Experimental piece – sketch book work

Seem as the new project/ assignment is revolves around tree I wanted to do some experimental work in my sketch book to get used to the look of trees and how I go about the detail in my drawings and using materials I wouldn’t usually pick to draw with.

In my assignment two feed back I was told to spend more time doing work in my sketch book and developing on my drawing skills independently to advance my self more on sketching and quick drawing as well as exploring new materials and ways I can draw.

I was always a bit apprehensive about drawing with charcoal as it’s not a material I would ever pick up and draw with but once I started on this drawing I loved the way it felt and the texture it brought to my drawing, I felt it brought the tree more alive and enhanced the detail in a different way a pencil would do. It shows it strength and how dark the trunk is but also shows the softness I want to show for the leaves falling over and hanging above the structure.

I found this piece very fun to do and has opened my eyes to using and experimenting with more materials within my work instead of sticking what I’m used to. I’m proud of how the tree looks and I’m excited to further on with this part of the drawing course.

Trees- Exercise One.

For this exercise we were asked to draw four separate drawings of the same tree doing different forms of exercises. The first one being to do a simple and basic outline of the tree to get a basic idea of the form and the shape the leaves form such a big volume around the tree. The next one is to draw basic shapes in the outline of the tree and to start some initial shading to form more dimension of the tree. Furthering onto doing a basic outline and look onto the branches and the trunk of the tree, the last one was to draw with lots of scribbled lines and add some shading whilst forming a way of showing texture of the leaves onto the trees.

Here is an image of the first drawing to do, this being an outline of the basic tree shape:

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This piece was fairly simple, it was good to get a rough idea of the basic outline of the tree and to look around the tree rather than just inside the tree. I think this piece clearly shows the outline of the tree and how I have tried to include the full outline including the volume on the tree that the leaves will form.

This next piece is to add some branches and shading to the tree and focus more on the inside shapes and tones of the tree:

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This piece was a fun to do as I liked to outline the branches and add a little more detail to the tree and add some tones to the trunk. I also added some grass around the bottom to get more of a detailed outlook to how the tree looks as well as some leaves so it gives more of an idea what the outlook on the tree is. I found this piece interesting to do because I was looking at different features of the tree other than just looking at it as a hole. I found it quite tricky to identify the different branches but I think this piece gives a good outlook on the shading and structure of the trees.

With this next piece it is just a look at the structure and the branches of the tree and to have more of a look of the trunk, here is a picture of my piece below:

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This piece is simple but I think it gives a good idea of the structure and trunk of the tree focusing more on the inside of the tree rather than the over all look, I think I got an accurate outlook onto the trunk and branches. I also added a look at where the leaves and over view of the leaves go which give the tree its main volume.

The last piece was to add some more tone to the over all look of the tree and to also use more scribbled lines to the tree as well giving the leaves a texture to define where they go throughout the tree:

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I enjoyed doing this pice because it was a little messy doing the lines and I didn’t care so much to get an accurate shape of the tree more like a scribble sketch of the overall tree. The shading I wanted to do some cross hatch to get more of a detailed and dark shade to the trunk. I only did the main branches of the tree for this piece to show off the main structure of the tree and not to do so much detail. I also then decided to do swirls and dark lines for the texture of the leaves because I thought it gave quite a light look which is what the leaves look like when being part of such a strong structure and this I did all over to really show the impact the leaves have on the volume of the tree.

All in all, I really enjoyed doing this exercise because I think it gave a different light on the tree and gave me a chance to look more in depth at the structure and inside of the tree as mainly when you look at trees you just see it as a whole and don’t really notice the strength it has or how the branches really make up the tree and how much volume the leaves actually have on the whole of the tree. It has made me excited to further looking into the details of trees and using different materials and medias throughout.

Response to assignment 2.

My response to my feedback from assignment 2:

Firstly, I think I did quite well during this course again. I did have some unfortunate events happen to me during this assignment yet I still powered on and completed the work although I may not have spent as much time as wished on this part of the course, I do think if I spend more time developing onto my work I will improve and get more outstanding work. Throughout my feedback it is mentioned that a few of my pieces could have done with some extra work to fully make an improvement but I think I can take this feedback and act on it in my next assignment.

A lot of my feedback revolves around lack of depth perhaps due to working fast during this project but then also it’s mentioned I’m too heavy on the outer-line of my objects drawings and again paying less attention to the lighting, I may sometimes go off what I think would look right in a drawing and I need to stay clear of this because it doesn’t create an accurate and realistic piece of work. Also mentioned is for me to step out of my comfort zone and experiment with different materials as I always stick to what I know works best for me, I think I agree I do seem to use the same materials when doing my work just because I know that works for me but if I step out and try different things I may find new unique ways to display my work that I prefer.

Furthermore, it is talked about that it isn’t clear I am using my sketch book for independent sketches, because of this I am going to make a strong effort to take more time to do quick sketches of still life and document them in my research part of my blog as well as reflecting my work to ideas from artist research.

In my list of things I should try and do it says about doing independent drawings in my sketch book and uploading them to my blog, my tutor also suggested watching youtube videos of certain artists to get me more appealed to using different materials and getting more ideas to experiment with my work. So I will make a strong effort to complete all of these task and spend more time on my work and picking out the materials I choose to use.

Assignment Two – Final piece’s.

For this assignment we were asked to experiment with colours and show different ways of mark making throughout taking ideas from our previous’ exercises to get a rough idea of what to do.

Therefore for this assignment I began with two small pieces to get an idea of some experimental work with mixed media. I wasn’t to keen on the results of these two designs so went back and thought through what might be better for me to do, therefore I went for a kitchen/cooking style still life and tried two methods I felt comfortable with. Below is a picture of my first drawing where I just used a sketch pencil and toned with the shadows and tried to go in depth with the shadows etc. unnamed (1).jpg

As you can see in the final outcome of this piece I have tried hard to focus on the tonal work of these objects and have continuously used different mark making from crosshatching to using a rubber to make marks in the lighter parts of the objects. I like how this piece looks as I think the lay out of the objects is effective and you can clearly see where the light is hitting the still life. I feel like in this drawing I have developed within using harsh lines for the outline of the objects as in I haven’t shown heavy lines throughout and the tonal work in general is a big improvement on my past piece’s of work. I strongly enjoyed doing this still life piece and think the out come is good.

Moving on to piece two I took the same still life and just coloured the drawing in the best way I could seen as the big part of the picture was the pan which is already silver. Looking past that, it was a big difference to work with colour as I’m not usually one to work with coloured pencils yet I enjoyed doing it and think I’ll further with doing this in the future. Here is a picture below of my result:

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Again in this drawing I used a range of different mark makings to enhance the different tones of the objects, I do like how this piece turned out I think the colours pop the image out more and it makes it look more realistic, I think I still need to work more on using colours as it’s only been a couple of times for me using it, but I think doing more personal trials in my sketch book it will help me improve my skills. I am however happy with how this turned out, I think when I do these style of drawings again I will try and include a back drop to make the full image come more to life. All in all I think I have improved in my drawing skill since first starting and I’m happy with how I am coming along. I do think to improve my skills now I will try to add little details into my work and also doing a back setting will help the image come alive a lot more.

Assignment 2- Practice and planning.

In preparation for this assignment I wanted to test out a couple of different ideas I had to then take further with the style I preferred, I wanted to do this piece and reflect on the style I have been doing throughout my work and I found most comfortable with me that shows what I have learnt throughout this project so far. I also picked to be a little experimental with the work and try something different to see and attempt that as well.

I first decided to do this because I wanted to experiment with different ways I could incorporate colour like the brief suggests. I wanted to see how the watercolours would go with the design and using different colours to create bold effects, heres a picture of my result:

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I found that this piece didn’t go as I had firstly envision, therefore I decided to re-do this piece after because the colours weren’t as bold as I wanted it to look and the whole thing just didn’t look correct. I thought I would add this picture as a way to show what I have done to experiment with different materials, I think this piece would look good if I used a different brush. I found the brushes I did use weren’t effective and they weren’t very good material therefore I’ve found a different set to use next time I re-do this piece.

I just feel this piece wasn’t the best I could perform and I didn’t look at it and feel I had done my best therefore I think if I try with this again it might have a different result and I’ll feel different about using watercolours on the final piece. I think that the sketch is fairly accurate I would just like to do different tonal work in another trail to really see if I can make that concept work.

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For my second experimental for this assignment was biro and the use of coloured pencils, I thought that this might look effective and if I thought the biro was too much I thought I’d just choose to do it without it. I think this piece turned out well although I think I used too much of a heavy hand on the outlines of the objects and wanted to show more with the tonal work which I will do in my next copy. Here is the picture of my result:

I do like how this piece turned out although I think I went a bit too heavy handed on the outline of the objects I want to try again with this also to see if I can get a more realistic outlook on it and also go a little more bold with the colours, the picture doesn’t really show the colour I had added so I think I will re do this as well just to trail to see what I actually do want to do for my final piece, I also think I’m going to reflect through my previous exercises and see what might be a good way to represent colour and tone in this final piece and put together a more effective piece than these two.

All in all, I am glad I did these trail because it’s made me see I need to re try and spend a little more time considering what I could do for this final piece and step out a bit more from my normal style.

Artist Research- Sophie Peanut

This artist was suggested to me by my tutor to look into her style of work and look to see how her techniques are when coming to drawing portraits and to take inspiration from her art work.

Once I searched up this artists name I was amazed, I loved her style of work from the first moment I saw it, her work is so colourful and I love the way her work is cartoon form in some way yet her work still strongly represents the person she is creating through art work. I think her work is fun and represents a less serious look on the world with her fun bright colours and words she jots on the bottom of her portraits.

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As shown on this picture above her work is fun and lets out a little lightened approach on some strong topics. Her portraits are fun and I like the way her tones and lighting are still relevant in her art work. The way she represents shadows and lighting on her work is very interesting as it’s like blocks of colours it’s not necessarily blended together it’s just different types of block colour which make the different tones noticeable. Her work doesn’t have too much facial detail yet I think it makes the piece more interesting with the simplistic look.

All in all I love the style of this artists work and has inspired me to try different types of tonal work and to experiment more with my style to see what works for me, it also has shown me that you don’t have to go full detail and tonal to make an effective portrait and it doesn’t have to look exactly like or a detailed look of the person it can be fun and still be just as effective.

Artist Research- Emma Stibbon.

During my last feedback I was suggested to look into some artists for inspiration and also to look how other artists work during drawing and other types of media. One of my suggest artists was Emma Stibbon which I automatically was drawn to as soon as looking into her style of work.

Emma Stibbon is a British artist born in 1962, her preferred media is print making and her style is monochrome working with landscapes and realism art. Her work is effective to using different tones she affectively creates detail within different shading of dark colours.

The thing I like about Emma’s work is the different tones and detail she puts into her work; I think the way she keeps all her work monochrome. The way she is able to do her tones to look realistic whilst only using black and white is really effective. This is clearly shown in a piece of work I have selected to use below:

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As shown in the picture above her attention to detail is phenomenal the fact she can make such accurate detail from pure tonal work with black is fascinating, I like her work as it’s almost so detailed it looks like a photograph. I would like to do an experimental of her style of work to see if I can try to work tones the way she does and experiment with different methods of this style of work, like working with inks and print work to see if that style works for me or not.

All in all, looking at this work has inspired me to look into my own work and experiment more with different types of media and also look into more detail whilst focusing more on my tonal work as clearly shadows and the effects you can make throughout the lighting can make a piece of art amazing.

Artist Research: Francis Hamel.

Whilst on a recent trip to London I went into the Victoria and Albert museum, whilst exploring round that amazing place I came across a new expedition called ” Behind the curtains”, this expedition is by a man called Francis Hamel and I was truly fascinated by the full thing; as you walked in there were long blue curtains behind and ahead you, the lighting was dim but it fit well with mood and as you looked down either end there were rows of portraits.

This expedition was done by Francis as he was commissioned in 2005 by theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh to paint portraits of the 27 visiting professors. Hamel has a longstanding relationship with Mackintosh and the theatre; along side the portraits were also a few pictures of his theatre paintings from ‘The Phantom of the Opera and Oliver”.

Below is a picture of the expedition and the layout of what I was describing earlier:

As you can see the lighting is done to the theme of theatre, for like bold lighting and then a dim over all feel and a single light above ever portrait. Along with the portraits there were some paintings the artist had done on chairs along the centre and his style of work was purely fascinating.

I found his paintings face really interesting and his work looked so textured, I found it good to gather ideas of how the lighting shows on a face to how the level of toning should be done on a portrait. Below is pictures I took of the some of the individual portraits:

His work with his brush is truly amazing and I find the texture he is able to make within his pieces is really interesting, the faces look so real and not only is it a painting he manages to bring character within his pieces. Looking at his work inspired me to work more on my tones and look in depth more on where the lighting hits the face as well as the real detail in someones face.

I think looking at his work has shown me you can just draw a picture and it can look amazing but if you can bring character within a single piece of art that is what makes the piece more realistic, the detail he has within the face is incredible and he really captures the look of the people he paints.

Response to assignment one feedback.

My response to my feedback from assignment one:

Firstly, when reading this feedback I was quite proud. I haven’t done any of this type of work or worked with some of the medias during assignment one so I was proud by what positive feedback I received, seen as I was new to this form of work and how things are set out I found it difficult to know whether or not I was doing the right layout of talking about my exercises in the right way but this feedback cleared my mind and I was deeply pleased by how positive it was.

During my feedback it was mentioned that during still life sketches I would sometimes draw what I thought was meant to be there or the shadows that would typically be on the object, when this was mentioned I had to think back and I realised that it could have been the problem. Some times I found myself getting a little confused on the lighting of where the sun hit it and when I mapped it out on my paper I thought it looked a bit odd so tweaked the lighting, however now looking at the feedback I know in future to show the visual lighting I see and get the most accurate of still life drawings I can. Even if the lighting and shadows may look odd I need to keep the realism and not let my mind envision something which isn’t there.

Furthermore, it was mentioned to spend more time doing some independent drawings away from the exercises therefore I am going to make a strong effort in doing quick sketches on the daily to help boost my drawing and visual skills in still life. My tutor also gave me an insight in some artists I should get involved in and research for some inspiration during this part of the course, therefore I think I will take more time in looking into different styles of work from different artists and get more inspiration in the different ways I can present my work.

In my feedback I got 4 bullet points of things I should aim for in my further work, one of them was to reflect on this feedback. The next point was to do more experimentation in my exercises and use a bigger variety of materials to learn how to have a wider range of skills in different materials not just a pencil. I was also then advised to do more observational drawings to widen my skills and get a better visual aspect on how things look when it comes to drawing, I will take this advise on board and take time to do sketches. The last point was to look into the artists she’d provided which I will take the time to get inspired by their pieces of work and learn different techniques.

All in all I was so happy with my feedback from this first assignment, seen as it was my first one and I was just getting to know how to present my work and how to fully talk about my exercises when uploading them. I am proud with how well I actually did for my first time doing something like this and I am looking more confidently at my next assignment on the course.

Exercise One- Warming up

For this task we were asked to do a temporary drawing by using materials we wouldn’t normally use, for example I used a suggested material such as pouring and dripping in washing up liquid into the sink. Here are my results: 52630636_257939171793562_6639598988087525376_n 52607847_388504848646694_8469191838559895552_n

In this task I just decided to have some fun, I found it therapeutic when pouring the liquid into the sink it was very nice to see it drop and drizzle easily. When I’d done that I went to get a cocktail stick to do a little drawing within the liquid with it; I soon found out you could do no such thing as the liquid would soon cover it back up. Instead I just went in with my finger and create movement in the liquid to create bold lines and just random patterns.

All in all, I didn’t doing this task, because when I draw I like my drawings to stay put and the fact every-time I would create a marking it got erased was annoying to me, yet when I used my finger it got a lot easier and I preferred it then. I do wish I had gotten someone to take a picture of me doing this yet I was home alone whilst doing this exercise.