Weekly Report: Week Commencing 13th January

This week I completed the Project: Proportions and did a few additional drawings for practice. I also completed the Exercise: Essential Shapes in the Project: Form. 

I have also read and made notes on the first chapter of 'Portraiture' by Shearer West in the Oxford history of Art series (Oxford University Press 2004). I found this chapter 'What is a Portrait?' very interesting but do not intend to review it here. I will be using this book as part of my research for the research point about self portraiture so am making notes as I go along and will blog about the book when I get to that research point.

Concurrently I am continuing to read the book about Paul Klee which I started last week. I am finding this less stimulating. I don't find it as well written and the illustrations don't seem to relate well to the order of the text but I will finish reading it in time for the study visit next Saturday at Tate Modern.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 6th January

Tired, Tired, Tired! but I have finally finished updating my blog (my least favourite part of the course). I am also about half way through the book about Paul Klee. 

I can now move forwards with part 4 of the course. I'm really looking forward to this although a bit nervous because I stopped drawing over Christmas and New year. I also realise I'm going to have to adjust my working schedule. I usually do most of my art work in the mornings when my husband an son are not around - also I'm more of a 'morning person'. However - I will need them to model for me so will have to be more flexible. I can do the projects on anatomy or self portraiture in the mornings and also any research points but will have to do the main bulk of the work of drawing people in the evenings under artificial light.

Weekly Report : Week Commencing 30th December

Away from home this week working. It was the busiest week I've ever had (bank holidays are generally busy for emergency clinics but this was quite ridiculous). Very long shifts and very little rest. On top of that I was anxious as there had been earthquakes at home and Luca is not is a position to run for it in the middle of the night if one should occur because he still has both of his feet in plaster. Lack of sleep meant that my plan to complete my blog did not materialise. I did, however manage to pack up my assignment and sketchbooks and post them to my tutor before returning home.

I also purchased two books:

'Paul Klee- life and work' by Boris Friedewald. Prestel 2013

and 'Pedagogical Sketchbook' by Paul Klee Translated by Sibyl Mihily-Nagy. Faber and Faber 1968

I am going to the current Tate exhibition at the end of January with a group from the OCA Sketchbooks group so want to find out a bit more about the artist.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 23rd December

I have had very little time to myself this week because Luca is still immobile in the wheelchair and we had all the family over for Christmas so I prepared christmas dinner for 10 people. I haven't stuck to my resolution to draw every day. The most creative I've been is in baking cakes to give out to friends and neighbours. Not course related but satisfying nevertheless. Happy Christmas everyone!

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 16th December.

This week I finally completed assignment three for which I have made a separate post.

With assignment 3 completed I am having a short pause in my studies enforced because my son has been in hospital for some surgery. It was nothing too serious but he is immobile as he has casts on both of his feet at the moment. He needs more of my attention than usual. However, I plan to take advantage of his immobility and use him as a model for part 4. (Unfortunately he is only going to be able to do sitting and reclining poses. I'll need others for standing poses.) 

18th December: I took my small sketchbook with me to the hospital and took advantage of him snoozing to draw some very rapid pen sketches. In the first one I looked at the paper very little to warm up. The second is a better (but not wonderful) likeness.

Snoozing After Surgery

22nd December: In common with most teenage boys, Luca is obsessed with his games console. I sketched him playing - again a very rapid sketch with a biro. He was concentrating to intently on his game that he didn't even notice he was being observed.

Intense Concentration.

I plan to continue my resolution of drawing something every day even during this time when most of my energy is directed elsewhere.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 9th December

I travelled back to Italy in Wednesday 11th after visiting my family in North Yorkshire and receiving an early Christmas present 'Anatomy for Artists' by Sarah Simblet which will be very useful for part 4 of the course.

On 11th I was bored at the airport so I did some very quick sketches of people around me both before departure and on arrival. Most of these people also had an air of boredom about them with slumped shoulders and a mooching gait. Some looked bewildered while staring up at the arrivals screens. This was the first time I had ever tried drawing people in a public place. I really enjoyed it but had to sketch very rapidly because I didn't want to get caught in the act and because the population of people on front of me changed very rapidly. 

Images of boredom:

From 12th December onwards I continued to work on assignment 3. (see posts "Assignment 3 revisited" and "Assignment 3- Choosing").

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 2nd December

This week I was away from home working. My work was, therefore confined to my small sketchbook. I deliberately took a break from working on the assignment so that I would be refreshed on my return home.

I had noticed when drawing the statues that I really struggled with the hands and feet so started the week by drawing my own hands. They are a handy (excuse the pun) subject to sketch in a spare five minutes because I always have them with me.

"you need Hands":

I did feel I made some progress with these drawings. I especially like the fluidity of line on the pen drawings on the first picture collage - these were done almost blind with just an occasional peek at the paper. This encouraged me to do more blind drawings.

On December 5th Nelson Mandela Died so I was inspired to draw a portrait based on a newspaper photo.

The pencil  drawing was my first attempt. Although I do think there's something of a likeness there the drawing in general is unexciting. It looks stiff and inhibited (like the sort of drawing I dis as a self-conscious teenager). His neck is also much too thin so he resembles a lollipop. My immediate reaction to this was to need to loosen up by doing a blind drawing and a continuous line drawing to get that fluidity back. Neither of these are a good likeness to the subject but I like them better probably because I enjoyed the process of making them much more.

Knowing that in part 4 I will have to produce a self portrait also did a blind contour 'selfie'

I'd equate this more to a 'selfie' (self portraits generally taken with a mobile phone or similar for posting on social media) because of the rapidity of execution. However, the selfie is generally supposed to be flattering. This isn't a good likeness - my eyes are too close together, the mouth is too wide and I've given myself extra double chins. However, it does look like a reasonably proportioned face which is a start for such a rapid contour drawing.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 25th November

I have worked on assignment 3 every day this week, the details of my explorations and results are in the posts that follow. 

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 18th November

This week I completed the project "Drawing Trees". On Saturday 23rd I spent the day at the archeological Museum in Naples drawing the statues. (See entry "drawing Statues revisited"). The finish line for part 3 is in sight and I am starting to warm up for drawing people which I suspect I will find more enjoyable than part 3 has been.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 11th November

Very tired this week after my hectic week of work last week. It took until nearly the end of the week to get myself over the 'jet lag' and back to living in daylight hours. Since then I have been mainly drawing trees.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 4th November

Another tough week away at work but I have drawn some trees and I have managed to stick to my resolution of drawing something and posting something to the web every day. A lot of what I produced was blind drawing and very quick doodles but I have at least stuck to the plan and have not over-edited my posts. I have received mostly positive feedback for my work from the supportive group.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 28th October

Back from Venice late on Monday evening. 

I have spent most of this week working on the project 'Drawing Trees'. I am making slow but steady progress.

This week I have also signed up for a Facebook group "Art Every Day of November" in order to challenge myself to establish the habit of drawing something every single day. To be in this group I have to draw something every day and post it on to Facebook. When I'm working on coursework I will post that but my plan with this is to establish the habit to keep drawing - even if it is just a small doodle even when I am very busy and tired after work. Good habits are hard to establish. Bad habits are hard to break. I'm hoping that by re-enforcing this good habit every day throughout November that it will become more ingrained and less likely to slip in the future.The other benefit to me will be that is I have committed myself to posting something every day which will mean that I will inevitably have to post work which I'm not happy with. This will be good for me. It's time I got over myself and became more honest, less precious and less selective. I'm trying to overcome the feeling that my art is private -a furtive activity I only do behind closed doors and which will only see the light of day when I feel it is ready (which might be never).

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 21st October

This week I have finally put the townscapes project to bed. 

On Friday morning (early) Luigi and I flew to Venice from Naples. On Friday afternoon we wandered around Venice and visited the Peggy Guggenheim collection as well as The Angola Pavillion which was just around the corner from the Peggy Guggenheim.

On Saturday we purchased a two day pass to vista the biennale. We spent all of Saturday at the exhibits at Giardini and all of Sunday at Arsenale. The whole experience was quite overwhelming (but enjoyable). Two days were not enough to see everything and I will have to be very selective about what I put into this blog if I don't want to spend six months writing it up!

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 14th October

This week I have continued to work on the townscape project and I have continued to post work on the OCA Sketchbooks group. I am making steady but slow progress and plan to have the townscapes project finished before next Friday when dec leave for Venice. 

Luigi is taking me to Venice for the biennale as a late birthday present!! (my birthday was 2nd October - we didn't celebrate because I was depressed)

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 7th October

No progress this week. I have been away working and just about have the energy to work (14-15 hour night shifts), eat and sleep so have not produced any coursework.

Weekly Report : Week Commencing 30th September

This week I contacted my tutor to let her know what's happening. I am making painfully slow progress at the moment and it is clear that I will miss my deadline for completion of this project. 

My tutor was very understanding and has given me and extension for this part. I also requested that I could use photographs just to keep me drawing (for therapeutic reasons) when I am too strung out to go outside.

That being said I have made some progress - I have used som eof the suggestions I was given by the OVA sketchbooks Facebook group. I have made several trips to draw outdoors this week. They have been very short trips at very quiet times but they are a step in the right direction.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 23rd September

This has been a particularly bad week. I have spent more than three whole days in bed this week. I have started to recognise the signs of tipping over from tiredness and a bit of anxiety in to depression. I have had several episodes of severe depression previously so at least I recognise it before it becomes too debilitating and dangerous. I started back on medication this week but I need to be careful and be kind to myself.

From previous cognitive behavioural therapy I know that one way to change the depression is to change my behaviour so on Friday, I decided that when I dropped my son at his piano lesson, instead of driving home and back I would hang around the town and draw. Unfortunately there were a lot of people about as they were making the town ready for a Festa so I drove round in a circle twice looking for a quiet spot then drove home feeling frustrated and defeated. When I'm suffering from depression very small tasks can seem insurmountable. I also find it very difficult to leave the house. I don't feel presentable to the world. This means that making myself conspicuous by drawing in public at the moment is a step too far. I started to feel hopeless and think about the fact that I never show my work to anyone but my tutor anyway so it doesn't communicate except with me. That being so why am I doing this anyway? Why put myself through it?

Fortunately I realise that the above is the depression speaking and to listen to myself under the current circumstances would be destructive. I also know that before I started to feel depressed I was enjoying the course so it would be much better to hang on by my fingernails and to quote Dory from 'Finding Nemo' - "Just keep swimming!" until the greyness and dullness pass and the flavour of life comes back.

I downloaded a couple of books onto my kindle:

"Art and Fear - Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking" by David Bayles and Ted Orland

and

"The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield

Neither of these were particularly challenging to read. I read both of them over the course of an evening and neither of them is about to change my life. However I did pick up a couple of pieces of information:
(1)The realisation that even great artists have a gap between their ideas of what they can achieve and what they actually produce.

(2) The imperfections in work are what produce the stimulus to continue working and point the way towards the next piece

(3) I need to stop taking myself so seriously as I'm only a beginner. I need to make mistakes and lots of them. 

I was surprised and dismayed at the proportion of artists who stop making work once they cease to study.

However, none of this helps me with the problem at hand - the embarrassment and shame of working in public and showing my work. If I am to progress I need to get through this and my fragile ego needs to learn to accept constructive criticism.

A breakthrough has come in the form of the OCA Sketchbooks group on Facebook. A group of students who regularly post work online for each other to see. I posted a question online about overcoming anxiety when working in public and got loads of response. It seems this is a common problem. There were lots of helpful suggestions. It is good to be in contact with others who are distance learning because this can be quite an isolating experience.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 16th September

I arrived back in Italy on Tuesday and feeling more exhausted than usual after a week of work and it took me longer to bounce back into daytime life than usual. By the end of the week I had completed the exercises on angular and linear perspective but I felt they were a bit half- hearted in their execution (not my usual full-on approach) but I lacked the energy and motivation to change this. I was also concerned about my anxious reaction to the fact there were a few people about when I had planned to draw outdoors (running home and hiding under the duvet). 

I decided that one way to tackle this anxiety might be to take my family with me when drawing in public so on Sunday 22nd we did a family trip into Naples. The results of this trip are written up under the separate entries 'drawing statues' and 'Study of a Townscape using Line'.  I do not think that this tactic was entirely successful however as Naples was not the best place to choose for a first excursion. It is a busy, frenetic  city and I had a lot of curious people coming to talk to me and comment on my worse. I think this may have worsened the anxiety and if anything, I felt even more self conscious having my family there. When I am anxious and self conscious my drawing is bad because I cannot relax and become absorbed in the subject.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 9th September

A very tough week of night shifts on top of a very quick turnaround of two days at home meant I lacked the energy and motivation to produce any coursework this week.

Weekly Report: Week Commencing 2nd September

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I attended a three day intensive drawing workshop in Edinburgh. It was a great experience. I enjoyed meeting tutors face to face and interacting with other students as well as seeing their work. I did feel that my work progressed over the three days and I tried approaches that I had not yet come across so it was worthwhile. 

The course was quite tiring. I flew home from London on Thursday and then only had two days at home before I had to return to the UK for another week of night shifts. Consequently, I didn't get any of my actual coursework this week although I was working on drawing at the workshop.