Tutor Feedback: Assignment 5

Tutor Feedback Assignment 5

Overall Comments

Thank you for submitting Assignment Five for Drawing 1. You are clearly moving forward to working more independently outside as well as within the restrictions of the course and you have produced yet again a full, enquiring and well developed Assignment. Your learning log is well written and I really enjoyed your essay where you pooled varying ideologies and theories together alongside contemporary art and the wider cultural platform. The work you have submitted around the human form is just beginning to expand in terms of its physicality. You appear to be moving away slightly from traditional drawing techniques using varying materials to get your ideas across.

You have submitted a wide range of work for this assignment and have clearly worked extremely hard throughout to produce interesting and varied outcomes. Well done

Feedback on assignment

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

 You have started off well reflecting on all of Drawing 1 to date with levels of enjoyment, which has given you a good overall idea about you and your studies, your preferred approaches and subjects as well as materials. You have been very analytical in your approach and have therefore decided to expand further with option 4, drawing Figures. You have reflected well on your study week looking at various approaches to making work in varying contexts and it is good to see you putting work that you feel is less successful on the blog.

Exercise: Quick Studies

You have produced a number of very fluid sketches of your model using ink. The drawings that have been reduced in line are confident, enquiring and personally challenging. The sketchbook work where you have produced quick line drawings from the performance Tableaux Vivantes are really very personal representations and it is good to see that you have represented images to reference the storytelling alongside. You have managed to capture movement and gesture well and the sense of character is different in every one.

Your critical review of the work is interesting in terms of recognising that total immersion in the subject and representing the figure in its most simplest and possibly its most creative and challenging way. It is good to read that this is happening, as it is certainly part of the creative process.

You have made some great notes from your research to a trip to Denmark which are contextually relevant, extensive and well critiqued. You page in your sketchbook where you have drawn Rodin’s kiss demonstrates your creativity and critical decision making from start to completion in terms of reduction of line. Well done.

Exercise: Line drawing of the whole figure

For this exercise you have selected to draw your son Luigi. The stance of the figure is well observed with his weight falling on his elbow and the awkwardness of a teenage pose is reflected well within this drawing. The torso and scale is good and you have really grasped the foreshortening of the leg well, which suggests that your measuring techniques have worked and you have pushed your learning forward. The hands could have been a little bigger but overall the gestural mark making is confident, energetic, reductive and creative, so well done. Aspects of tone could have been enhanced for added weight and volume. You then continued with a series of quick experimental drawings using oil transfer techniques, which suggests your level of enquiry continuing on from the demands of each exercise.

Research point: Ingres, David, Degas, Giacometti and Hockney

Your summative research from 'The Linear Economy' in 'The Primacy of Drawing- Histories and Theories of Practice' is very good. You have referenced a number of contemporary artists whilst considering line and what this may mean to artists extremely well in terms of summative content. The artists and their cross over influences have been researched very thoroughly and with a high degree of competency. Yet again, you demonstrate high levels of understanding and critical evaluation throughout your personal research, so very well done overall.

Exercise: Using colour

You have produced a number of colour studies for this exercise. The strongest is the watercolour drawing of your husband cleaning his teeth. You have managed to use colour well to suggest form, light and tone and the torso and stance of the figure works very well. Particularly strong areas that work well are the legs, feet, shoulders and cast shadow. The head is perhaps a little too pink when compared to the rest of the form but I would suggest that you take time to pursue this approach and medium more, again in a reductive sense perhaps to evoke emotion. Well done.

The studies of your eye, nose and mouth using coloured pencil are again quite competent. As stand alone drawings they are interesting and enquiring in terms of studies of the self. Do you know the work of Miranda Whall? http://www.mirandawhall.com/ Her work is similar in drawing terms (the subject much more shocking perhaps) and she often references animals and nature but her craftsmanship is really quite astounding. I think you may find her practice, if you don’t know it already, of personal interest.

Your final drawing references colour and tone well. It is good to see you considering what drawing can be as an artist. Would you then be interested perhaps in drawing more conventionally from this collage? That could be quite compelling to the viewer if close up the ‘collage’ was really a drawing in its traditional sense.

You have produced good personal critique throughout this submission on your blog.

Exercise: Tonal study

You have submitted a good range of drawings looking at tone, varying grounds and under good light. The proportions of the faces are not too bad overall and it is clear that you have understood the demands of the exercise. The most successful drawing in terms of depicting light, mid and dark tones overall is the drawing you struggled most with, the drawing of your son Luca. Despite the slight overuse of white, the varied mid tones of his cheek and jaw line really give the portrait depth. Despite the lack of likeness to your son, this drawing works very well in terms of proportion, measurement and its overall balance in terms of understanding facial composition. The drawing of your husband Luigi works well on the right hand side in regard to the position of the features but the eye on the left is much further out to the left hand side of the face. The gap between the bridge of his nose to the eye socket would need further observation and measurement to be more accurate however the rest of his features and very convincing. Make sure that when measuring you keep your arm out straight and is 90⁰  away from your trunk/torso. A good way to do this sometimes is to place a mirror tile centrally and vertically down the centre of the head to see how the two halves should look. It may also be easier to place a blank piece of paper over one half of the face and photocopy, flipping it to the left. Doing this on tracing paper can allow you to see the misalignment easier. Make sure that all the measurements are made carefully before filling in any other information as you go. The most likely cause is that you drew one side of the eye and then shifted position slightly to draw the other half which has allowed the left hand side eye to move both across and upwards slightly. This of course takes a great deal of practice but there are some good instructional videos about measuring the face (and figure) online if it helps.

Assignment 5

Preliminary Research and ideas

You have started off this assignment by mind mapping your ideas and thoughts on how to get the most of this final assignment for your own personal progression. Again, as your work is often driven by good contextual research, your thoughts about the artist Michael Landy and his drawings around his father’s state of health was enriching to see when placed against your own drawings on a black ground. Your thoughts around the feminine and all that that entails works well and it great to see a great deal of independent thought and process drive work being made. Despite your reservation about the last drawing relying heavily on what you know already, as you move through these courses you approach to making work may be less demanding in terms of process driven but more driven by causality, so don’t worry about this too much if this happens later on, it may be a preferred way of working. You are clearly thinking and questioning everything you are doing and that is the most important part of what you do.

You have written a compelling and deeply thoughtful essay on and around narcissism, including relevant contemporary practice and theory. You may be interested in the artist Erica Eyres http://www.ericaeyres.com/  and the artist Liv Pennington http://www.livpennington.com/

Initial Sketches

You have submitted a good and varied number of studies looking at depicting the human portrait by drawing 50 drawings in 4 hours. Drawing reductively in line on tracing paper then further develops these. The layering idea depicts expression well and allows the work to take on another dialogue. You then move on to develop a series of more emotive drawings looking at facial expression and distortion. The images you have submitted are easy to read in terms of development, so well done so far. Experimenting with monotypes moves the work in further in terms of working with oil based smears – a great idea with some very productive outcomes. It would be great to see this theme continuing much further and contextually fits very well into your critical personal research. These haunting images work well.

Your thoughts around he face as a marker of subject experience is an interesting read and your visual representations and creative and exploratory. For me the work feels a little lost (this may of course have been your initial intention). The visuals continuing under the title ‘Obfuscation’ however, feel much more coherent. You have produced a number of abstracted images that are extremely curious if not a little frightening, that work extremely well as a series. Your enquiries are investigative and wide-ranging throughout as you try out new things using varying techniques and processes.

Sketchbooks

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

You are clearly working well in sketchbooks. You are clearly engaged with the course and are embedded in your own investigative enquiries throughout this assignment both in and out of a sketchbook. It could be interesting to see if you would feel comfortable working to a theme in a sketchbook now that you are starting to consider a more research based practice. I am in no doubt that your energetic and contextually engaging work will continue onto further study. You annotate well throughout and work in a personal, intuitive and independent way from an idea, through to development and conclusion in terms of the visual.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

Context

Again an extremely enquiring, mature and dynamic learning log has been submitted. Despite the fact that you have had to work with a very tight deadline the written work is extremely well written, coherent and of a high standard. For me the work you have submitted for this final assignment is over and beyond the exercises set and it is clear that you have a great ability to push yourself hard in terms of your reading and researching across art theory, cultural references and personal outcomes. You have clearly research a significant number of contemporary artists as well as historical in support of your own ideas and you are very good at unpicking and reevaluating the work of others against other writings. You have submitted a coherent, highly developed and personally demanding account of your learning thus far with good critical and evaluative skills throughout.

Suggested reading/viewing

Context

I have suggested some further artists for you to look at in reference to your thoughts about the human gaze, the female, the feminine and the narcissistic. I am in no doubt that you will continue your own personal studies and enquiries, as you are a highly competent student who works well independently. Continue to read and review articles that are of interest to you. You my wish to read aspects of e-flux http://www.e-flux.com/ to which you can subscribe to enhance both yourself and your academic studies.

Pointers for the next assignment

You may wish to continue a series of sketchbooks on varying themes around the sense of the feminine. You can easily produce one a week and you may wish to include writing within that. I would like you to consider the written word within your own work and continue to work reductively as you do so. Always take a step back from the work and ask yourself if you are being too literal, whether your work is pushing you on a personal level and if it feels ‘successful’ on personal terms. Continue as you are and I am in no doubt that you will flourish in terms of written critique, push some of those working ideas further in terms of professional develop and of course, keep going to see shows or performances that take you out of your comfort zone.

Good luck with the assessment and if you need any help, then please feel free to email me.

Tutor name:	Hayley Lock
Date	24.08.14
Next assignment due	n/a

Tutor Feedback: Assignment 4

My own responses to the comments are in blue italics


Overall Comments

Thank you for submitting Assignment 4 for Drawing 1. It is clear that you have worked extremely hard on this assignment and both your drawing skills and contextual understanding have been enhanced as a result of that hard work. Your confidence in drawing figures has really moved on from where you started and with further research and careful study of the work of others and their working processes you really have gained confidence as well as experimental in your approach to drawing as a whole. Although this initial lack of confidence did abate with experience your creative skills and open mindedness needs to be commended throughout Assignment 5, as you really have moved on a space from start to finish.

I have certainly enjoyed this section of the course and can see improvement in skills and confidence 

You have worked extremely hard throughout Assignment 4 and your extended research is exemplary. Through repetition experimentation and practice, I have no concerns that you will take on Assignment 5 with gusto. Enjoy the last Assignment in terms of creativity, research and play and I look forward to the completion of Drawing 1 in the near future. I have highlighted small areas to consider in your figure drawing below but on the whole the work is far reaching and in depth throughout. Well done.


Assessment potential 

I understand your aim is to go for the either for the Painting or the Creative Arts Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, I suggest that you are likely to be successful in the assessment.





Feedback on assignment 

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity 

Project: Project Proportions
Exercise: Quick Poses

You have produced a large number of drawings for this exercise with a good reflective account of what worked and what didn’t and why. You are clearly nervous through inexperience of drawing figures, but this is a good start. Remember to build on what you know already, like negative space, light and tone. 

Yes I was nervous at the outset when faced with drawing people so did show a tendency to forget soma of the techniques I had already learnt and just randomly bash and flail about. As the exercises proceeded I calmed down and was able to apply previous learning and progress.

Exercise: The Longer Pose

You have managed to settle into the proportions of the model here and have started to take on quite complex poses.  The rapid warm up sketches feel more confidant than the quicker initial poses and the drawing on page 27 feels in proportion and the stance of the figure is successful. The final, more overly drawn piece holds good proportion from head to torso but the models top right leg is a little over shortened and lacks width at the top of the knee but again, your difficulties have been reflected upon well in your learning log. It is easy to see that you are working hard at depicting reflected light and tone, so well done.

Yes - I was aware there was a problems with that leg.

The second attempt is to draw yourself drawing for around an hour to satisfy those questions that had arisen from the first. You have been very brave in your analytical approach to the proportions rather than the impact at staring and judging your own figure and the result is good. The head is slightly smaller than the rest of the body but the proportions of the trunk and legs is good. There are some lovely marks being made on the paper, particularly around the legs within this drawing. Proportionally your right arm is a little too narrow and the foreshortening is a little out but this is a wonderfully personal replication of the self, so well done.

Check and log

Good.

Personal research

You have looked at the work of Maria Lassnig, Paul Klee (Tate Modern), Ellen Altfest, Laura Simmons, Allan McCollum, Hans Bellmer, Maria Merz and Imran Qureshi. An extensive and wide ranging research profile I am extremely pleased that you have written up and included images of their very varied working styles. You are as usual very open minded to researching your own interests as well as those highlighted throughout and this will no doubt be incredibly informative in regard to your own working practice. Great, keep going.

Project: Form
Exercise: Essential shapes
Exercise: Essential elements

Again you have submitted a wide range of supporting sketches in your sketchbook with a clear written account supporting your understanding within your learning log. Breaking the body down to its simplest shapes and units is a good way to quickly get down information.  Although some proportions are not accurate the overall approach is positive, so well done.

Try to lightly make out some connecting factors. Mark out the tip of the head to the chin, the chin to the belly button, the belly button to the waist and so on using the one eye closed movement and your ruler or pencil angled ahead of you but with your arm out straight each time at a 90 degree angle away from your own body. Always mark out your position if you can on the floor if seated by using masking tape to tape out your feet as leaning forwards and backwards really can alter the measurements. It is very much to do with your own body positioning as well as your models. Errors can be made if you don’t keep your own arm straight whilst measuring also, so be mindful of this at all times, whatever you are drawing from life.

Yes, this still needs work. I will take more accurate note of the position of my body and measuring arm for future studies.

You have also included a few experimental pieces of your own in support of your studies, so again, well done.

Project: Gesture

Well done again for the extensive research of the artists Ryan Woodward, Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, John Singer Sargent and Tracey Emin. It is clear that this research has heavily influenced your own drawing research, which is investigative, quick and varied in material. The needle and ink drawings are loose and exciting as are the brush and ink, so well done.

Exercise: Stance
You have submitted a wonderfully free and well studied series of drawings using ink for this exercise. Your confidence is clearly moving from strength to strength and all of your hard work and enquiry is producing some every confident outcomes.

The line of axis has been drawn in on a photocopy of the original to map out the position and aligning of weight distribution and stance without interfering with the finished product and is clear that you have managed this exercise very well. You have submitted a range of drawings with good explanatory annotations throughout due to your knowledge of anatomy before hand and have written up your account very clearly in your learning log. You have managed to get the whole of the figure into each drawing too, so well done there. Your drawings on a coloured ground with conte and coloured pencil are really very successful.

Exercise: Energy
You have submitted another wide ranging and extensive series of drawings for this exercise.  I am particularly fond of the blind contour continuous line drawing on page 38 as it is in proportion, holds great energy and says a lot about you the artist and your ability to capture the essence of an exercise well. The varied materials used suggests that you are challenging your own abilities and creativity and the marks you are using are confidence, enquiring and skills based. You are also very experimental in the syringe, needles and ink drawing. Knowing your background and interests this approach really reflects you as much as the subject as is full of energy and passion for drawing, so well done.

I thoroughly enjoyed the gesture exercises.
Check and log
Very good.

Project: Structure
Research point: Anatomy

Good and wide research throughout looking at anatomy, the skeleton and the construct of flesh over bones. You have supported your research with good note taking and it is clear that you understand what you have read and have put that knowledge into your own drawing investigations, so well done. You have produced an impressive number of studies looking at the hands and feet in particular, studied the masters of anatomical drawing as well as contemporaries such as Fernando Vicente. Your larger skeletal drawing on black paper works very well.

Exercise: Three drawings

You have written up a good account of the exercise and I would agree that there are some successful parts and I would urge you to draw the feet, however crude in order for the drawings to feel ‘complete’. You have tackled drawing on larger paper well and the use of brown ink makes the drawings seem very fluid. More work on the models arms would add strength to the drawing, perhaps draw the negative space first to help you ascertain what is actually taking up the space first? It is just as important to remember that the width of the arms should be measured against the head as they are surprisingly wider than we are led to believe. A good effort all round, well done. Foreshortening needs to be practiced more using close measurements to get it completely correct.

I was still struggling to get everything on the page and tending to leave out the feet because I found them difficult. Point taken. Yes I was definitely struggling with the foreshortening.

You move on to produce drawings that really get to grips with foreshortening. The lying down poses are extremely competent and it feels like you have really cracked earlier problems in this regard.

Thank you! That is reassuring as I had tried very hard with this and still wasn't sure whether I'd succeeded.

Project: the clothed figure
Exercise: Fabric with line and form

Clearly this is a new way of working for you and you are a little nervous about it and find it difficult at first. As you persist and draw a number of large studies of cloth over a chair your seeing ability improves and you manage to draw some lovely studies of fabric including a great varied page on page 66. You tackle numerous way to do this in a variety of different mediums which really evidences your continued focus within this exercise depicting drape, folds and texture of cloth throughout and with more time and more confidence in varying your materials you can have produced some very effective drawings throughout. 

With further research into artists that have depicted cloth, you move on to produce a number of smaller studies in boxes on page 69 that embrace a number of different mediums culminating in a lovely page of varied study.

Exercise: Form and movement in a clothed figure

You have submitted some drawings from an OCA drawing workshop and some larger works that have been placed in your sketchbook. The first drawn in conte shows a huge leap in depicting form as you have produced an extremely competent well composed drawing of your model in a toweling robe. The cloth is depicted well with the light hitting parts of the cloth well suggesting the form beneath the cloth surface. The foreshortening of the models legs is particularly successful and you have managed to draw the feet. A well - executed drawing, despite the feeling of ‘dullness’ described in your learning log highlights the complexities of the human form in garments very well indeed.

The second drawing, although less complete than the first feels as if more tonal study could have given the drawing much more depth. Proportionally however, the subject is handled well. More time on this one could have brought it into completion.

I was feeling frustrated they day and abandoned the second drawing before bringing it to resolution - it sounds like I should have continued with it.

Project: The moving figure
Exercise: Sitting and waiting

You have submitted a number of quick sketches drawn at the airport as you travel so often. You have annotated well and managed drawing in public with some degree of confidence. Good, loose, expressive outcomes, well done.

Exercise: Fleeting moments

Again, you have produced a number of check sketches for this exercise and have included a methodology of Klee’s, which is always great to see. Although you haven’t really mentioned it in your learning log I quite like the drawing on page 78 with its introduction of bright colours and loose expressive mark making techniques. You have produced an interesting series depicting the odd stances of people taking selfies in places of great beauty. Capturing the body shapes and odd behavior in isolation is really interesting.

Research point: People watching
Again another interesting set of drawings confidently rendering using a range of drawing materials and approaches. Your submission is very characterful throughout.

Project: Self portrait
Exercise: Drawing your face

Good preliminary sketches again using a variety of different mediums and poses. You have managed to capture small parts in your studies that depict an earring, an eye. Your detailed sketches are good in scale, proportion and fine detailing, so very well done. You mention struggling with preliminary sketches in your learning log. They are designed for you to settle into drawing, look carefully at what it is you are drawing and play through experiment a range of ideas before settling down on a larger or longer drawing, so have fun and try not to worry, what you are doing is absolutely spot on to the requirements.

Exercise: A self - portrait

You have submitted a range of preliminary works supported by a good learning log entry and annotations throughout. You work through a number of different approaches using line and tone as well as working looser and more experimentally. Proportionally try to work out where the position of the mouth should be. Quite commonly is you are working on a board or in a sketchbook the bottom of the page can get skewed in terms of proportion simply because the seeing and depicting is further r down the page and away from the line of vision.

Your larger attempt in sketchbook six works ell at this scale. The eyes are very large and take up a significant amount of the page but tonally it works well overall. You produce a range of painted drawings as well as another charcoal piece. In this last charcoal drawing the proportions work much more successfully. You have managed to grasp the form, flesh and expression well throughout. The coloured drawing is much more involved and feels quite penetrating due to the intensity of the stare. This feels a little overworked but otherwise another very good study overall.

Yes I can see that in my first few attempts the eyes are too large and tend to dominate. I suspect this is a common fault with beginners. The last charcoal drawing felt better in terms of proportion and likeness.

Exercise: Portrait from memory

You have annotated well and very succinctly the experience of drawing from memory in your learning log. These are weaker drawings I would agree but your explanation as to why makes this backwards step very valid. Recording in your learning log is very beneficial in understanding the why’s within your approaches to drawing. Your looser continuous line drawing works well in terms of capturing a memory, as it appears ghostly, undefined and open to interpretation, just as memory is itself.

I'd never thought of it like that but the lack of definition does fit very well with the representation of a memory. I certainly felt that these continuous line drawings were much better than my original attempts at drawing from memory.

Research point: Rembrandt, Van Gogh and others
Excellent exploratory research throughout supported by relevant selected images in support of your writing on the blog. Your selection is wide ranging, questioning and contemporary, fantastic.

Assignment Four
Line and shape

You have submitted a large range of preparatory drawings looking at both the figure and its context. The supporting annotation and learning log entry is detailed, honest and enquiring.  You really have reflected well on your learning to date and the fluidity of the mark making is really taking shape. The line works on acetate on page 25 have a simplistic charm and confidence to them and it good to see you scaling up and down as you move through your preparatory drawings. You are being very experimental throughout the work and the wire and subsequent slightly abstract drawings again are very good in regard to challenging what you know and what you hope to get from the work in terms of experimental enquiry. The gridded work demonstrates your understanding of how to scale up and also how you wish to exaggerate certain aspects of the figure in front of you. The experimental approach to using line is exemplary resulting in many variations on your chosen theme. For me, page 35 in your largest sketchbook really sums up the leap from start to almost completion of this assignment. You are crafting the selected materials well and have the confidence to tackle the figure under many of its guises. Your final drawing is well proportioned, creatively executed and confident. The context, although you are a little unhappy with it does not reflect away from the figure and becomes quite illustrative overall, a very good effort throughout.

Tone
Again you have submitted a wide range of varied preliminary studies and drawings. You are not frightened of taking on anything new and pages 37 you really tackle complex poses with great tonal ability. The final tonal drawing reflects well the exercise where you were asked to tackle folds in fabric. Both the sofa and your subject hold many folds and you have tackled what is a very complex image quite well. The arms do not quite make sense against the torso (imagine the figure standing up) as the foreshortening again needs further understanding but overall, once more you have worked hard at this assignment in regard to tone. There are some great studies within the whole of this assignment and you have clearly worked very hard at each stage of Assignment 4.
Yes I still need to work on foreshortening. I can't put my finger on what is wrong here. His torso was crunched up and he was leaning slightly forwards.


Sketchbooks 
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity 
Your sketchbooks are being used extremely well for this assignment, are prolific in terms of content and enquiry and contain number of varied content such as varied research points and experimental techniques and processes. You are clearly using them as part of an ongoing investigation both within and outside of the exercises set. You are clearly adding your own ideas and research enhancing your thoughts and confidence throughout in a deep and personal way. 

Your visual and technical skills have moved on considerably through experimentation and experience and your looking skills at tackling and understanding the human form have become wide reaching as a result. 


Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays 
Context
Your learning log is clear, organised and very easy to follow.  You have good writing skills that demonstrate that you are engaged fully in your studies and for this assignment you have pooled your interest in science with your artistic experience in understanding how to draw the figure.  You are critical and analytical throughout and your research is both contextually relevant and full of individual enquiry on top of what is expected of you in regard to the course. The learning log is extensive in regard to your learning experience throughout.

Suggested reading/viewing 
Context 
Visit at least two exhibitions in your locality (Italy or the UK) and write up your thoughts about the visit with supporting images as part of Assignment 5. Read at least one article from two of the books on the reading list if possible.

Pointers for the next assignment
Despite your reservations around Assignment 5 this is the final part of Drawing 1 for you and you should relish the chance to complete the exercises in your own personal way as you have done similarly in Assignment 4. Don’t be fazed by what you think may be repetitive and a little dull. Stick to the outline of the Assignment but really enjoy the freedom to run away with things in terms of your own creativity.

I'm very pleased with the feedback on assignment 4. My tutor has clearly looked at my work in depth and noted the amount of effort that has gone into this section of the course. There are a few things to look at for the next assignment. In particular taking more care with measuring and getting to grips better with foreshortening.

Tutor name: Hayley Lock
Date 04.07.14
Next assignment due 17.08.14

Tutor Feedback: Assignment 3

Overall Comments

My own responses to the comments are in blue Italics.

Thank you for submitting assignment 3 for Drawing 1. It is clear that you have worked hard on this assignment despite its difficulties and that your research and learning log backs up your studies well, however, at times, although you have an acute awareness of this, the work tightens and then loosens around your confidence.
It is true that my work has suffered during this assignment owing to issues with confidence.

 I would suggest that you try to look when you can at work in its physical sense to see and understand the many different approaches to drawing as two are very rarely similar and I would like you to think carefully about your own ability where possible. Obviously a lack of confidence can really restrict the work or at best get in the way at times. I would like you to try and really enjoy it much more in terms of the experience of drawing for this is such an important part of the process. 

I found the statement 'I would like you to think carefully about your own ability' a bit ambiguous - I was concerned that this might mean that my ability was not sufficient for the course and I should just relax and forget about putting in for assessment. I asked for clarification on this. Hayley said she thought it was still worthwhile applying to be assessed.

You have managed to submit an extensive assignment overall and have worked extremely hard at all aspects of this assignment despite personal difficulties so this is to be highly commended. That said, loosening up and worrying less about what may happen along the way can allow you the freedom and space to make mistakes and it so often that these mistakes can over time become the unexpected and most unintentionally inventive outcome. Creatively these ‘more lucid moments’ are much more liberating and your confidence will grow with a much more ‘devil may care’ attitude. I appreciate that due to your working life this is the absolute antithesis of having the responsibility and duty of care to your patients but in the long run the freedom within this creative path can be for you both therapeutic as well as a liberating release that will bring back the balance of working hard through serious study whilst being allowed the freedom to play, discover and learn at the same time. This is how the work evolves naturally, confidence grows and achievements become a lot more attainable, so embrace the work where you can with a little less earnest approach and exciting things will happen.

Having a 'less earnest approach' will be difficult for me as I feel that my earnest approach is what has got me this far. I will try to embrace this (but trying too hard to change my approach would also be excessively earnest! - I'll try hard not to try so hard!! - a bit of an oxymoron!)

Your learning log is well written and articulate and fully supports your own work well. A more developmental and experimental approach to drawing in your finished work (as you have already grasped in your sketchbooks) will enhance your work and experience overall so please don’t feel afraid to ask questions if you have difficulties along the way as distance learning can with a heavy workload be quite difficult to juggle. You have clearly worked extremely hard and I look forward to seeing a much lighter approach to Assignment 4 if you can embrace the approach I have suggested. I am leaving you with this quote below to consider for the next assignment.


‘Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good’
Bertholt Brecht

I have seen on the OCA website the work of a painting student who did very well in avoiding tightening up for the assignment piece by working in a large format sketchbook and simply selecting the most successful pieces from this book. I think this approach might work for me as I usually enjoy the sketchbook work much more than the assignment pieces and the more relaxed attitude is beneficial.



Feedback on assignment 
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity 

Project: Landscape Drawing

Research point: Albrecht Dürer, Claude Lorrain, and L. S. Lowry
A very articulate, in depth and questioning personal response to the work of artists that have historically embraced landscape or have emulated their surroundings in a variety of different ways. Your written research demonstrates that you are good at knitting together ideas and formulae taken from artists working techniques and your visual skills at reading an image are particularly strong.

Exercise: A sketchbook walk
You have made four quick sketches from your walk and have annotated well, describing the temperature, light and points of interest within the compositions. 

Exercise: 3600 studies
These sketches are a fantastic example of how to work quickly, respond to the landscape immediately in front, to the side and behind you and demonstrate a good visual sense and visual description of what was in front of you from your garden. The charcoal drawings feel expressive and dynamic and you have explored your medium well in this exercise. Using charcoal lightly, broadly and heavily in places demonstrates that you have approached the exercise as directed, which has resulted in a competently drawn outcome, so well done.

Research point: Monet, Pissarro, and Cezanne
Excellent detailed research containing relevant contextual quotations as well as demonstrating the use of two contrasting artists as well as the history of oil paint tubes and the relationship of working en plein air with approaching the ‘truth’ in nature. Your research standard is high with many threads woven throughout to merge your readings with your discoveries on artists and their surrounding history, so well done as it’s a very interesting read overall.

Exercise: Drawing cloud formations
You really have explored a wide range of media and techniques for this exercise and have maintained good annotation and learning log entries in support of your additional research and practice of drawing cloud formations throughout. For me the charcoal and ink on pastel paper feels very reminiscent of the approach taken by John Constable in his drawing research of landscape and it is good to see you looking not only at the clouds themselves but also the work of other artists in support of your own studies. Your explorations with surfaces are also particularly interesting. The painted over collaged torn tissue, the thickness of gouache and the multi media approach is a successful one and the supporting postcards are also good supporting research.

Exercise: Plotting space through composition and structure
Plotting and selecting an atmospheric scene with intersections of field, sea and sky here has allowed you to produce a very dramatic, pictorially interesting landscape with good supporting studies in your sketchbook. Overall you have critiqued your drawing studies well. It is important, even when studying, fore, mid and backgrounds that you spend time refining what it is you are seeing. Try wherever possible to remember that you do not have to explain everything that is in front of you. You have referenced subtraction, erasing and so on earlier on in the previous exercises so where you recognise that the composition is full of information try to eradicate a lot of it by reduction. Try to use one line to depict the information rather than 5 for example. On many occasions the brain in fills this information and so it is not necessary to ‘explain it all’. Over complication of the composition just confuses the eye and the brain, so allow the drawing space by taking away or leaving parts empty or reduces to its lowest denomination.

This is a fair comment. I felt that this drawing was too 'busy' . I will be trying to simplify more in future exercises.


Research point: Claude Lorrain, Turner
Excellent research throughout, demonstrating your understanding of contextual references of working with foreground, middle ground and distance in the pictorial plane You have again been very observant in your deductions regarding the issues that each artist was involved in and your approach to writing about this is very good, demonstrating that you have good visual and research skills.

Project: Perspective
Exercise: Parallel perspective – an interior view
You have managed two attempts at parallel perspective and clearly have an understanding of how it should be. Overall these studies are not bad for a first attempt and you have clearly learnt from this exercise.

Yes the perspective needs more work but I have made an initial step forwards.

Exercise: Angular perspective
Again this has been another interesting exercise for you. You have found some good help with this approach to technical drawing and have interestingly picked out some errors within found drawings in regard to parallel perspective. It would be good to see you consider this in other drawings at a later stage but tackling the books for this exercise has clearly helped, so well done for not abandoning this exercise. More practice at home could be very useful in your understanding of how to draw interior and exterior landscapes. You have analysed the difficulties faced clearly in your learning log and it is hoped that with more practice you will obtain further knowledge and understanding of this topic.

Project: Townscapes
Exercise: Study of a townscape using line
From your learning log I can feel the tension that has been brought to you whilst attempting to draw outside. As I read through the whole journey, it became clear that your determination to not be paralysed by fear was tantamount and your will power to succeed with this exercise was enormous. For me, the attempts at doing so improve each time and your selection of environment and timing clearly paid off. The drawings do start off very wobbly but judging from the intimidation from onlookers it is hardly surprising. However, as you work right up to visiting a museum at a quieter period of time with your back against a wall the work went from strength to strength. I can only commend you for facing your fear head on and dealing with it in a positive way throughout despite the odds against success. The fact that you referred back to photographs at the beginning suggested that you were not about to abandon the exercise and this proved to be the turning point for you to revisit the outside and deal with things in a more appropriate and beneficial manner from a personal perspective. 

Exercise: A sketchbook of townscape drawings
Subsequent architectural drawings in your A5 sketchbook reveal an attempt to tackle composition. The framing with boxes allows you to do this competently and the work feels much calmer overall. You mover on to colour studies, charcoal studies and lightly drawn scenes of Venice, all seemingly more interesting and varied in terms of composition.

Exercise: A limited palette study from your studies
You have submitted competent and well - executed drawings that demonstrate a reasonably good eye for perspective, scale, colour and tone. The limited palette works well but be mindful to not be too ‘over executed’ in places? The detail however is competent.

I enjoyed this drawing but can see that it is not as free as some of the preliminary sketchbook studies.

Exercise: Drawing statues
The final equestrian drawings really pay off. The weight, stance and power of these statues really come through your work. The sense of movement captured is good and it is of little concern at this point that the composition is out. You managed to do it and be successful so well done to you.

Project: Drawing trees
Exercise: Sketching an individual tree
You have clearly drawn out many studies of trees using a good variety of different mediums. The enquiring textural qualities of the details within the trees and their overriding detailing works well and your decision to keep it simple works well as you move through the studies.  You have annotated clearly throughout your sketchbook and have made good attempts at working with colour. 

Exercise: Larger study of an individual tree
The detailing of the bark, foliage and base is there. The sense of the character of the tree is evident with its twists and bows and I wonder if due to these qualities you could have used ink in a more varied way? However, this is a really good attempt with clear, supporting contextual referencing in your learning log.

Exercise: Study of several trees
You have submitted a fantastically array of work for this exercise encapsulating the weather, light and atmospheric conditions within each piece.  I really feel that the drawings on the grey paper are particularly good due to the simplicity of the work overall, reducing line to light and shade in this work really works hard at encapsulating the sense of the piece. You move on to draw very enigmatic pieces and manage to capture interesting composition, tone and colour well. As you move on it is clear that you reflect on past exercises through looking and depicting negatives space and have produced a good series of colour drawings on acetate as a result.

Check and logs
Your learning log is packed with good, descriptive writing demonstrating a critical look at what it is you have been asked to do, the journey you made and the outcomes. Contextually everything is appropriately placed and you demonstrate a sound ability to link ideas together from varying aspects of the course as you progress. The reflective qualities of your writing demonstrates that you are learning from your experiences and putting them practically into place as you progress throughout the course. The checks are complete, extensive and well written and ordered. 

Assignment Three
Your reflections on the whole of this assignment in your learning log reveal a troublesome journey with the whole of this assignment in terms of time constraints, work/life balance and difficulties in overcoming the fears of working in public spaces. Your determination to conquer these problems has been very exemplary and the work right up to and including the final assessment work includes these difficulties. However perseverance and sheer determination shines through even to the point that you have a break from the final assignment work and revisit 10 days later to redo the work in a less restrained and controlled manner.

The work in your sketchbook is a lot more relaxed and successful in terms of exploratory approach. You explain your discovery of a fellow student who works through the work and then selects the work he has managed against the titles and content of both exercises and final assignment pieces and this would clearly fit you much better overall as the work in the sketchbook feels and looks a lot more content, questioning and exploratory in nature. Dividing the picture plane is an interesting idea and as you work through this much more experimental approach to drawing and painting the work becomes energetic, vivid and ‘alive’. It appears that then you start to reflect back on perspective drawing and its past difficulties and the work immediately starts to tighten and become a lot more ‘academic’ in nature rather than the free flowing, energetic work that I had come to see in your sketchbook. Yes - confidence problems again. The overarching comment about wishing the pictorial plane had included an open window clearly links to the subsequent reading you have done and correlates with the sense of taking the inside out and bringing the outside in to keep the work exciting, fresh and open. The first final large finished piece therefore looks harshly divided up by the window frame and controlled in terms of pictorial order. You have however decided to include the textural quality of collage to the piece suggesting your creative links to the piece and a more free approach to relaying the sense of perspective.

Subsequent experimentation in your sketchbook and a further understanding of how to obtain a ‘voice’ within your own work is clearly demonstrated in your learning log both in a written reflection and though supporting images and suggests a much freer approach to depicting its subject. The final drawings are much more fluid, expressive and really allow the eye compositionally to look around the page with ease. Keeping the monochromatic drawing limited in terms of palette the work breathes easily and feels confident in execution.

The second drawing in coloured pencil tightens up slightly, quite possibly as a lot of detail has been drawn and although visually much busier the work finds a middle ground in terms of business. The tonal aspects of shadowing in the mid ground works well in terms of slight abstraction within its minimalism and the sense of perspective is a lot more determined than the previous drawing. The colour palette works well on the ground and for me it would have been an interesting challenge to depict (with this medium of coloured pencil) a similar image to the previous one. For example how would you manage to gain the fluidity of line using coloured pencil? What if it were a mainly linear drawing with limited blocks of tone for shadow only? This type of approach will come over time with more practice and so too will the confidence to reduce the image to its simplest of form, but well done for having the bravery to revisit the assignment and move it on as far as you have. I would really like to rework this assignment as I still wasn't satisfied with the outcome. Unfortunately owing to time constraints this may not be possible.


Sketchbooks 
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity 
You sketchbooks are full, exploratory and fluid. With clear annotation throughout it is clear that using sketchbooks to prepare for an experimental approach to making work works really well for you and your creativity and problem solving techniques are evident throughout. You are using your sketchbooks well and it would be good to have seen a little more evidence of your visit to Venice in there, although I do appreciate that there was an awful lot of work to absorb there.




Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays 
Context 
Your learning log is, as it usually is, very clear, thorough and well written. Despite it being you least favourite thing to do within your studies you are extremely competent at it and it is always a pleasure to read as it clearly lays out the whole journey in terms of difficulties, enjoyments and reflects on your studies throughout. You are good at threading a weaving your reading and research to your own work and the whole process is articulate, contextually relevant, wide ranging and intelligent throughout.


Suggested reading/viewing 
Context 

Pointers for the next assignment
Your next assignment is ‘Drawing Figures’. Look at the work of these artists in order for you to become more fluid in your approach to drawing.


Gustave Marchetti
Egon Schiele
Ron Muek
John Currin
Otto Dix
Ana Mendieta
Sam Taylor Woods
Tracey Emin
Hope Gangloff


And anything seen in the flesh in terms of exhibitions that contain drawing in its loosest and more interesting form.


Pointers for the next assignment
Look at a wide variety of figure drawing throughout history, especially at the range within each artist for example Goya started off as a state painter before the Spanish Civil War and you can follow the emotional side of the work right through the changes evident in his world. Play around with new materials, perhaps unexpected ones and draw through loose and new techniques, i.e. try out by holding the pencil at the very end, draw with garden canes and ink, wire or anything new and exciting with unknown outcomes.


Tutor name: Hayley Lock
Date 23.01.14
Next assignment due 14.04.14