Part 5 Project 1 revisited

I wrote the reflection and decided that I'm not finished with this project so I made some paper scrolls and went back out to a different set of shops with my pens. People didn't hang around so much this time, its no longer bank holiday and the weather was dull and grey.

First a mixed red, blue and white pencil which isn't really bold enough for this exercise.

Then felt tip pens changing colour for each person.

Then switching between a red and black pencil, I didn't spend as long on this one as I was called in to work.

None of the drawings are individually as good as the first session but there is a better sense of the crowd. However they all appear to be present at once so I don't get a feel of passing time. The felt tip pens probably work best because there is a suggestion that maybe the different coloured figures aren't inhabiting the same space at the same time, especially when they overlap.

I wanted to experiment with using colour to suggest the passage of time.

This time I used oil pastel as I was given a set with a good gradation of colours. First using a different coloured pastel for each individual.

Then I drew a row of yellow figures, overlapped them with a row of orange figures then red, purple blue and finally green.

For both of these drawings it was raining so the people didn't hang around for long. The figures are drawn from a mixture of memory and imagination. It was a good exercise for me because I couldn't focus on the individuals or any detail. I concentrated on trying to get a feel of each person. I think that you can tell that I drew the top line first, I've relaxed into the drawing process for the second set of figures and I think that this is the best version yet because the lighter coloured figures look like the ghosts of previous people. Should I have done this in neutral colours? It's a grey day and I'm enjoying the colour but maybe it distracts the viewer?

Following on from this project I went to the Tate Modern and drew the people in the Turbine Hall experiencing Phillipe Parenno's Anywhere. (Sadly still without flying fish)

The earlier sustained practice of drawing moving people has made me more decisive in capturing this small crowd. 

Feedback

The people drawings have a sense of movement and the use of broken line gives a sense of abstraction.
The rainbow effect drawing is less successful because it is predictable but the over-laid coloured figures are better and create a forest of lines and colour.
The animal drawings better than I judged them to be. I felt that they moved less than I would have expected them to and most of the movement was the head. At my tutorial we discussed the way we see figures and how we are programmed to focus on the eyes and mouth, this has been studied in the drawings of young children. My tutor commented that this is a useful tool for composition, exploited by some artists who slightly enlarge the head/eyes when drawing people.
The repetition and the need for rapid mark making encouraged the use of confident lines and gestural drawing. My tutor could see parallels with the continuous line work of Claude Heath. I had studied his work shortly before making these drawings and I suspect that this subconsciously influenced how I approached this project.