Assignment 1 - A Personal still life

Assignment 1 - A Personal still life

 

I chose 4 objects for my still life. I chose these objects as they all meant something to me. I chose the silk flowers in the vase as my children gave them to me on Mothers day and the vase that they are in was used at my wedding for table decorations. The clock was a gift from my mother in law. Also it expresses my love for work by Dali and my love of Art. The shell was a present from my Great Gran who meant a lot to me and I spend a lot of time with her when I was a child. It is one of a pair and I have had it a long time. Finally I chose the little wall hanging of the Bocca Della Verita in Rome. This object reminds me of my honey moon and one of my favourite place. I think these object say that I think family is important as all the objects were given to me by someone in my family and reminds me of them or a time when I spent with them.

 

 

 

This is my first attempt at my personal still life. I wasn't very happy with it I didn't feel it was very expressive or that it had very good tonal qualities so I looked through my work that I had done so far and decided to do it again using the techniques that Odilon Redon used.

 

As you can see the piece works a lot better now it jumps off the page and looks less flat like the top image. I found the drawing of the flowers hard to do using this technique but managed to do an OK job of them in the end and I am really happy with the face of the Bocca Della Verita. The use of the light and dark tone has made a very ordinary image of a collection of objects more interesting.

 

 

 

 

Project 2

Exercise 1

 

In this exercise I had to draw a least 6 objects. I choose to arrange the image like they were spilling out of a shopping bag. This was the first still life drawing I had done in a while, which I think shows in the drawing. I really enjoyed it but I do not think the mark were very expressive.

 

 

Exercise 2

 

 

This was my first attempt at this exercise of blocking in the tone. I wasn't happy with how it came out so I did another 2 drawings which I was happier with.

 

 

 

 

Exercise 3

 

Using a simple shape I used different marks to draw the object.

 

 

Research Point

 

I looked at the artist Odilon Redon and his work. I found a website that explained how he achieved his tonal quality in his work by covering his page with charcoal and then removing it by wiping, stamping, scratching and erasing the charcoal. Using this technique it makes the parts of the image that catches the light seem more vibrate and creates atmosphere. I gave this technique a go.

 

 

I really enjoyed this way of working and I feel that it showed in this drawing.

 

Exercise 4

 

Exercise 4 was about capturing the shadows and reflective light.

 

 

 

I do not think this is  very good drawing but I did capture some of the reflective quality of the stainless steel.

 

 

 



 

 

 



Project 1

This is the start of my new blog about my journey through my new OCA course, drawing 1.

It has been a slow start but I have finally finished my first assignment.

The first exercise of this assignment was to warm up and make marks. I didn't do a lot of this but did do some mark making with washing up liquid. It didn't come out that good but I tried!

Feeling and expression - Exercise 1

In this exercise I had to interpret 3 emotions using different marks and choose one of my own.

Anger
I was angry at the time with someone who had upset me so I channelled those feeling into the marks I was making. The marks were made quickly and the pressure of the marks were heavy. The lines were sharp.

Calm
I used light and circular marks as I felt that this felt calm. I one if the drawing I changed the frame to a circle as I felt that this help to give the marks a softer, calmer feel.

Joy
I found joy the hardest to interoperate. I felt fast quick marks a that were spontaneous were show joy the most.

Sad
I choose sad as my last emotion. smudgy lines felt like the right way to interpret this emotion.

 

 

Research Point

 

I looked at the work of Julie Brixey - Williams who is a London based artist. She explores the two - way relationship that the body shares with space. I looked at Locationotation which is a piece based on the movements of dancers.

 

I considered the question of whether art really is capable of expressing emotion. After looking at here work and looking around the internet at other work I would say yes an artist can express emotion through there art. The way the artist makes marks, the materials they chose along with the decisions that the artists make allows the artist to portray emotion that they want. I the work Locationotion I felt the artist expressed the flow of dance and the space that the dancer occupies. Its expressed the joy that can be felt when you dance.

 

I also looked at the work of Gerhard Richter who I found and his work really interested me. I felt that he used space and lines in his drawing to portray emotion. I found his over painted photos evoked emotion and feeling by taking a very over used media to capture everyday life and by painting over the photos so you could only just see what the photo was about made me really think about the use of photo and how selective I am with my photos.