Making Art
: Teddy - Pencil Drawing
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Exemplars Mid Range
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This boldly patterned teddy accounts for most of the texture and pattern features of the subject in a schematic manner. The form is strongly outlined in a confident manner. The textural style is shown in bold randomised hair marks and ordered checks in the fabric. There is no apparent attempt at tone and only a rudimentary grasp of proportion. Textured Teddy remains perched on his patterned cloth with his patterned scarf fluttering. As can be seen from the scale of the drawing it is a little tentative in size. There is an internal coherence in this work with an individualised expressive effect achieved from the emphasis on patterning.
 
Care has been taken to render the plump proportions and arrangement of the limbs. The scale and accuracy of proportions is confident, with indications that the drawer has self–corrected and strengthened some lines in preference to others. The ovals of the front arms describe their spatial disposition. The slight inclination of the head and subtle emphasis to mouth, eyes and ears give an alert expression. The form is strengthened by some soft shading in the deeper recesses of the body. The smooth form of the body is contrasted by some vigorously textured hatching which loosely describes the patterned draped cloth. Teddy sits believably within this textured surface.
 
Overlapping, texture, and relative proportions are all suggested in this drawing. There is some smudged tone on the ears. The cloth is shown in bird's–eye view. The overall equal tone of all the mark making creates a lack of focal points and contrast in the drawing. This makes every part of the drawing equal in its bid for our attention. Consequently it appears to float upwards; differing textures and patterns become diffuse rather than boldly stated. This gives an impression of tentativeness and a mood of timidity in the bear.
 
This is an example where the drawer has established a flattened view of the cloth first and then superimposed the bear. The lines used are emphatic and enclosing with no attempt at tone to indicate depth or roundness. The subtlety of the form has been reduced to some circular and ovoid equivalents which are useful in establishing initial proportions but remain unmodified in the final drawing. This gives the drawing a somewhat formulaic response lacking the freshness of an observed experience.
 
Given the time available this is a rather incomplete drawing. No attention is given to tone, texture or detail apart from some very faint shading on the ears. However, there is a clearly concentrated effort at the minor variations of form based on observation. There is a reversal of the overlapping of arms and legs and simplification of the leg view. The decisive emphatic line suggests confidence reinforced by the accuracy of the overall proportions.
 
The drawer has described the bear and cloth independently of each other which suggests difficulty with the handling of illusion of depth by overlapping. The cloth is given a bird's–eye view while the bear is frontal. Each is given form by line. Only two varieties of line are used: a soft focus grey and a more emphatic dark line used more for pattern than describing tone. The feet are distorted to completely conceal any view of the lower limbs, thus simplifying the challenge of the observational task. The way the feet overlap the upper paws, however, does indicate the beginnings of depth illusion. The relative proportions of bear and cloth have been maintained.
 
Teddy sits centrally placed inside a flattened perspective of the draped patterned cloth. In order to render pattern, a birds–eye view of the cloth has been taken and a frontal view of the bear added over the top. This is a common response in children's work to the problems of illusionistic space. Each element is shown in its completeness even though the student knows about overlapping as a means of describing depth. The form is given strong outline with a suggestion of overall tone and texture without variety in the mark making. Tones are handled in a stepwise system as light, medium or dark without searching for the variety inside each of those areas. The size of the drawing does not give much opportunity for more detailed observation of surfaces and tone. The central placement with crisp presentation suggests confidence.
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