Here is a great video of painter and life drawing teacher Jake Spicer talking about drawing in general and his passion and views on how it is a positive exercise. I found the link on Artist and Illustrators Facebook page.
After 2 months of attending life drawing lessons myself I can appreciate what he is saying and completely agree with his take on it all.
http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/news/unknown/1273/video-why-i-love-drawing-by-jake-spicer
27 November 2014
17 November 2014
The Mermaid
I recently drew up some small, rough sketches depicting the story given as part of our Narrative Image Making unit. After being drawn to storyboards whilst researching and developing ideas for my final piece, I managed to condense the short story down to 9 scenes following the plot and the various characters.
The idea was to enlarge each scene up to A4. By doing this I was able to adjust lines and essentially make each image clearer and much more distinct.
Nearly all scenes are unfinished, except for the first one and although these are more detailed than my smaller studies, they still need a lot of work! I plan to add colour, additional objects and general detail on Photoshop. I'll need to scan them all in and just continue adding the characters who are absent from these drawings. I figured I'll be able to do a better job creating them digitally rather than with my own hand! You might notice scene 3 being re-used for scene 6, the reason for this is I quite like the perspective it has on the end of the boat and leaves room for me to add waves and the mermaid on Photoshop. Plus scene 3 is when the skipper decided to throw a herring at the mermaid, and scene 6 is when Donald witnesses the mermaid disappear under the water once he had thrown his herring in, I felt it made sense to retain that perspective and angle especially when both scenes are focused on the mermaid. Again I must stress that these drawings are very rough! Every time I look at them I can see them evolving into the final stages and this excites me, I am pleased that at this stage I'm maintaining momentum and continuing to develop this specific piece(s) of work.
Displaying the pieces for my presentation is the next part of the process, I'll figure that out when I need to. I'm enjoying developing these pen drawings at the moment.
Oh and I haven't created a drawing for scene 9 as I plan to create the final scene in a different vein. Since the story ends rather abruptly and mysteriously, I may look into using different materials to emphasise the scene. Then again... maybe not. It may end up too ambitious and unachievable in the time frame we have!
The idea was to enlarge each scene up to A4. By doing this I was able to adjust lines and essentially make each image clearer and much more distinct.
Nearly all scenes are unfinished, except for the first one and although these are more detailed than my smaller studies, they still need a lot of work! I plan to add colour, additional objects and general detail on Photoshop. I'll need to scan them all in and just continue adding the characters who are absent from these drawings. I figured I'll be able to do a better job creating them digitally rather than with my own hand! You might notice scene 3 being re-used for scene 6, the reason for this is I quite like the perspective it has on the end of the boat and leaves room for me to add waves and the mermaid on Photoshop. Plus scene 3 is when the skipper decided to throw a herring at the mermaid, and scene 6 is when Donald witnesses the mermaid disappear under the water once he had thrown his herring in, I felt it made sense to retain that perspective and angle especially when both scenes are focused on the mermaid. Again I must stress that these drawings are very rough! Every time I look at them I can see them evolving into the final stages and this excites me, I am pleased that at this stage I'm maintaining momentum and continuing to develop this specific piece(s) of work.
Displaying the pieces for my presentation is the next part of the process, I'll figure that out when I need to. I'm enjoying developing these pen drawings at the moment.
Oh and I haven't created a drawing for scene 9 as I plan to create the final scene in a different vein. Since the story ends rather abruptly and mysteriously, I may look into using different materials to emphasise the scene. Then again... maybe not. It may end up too ambitious and unachievable in the time frame we have!
15 November 2014
Light Trails on the A7
I ventured outside tonight and took advantage of the fog that had descended upon Hawick to see if I was able to photograph any passing vehicles. Having only little experience with adjusting the settings on my camera I was worried about how I would fair, but I think the images I came away with were promising.
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| This one was taken on the way |
The first photograph I took was out of focus but I'm happy with the composition and the headlight trail this particular car left behind. I carried on to the hill opposite the A7 just down from Homebase and sat for about 45 minutes, essentially waiting for cars to pass by. The traffic was by no means heavy but plenty opportunities arose for me to snap away!
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| The streetlights interfered quite a lot |
I played around with the exposure, shutter speed and ISO between most shots, this gave me an indication of what combinations worked the best. Again, most of these ones are blurry and out of focus. I succumbed to the reality that at this stage of my learning, I wasn't going to be able to achieve the level of quality I wanted to.
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| In this case the streetlights were less overbearing |
I included this one because I like the red brake lights disappearing behind the hill as the car drove down the road out of shot.
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| My first full length light trail! |
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| I tried to include the tree branches in the foreground that hovered above me where I sat |
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| A lot darker which I wanted, but very out of focus |
Adjusting the exposure and lowering the amount of light that was getting into the lens, really drew more attention to the light trails themselves, rather than the streetlights or other objects in the image.
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| A more focused version of the photograph above |
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| I must have slipped on the wet grass during this one... |
The next couple of images I like a lot better. Only the lights of the cars, lampposts and houses in the background are visible.
The last few I took are completely different to the rest in that a lot more is illuminated. I managed to position myself in such a location where I had a foreground (the tree branches) to compliment the background (the road and cars).
The very last photograph I took is probably my favourite! I deliberately and slowly moved the camera downwards as I took the image. Looks pretty cool.
This collection of photographs were an experiment into how well I can operate my camera at a different time of day. Capturing these light trails proved a great opportunity for me to get used to adjusting things like exposure and shutter time. I must mention that I have yet to edit these images, actually I may just include them in my unit entirely un-edited to accurately display my findings.
14 November 2014
Light Trails
Here's a few shots I took earlier tonight with my camera. I've always wanted to tinker around the settings and see if I could capture light trails successfully. Adjusting the exposure allowed me enough time to draw words and shapes in the space in front of me where I stood in my bedroom. I was surprised to see it had actually worked first time, I think I was under the impression that it required more time to set up or something.
After Googling 'light trails' I was hit by a huge amount of photographs of highways and the lights of passing vehicles being captured. They inspired me to perhaps take my experiments outside and see what I can produce once the sun has set and vehicles are illuminated by their headlights.
After Googling 'light trails' I was hit by a huge amount of photographs of highways and the lights of passing vehicles being captured. They inspired me to perhaps take my experiments outside and see what I can produce once the sun has set and vehicles are illuminated by their headlights.
7 November 2014
Photo Editing with 'Afterlight'
They're not based on any idea I had or on other photographers work, I just wanted to see what I could do with photographs I never had any initial plans for.
4 November 2014
Our love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours
Last Wednesday we travelled up to Edinburgh to attend the Generation exhibit at the National Gallery on Princes Street. Although I had visited twice before earlier in the year I still felt there were things to see and take in.
The piece I gave more attention to this time around was the installation in the largest room. I hadn't heard of Martin Boyce previous to the Generation exhibit but very much enjoyed interacting and viewing 'Our Love is Like...'
As I walked around the dimly lit room illuminated by the light strips hovering over me, I was thinking about why Boyce had created this. I thought 'Why these colours?' and 'What does this part mean?' and 'This reminds me of something...'. Of course it wasn't until I read the accompanying summary of the installation and artist responsible that it became clearer to me Boyce's intentions. Instillations in general excite me. For me, the more there is to get your head around - the better!
The piece I gave more attention to this time around was the installation in the largest room. I hadn't heard of Martin Boyce previous to the Generation exhibit but very much enjoyed interacting and viewing 'Our Love is Like...'
As I walked around the dimly lit room illuminated by the light strips hovering over me, I was thinking about why Boyce had created this. I thought 'Why these colours?' and 'What does this part mean?' and 'This reminds me of something...'. Of course it wasn't until I read the accompanying summary of the installation and artist responsible that it became clearer to me Boyce's intentions. Instillations in general excite me. For me, the more there is to get your head around - the better!
1 November 2014
Portrait Artist of the Year
I found series 1 on SkyPlusHD and watched 2 episodes tonight. Very interesting stuff so far! Also, a great way to see how people work with different materials and how they approach creating their pieces. Episode one whittled down group of artists chosen from 1,800 in London to 3 groups of 4 and then to just 1 winner, in episode 2 the same process took place in Glasgow.
It was so fascinating watching how these groups of people took on the task of observing a life model and getting their portrait on to canvas. The subjects were mostly people from the entertainment industry and the occasional sportsperson. Each artist had 4 hours to complete as much of their portrait as possible all the while standing side by side, which looked unnerving to say the least!
Throughout the episodes I felt the urge to give portraiture a shot, or at least practice painting more often and just produce pieces as a way of developing my technique. This may indeed just be a fleeting, temporary ambition as so often happens whenever inspiration comes my way... but hopefully not!
Recently I have felt the necessity for information.
More specifically, information on certain artists, their work, the reason for it and the circumstances in which it was created. I am realising more and more whenever I feel the need to express myself and talk to people about my interests in art and the direction I want to take with my own work that it would help me a lot if I had references. If I had movements to source my influences, artists to procure technique from and concepts to base my work on I feel like my work (or at least ideas and development) would come across more credible and possibly be taken more seriously. I believe that wielding intent is sometimes more essential than wielding all the expensive materials and tools. Of course that helps, but what I mean is I want to be able to justify any development of an idea or experiment with references and reasons for it.
The past year on this course has really helped me get into the routine of reading regularly again. I love having books to hand and being able to read not just for entertainment but to broaden my mind and improve my knowledge on certain things. I mentioned in the last post my interest in contemporary art, and so I am hoping to get into the library this coming week and take out some books about it. Reading is one thing, but retaining the information is another! Note taking is always present in my reading, which does slow the process d-- I feel like I am rambling on a bit, so I'll stop now.
It was so fascinating watching how these groups of people took on the task of observing a life model and getting their portrait on to canvas. The subjects were mostly people from the entertainment industry and the occasional sportsperson. Each artist had 4 hours to complete as much of their portrait as possible all the while standing side by side, which looked unnerving to say the least!
Throughout the episodes I felt the urge to give portraiture a shot, or at least practice painting more often and just produce pieces as a way of developing my technique. This may indeed just be a fleeting, temporary ambition as so often happens whenever inspiration comes my way... but hopefully not!
Recently I have felt the necessity for information.
More specifically, information on certain artists, their work, the reason for it and the circumstances in which it was created. I am realising more and more whenever I feel the need to express myself and talk to people about my interests in art and the direction I want to take with my own work that it would help me a lot if I had references. If I had movements to source my influences, artists to procure technique from and concepts to base my work on I feel like my work (or at least ideas and development) would come across more credible and possibly be taken more seriously. I believe that wielding intent is sometimes more essential than wielding all the expensive materials and tools. Of course that helps, but what I mean is I want to be able to justify any development of an idea or experiment with references and reasons for it.
The past year on this course has really helped me get into the routine of reading regularly again. I love having books to hand and being able to read not just for entertainment but to broaden my mind and improve my knowledge on certain things. I mentioned in the last post my interest in contemporary art, and so I am hoping to get into the library this coming week and take out some books about it. Reading is one thing, but retaining the information is another! Note taking is always present in my reading, which does slow the process d-- I feel like I am rambling on a bit, so I'll stop now.
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