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.

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

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.