Semester 2. Week 10, Peer Review

This week we had peer review. I always find this practice useful in understanding where I am with regards to my grades, and also to gain inspiration from my peers.

I was lucky enough to be in a group where the three of us have very different styles; Luke and I compared Nikita's drawings to Picasso and praised her for her confidence in each task, we could see that she threw herself into each piece, and also for focusing on shapes and tone in a way that we hadn't. Nikita and I praised Luke for having his own style and making briefs his own, going outside the box while remaining in the parameters of the task. These are all qualities I hope, now, to develop in my own work. 

Here is a copy of the review I was given:

After reading their suggestions we chatted for a bit and it seems what I'm lacking is a variety of media - particularly colour or wet media. I agree in the sense that, compared to my last project, this semester's work is not colourful and I have focused on honing use of charcoal and continuous line, which is best done with pen. Although, as we have not experimented with colour and my goal was to use what we have learned, I do not feel as if I need to change any of my previous artwork to fit this. However, I have added more colour in the Hive map book I created in week nine and it does work better there.

I also appreciated the positive comments as they gave me confidence in the work I had already done, pushing me to complete work that I had left to do.

Week 9. Location Drawing at the Hive

I enjoyed lots of aspects of this task; from making the books to using what was around me to create art. I loved that by the end of this creation I had a little book that showed how I experienced the Hive while using the techniques I had learned over this semester.

(1)

Byro

Continuous Line

(1a)

After going back and adding colour with coloured pencil.

(2)

Byro

Continuous Line

(3)

Felt Tip and Fine Liner

Limited colour

(4)

Collage and Oil pastel

(5)

Collage and Fine Liners

(6)

Brown Fine Liner

(7)

Byro

Continuous Line

(8)

Fine Liner and Felt Tip

(9)

Charcoal

(10)

Charcoal

(11)

Felt tip Pen

(12)

Pencil

(13)

Watercolour Pencil

(14)

Byro 

Continuous Line

(15)

Byro 

Continuous Line

(16)

Charcoal Rubbing of other side (Happy Accident)

(17)

Assorted Charcoal, Tissue and Erasers

(18)

Byro

(19)

Pencil

Semester 2. Week 8, Location Drawing River Walk 4 Pieces

It took me a few trips to get down the parts of the river I wanted. I am proud of two pieces and not pleased with the other two, but I take that as a win because I see where I went wrong and I know that next time I will do things differently.

The theme I chose to go with, to show differing parts of the river, was the way that the people of Worcester interacted with it. I wish that for figure (1) I would have gone for further down the river where the dam is, where there is no people. I generally dislike this drawing as I was going for an empty feel but looking at it now it just looks unfinished.

I am really pleased with figure (2) and my attempt at continuous line. I think it shows what I'm trying to show, people using the river and being part of it, in a way that conveys movement.

I'm not completely pleased with figure (3). At the time, charcoal seemed like the right medium to use to get a good reflection on the water but it doesn't look like water at all. I wish I'd brought inks or watercolour paint with me, that would have been a better medium to use. 

Figure (4) is one of my favourite pieces so far. I wanted to emulate the style of Carl Larsson (a Swedish painter that has been influencing my work for a long time) and so used watercolour pencils. The effect it has created only using water on the river, and not on the houses, is really effective and I'm so proud of this piece. I'm also pleased because I've found water difficult to draw for a long time and only if the past few weeks challenged myself to try anyway.

(1)

Empty by the River

Pencil & Fine Liner

(2)

The People in the River

Byro

Continuous Line

(3)

The People on the River

Charcoal

(4)

The People Above the River

Watercolour Pencil

Semester 2. Week 8, Location Drawing River Walk Thumbnails

For this session I spent two hours walking round the river starting the opposite side to the Cathedral, going down to Diglis Bridge, and walking up to the cathedral and down to Sabrina Bridge. I enjoyed the walk and took a few pictures as well as sketched. They are very rough ideas and little experiments so that I could go home and plan what I wanted to do.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(5)

Semester 2, Week 7, Experimental WildWoman Life Drawing Class

For today's session we experimented with the model moving around in a man-made environment comprised of string along with black and white bin bags. I enjoyed incorporating the past weeks learning in this lesson where we had to be observant and imaginative.

Environment that life model walked through in the session. 

At first I found it difficult to find the grey zone between drawing what was in front of me and what was in my head, but over the course of the season this came more naturally.

I really enjoyed the element of background music, whenever I draw at home I like to have music on to help me concentrate and having it in class increased my focus. It also gave me ideas as the music was interlinked with the theme WildWoman. We heard rainforest sounds, peaceful music, voices, and all this fed into my drawing from the imagination standpoint.

(1)

Ink and brush

Over the past few weeks I have been getting used to, and enjoying, using ink. I like the result but should have made smaller people as it would have been easier to incorporate more. I also had the chance to use my imagination and make the bin bags anything I wanted which I didn't do in this piece; this was due to playing it safe and getting used to the session and in future I think it would be better to get stuck in straight away and, as usual, not worry so much.

(2)

Ink and brush

For this one I used my imagination a little more and made the life model's stick into a spear which I imagined stab a fish. I then made the bin bags hanging from the ceiling into creeper vines from a tree and played with depth by making the model close up for the next pose, creating a narrative that she was walking away from the water. I like this piece but the creepers get in the way of the face so I should have maybe not made the environment so concrete before drawing the figures.

(3)

Charcoal, Ink and Brush, Assorted Fine Liners

This piece, in my opinion, was very successful. Not only did I enjoy creating it but I love the narrative I've built using each pose. I decided to learn from my previous mistakes and do smaller figures; this enabled  me to fit all 5 poses into my piece. It moves from charcoal on the right, to ink in the middle, to fine liner on the left but I have also added in bits of the medium in each part for e.g. Background, grass, vines etc. I only wish I'd bought some colour media with me as I think this could enhance the piece.

(4)

Charcoal, Ink and Brush, Assorted Fine Liners

I decided to use the same medium as before because i got good feedback on it. I also wanted to incorporate water in order to challenge myself, and as it went well in the previous piece (which I did not expect) I wanted to try again. This is my favourite piece as I think it's most imaginative.
I was actually, when creating this, thinking about the landscape in the lakes in Sweden (where I am from originally) so I also like the piece for that reason. 

Semester 2. Week 6, Independent Study, Movement

For this independent study, I wanted to focus on getting the technique of conveying movement improved.  I really find movement very difficult, especially as this semester i'm trying to do less scribbled drawings, and it's so easy to slip into it when i'm trying to draw quickly. 

I believe the most successful pieces are figure (2) and figure (8) in the way they convey movement, I don't think the rest are very good but they are experiments so I don't mind. 

I definitely preferred pen over ink and brush in this exercise as I had more control of where things were going. I would have used charcoal, as I like this to do quick movements but I don't have different colours of it and I think the colours are also a key part in making it look like a moving piece. Particularly the blue and red technique.

(1)

Observed Drawing - Guitar Playing

Fine Liner and Red Pen 

5 Min

I wasn't particularly proud of this piece, although it was a good starting point.

(2)

Observed Drawing - Guitar Playing #2

Byro Pen, Red Pen and Blue Pen

10 Min

This second piece was much more successful. I felt I captured the movements well and that using two colours and taking my time were what made the difference. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4cLvDte8iI&list=PLrdnztWm2mx7sJnb9MrjRsyAoNDxmxCTJ

Homesick Stanza/ An Ode to Home - Spoken Word Poems by Miguel Guerreiro Lourenço

(3)

Secondary Source - Poetry Video of Friend Filmed by Me 

HB Pencil and Coloured Pencils

5 Min

Here I focused on portrait and facial movement as the camera was fairly zoomed in and he looks up at the camera now and again. I like this piece but it would have looked better in pen.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM 

Sia - Chandelier (Official Video)

(4)

Attempt at Capturing Dance

Fine Liner

This went wrong, the dancing was too quick in the video so I decided to do another one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc1esMeDb5k

How To Slow Dance - Social Dancing 101

For the next three pieces I played this video again and again and tried to capture movement. To begin with, in figure (5) I used ink as we'd used this in class and I liked it, but I misjudged the size and found it difficult. I decided that I'd take a more simple approach so with figure (6) I did silhouettes, but they ended up looking terrible. Lastly, in figure (7) I used byro and it worked out much better. It still wasn't perfect though so I found another video to work from.

(5)

Slow Dance Tutorial Attempt #1

Ink, Water and Brush

(6)

Slow Dance Tutorial Attempt #2

Ink, Water and Brush

(7)

Slow Dance Tutorial Attempt #3

Byro Pen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_f9B4pPtg

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Nina Kaptsova - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy / 2010

I found this video a lot better to use to show movement. The ballet dancer repeated movements while she danced through the song and I could replicate them on page. I am not happy at all with figure (9) as I think it just looks messy, possibly because of the use of only red ink., which I think I may have watered down too much. However, I'm really happy with figure (8). I did the red figures first then the black, and it goes through the entire dance left to right, finishing with a curtsy. I feel this is one of the most successful pieces in showing movement.

(8)

Ballet Dance Attempt #1

Ink, Water and Brush

(9)

Ballet Dance Attempt #2

Ink, Water and Brush