Rebus

The last project we have had is that of a Rebus, a mix of words and images to create a statement, poem or quote.

I decided on using the Groucho Marx quote from the film Animal Crackers: -

 "One morning I shot an Elephant in my Pyjamas. How he got in my Pyjamas, I don't know."

The project was fun and quick and I enjoyed working out the best way to visualise each element. Stupidly I've not recorded it before the Studio work hand in and so I will have to wait till I get it back to post any photos.

The Essay is moving ahead nicely and my personal work is in a neat stack ready for the hand in on tuesday.

Only worries are what I need to hand in for my journal (being this blog) and where my lecture note book should be, probably handed in tomorrow as well. My rule/ reflection book for my personal work should be included in my personal work as it is intrinsically linked it.

Maps - part 3

So the blog has not been hugely active recently, most due to unhealthy amounts of procrastination. However with deadlines approaching I realised that I haven't actually officially recorded any of the work I have done in the past few weeks other than ramble about them a bit.

First things first, the second Map project, was a conceptual idea, recording 10 minutes of anything. As I have previously stated, I chose to record 10 minutes of thoughts, in all I ended up with 77 post its over the course of time. With these I decided to place them on an A1 sheet and then use this as a dynamic layer with which I can change in order to map a variety of the different experiences over the 10 minutes.

Time running from left to right and top to bottom.

From here I wanted to map 2 key parts of the experience, firstly was the thoughts I had over the course of the 10 minutes.

The map not including any of the distractions which had affected me.

Secondly I wanted to reverse this and map all the distractions over the course of the 10 minutes.

The interesting thing I found about this was that it is obvious that as I become more comfortable with the experience I get distracted less by non external influences.

Finally I wanted to map each related group of thoughts on the page.

This was an outcome that surprised me with just how many of my thoughts could be placed under the same categories, these and the distractions where interesting as several key themes started to reveal themselves to me as I had been blind to them before.

Maps pt2

So last week we were working on our map drawings, thanks to some wise words from Peter I was able to stop procrastinating and get some solid work done and take my work in an interesting direction. I would love to say more, but honestly there isn't much to update on this project. once I have a bit more done I will post a few images.

With assessment baring down upon us, I have been doing some personal development work, in fact thanks to my recent resurgence in productivity I have been making some very nice progress with my systems series, this is something that is really resonating with me, and I am really involved with the process of this project. This is a massive shift in my usual methods as I usually have a hard time looking at anything other than the outcome of my projects. With this current process there has been not one thought in my head with regards of what the outcome of the project will even be. The process is a learning experience, with each new ruleset and modifier I find something new and something that doesn't work, these just feed into my next few experiments.

If I carry on in this direction might end up with upwards of over 100 different drawings for this project and with the progress so clear to see with each advancing series, that could be a very exciting possibility indeed!

Maps!

So today was spent learning about the art of Cartography and after having a fairly decent walk, I am left feeling that drawing maps is again something that I kind of get quite easily.

Using time as a unit of measure and (admittedly wrong) directional bearings from a compass, we have the basis for creating a functional instructional map which hopefully would be actually be fairly accurate. I am tempted to buy a decent compass and go and redo some of the bearings as the compass we had was terrible.

Since this is our weeks project I am looking forward to seeing what I can come up with.

A week of changing methods

I'd once read somewhere that it takes 6 weeks to build a habit, clearly they forgot to mention that it takes a couple of days to break it.

Anyway in more relevant terms, I've been slacking a bit of late with these journal entries, for that I am regretful and eager to start again in terms of building my habit back to where it was.

On a more positive development note, after my discussion regarding my narrative project I have been extremely productive in my sketchbook, I have been struggling for a the past few months to get my drive and passion to be back to where they were earlier in the year, although I feel I am not quite there, it is getting better.

I have recently bought a brush pen and have found that it allows me to really loosen up and be far more expressive in my drawing than I have ever done before, this has been a revelation for me, and with it I have the passion I lacked before return to me. I am slowly becoming more active outside of the studio as well which will hopefully lead to me producing far more work than I have recently.

Personal work wise the A2 rule drawings are still going well, I would like to spend more time on my memory drawings project but I am finding that people have such an interest in it that what ever I will produce won't be at a level that I will be satisfied with to show folks, thats obviously a crutch but I'll find a way to produce something I am happy with.

 So in terms of days last week, the majority of the week was the fairly standard continuation of the narrative and reportage projects, however we had a really great day on Thursday as we went on a field trip. We were able to draw horses, poultry and a variety of other animals, personally I ended up drawing Horses and Koi Carp. This was a great chance to draw things that wouldn't usually be available as subjects. I was really pleased with my drawings made with my brush pen and a small amount of colour.

I have also moved quite pleasantly ahead with my new plan for my narrative drawing, having sketched out all the panels in my sketchbook and have drawn up the map side of the drawing using conte and ink, hopefully next week I will be able to finish it.

Continuing battles with choices

Solid critique from a respectable source given in a constructive and direct manner is possibly more valuable than all the back patting you could want.

I have had the luxury of such a discussion today, and with it has lead to me rethinking my method (11th hour plan change!) for my narrative project, and over the next couple of days it will take on a new form. I still want to finish my current piece, but thanks to my experiences today I now have some fresh interesting ideas that will push myself and my work slightly further along the path of evolving my process. 

So ideas then.

Narrative wise how can I make the work engaging, possibly introduce an interactive element to it - maps, to be read and folded etc. 

How can I make the most of the tools I am using, rather than being almost naive with my media I should try something a little different, using multiple tools at the same time, the way I make the marks etc.

Also, bought a brush pen and have been loving it!

Tomorrow have to give a talk on an artist for 5 mins and show examples of their work, off to start a PP then....

Offensive levels of neglect

Last week was busy, but that is no excuse for not keeping up with my entries.

Last fridays Life drawing was in preparation for our animation workshop which at the moment is tbd, I decided to use biro, it was pretty effective at getting the drawing down quickly and confidently. Rest of the day was used to carry on with my narrative project.

Monday: Travelled to Bristol to look at the RWA Drawing exhibition, was a loooong journey, but it was nice to see such a wide range of work on display and it was great for getting ideas and inspiration for my own work, got a series of drawings done in my sketch book on the way back which was a nice change from my usual approach so I would say the 8 hour round trip was just about worth it.

Tuesday: Had an epic lecture from Phil, again lots of really great information, plenty of names in my notebook to be researching, and nice to see this approach from a different angle. Afternoon was just spent carrying on with my narrative drawing, was doubting wether to carry on with what I was doing and if it was the "right" way, but since there is no "right" way to do this project I had a couple of solid ideas and want to continue with it now.

Wedsnesday: Not very eventful, did a bit more work on my narrative piece after having some neat ideas (vignette style animals and a treasure map in background) 

Thursday: Joint project with the 2nd years, Looking at non linear drawing, the likes on pointillism and van Gogh, was actually really interesting and have really been enjoying using colour of late, it is a nice change of pace from my standard pencil drawings. Got some good feedback from Isolde which has been taken into account and ready to explore. 

Friday: Reportage life drawing, was really enjoying this, used pencil at first and then found myself using biro, I have been a lot more confident in my mark making recently and I will be should to see this continue and evolve.

Narrative, Reportage and Busy Work!

Ok so I've been a bit distracted this week so I may have forgotten to update the blog, so here goes 4 days in 1 post.

Monday: Our project for the next 3 weeks is working on how drawing and images can be used with narrative and reportage. The workshop was a lot of fun and pure imagination fuel, as I have been writing recently the use of items to craft a narrative was a really interesting approach and I was keen on taking the job of writing the short story for the group. Taking the suggestions and ideas of the others and weaving them into a interesting piece of writing. Once we had done this, and having read it to the group, we had the option of illustrating this narrative, or using more objects as source for a narrative to illustrate. I decided to stick with the narrative we had come up with a group, although I would need to go over it and make sure it was tighter and its pacing was better, a side effect of the short space of time we had to come up with it. My first drawing was using coloured pencils and I was very happy with the outcome of this, so much so that I will be doing rest of this project exploring the possibilities and limitations of the media, and hoping it doesn't come out like a 6 year old drew it!

My idea for the project is to have a series of images on a sheet of paper which shows the characters at key points in the narrative.

Tuesday: We went to Helston folk museum in the morning for ideas and inspiration for our narrative project, plenty of fuel here, got a couple of good sketches to use later. Really amazing place, just a bunch of collected pieces from the past 2-300 years just jammed into a series of small halls. The afternoon was just used to carry on with our narrative project and it continued to go well.

Weds: I used the studio time to continue with the narrative project, not a lot to say than it is progressing well, I am getting plenty of good feedback from the rest of the group and I have to say that is giving me more confidence to push on with the project. Print was a mixed bag, I procrastinated for far too long at the start whereas once I got to doing the print I found that while I am very used to the processes the ideas and patience to try something very different is what is lacking from my work. Talked to John, got some solid critique of where I am going and what I want to accomplish from my time in the print workshop.

Thursday: We had another colour workshop today, useful for several different discoveries. There were a series of different sets laid out in both the 2nd year and 1st year studios, these varied in subject matter and composition. I found myself enjoying using a large variety of coloured pencil layers on one drawing to emphasise the depth of colour on the subject I was drawing. Another approach that I felt very comfortable with was the combination of colour pencil and biro. I have found biros being a really interesting media of late and am looking forward to using them more in my personal work.

Proto system drawing

So after rolling the d20 101 times I have ended up with this,not quite what I had in my head, but since this was my first attempt I think it has potential.

When I repeat this process I will tighten up the rules a bit, and possibly remove the curved lines, or have one with curves and one with just ruled lines.

I do like the varying colours, if anything I was thinking I could replace the pencil with a blue Biro and the fineliner with a black Biro.

I think using A2 paper might be slightly more effective but having the whole of the A1 covered in coloured lines would be striking.

Rules and 20 sided die

20 Rules for my system drawing:

1. Ruled Line, Terminates on meeting an edge - Pen (Red)
2. Ruled Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pen (Red)
3. Ruled Line, Rebounds off at 90 degrees when meets with a line - Pen (Red)
4. Curved Line, Terminates on meeting a line - Pen (Red)
5. Curved Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pen (Red)


6. Ruled Line, Terminates on meeting an edge - Pen (Green)
7. Ruled Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pen (Green)
8. Ruled Line, Rebounds off at 90 degrees when meets with a line - Pen (Green)
9. Curved Line, Terminates on meeting a line - Pen (Green)
10. Curved Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pen (Green)

11. Ruled Line, Terminates on meeting an edge - Pencil
12. Ruled Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pencil
13. Ruled Line, Rebounds off at 90 degrees when meets with a line - Pencil
14. Curved Line, Terminates on meeting a line - Pencil
15. Curved Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pencil


16. Ruled Line, Terminates on meeting an edge - Pen (Black)
17. Ruled Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pen (Black)
18. Ruled Line, Rebounds off at 90 degrees when meets with a line - Pen (Black)
19. Curved Line, Terminates on meeting a line - Pen (Black)
20. Curved Line, Crosses over 1 line if met - Pen (Black)


Roll a 4 sided die to decide which corner to start each different colour.

Plan for the observed system drawing, branches starting from each corner and will go 10 centermeters before splitting, repeating every 5 cm after that.

Better late than never!

Ok so its the 2nd week of the easter break and i'm updating the blog for the first time in nearly 3 weeks, why you may ask, have I held off from doing it for so long?

NO REASON WHAT SO EVER!

That is just how my brain works, one channel opens and another closes, I've been on a bit of a fitness binge over the past 2 weeks and I have totally forgotten to update the blog while still continuing with my drawing.

The week of the 10th of March was a bit manic, I have found that apparently I need a downtime between travelling and reverting back to normal routine, as I was effectively brain dead outside of uni and struggled with the most simple tasks, proof of the epic creative exhaustion I was suffering from being the 24 hours worth of sleep in 2 days I got once we finished on friday.

So work wise, carried on with relevant projects, found it a bit of a faff thinking of how to build my systems drawing so I have changed my mind on the subject and will be using a 20 sided die and a list of rules.

Personal projects are still going strong, if currently a little in flux. Print was a productive session and got some good feedback from the tutorial with the direction I am taking that. My memory driven architectural drawings are moving along at a nice pace, even if one has currently stalled slightly due to a room haven been forgotten and then remembered and messing up the original plan. Still unsure of who to look for in terms of research but will email some folks and see if I get any decent suggestions.

Non term time work is pretty much the above, and really need to get into the nitty gritty of getting out of the sketchbook phase which will start next week, as well as research and planning the essay, the drawing and written word question looks interesting so I'll give that a whirl.

Will be updating this more regularly next week.

Plans for the Easter Break, Personal Developments and more

Ok so we have recently had the importance of our personal development, the work we produce on Thursdays, Fridays, Print workshops and our own time. This is more relevant to myself more so than some of the others. As I have previously stated before I have been really struggling with this side of my work this semester. I have to say I am happy with how I am developing my work in Print, and I have been unfortunate with the timings of certain events coinciding with personal development workshop days and our life drawing sessions.

In terms of the work I do outside of our directed study, I have finally decided upon a project that I think will give me the most joy and space for development over the remained of this semester and beyond.

Planned -

Project 1 : To create a series of images from Memory using architectural conventions of where I have previously lived when I was a child. Currently this is the house in which I lived when my family was in Nigeria and the Flat we resided in whilst living in Syria. I have discussed approached with Peter briefly and sit down with him and go into some more depth regarding the process of the project. I will look at artists whose work prominently features architectural conventions, and the use of memory. Piranessi would be a good start.

Project 2 : To teach myself digital drawing, I have 4 weeks effectively on my own over the easter break and I am planning on using some of the time learning the intricacies of digital art.

Project 3 : As the weather continues to improve I want to continue going on walks along the coast, this will give me the opportunity to plonk myself down and start drawing what I see, this will be something I will continue over the course of the summer past the end of the semester.

Current -

Isometric : I was unfortunately unable to attend the first Isometric drawing workshop, however I have since talked to Peter and believe I have a decent understanding of the fundamentals involved. I will be continuing with this project along side the other projects I have at the moment. I am also planning on finishing my part of the large Isospective drawing in the following week.

Life Drawing : I have been unfortunate that I have had to miss several Life Drawing sessions this semester so far, the first being helping with the interviewes and the second I was ill. However I will be able to attend several extra ones in the coming weeks as I am helping out with a school visit on wednesday afternoons.

Print : My development of monotypes and my evolution of my space project from last semester is going well, I will continue this as and when I can.

Music, Limping and Art!

Ok so this is a special one off version of my blog, this week was exhausting, we had a 3 day London study trip, followed by a new process followed by a interesting approach to life drawing. My mind was floored, I was shattered and days just felt like they fell into each other, I didn't even realise it was the weekend before saturday afternoon.

Anyway so quick recap and reflection of the London trip.

Monday: Trip was fine, found a good book and had finished most of it on the way up. Once we arrived and we had sorted out the Hotel etc, we headed to the British Museum. The BM has to be my 2nd favorite place in the city, after The Natural History Museum and a whisker ahead of the Tate Britain. Anyway so we were given a project to find a random exhibit and document what we saw, this was in the same vein as our semester 1 project on natural subjects. I had found a nice little dark corridor with a selection of Jade ornaments and belt buckles where I promptly got into the zone. However since we had gotten to the BM at around 3:30-4 we didn't have a huge amount of time before being kicked out for closing at 5:30. However before we are asked to leave I had made sure to pop into the Egyptian exhibit to see the Rosetta Stone and some of the more ancient statues.

Tuesday: We headed over to The John Soane's Museum and the Hunterian Museum at the Royal Academy of Surgeons. Both were interesting and worthwhile visits. Some of the specimens in the Hunterian were fascinating however as drawing subjects I could not find much drive to document them, in terms of recording history I would rather my subjects not be in Jars. The Soane's Museum was a bit hit or miss for myself, I found the sheer number of objects, while all interesting, slightly over whelming and without the context of their inherent origins I could not get excited. However saying that I can't state enough amazing things about the Piranesi show that is currently there. The work, whilst not technically accurate is wonderful and I am planning on looking into his work more over the coming week.
    In the afternoon, we went further afield and visited the Princes Trust Drawing MA, honestly I have to say that while I understand the benefits (its Free and its based in London, thus surrounded by amazing resources) it was basically the course here in Falmouth and it felt like they were selling us something we already have. Also whilst I was in London I truly missed Falmouth, the slower pace of life in Cornwall suits me perfectly and the hectic madness that is London is not something I think would like for a year. After this we went to see Gemma Andersons Isomorphology exhibt in the Eb & Flow gallery, this was really nice, and Gemma has produced some fantastic work and it was great to see it in its own space. After this I went for a wander which ended up at the embankment, and then after an hour there I headed back towards the British library for our Illustration Q&A and talk. This was really interesting and while was exhausted it was nice to hear some really grounded Illustrators discussing their work.

Wednesday: Ok so by this time I was drained, I mean not a lot left in the tank and we had yet another busy day. The morning was exciting, we got to go to the prints and drawing room in the Courtauld Institute. We saw a massive variety of drawings, from Goya and Van Gogh to Durer. To be this close to work that old by artists that important was just amazing and had I been in a better mental state I would have probably made more of the viewing. After this we went to the Light Show at the Hayward across the river, this was interesting and there were some fascinating uses of the lights, however in all I felt like it was wasted on me.
     The afternoon was much the same, we had the opportunity to the visit the Manet exhibit being held in the Royal Academy, this was interesting however it didn't hold much relevance for myself, however the free show we were able to see as well which was a series of Prints by Sydney Lee was much more of a draw for myself. After this I headed back to Paddington and the trip was done.

Thursday: Ok I will admit that I was doing better on thursday than I had any right to be. The morning was spent drawing to music, and by that I mean we would make marks which we felt represented the music we were listening to. I found that my marks would represent the time of the music as well as any significant changes in pitch or introduction of instrument, this was an interesting project which while I dont think I enjoyed the process enough to carry it on in my personal time I definitely appreciated the relevance to our current development. The Afternoon was spent adapting the themes we had started developing in the morning into a larger system. I am still working on this project and will post some images of it when I finish it.

Friday: The morning was spent having Claire Armitage for Life drawing, we were carrying on the theme of systems and this one was using a variety different marks and layering them as the drawing continued. I found myself enjoying this by the end and am happy with the last couple of drawings I produced. I carried on working with the systems drawing from Thursday afternoon.

Experimentation with Monotypes

Ok so today was a personal day, but in the evening as per usual I went to my print workshop where I carried on my development with the monotype process.

First the results of last weeks play.

Process: Playing with the effects of turps on the inked up plate; Flicked, Toothbrush bristles and a rag.

Process: Using flicked turps and a cut template from acetate sheet with blue ink and extender. Didn't quite work, needed to do more even coverage on the acetate and get the blend effect more prominent.

Experiment: Incorporating salt and whitening powder to the plate. Too much means the ink won't bite which is what happened, nice tester piece.

Process: This was made blending extender and ink, applying it and a sprinkling of salt, created the effect of a foreground with the roller and unextended ink.

Process: As above, however using whitening powder instead of salt, getting the distribution right will take a lot of trial and error.

This weeks experiments

Combination of flicked turps and whitening powder, needed to resize the plate as it was it a bit big for the roller.

Main aim today was to attempt a 2 layered monotype, process was easier than I had envisioned, however it is just a matter of working out the kinks, I started out too dark on the first layer, also trying to create the streaking effect with the whitening powder was an incorrect solution to a problem that has another possible answer. Using a toothbrush with a tiny bit of turps to get the same sort of effect.

National Trust and Black eyes

This morning we headed to Glendurgen Gardens, it is an amazing place with a massive variety of flora.  The reason for the visit was because we were looking for systems in nature, once found we can distil this into a more abstract form on a large A1 sheet.

I have chosen a magnolia tree, the reason for this is its fractal pattern which I found fascinating. This will be continued to work into over the course of the next 2 weeks and will hopefully have an interesting and effecting outcome.

 Oh and this was our symbol language cypher, was a hoot, and as you can see I am no where near finished.

P.S don't mess around with childrens rope swings..... those things are dangerous! also fun and hilarious!

Process and Systems

New project day, this week we are looking at drawing systems, our seminar today covered the evolution of artists such as : Mondrian, Paul Klee and Kandinsky.

We looked at their process and how they went about abstracting their works, this was really interesting and it must have been rather special having been the first artists to discover this language. Another part that was fascinating was that we all had such different interpretations of what we saw in the same image.

Anyway on to our project, so this week we started by doing some fun exercises involving a more detached approach to our drawings. Our first workshop involved us gathering into groups, then having 1 member of our group be designated the leader, the leader would be in charge of coming up with a formula for the drawing. My formula was quite simple, I would start drawing a line across the page then when the line hits the edge of the page it would reflect back onto the page, the line would reflect off any edge or line it comes across, then after 5 reflections it would be able to cross the line it hits.

After a couple of different variations of the above exercise, we started something else, this was an exercise where we would write various different approaches on pegs, then we would attach the pegs to the page and we would each draw what the nearest peg said to us, we would then turn the page around and then start on the next instruction. This lead to a solo version of the same exercise, of which we produced 2 drawings.

Our final exercise of the day involved the creation of doodles on graph paper, then we had to use these doodles as a simple script to describe people we know, using various methods of description, both visual and personal.

A quick note on last weeks lack of updates after Tuesday, Wednesdays print session was immensely successful and I found myself being more productive than I have been in a long time, in fact I made more prints in that one session than I had in the whole of the last semester. I am loving the process of monotypes and will be exploring this process more and more in the coming months.

Thursday was student ambassador induction day, was great but lead me to miss Peters workshop which was a mild pain as I do enjoy that more technical side of drawing.

Friday was a bit of a write off, we had a more expressive approach to life drawing in the morning which frankly is not what I like about life drawing, I want to improve my skills in observational drawing, not destroy my self confidence which has been so high in recent week, had a bit of a off day on top of that so it was a bit of a dud productivity wise.

Photos tomorrow....

Tearing Reflections

This weeks project is a continuation on last weeks, an evolution of sorts on the second step of our gestalt drawings of last tuesday. 

We had to take 1 of our A2 interior drawings and tear it up, then on a fresh A1 sheet, stick the pieces in random positions and then draw a new image of a space on that sheet. I have to be honest, I haven't really enjoyed the last couple of processes we have been working with. The original gestalt drawing was a satisfying and almost therapeutic experience which was a breath of fresh air after the constant observational drawings of last semester. However I havent felt like I am achieving anything with these current ones, they haven't led to any desire to carry on exploring this process once we've finished with it. 

I know that it is ok to feel like this, and it's completely acceptable, but on top of my continued battle to get my focus and drive grove back that I had achieved last semester and my inability to start with any meaningful work outside of projects set by the tutors, I am really struggling to get my shit together.  

Rant over - Tomorrow will be a new day, rested, open mind, new material (graphite stick!) and pictures of the work from the last couple of weeks!

Drawing interiors

So today was a bit of a mixed bag productivity wise, we were allowed to use a hall in a local church and were given the opportunity to draw the space. The approaches were rather different, we could either do a standard view of the interior or try our hand at a producing a wide angled drawing of the space.

I started the wide angled drawing, however I really struggled to attain any sense of focus today, it was probably a mix of factors mostly outside of the course that was on my mind, however I have also been having troubles with how I am going to go about my personal projects, I have several ideas, some which play to my apparent strengths and some which should help improve on my weaker areas. However it is one of those things that there are so many things that I can't get on with 1, so I have just sat on my hands procrastinating and that isn't productive.

Anyway, there is always the weekend, will try and get some things started and see where I stand.

- Tomorrow and Friday will be update free, as I am out of town on ambassador duties, should be fun!

New Semester = New Problems

So after a bit of a break (3 weeks of assessments YAY!) Its back to normal in the studio, with 1 big difference, NEW SEMESTER! and with it new themes, new projects and new problems to contend with.

Ok this semesters core theme is a rather large step away from last semester. Referred to as the Inner World, we are looking at more at the subconscious and more abstract methods of drawing.

 After yesterdays studio time I was too knackered to do update this blog, so tonight will be a double whammy of Yesterday and Today. 

Monday :

Seminar was really interesting, looking at artists like Henry Fuseli, Victor Hugo, Odilon Redon and Max Ernst. 

Couple of good quotes : 

Redon; My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined.

Nothing in art is achieved by the will alone, Everything is done by docilely submitting to the arrival of the unconscious. 

Max Ernst; Drawing is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic inventions of felt reality, it must be every time, invention, discovery, innovation.

-

Our project was to produce a Gestalt drawing. This process was interesting, challenging, infuriating but overall hugely enjoyable. I started off quite positively, covering the paper with a variety of marks and lines. The process of bringing an image out of the mass of graphite was both mentally and physically tiring, constant working with the rubber and graphite stick, stepping back looking at the sheet, walking round the sheet, turning it any which way, all trying to see what is already on the page and bring it into focus.

I still haven't finished it, however I must say I am happy with the direction its heading in. It is a strange feeling, not having any true control over the drawing. I generally don't like the term "You don't lead the drawing, it leads you", however it is rather apt for this.

Anyway, looking back this is something I could definitely see myself doing in the future.

-

Tuesday :

Today we did another Gestalt drawing, however this was a varient of the process we did yesterday, it included frottage and collage. I can't be too critical of the process as this morning as I wasn't feeling 100% psychologically. However I must say I didn't find it hugely exciting. The process was a bit fiddly for me, I would rather get on with it rather than have the feeling of jumping through hoops. Anyway maybe I will give it another go when I'm feeling more upbeat.

This afternoon was a slight change of pace, we took part in a game of consequences or an exquisite corpse drawing however you want to put it. It was a really fun experience and the outcomes were varied and brilliant. Its amazing how each of us approached it, all our differing styles and thought processes. 

Still in a crisis regarding my personal projects, however I'll have a chat with some people and see where I stand.

Development and statisfaction

Spent the day making sure all my work was ready and properly organised for the assessment deadline tomorrow, first time in a long time, possibly ever, I'm actually ready ahead of a deadline for once. Once that was done it was back to the scenario drawing that is slowly but surely looking like an actual drawing and not just a work sheet.

Still in two minds with how I want to finish the castle in the long run, but not there is some tone down around it it doesn't look so jarring anymore

Tried to make sure the depth of the drawing would work, aiming for it to get from dark to light, currently its all a bit to samey but I can change that later, thankfully I didn't start dark and realise this!

Added some clouds, not too sure I'm liking the general shape of them, but I can change them if I can get a better shape idea, of all the elements of this drawing I am actually happiest with the dog. I am not sure why, I just feel like it works.

I would like to get a few more parts completed before tomorrows deadline, aiming for all the ground tone to be in and possibly the shadowing on the castle? I hope as much, but I might decide to go in another direction and thus do this later on when I have more time.

Overall I have really enjoyed this project, any excuse to just draw something from imagination is always going to get me excited and ever since day 1 I have really jumped in with both feet. The combination of observation and imagination is a really nice mix and I can totally see myself doing more work like this in the future. Oddly I have found that this drawing has had an emotion effect on me, mainly just because of the care and attention I have put into my drawing of Krak, I have such fond memories of it and I know that I will either never be able to visit it again or if I could it will be a shell of its former self, that realisation has made it quite difficult at times to focus on the other elements.

Talking to a brick wall!

So first things first, Isometric project drawing, not 100% completed but to the limit of my sanity.

Sky Island!

Today was interesting, had to sit through the second years presentations about their work, influences and reflections. I learnt a lot from this, and my reaction to it surprised me, it really made question why I was doing this course, my mixed feelings towards the blue sky thinking of some of the presentations really made me feel uncomfortable. I have never really like that out there thinking, I like conformity and the middle of the road works for me, I feel nothing for abstract art (I don't dislike it) and find it hard to express myself emotionally about my work. I draw because I love drawing and I love what I draw, if I had to draw something I did not enjoy drawing or a process I wouldn't be able to fully commit to it.

Anyway after this it was all hands on deck to continue with my scenario drawing in the hope I can get it to a decent standard before the hand in date. I highly doubt I will finish it and I would love to continue working in to once we get back after assessment.

The castle is slowly becoming more rendered, I am going to leave it as is for now until I caught up with the rest of the drawing 

Added the father and the camel, will continue to work into it all day tomorrow, once I work into it some more the castle will look more appropriate!

Maintaining momentum..

Righty ho, today I completely forgot to take photos of my progress, possibly due to the fact I was insanely focused on my scenario drawing, spent a solid 8 hours on the castle, yup thats right 8 hours on one aspect of a drawing that while being a key element shouldn't take the focus away from the rest of the drawing and if I'm pouring all my effort into that then what hope is there for the rest of my drawing...

Anyway in terms of process, I started by finishing all the lines on the castle, then started to add a bricking pattern to them, on the furthest points I used my magnifying glass to get a clearer picture. I got done with this around 4 hours later. After this I started rendering each wall and turret, and I have done around 2/3rds of it.

And on to tomorrow!

Work and missing weekends....

Ok so I have been insanely busy with work this weekend, thus mindlessly forgetting to update on Friday, so I guess this will be a joint catch up / reflection post.

Friday was a pretty constructive day, had a life drawing session in the morning which looked at using movement by scale and all we were to make 7 20 minute drawings on the same sheet. For once I actually settled really quickly, I am never really sure why I can reach the fabled 'zone' sometimes without realising and it drives me nuts most of the time as it never happens when I need it to. Anyway so the drawings went well and received some positive feedback from John which is always welcome. I normally enjoy life drawing but I occasionally feel uncomfortable, not about the model, but more about the atmosphere in the room and constant feedback, so I tend to tense up and try to be too tight as it is my expectation of what tutors want. Obviously this isn't the case at all but thats my problem and I am dealing with it.

My series of life drawings

Ok so Friday afternoon, I carried on with my isometric drawing, decided it was a wise idea to get the project out of the way so I could properly focus on the main project for the week, I am not sure how I honestly feel about my Isomentric drawing, part of me is glad I did something different fromt the rest of the group, however the other part of me is annoyed I chose an approach so time consuming, it really ate into alot of time that I could have spent either on other work which is needed to be done by the deadline on friday or the main project. Anyway after having spent all of friday and saturday afternoon on it I finally finished the drawing and meant I could get back to the Scenario Project on monday.

An in progress Isometric drawing, I will post the completed one tomorrow once I remember to take a picture of it

The beginnings of my A0 drawing

Ok so today I started in earnest on my final scenario drawing. I spent the morning doing some sketches of dogs, horses and a few final sketches of how the family might be standing. The dog I used is a Boerboel, a south african dog which has been recorded in syria since the 7th century, it is a really interesting dog to draw, extremely muscular and stout.

I decided to use the mothers eye level as the vanishing point and then started drawing the castle. I started by making a free hand sketch of it, then started using my ruler to tidy lines and make it work for the perspective. I put down the workings for the family and the dog, then started to work on the castle a little more. I left it at this point and will get back at it tomorrow.

Note loving this drawing!

Isometric Drawing

Ok so today was a personal development day and our mini project was carrying on from the work we did yesterday on perspective, we started with a quick tutorial on eye line perspective, which is incredibly useful for sketching quick scenes.

A quick sketch using eye line perspective

After this we went through the basics of Isometric drawing, using a simple grid system it allows you to draw on multiple planes, allowing you to create some very confusing visual illusions.

Experimenting with the grid to get a feel for the way you can manipulate the planes

Once I'd finished experimenting I started my larger A2 drawing, in which I decide to create a little world on the page, using a river running across the isometric landscape. I have yet to finish it but I am happy with the direction it is going in.

In progress isometric landscape, I wanted to use the grid as a sort of floating island

I really have enjoyed the work we have been doing in the past couple of days, these approaches really clicked in my mind and gave me many new ways to develop my work in the future.

Need to carry on with this and the current project over the course of the weekend.

Perspective workshop and project work

So this morning was filled by an extremely informative workshop on perspective in drawing, we covered a brief history on the use of perspective in art, how it is comes and goes in popularity and note.

Had an ongoing worksheet throughout the seminar, really helpful to be doing the various approaches as we went along.

One point perspective example

Two point perspective example

Three point perspective example

Putting it all together (may have castles on the brain at the moment!)

I really enjoyed this aspect of drawing, would definitely like to continue to use it within my work, now 

I need a personal project that will actually make use of it! Was intriguing to actually see the curve of perspective first hand, it is a really strange phenomenon but incredible when you think about it.

Other than that, carried on working on the project, looked at how a young child would stand with a parent when it is nervous, also looked at how I could go about texturing the castle walls and which farmed animals I will include, thinking Sheep.

Making New Realities

So last project of this semester : using observational drawings as a starting point, then translating and adapting these drawings to create a scenario.

This scenario needs to contain 9 elements :

• Figures in uniform
• A family group of mixed age and gender
• A pet
• A moving object
• A group of farmed animals
• A building or manmade structure
• A place you visit
• A plant or tree
• Weather

I started this project by deciding I wanted to come up with the setting that will be unique but personal enough to be interesting for me to explore in detail, I have chosen Krak des Chevaliers a 12th century crusader castle in northern Syria. After this I did a quick mock up sketch for an idea in my sketchbook which came out well. and so I  began working on the rest of the elements. I have a rough idea for what I want to include and have made an A1 mock up to see if my general idea will work, I am aiming to go up to A0 for this outcome (largest drawing i've ever made).

Initial sketch working from a photo

A1 mock up

Elements to be researched :

• Studies of a dog in movement
• Studies of cattle
• Average family unit in the crusades
• Garb of Syrians during the crusades
• Garb and banners of the Knights Hospitallers
• Drawings of clouds and how wind effects their shape
• Trees native to Syria

Workshop tomorrow on Perspective..

Natural forms: Project crit.

Just had the group crit for our pre break project on natural forms. I was pretty happy with the feedback I got from people and wasn't hugely surprised at what I could have improved upon / done differently.
2 main areas where I could have developed was in my use of contrast and I could have been expressive in my use of line.

Worksheet of skull drawings

Worksheet of lead ore drawings

Celebratory drawing of the skull, have had some really positive feedback on this piece, was definitely worth the time it took.

Blind drawing and playing around with plasticine!

Pretty busy day, had an interesting talk this morning from a practising artist, Jessie Brennan, it was about her process regarding her recent projects, her working practise and advice on getting experience as a working artist.

After this we were set a short project on Blind drawing (something she had worked with in several projects). We got paired up and were given 3 minutes on the first drawing. - Done using a B pencil.

I found this process strangely enjoyable, by not being able to look at the drawing I found myself without my usual plague of self doubt and need for control. The first drawing outcome was interesting as I had 2 parts of the face, the core of eyes, nose and mouth and the other details, eyebrows, hair  some simple marks, both separated on the page.

The second drawing task was, after had changed partners, a 10 minute drawing with a different media, I decided to use a 0.1 fineliner.

This part of the workshop was slightly less restricted as we were able to talk to our partners and in turn led to a reduction in the intensity that was pressent in the shorter drawing. I found myself getting lost on the page very early on in the drawing and knowing that it wasn't truly an issue I decide to try and add as many layers to the drawing as possible. However I came unstuck once we had used up our time and I had discovered that my pen hadn't applied any ink on certain key lines I had made, thus leaving the drawing looking more sparse than it should have.

After this we had a short group crit and discussed each others work, most of us had enjoyed the project, and we had come to the conclusion that the 1st drawing was more satisfying due to the time allowed.

After this we had another seminar and this was lead into our project for the next week, Caricatures. Looking at the work of Ghazzi, Hograth, Rowlandson and Daumier.

Hogarth, a Harlots Progress

 Hogarth used real people to make his critiques on society more real and engaging.

Daumier, The Past, the Present, the Future : 1834

The artist using the shape of a pear for Louis XVI which is considered an insult in France, an act that led to him being imprisoned.

After lunch we had another quick project, before starting in earnest tomorrow morning. Make a plasticine caricature of our partners face and then draw from the caricature. This project was highly entertaining and I ended up with some oddly interesting outcomes.

Creepy face says Kneel before ZOD!