Project 2 - 'Master Forger'

Project 2 involved us recreating 3 different pieces, all which have a different media. One piece in pencil, one in ink and one using scraper board. This was a very interesting brief, which I really enjoyed as it really helped develop skills. ​

Eric Robertson
Born in 1887 in Dumfries, Scotland, Robertson was one of the most successful artists of his generation. He was heavily inspired by John Duncan, and also the Pre-Raphaelites and the French Symbolist Gustave Moreau. He is very well known for his pencil works, and it is his piece named 'Mary Newbury' which we had to copy.
I found this task quite challenging as my pencil skills aren't amazing, but I learnt a lot from this. Robertson uses a lot of cross hatching for shading, and there are a variety of tones used. Also, he almost draws with the rubber in certain parts - in particular the hair, the highlights are 

put in with the rubber. I think I managed the cross hatching technique well - applying the colour down to allow good contrast of tones - however I think the marks in my piece look slightly harsher than Robertson's.

Mervyn Peake 
​Mervyn Peake, born in 1911, was an English writer, poet and illustrator. In lots of his illustrations, he predominately produced black and white pieces, particularly using dip pen and ink. This piece, 'Long John Silver', is the piece we had to copy within this brief. 
I really enjoyed this task, it was pretty time consuming (roughly 4 hours), but I really like using ink. One thing I noticed, was that Peake doesn't use outlines, the illustration was made up of lots of little lines and dots and cross hatching - and there were no outlines. It was an interesting piece to copy as I had to use different pressures with the dip pen to produce different outcomes. The hair was particularly hard as I had to try do lots of cross hatching whilst also leaving white space to signify the curls of hair. I was impressed with my final piece, it might be a little messier than Peake's version but I think overall I managed to achieve the right look with the different tones. 
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Clare Leighton
Born in 1898, Clare Leighton was an artist, illustrator and author who was especially well known for her wood engravings. Throughout her career, she produced books which revolved around the life of those working and living in the countryside, both writing the book and illustrating. As the world became much more technological, industrial and urban in the 1920s and 1930s, Leighton conveyed rural working men and women within her work.
I found this task quite challenging as it was something completely new to me, however it was enjoyable. It was fun to experiment with what effect different scrapers gave and how to produce certain lines or shapes. It was extremely time consuming and harder than I initially expected due to the level of detail, but it was an interesting material to explore.