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:
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Hayley Lock
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Date
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24.08.14
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Next assignment
due
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n/a
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