Lost in Negative Space

Note- this exercise is severely out of sequence in the assignment; despite being a trained horticulturalist my ability to kill pot plants is legendary, so having found the perfect specimen I really needed to seize the moment.
On another note, my main camera has died and the photos here are taken on my back-up compact camera, apologies for the inferior quality.

Amid the instructions for this exercise was this rider: "you may need to add enough lines to make the image readable to the viewer". Well, I know a challenge when I see one so was determined to find a plant which would not require extra "readability". I finally settled on a schefflera, as it has plenty of gaps through the foliage and a complex and challenging shape where the leaves interlace. My initial outline was done in pencil and gone over with drawing pen. I drew in the back of the table to anchor the image to the frame.

Having achieved a reasonable image on my first attempt, I was itching to colour it in. I traced off a couple of outlines onto marker paper to play with. On the first of these, I began to fill in the negative spaces in black ink, starting with the internal shapes. When I ran out of these I realised that the way they were disposed across the page made for an interesting dynamic shape, so I opted not to fill in the remaining background. (Or maybe I've just been drawing too many shells; the shape is suggestive of the central spiral in a whelk)

Next I fetched out the markers and quckly chose a series of pastel shades to scrawl across the area of the plant, before shading the background in a darker tone.

By this time I was throughly enjoying chasing down the many design possibilities in the drawing, and began thinking in terms of printmaking; the silhouette would be equally adaptable as either linocut or silkscreen. I opted to draw a monochrome version cropped through with a trapezoid shape for the background; I was also exploring the lengths to which I could crop or abstract the image before it lost its readability.

I had slightly adapted the shape in this one to improve the line- I had removed the supporting bamboo stick and drew in the base of the stem to give a clean finish to the bottom.

A couple of days later, having had time to think up new approaches, I decided to abstract two sections onto a circle, layering them and applying tone to identify them. I drew my circle onto tracing paper and began with the top section, moving the frame around until I was happy with the intersection around the rim.
For the second layer, I moved the paper over the lower set of leaves and aligned it so that the stem section lined up with what was already drawn, as I didn't want a second stem showing. I changed to a brown drawing pen to be able to identify which lines belonged to which layer, even so it rapidly became a confusing mass of lines, and I had little choice but to colour it in to make visual sense again.

To avoid having outlines on the final version, I traced the design through to a flesh tinted card with an embossing tool, using enough pressure to give a clear outline which could be seen in raking light, before colouring it in.

Sadly the spare camera's software didn't like the colours I used, and the picture doesn't really show how well it worked. If I wasn't a total klutz with image software, I'd happily scan and mask it for flat areas of colour and the ability to try out lots of colourways in a shorter time span. However, I think a week is enough time spent on this exercise for now, and it's time to get back on track and find out where I put my half-finished stipple drawing...