up the tones and colours with soft pastels.  I haven’t worked very much with pastels, so I was surprised by how much I started to enjoy the process of looking for hues in the stones, which all just initially looked dull grey.  When it came to adding texture, I felt I wasn’t achieving this with pastel alone, so I decided to try some new Winsor and Newton Inks I had just bought in White, Gold metallic Bronze and Nut Brown.  I used a dip pen and used scribbles and dots to get the effect I wanted.  It was very effective.

A3 size, pastel and coloured inks

This image still looks like stones, albeit large ones so I played about with the image digitally.

I think perhaps because my viewpoint is looking down I don’t think the scene could be mistaken for a landscape unless it is a bird’s-eye view, such as on Google Earth, and the cropped image could be mistaken for a view of a dessert, rocky beach, or Mars, or it could be a view looking forwards on to a sheer cliff face.

I enjoyed the process so much, I decided to do another.  Much to my children’s annoyance, I used some mini cookies for the subject this time.  I worked pretty much, in the same way.

A3 sketch, pastel and coloured inks

Much like the stones I felt the cookies needed cropped, so played about with them digitally.

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Reflection: This project further demonstrates the potential of composition and your own role in the process of constructing or working with a subject.  Do you feel differently now about selecting subject matter and developing composition?

I do feel differently about selecting subject matter.  I would never have chosen a tiny stone before, or a cookie for that matter.  I would never have concentrated on the texture of a biscuit or looking for hues of colour in a grey stone.  I also feel the use of mixed media, such as pastel and coloured inks together has worked well.  I feel that I would give anything a go.  If I were to attempt this exercise again I would think about working on a much larger scale than A3, perhaps A2 or A1.