My overview of the entirety of Part 2 of the course, the pieces I had the strongest reactions to and my feelings on the drawing approaches covered so far.
Let’s start with the 2 pieces I have a less good reaction to:
What frustrates me about them is I had the right ideas, and a good attempt at the right technique, but the final image leaves me feeling displeased. Both images needed more dramatic differences, the charcoal in tones (I had no white chalk), and the collection of objects with more nuance in the mark making – which the tool I chose didn’t fully accommodate.
This third piece I don’t like as much as I hoped to, but I love the idea of it — two background colours in one piece of work. I like the stark differences in tone and the fact I only used one tool in various ways to create the marks brings a unity. I just wish I had applied the initial patches of black ink more carefully so it looked less messy.
These are my favourite three from the end of topic 1 – Expressive Mark Making, all three just pattern like surfaces made with my homemade tools. I like the simplicity of the one on the grey paper, each mark made with the same tool used in a different way and with two ink colours – but it draws the whole together and makes a piece that I find easy to settle and look at. The one on white paper uses a variety of tools and methods, it is more chaotic – but I feel I left enough blank space to counteract this and make a piece that leaves room for the eye move across the page well. The third piece is a series of all over patterns, and I find it just makes me happy — it is a by product of a long session of playful work and the contrasting shapes and sizes play off each other well.
The final of my selections is a piece from topic 2, completed with my eyes closed and paying attention to haptic perception of the object in my hand. I like the uncontrolled, abstract nature of it; the way it sits off-centre on the page, and the differences in line quality. It looks joyful, funny, and uncontrolled, and I found that a nice counterpart to the other pieces I chose above.
Final Thoughts
I can tell looking at all these pieces of work together how much more confident I am in approaching new ideas, I feel much more able to look at the expectations of the exercises and know how to make a start and what I need to accomplish. I no longer feel daunted by observing objects and subject matter with different viewpoints, I can see how to take the information in front of me and gather it on the page in the way that is needed.
I had never really anticipated using anything other than traditional tools to draw with, and I enjoyed using the alternate tools so much more than I expected. Not only am I feeling more equipped to choose which tool to use, and how to get the most out of the marks it can make, but the freedom that has been opened up in all the other ways there are to affect the page, or what’s on the page, is an entirely new way to think.
At the start of the course, I thought the best way to make an interesting piece of work would be to make a completely representational image. I can see now the appeal in abstracting information and using it to create something that is entirely different to the starting reference. I feel much more drawn to pattern, printmaking, and abstract imagery than I ever thought I would be.
Rebekah's OCA Learning Log 