Exercise 3: Big
Updated: May 16
Large Scale Drawing
I was extremely excited to work on this exercise once I had seen it. I order a roll of paper measuring 1.5m by 10m as I was unable to find reasonably priced paper larger than A2, at least locally anyway. I wasn't really prepared to spend a lot of money on a piece of paper and thought this option felt to be more efficient. I also loved the idea cutting the paper to the size I wanted which goes beyond typical paper size.
For this exercise I knew I wanted to work from one of my own photos taken whilst travelling, a photo from the incredible trip to Peru to be more precise. I took so many photos of the beautiful landscapes here and would love to make use of some of them.
Now you might think the landscape I would choose was going to be the most famous of Peru. I mean, yes this would make a fun drawing, however also a little bit too famous for my liking. Instead I pulled out one of the more dramatic scenes from our route through the country. The photo was taken in portrait format, which sometimes, for a landscape in particular, I feel can add something of a juxtaposition. Cutting through a landscape with a vertical frame, if the subject allows it, feels like a power move sometimes. For me, this is most effective when photographing mountains as it can accentuate their size.
This is the photo I chose to work from:
I'm craving some pencil on paper action, and so decided this was going to be the tool of choice to complete this drawing. To help make sense of the image I turned into black and white. Using Camera Raw Filter on Photoshop, I pushed the levels so that the image would light enough to see the details yet having hightlights and white brought low, shadow brightened and blacks to be more dark. I pushed the clarity a little so that this contrast would be subtle without losing that midtone in greys or any detail.
Had I not made this adjustments, and simply worked from the coloured, unedited photo above, I think it would be a battle to achieve those contrasts. Although you see the change in colour, the overall photo feels quite level and flat in terms of contrast. This wouldn't be a problem if I was working in a sketchbook and not focusing on details. However I really wanted to push myself so this made a major improvement in what you could read.
I've never really done a super large drawing before. I had no idea what I could do and how much detail I could get. Was I prepared to go hyper realistic, or was I going to work in the way I know.
First thing was first, preparing the paper. The roll of paper typical has a few dents and bends towards the edges of the roll which I guess is something to expect when being transported. With that in mind, I decided to keep the 1.5m uncut, and would use this as my height. With that in mind, I worked out what the width would be based on the dimensions of the photo and then cut the paper width to size. I was going to leave a decent edge around the drawing, which would allow trimming once the drawing was done to cut away the damaged edges.
I printed the photo for reference and also saved the image to tablet so it would be possible to zoom in on the details. I wasn't sure how this was going to go and how much detail I needed, but felt it best to be prepared!
Beside preparing the paper I wanted to consider my tools. I wanted this to be a gradual build up, avoiding to go too heavy or dark too soon. If I were to use an eraser then it would be only in an attempt to add highlights or details if needed. This totally went out the window when realising I needed darker areas to make sense of the lighter areas, or vice versa. I quickly learnt how challenging it was to work at this scale. But more on that later!
To document this process I decided to create a video, which will be available soon! In the meantime, here's an update of the progress.
To get the paper to be the right dimensions, I took the photo into illustrator, created a board with the height being 1.5m and left the width unknown for now. I brought the image and sized it up so that there was a big enough border around the edge which would give me enough to cut away the bad edge and still have a nice clean border around the drawing. Once happy with the size I adjusted the width to suit. From here I could work out all of the measurements needed to cut down the paper and "grid" up. The actual drawing worked out to be exactly 120x80cm which made gridding very satisfying! (I was quite impressed with how that accidentally worked out).
I applied grids on top of the photo, sent it to my ipad and then placed it into ProCreate so that I could zoom in at any point to see what it was I working on. I had a photo printed next to me which didn't fit the entire picture to page, so instead I have a somewhat cropped image which is helpful to have.
The entire photo has a grey tone to it, I was conscious of wanting there to be at least a base shade on the entire piece so that the border would look super clean in the end. I thought smudging would be a great way to achieve this, which typically I am not too much of a fan of doing when sketching, but felt this would be a great technique to apply here. I picked up a pack of the paper sticks you can use to smudge to help with this, which honestly is the first time using them and I love them! Genius trick. As I was also hoping to get some details in, I wanted an eraser that could go in on finer areas, and for the first time I discovered you can by actual pencil erasers with a brush on the opposite side, who knew!
When stepping back the drawing seems to be getting along quite nicely. I'm not entirely happy with the winding roads as they don't seem to be accurate, however I'm letting go of this and working through accepting this as hand drawn charm rather than aiming, once again, for perfection. Overall it's coming along and I am still excited to be working on it. More progress coming soon!
After Feedback
A few months into starting this piece I was fortunate enough to find myself a new studio space, my first studio outside of my home! It changed the game quite significantly for such a large piece like this. It allowed me to have space to step back and really observe the development of the drawing. It means I can keep my gear set up so that I can chip away at it whenever I want, even in between other projects.
It feels like I have been working on this drawing for over a year now. It has certainly challenged me in more ways than I had anticipated, which has been both rewarding and a curse… or a blessing…
The irony of this large scale piece, the image itself, and the time it has taken does not go missed. It's made me appreciate the piece more, perhaps even connect with it on a deeper, more personal level, seeing more than just a landscape but the actual journey ahead. Not only does it feel to represent my time on this particular drawing, but it's made me look at my entire time on this course. The struggle to stay focused and motivated on this piece when you see such little progress every time you spend a few hours on a section is testing. I've been on an absolute journey with the drawing so far, and its not finished. Just like this course! It's been an emotional rollercoaster and yet every time I complete a course I'm full of gratitude and pride. I'm a different person every time, stronger, confident, and inspired.
Sitting with a piece for a longer time really builds the narrative. It's the long way round, full of winding roads and uncertainty. I see this piece representing the milestones rather than the destination. It's made me appreciate time, to be ok with being slow and finding value in the small but meaningful progress. It might be the first piece to have really challenge me, not so much on skill, but patience.
We’re in May 2026 now and I have tried to push this as far as I can in time for the assessment, but sadly I just haven’t been able to finish it. That said, I am extremely pleased with the progress and the way it is piecing together.
Documenting the process is one of the key elements to this brief which is something I am very pleased to have done. For one, I would like proof that I managed to finish it! More importantly, I am excited to look back at this and seeing how it took shape. Using my camera, I have filmed a large amount of the process. Although having a camera on means stopping and starting a lot to one, make sure battery isn’t dying, and two, change the view every now and then to create something that feels interesting. This really interferes with the work flow which makes some evenings working on the drawing feel more challenging to see actual progress. It causes you to do less work on the drawing and be conscious of what you catch on video. It's very different mind sets that breaks the flow.
Because the drawing is not yet complete, editing the video has not been completed. However, I have created a short edit from a few of the earlier clips with a small snippet towards the end show the change of scenery and a glimpse at the progress. It's not exactly how I imagined it being edited for the final video, but it's a start!
Images taken at different stages.
One thing I have really enjoyed with working in pencil is seeing how far I can push the detail. I wouldn't normally call myself a hyper realist artist, and even with this I still wouldn't! I still see the drawing, which I will always want to see, but.. detail... this I am really interested in. The large scale helps in getting really close to the detail, albeit still appear sketchy when taking a closer look.
I'm learning a lot about the tools and what each can bring to the table. Honestly, I never looked closely at the differences of HB 2B etc, but since the exercises in this course, I've gradually become more in tune with them. I really love them, and I love the contrast it brings to my practice when I typically work in acrylic paint. The black and white, stripped down image is really refreshing and satisfying! I'm hooked. I will absolutely continue using pencil in my work, not seeing them as just a sketching tool anymore, but a large part of the collective work I will produce in future.
Although it is not finished, I am extremely proud to have made it this far on such a large drawing. I'm excited to finish it! I plan to frame it and hopefully have it on display at a local cafe I host events in... should they not be put off by the size, of course!
