Class #2

In class this week we did something a bit different. We started off by getting a small, approximately A4, piece of tracing paper and covering it in black oil pastel. We then placed paper over the top and drew on that sheet with a sharp object, I used a bamboo pen and my fingernails. The imprint of the objects then lifted the oil pastel onto the back of the paper, essentially creating a blind drawing. This was a very interesting way of working. Not seeing the drawing as you go, but only seeing the final product.

The last work we did was a larger work that we created using both of our hands at the same time. Each mark we made was mirrored in our less dominant hand. I found this particular experiment quite hard to do.

Ryan Woodward

Ryan Woodward is an American animator/artist. I fell in love with his work when his animation 'Thought of You' first came out. His life drawing works are quite unique and successfully capture the movement behind the pose. Woodward uses minimal lines to create the body and is not concerned with capturing all the muscles/anatomical structure of the figure.His work captures the emotion of the pose beautifully. 

Class #3

I struggled this week in class. I got stuck drawing the literal body and when it came time to merge it with my slide - it didn't work how I intended it too. When the slide waa projected onto the drawing I realised less is more. It covered up too much of the drawing. 

Response to Milam

'Understanding Life Drawing'
Jennifer Milam

In this reading, Milam attempts to understand the meaning behind why we do life drawing and the appeal of the drawings. She begins by explaining that the practice of figure drawing was slowly institutionalized and 'elevated the practice of drawing the human figure'. It is interesting to see the final drawings from a life drawing class as they can all be quite different. "...the hand of the artist does not record an exact replica of the body as seen." Artists tend to improve on flaws and exaggerate parts of the body so that their ideals of beauty come out in their work.

Institutions still teach life drawing today and believe it is a central component in artistic training. "Within academic hierarchies, only an artist  who learnt to portray the human figure convincingly could hope to be a successful painter or sculptor...." One of the interesting things Milam mentions is how many life drawings were not actually drawn from models. Many artists that claimed to use models were actually done using wax figures and bronze statues as substitutes for the model. There was a lot of controversy over the use of live models in the art studio, especially females.

I believe that drawing from a live model allows the artist more creative freedom and allows the artist to capture the movement and feeling of a pose, instead of drawing the body as it is ideally portrayed in statues and models. I think that drawing from a model does help artist's learn anatomy and proportion, but I also think that there is a lot of restrictions in life drawing classes in institutions.

I am glad that we have progressed to accept drawing as a valid artistic medium and see figure drawings as works to be worthy of being seen in a gallery space, not just as under drawings in the planning stages of larger works.

Figure Drawing Experiments #3

I have been working on a thesis for the first project. I am interested in exploring the repetition of the practice of drawing. I was reading Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture, by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and this sentence really stuck with me. "The only way for us to become great or, if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients." (P. 27)

I think that the reason we repetitively draw the same pose over and over, is that we believe it will improve our drawing skills and that we will then be able to see our works in the same light as the 'ancients'. I find that I do this a lot, I am constantly comparing my works to those that I see in galleries, or the works I believe to be successful. I am trying to break away from this and develop my own style. 

For this folio project, I have decided to experiment with collage. The following images are my process work so far, I do not feel the work is complete yet. I started by drawing a posing model from a photograph, and each time I felt the body was drawn wrong I glued some paper over the top and started that section again. I repeated this process over and over again. I have used ink, charcoal, rice paper glue, water and different thicknesses of paper. I know the image is not photo realistic but I am attempting to find a different outcome in this work. I find that collage is a very freeing tool, it allows me to experiment with mixed materials and not limit myself to the one layer/original drawing.

Figure drawing experiments #2

I feel like I am getting trapped in the repetition of life drawing. I start the drawing feeling optimistic of the results, that I'll be able to let loose and draw. But then I, accidentally, end up referring back to the life drawing lessons....focussing on proportion and anatomy and traditional skills. I guess I keep trying.

Danny O'Connor

An artist I am currently looking at is Danny O'Connor, a UK artist. He is primarily a portraiture artist and works over different mediums. Usually starting on graphite and taking them into photoshop to turn them into digital works, or making large scale works using graphite, collage, acrylic, oil, correction fluid, paint markers and other mediums. 

I think I am drawn to his works because they are so free. He doesn't restrict himself to the one medium, and his work flows freely. The use of the flowing lines comes across as very organic, and the limited colour palette of reds and blues contrasts each other beautifully. I am quite drawn to his works featuring plants and animals with the posing model as I am very interested in the idea of humans and nature as one.

 His collage works are built upon multiple layers that do not always use conventional tools or mediums and I am interested in exploring this idea of the unconventional. 

Danny explains his work by saying; "My work is a celebration of contrasts focusing mainly on portraits and figures....I like to mix natural flowing lines with harsh diagonals. Clean crisp areas of colour with layered messy splashes of paint.....I'm trying to achieve something that is both modern and almost futuristic whilst retaining a new traditional aesthetic."

 

Experiments from Life Drawing class.

Some drawing experiments from class.

Words from Matisse

"It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else."
Henri Matisse

Response to Mayhew

'The Naked And The Blind; Exploring the Badness of Life Drawing'
Margaret Mayhew

Within this reading, Mayhew attempts to understand life drawing and why we do it. I had always believed that the greatest achievement of an artist was to be able to produce a drawing that was photo realistic of their subject. When I would go to the Art Gallery I would see these paintings of naked figures and assumed that this was good art, it's in an institution so it must be. So as an art student, I attempt to copy what I have seen. I am led to believe that if I can draw a naked figure I am a good artist. I am taught this in my life drawing classes too. I am told to study proportion, perspective, anatomy - all in order for me to become a better artist.

 "If a drawing doesn’t resemble its subject, then is it bad?"

If I am more experimental and try to move away from copying exactly what I see, put myself into my work, than am I a bad artist? I'm not sure.

"It is arguable that the history of life drawing classes has been explicitly concerned with training students to generate a figurative representation based on what they knew, rather than what they saw"

Here she questions why we are taught life drawing in art school and the value of it. Today, life drawing classes still persist in art education and many beginner drawers are unhappy when their drawings are not an accurate representation of the model. I can relate. When I draw in my class and the outcome is not what I had pictured, I get discouraged and believe my work is bad. Life drawing class is associated with 'ideas of self mastery' and when I believe my work is bad, I go on to believe that if I can not master the nude drawings, then I have failed as an artist.

"It is unclear whether life drawing as a practice is bad, or whether badness can be ascribed to particular representations of life drawing"

It is interesting to think that maybe the practice of life drawing is what is bad and not the drawings themselves. The concept of having a class full of students sit and draw a person posing naked is weird. But for some reason we continue to do it, and to be honest, I don't know why.

Class #1

Today was Class #1 of Interdisciplinary Drawing 1. It was a challenge to work with such a large space. I am used to small scale drawings, so I will have to experiment using larger surfaces.

My work from today was over three A1 pieces of Butchers paper. I enjoy using an easel to draw on, but it did present some challenges on this scale. My board was smaller than the height of the drawing so I ended up with no backing behind the bottom piece of paper, I ended up un-taping the bottom piece and moving it up, but then the drawing didn't quite meet up as I would have liked. Something to consider for the next large work.