2019

Below is a photograph of my attempt for depicting textures using a variety of materials such as charcoal, Indian Ink (neat and diluted) and a flat paintbrush and a graphite HB pencil. The four materials I chose were bubblewrap, a ceramic geometric vase, a ball of garden twine and glass empty jam jar. These textures were chosen due to their variety in texture and material composition; smooth, rough, flat, bumpy, sharp and soft edges, solid/malleable all provide a playground for this exercise.

Starting with the bubble wrap; this was my first attempt at drawing an object in a free and expressive way, using the materials to create a sense of texture, rather than only depicting what I would normally try, a 3d realistic drawing with accurate lines and shading. I am quite excited by the outcome and have surprised myself that a new technique has been acknowledged and can developed further, possibly producing visually and physically stimulating pieces of work. I would like to try painting the ink onto the bubblewrap and pressing this onto paper, wet and/or dry to see what outcome this would produce. What about different coloured inks? How would this look? I feel this piece looks almost like frogspawn; an interesting idea for a natural water-themed piece maybe?

The geometric ceramic vase; I actually thought this piece would be difficult to depict due to the intricacy of the sharp, angular geometric design. Because of this, I chose to not study the design too realistically and tried to focus on the light and shade elements of the piece. The light was coming from the left hand side and created beautiful triangular shadows on the right hand side of each diamond shape. I used charcoal only for this piece as I wanted to try different tonal shading with it, from harsh dark lines to a lighter shade representing the light reflecting. I used my fingers to smudge the charcoal to obtain this variety of shading and found it easy to see where the obvious differences of light and shade fell on the vase itself when I squinted at it so the form fell out of focus but and left the tonal shading as the most obvious aspect within my vision. Although I do feel this piece could be developed further by making it slightly bigger or using a thinner piece of charcoal as I would have liked to really distinguish the diamond shapes within the vase and use my fingers (or possibly a cotton bud if keeping the drawing smaller) to smudge the charcoal within the diamond areas to get a greater variety of tones, as this is evident when I look at the vase in the light, each of the four faces of each diamond shape on the vase carries a different tone because of the way the light falls upon it. There is almost a slight pineapple appearance tho this piece!

Ball of twine; rough, layered, stringy, wirey, solid. A few words that I held in my head while trying to depict this texture object. To feel in my hands, the ball of twine felt rough, heavy and solid, but to look at, it is but solid but delicate and intricate. This was a real challenge for me to think about how to represent this because it made me think about which media to use and how. I selected a mixed media approach because I felt I needed more than one material to describe the depth to the ball (the charcoal gave great depth with its ability for graduated tonal shading) and the intricacy of the layered twine (the Indian Ink gave me this by being able to accurately draw lines on top of the tonal base but also provide a scratchy feel with the chopstick to represent the wirey twine). By this drawing, I felt freer and less restricted with my materials and learnt, from Exercise 1 – the Joy emotion quadrant drawings – with Indian Ink, the techniques and methods I could deploy to achieve what I set out to with the ball of twine; fast but descriptive and the ability to add thicker lines by applying more surface area of the chopstick and ink. I wanted to take this piece further to explore as I felt inspired to see if I could develop my technique to add texture and tone further.
Below are two examples of this further self-led exploration; the first photo demonstrated my keenness to add more depth with shading and tones from the charcoal I previously used in the initial drawing, which after reflection, I think I added too much and this created a smooth barrier so when I applied the ink, the roughness of the brown paper couldn’t be reached by the ink and chopstick to create the wirey and scratchy effect, it just sat on the surface of the charcoal barrier. I chose this paper specifically because I wanted the texture of it to react with the chopstick, ink and charcoal to add a scratchy effect, representing the texture of the twine itself.

Ball of twine, charcoal and Indian ink, overworked and not happy with this

This is when I chose to try again with the third piece (second photo below). I’m happier with the colour and texture of the brown paper coming through, also the fewer ink lines portraying the twine seem to work better with the lighter shading of charcoal behind. I would like to see how this piece could be developed by dipping the twine in the Indian ink, possibly a range of dilutions, and laying or pulling this across the paper on top of the charcoal to see how this would look/feel.

Ball of twine, charcoal and Indian ink, less smudging and depth solid tonal shading with the charcoal behind the ink, less ink scratches on top of the charcoal, more of the original paper texture and colour coming through

The final piece is a depiction of a glass jar with raised decoration on the side. I feel this piece challenged me the most because of the aim to represent the solidity or the jar simultaneously with the delicacy of the raised glass detail but also the transparency of the material itself; how am I going to depict the texture whilst retaining some reference to its transparency? I did spend some time reflecting on this before going ahead with the drawing. After some time, I felt ready to progress with my chosen medium of Indian again but this time diluted to create a semi-transparent feel to it, which held a lightness but still defined an area of space. I then used a stronger application to dab on a representation of the raised glass detail that adorns the side of the jar. I didn’t really know how else to depict this; I suspect this could be a further avenue to explore and develop next. (See below for further research)

This experiment has taught me to relax and enjoy the free-flowing properties of the materials, be ‘in the moment’ and be conscious of the possible outcomes when using them, if they behave the way I expected, use it as a learning outcome and try another way to develop this technique further. I’ve also understood that the properties of the materials may seem exhaustive, but the outcome of using the materials either exclusively or in partnership with others, can produce endless possibilities when creating drawings, producing effects for texture as well as tone, shape and shading etc. Ive also understood that a practitioner can add depth and excitement for the senses when using this method of free-flow and representative expression and these techniques can also be learnt and developed further to be incorporated into the composition of a larger piece of artwork.

The ‘Frottage’ element of this exercise was good fun; being an investigator to find various objects to capture in this form was quite enjoyable. There were a few pieces above which surprised me; the music stand (back rest), the stencil and the metal napkin holder were examples of Frottage over an object with holes or recesses that when shaded over, the pencil took detail out from the edges of the recess which created a stronger line. This effect was quite inspiring and I could see this being used in a piece of work where the focus is on negative spaces.
I did learn that the pencil I used (6B to start and moved to HB for the last three) and the type/thickness of paper have a direct impact to the outcome of the Forttage technique. For a few of these rubbings, the paper was too thick and/or the pencil to soft. I found that I got a better result on the wooden desk surface with the HB on this cartridge paper and so chose to use this for the stencil and magazine spines. I also realised that some materials will not produce a Frottage effect because the object was too soft and the texture compressed and so couldn’t be recorded like the more solid objects; see the photo above for the towel and the bubblewrap, neither of these came out as I expected and although disappointing, I understand that if there is compression, the texture will not sit proud against the paper for Frottage to be successful.
After carefully looking at the glass jar rubbing within this exercise, I have decided that it would be a really lovely experiment if I were to try this Frottage technique combined with the diluted ink (as attempted in the previous exercise above) to create a more developed piece. The photo of this exploration is below. Note that I have added a few strokes of HB graphite pencil marks around the screw top of the jar, around the middle ridge and base of the jar to give a little more detail; I knew that the pencil would blur a little when wiped with wet ink so wouldn’t be so obvious but still add a little detail, what I hadn’t expected was that it actually ‘muddied’ the ink which was a great outcome as I harnessed this to give a little shading to the right hand side and the thicker areas of glass around the screw top lid, the middle and base of the jar. What a great experience; I really enjoyed making this discovery after reflecting and experimenting further.

Further development of the glass jar with diluted ink, this time with the addition of the new Frottage technique

After a few days, I went back to this frottage technique and felt I could have a little fun with it; I envisaged the stencil work on a black school chalkboard. I also found a notebook in a draw and as I picked it up, I felt the texture of the spiral binding; I thought to myself “I could rub my pencil on this to get a great frottage technique!” This is really new to me and now I have explored and experienced this technique, I am finding ideas on how to use it in my drawings and ideas further than completing them in the exercises. This is really exciting to me; frottage has opened up a new avenue for me and developed my range of techniques as an artist.

Frottage notebook and blackboard in HB graphite pencil.

What Next?

When reading back through my sketchbook, I’ve made a new note that asks me to look into texture further. What if texture wasn’t just described but also felt? What if the texture was made by using the material itself on top of the paper (rather than frottage where the texture is placed underneath) either by the marks the material leaves or by adhering the material to the paper itself; possibly dragging twine through ink to leave a mark, or sticking the twine onto the paper/foundation to work with further? I saw a tree made from string in my child’s school reception, children were stroking the ‘bark’ with their fingertips as they walked past. I will upload all research and reflection in the section of this blog entitled ‘Experimenting with Materials’; a documented journey with responses to ideas and thought process and of course, reflective notes on where I went further with these findings.

Drawing Skills 1, Project 1, Exercise 1 – 20/05/2019

Below are my attempts for producing 16 emotive pieces for Project 1, Exercise 1. I completed these mark-making exercises in my home environment where I was able to really embody the emotions needed to feel this work.

To effectively demonstrate the difference in outcomes of style for each material used, I have deliberately used the same material in each quadrant of each sheet of cartridge paper. Starting top left and going clockwise: charcoal, black Indian Ink and wooden chopstick, black ball point pen and lastly, a black wax crayon.

Joy was a relatively quick emotion to recall for me; I’ve recently moved to Cyprus and there is so much to love here. Summer has just kicked in and the blue skies and beautiful flowers are abundant. The joy of feeling the breeze ripple through my hair like the waves on the blue Mediterranean ocean; watching my children greedily eat ice-cream along the promenade while it dribbles down their chin; the sound of the waves sloshing up on the sand while I dip my toes in and collect shells. These memories are completely blissful and bring me joy to relive. Perhaps this is why I feel my collection for the ‘joy’ feeling is akin to the waves bubbling up and the cyclical style of the movements is showing that these memories are forever coming to the forefront and back again. I found the Indian Ink and chopstick the most enjoyable to work because of the variety of styles I could obtain with it; some of the ways I expressed joy was by dabbing, flicking and dripping the ink onto the paper, like ice-cream dripping on a hot day, but also using the chopstick on it’s side gave a great effect, like the joy was radiating out from the centre. The friction of the wood and viscous ink on the paper made almost an angular radiator shape feature too! My keywords that I embraced while creating this collection are: fluid, movement, sparkle, weightless, upwards, floating, content, fresh, rounded, bubbles, happiness, soft, gentle, waves, circles, radiating, warmth, central.

Francis Bacon, ‘Pope Innocent X’, 1953, 153cm x 118.1cm
Photograph of a photo printed in: Clark. J, (1992) ‘The Illustrated History of Art’, the Apple Press, London.

Anger; this collection was also easy to create as half an hour before, some words were exchanged in a heated family debate; we all know how those can end up…
As the tension dissipated, I suddenly thought about harnessing the difficult emotions and using them to my advantage to work through this angry collection. My keywords for this collection are: pulsing, raging, spikey, hot, fast, angular, tight, scruffy, explosive, extrovert, erupt, tears, shaking, red, firework, stubborn, dangerous, hunting. I felt alive and pumped up when producing these four pieces for anger; as soon as I recalled the argument, it got me worked up again and out came the mark-making. In fact, I was so overcome with the strong, hot emotion of anger, I snapped and splintered my charcoal, spilt my ink and crossed the negative spaces created by the creases separating the boxes (at the time, I have to admit, I was angry and didn’t care if I was aggressive with my drawing and my focus was no longer on being mindful about the boundaries, I just wanted to release this emotion) and even ruin a ball point pen when it almost scratched through the paper. I even got my hands stuck in with the charcoal, aggressively scratching it and wiping it harshly, almost pushing it away and smearing it carelessly. However, although this was a difficult emotion to harness into creativity, I think over time, summoning and controlling this emotion could actually produce some really striking artwork. While reading my library book, I found a piece of art which I think demonstrates this beautifully: Francis Bacon, ‘Pope Innocent X’, 1953 (photo above right). The description is written to describe how anger and violence could have been the driving force to producing such a striking and emotive piece: “Francis Bacon’s obsessive and brutal vision is executed in correspondingly violent brushwork.” Clark. J, (1992) ‘The Illustrated History of Art’, the Apple Press, London. Even the descriptive language such as obsessive, executed, brutal and violent denote the tone of this painting.
Interestingly, I believe that although producing artwork with such strong emotions as anger, resentment, frustration etc. may seem to some, a hazardous hobby for the mental wellbeing of the practitioner, I do feel they could actually benefit people psychologically by a way of therapeutic release and mindfulness techniques. I did a little research on this to see if I could evidence this with a credible source and found a great link to an article on ‘Art Therapy’ by Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/therapy-types/art-therapy

“I hope my drawings demonstrate this oxymoron”
Laura Baker

What can I say about Love? It lifts me up, makes me feel complete, dizzy, full of life. The list in non-exhaustive and I embraced this collection of mark-making to ensure I produce pieces depicting real love, not lust. To me, love is strong but soft, stubborn but willing, simple but complex; I hope my drawings demonstrate this oxymoron. The lines are free but return and are intertwined with each other; always spontaneous in looking for a new direction in excitement which bubbles up from the core. Much like when you fall in love and your tummy feels like butterflies. I felt I wanted to show a whirlwind as it [love] can feel a bit turbulent at times, like you are swept up off your feet in a hurricane of mixed emotions and experiences. The complexity of feelings intertwined with love is depicted here but is different to the anger collection; it is softer, kinder and lighter in tone and pressure.; it is passionate but caring and kind. My keywords for this collection are: bound/tied, hurricane, intoxicating, togetherness, fizzy, fireworks, flicking, splashing, confusion, dance, spontaneous, go and return, waves, excitement, impulsive, anger, stubbornness, compromise, tummy tingle, journey, no matter what. I really enjoyed working with the ball point pen here because of the fluidity and detail that could be produced, it gave me a more detailed path that the ‘love’ feeling took me on. Although I think if I could mix it with the charcoal for the soft, tonal waves and the ink media, I would have a really detailed story of the journey I wanted to draw with a range of textures and tones which shows the complexity of love with depth.

This collection for calm is peaceful and quiet; my calm is spacious without clutter and feels like soft, flowing waves that rise up and fall gently back down again. It also can feel systematic and in control with not too many layers. I tried to demonstrate this in the collection which I’ve noticed when comparing them all that this looks like the most basic, perhaps this is a true reflection of what my ‘calm’ looks like. Although, I could reflect that I had more of an exciting drawing with the previous feelings collections. I feel the wax crayon was the best here for my illustration of calm; the side of the crayon gave a smooth and consistent wave of colour without too much detail and fussiness. I found that the wiggle on the right hand side of the crayon drawing (and on the left of the top left charcoal drawing) gave a nice dark to light wave descending vertically towards the bottom right corner. This looks like it could be a boundary of some sort. The ink drawing produced a series of systematic dots with the chopstick; I feel in control and steady when I am calm, perhaps this is why the dots shown are not erratic. My key words for calm are: slow, steady, waves, continuous, up/down, upwards, curves, soft, free, soaring, flowing. I find it interesting that with the calm collection, it was easier to be mindful of the negative spaces and boundaries on the paper, perhaps this is because I was more conscious of the process and less wrapped up in the emotional state by stronger emotions previously in the exercise.

Overall, I understand that this exercise has brought a wealth of experience to my mark-making skills; I’ve learnt how emotions can physically and aesthetically alter the style and ‘feel’ of a piece; how the material’s properties can be manipulated to create different effects when used with a specific driving emotion (A reflective question: did I hold the materials any differently with each emotion of was it only the pressure and speed that changed? How can I test this to understand how the media I used looked different with different emotions?), how artists can embody these emotions to produce a piece of art to specifically convey a message (such as Francis Bacon) and that it will be evident in the materials and how they have been manipulated, i.e. soft and flowing or sharp and aggressive. I’ve also learnt how art can be created with non-objective images; I didn’t like art in this style before but now I have a more in-depth understanding of how and why it may have been created. I particularly liked this piece below by Sarah H Reynolds, which is expressive and fluid, I think it shows a trees and their roots with a tricking water source, in an atmospheric forest, possible with a boundary (barbed wired?) of angular scribbles with the charcoal on an off-white paper which I think gives an overall impression of sadness and emptiness in this piece.

http://www.sarahhreynolds.com/inkdrawings
Sarah H Reynolds, ‘Opposite of Drawing 8, 30 x 21.25″

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 – Overworked

I received an email from OCA Discuss Summary entitled ‘Overworked’ today; I’ve come across this term in art before but always struggled to articulate it’s meaning to others. However, I have directly experienced the overworked stage a few times when I have been painting with my watercolours, I’ve got to a point where I thought, “it’s ruined now and the message is lost”. The technical term I would expect to be ‘overworked’. I’ve realised it’s the cathartic moment where a piece of art, or in my case, a painting, goes from developing, to over-developed. Although I understand how I got there [overworked painting] most of the time; this morning’s painting for example, the ocean was a muddy mixture of blues which started to fluff up the paper from brushing too much and laying on too many layers of colours, I still find it difficult to not ‘get there’ which makes me feel annoyed as the cost of my time and resources has been wasted. Why hadn’t I stopped and taken time to reflect on what I was aiming for and which techniques I would utilise to get there?

This got my brain whirring. I sat and thought to myself, is this really a waste of my time and resources or a learning opportunity? Did I reflect on this experience and document what I did, why I did it? etc. Some of the questions I needed to have asked myself at this ‘overworked’ moment are:
– When will I know that I have overworked a drawing?
– What does overworked look like?
– How can I learn/ progress with this knowledge?
– How can I avoid it in the future?

This course is relating to drawing however and after browsing the OCA Coffee Shop post at https://discuss.oca-student.com/t/overworked/9839/10, I am now wondering if there is a element of ‘overworked’ within drawing and mark-making in general or just in paint?
I have yet to complete assignment 1 so I do not want to be thinking about this in great detail just yet; I want to be able to be free and spontaneous with my exercises in this course and not be inhibited by thoughts of overworking a drawing. Something to come back to in the near future I am sure.

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.

An Introduction Into Studying In HE

Research Trail 13/05/19

My chosen interest and key starting point: 1940’s Art

To begin my research trail, I took straight to Google.co.uk and searched with the keywords ‘1940’ and ‘Art’, finding a credible website: https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain/display/walk-through-british-art/1940

Totes Meer (Dead Sea) 1940-1 Paul Nash 1889-1946 Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05717

A painting immediately caught my eye: ‘Totes Meer’, Paul Nash, 1940-1. (Tate Ref: N05717) I love how the painting was of a landscape scene, the sea is choppy and the colours were subdued but still colourful, especially the orangey-yellow shoreline complimenting the blues of the ocean. I love how the aircraft has been painted to show movement and energy that has washed the pieces up onto the shore, I also like how the moonlight is bouncing off the aircraft to represent waves glinting. I noticed what looked like a wheel in the sea and on moving from a thumbnail view to a full-screen image of the painting, I realised the sea was in fact a composition of aircraft parts, specifically German World War 2 aircraft parts. This made me feel really excited and I knew that this was the perfect point of interest for my studies.
Looking at the date this painting was completed, after the end of The Battle of Britain and around the time of the Blitz, shows me that it was most likely poignant at the time of production because of the subject of the painting, but paintings of a war theme painted during the war could have been used as propaganda; this was a note to make for my research studies, what was the intention of the artist to produce this painting at this time?
I found a video through theartstory.org, produced by Tate at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YCxsCNCbno, in which Dr James Fox, art historian, discusses Nash’s painting and his personal history. This is the first time I have research a specific artist and found it quite interesting to know more about their personal life, their interests and hobbies. I think this historical research may help to build up a bigger picture of how an artist creates their artwork. Dr Fox proceeds with interesting opinions regarding Nash’s love of the natural world around him being alive and sentient. I feel this is perhaps why the moon in Totes Meer is so obvious and pronounced with the ring around it, to mark a stark contrast with the death of the aircraft wreckage in the sea. Also, could Nash have taken inspiration from artist Samuel Palmer with painting the moon as such a focal point in the sky? Furthermore, in this video, Nash is quoted to having referred to aircraft as “beautiful monsters” and “killer whales”. Could this be another reason that he saw the link between aircraft and the ocean? Research this further
It is obvious from reading an article at https://www.theartstory.org/artist-nash-paul-artworks.htm that one possible intention of Nash for this painting, considering it had a title in the German language, was that the Germans were meant to see it in an act of patriotism on behalf of the British. But what about the other side of the debate? What if the painting was propaganda for the British public to view? If it was propaganda, why did Nash entitle his painting in the ‘enemy’s’ language? Another mark to research this further in the next stage of the research trail.

When looking at the painting in more detail, further research clues are given to aid in the discovery if the painting was intended for propaganda or patriotism: the Swastika, and Iron Cross for example; were they placed here as a sign to the Germans that the British are successful in shooting down their planes to be left as a wreckage in the sea? Other questions arise from this point; is the painting of a sad and mournful nature because of the loss of life or is it a celebration that despite the war, the British are capable of victory against Germany? I am intrigued why there is such ambiguity for the intended perception this piece.

“Static and Dead”
Paul Nash, a letter written in 1941, IWM

Nash writes a letter in March 1941, held in Imperial War Museum files (found in the online archives) that describes the sea as “static and dead”. This gives me confidence that the style in which the work was painted; the mysterious moon, the solitary owl flying, the scene set at night, that this piece is almost meant to haunt; creating a feeling of loss for both the British and the Germans. Depicting death and destruction of not only German life and aircraft, but of the British landscape and natural elements. I feel it’s almost as if Nash is saying “nobody wins in War”. My initial reaction was of intrigue and optimism for this piece, but having completed light research on the context and intent of the artist and his painting, I now feel sad and unnerved by its message. I believe it shows the moments after death and loss have occurred, stillness, calmness and eeriness, like Nash described, “static and dead”.

Pre-Course Study Diary

11/05/19 20:22
Just finished watching three videos examples of ‘mark making’ videos with Jane Lazenby at https://www.oca-student.com/course-area/drawing?taxonomy_vocabulary_9_tid=&page=2. I feel very excited to begin manipulating materials and investigating the properties of different mediums in a way that I haven’t thought about or given a great deal of thought to in previous mark making sessions. I especially enjoyed watching the water-soluble inks bleed when water was added ; I wondered what might happen if I tried to make the my indian ink bleed with other types of liquids, such as: soap, melting ice, washing-up liquid, shaving foam etc.; an experiment to be booked in the diary.

Printed out “Draw, Draw, Draw” from oca-student.com to stick in my sketch book to prompt creativity
https://www.oca-student.com/keeping-sketchbooks/draw-draw-draw

12/05/19 09:00
Spending some time looking through “Introducing Learning Logs” via oca-student.com The OCA encourages me to record my experiences, thoughts, feelings, reflect on my learning activities such as courses I attended, exhibitions visited, books read, discussions had, internet sites browsed, TV programmed watched etc. Although this list has been provided for guidance by the OCA, I feel it is by no means exhaustive. It is also strongly recommended to add personal and reflective comments about the experiences and how they may help with my studies. I truly feel this is accurate. For example, if a scientist didn’t have a hypothesis, how would she know what she was aiming to achieve during her experiment? And if by not experimenting, how would she see what other outcomes were possible? And if no reviewing of the experiment happened, how would the scientist know what was(n’t) successful and how/why it happened? Although science and art can be related, I believe in my ‘experiments’, I will have the opportunity to be a little more carefree and expressive to just ‘see what happens!’.
Reflection is important to me, not just at the end of the project, but as an ongoing piece throughout the development of my work. When looking back at the Learning Log, I will be able to see what problems I encountered and how I overcame them with adapting my techniques. It’s also important to me to keep track of where my studies took me; which websites/artists/practitioners/photographs/prints/documents gave me the inspiration for my next stage of development, not only for reference but also an evidential pathway of my understanding developing as the work progresses.

10:22
Watched “Using a Learning Log for Reflection” with Eileen Adams at https://vimeo.com/25136607. Eileen states “some people never learn from experience” and I couldn’t agree more. However, I also feel it depends on the circumstances as to how I react to a ‘learning opportunity’. I think this is something that will personally challenge me and I will have to be aware of not feeling deflated or upset when an experiment or piece of work didn’t turn out the way it ‘should have’. As my tutor Simon has stated in his email “be open-minded… don’t be afraid of making mistakes and also correcting them” It also implies that a period of learning is taking place, not only when the work is developing, but also within the reflection period immediately afterwards. From previous experience, I have learnt that for me, the most successful reflection analysis happens when the experience is still fresh in my memory, although most of the factual reflection happens a little while after when my writing is not so emotive if the project didn’t go well. So for me, successful reflection happens twice; immediately and a period of at least 24 hours after.

13/05/19 06:00
An Introduction Into Studying in HE
I’ve set up a page dedicated to my studies in this course; please see the page titled as above.

I explored the websites bridgemaneducation.com and artuk.org and found them to be a complete treasure trove; I have bookmarked these websites for future research studies as this wealth of information is overwhelming for me right now.

Enrolment – 10/05/19

I’ve just enrolled onto my first ever Degree course. Choosing to study in higher education is not a decision to be made lightly. Understanding the reasons for selecting the BA(Hons) Painting pathway has helped me to embrace my goals and ambitions and I will use these as motivation to keep pushing on with the course when times get tough and I loose focus with my frustrations, should I encounter any. I have emailed my tutor, Simon, with a little introduction about me and my expectations from the course, and they go something like this:

I am wanting to broaden my skill set; experimenting with different mediums to manipulate and understand their properties and the effects that can be created with 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
My main interests and experiences are in mark making and creating paintings which are realistic. I would like to develop these interests and my skill set further to include looser-style paintings and drawings, symbolism and referencing objects in artworks with representation rather than purely realism

In response to these ambitions, Simon has advised me to be “challenged and excited by the tasks set out in the handbook… open-minded… not afraid of making mistakes and also correcting them.” I really embrace this feedback for a few reasons. As an adult, the thought of failure at attempting something new can be daunting and sometimes inhibit me to ‘give it my all’ because the risk of failure is something that makes me anxious. I expect this is where being open-mind can help; to ensure that risk-taking is within my safe environment and part of the learning and creative process. It is well known that learning occurs from making mistakes and I feel my best way of learning is to understand what I am setting out to do, put it into action and review how the process went. Reflection to me is important; it gives me a chance to understand my feelings towards the progress made. Asking myself intelligent questions such as: what did I learn from this attempt? Did it go well/ badly and how/why? What could I do differently next time? etc. When reflecting in this learning log regarding my coursework and experiences, I will refer to a structured format of questions which ensure I have made the most of the reflection period and is has been beneficial to my learning and development as an artist.

Music for inspiration

Welcome

‘Kneeling’, Laura Baker, 15th May 2019
*Life Drawing in graphite*

Welcome to my Learning Log for Drawing 1, OCA 2019.

In this log, I hope to explore the many creative opportunities that mark making can create, from the obvious and traditional to the non-conventional and ‘thinking-outside-the-box’ techniques. I am looking forward to seeing how my creativity, open-mindedness and reflection can help develop my artistic voice further.