Life Drawing

Life Drawing Classes - Access to HE Art & Design

Start date 13 January 2014 - 24 March 2014 10:00am

Select 10 - 15 drawing that reflect the assessment criteria.

Line - tone - texture- form- shape - BE IMAGINATIVE and experimental !!!!

In a range of drawing and painting media

Show and investigation of measurement - balance - perspective - anatomy through drawing

Include MOST SUCCESSFUL & LEAST SUCCESSFUL drawing

Keep all drawings to see your progress, and maybe reflect on outside influences, and how you

felt, whether it be elation or frustration.

You could also do extra research on artists who use life drawing in their work.

13 1.2014.

Measured drawing

Add handout image

09:55 far too early to fight with an easel, be in agony with sciatica and pains!

Anyway managed to position easel properly with a close view of our model.

Straight into it with a warm up sketch on newsprint to produce 4, 5 minute drawings of Ruth 

our fabulous life model.

Just so you know Ruth has a finger missing and does not want us to draw it in.

Tried to size up with a pencil wondering if that was right how I knew, if it was correct! 

Quite pleased with the sketches.

We then learned from our tutor Nikki how to size up a model.  Normally head goes into height 7 times, Ruth is actually 6.5!

On reflection because it was a long pose I decided to size up head then torso etc as I went, in

case the same position not achieved again.  This left me a little short of time on the legs and

feet as I had spent more time on the higher parts of the body.  Legs needed a little more 

attention proportion-wise.

Happy with line drawing, proportioned quite well for a newby and neat.

Considering I felt ill and was in pain it went well!

Image to be added soon

20.1.2014.

Tone

Ruth was seated with spotlights pointing at her body and fabric draped over the seating.

Nikki told us to draw with a wax candle and show tone with use of watered down black Indian

Ink.

Bit of a disjointed day as the External Assessor was here to check our work, so Nikki was in

and out so left to our own devices.

I found this exercise really difficult, on reflection I didn't relax enough, and panicked about the

outcome, produced 4 drawings instead of sticking with the first.

I was probably over-thinking it in terms of measured drawing and accuracy.

Getting my head around working backwards in my opinion, light to dark tone, not being able to see my outlines in wax, I much prefer shading with pencil.

I also didn't dilute my ink enough and would in future have a at least 3 pots with varying amounts of diluted ink.

I need to try this again maybe to 'get it' !

Images to be added

We then tried Reversing Out with Willow Charcoal and an eraser.  We had once practiced this copying our own chosen image.

I think I didn't size up as too into the reversing out dark to light process with eraser stokes for

line and light tone and the fact that we chose part of the body. (Question how to size up part of a

body?)

I needed therefore to size up and adjust later and it still wasn't in proportion when I had to finish.

Image to follow

Applying to University

Incase anyone out there hasn't yet written their personal statement for their UCAS application
check out this Blog post written by various Admissions staff who read your statement!
UCAS Advisers' Blog what they need to see.......

Also quite a few useful videos on You Tube

to name but a few.........Good Luck

Oooooh nearly forgot need approx 4000 characters for your personal statement, use this free
ensure you select Character not letter or word count

Character Count Tool

2nd Brief

TRANSCRIPTION

'In Art, the term Transcription is used generally to describe the process of making a work of your own, based on a preceding work by another artist'

My chosen Artist is

ALPHONSE MARIA MUCHA

Born 24 July 1860

Please click here to read 

Mucha his Life and Career

Dance 1898

I chose Mucha because after researching a little about him, I new he was the right choice for me we share similar backgrounds and inspiration.

Mucha grew up in a Moravian Village

I went to a Moravian School, at Fulneck Settlement near Pudsey. The motto/emblem for the Moravian people was on  my school badge.  Our lamb has conquered, let us follow him!

I never knew or maybe forgot it's significance! 

Mucha was influenced by Folklore as a child, as was I.  I had every Ladybird fairy-tale book, because my mum was a reception teacher.  I loved the Brothers Grimm and I have always been mesmerised by Eastern European shadow puppetry, and reading pop up books where you could escape into.

For a while Mucha worked as an office clerk in the Court where is father worked.  I was a litigation clerk big yawn for too long!

Mucha volunteered to produce work for Sarah Bernhardt when there was a sudden request for and advertising poster.  Landing himself a contract for 6 more posters and costume and set design work.  I volunteered to photograph a wedding decorator, who's boss saw my email and subsequent work and booked me to photograph her wedding.

Mucha had a tendancy to overspend like me!!

His main subject in his early years were women, (like me brides and boudoir), and passionate about capturing natural  beauty in a powerful way.
He used flowing hair in his advertising posters and I often use my eldest daughter to model for me as she has long flowing hair.

My curly girly

Mucha was able to tap into the pulse of the people and elements of Art Nouveau, and as we would say now, give the customer what they want!
Which is what I try to do, but fall short on confidence, and have a long way to go to develop Mucha's artistic skill.

I also love Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Celtic Design, Art Nouveau, Nature, Spiritualism, which I will mention later.

Ideas and visual research

I have chosen to post all my research online for a few reasons. I find it easy, neater, it's a reference for me.  Universities now prefer you have a blog. It can easily be shared or presented, I can update it, move items, and also study or research using my mobile anywhere. 

 I have used Pinterest for a few years and already had tons of items on my boards.  It was useful for studying all things Mucha and more.....

http://www.pinterest.com/sarahlaurel/transcription-project/

View my Transcription Project Board on this link.

 Mucha's Inspiration 

Celtic Art covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, which drew on the traditions of Celtic literature and Celtic art from the middle ages and was in fact called Insular Art, which actually originated in the 7th Century AD 601-700.
Insular being Latin for island, in this case the British Isles.

The Celtic Art revival came to represent a reaction to modernisation. Another influence was that of  La Tène "vegetal" art on the Art Nouveau movement.

The La Tene style became popular after an archaeological discovery of La Tene, a Celtic Village in Switzerland in 1857.

An example of an Insular-Style animal pattern from the Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is one of the finest and most famous of a group of manuscripts in the Insular style, produced from the late 6th through the early 9th centuries.  There is debate about its origin from Ireland, Lindisfarne, Kells to Pictish Scotland.

La Tene Designs

I discovered that Mucha drew inspiration from 17th century Japanese art, but to find help from current Manga cartoon drawings was interesting.  And furthermore that Mucha's work was similar to 15th century Japanese art from ancient scrolls.

 Flat colour and line drawing were used in his Poster Advertising work.

Not dis-similar to this image.

Image from The Amazings Scroll of 1460 called 

Fish-Basket Kannon by Bokkei Saiyo

If you are interested in the influence of Japanese Art around the 1800's follow this link

Another influence on Mucha's work is Hans Makart. Born in Vienna in 1840, (20 years older than Mucha) his work was richly coloured with historical legendary themes.

His paintings dramatic and sensual with a dreamy style.  He had a way of revealing the subject's spiritual qualities.  Quite often involved in scandels due to his decadent nudes and outrageous parties, he was a popular man, who's painting days ended at only 44 years old.

You can see that a young Mucha only 24 himself when Makart died, was influenced greatly and was able to also create work such as his beautiful Panneaux and capture his models spiritual and sensual side.

The Five Senses 1872-1879 by Hans Makart

 Mucha, The Times of Day

Muchas was also greatly influenced by Pre Raphaelite paintings

JW Waterhouse

Mid-week mobile update

It's all looking a little orange and blue in the library in Hebden Bridge.
I have been busy researching my artist for my 2nd project, Transcription. Immersing myself in all things Alphonse Mucha.  I will post under a separate heading regarding my research.  So in the midst of Personal Statement for UCAS, open days, workshops, research, book lugging about, LRC  and library visits,  surfing the web and as I go getting deeper into more branches of thought. Updating and keeping my sketchbook flowing visually.
Deadline coming closer eeeeek!

Happy Halloweenie time, Samhain and all things Zombie Run!

I'm getting ready for my first course review,  eek!


Feeling amazed at other artists' work, I have a long long way to go!
Though I hope with training and a heap of hard work, I can produce art I am proud of.
But what type...Print, Paper Cutting, Textile, Sculpture?
A New World has opened to me, and I have only taken a few steps down this
undiscovered path!

Just a month in, I am getting my head around my own creativity, the purpose of workshops, and project criteria.
It's a total change for me to go from what is a commercially accepted portrait image or wedding image series, to thinking out of the box in another media. 
Using my loves, life experience,, ideas and creativity.  Finding out what I am capable of and analysing the results.

Nikki Mo

I am loving working in a group of creative people of all ages.  It is challenging, supportive and interesting.  We encourage and praise each other, make suggestions and give feedback, in a relaxed enjoyable workshop setting.




So relaxed I did this! Suprisingly relaxing and not scary!

Me!

The most important lesson to me was learnt from my tutor Nikki in Photography Week.
ONLY use my own work or photography in my art, and not to borrow or manipulate what's available copyright free online!

I am a little worried, scared, over-faced with the possibilities, but encouraged, enthused, and happy to embark on this journey.
I have been so used to working digitally on computer with Adobe CS6, and Social Media, that it's hard to let go back to hands on, pencil, paint, clay, and create in a traditional, tangible way.

I plan to update my physical sketchbook with workshop notes and examples, ideas, sketches and research.  However I would like to indulge my Social Media side hence my blog!
Which is completely separate from my other blog or website and other social media.

I plan to buy a mini sketchbook to fit in my pocket or bag.  I have the ideas but think oh, I'll do it later! So these images are rattling around my head, and I need to make room for many more, in a visual diary for inspiration.
My other indulgence is using my mobile as a camera. I have Dropbox, Google + and Adobe Creative Cloud, and every now and again, categorise the images into albums for, trees, walls, textures, windows etc.  Hoping one day they will be a personal resource for my work.

I am also starting to work through the Art section in the Learning Resource Centre, noting processes I'd like to try and incorporate in future work.

Looking forward to what is to come!

Introduction to Paper Craft

Paper

As an ice-breaker we listed everyway we could think of to transform paper. From the list we made samples. Here's what I made in my workshop, photographed with my mobile and run through Pixlr or Pictframe.
Enjoyable and cheap, have a go.

Weave, shred, fold, pierce, rip, cut........!