Part 1 - Project 2 - Ex 1a

Groups of objects

In this piece of work I need to choose at least six objects of varying shape and size and draw them.  My drawing course now feels scarily real!

I managed to arrange some items from my shelf, put paper on my drawing board, stare at it for ages then leave it for a day.  I was quite unable to put pencil to paper let alone follow the minutiae of the brief.

Finally I've managed something.

My arrangement - I couldn't face anything like cloth

Attempt number 1 - 7B pencil on brown paper

It's hard to explain some of my difficulties but it's obvious perspective is all over the place.  I can see now that the left side of the book should taper slightly the other way.  This would explain why I had such difficulty with the spine (which defeated me).  I think this is also why I found the positioning of the items tricky. Somehow the mistakes are easier to spot when my drawing is compared to my photo.  In life I was starting to question exactly what I was seeing.

The same arrangement just turned around

Attempt number 2 - 7B pencil on lining paper

This time I was aware of  positioning the items and placed them before doing any serious work.  I drew and re-drew trying to get the items in the right place not for one minute thinking it was once again the perpective of the book that was wrong.  There are bits I'm pleased with - the Monet sticky notes is tapered from spine to edge and that comes through.

It's amazing that I could see what I wanted to do but no way could I acheive it. Lots to learn.

We have a very active local art society where all levels of expertise are welcome so tomorrow I'll be there.

Part 1 - Project 1 - Research Point

For this research task I need to look at the work of artists of my choice and see if I can sense their feeling as they worked.  My pointers are to look for speed, pressure, angles and the general way marks are made.  As suggested in my course notes I have looked at the work of Julie Brixey-Williams and the fact that she is so excited by movement shines through in the exuberance of her drawings.  I particularly like the ephemeral drawings that with such a lightness of touch make me feel as if I was sixteen and could dance with abandon.

The picture is taken from

http://www.juliebrixey-williams.co.uk/2d--drawings-paintings-print-photography--mixed-media.html

Julie Brixey-Williams
Cloud dance 3 from a series of 5 graphite and oil glazes on canvas 2007

Some time ago I saw the work of Karolina Szymkiewicz.  Her pencil drawings also depict the body in vigorous, almost crazy movement and in a more figurative way.  The drawings were an absolute delight and I think I picked up the happiness the artist had enjoyed while drawing them.  Her marks are fast and have tone and shading.  There is still lightness in the work and this reflects the speed and lightness of the subject matter.

Karolina Szymkiewicz - pencil drawing 60 x 80cm

http://www.karolfulillustration.com/project/dance-drawings/

http://iburkitt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/a-study-of-dance-karolina-szymkiewicz.html



Kyra Cane makes porcelain pots upon which she creates marks which suggest rugged countryside.  She develops her abstracted designs from drawings she makes.

Kyra Cane 2008

Her images are strong and demanding with harsh, dark lines densely packed.  The marks are short, straight and at many different angles. This is from Cane (2012) and is a charcoal drawing of the Pembrokeshire coast where she gets inspiration.

Kyra Cane - Pembrokshire Coast IV.  Charcoal on paper 58 x 75cm

The sea is rough and the weather looks raw and cold.

As I ponder the questions posed in  this Research Point these are my main thoughts:

• art stirs a reaction in the viewer by acting as a trigger to emotion
• the emotion is not necessarily the emotion of the artist as she worked
• life experience impacts on how an image is received eg a recently bereaved person may be susceptible to a painting that evokes sadness.
• an image can remind the viewer of an event and provoke the emotion felt at the time. For instance my delight in dancing as a girl was a strong memory when looking at the work of Karolina Szymkiewicz.
• the artist cannot know for certain how his work will be received - only what he intended.
• there are all sorts of variables that join at a certain point in time to create an emotional reaction to art.

Today I received my copy of Contemporary Drawing by Margaret Davidson (2011).  I've had no opportunity to read it properly but it is clear that choices the artist makes with intent all impact on how the viewer sees the image.  An example of this might be the way the chosen medium works with the surface selected.

I found this on the web
http://www.artsology.com/artemotion.php
and I was pleased to get it "right".  The "Emotion in Art" is also worth a look.

Bibliography

Cane. K. 2012.  Drawing and Making.  Bloomsbury, London.
Davidson. M. 2011. Contemporary Drawing. Watson Guptill, New York.

Part 1 - Project 1 - Ex 1

Expressive lines and marks

For this exercise I'm required to capture a feeling and make marks evocative of the emotion I am experiencing.  I have been given three feelings to work with; joy, calm and anger and I have to think of a fourth one of my own.  I have made four drawings for each emotion.  My work is on 110 gsm white paper.

Calm

I love music and it helps to create a feeling or mood so Mozart accompanied my drawing.   I am quite a calm person (my name means peace) and love the tranquility of my country home so I was very content to draw "calm".  It is a happy emotion.

I imagined bubbles floating on a breeze and doodled to music using pencil crayons.
I don't think this hits the mark; far too constrained.

I used a pastel on it's side and just swirled freely.
It reminds me of the ribbon gymnastics I've seen recently.

I used my viewing frame again and the images remained calm and peaceful.  I like the way the pastel skims the paper leaving a considerable amount of white showing.

This is less successful.  My idea was to use pastel again and see what would happen if I wet it then dragged a feather through it.  I thought it would give an ethereal quality.  My lines were too thin and strong and although the feather worked to an extent I really wanted more blending.

Pastel -  wetted and marked with a feather

Feather marks

Feather marks

Gentle, bubbling sea using pastels with some conte in the background

Isolating images works well ...

...and retains the calm

Images going through my mind while I was working on this were of the quietness of my garden (very important to me), the sea and general feelings of summer and being warm and comfortable.

Joy

Whilst I was thinking of "joy" I played Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto and it worked a treat.

Conte crayons laid flat and twisted remind me of dancing and twirling

Joy sometimes just erupts and I tried to capture it in wax crayon

Vivaldi reaches a  joyous crescendo with charcoal

Reacting to music with Sharpies

This image responded to the use of a viewing frame and created several independent joyous images like this one:

Using a viewing frame to create dynamic joy.
 Negative shapes are important here.

I was aware of being really happy while I was working on these drawings.  I found myself reacting to the music and its exuberance.  Sweeping motions seemed an obvious way to make joyful marks. Words like bursting, fun, laughter and dancing came into my mind and most of all I wanted bright colours that my instructions denied me.

Anger

The third emotion I was given is anger and it is probably the most difficult to conjure up on a warm summer day when I am happy and I have just looked at more positive feelings.  I've tried thinking of things that make me angry like the conflicts in Gaza, Syria and Ukraine but I can't separate out the sadness right now.  I don't feel ready for this just yet.

Two days later...

I've realised that my difficulty wasn't really with accessing "anger" but with the media I was considering to express it.  Once I started thinking imaginatively it got more exciting.  I decided to use black acrylic paint (watered a little) and soak balls of rolled newspaper in it.  The idea was to throw them at my paper from some distance and with force.

Angry - newspaper fragments are stuck  on the middle right

My pigment wasn't really dense enough and the newspaper began to disintegrate on impact but the general idea of forcefulness seemed to work especially if parts of the image are isolated.

Next I bound together some strap like leaves of a plant that I anticipated would make a whip like mark.

My "brush" was about 75 cm long

I dragged it though my watered paint and whipped my paper very hard.  I thought of the protagonist in my current book and I think this shows how I feel about him!

White paper whipped with leaves

A particularly angry snip

My next idea is a bit of a change from the way I've been working.  I began by painting my paper black and  I gathered some foam and a sharpening steel.

My paper, foam and sharpening steel

I put the paper on the foam and stabbed at it from the back repeatedly and got a variety of marks.  The paper creased with the force I used, creating texture.

Using aggressive, stabbing motions

An oblique angle showing how the texture of my page changed

I think this is quite successful.  Whilst the holes made by the steel show anger it is the creased paper that clinches it.

Anxiety

Before I retired I worked with people who exhibited chronic anxiety and described it it many different ways and I think that is bound to impact on my images.  I found that some of my work was tightly controlled and hard edged; it looks "afraid".

Spiky, controlled and forbidding in black felt pen.
  I've no idea which way is up.

Charcoal covered paper with smeary shapes made with a putty rubber.
Nothing is distinct; there is no clarity.

The next one looks quite angry and in my experience anger and anxiety often go hand in hand.

Anxiety that has tipped over into anger.

The viewing frame probably captures more anxiety than the whole image

I was surprised that I could depict anger so readily under the guise of anxiety when I couldn't do it in its own right!

My final image for anxiety doesn't really fit the brief very well.  I wanted to use my new drawing inks. It's probably over five decades since I used ink so I wanted a bit of a try and thought that the harshness of black ink and small nibs might work.  I underestimated how hard I would find it to use the pen and I got cramped shapes.  I certainly need to practise this particular skill before I need to use it for real.

Anxiously trying out my pen and ink!

My tutor has encouraged me to investigate the effect that sound can have on mark making.  She gave me this link
             http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/40147195

The recording shows adults of various ages making marks in different ways but always to the accompaniment of sound made by another member of the group.  One lady described her amazement at being able to lose herself in such an activity.

I've also learned about synesthsia.  This is "a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

An article in the Telegraph (10.06.06) talks of Kandinsky's probable synesthesia.  It is an interesting piece of writing that somehow makes Kandinsky's work even more vibrant.  It seems there is some debate about synesthesia but the main thing I deduce from the article is that someone sensitive to colour in art is almost bound to be very aware of the colours of music and be influenced by them in their own discipline.  There is a list of significant length towards the end of the article highlighting other "amazing technicolour dreamers".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3653012/The-man-who-heard-his-paintbox-hiss.html

This has been an interesting exercise that has prompted some quite deep thoughts.  For instance it's much easier to conjure up the more pleasant feelings than of anxiety and anger.  Anger particularly needs a bit of aggression to get it to work.

Part 1 - Feeling, memory and imagination

Drawing Skills 1

Warm up - temporary drawings.

As part of my Textiles Degree I now have a list of options to choose from. I've chosen Drawing Skills because I think it's something I need to work on and improve. That sounds a bit like it's going to be nasty medicine but I don't feel that way about it at all.

Drawing will be good underpinning for my Textiles work, it's hands on and I have daydreams about producing good work as I sit in the sun on a lovely beach.

I am well out of my comfort zone but at the end of a year of hard work I hope to have more confidence in what I can do and a range of drawing choices to support my other work.  My header is a drawing I did some time ago and will serve as a constant reminder of where I began this particular journey.

I love getting to grips with things that challenge me and I'm very excited to be at the beginning something new.  

My course has arrived and I'm ready to start.

The first thing I need to try is making some temporary marks.  Several things are suggested and I decided to see how many different marks I could make with water on a broom.  My paving slabs were very hot and my images dried almost too quickly for me to take a photo.  In an attempt to delay the drying I used more water but lost the clarity of my marks.

Sweeping movements

More sweeping

Downward thrusts

A swirling motion

With more water it lost its clarity

Shaking the broom

I noticed that when I dripped washing up liquid into still water it formed quiet, delicate shapes.  I tried to capture this with my camera but it looks very vague and not at all like I saw in reality.

Washing up liquid in still water

My grandchildren had more success with chalk on stone although it looks like it might be around for some time!

Whilst I have been thinking about temporary marks I was reminded of a short film I saw some time ago at the Harley Gallery.  It showed the work of an artist who used a rake to create wonderful patterns in sand.  When the tide came in it was gone.  Unfortunately I can't remember his name but the work of Tony Plant is very similar.  Try looking at 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2271713/Eye-catching-sand-art-Cornish-coast-created-father-using-hands-rake.html

and it will amaze you.

I found some Glow Straws in the drawer and waited until it was dark to see if my partner could capture some marks as I swirled a couple of them around.  It was the strangest effect; I could see great colours and lots of movement but the camera image was minimal.  As a photographer he had no idea what his image would be!

I printed these images and stuck them together.

It's a bit messy but I like the idea.

I don't think that crabs create art but I think these patterns are well worth a mention.  I took the photos on a beach in Malaysia.

The artist