Art: Attempted Use of White Space

 Hi there! 

Since New Zealand is still in lockdown and schools aren't open, school has become interesting. For Art class, this applies too. Our teacher set us to a really cool task to draw in a similar style of Joanna Margaret Paul. We had to try instil the use of white space. Paul would use white space to her advantage, creating spectacular pieces of work. Here is some more information about her:

Joanna Margaret Paul was a Kiwi artist born in Hamilton on the 14th of December 1945. As a child, she was always around artists and people of literature, something she and her family regarded very highly. After finishing boarding school at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, she went on to the University of Waikato to study History, English and French. 

She graduated Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in 1969 and had her work featured in an exhibition while studying there. Paul passed away in 2003, her works have since been featured in Victoria University’s Adam Art Gallery and the London Film Festival in 2016. 

Here is a link to the instructions if you would like to see.  I used charcoal pencils, watercolour, and coloured pencils to make my pieces, but you can basically use anything, as long as you can colour with it. Below are some attempts of mine using white space while drawing a still object. 

The images above were my first attempts at drawing using white space. As you can see, I left a lot of it. I drew one of the many orchid plants in my house, the plant didn't actually have any flowers. But, I felt like drawing a flower as my confidence levels regarding drawing were high and I had a "what the heck" attitude brewing so I went for it. Also, adding to the "what the heck" attitude, I decided to stray away from 'normal' colours and instead used dark and light brown. Something in me was drawn to them, and I am really glad I listened.  Considering these two images were my first attempts and I am not the most confident at drawing, I am pretty pleased with myself. However, I didn't colour some of the leaves properly, so they look a bit transparent. 

The images above were my attempts at using white space with watercolour. I did these a couple of days after my first attempts, since I finally found the watercolour kit I got on my sixth birthday which I was struggling to find. I used black water colour for most of my water colour pieces. However, the brown in the palette called to me again and I used it to draw a Bundaurg Ginger Beer glass. I used a thick stick I found in the back of my garden to do the drawings. I also used a cabbage tree leaf. I really enjoyed using the stick to draw the images. Depending on how I held the stick, I would get a different type of stroke which I found very cool. I would get a lot of colour onto the stick, and as it got depleted of colour I would use it to outline the next strokes I would take. Again, the transparent leaves came to haunt me, but I am still proud of my effort!

In this drawing, I used charcoal pencils to draw the image. It is from a different orchid plant, however I added a couple more leaves to it as it originally had (I accidentally broke a leaf off, sorry again mum). I used a black charcoal pencil first, then, when I had finished with my drawing I went over with a white charcoal pencil to give a "smudged" effect. When I started drawing this, I got was bit shocked because I had gotten used to the freeness of the water colour, whereas the pencil was the opposite. Transparent leaves appeared once more. But, if I keep on forgetting to make them opaque, I might as well make them a signature piece in my future drawings so they are legible. 

I really enjoyed attempting to use white space, I noticed as I did more and more drawings I got quicker at doing them too. I learned that I am masterful in drawing transparent leaves and that although it is peaceful, drawing in a garage with the door open gets very chilly. All in all, what matters is that I did the work, but most importantly, I had a lot of fun doing so.

Thanks for reading!