Assignment two

 

 

Assignment two

Make a drawing of subject of your choice using the subject itself, or tools constructed from the subject, dipped in or paint.

I thought about this assignment quite accidentally while working on the first exercise in which I drew several drawings with wolves. I spotted a few wolf photos in the woods that looked like they were hunting or ready to attack. From the beginning, attention was drawn to the proportions of the front legs compared to with the rest of the body which seemed larger, the perspective from which they were photographed gave a strange effect, the wolf’s front was very massive, the rest was hiding in the background. I deliberately searched for several photos that use fish eye perspectives.

I found the tools that work well during the work would be black ink, the forest/trees and everything that will create a background will be made from bamboo stick or other wooden sticks available to me and to draw a wolf fur I will use an old brush with hard hair, I found I can use the dry brush method, I think that these tools are consistent with the form included in the subject of wooden elements for trees and a hair brush for the definition of fur.

My first approach was to draw a wolf in the same composition which I presented in the first project, I wanted to narrate a very readable sketch so that he would introduce a kind of monster from the forest or a form of the devil, deliberately enlarging his limbs and deforming the rest of the body, such an eclectic figure it’s very interesting,

So I decided to broaden the subject and draw the wolf’s character from the front in this very different perspective. Whereas I mentioned earlier, the legs seem to be longer, I decided to make them more alive while remaining in this devilish narrative.

In the background, I decided to draw the next wolves so far in a very eclectic form, and it was my big mistake that I would start thinking how to put these creatures in space. I should have suggested earlier how to better integrate wolves into this space but in the ink drawing it was already too late to fix it.

I decided to draw the next work changing the topic from a dangerous wolf to the figure of a lightweight polar bear I found a few objects where the proportions of front or rear legs relative to the rest of the body would seem abnormal, and in the same eclectic narrative idea how to better place this object in background. Completely accidentally I started running out of ink, so I decided to dilute it with water, which allowed me to get a better effect while painting the fur.

To make the whole composition more dynamic I added a very dark shadow in the middle so that even if the polar bear appears to be drawn in a very soft way, the whole composition is more contrasting and vivid.

The next drawing was a similar figure of a bear, but I wanted it to exist in a different way I wanted it to emerge from the trees so that the trees and bear were part of the foreground and see what the effect will be, unfortunately I failed to get a similar atmosphere as in the previous works. The bear is not as visible as the figures in the previous drawings, I decided that I would come back to this composition which would require more experience.

 

Then I decided to try to draw a group of polar bears as in the case of wolves.

In the foreground, big and in the middle, smaller, after drawing I decided that the whole narrative has changed here giving an atmosphere of terror, as everything seems more stable and soft, boring in one word so that I decided to create atmosphere and add some more black parts imagining shadows in the middle of the drawing in a very geometrical form, and this geometrical form slowly expanded to draw the forest in the background. The dry brush created a very interesting structure when drawing the forest in the background, I think I didn’t use anything else but the other tools because the relationship between the figures in the first plan and what is in the middle and in the background seems very interesting, contrasting and similar at the same time

In the final work,

I decided to use two different narrative effects and combine them into one composition, soft polar bears and a devilish wolf as foreground characters and a less aggressive forest in the background but made in a way that focuses our attention, some kind of perspective tree stand projecting the same fish eye. Of course, I made a womanish form to the wolf by slimming her figure, but the length of the lap and fur on them is drawn in a different way than in a man, it is whiter and softer, less aggressive. I think that during this whole work on this project I underwent some kind of analysis and experimented by creating various forms of compositions with the use of quite inaccurate non-precision tools. When using wooden sticks, accidents can happen, I tried to rub them or use them. I worked on a large format on an easel, keeping the ink on the stick just made it difficult. With a stick, I could only draw in a specific direction. I think that throughout this project I used the experience I learned during the exercises, but I devoted all my attention to building an appropriate narrative. So, the narrative is the leitmotif and then the work on the composition of the image, I paid particular attention to maintaining a proper relationship between what is happening in the foreground and what is in the background. I have considered the behavior of these relationships as a very important element of my work. Did I succeeded? I do not know, but I estimate that my work meets all the criteria and I am determined to present for assignments.

Assignment one

Assignment one

While working on this assignment I analysed what I did in the previous projects and realised that I fell into a trap as looking at the works of Elizabeth Blackadder and Henri Matisse I only looked at coloured work which are paintings, from which I took a lot. Both artists have works filled with colour and light that are vibrant and lively, in Matisse’s I notices a more contrasting use of colours often with a contour around detail, in Blackadder’s work the composition is flatter and not scaled, the coloured objects join and mould with the background and the space is not shown carefully, there is a lot of geometric forms this is a contrast to Matisse where we can always distinguish the focus point. I looked at a lot of work of fauvism artists such as Andre Derain  and Georges Rouault and was always amazed with how they fill space with colour but in my opinion the composition and subject was always very identifiable and readable while Blackadder is in some sense similar, but her objects are very symbolic in character. The trap I fell into was how to show the mass of colour in drawing. I started to look more closely at Blackadder’s drawings and found a series of drawing of cats and other animal where each drawing line is very simple and looks like a simple sketch but combines to give depth, from simple lines she transforms to a patch of colour. Simple drawing of an animal is placed into a simple but imaginary space and suddenly we are not just looking at a simple drawing of a cat but an interesting composition which might turn into a full colour painting. Her drawings, in comparison to her paintings, are more like sketches have much more energy and are more dynamic.

Study of Cats. Elizabeth Blackadder

Kikko on the Rug. Elizabeth Blackadder

Elizabeth Blackadder (1931-present, British)

So, I decided to draw composition of my dog. I started with a few sketches with the dog and boots in the first plane, the boots being a random object. I realised that the floor the dog is sat on could look more interesting if I changed the colour of it and so in the next sketch I developed a different colour for the floor.

I started to develop the project without other elements such as boots. I stated to sketch my dog on the floor against a plane wall.

I drew then drew two bigger format drawings and decided to draw the dog as the subject with a colourful background floor to make an engaging composition. I did this on a big format, the first one is the dog against the floor, but I made the floor too pink, so the next drawing is slightly toned down with black tones in the background I did both to see which would look more vibrant and linked together.

In my final piece I stopped concentrating what space the dog is in and looked at it as more of an abstract and free space and to make the composition livelier I decided to draw a dog running and playing with is ball. I think I gave the same amount of focus on the dog as the background and wanted the two pieces to have a link and for them to work together, I used similar lines when drawing detail of the dog to draw the ball to make it look like a whole unified drawing. I drew this picture freely and in a very playful way using charcoal, I think I achieved quite an interesting result, I think it is worthy of the assessment.

Final piece “Dalmatian” pastel on paper A1