Tutor Feedback on Assignment One

Link to Tutor Feedback

I received this feedback on 10th March which was a very rapid response after submission. It was clear that Hayley had looked at all of my work and she made detailed and constructive comments. I was encouraged by  the feedback I received as I had been struggling with confidence. This gave me renewed vigour and enthusiasm.

The comments that Hayley made about me struggling with the negative space exercise are spot on. I really did find this very difficult.

I've included here a couple of shots that I took on my phone while in the process of doing the negative space exercise. I did approach the exercise initially in the way described in the text.

Unfortunately I then misinterpreted the part of the instructions where it says " fill in what is referred to as the object space, or the space occupied by the objects, rather than the space around them. In other words you now draw the objects themselves. It could be, at this point that your drawing is slightly distorted or out of proportion. Don't worry about this, just persevere with the drawing and make the necessary adjustments". I ended up producing a much more detailed drawing than was desired. I fully intend to revisit exercises on negative space as I can see how useful it would be  to grasp this. 

Hayley suggested looking again at the work of Patrick Caulfield and Gary Hume in the context of the negative space work. There's an exhibition of their work ay Tate Britain which I'll visit during my week off in July. I'll report back.....

I found Hayley's choice of words "the lazy side of your brain is in charge when you look at object detailing" interesting in the light of the fact that I had coincidentally, in the same week been looking at 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'. The left side of my brain was in charge when I included that detailing. It's analytical voice jumped in to say 'no one will recognise what it's meant to be unless you fill in the details!' I am trying to overcome this tendency to draw what I know rather than what I see and the L-R shift advocated by Betty Edwards in her book may be part of that process!

(Incidentally, the left side of my brain is the wordy side and it is quite argumentative - It objects to being called 'lazy' as it points out that it has got me safely through quite a number of other endeavours so far in life -- It prefers the label - analytical/mathematical or scientific!!!!! The right side seems to be more laid back and hasn't objected all these years to being argued into a corner by the dominant left side)

This also put me in mind of some comments I came across recently in the context of being the anxious parent of a 12 year old who is struggling at school. The comments are from Ken Robinson who is an outspoken critic of our (British and American - but I also include Italian) educational system which, he says discourages creativity owing to the hierarchy of the subjects with maths and sciences at the top (harking back to the requirements of the industrial revolution). He says that as children get older we progressively educate them further above the waist and then slightly to one side. He also says that an education system that instills shame over mistakes or a 'fear of being wrong' will destroy creativity. That does not mean that he equates  being creative with being wrong - quite the opposite. 

He says: ' when they are very young, kids aren't particularly worried about being wrong. If they aren't sure what to do in a particular situation, they'll just have a go at it and see how things work out. This is not to suggest that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. Sometimes being wrong is just being wrong. What is true is that if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original'

This resonates with me. I can clearly recall the decision making process when having to choose a career. I was not a secure and self-confident individual at the age of 17. I studied A levels in art and in sciences. I chose to go down the science route because Art was 'too subjective'. In science I felt that if you studied hard enough you could always come up with the 'right answer'❊ whereas in Art there wasn't necessarily such a thing which filled me with fear! Maturity helps with this fear to a certain extent as we start to care less about other peoples' opinions of us. I am however, a product of my education and still want to get things 'right'. I already think I've made some progress in this respect by overcoming my tendency to want to keep my sketchbooks pristine and allowing myself to experiment and play and doodle in them. I'm enjoying tapping in to my own creative urges. I'm hoping that as a spin-off , this enhanced creativity might help my parenting. Rather than being disappointed and pressurising my square peg of a son into a round hole it would be better to look at the talents he has (of which there are several) and help to inspire him to develop these. 

Oh dear I seem to have got side-tracked. Let's get back to the course....






❊This also turned out not to be true!

Reflection on Assignment 1

I have  reviewed how I think I have done against the assessment criteria for the course as requested in the course notes. This is quite difficult having no experience of being assessed in this activity.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills: Materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

Over part one of the course I would say that my technical and visual skills are already improving. At entry level my skills were limited but I think my progress leads me up to an almost adequate/satisfactory level. This obviously leaves massive room for improvement which I am sure will happen if I commit to the course and keep drawing very frequently. 

Observation is not a problem but translating my observations accurately onto the page is not coming easily. The exercises with drawing negative shapes did help with this some extent.

My biggest area of weakness is in compositional skills. I still feel I have little idea how to make a composition work.

Quality of Outcome: Content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.

I would say that at the end of part one I have reached a satisfactory stage with realisation of ideas and the presentation of my work is satisfactory. However although I can communicate my ideas in the written form I show limited ability to communicate visual ideas (see my comments on check and log for assignment 1)

Demonstration of Creativity: Imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.

I don't really have a personal voice nor know how to develop one yet, but I think that's appropriate for someone at this early stage in education. I'd put myself in class D:satisfactory for this section. I have shown some evidence of creativity - especially in the Textures project which I really enjoyed. However, I have taken few risks especially when it came to the assignment. I think this is probably a common occurrence with students submitting their first assignment . I've ended up doing final drawings which are 'safe' and therefore not particularly exciting. I want to get more experimental in the next section.

I have demonstrated creativity to a certain extent in my blog by writing out my ideas for themes for the drawings in the assignment. The problem is that my technical limitations don't allow me to translate what I plan or visualise in my mind onto the page.

Context: Reflection, research, critical thinking.

I think I'm probably average/good in this respect. I have shown evidence of self reflection in my commentary throughout the learning log. I am naturally quite analytical and have studied at HE level before so I think I have a satisfactory ability to analyse and synthesise information. Although the subject matter is very different from my original studies, critical analysis should be a transferable skill. I think my research points are of an acceptable standard. I have more confidence in my ability to write factual accounts than in my ability to be creative.

Looking at the above I'm not sure whether to put in for assessment. My original intention was to study for a degree but that may be overly ambitious. It will be interesting to see how my Tutor's assessment compares with my own. Do I have to decide at this stage whether to be assessed or can I wait until I've got a least one more assignment completed?

  

 

Check and Log: Assignment 1

Did you do enough preliminary work before starting on your final pieces?

I would have benefited from doing more preliminary work for both of the drawings. In drawing one this meant that I changed the composition several times even when doing the larger scale pieces and ultimately the final composition was not as interesting as it could have been. It would have been better to work all of this out on a smaller scale so that I was sure of the composition I wanted to use before getting larger. 

On the second drawing I didn't do enough compositional development sketches. I had lost confidence in being able to identify a good composition because my efforts to improve the previous drawing had actually made it worse.

More experimentation with mark-making might have helped to make the final drawing of the made objects more lively and interesting.

Do your large drawings give and accurate interpretation of the still life groups? If not, what went wrong?

In the first drawing, the main problem with form is the pineapple. I chose to draw this from a difficult angle. As I've mentioned before, it is difficult to deal with foreshortening in natural forms which don't have the same defined shapes as man-made forms. The pineapple and especially its leaves have ended up looking elongated. The folds in the fabric also look rather stiff as if they've been starched.

I think the representation of form in drawing 2 is more successful. The folds in the fabric look a bit better. However, the fabric was a satin which had a lovely sheen to it which I found impossible to capture with the coloured pencil.

Did you make a good selection of objects or did you try to include too much? Would you change the arrangement if you were to start again?

I always seem to start off by trying to include too much and removing objects as I develop the composition. Because of this, in the first drawing the idea of my original theme is essentially lost. I don't think anyone looking at the final drawing would understand what I originally intended. It just looks like three rather random natural forms plonked on a page for no good reason. So yes I would change it to try to give more depth and a more obvious connection between the objects. My idea had been to link the separated  objects via the drapery folds but as I struggled in drawing folds I couldn't pull this off.

The second drawing works a bit better from the point of view of an identifiable theme but there is a large mid-toned area where the red fabric is so maybe it loses some impact. I'm not sure how to change it to improve it.

Do your drawings fit well on the paper or could they be improved by working on a larger sheet of paper?

The drawings do fit well on the paper. However, with drawing one I think larger would have been better. The reason for this is that I did some mark-making in my sketchbook with soft pastel for the texture of the pineapple. When It came to actually drawing the pineapple for the final piece I realised that I couldn't employ this technique because the pineapple was on too small a scale to build up the lovely marks I'd made effectively.

Did you have problems with drawing?

Drawing the same objects many times shows up all too clearly how inaccurate my drawing is. However I am already seeing some improvement compared to my very first drawings. For example I wouldn't have considered trying to draw a complex shape like the vertebra at the beginning of the project. Although there is variation in my representation of it in the preliminary studies I have resolved it reasonably well in the final drawing.

Assignment 1: Second Drawing - Made Objects

Pages 84-93: Sketchbook 1 (larger Drawing also submitted)

Starting Point

Continuing with my preoccupation with decay/ageing/degeneration as well as the combination of attraction and revulsion. I decided to base the items in this still life around my personal vanity. 

The menopause has had a strange effect on me - obviously my body has changed significantly with weight gain and the acquisition of more wrinkles as my skin rapidly dries out. Consequently I experience a combination of revulsion/attraction when I look in the mirror these days. Revulsion because I no longer conform to the norms of beauty in our skinny youth-obsessed culture. At t the same time I am older and wiser. The changes in my body reflect this and the curves are attractive to some. I am more confident in my own skin these days than I ever was when my body did actually conform and my face was soft and smooth.

In an effort to hold on to my femininity I have become a major consumer (which ties back in somewhat with the previous theme touching on carbon footprint). I fall for the marketing of anti-ageing creams and cosmetics even though my analytical science -trained mind knows that there  is no good evidence that they will slow my ageing. I buy high heels and various types of supporting undergarment. 

I've chosen cosmetics - partly because of the theme but also partly because it gives me the opportunity to draw shiny reflective surfaces which were not a feature of the last still life.

Initial Ideas (rough sketchbook work)

I tried out a couple of different viewpoints and layouts and decided to use my paper in landscape orientation this time as the first drawing was portrait.

Mark Making / Media

I'd looked at the texture of my cosmetics pouch when I did the experimenting with texture exercise. The surface is made up of lots of tiny metallic plates  a bit like chain-mail so it gives a lot of variation in tone over the surface. I investigated this a bit more using coloured pencil and graphite and working into the drawing with ink.

I had struggled with the drapery on the last picture so I experimented with soft pastel, oil pastel and coloured pencil. I'd had a look on the Internet for inspiration and decided to try under painting/drawing with a complimentary colour to construct the shape and tonal relationships and then using the fabric colour on top allowing the complimentary to show through in the shaded areas. I really liked the oil pastel but it was quite difficult to handle and I though it would work best on a drawing of a really large scale. I didn't feel I had enough time at this stage to practise using them enough to tackle a big picture. The soft pastels also worked quite well. However, I used those on the last drawing and I also wanted to work into some areas (the lace on the fabric and the cosmetics purse) with ink. I tried working into pastel with ink before ant is just absorbed it and clogged the pen. So although the coloured pencil was not my favourite medium I settled on using this. The other motive was that I am still not very confident in my ability to use coloured pencil so this large piece would give more opportunity  to practise.

Tonal Reference A2 Charcoal

The colour scheme of the composition was limited to mainly black and red. Because I thought the black objects would give a challenge. I thought there was quite a large chance of me getting confused between colour and tonal value so I went ahead by doing a quick charcoal sketch.

Final Drawing Coloured Pencil, Graphite and Drawing Pen A2

The final drawing completed in coloured pencil. I think my handling of the medium has improved somewhat from the beginning of the course but I still don't find it easy to use especially on a large scale. I found it very difficult to get the dark tones dark enough. In general there is not quite enough contrast or richness of colour. This might have been improved by using a paper with more 'tooth' like sand paper. Although as a whole there is a harmony to it because of the limited palette, I prefer the quick charcoal sketch above. It has more life about it.

Assignment One: First Drawing - Natural Forms

Pages 76-82: Sketchbook 1 (larger drawings also submitted)

Starting Point

Via a thread on the OCA website, I was introduced to Klaus Pichler's photographs of decaying food which can be seen Here. These are stunning images which are beautifully illuminated with bold composition of the subject matter in the centre of the page against a black background. They inspire a mixture of attraction (because the images are beautiful) and revulsion (because the subject matter is rotting food with variously mould, flies and maggots.) The title of the work is 'one third' and each image is accompanied by details such where and how the item was produced, how it was transported to its point of sale and, therefore the carbon footprint. It is a comment on the amount of food wastage that occurs in the developed world and the amount of the worlds resources which are used to produce these items which are ultimately wasted.

These images resonated with me for a number of reasons. The first of these is that I have experienced this strange mixture of attraction and revulsion myself when throwing out mouldy fruit. Citrus fruit is in season at the moment and we are regularly given large bags of oranges by our neighbours and relatives who have orange trees. Despite having very good intentions to juice and freeze them or make marmalade there are inevitably some which go mouldy before I have used them. Although logic dictates that as these fruit are inedible they should be unattractive, I nevertheless  find the texture and the colour of the mould that grows quite beautiful. It is a chalky/powdery pale blue-green which sets up a vivid contrast with the bright orange of the fruit. 

Allied to this is the fact that January is a time of resolutions which causes reflection on personal failings. Being preoccupied with my own decay, one of my resolutions was to eat more healthily and get my 'five a day'. After an initial rush of enthusiasm and the purchase of lots of interesting fruit I then let my purchases sit in the fruit bowl quietly festering while I reverted to coffee and biscuits. I console myself that my carbon footprint is not huge as the fruit was all locally produced or home grown. 

So - my first idea was a still life of five pieces of fruit at varying stages from unripe through to macerated and mouldy. However, I quickly decided that this composition might end up looking too similar to the elongated composition of vegetables that I did previously. I decided to expand the theme to include death in general because I had a large hippo vertebra that would provide some interesting shapes. I thought this would provide a focal point as a surprising item amongst all the fruit.

Initial Ideas

Rough sketchbook work

Initial Ideas worked from left to right from immature/unripe to mouldy in a sort of chronological sequence with the vertebra as focal point in various positions. The first two just look cluttered and jumbled with too many items. I wanted to be closer  to each object to get a good view of the textures. The juicer was included to expand the theme of decay and death to include violence!

 I quite liked the top sketch with the pineapple on the left and the vertebra on the right behind the other fruit.  However, I though that it was a bit too symmetrical with a large object at each end and a gap in the middle.  I decided to simplify and remove several items and use a diagonal/triangular arrangement.

I did a rough sketch of this arrangement in my sketch book using drawing pen, graphite and black marker. The dark background was provided by a suspended blue sheet.

Tonal Study A2 Charcoal on Cartridge Paper

This quick reference study was done to get an idea of the tonal values. I had moved the apple slightly. It was only after I had finished this that I realised that  the position and shape of the vertebra were incorrect. One of the wings is just touching the pineapple  and the other is just kissing the top of one of the mandarins so that it looks like the vertebra is perched precariously on top of this fruit. I realised I either needed to go back to overlapping these items or to separate them completely.

A3 Coloured Pencil Preliminary Study

I tried drawing the vertebra at a different angle so that it was overlapped by the mouldy clementines. I prefer the bolder composition when it is seen face on to this arrangement. I thought the oblique positioning might enhance the feeling of depth but It just seemed to reduce the impact of the bone as a focal point. I liked using colour here. Unfortunately I was running out of paper. I'd ordered some more but it hadn't yet arrived so I tried drawing this on some Bockingford paper. I though that the texture of the paper might help the pencil crayons to build up colour. In fact the opposite was true. The paper didn't have much 'tooth'. It was really difficult to use coloured pencils on this surface. 

Mark Making

Sketchbook experiments based on the texture of the pineapple.

Final Drawing: A2 Soft Pastel on Cartridge Paper

For the final drawing I decided to work in soft pastel because i thought it would suit the chalky texture of the bone as well as the powdery texture of the mould. The other consideration was that as my paper had not yet arrived, I only had white cartridge paper left to work on. Pastel would cover a large area rapidly when blocking in the blue drapery in the background. I like the bold colours that have been produced and the contrast between the dark background and the light vertebra.

I have scratched into the thickly applied pastel with a graphite pencil to represent the fine striations on the bone surface,

I had changed the composition at the last minute to separate the items given the problems with 'kissing' before. I though this implied triangle would give a good bold composition. Unfortunately it lacks any great sense of depth.