"Think about all you’ve learned about scale, cropping, selection, flexibility and judgement and make a decision about which area you’d like to develop for your assignment piece."
Which pieces have worked best? I like these;
Initially with a mixed blue and red Koh-i-noor Magic pencil which gives some interesting effects
and with a woodless graphite pencil which can generate broad strokes by using the side of the sharpened point.
This drawing in the style of Egon Schiele, different subject matter but relying on line to create an image without a background and working from an uncommon angle.
For project one I wasn't sure that my final drawing was what was called for in the brief, have I been imaginative enough? Is it art or is it too graphical? Previous tutors have commented that my work is too illustrative, should I have pushed the drawing further? It might be more arresting if it was simplified? It is quite stiff and self conscious because it was the first project in the course.
In project two I was much happier with my interpretation of the brief.
For project three the composition was a challenge, although it works ok I don't think it's exciting or challenging enough. I like working on paper with a medium tone which lets me work in light and dark tones. This is a recurrent theme in work that I am reasonably happy with. I don't feel that I can take this project any further at this stage.
I like drawing living things so I enjoyed project 4. I have never drawn just a portion of the body and I think the results were lively and interesting. Being my own model was liberating, my constraints were the pose I could hold, see and draw rather than a pose chosen for me at a session with a life model. Maybe the final drawings could be simplified but it is a fine line between a very simple drawing and a cartoon.
For the assignment I wanted to build on the work I did in project four with part of a figure. I have drawn my dog hundreds of times but I was aiming for a different view which explored him in a novel way. I focussed on drawing the shapes created by his muscles rather than drawing him as a dog. Working in the way that Leonardo Da Vinci drew to explore shape and form.I'm reasonably happy with the final drawing at this stage. For me the project has run out of steam at the moment and I need a break but I would like to further explore different poses and media.
Assessment Criteria
Technical and Visual skills. I'm quite good at observation and drawing but I find design and composition difficult.
Quality of Outcome. For the drawings not too bad but my work is ok rather than outstanding. I think my written work can be quite boring.
Creativity. Average. I'm not experimental or inventive enough.
Context. I'm working on this... I'm very good at being self critical but I find it difficult to be critical about work that is considered to be good by people who know what they're talking about. This makes my blog shallow as I'm just saying nice things about work I like.
Which pieces have worked best? I like these;
I enjoyed doing all of the projects but one working with the human form was my favourite. My sketch books are full of drawings of people and animals with the occasional plant. Do I push myself by sticking to still life and inanimate objects which I don't draw as often. They are easier to draw as they don't move but I think it's a lot harder to create an interesting composition.
For the theme of my assignment I want to further develop the cropped figure. My dog is a lurcher so you can see the structure of his muscles. I have become interested in the way the muscles lie under the skin. In life drawing with humans it is quite normal to draw cropped areas but although I have tried to find artists who do this with animals I have been unable to find any examples. To start I made a number of sketchbook studies.
also with a fountain pen filled with brown ink
a stick of graphite
Although I drew his head, my focus was on the body. I often draw Henry but I usually start at his head and work down his body, it was interesting to see that these drawings which start with his body are more lively and interesting. This may in part be because I was relaxed as I wasn't trying to create a finished drawing so it didn't matter if he moved, I just moved on to a different muscle group. He does manage some interesting positions but mostly they are the same so for drawing from life I was a bit limited to the poses you see.
Using graphite and the magic pencil I developed the sketches into bigger drawings, each one is done on A3 paper.
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This drawing was going to be bigger and more detailed but he moved. However I think I like the simplicity of the lines so I have left it "unfinished" to try and convey the temporary nature of the pose.
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The first two drawings best fulfil the brief that I set myself at the beginning of this assignment,
but they're only graphite drawings and I feel I should be giving more. I think the drawing on the left is the strongest composition so I redrew it in graphite, white and magenta coloured pencils and white oil pastel on grey paper.
which I cropped
I'm not quite sure whether the crop works or whether the original, which pushes the curled up dog into the side of the page, has more tension but there's a dull bit of blank grey paper which I don't feel would benefit from just colouring in with a graphic stick and I don't want to fill with anything which will distract from the main drawing.
Reflection
This is my first level two course and I knew that there was much more freedom of subject matter at this level. Subject matter is something I struggle with, some things just ask to be drawn but this can be just an interesting technical exercise for me, it's difficult to also keep things interesting for the viewer. I have drawn pretty much everything I own so the challenge was to get a fresh view.
For project one I wasn't sure that my final drawing was what was called for in the brief, have I been imaginative enough? Is it art or is it too graphical? Previous tutors have commented that my work is too illustrative, should I have pushed the drawing further? It might be more arresting if it was simplified? It is quite stiff and self conscious because it was the first project in the course.
In project two I was much happier with my interpretation of the brief.
I liked the big double page spread drawing of the Christmas tree but it doesn't represent as well in digital form.
The drawings on black paper work much better on line.
Whilst I liked the slightly cartoon like effect of the second drawings I don't think they are as influenced by Mattise as they should be. All the drawings are representative and recognisable as decorations on a tree. I haven’t been able to move into any sort of abstraction from these images.
For project three the composition was a challenge, although it works ok I don't think it's exciting or challenging enough. I like working on paper with a medium tone which lets me work in light and dark tones. This is a recurrent theme in work that I am reasonably happy with. I don't feel that I can take this project any further at this stage.
I like drawing living things so I enjoyed project 4. I have never drawn just a portion of the body and I think the results were lively and interesting. Being my own model was liberating, my constraints were the pose I could hold, see and draw rather than a pose chosen for me at a session with a life model. Maybe the final drawings could be simplified but it is a fine line between a very simple drawing and a cartoon.
For the assignment I wanted to build on the work I did in project four with part of a figure. I have drawn my dog hundreds of times but I was aiming for a different view which explored him in a novel way. I focussed on drawing the shapes created by his muscles rather than drawing him as a dog. Working in the way that Leonardo Da Vinci drew to explore shape and form.I'm reasonably happy with the final drawing at this stage. For me the project has run out of steam at the moment and I need a break but I would like to further explore different poses and media.Assessment Criteria
Technical and Visual skills. I'm quite good at observation and drawing but I find design and composition difficult.
Quality of Outcome. For the drawings not too bad but my work is ok rather than outstanding. I think my written work can be quite boring.
Creativity. Average. I'm not experimental or inventive enough.
Context. I'm working on this... I'm very good at being self critical but I find it difficult to be critical about work that is considered to be good by people who know what they're talking about. This makes my blog shallow as I'm just saying nice things about work I like.
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