Development Drawing, week 2 Review

During the second week we focused on developing outcomes using our observational drawings. I found this week of development very exciting as I got to use many of my drawings and add my own creative style and touch to them. I found experimenting with different compositions and images very interesting and found I was creating my own concepts. Many images gave great potential for juxtaposition and humour.

I used various materials such as brusho, tracing paper, Indian Ink, and photocopying techniques. I really enjoyed using the photocopier as it added many elements to my pieces. It gave me the ability to use symmetry and repetition  which could be used as pattern work. I also created wire mekets based on our observational drawings. I found this challenging in some ways as I had to work more loosely and simplify my designs.

I did find that later in the week that I was lacking in architectural and drawings of objects in my sketchbook. I feel this was because I focused mainly on portraits as I wanted to improve in the area that I was weak in. I felt if I did have more drawings of objects I would of had greater scope to combine image with text and to create scenes. Objects also could of added more possibilities for pattern backgrounds and texture.

I did struggle in meeting all the targets and this was due to my time management. I feel I can achieve much more, and have a lot more potential. I do feel the quality of my outcomes are to a good standard. The actions I am going to take will be;

•  Create a timetable 
• Set daily goals
• regularly Confer with teacher with progress
• I've made the decision to stop playing basketball at Mens Division three level in order to focus and succeed with this art course.

 With the limited time I had to produce the work I feel my sketchbook is lacking development work and annotations on processes. For future projects I will have a work sketchbook which runs parallel to my outcome sketchbook which communicates my thought and processes to the work I create. 

 

Drawing Week 1 Review

During the first week of observational drawing I took on many techniques to record and interpret ate real life environments. I really enjoyed this week of developing our key drawing skills and to make sure we draw what we see. It was quite challenging at first to find ways of sketching efficiently because of the constantly moving figures. I had to adjust and let go of old habits such as working very statically and precisely and work more loosely. This is a positive change though as I found as I would get aesthetically pleasing drawings which I would of never produced if I had stuck to my old techniques. I found as the days went buy my drawings improved. I sketched many portraits and the basic features and proportions were starting to feel familiar to me.

I did attempt to use different materials such as colored fine liners, permanent markers, charcoal and a variety of pencils. reflecting on my outcomes I found the fine liner particular challenging in terms of creating tone or shade. You can't build up layers and often I would draw eyes as solid ellipses making them to bold in my opinion, but the speed you can sketch with the fine liner really appealed to me. I also used different surfaces such as brown envelope paper which added a nice texture and gave really nice results with the photocopier and negative scans.

I started with a theme in mind based on people at rest, it then changed to solitude but in the end I made the decision to draw images which appealed to and were of interest. I didn't want to constrict myself and pass the opportunity to draw a particularly strong image. I felt when it came to development this would give me greater opportunity for image making. During the week I even went to Kellam Island industrial museum for inspiration. There I drawed many industrial machinery and components. I even met Mr.Hauly one of the Curators of the exhibit in the cafe who features in my sketch book. I felt this added a nice touch and a personal experience to my sketchbook.     

I feel I've learned a lot especially drawing figures from life. I found drawing the basic outline of figure was best and then moving on to shading and details after if I had time. I found later in the week though that I hadn't made as much progress with the number of drawings as I should of. This was because many of my sketches were a full page, and there probably was room for experimental processes. Over all I've thoroughly enjoyed the week of observational sketching and I will be continuing to practice, there's always time to improve.