As those who follow me on Instagram will know, I recently took part in the 3 materials drawing challenge. I’ve found that doing any of these challenges can provide a learning experience, but I was especially keen to join this one because exploring materials has been top of my creative ‘to do’ list recently. Here, I’m going to share the top five discoveries I made by doing the challenge.
What is the 3 materials drawing challenge?
The challenge is hosted by the fantastic illustrators Naomi Tipping, Kathryn Boyt and Charlotte Durance, and the rules are simple:
Complete 50 drawings (every day if possible)
Use only 3 materials
Draw from life
Spend no longer than 30 minutes on each drawing
The challenge was run on Instagram, with artists sharing their work on their feeds daily. While I have some reservations about Instagram at the moment and I get annoyed by all the ads, my favourite thing about it is the drawing and illustration communities on there. It’s a very friendly, inspiring part of the internet where I find all sorts of new people making amazing work whenever I take part in a challenge. I did a 50 day project back in 2022, which taught me a huge amount, so I was excited to learn more this time around.
So now we’re clear what the challenge was, what were my key discoveries?
A combination of wet and dry materials works best for me
We all have our preferences when it comes to art materials. But where do these preferences come from, and how do we know that they are informed by what really works as opposed to just what we are used to using? This is a question that’s been rattling around my head for a while - mostly in relation to my illustration rather than sketchbook work. So this drawing challenge gave me a great opportunity to try and answer these questions.
Because I wanted to explore, and perhaps discover new ways of working, I didn’t make a plan about which materials I was going to try. Perhaps this also has something to do with my lack of sleep at the moment due to new parenthood! But either way, I would grab some materials from my rather messy drawers based on impulse and what felt appealing and add them to my pencil case every few days.
When it came to making a drawing, which was often when my son was asleep or otherwise occupied, I would then select my three materials of the day from my pencilcase and make the work. Now, because I hadn’t tested them out before leaving the house, the materials I chose didn’t always feel very satisfying together. And I started to ask myself why this was.
After a few days of feeling that tension of not quite getting what I wanted from my materials, I realised that days when I did feel satisfied were days when I chose a mix of wet and dry materials. So for example I might have an ink, a pencil and a crayon that could be both wet and dry.
This is quite hard to explain in the abstract. So here is drawing a good example of what I’m talking about.
For this drawing, I selected a liquid watercolour, my Art Graf stick, and a carbon pencil. I used the wet watercolour first to lay down the negative space, and then layered up with water and art graf on top. Then, I worked back in with dry layers of both the carbon pencil and art graf, and then finally could capture the darkest bits of line or emphasis with a wet carbon pencil.
Phew! It sounds really complicated to explain - but I hope you see what I mean. When working in this way you actually have three materials, but with two of them there were two ways I could use them. And this gave me additional tools in my drawing toolbox.
In terms of personal taste and preference, I also found I liked having some dry texture available to me in addition to wet marks. This was actually a surprise - as I usually gravitate to wet over dry materials. So this was an important discovery that showed me that in fact I do actually need dry materials as well - and that I should push myself to not just use what’s familiar, because using different materials means sketching from life can be a source of learning and experimentation. Which is as it should be I think.
A successful drawing needs tonal contrast
This discovery follows on from the first, because I also had days where I couldn’t get my chosen materials to give me enough contrast. Maybe I chose three colours that were too similar in tone, or perhaps them all being dry or wet didn’t allow me enough different mark making options.
This drawing is a good example of where I didn’t have much tonal contrast, and where I felt it was missing.
Now, I’m not trying to label drawings good or bad. That needs to be said! I don’t find this a useful way to talk about sketchbook work, because sketchbooks are for play and experimentation not for being ‘good’. So while I’m not saying this drawing is bad, I can see that I missed the opportunity to create more depth and intrigue with a darker tone. The blue of the tombow, and the grey of the art graf were very similar in tone. And this meant that the drawing has become quite flat. I had a carbon pencil handy - so in fact what I could’ve done rather than use it for linework is shade with it. But I didn’t - hey ho!
This discovery was very useful as I tend to get carried away with line and pattern and forget about tone. But it’s pretty essential - it helps an image pop, and makes it easier for the eye to read. In terms of picturebooks, it can also help your reader view the information on your spread in the order you want them to.
Sometimes less is more when it comes to art materials
Only using three materials to make a drawing seemed very limiting at first. When I’m out with my sketchbook I usually allow myself any number of materials, and my sketchbook drawings often use a wide range of materials in one drawing. So it makes sense that my first two discoveries were about how to get the most out of a small number of materials.
However, when I was well into the challenge - in fact near its end - I had a couple of instances where three materials felt like too many. Can you imagine!
This drawing springs to mind.
You can see I’ve really enjoyed the line work, which I made with a brush pen and liquid watercolour. And I think you can also see that the other two materials, two different colours of neocolour pastel, look like an afterthought.
I then made this drawing, just with the line, and realised that I liked it better.
Ok, it didn’t follow the ‘rules’ of the challenge. But it was really freeing to realise that actually sometimes you only need one material and that’s enough. I think this discovery will be useful in my illustration work, where I have a tendency to overwork.
Not every drawing needs to be perfect
Ok, so hands up, who’s a perfectionist? I know I can be. Sometimes worrying about if I’ll do something well enough stops me from doing it at all (hello anything sports related). But this challenge made me realise (or re-realise rather as it’s an ongoing lesson) that not being perfect actually makes things more interesting.
I already mentioned that I have a son, and you might know from my previous blog that he’s still very young. So there were some days where I had to abandon a drawing after only a couple of minutes, and didn’t find time to finish it. Before I became a Mum, I think I’d have beat myself up about this, and certainly not shared the results. But I’ve become a bit more chill (about time).
Drawings like this one are actually very interesting as a learning exercise.
You can see where I made the first marks - I was drawing the inside of a bus, so have mapped out the general shapes in art graf on my pages. No, it’s not ‘finished’, but I still learned something about what the inside of a bus looks like, and also something about how art grad could be used to describe that on paper.
So I suppose my point here is any drawing, no matter how complete, is useful. Although it can feel like all our best work has to be on Instagram, I know I always prefer seeing people’s ‘behind the scenes’ work and sketches. So in the spirit of sharing my process, I posted it even though it’s not ‘perfect’.
P.S I don’t think the perfect drawing exists. If it did, I bet it would be really boring.
Drawing is a muscle that need exercise
My final discovery is something I’ve talked about before in previous blogs, but I found myself re-discovering it during this challenge. Like any muscle, drawing needs exercise and practice to feel fit, strong and supple. The more you draw, the easier it is to draw. And it really is that simple.
50 days sounds like a very long time, and yes it’s true that there were some days where I couldn’t really be bothered to draw. But I always felt better once I’d drawn - regardless of the result. And it got easier the further into the challenge I went.
Drawing is a response to the world around us, and how we perceive and experience it. It’s not so much about what’s on the page (though of course that is ‘the drawing’), but also the process itself. I hope these musings on drawing, and this challenge, have been interesting. I’m always keen to chat about drawing - and I’m most responsive over on my Instagram, where you can also see my 50 drawings.
Until next time!
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