Life Drawing Class - No. 5

I seemed to pick up the pace a little better today.  My sketches were a little more fluid, and I think I felt a little more relaxed in front of a naked stranger, - my modesty and sensibilities being formed from a behavioural schema I had acquired from my childhood, and no doubt, one that many older students in a similar situation may have cause to be reminded of.
Helen, the model, was completely un-fazed as usual, and her professionalism was gratefully acknowledged.

Reading & Responding - Part X, In the darkness

Having spent time looking at how I could incorporate perspective changes to images this last week, a discussion with Christian and Bob lead me to review the works of Geovanni Batista Pironesi and his son, Francesco.  Also in the research discussion, the name of Gunter Grass  and his work Tin Drum should be looked into.  I will spend some time in the Library to re-consider these names.   Christian had also previously mentioned Blek Le-Rat as an artist to consider, he had been one of the first professional artists to be recognised for his contribution to Stencil Art and Graphitti, in Paris.  I subsequently watched the film documentary of his work "Blek Le Rat", which also gave me the name of Gerard Zlotykamion, as the first contemporary Graphiti Artist, who's first work appeared in Paris in 1963.  An interesting factoid!...

Reading & Responding Part IX - A slightly altered perspective

I spent some time following a one to one with Jill and Christian to reflect on the comments made.  One area that I picked up with Christian was the interesting abstraction that I could investigate the Italian renaissance Artist and Architect, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1720 to 1778.
  Piranesi created some wonderful plates for etching which seemed to hugely enhance the feeling of perspective, - in itself, perspective being a relatively new concept to art at the renaissance and only some 300 or so years old.   The architectural perspective that Piranesi used has it's roots firmly founded on the work of Pranesi's old Italian contemporary, the Florentine architect, Fillipo Brunelescci 1377 to 1436,  (Who also designed the famous Doumo in Florence for example).

The level of detail in his drawings and etchings are far in advance of most of his contemporaries at the time.  This was because of an almost obsession fueled recordings of his imaginative visions;

He also created incredible images just from the imagination, but with an inspired attitude to sell his concepts he positioned the vanishing points in four aspects.  His origin (eye level) being so low gave the illusion of huge scale, something that his sponsors were no doubt keen to be impressed with.

Pironesi's work has also stimulated artists to create not only Architecture through the ages since his appointments to Rome, but also interior design, gold and silver furnishings, and of course, plaster reliefs, some of which can be seen in classic Adam style fireplaces of the same period (see Robert Adam, architect, 1728-92).

I really enjoyed looking at the book Piranesi as designer  - by Wilton-Ely, John (2007), London.  It's a rather hefty volume a couple of inches thick, approximately A4 size, but well worth taking a loan of; especially as the prints plates and etchings contained within it are to a very high photographic standard.  I have thought further about how the aspect position could also be reconsidered and I intend to carry out some further research on how the perception of space can be explored.

Reading & Responding, Part VIII - Invictus - A Rat's Eye View of Leeds

Having thought about the alternative angle of aspect and perspective of the world from a Rat's Eye view, I took my camera and an opportunity to visit Leeds city centre.

I got some strange looks from the odd pedestrian, but the idea was firmly in my head and I needed to explore how I could capture images that were very much "outside" the poem... and a Rat's eye view of Leeds.

Here are my initial best shots....

Reading & Responding, Part VII - Invictus

A recap on where I am so far on this project...

My reflections this week on the poem Invictus, and what images have come to mind outside of the poem, have lead me to the thoughts of being entrapped within a squalid prison, images of rats entering the prison cell and my research on rats in trenches from the first world war...

I'm in a frame of mind right now that takes me to thoughts of rats and where to find them...  In big cities?...  I wondered how a view of London might be represented with an alternative angle of perspective... So I found a couple of photos I took last year while I had been working in the city, while I was staying in the St Pauls area last year, and started doodling with a sketch...

I allowed my mind to wander, I started a drawing of the street behind the ClubQuarters Hotel where I often stayed during the past few years.  The reflections on the wet paving was interesting.

 I re-rendered my sketch into an acrylic....

An interesting excursion, ....the paved area gave me time to think further and spawned an idea, the idea of aspect and perspective.  What would a "Rat's-Eye" perspective be?

Reading & Responding, Part VI - Invictus"

Working through my ideas still, I've been looking at the project in a slightly different way today, - taking on the advice still of Christian and Jill, and also following a brief tutorial review with Bob earlier this morning....

The images imagined outside the text itself, but still linked to the feelings and emotions of the poem, I explained to Bob that I was working through some photographic images of World War I and the concept I have been developing of the ongoing battle between man and rats.  The trench rats of WW1 were allegedly the worst ever witnessed.  The images of utter despair of the soldiers being subjected to the squalor and torture of trench warfare, seem to be almost maniacal when they get the opportunity to do some rat killing.

The image was also in my mind of the squalor that the rats themselves saw as their natural habitat?

Who has been winning in this war? Are the rats still unconquerable?  Do they continue to battle against man, in the way that man appears to be continually battling with them?

Drawing Transformations, Part VII

My quest to try out different styles of learning has lead me to continue the use of the book by Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" (2nd Edition, 2013).  As I am working through the exercises, I appear to be taking one step forward, and every so often, one step back it feels...

So I took some time to re-start the work on drawing upside down, and I'm glad to say, this is what I clearly needed to do to re boost my confidence today.

The drawing by Picasso, of the famous composer Stravinski was a great start...

Having taken the original and rotating it through 180 degrees, then copying it freehand, had the desired effect!

Later, a quick rendition of Spiderman drawn on a scrap of paper, upside-down, then corrected by 180 degrees as below also produced a good result too!.

I will continue to make the mantra of at least one drawing a day,  (as taken from the saying "Never a day without a line!...)

Reading & Responding, Part V, Invictus

The creative process and flow of ideas has been working it's way through the literal (and literary) images associated with Ernest William Henley's Invictus for three weeks now, and I have three more weeks from today to polish the ideas into a final piece.

My initial dissection of the words of the poem produced the "usual" suspects, the resultant mind images of various depictions of words or phrases used.  The concept of trying to capture these as small thumbnail sketches definitely works for me and the output of my muses has, as perhaps expected, been too literal.  However, this cathartic process of getting out the obvious images is good, as it leads me to think of new alternative directions and areas of investigation that may be less facile.

So the initial images are shown here for completeness, and I can annotate some of the thoughts accordingly.

 The obvious lines of text that suggest isolation, an image of a "God",  enlightenment, wretched and the scream are all there!

But also, the playful ones too... Like the Unconquerable Sole!

 An image of the Captain of my Sole, Master of my Fate, "Victory V sign" and a rather nice shadow type simple line / white ghost of an old man too came to mind.  

I liked the idea of the lower centre thumbnail idea, -  creating a negative style drawing by simply using a shaded pencil area and then making suitable erased marks to hint the suggestion of a disappearing sole, almost lost in the fog?  I will play with this idea a little more perhaps?

  But these are all a bit too literal at the moment, I want to move on from these ideas towards a more suggestive piece...

Drawing Transformations - Life Drawing Class No 4

Today prooved to be far more challenging for some reason.  I had been reading the book "Drawing on the Right Hand Side of the Brain" By Betty Edwards recently, and my attempts today seemed to be way off course for some reason.  Nevertheless, I will persevere!

Reading & Responding, Part IV - Chosen Text & Visualisation

I have been working to keep my visualisation response to the text as non-literal as possible, however my ideas are now coming to the point that the ideas may be too far removed from the signifiers within the text.

• Fear
• Death
• Darkness
• Wretchedness
• Isolation
• Self criticism
• Abandonment
• leading to hope
• Enlightenment
• Conquering of fears

However, my thoughts are still currently centred around splitting the final work into two parts, - A dyptich is a potential likely vehicle to respond to Invictus.

The concept of Death as depicted in a graveyard scene on  a very cold winters day, dark sky, snow, fog & gloom; with the silhouettes of gravestones and crosses and monumental angels can be very bleak.
Consider this juxtaposed with;
The same graveyard scene but in spring season, golden light, beautiful flowers in bud and bloom, vast distant vistas of meadows with abundant growth and joyous birds in the air etc....

There's so much ground here that at times I have wondered if all my ideas can be actually recorded!... The suggestion to make just simple thumbnail sketches of ideas is a great one, I have been using this to formulate and hone the concepts over the past couple of weeks now, and as a sample of the process I have outlined some of the sketches below;

Reading & Responding Part III - Invictus by William Earnest Henley, 1895

My poem from William Earnest Henley is so rich in it's content.  A moving and gripping narrative of Victorian values of hardship followed by hope and accomplishment.  I need to chose ideas that reflect what is going on outside of the text itself, the emotion, the drive and the sense of suffering too.

I'm keen to start trying now to come up with the ideas for the final piece, as we are already into week two of a six week cycle, so we only have 4 weeks left.  I would have hoped that I can start my final piece by next Monday (17th March), however, Christian suggested at yesterday's tutorial that there is no set production plan.  I am free of course to change my mind... I appreciate that it is fine for me to reconsider things, but equally, I just think that it is perhaps best practice (especially for my own practice and way of working), for me to set milestones in a project, with critical dates and go/no-go style decision gates, as has been my project management process now for many years.

So, the plan is, to have a good sense of what I am going to achieve by the end of this week (and weekend)!...

Drawing Transformations - Life Drawing No. 3

I'm still rather tight in my arm movements in my Life Drawing today.  I think that I need to practice larger freehand drawings more often, simply because I am usually confined to using an A4 Sketchpad.  However, my attempts today have been created using shade and light, Chiaro e Scurro as I think the Italians might say...  Thanks to Helen again, the model, who is extremely patient with our (especially mine) attempts, and to Jill for her ongoing patience in tutoring our group.

I need to flex my arm rather than my hand, and I must practice using proportionate representation in these sketches.  Jill also suggested that I might try to use pencil to create an initial outline and then continue with Charcoal once the form is appropriately measured and represented.  I'm still rather embarrassed at my attempts of life drawing, - the other students have natural skill, but I think my efforts are way behind in both skill and fluidity.    Much to do ....