SBA Assignment 1. Graphite line and tonal drawing

First SBA assignment - pencil drawing.
Never really drawn in this much detail before or used such a broad range of pencils (from 4H to 8B). The Faber Castell 9000 Series is my preferred choice for this work. Have now completed numerous studies an look forward to trying more, particularly seedheads and lichens which seem to work well in this medium. This was basic line and tonal techniques, stipple, hatching and continuous tone etc. We used Sennelier paper for the course which is a lovely paper.
I enjoyed doing this, there was also line drawing but it doesnt photograph so well and there seems to be lots of time to complete the exercises. I hope to do lots more around the course work if I have the time. My tutor for the grapite work  is Julie Small, she's a wonderful artist.

What did we have to do:
1. A line drawing, This should be clean, no indentation of paper the weight of the line should be even and the linse continuous. Draw without lifting the pencil until you come to a natural junction

2. A flower or with leaf in stipple or hatch. A4 in size I chose stippling.  

Detail from the stippling technique on a Hellebore...it's all abut density of dots. I used this technique a lot in the past  with ink for illustrations. If you twist before you lift the pencil it prevents elongated dots!

3. Complete tonal study using continuous tone, using small elipses to create a smooth even finish and moving through the grades of pencil from hard to soft to build up from highlights ( using the white of the paper to mid tonnne and shade). I used 2H, H, HB, B, 2B and 4B for this study. I think you shouldn's skip more than one grade to achieve smooth transition from light to dark. It's surprising how how little white of the paper shows.    

Continuous tone, Iris reticulata. Love this technique 

Struggled slightly to find a decent garden subjects at this time of year but there is always siomething!  the Hellebores, Helleborous niger and H. lividus, and Iris reticulata obliged just in time.
 
We also produced a toinal strip, a bit like this. It can be used as reference for futire drawings.You should be able to see the transition from one grade to another clearly. See they get progressively darker with the softer grades. Pencil brands differ too becaus ethere is no standard. This is a fairly common activity. I've done this a few times before so it wasn't too bad. Basically id you cant see the difference between grade then the pressure is wrong. Majority of weight  should be in the arm/hand and not at the point wher pancil meets paper....never indent the paper! that's bad  

This is a tonal strip I did more recently using different pencil brands - can't find the one I used for the course

 I like to photograph plants and turn to black and white on screen - helps me to see the tonal values.

This assignment was worth 10 marks.

What did the tutor say?
It was good  but I lost marks for not finishing up the base of the stem on the stippled helebore.
And could maybe increase the depth of tone - yep agree
But good feedback and guidance