Part 2 Feedback and Reflection

In the following extract I’ve retained the relevant feedback for my development and removed content which seems inappropriate to share. Missing content is denoted with “…”. My initial reflection on the feedback follows it.

Overall Comments

…

In the blog you write about your research method. It would be good to use drawing as the principle research method. When you spend time with a subject and forget about what’s ‘right’ you make some good work. At the moment though, you tend to be hidebound by the discoveries / methods of others. Allow yourself to investigate the media and the subject THROUGH drawing and not through reading about other people’s way of making things.

Part 2 Submission Notes

Somewhat reworked to reflect Part 2 tutor feedback changes. Little substantial change.

Summary

Part 2 has been, to say the least, quite a journey for me – even after adding a month to my intended submission deadline I still haven’t really finished it properly. I’ve only done one initial Monotone Drawing (Part 2, Project 3 Ex4), when I had intended to do a series of them and pick the best. I didn’t manage to get to the experimentation with mixed media (Part 2, Project 3 Ex3) at all – despite plans for a number of things I still wanted to try. In fact, that is a summary of my Part 2: A lot done, but so much more that I wanted to do. I fully intend to “back fill” the missing material, but we will see if the other parts are a packed as Part 2. If so, time might not allow…

Assignment 2: Lichen revisited

Note: Reworked following Part 2 feedback, including merging together the parts of the thread.

I’ve had a few ideas for Assignment 2, but since my earlier lichen drawing it’s a subject I’ve wanted to revisit. This time, however, I’m planning to take a different approach.

Project 4: At home

Reworked following Part 2 feedback. I’ve also added notes that I previously thought I’d included but now can’t find. Unfortunately the original wording is lost, so I’ve recreated it from memory.

Sketches around the house

Reflection: Part 2 So far…

Tutor feedback progress

When I receive tutor feedback I tend to make a minor action plan on what best to do about it. In this case, the report pretty much had the main action plan in the summary:

• Reflect on this feedback in your learning log.
• Follow up on the suggestions I have made.
• Make stronger connections between your work and that of others.
• Be patient and focus on the potential for the media to make marks. Don’t try and make ‘finished’ works.
• Make lots more preparatory work

Project 3: Still Life

Reworked following Part 2 tutor feedback. This includes bringing the parts of the project together and extending the commentary.

Research: Impressionist Still Life

My work in this part so far, including my to be finished Still Life in line, has been quite “tight” and detailed. This is in contrast to my more successful Life Drawing works, which are finished much more quickly – but in some ways are drawings I like more. This made me reflect on the Impressionist works that I’d seen, and I decided to do a bit of research.

Research: Cabbages and art

I started setting up to do a still life with a cabbage as part of the assignment work. This is based on a pointed cabbage we picked up. (Now eaten, but I’ve still got photographs.)

Sketchbook cabbage

As an investigation around this, however, I decided to have a look around at how different artists had treated still life images including a cabbage. It turns out it is a fairly rich field, as a quick Google search and following on from it revealed.

Project 2: Lichen

When out walking and thinking about Project 2 I came across a lots of potentially interesting drawing material at Scotney Castle gardens. I didn’t have my drawing materials, so I decided to take some photos to work from.

Project 1: Composition

This has been a fairly long winded Project in its own way. I previously commented on my composition research, which I have been combining with some experiments in different media. I’m beginning to think more when building a composition – which I suppose is a level of success.

The next step, I think, is to move on to the other exercises and apply this new experimenting with media and composition to them. Its likely to be an interesting journey, as I have a lot of new things to think about.

Within the media, the water colour wax crayons have worked OK – but the oil pastels are too crude. They would be best for very large format drawings, or I need to find a way to provide more subtlety in their use. The blending of colour “in situ,” rather than on a palette, is also proving quite a challenge for me – but one I need as however many colours I have available I’ll never have everything I’d like.

Research Point: Multiple viewpoints

When considering the idea of portraying multiple viewpoints in an image the concepts of Picasso and cubism come to mind first. I’ve looked at this previously, and still find the images almost incomprehensible in so many ways. That is not to say I don’t find them interesting, and sometimes I can even go so far as liking them.  There is a more subtle version of the concept in Cezanne’s work. The featured image is “Still Life with Apples and Oranges, 1895-1900” where different parts of the image seem to be painted from different angles. Without this observation the image is distorted and the shadows inconsistent. The articles linked to above consider the possibility further, and in “Learning to Look at Paintings” by Mary Acton.

Research Point: Negative Space

When considering the idea of artists using negative space then the first thought is images and objects that make an image from the negative as well as positive space. The following image from Tang Yau Hoong is a good example;

A Leap of Freedom by Tang Yau Hoong, from http://tangyauhoong.com/portfolio/the-art-of-negative-space/

I particularly like this image because of both the subject matter and the way the image has been built up. The bird gives an impression of the freedom of the leap, I assume a “leap of faith”. The trees at the top add to the concept further, proving a feel for the freedom being sought.

Composition of Still Life

Despite my tutor’s comment that my book work is ahead of my own work I’ve been re-reading the course notes, and have realised that an area I need to consider in more detail is composition. As such I went off on the research trail again. This time I have a different focus: “How do I produce a good composition?” In particular, of course, this means an initial focus of still life compositions. I believe, however, that most of the “rules” of composition are more generic than this.

Part 2 Approach

I’ve been trying to work out how best to approach part 2. To consider the best approach I’ve considered the volume of work, and my thoughts

Volume of work

The following is a list of the Projects, exercises and elements for consideration needed in this part of the course:

Research Point: Still life genre

Researching still life as a genre is a very wide brief, and so I started with a very wide net. I search for the term on wikiart, at the Tate Modern and V&A. The breadth of the collection of resultant images can be considered by comparing the featured image by CARAVAGGIO with one by Mondarian.