Project

Develop PROJECT a drawing

DAVID BRAMMELD shows you how to develop initial sketches into a fully-fledged painting while putting a creative spin on a familiar favourite subject

The bottle ovens of the Potteries (the Stoke-on-Trent area that once produced world-famous tableware and sanitaryware) are fascinating subjects to paint. I have many photos of these iconic structures in various stages of decline. I find it incomprehensible that these important buildings – part of our industrial heritage and often decorated with beautiful details – are allowed to decay into a sad and neglected state to be lost forever.

This painting was to form part of a series with an industrial theme. It is an ongoing project that I keep adding to from time to time. Bottle ovens are difficult shapes to draw; apart from the challenge of symmetry, the proportions are awkward to get right. At first, they seem quite simple and straightforward, but perspective and scale need to work together if the drawing is going to work. Other buildings are often attached to them.

Naturally, where the adjoining roof meets the circular bottle there is an unusual juxtaposition where the pitched roof rises up the tapering bottle shape. There are also all the signs of neglect and abandonment that on the one hand are sad to witness, but at the same time very interesting to draw. Many of these buildings display scars of alterations and damage accrued over the years; some of the exposed walls are painted white as they would have been internal walls at some point.

Nature plays a powerful role in trying to reclaim neglected buildings, so when mortar gets dislodged from in between brickwork, soil accumulates, and airborne seeds sow themselves. Grass, flowers, weeds and trees start to grow in abundance, in turn trying to force the bricks apart with their thickening root systems. All of this helps hasten the decline.

I have drawn this particular subject many times and find something new every time. Every bottle oven has a different shape and size. Many were part of pottery factories built adjacent to canals, which were originally used to bring in raw materials and transport out finished ware by commercial barge. They remain potent symbols of our past heritage, existing in an era when manufacturing industries were prominent.

In my own artistic practice, I feel it is important to acknowledge this history as it has helped shape the character of the area as well as the people. At the same time, I want to place it into today’s context. For me it is a lifelong influence and inspiration, something to keep going back to again and again. As my work moves in different directions, it is interesting to see how my interpretation of the same subject has changed and developed over time.

With this particular image, I had previously explored different approaches using a variety of media, for example by producing a small series of A3 studies, in watercolour, charcoal and pencil. Certain subjects have such an appeal that there is always something different to say about them, and for me this is one. I think I will always find something new to say about this image, such is the fascination it holds.

With Potteries Memory I liked the flexibility of working with mixed media: applying paint in different ways, drawing with various pencils and pens. It is about finding the best qualities of a particular medium and using them in combination with the best qualities of a different medium to create something new. At least, that was the intention.

LEFT Potteries Memory: Bottle Oven, acrylic and ink on paper, 59x84cm

MATERIALS

•Acrylic paint •Selection of brushes including a rigger (a specialist watercolour brush with long soft bristles) •Painting knife •Acrylic inks •Dipper pen •Drawing pens •A1 sheet of heavyweight cartridge paper

METHOD

1Working from a small photograph, I used a 6B pencil to sketch the image onto the paper. I mixed some diluted white acrylic paint and washed this over the whole sheet of paper to seal the drawing, ensuring it remained visible under this transparent layer. I could have put the paint on first and then drawn over this, but I prefer the feel of pencil on paper rather than on top of a painted surface. The mark-making is quite different and making adjustments with an eraser is more difficult.

2I strengthened the drawing, still using the pencil. Then I started to add more paint, blocking in the main building with varied mixes of reds, browns, yellows and pale blues for the sky and some darker shadow colours – greys with hints of green at the base of the picture.

3As I built up the paint layers, things were starting to appear more solid, but the drawing was getting lost, so I introduced some pen and ink to bring back some definition. Painting is all about losing and then finding the drawing, but for me, all this extra corrective drawing adds more interest to the picture.

4The pen-and-ink work now looked too strong and prominent, so I scrubbed some paint over it with an old bristle brush to soften things off.

5The beauty of working with acrylic paint is that you can switch between transparency and opacity quickly and easily. As soon as there are one or two layers of paint on the surface it becomes easier to manipulate subsequent layers. The painting was looking much more balanced now. Potteries Memory study, pencil on paper, 30x42cm This early pencil study clearly shows vigorous mark-making. At that stage, I had no intention to produce a finished painting – I was just experimenting and exploring the subject through different drawing media to see what worked and what didn’t.

Potteries Memory study, watercolour and pencil on paper, 30x42cm I use watercolour as a means to enhance drawings or as an essential ingredient in mixed media. Therefore, I don’t take much notice of matching exact colours – it’s not important for such experiments. Here there are watercolour washes over a pencil drawing, with some white pastel to knock back the sky colour.

Potteries Memory study, charcoal on paper, 30x42cm Another study – this time in charcoal – gave me ideas on how I might proceed. Each version was enjoyable. The shape of the bottle oven is quite simple on the face of it, but it is really difficult to get the balance of perspective and scale, let alone the symmetry.

6I wanted to create a painting that reflected the derelict nature of the bottle oven, so I needed to find a technique that would be effective. I experimented with a painting knife and started to apply opaque paint thinly over the building. Of course, this obliterated some of the inked line work, so it had to be later reworked in places. This was now more difficult because of the rougher texture of the knifed paint. But such is the nature of painting that when a new effect is tried, it has to be adjusted and worked into the rest of the picture. 7 I was pleased with the way textures were being created. I thought they were sympathetic to the subject. I decided to use the palette knife to add some colour into the roof and brickwork and was surprised at how controllable it was, up to a point.

8Some white and light blue paint was added to the sky. A lot of detailed brickwork was added to the oven and walls. The pen was perfect to draw the fine branches of the trees coming out of the top of the wall and also the undergrowth at the bottom. The rigger helped to thicken up some of these lines.

9A small, flat, synthetic brush was used on its side to apply browns mixed with burnt sienna and yellow ochre to create a varied surface.

10 Finishing touches involved a lot more pen work for the brickwork. I had to exercise some restraint here as I was in danger of carrying on until all the bricks were drawn. In conclusion, I thought this work sat well with an earlier painting of the pit head winding gear, as it used the same materials and equipment. But the challenges posed by each painting were quite different.

I think my earlier series of A3 studies helped create a better outcome. I hoped that by reworking the image I could create a different emotion. It was all about finding another way of expressing a new idea about the same subject. This is an edited extract from David’s new book, Creative Drawing Techniques, published by Crowood. www.davidbrammeld.com

Potteries Memory: Bottle Oven [detail], acrylic and ink on paper, 59x84cm This close-up of the brickwork shows the way the drawing reacted with the painted surface. The paint texture is clearly visible, which made it more difficult when drawing straight lines in pen. I was looking for different ways to apply paint so that it didn’t look like a conventional painting made with a brush.