Learning Log: Drawing Skills 1, Exercise 1 – Research History of Art

Following on from a question in my ‘Enrolment – 10/05/19’ blog post, I discussed my course aims and ambitions. One of them; “I would like to understand art and painting within a wider context; currently, I do not hold extensive knowledge of the history of art or past and present practitioners” is quite a large ambition, as the history of art is complex and comprehensive, dating back thousands of years. I am reflecting on the time when cave-people were the first to produce marks on cave walls; how did they create these representations when their brains were so primitive? Did they practise the technique to improve? How did they get the idea to make marks with other materials to represent something they had experienced? Nether-the-less, this cave-age technique of mark-making has been developed, spanning many years until the present day, where we are in a world where art and mark-making is rich with various styles and techniques.

Independent research books from the library

To be able to fulfill my aim and understand the context in which art began and how it has progressed to where it is now, I went along to my local library in search of literature that would enlighten me, or at least point me in the right direction. I came across four books which captured my interest on this topic and the course topic of drawing/mark-making:
– E.H. Gombrich, The Story Of Art, Phaidon Press Limited, 14th Edition 1984 (First published 1950)
– G. Evans, An Introduction To Calligraphy, Apple Press Ltd. 1987
– J. Bays, Drawing Workbook, David & Charles, 1998
– J. Clark, The Illustrated History Of Art, The Apple Press, 1992

I look forward to reading and exploring these books and will return to write my experiences in the near future.

Learning Log: Drawing Skills 1, Exercise 1. Life Drawing Workshop 15/05/19

An entry for today as I attended a Life Drawing workshop in Limassol, Cyprus. It was run by artists who had studied within the creative art sector such as fine art and illustration. Other artists attended had various years and forms of experience, including a tattoo artist, which I felt was really inspiring, considering her form of drawing is in the medium of ink on skin. We had a really interesting conversation about how she copes if people move when they are having a tattoo, what effect this has on her artwork. Also how she adapts to different skin types and colours etc.

My aim for attending the workshop was to put myself out of my comfort zone and try something I haven’t before. Life drawing has never appealed to me but after start Drawing Skills 1, Exercise 1, I really wanted to explore how it felt to be ‘in-the-moment’ and take note of lines, shape, shadow, tone, form etc. I found it was particularly challenging, which is what I wanted it to be, as this is character developing for me as I know one of my weaknesses is to rush drawing, to depict what I imagine, not what I see. I did manage to produce a series of drawings with the nude model as the subject, although the majority of the sketches I am not pleased with. This may be for a few reasons but the most obvious is that I am lacking in experience in this field, some of my pencils were not sharp enough or I used the wrong grade of pencil for the task, i.e a hard lead for shading. Also the lighting in the room, really was unhelpful in seeing what I was drawing, although I did find it useful in that it lit the model in a way to create obvious shadows so visually I could see how the relationship between the light and shadows on the model’s body changed with movement this helped with my practising of defining the toning and shading.

The equipment I took along with me: ink drawing pens; sizes 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.8; dip pen and ink, watercolours and brushes, charcoal, colouring and sketching pencils.

Ultimately, I chose to utilise charcoal, sketching pencils and my ink drawing pens. I didn’t feel like the lighting available allowed me to use my other materials as it would have caused a lot of inconvenience in the dark, a distraction for other artists working. Perhaps a mini clip on LED lamp would be beneficial in this sort of environment again.

I preferred the accuracy and neatness of my ink pens but upon reflection, I believe this is because this is the material I have explored the most and I am interested in drawing with detail, however I did try a looser style of drawing with my ink pens for the first time. It reminded me of Quentin Blake’s illustration of Roald Dahl’s books. The charcoal was my least favourite, but as mentioned just previously, maybe I need time and patience to explore this medium again in a different environment. The pencils gave a good representation of the model and what I was trying to achieve with a looser style of drawing and the lines I made were more variable than the charcoal (down to my technique rather than the charcoal). I have uploaded some photos within this blog entry of the pieces I produced at this workshop.

Drawing Skills 1, Part 1, Exercise 1 – 14/05/2019

The aim of this exercise is to warm up the drawing muscles with temporary drawings. After reading the brief, I set to around the home looking for resources to draw temporarily with. At first, I found this really difficult, I couldn’t find anything that sprung to mind of what I could use for this task. This unnerved me a little as I thought, “oh, no, I’ve stumbled at the first creative hurdle!”. I’ve never thought about drawing as anything other than putting pen or pencil to paper, before, so to be asked to find alternatives took me straight out of my comfort zone. After walking about, exploring the kitchen first, I came across some flour which I have practiced mark making in previously as a fun experiment with my children. As soon as I threw some out onto the wooden board, I thought, “I could grab a fork and make marks through this…” Immediately after I thought, “I’ve got this” and full of optimism and eager to find something even more unusual I set off again exploring for temporary mark making materials. I feel the exercise was completed successfully; I understood the focus of the task and engaged well once I got going. Upon reflection of this task, I’ve already made a discovery and been enlightened to the fact that every day, I am drawing and mark-making only temporarily, and the reason I do not observe and take note of this is because it isn’t conventionally classed as ‘drawing’ nor is it permanent to be seen again. Perhaps, once it is gone, it is out of mind. I actually quite enjoyed feeling the textures, smelling the smells, seeing the colours of the items I used to draw with in this exercise. I felt it quite important to understanding the properties and capabilities of the materials I was working with and not just be passive in the experience; it was a mindful task and has awakened my senses that I can use a multitude of materials to draw with and they don’t have to be conventional drawing items or be a permanent mark to be classed as a drawing. Perhaps, this mindset and experience of drawing with different types of media can be carried forward in my future artworks. To explore the unknown and experiment; I’m sure this way of working will see future artworks vary considerably, depending on the materials used to draw. If I did this exercise again, I would like to explore outside the home environment, perhaps using sand, seaweed and shells at the beach or sticks, leaves and moss in the forest. I would also ask someone to be present so I could purely focus on the enjoyment of engaging with the drawing and embracing the moment of creativity, rather than focus on documenting the activity on camera. Here are a selection of photos I took in this exercise, but also a photograph showing drawing with honey. Whilst I was reflecting on this exercise and had I unknowingly been temporary drawing before, I suddenly thought of dripping honey on my yoghurt for breakfast in the morning:

Honey drawing at breakfast
1st conscious attempt at temporary drawing; mark making in flour with fingers and a fork
Bubbles on a wooden board with a dish brush
Lipstick; drawing on lips. I think this drawing is not only aesthetically pleasing but gives the wearer of this temporary mark-making confidence and joy
Drawing with wooden play pieces
Drawing with wooden shapes
Eyeliner’ drawing on eyes
Toothpaste, easily applied, not very controllable, drawing with a scent to it.
Olive oil on a side plate