DRAWING FOLIO Su Gu 815638 Tutor Emma Rickards
1a Workshop Practice and Site-Based Drawings 1a.1 Life Drawings Figure 1 This is my first 2-mins quick drawing.
Figure 2 It is interesting to note that being more conscious about the relationships of body parts make me feel a bit more restricted.
Figure 3 10 mins life drawing: Try bight colour combinations. When working in a longer time, i got more chance to sensing the mass, form and contour.
Figure 4 Marking highlights and light area in dark background is not easy.
Figure 5 Figure 5 & 6 are the same gesture but draw at different angles and techniques.
Figure 6 I am not satisfied with the effect of this drawing. I was hoping something impressive with dramatic toning and massing. Next time I should be braver and more intentional about how to achieve my intentions.
Figure 7 This drawing was firstly drawn directly by inks. The fine lines left delicate prints but were lack of soft tones which made the drawing a bit stiff. Therefore, soft pencil was introduced. It is surprising that the texture of drawing board on the easel was also marked in the drawing, which is an amazing accidence.
1a Workshop Practice and Site-Based Drawings 1a.2 Still Life Studies Figure 8 The body of the vase was firstly drawn by dark charcoal. However, it looked dull and did not show the materiality of it. With the help of my tutor, I changed the dark charcoal to white, which instantly give life to the vase. So applied the same technique to the steel floor lamp, which turns out to be imperssive.Colurs really make a difference!
Figure 9
This is one of my favorite drawing. When I drew this, I totally forget everything in the world but concentrate on the toning, lights and shadows only.
1a Workshop Practice and Site-Based Drawings 1a.3 Site-based drawings undertaken at National Gallery of Victoria
Figure 10. 1 Balloons on fire (Streeton,1918)
Figure 10. This is a reinterpretation of Arthur Streeton’s Balloons on fire (1918, Oil on Canvas). Inspired largely by impressionists, I tended to capture the smoke and the movement of the original drawing.
Figure 11, attracted by the texture of stone walls in NGV.
Figure 12 The location and proportion of the legs in this drawing is hard for me to pick. So as can be seen in the figure 12, it came back and forth several times. Free floating lines are used to “hide“ those wrong judgements afterwards, which surprisingly made the drawing more lively.
1b Development Studies The changeable clouds with distinct forms, colours and temperaments always resonate with me even in different moods. Therefore, “clouds” is selected as the theme of my development studies, during which I will practice techniques learning from tutorials with personal reinterpretation. Firstly, analytical drawing techniques are practiced to “reproduce” the precise forms of the clouds. However, due to the limited time when clouds move and change quickly, the results of analytical drawing did not produce a lively expression intended. Thus, I learned to focus mainly on the tones, lights and shadows with various media, capturing the unique moments of clouds. This turns to be very personal results and the process of producing was free, enjoyable and expressive. When looked back to my explorations, I totally agree with Seligman’s (2016, pp.10) saying that “the dual possibilities of drawing, which is at once both a vehicle for expressing and recording thoughts, and itself a kind of thought process: a medium for thinking in” . My works are indeed my sincere thinking and expressing.
Figure 13 Using analytical drawing techniques to captured the clouds on the sky is really a bit hard thing for me.
Figure 14 Trying to focus on massing and tones instead of contour lines like Figure 13 turns out to be a satisfied result.
Figure 15 Charcoal experimentation of the clouds and trees.
Figure 16 Trying the techniques newly learnt from tutorials in my development studies, I feel like I made a progress. Compared to figure 4, I can concentrate on the lights and highlighting area of the object now.
Figure 17 Subtle colour pencil experimentation. I drew this with music on. My pencil strokes then began to follow the rhythm and drumbeats! So crazzy and funny! Maybe next time I should start another study, which will be drawing with music.
Figure 18. Energetic colour pestal experimentation. As developing further, I found my drawings became more and more personal and expressive, which was not a mere exploration of techniques, but myself.
1c Written Analysis The value of art, which enriches our learning
and civilizing capacity, cannot be measured by scientific testing but human experience (Barnes, 1987, pp.2). My understanding of this statement becomes so profound after I finished my drawing sessions of this subject. During these explorations, I learnt not only new drawing techniques, but to appreciate different interpretations of others’ works and be more confident and braver to express myself. Although being lack of conclusive proof, these immeasurable qualities are so subtle that could not be easily seen visually, stands out so brightly. Firstly, I learnt to cope with quick drawings within a limited time. At the very beginning, it was challengeable for me to define the accurate proportion of the body in just two minutes. However, this is also the advantages of drawing from life that help me “practice making intelligent, intuitive decisions” (Spicer, 2014, pp. 20). Therefore, “being bold and dive into drawing with confidence” (Simblet, 2005, pp. 118), I concentrated more on my immediate assessment, starting my drawings by mapping up the main axis and the masses of the model instead of using fine lines to mark the contour of the body (Figure 1& 2). This helped me find the most important relationships between body parts, and identified the proportion more accurately. I became more and more confident to outline the model after practising. This also influenced my later portrait studies (Figure 7), where I totally abandoned drafting by pencils but using more permanent ink directly as I became confident.
Secondly, I learnt to draw critically with various materials. I started to learn drawing since I was very young. But drawing as realistic as possible with limited drawing techniques and media especially pencil is the thing I was taught for years. I felt happy about my improved techniques, yet found I became undeniably narrowed. Fortunately, during the drawing sessions, we were given the freedom to explore. Inspired by our tutor and classmates, I began to practice mixed-materials including pencils, conte, ink, charcoal, coloured pastels and even erasers. For example, in Figure 3, I used bright colours to show my excitement (this was my first time trying life drawing!). In figure 8, I used pencils to lightly mark the draft lines and then applied coloured conte and pastels to further express the texture of the objects. It is amazing to learn to think critically about using what material to best express the objects and ideas. However, it is also difficult to found out what are the main characteristics of the objects and what to ignore or emphasize on. For instance, in Figure 4, in order to reveal the form of the figure in charcoal-covered sheet, I focused on identifying the light areas and highlights of the model instead of emphasising on dark shadow massing. This reverse thinking was so challenging that I forgot what to focus on, then going back to the conventional process sometimes. Although the overall effect of this drawing is not very successful, the thinking process is interesting and meaningful. Moreover, it is amazing to see that although ev-eryone in our class looked at the same model and
objects, the outcomes were vastly distinct. This may result from individuals’ unique personalities, preference, ideas and habits. I was grateful that my whole class provided me valuable insights and inspirations, teaching me to look and think at different angles. In conclusion, the page is a sounding board for ideas, which contains both articulated and tested thoughts of every artist (Seligman, 2016, pp. 12). Every piece of my work embraced my thoughts and energy in different time and mood. It is these tested and accumulated thoughts, that makes my drawing alive.
1d. Bibliography Barnes, R. (1987). The value of art. In Teaching art to young children 4-9. (3rd ed., pp. 1 – 14.) Taylor and Francis. (Children’s art, purposes of art and approaches to art) Seligman, I. (2016). Introduction: The “thinking medium.” In Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now (pp. 10-31). London: Thames & Hudson. Simblet, S. (2015). The drawing book: an innovative, practical approach to drawing the world around you. London: Doling Kindersley Ltd. Spicer, J. (2014) Draw People in 15 Minutes. East Sussex: ilex. Streeton, A. (1918). Balloons on fire. Retrived from: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3034/