OCA D1: Assignments

Man-made composition

My preliminary studies for the man-made composition were mainly based upon an idea of old vs new methods. My profession is web designer and photoshop features heavily when I'm designing layouts and graphics. I'm also the owner of a rubbery morph (a little nostalgia here) figure that sits on my desk holding a pencil for me. I liked the idea of suggesting tension between two very different methods of modelling. However, in the end I decided to shelve this idea, perhaps for a project at a later stage, and concentrate on the project in hand, which was observation.

Morph did feature in my composition but with symbolism and narrative removed. I was very happy with my preliminary studies and very happy with my choice of medium; the composition contained vibrant colours that wouldn't have had the same impact as a tonal study. I was pleased with my reflected light bouncing off the mouse and the look of transparency on the celotape. I wasn't so pleased with my finished composition ~ my preliminary study of this composition was a square pictorial space and this didn't transpose on to my A2 in landscape format. My design was lost in A2.

Overall, I am happy with this piece but I feel the composition could have been improved.

This is my man-made composition in oil pastel

Natural objects

My natural objects worksheet wasn't completed as methodically as the man-made one. My studies were made without the confines of a pictorial space, which came afterwards. My aim was to create a full composition, making good use of a considerable negative space. I wanted a balanced composition that suggested life beyond the pictorial space, which is something I like in general. I wanted to include a range of texture and tone.

I was very excited about this piece. I haven't been a huge fan of charcoal in the past and I wanted to conquer my fear of the medium. I really enjoyed moving the medium around the paper. I used line, smudging, stippling with charcoal, putty rubber, erasers on the end of pencils and drawing with erasers.

If I am being completely honest, I didn't strictly stick to any design from my preliminary studies, but I did use two of the compositions as reference. I found the medium flexible and I wanted to experiment.

To conclude, I loved working on this piece. If I have one critism then it is about tone. I feel I could have chosen a greater tonal range of objects and included something a little lighter in the composition. Overall, very happy.

OCA D1: Enlarging an image

Success

My outcome was reasonably successful, however I don't think you can obtain the character, emotion or style depicted in a free-flowing drawing. I feel I had greater success with the larger, detailed image than I did enlarging the cylindrical shapes of the cup.

Satisfaction

I wasn't completely satisfied because of the reasons above; I like the pen or pencil to flow naturally when I'm drawing, and I couldn't do this when confined to copying small squares. However, I have used this technique in the past when painting a natural portrait from a photograph and it was very useful for marking out targets and proportions.

OCA D1: Using Texture

New ways of using drawing tools

Did I discover new ways of using drawing tools during this exercise? I will answer yes to this question. I'm really inspired by Hockney at the moment; his work and his attitude to life in general. Recently, I visited Salts Mill in Bradford, and here they're exhibiting a large number of Hockney pieces. I enjoyed looking at the Hockney faxes, drawings and his experiments depicting form and texture. I like the simplicity he applies to capture various well known textures and effects like wood grain and water. I wanted to capture some textures in a similar way and I wanted to see what I could achieve with a single implement; a felt tip. I believe Picasso's work has had a huge impact on Hockney and as Picasso wanted to revert his brilliant craft back to that of child, I thought, what better tool to use than a felt tip pen.

I'm not completely satisfied with my drawing because it is neither child-like or natural. However, there were no preliminary studies so I'm not dis-heartened. I'm actually going to push this further and see what other complex textures can be simplified and applied using a similar method.

Implying form with little or no tonal hatching

My picture has a little form, but I was really paying attention to the patterns in the composition. More solidity and depth could have been achieved by re-arranging the composition and working in form by using more contours and letting my line wrap around each object.

Frottage

This is something I do with my children when we get arty on our trips out to parks, and something I was very fond of as a child. For me, this was a forgotten technique. It wasn't an approach presented to me at art college and it isn't a method I've used in my work.

I was especially please with one of the sand paper results. I mixed in a couple of dark tones on to cartridge paper placed over a sheet of course sandpaper. On the down side I wasn't please with the condition of the paper after I'd finished. What I would like to discover is a method of frottage that can be taken and applied to another surface, like stretched paper or canvas.