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!