Research and reflection

I have read an article which was sent to me in the O.C.A. Bulletin which, thought directed at music students, as far as I could tell, was very helpful and relevant to me.

This was at this address: http://www.weareoca.com/education/new-year-is-so-full-of-promises/

This encouraged me to use my learning log for anything I felt inclined to put into it.  

“They are for your thoughts, feelings, items that you want to keep.  They are your mind map for brain storming ideas and thoughts.  Put anything you want in them.  Pictures, no matter how obtuse, articles, poems, scraps, ideas, thoughts, found items.  Anything really does go, and if it won’t fit in, photograph it and put that in instead.”

 But I think that putting my check and log work in with my rambling thoughts might be confusing.  So I am going to put my Check and Log reflections with the coursework it relates to.  This page will be for “thoughts, feelings and items” I want to keep, and everything else that is not really on the syllabus.

I have also looked at the “learning log sampler” provided by the oca and realised that this portion of my log should be entitled: Research and reflection.

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I’ve been making some drawings each day, on different types of paper like the paper from a textbook I found, then painted white.  Here are some of them:

They are also on my Other drawings page. Click here for all my other drawings.

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10th February

Here is an artist I came across on the internet, whose drawing style I find interesting.  His name is Stefanos Rokos; I like the way he combines drawings from life with drawings from fantasy.

He often fills the picture plane, making very busy images without negative spaces.

Click to enlarge

I like the way he uses the spaces in the drawings  – white spaces have smudges and marks in them so they are not blank; areas of colour have dots and blots of ink.  I like how the above drawing has one face painted over – it reminds me of the process of drawing, and what happens when something goes wrong; it is also unnerving.  Two of the faces have been obscured in that drawing.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

In fact, Rokos frequently obscures or simply does not draw facial features.

The drawing above is one of my favourites by Stefanos Rokos.  I like the quality of line used to draw the man and his surroundings.  I like the watery marks and washes.  In the window behind the figure in this drawing Rokos has used news paper or magazine text which seems to have been painted over with white and then watery blue.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Stefanos Rokos’s drawings are really fascinating because they have so many layers and intricacies.  They have inconsistencies and attention to detail.  I think they are brilliant.

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Here is a drawing in which I am exploring the idea of drawing the background, or the objects around a still life to give an image context.

In this drawing the still life is the collection of objects on the table.

This was a useful drawing for developing my thoughts and knowledge about still life.

This is a drawing using a paintbrush, one of my notes from my previous assessment was to use chunkier mediums so I am practising here. 

The other drawing is a dip pen portrait which went awry.  Dip pens bring an unpredictability to a drawing.

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My tutor has suggested that I look “at the figures of Stanley Spencer” and “the quality of line in an Egon Schiele drawing” because they “both have their roots in observed figurative subject matter” but “there is not the realistic translation of a David Hockney portrait, or the gritty realism of Lucian Freud” I think this will be very helpful.  I am going to make pages for them.

I also still need to look into the art of Frank Auerbach, Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore.  I will make pages for them also.

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I have looked at Stanley Spencer’s drawings, and I found them very interesting.  Click here to see the page about him.

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I have found a very useful website called: http://arthistory.about.com/cs/glossaries/g/f_form.htm

It is helpful for a range of reasons, including that is has a glossary which thoroughly explains words

which are commonly used in art writing.

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I am trying to draw as much as I can in my spare time – trying to draw every day and keep a visual diary as the OCA website recommends.  I am working in novels I pick up in books shops so that I can make relaxed unselfconscious drawings.  This is also suitable because a novel is a good size to keep on you at all times.

These drawings are also on the Other drawings 2 page.

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I really like working in novels, it is a lot of fun and it helps me to practice drawing.

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I have picked up some leaflets and booklets which I find inspiring.  They interest me on a visual level, (some of them only from a distance because the closer you look the less you like them,) and I thought I would put them in here so that I remember where I put them.

This first one is called “Resident”.  All the pictures can be made much larger, but I didn’t want them to take up too much space.

I like the way the pages are composed.  If you look at the text as drawing, and then the photos become colours and shapes, it is really interesting.

   

I think that it is important to see the double page spread as one whole image, and not start to take it apart into different segments.  At the same time it might be valuable to examine each area of detail to find visual information.

I like the negative spaces in the image directly above.

Below is another booklet which combines images and text.  I didn’t find that any of the images specifically interested me upon close examination, but it is interesting how there is a certain colour scheme used, and the way that text and image work as a composition together.

Below is a card I was handed in the street.  I mostly like the figures because the text is more of a conflict with the imagery than a part of the image or the composition.  They don’t really work together anyway.  But I liked the woman.

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I have been making more drawings in novels.  Here are some of them, and the rest are recorded on the Other drawings 2 page.

   

I like alternating between drawing from observation and expressively scribbling.  On pages with a lot of text it is necessary to add white paint to stop the text competing with the drawing.

I have also started using blue inks.

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