Further drawings in response to tutor feedback

Armed with my research I did some more drawings. First some sketchbook studies.

 of parents and spectators

 of the architecture of the rink

and of the coaches which I didn't do in my normal sketchbook and now can't find....

Working on an A1 sheet of paper I started by trying to convey the shabby environment of the rink using charcoal then added a skater in ink using a dip pen. The two mediums don't sit well together.

I smudged the charcoal then added more skaters, rubbing the smudged charcoal out so that they stand out. Influenced by Ruben's paintings I aimed for a busy group with lots happening.

The background has parallels with the paintings of Colin Crotty

I quite like the technique and the effects of the rubbed out charcoal so I covered a sheet of paper in charcoal, rubbed our the figures and added details in charcoal and white conte. I find it so much easier to draw on A3 paper that I can place on my lap rather than trying to draw on an easel or lean up against something. The lack of an ink outline makes this a rather indistinct fuzzy drawing that wouldn't grab anyone's attention except maybe to look closer to try and work out what is going on and why I bothered.

I switched to watersoluble crayons. This first attempt looks too tidy

So I added water and smeared the crayons. It's better but not quite right yet.

I tried to make the background more ugly and ended up adding some more figures which seems to have some potential 

A pencil study of the potential of this idea

Lead to this drawing in water soluble crayon on blue/grey sugar paper

This approach looks at the repetitiveness of practice and the movement towards performance (the crowd) Is it too self explanatory? The blue grey of the sugar paper has been lost in the earlier photo so after I added some colour I photographed it from a distance then cropped it which managed to fool it into accurately representing the blue paper. I'm sure I've been subconsciously influenced by Cezanne here

The other approach was to look at the loneliness of the skater in front of the crowd and the role that other people play in their lives. With this drawing I wanted the viewer to question the role of the larger figure in the foreground. I used white conte and pastel on black sugar paper.

I tried cropping but I think this is overdoing it

This is better

I explored scenarios and narratives but ultimately what interested me about this project was the feeling of movement and how it feels to be part of or inside that. Revisiting my sketchbook drawings I drew this sequence of movement which emphasises the repetitive nature of practice required to master a movement.

This drawing was influenced by Howard Brodie's pencil sketch of battle I redrew it in white pencil on denim paper from the Apsley Paper Trail

Then added some colour give it definition

This has a touch of Beryl Cook mixed with Tim Stoner
My reason for doing this course is to push myself to work differently and explore new ideas and I'm conscious that this drawing doesn't answer any of the challenges set by my tutor in my feedback. There is no narrative and the background is abstract and unreal. It is more an illustration than a drawing and lacks academic content.

This is a better response but although I'm reasonably happy with it I don't feel it is truly my drawing or expresses what I want to convey in this project. My challenge to myself was to better represent movement and was partly in response to the criticism of the static skateboarding figure in Assignment  three which I fully agree with. I think the challenge in doing a course like this is to take on new ideas and be responsive to external views and criticism without loosing your own personal style or viewpoint in the process. Following my external research I feel that many established artists and illustrators are employed or commissioned to translate what they see into their own predictable style almost like employing the services of an interpreter. If you order a Julian Opie you are expecting a simple computer generated cartoon style and you're not going to be very happy if he does something different (though his style does appear to be evolving) Well established artists such as Peter Blake seem to manage to work in a variety of styles but it doesn't appear to be the norm. Is "success" a recognisable style or the freedom to work in different ways and how much do you need to let go of your own preferred style and taste to learn and progress as an artist?