High Tooth Paper

Some of the exercises in the course talk about using large paper with significant tooth. The biggest paper I had with significant tooth was A3, so I picked up an A2 pad of ‘Daler and Rowney Mixed Media‘ paper which I’ve previously picked up an A4 pad of.

Degas: A Passion for Perfection

As I was in Cambridge for a family gathering I took a couple of hours out to visit the Fitzwillam Museum and see the Degas show (http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/degas). I’ll admit I didn’t do any real research up front and so the exhibition surprised me. I thought it was a show of his work, but it is (mainly) a collection of his collected art which was sold after his death. There is a lot of work by Degas, but there is also so much more as some of the most interesting aspects of the exhibition is the breadth of research that Degas undertook s part of building his art.

Croquis Cafe: Heads up

Practice based on Croquis Cafe expressions practice video. A series of 1 min poses followed by a 10 min pose.

Nude Reflections

I was recently visiting Anglesey Abbey, which has a wonderful collection of art. The featured image was nestled among them, and that made me think about the points made in “Ways of Seeing” about nudes in general and nudes in european oil paints in particular. The painting is by William Etty, and there is some additional information about it here.

Figure Drawing Research

This may be a bit of a strange post, as I am effectively documenting a set of resources that I’ve been using to try to improve my figure drawing. Most of them I’ve collected together fairly recently, but some I’ve been using for a while. I can’t say the list is exhaustive but this is an area I’ve been struggling with for a while, as I suspect do many people when learning to draw figures. This means I’ve collected quite a few sources of information, and am identifying some of the key ones here to give an idea of the signposts that I’ve found to point me in roughly the right direction. I think between them these resources provide the information I need to make progress. Now I need a lot of practice and reflection.

Odilon Redon’s tonal drawings

A quick Google Search (https://www.google.co.uk/search?odilon+redon+tonal+drawings) on Odilon and his Noirs (the name he uses for his tonal drawings) quickly brings a wealth of information. This can be further elaborated by wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon 

Struggling with people

Sketch from a photograph from the following article: http://v3.mirrorarts.lk/fashion/item/1923-head-wraps-new-fashion. Some progress, though the angle of the nose and the angle of the face are out of alignment with each other.

Notes from Tutor Introduction

When: 01/12/2017 15:00

With: Dr Bryan Eccleshall, FHEA

Considering Ways of Seeing

A little premature perhaps, but I noticed the following in the Part 4 Notes:

“John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ (a 1970s BBC series available on YouTube) is a good place to start.”

Looking at Cubism

After the Coursera modern art videos I’ve stayed subscribed to the MoMA YouTube channel, and this video on painting like Picasso caught my eye.

How to paint like Pablo Picasso (Cubism) | IN THE STUDIO

Experimenting with a graphite stick

I recently picked up a graphite stick and wanted to see what it can do. It is like a big fat graphite crayon. Clearly not intended for detail work.

Warm-up: Temporary Drawings

The exercise reminded me very much of the work of Andrew Goldsworthy when I read the description. I had a day at a Christmas show in Broadstairs, and took a little time out of the day to make a start. The featured image followed his concept of using the colours of autumn leaves to make a drawing.