2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lekhdsXD-Ro
This video I have watch countless time during my preparatory work for Part 5. It strikes a chord with me a I can relate to the majority of what Eardley describes of her working practice.

Initial Thoughts

After reading the course notes on Part Five, I have a few initial ideas that are naturally coming to me for a starting point:

Key Words

Space, expanse, open, outdoors, green, blue, mist, stance, weight, imposing, large, voluminous, solidity, presence, nature, existence, low cloud, rain, valley, landscape, panoramic, views, dark, dusk, low-light levels, harmonious colour palette, subdued, modest, Scotland, dreich, beauty, wet, lush, vegetation, curious, exploration, trek, freedom, walking, travel, adventure, home, undulating, mountains, high, low, peak, historic, pastel, mixed media, layers, abstract, loose, calm, trees, plants, grass, thought-provoking, comforting, reliable, relaxing, elements, exposed, brutal, forgiving, unforgiving, brave, courageous, magnanimous, habitat, home, fondness, reminisce, memories, feelings.

Initial Conceptual Ideas

Frottage / printing / scraping / mark making / using fingers / caveman-style painting/ evidence of mark-making technique (fingerprints, scraping, angles, lines, tool marks) / raw materials / wet-in-wet, layers, granulation / chalk pastels / watercolour inks / water colour / water spray / charcoal / loose expressive work / colours / moody and subdued or moody and vibrant / blues, greens, ochre, lavender colour palette / woodland, heathland, coastal landscape / panoramic view / large paper / textured paper/ textured materials and/or medium / close up view like Vija Celmins? / black and white and energetic like Tacita Dean? Stabby unrefined marks like Paul Cezanne? / 3D, textural / tactile / crab, seagull, lobster pot / nautical / maritime/ rough / textured / tooth on paper / handmade paper / canvas/linen / natural or found support / sandpaper / kitchen paper, collage, base-layer texture / primitive / pottery / ceramic / three-dimensional / useful / utilisation / aesthetic / clay / natural materials / geography / rocks / formation / Joan Eardley expression and emotion.

Artists

Joan Eardley – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16334/lot/73/ – used sand paper as her support and pastel for this portrait. https://youtu.be/lekhdsXD-Ro must visit this video again, lots to think about. Eardley used natural materials for mixed media/collage effect – daisies etc. She used to paint in the open air next to the scene she was painting. Materials at the scene would be used in the painting whether by accident or on purpose as she would paint in the wind and rain; exposed to the open elements (sand and grass being blown onto the wet materials etc.) She painted what she felt from the scene more so than what she saw.

Margaret Evans – https://www.margaretevansart.com/ – https://www.margaretevansart.com/scottish-galleries – I really enjoyed looking at Margaret’s work. There is a calm and peaceful quality to the scene she sets in her landscapes and portraits. The soft material of the pastels she uses blend luxuriously and produce landscapes with atmosphere with a softness from the soft edges synonymous with pastel landscapes.

Tacita Dean – My thoughts continually return to Dean’s work because of her atmospheric and soft exposure techniques she uses to offer her work to the viewer. It feels as if there is a ‘feeling’ that is being indicated through her work rather than purely the subject alone. I like her use of monochromatic colour palettes, either black/white tones or sepia.

Vija Celmins – As above with Tacita Dean, I really enjoyd looking through Celmins work in this and previous parts of Drawing 1. Her work is similar in the use of a gentle and subdued monochromatic colour palette. I was drawn to the up close and personal view of some of her work. Some perspectives that she used were unsual, such as Ocean or Sky produced in 1975. These unusual styles of compositions were offered to the viewer where the subject matter completely filled the frame and offered no alternative clues for context. I felt literally immersed in the scene and sometimes that made me feel a little uneasy in that I was searching for the meaning or message of the piece and my brain was trying to put the work into context where there were no clues such as the tops of trees or boats etc.

Dennis Creffield – I went back to Creffield’s work after looking back through my coursework for Drawing 1. I still appreciate the strong structural lines of charcoal over a softer, blended background representing a man-made structure. I noticed that I am yet again drawn to a monochromatic colour palette here. I also liked the natural properties of charcoal, a man-made medium out of a natural product. This made me think of the first recorded cave paintings and their simple use of line and natural found materials.

Matthew Draper – Scottish artist who produces really beautiful and atmospheric artwork. I can identify with Draper in which apparently he works instinctively rather than with methodical and systematic techniques. I feel unrestricted when allowed to follow what ‘comes naturally’ rather than applying a series of rules and regulations to my paintings. That being said, I do understand and can apply basic theories to describe tone, form and shape etc. It appears that I am also drawn to Draper because of his gentle focus of the landscape, soft edges and lines and subdued, neutral or monochromatic colour palette.

John Bell – “His subjects are often along the Ayrshire coast near his home in Troon, where the expansive shoreline and the ever changing weather provide unlimited subject matter. He is interested in the quality of light and colour in the Scottish landscape, particularly the sky, which often dominates his paintings. His brushwork and use of colour capture the movement of the cloud and the effect of the light on the land and the sea.” https://fotheringhamgallery.co.uk/artists/john-bell/#:~:text=John%20Bell%20Artist&text=He%20painted%20from%20a%20young,Architecture%20in%20Glasgow%20in%201993.&text=He%20is%20interested%20in%20the,which%20often%20dominates%20his%20paintings. Although Bell usually worked in oils, according to the above website, I can see some similarities in his execution of his landscapes compared with the above artists discussed. The colour palettes are harmonious and natural, much like the subject matter he paints. I am excited to read that he also takes great inspiration from the natural elements and weather that change greatly in Scotland. I feel an organic bias towards the weather and the elements and maybe this is a good direction to take my artwork for this part of the course. The difference in the oils when compared with the pastels and charcoal is that they tend to give a more solid or heavier quality to the outcome whereas the pastels and charcoal could offer a more lighter, softer and translucent feel.

Stephanie Dees – I quite enjoyed looking through Scottish Artist Stephanie Dees. She has blended natural and man-made structures/ landscapes in some of her work which is an interesting composition to look at. It makes me consider what some people might find beautiful or aesthetically pleasing. I also notice her calm and subdued use of colour palette across the main body of her work. I enjoyed the ‘cartoony’ likeness of her landscapes with architecture. It felt soft and approachable rather than strict and imposing. some of her mark making reminded me of Paul Cezanne with the short stubby brushstrokes. It surprised me that I liked the inclusion of maritime vessels in the shoreline pieces that Dees produced. It gave a real nautical feel to the work and the contrast between the sharp lines of the man-made items of the boat and seaside architecture compared with the gentle lines and edges of the natural world that give these items context in the composition.

Ann Blockley – Ann throws me a curve ball in my line of enquiry here because she goes further with her abstraction and expressive compositions. There are still recognisable elements in the pieces such as animals, beehives or fences to give clues of the landscape but there is great experimentation with different textures and mark-making practices. These give a really unusual and engaging composition. I enjoyed looking through her book because it was vibrant and exciting. I love the idea of adding texture into my work which evokes the thought of wanting the viewer to reach out and touch the work with their fingers to satisfy another sensory stimulation whilst engaging with the work. The evidence of the artist/practitioner at work also leaves some really interesting marks on the support and I quite like the crudeness of this; the traces of the artist at work can be read like a story.
Further research into the following artists was also undertaken.

Kurt Jackson- I watched two YouTube videos on Kurt Jackson and felt a strong connection to his way of working. He explains that he thrives on spontaneity and getting out in nature to see and feel his surroundings. He also talks about laying down a layer on his support prior to beginning to take away the worry of starting on a imposing white surface. I enjoyed his honest and raw approach to his materials, using paint pots to spread the mixed media around feeling free in his approach, not limited by rules/ regulations. He talks about putting himself in unusual situations to produce unexpected and exciting results. I see that his work is heavily influenced by his geographical location next to the sea.

Picasso – ceramic plate, 1948 – I like how Picasso has painted on a different surface, almost like sculpture crossed with painting. Painting is no longer on a flat plane and comes to life with something that is useful, it stays with the viewer and has a purpose. Reminds me of the primitive cave paintings and how they were made for a use or with reason rather than purely aesthetic. Utilisation / practical. This area of research inspired me to look further at sculpture and textural artwork. I also looked into using clay / gesso as a foundation on which to paint or to dig into the clay to create a ‘negative’ piece of work that goes into the material rather than coming out.

A few other artists whose work I explored during this stage of inquiry:
Ron Lawson, Judith Bridgland, Wendy Brooke-Smith, Emily Nelligan, John David Wissler, Sarah Burns, Jim Campbell, Peter Dworok, Garry Brander, Ivon Hitchens and Willem de Koonin

In the Cloud, 1991, Richard Long
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/AR00143

A really interesting piece that utilises a written account of the landscape the artist experienced. I never would have thought that text is still a visual language but when taking into account the font, size, style, colour, background etc. I can understand how all these elements can piece together a concept for the viewer to make use of. That, and our innate desire to read written text ensures the viewer stands long enough to read and comprehend what the artist wishes the viewer to initially take on when looking at this piece.

“I did not paint it to be understood, but I wished to show what such a scene was like”
Joseph Mallord William Turner, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/student-resource/exam-help/weather

‘Turner said that he wasn’t trying capture what a storm looked like but what it felt like. In order to fully experience the terrifying power of nature he asked to be lashed to the mast of a boat during a storm, risking his life.’
Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth,1842 Joseph Mallord William Turner http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N00530. This piece by Turner ensured the viewer felt the force and magnanimity of the elements in this scene by his clever use of directional marks.

Experiments and Investigation

Whilst taking into account the extensive preparatory research and following my intuition surrounding the ‘landscape’ theme, I decided to begin embark on a self-guided journey towards my final piece for Part 5. To kick off my adventure, I took to my sketchbook by means of written investigation, looking back at all of the work I had prepared for Drawing 1 and analysing the strengths and weaknesses I had encountered along the way. There were many moments that I enjoyed that I had forgotten about which have somehow become absorbed into my daily way of working, subconscious competencies, likes/dislikes or biases towards particular areas of interest. The main area, which I highlighted through my sketchbook investigation, was that throughout my studies, I had become more strongly linked to works which were slightly abstract, expressive, textured either physically with mixed media/unusual supports or by clever use of describing texture through manipulating media. The idea that a viewer may take a moment longer than a simple glance at my work, to try to understand and allow themselves to become immersed in the atmosphere I try to create is a very appealing thought. In my sketchbook notes, I highlighted words which were the clues to the way I like the work and excitingly, my starting point for my final assignment. The key words I identified were: unusual material, temporary, emotion, layers, elements, mixed media, texture, tactile, instinct, natural, landscape, spontaneous, moment, experience, blurred/soft focus, passing moment, weather, loose, expressive, immersive.

Initially my ideas were to look at the castles, stones and rock formations that I had seen on my travels. The monumental structures whether man-made or natural were impressive and I was drawn in by the texture and colour of the stone/rock. I was torn between large up-close and personal views like Vija Celmins and wide sweeping landscape views like Peter Podmore above. I started with experiments with a close up view of my subjects and gradually expanded the view, taking my sketchbook and various supports with me on walks like I had done with the sketchbook studies previously. I also researched a little into primitive artwork left behind by our ancestors on cave walls with natures art materials. I therefore initially concentrated on materials that contain mainly natural ingredients such as charcoal and soft pastels.

Duffus Dreich

On a wet and wild day, I spy Duffus Castle standing bold and stubborn against the brutal Highland winds. The historic hard stone meets with the soft youthful grass which is where I take my shelter and view point; lying down so I can peek through to see the hero of my piece. I wanted to give a soft, out of focus response, which echoed the mist and fine rain that enveloped us. Grey clouds ensure the well-watered grasses pop and give this landscape the natural beauty it deserves. Pastel landscape, A2, 2020.

Now I feel I have come to a natural conclusion of my preparatory work. I have been continually walking out and exploring to gain inspiration for my subject matter and, after my practical and theoretical research, am ready to move towards the final piece.

Bibliography

Additional Independent Research and Reflection – Part Four – 30/06/2020

Tracings from and sketches of heads from Andrew Loomis, ‘Drawing the Head and Hands’. I wanted to feel where the lines were when constructing the head so I used layout paper and a pencil to trace some of the head drawings in the book. I thought that by tracing a few drawings, it would improve my memory and maybe muscle memory to quickly and accurately sketch the human head with accurate and convincing proportions. I found this useful as a ‘hand-holding’ exercise to show me how different skull shapes can lead to the variety of facial features I see on a daily basis but I then I quickly noticed without the safety net, my drawings became distorted and become sidetracked by what I think I should do with proportions out of habit, and the instinct was strong to pull away from the method Loomis used which I had been tracing initially. I think it was a good experience, but I felt it was best to learn to construct the human head myself and gradually build up the technique so it becomes instinctive.

Figure construction lines and lines of movement and flow.

Dr 1, Pt 4, Pr 6, Ex 3 – 18/06/2020

Portrait from memory

I hope you can recognise who this is without me telling you…

This portrait was drawn after previously spending a while researching Van Gogh for extra curricular studies. I was really moved by one of his self-portraits and how he described the emotion in his eyes and his gaunt looking face. The hollows under his cheekbones are haunting and it seems to tell of a life of torment and difficulty. I vividly recalled the ginger hair and beard, the darkness under the eyes, the sharp angular nose and deeply furrowed brow. I saw blue eyes which were pink around the edges with what I perceived as fatigue from troubled sleep. I tried to think about the structure of the skull and how the skin might fold around its angular frame. I also thought quite hard about the source of light and how it would react on each of the angles of Van Gogh’s face.

In my mind, to create a portrait of someone from memory requires either very good photographic memory and/or a strong set of feelings and emotions surrounding the person. For this reason, I feel like sometimes a portrait could be more than a true likeness to a person, and offer more of a resemblance and overall feel of what the personalities or disposition the person exudes. I feel like I’ve tried to work this latter opinion into my drawing of Van Gogh here as I knew that the resemblance wouldn’t be perfectly accurate but I wanted to pick out the physical features he had painted of himself but what he was also recognised for.

I did this by applying darker tones to the eye sockets, mouth and neck to show a more gaunt physique and a dark and moody colour palette for the whole piece which worked well to give an impression of a physical and theoretical dark place which Van Gogh was present in. I chose to work with conté for this drawing as I wanted colour to be a poignant factor of the overall outcome, but also because I wanted the ability to blend and use the tooth of the paper to pick up some graininess to create texture and movement. I used a deep blue to tone down the heat of the orange in the hair and browns and pinks with the blue to describe skin shadows and hollows in the eye socket, and cheeks for example. A few of Van Gogh’s paintings used swirls and warped painted background styles which I wanted to replicate subtly here so I gently swept the conté stick on its side for the background and blended in a circular motion following the contour of the head.

Dr 1, Pt 4, Research point 6 – 15/06/2020

Artists self-portraits

Leading on nicely from Exercise 3, where I produced a portrait from memory of Van Gogh’s portrait, is an area of research exploring artists self-portraits in the historical period. I began my research with Rembrandt who, according to https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenwood/history-stories-kenwood/rembrandt-self-portrait/, completed approximately 80 self-portraits in his lifetime through paintings, etchings and drawings. The article on this website was very informative into how his last portrait was produced and I can see that this portrait was a culmination of all the painting techniques he had built up in his artistic career. The various techniques of brushwork used to produce his last portrait range from dry-brushing and scumbling to laying down thick strokes of oil paint. The colour palette he used in his self portraits were not usually vibrant, and he made use of dark shadows adding mystery and atmosphere to his paintings. There always seemed to be a single source of light which illuminated the facial features in his self-portraits and he also painted with mostly soft edges where the tonal gradation was gradual and gentle rather than line-focused and flat block tones like Picasso. after reading background information on Rembrandt, I feel like he, like many others, conveyed his difficult emotions through his self-portraits. The dull, earthy and moody essence of his self-portraits may have been a reflection of the personal difficulties he had in his life.

In comparison, when I look at how Vincent Van Gogh depicts his personal struggles through his brush strokes, I see a completely different approach to his self-portrait. The self-portrait, 1887, that I attempted to draw previously, has a series of individual rough, dabs, stabs, short and long brushstrokes that are swirled and warped in an impressionistic style. although his earlier portraits are more like Rembrandt’s in tone, the colour palette of Van Gogh’s 1887 self-portrait is lighter, with hints of blues and reds; there also seems to be a lighter feel to the self-portrait due to the lack of heavy dark tones representing shadows. Similarly, both artists adopt the same style of pose for their self-portraits: shoulder height and above, sometimes with their canvas, turned slightly away from straight on to the viewer. I also notice that both artists used oil for their chosen medium.

Cindy ShermanUntitled, #571, 2016
“Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life” at The Broad, Los Angeles
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-masters-self-portrait-frida-kahlo-cindy-sherman

Moving on to investigate more contemporary self-portraiture I was quite intrigued by the wonderful and again, vast variety of styles that some artists had adopted to represent themselves. A few differences I have noticed comparing to historic work:

Some contemporary self-portraiture seems to emit a huge expression of emotion through the artist’s message and overall feeling they deliver through their work. Some paintings and drawings I saw in my studies were not subtle and were very obvious and loud in delivering a feeling or expression on behalf of the artist. The colour palettes are sometimes very vibrant and clashing. Photography, film, three-dimensional models and digital artwork are just a few of the types of media that are now used to create the self-portraits whereas historically, it was predominantly pencil or oil painting I believe. Mixed media has great advantages in pulling together a concept and it seems that contemporary artists have an even wider selection of media to choose from than say Rembrandt or Van Gogh ever did. I feel that although historic self-portraits from Rembrandt and Van Gogh displayed emotions and subtle clues about their difficulties, some contemporary artists feel liberated it seems and do not hold back in their demonstration of feelings or self-representation through self-portraiture. It looks like modern self expression is liberating for the artist, where they face less discrimination compared to cultural and moral restrictions in the historic era. Contemporary self-portraiture seems to offer an artist a completely ‘blank canvas’ for self-expression in a time where personal opinions, stories, thoughts and feelings are accepted amongst a diverse and colourful culture.

Bibliography

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-63

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenwood/history-stories-kenwood/rembrandt-self-portrait/

https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0065V1962

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437397

https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights/rembrandt-self-portrait.html

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/how-duchamp-kusama-basquait-and-others-take-a-selfie-27-contemporary-self-portraits-55354

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/01/self-portrait-me/

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-masters-self-portrait-frida-kahlo-cindy-sherman

https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/what-is-modern-art/modern-portraits/

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/glossary-terms/contrapposto

https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-mediums/pastel/pastel-the-self-in-contemporary-self-portraits/

Dr 1, Pt 4, Research point 5 – 14/06/2020

Experience and research shows there is no particular way to draw or paint a face. It seems historically, there was an ‘acceptable’ way to paint, and generations of artists pushed those boundaries as time went by, exploring new mediums and styles of painting and drawing. Art movements where formed then superseded by other boundary-pushing movements. Below is a selection of photos that I found when looking through my art history book: E.H Gombrich, The Story Of Art, Phaidon Press Ltd, 1984. Each one of these drawings or paintings gave me an insight into how historical artists have represented the human head. I’ve noted varying techniques and their comparisons here, such as: light or heavy weight applied to the pencil/brush, a light/dark colour palette, realistic/abstract/cubist/impressionistic, three-dimensional/flat, fast and erratic/slow and diligent, block tones/delicate varied tones, sharpness/softness, structurally realistic/warped or distorted, short sharp paint strokes/ long winding strokes, delicate and transparent/ brash and opaque, no background detail/heavily detailed backdrop, tone dominant/line dominant.

I am not really surprised about the variety of different ways artists have chosen to draw heads or self-portraits since man started learning to manipulate materials and make marks for an intended outcome. I feel like it is human nature to want to create with the hands and put our own expression into it. Of all the people who have learnt to manipulate materials, there is considerable variation in experiences, society and culture that have influenced the artist or practitioner’s views and techniques to execute a concept on the human head. I am really intrigued how some of these more abstract drawings and paintings were accepted or viewed at the time when other artists were producing incredibly life-life pieces. I would really like to experiment with a variety of these styles with my drawings of heads and see how it feels to produce a piece of work like this but also how I could develop it and take an idea further.

Roussaeu and Matisse’s style of painting remind me of Frida Kahlo’s work and self-portraits.

Contemporary also offers a rich variety of differences in recordings of the human head. Of course, we are present in the modern day, as as such, further exploration into producing studies of the head/face have taken place and with it, technology has introduced another format in which to mix media. Drawings and paintings produced digitally offer a different expression than those drawn or painted in the more traditional fashion. I have enjoyed looking at contemporary works on this topic and particularly liked the clever use of prints, paper cut outs, mixed media, photography, collage and loose representational work to describe a person’s face and/or head. Artists are also using unwanted salvaged scrap materials to produce their composition, such as Nick Gentry and his face paintings on wood and computer components with oil paint.

I have noticed that a few contemporary artists explore their sexual orientation, social status, mental well-being etc. through their portraiture and these often offer vivid uses of colour and surrealist or abstract pieces. I also noticed that contemporary works depicting the face or head can often be seen in works that are meant to make a statement, generate debate and discussion or even explore the current generation and its struggles being experienced. For example, when I look at Banksy’s graffiti work, he intentionally masks, pixelates, adapts or omits the faces of those he paints to make a statement and contribute to the message of his work.

After watching a video on the National Portrait Gallery website (link in bibliography) it encouraged me to think about why portraits or drawings and paintings of faces produced? Is the focus more on the sitter/subject than the artist and their style? It seems that faces seem to evoke a lot of emotion and judgement from the viewer and the artist can use this to their advantage when trying to evoke a particular feeling to the drawing. I see some contemporary work, much like some historic, as a great expression of the artists perception of the face he or she is recreating in their work. It’s as if they are combining their personality with the sitters physical and emotional attributes.

Bibliography

https://thepopularlist.com/beautiful-self-portraits-by-famous-artists/

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/6-contemporary-drawings-that-render-the-artists-masters-of-their-craft-55320

E.H Gombrich, The Story Of Art, Phaidon Press Ltd, 1984

https://www.saatchiart.com/art-collection/About-Face-Contemporary-Portraiture/153961/51008/view

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/explore/by-period/contemporary

https://youtu.be/0v7fyQbyZ_Q

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp90772/banksy

https://www.widewalls.ch/online-art-gallery?artist=689&galleryLocation=&gallery=&only_for_sale=&artists_you_follow=1&galleries_you_follow=1&categories=&min_price=&max_price=&min_height=&max_height=&min_width=&max_width=&min_year=&max_year=&color=&orderBy=&page=1

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/buy-art-portraits/untitled-haircut-collage-arnulf-rainer

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/buy-art-portraits/buste-de-femme-dapres-cranach-pablo-picasso

https://www.google.com/search?q=contemporary+self-portraits&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwixgu-8x5_qAhVGeRoKHUgzB9gQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=contemporary+self-portraits&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzICCAAyBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB46BAgAEENQ64ABWNedAWCAoAFoAnAAeACAAXiIAacNkgEEMTcuM5gBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1n&sclient=img&ei=V_T1XvH6HMbyacjmnMAN&safe=strict

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/famous-self-portraits

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/buy-art-portraits

Dr 1, Pt 4, Pr 6, Ex 2 – 14/06/2020

Your own head

The top two images are the first preparatory workings and drawing of my own head. This exercise was definitely more challenging than drawing someone else’s head because I and my family know exactly what I look like. Obvious and subtle differences between my drawings of my face were detected by those who know me well. It is obvious that the human brain is very intelligent and has a remarkable ability to memorise and recognise patterns in faces; the familiarity must flag up in this drawing but a message gets sent to say “something’s not quite right.” It is interesting to see what I thought I saw and how I translated this onto paper but also, how my family reacted to it. I think people can judge portraits very quickly based on their likeness to a person. If it is a realistic attempt at describing the portrait then people can be quite honest if the similarities don’t match up. In my case, I feel even more determined to try again and get it more accurate, so my drawing looks more like myself! I think measuring is definitely a large portion of getting the structure of the face right, looking for clues of the cheekbones, the eye socks, the chin and jaw. Once the skeletal structure is set up, following the muscles and skin would help to shape the face. I felt like this was more successful in my second attempt.

The second drawing is definitely more similar to my actual features, again the eyes are too small, but I think I managed to pick out the cheekbone and nasal highlights well with a putty eraser. This second drawing took me nearly 5 hours from start to finish and I think I could have ‘messed about’ with it for longer. Ultimately, there is only so much adjusting of the light and lifting out the charcoal I could do when I knew something about the structure and angle/shape of features were wrong.

I did have to readjust the skull; I had drawn my forehead a lot more rounder than it actually is and so I amended this which brought more of a familiarity to the drawing. I decided to work with charcoal as I wanted a really soft and blend-able material to work with so I could smooth over the skin and pick out highlights and lighter tones. I also knew I would be doing a lot of reworking so erasing some lines would be helpful to me. When asking my family what they thought of this second portrait they agreed that is was a lot more ‘like me’ and they recognised similarities but again, the eyes were the most commented on feature. This made me reflect on which features are most recognised in a familiar face and why? How quickly does the human brain detect the familiarity and is it linked to our ancestors when it was a matter of life of death to recognise familiar and safe faces quickly? I also thought about the differences between how I see myself compared to how others perceive me. I see myself in the mirror but others see me with their own eyes and perception.

Comparing the two drawings, I think it is safe to say the second attempt seems more committed, less tentative. The tones laid down are more decisive and I feel that most people attempting this exercise would have developed their way of working and made use of the observations from the first drawing for the second attempt, therefore I would imagine the second attempt is more accurate in likeness to themselves. This is certainly the case with my drawings and I think I looked at the first drawing and realised how the angles and proportions were wrong and made a mental and physical note to adjust these for the second try. By the second drawing, I learned not to focus on the detail of any individual feature until the basic construction was laid down on the support first. Although there are still ‘corrections’ to be made, I think I was able to not become so overwhelmed with making the picture so like me and just worked through each stage gently, building up in layers with different techniques but constantly looking up at my face for reference. It is crucial for me to really observe the structure of the skull, then the muscles and then the proportions and angles of the rest of the facial features, rather than start adding detail to the eyes and nose and lips to get the likeness from the beginning; I feel like a portrait drawing is a slow transformation at this stage.

Bibliography

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-does-your-brain-recognize-faces-180963583/

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/10/how-many-faces-average-person-recognises-5000

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2629401/

Dr 1, Pt 4, Pr 6, Ex 1 – 13/06/2020

Facial features

For sketches and studies of facial features, please see Dr 1, Pt 4, Pr 4, Ex 1.

Above is my attempt at drawing an entire head. I found the reference photo online through google and I feel like it is quite a relief to have finished the drawing and put together all of the knowledge and techniques I have learnt so far. I am aware that there is plenty of practice needed to really refine my technique of representing a well-constructed and convincing drawing of a head but as the drawing above was my first attempt, I am generally happy with the outcome and what I have gained in terms of experience through the execution of this drawing. Upon reflection, I feel the eyes are too close to the eye brows and the eyes are slightly too small for the eye sockets. I also think the bottom and bridge of the nose is too small for the face. I would like to try some more studies of faces in my sketchbook every week to gradually improve my measuring and observation techniques.

Dr 1, Pt 4, Pr 5, Ex 2 – 12/06/2020

Groups of figures

Drawing groups of people is definitely a lot more challenging than drawing the single moving figure. Firstly, there is an awful lot more of visual information to take in simultaneously, without becoming overwhelmed, and secondly, thinking about proportions and scale for the overall composition sometimes needs to be done instinctively as if you think about it for too long, then the figures have moved and the scene and the moment/atmosphere may have passed you by. I also think that after drawing a single moving figure and a group of moving figures, that when I draw from a live setting, I am more likely to apply less detail to each of the moving figures in the group because I have more visual information and figures to draw in a short time frame unless of course a photo is taken for later reference or the figures are stationary for a long period of time, enough for me to capture the scene and the atmosphere successfully. I sketched this piece above from a reference photo from google, which isn’t ideal, but lock-down restrictions are lifting soon and I am sure to find groups of people local to me, who I can draw as a snap shot in my sketchbook.

Dr 1, Pt 4, Pr 5, Ex 1 – 11/06/2020

Single moving figure

The above photos of my charcoal sketches are a combined effort for the ‘energy’ exercise and ‘single moving figure’ exercise. I had a clear idea in my head that I wanted to express movement with big, broad and confident sweeps and strokes of charcoal. I used similar techniques in the 1st and 3rd drawings of the mountain bikers and a repeated figure increasing in strength of tone for the dancer in the middle. I had an experience back in Part One of Drawing 1 when I blew charcoal dust off my work and it looked like an explosive effect, I have utilised this here for my mountain bikers to represent movement but also to show the dirt flying out from under the tyres because of the speed and angle of attack I drew these figures at. For the dance, I remembered seeing a drawing by an artist where he left some previous markings only semi-erased in this work so there were repeated images of the same figure in this composition. I loved this effect and thought I could utilise it here to show the stages of transition the dancer was travelling through.

I will be constantly adding to these figures in my sketchbook, as the student handbook suggests and I aim to capture my single moving figures in a variety of different viewpoints and actions: walking, jumping, running, bending down, stretching up etc. Now lock-down restrictions are easing, I will be taking advantage of the freedom and people-watching where possible. I quite like the idea of using a technique of using a smudge-able medium so I can describe moving limbs with a slight blurring to the moving edges.

Dr 1, Pt 4, Extra Study – 06/2020

Here I try to experiment with charcoal and watercolour after investigating loose and expressive figure drawing through YouTube. I found a few tutorials, links posted below, and they inspired me to be brave and consider an even looser and more figurative drawing with a mixed media approach. I created a triptych of drawings as I wanted to follow on from the theme of ‘movement’ which I had an essence of gentle energy between each pose. I thought hard about all of the techniques that I had learnt from Part Four about the figure and tried to culminate them in these drawings whilst retaining a little of my own expressive style.

Bibliography

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/charcoal?fbclid=IwAR2LLfijfn9ul8R266aw2_WvHY2qKxwioJLZMAiUGIgOEAmB2h5qxagjA-E

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-started-drawing-charcoal?fbclid=IwAR2KB6dlhHR1xaQhcM9U_ZtIw8XRmy5weMgJGklD3db8WvhuiXar5PJabMM

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-started-drawing-charcoal?fbclid=IwAR2KB6dlhHR1xaQhcM9U_ZtIw8XRmy5weMgJGklD3db8WvhuiXar5PJabMM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVUQJURqxu0&t=2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzdN2PYAVJY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fi0_Zu_AgE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bw3BW4Q6VM

https://www.apollo-magazine.com/black-white-interview-with-william-kentridge/

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/magazine-tacita-dean

http://moussemagazine.it/tacita-dean-marian-goodman-2016/

https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/39-tacita-dean/works/34144/