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.