Monday, 24 November 2014

Observational Drawing & Mark-Making Eval




Observational Drawing & Mark-Making Project Evaluation

During this project, I have learnt of different and interesting techniques, each giving the end project a different and unique look. Examples of these techniques; cross hatching, dotting and creating an image without removing the pen/pencil from the paper. (The last, being the technique that I found the most difficult due to attempting to make sure the end product resembled the original object closely enough was not something that I found to be easy.)
However, I did enjoy using cross hatching and even developed my own almost abstract method of crosshatching.




I also found that this method of mark-making makes good results. If done well, the individual lines are hard to make out and it makes it easier to control the gradient of the shading that I use, giving my pieces the end look that I want.  
Whilst learning how to execute these methods correctly and effectively, I took inspiration from other artists I found online, although mostly amateur I was able to get an idea of where to use cross hatching to shade on certain objects from cups to faces, and where to end the cross hatching (where the shadow fades to light on said object.) I also used the help I gained from online examples in my homework piece:




I find that my 4 studies using brusho inks, colour pencil, white acrylic and parcel and newspaper have been an effective practice.
I’ve never had the chance to use brusho inks before, so these pieces of work were necessary in my progress in creating art on different surfaces, using different tools/ styles. However, in my opinion I think that my piece drawn onto newspaper and parcel paper was my favorite because it was so different to the other 3, texture and quality wise. Each surface of the materials used were unique, making the pencil strokes and colours used stand out more vibrantly against each material on the piece.
When I finished my sgraffito ‘scratch’ drawing, I found that the most effective part of the method followed to create it was the oil pastel background underneath the black paint. Without the vibrant mix of coloured patterns showing through the contrasting black paint, there would be something obviously lacking. The colour adds a unique quality to each piece, meaning that even if two people scratched the same design into the paint, both pictures would be different to each other, depending on the choice of colours and patterns.




I feel that I could have produced better quality homework studies, now that I can manage my time better and have had practice familiarizing myself with the different methods of mark-making. I know that if I were to have the opportunity to re create the pieces, they would be of a better quality and with a more professional feel, as it would be more evident that I have had more time to practice the techniques required to successfully create these images.
As I have become more familiar with how to execute these methods, I do feel that I have improved in my observational drawing skills, especially compared to when I created my first piece at college. Using cross hatching and dotting was barely familiar to me, as I knew what these techniques were, I just had not frequently used them in any of my previous work, making me unsure of how much confidence I had in using these methods to create a piece of art.
Time wise, as mentioned before, I feel that since the beginning of the project I have improved in managing my time. During earlier pieces of work, I rushed to finish them during class time because if I had to complete them at home, I was not confident that I would be able to produce work at the standard that I wanted without some form of help from a teacher, or know what to do/ how to correct and error without having to completely re start. Whereas now, I am far more confident in myself and happy to complete any incomplete assignments at home by myself.
I would not say that I have produced the best drawing and mark- making outcomes possible during the time frame because I can always see room for improvement within my own work. What I created last week could easily be upstaged by what I can create this week due to what I learn throughout the college week and multiple workshop/ regular fine art classes.
The one mark-making technique that I would like to explore is the method of creating a piece without the pen/pencil leaving the paper because I think that it is the most unique technique of the ones I have learnt an also because I find myself struggling to use this method easily. I would prefer to push myself my using this method more frequently in order to make it easier for myself to use in the future as well as to say/ be confident that I could, if asked, create more pieces using this method with less difficulty.
My overall thoughts on this project would be that I have enjoyed it, I particularly liked my lessons in the fine art workshop, re creating artists’ works in their own style; e.g. using thick brush strokes like Monet.
It was refreshing to be able to change around our usual style of painting from using the paint brush like a pencil and finely and carefully filling each detail in, to being able to use larger brushes, creating messier lines, using abstract colours and mixing them together whilst still wet on the paper, also creating works straight from paint without starting off with a pencil outline to work from, which although challenging was fun and surprisingly easy.





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