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.