Urban Influences.

Figure 1: The Printworks, Manchester, 2014.

Instead of selecting drawing buildings at random I have decided to create a storyboard.

I drew all the restaurants and memorable places that my boyfriend and I have visited in Manchester.

At the beginning I worked from photographs and not on the spot, which because camera lenses show everything and I got nothing from my drawings but disappointment. The way I see things is not everything but the way I see things. That is the difference.

I did not try to draw everything I see within the photograph, I have selected the building outline and filled in the details. However, I have blinked out everything else. I do not see why I should draw thing that does not interest me. In a way, I see it as torturing myself. 

Figure 2: Piccadilly train station, 2014.

  In most of the drawings, I used either ink or pencil, I want to keep it black and white, therefore, there is no way of telling what time of the day is it, or the weather. Simply, I just want to draw the building structure design.

Figure 3: Painting onto a street mirror: Step by step.

  After this, I moved on from paper and worked with an urban found object, because I was getting tired of drawing buildings. Subject matter is very important to me, for I have to be interested in the subject matter, to make it interesting for myself. I started with my surroundings, dogs. I painted over the mirror and scratched the paint off in order to draw.

Figure 4: Drawing of Ruby.

 

From working with buildings and mirrors I wanted to draw from a different aspect.

Overall, the drawings that I did, I realised that working from photographs are more detailed. I don’t think I used enough media to experiment, but I have narrowed down my subject matter and decided that I need to experiment more with scales.

Daksha’s drawing workshop

27/1/14 I have signed up for Daksha’s drawing workshop.

Daksha Patel has a collection of different types of objects, including natural objects and manmade objects, she explained that the idea is to use imagination to make connections between these objects, unlike museum displays, that create exhibits and group objects together in categories.

I was interested in natural objects, how their value changes over history based on opinions, for example, a rock of crystal, its value is based on size, colours, etc.  If the crystals were common, they wouldn’t be so valuable anymore.

Rockhounding Arkansas is a website that explains how the value of crystals is judged.

RockhoundingAR.com Copyright © 2011.

http://www.rockhoundingar.com/worth.php       

  The display of the collection by Daksha.

I made the connection between a crab shell, a goat’s teeth and manmade wax and feathers, I like the idea of bones and shells that were once a living creature, but their remains could last for thousands of years if kept in good conditions. 

The idea that people would kill in order to collect is like a desire to own an object, simply because it is rare. 

Daksha suggested that maybe it is natural to collect for us, because I told her I collect objects to remember things by.

 

I think this workshop was very helpful in inspiring me to think of ways to relate to my project, I, myself have a collection of different things, and I am planning to put that in my project, because most of my collection are natural objects and these are related to data. It inspired me to think of ways of composing and representing my collections.

Motif Designs

It was difficult for me to select six final motif designs to put onto acetate, because I wanted to put everything that I have ever drawn onto screen. However, I have to be selective. Therefore, I thought of continuing to use Pigeon diagrams as my theme.

I linked my research sources by using The Secret Code by Priya Hemenway (2008) to adopt golden rules to apply to my drawings and as an overlapping idea. Also, for my pigeon drawings I have used Complete British Birds by Paul Sterry (2008). 

I have used artist research to help me understand positive and negative space, particularly Mark Hearld, who is  a printer artist. His works show exactly where the positive and negative space is. 

 

For example, in the picture above there is too much positive space, after seeing Mark Hearld’s work and adopting the way he see things, I have a fuller understanding of where my drawings need to have more ‘blocks’.

 

After using line drawings as a guideline, I filled in the spaces by ‘colouring’ and that’s where the colours would be transferred to the fabric.

This is the final arrangement for screen printing.

Motifs Designs - Drawings

I have always been interested in animals, but I have started to look at them from another perspective. For example, I started looking at the dead pigeons, because this subject was overlooked and I thought of how I can transfer the image into print design.

Sketchbook Drawing - Dead Pigeon

I like to work with fine-liner pens; because it creates a sketching effect, I do not enjoy drawing with pencils, because I hate the idea that it can be corrected by rubbing it off the paper. With a pen, once the mark is made, it cannot be undone. I start off by using continuous line drawing to roughly mark down the proportion with a pencil or a graphite stick, but I never use a rubber.

One issue that I have found with the 0.5mm fine-liner pen is that the line it creates is too fine, which makes it hard or even impossible for the print to be produced. I discovered that the safest way is to use 2.0mm or a bigger number.

I then started to look into pigeons’ skeletons and be experimental with my drawings.

 

Sketchbook Drawing - Pigeon Skeletons

Also, being experimental I have used straight lines only to draw a skeleton of a pigeon.

 

I have used the feathers that I have collected to create mark making on the paper and tea stains and Indian ink to draw them. I thought of developing this kind of work by looking into mark making and combining it with found objects.

Things I might explore: I have liked Jackson Pollock’s work, because it is full of energy.  I have also started to develop an interest in working with hair. Therefore, I plan to experiment with this direction. 

100 meter line

I admire Candy Jernigan's work, she is known as a found object artist.
 

My first idea to represent 100 meter line was to go to Whitworth park and use a 100 meter long string to tie two trees together and fill the space in between with the lines.

However, I know there is no such thing as original, because there's always some artist somewhere who has done similar things, but still, I would like something that came from my own idea and to know that I wasn't just adopting another artist's approach without being interested in their work.  

 

I used found objects, I collected twigs, and later I selected 3 out of a bunch, and I hammered one on the wall, and used a roll of thread to tie the 2 together, to create a sense of flowing, the shadows reflected the threads and the twigs, I know the thread did not create 100 meter length, but I was looking at how the light and shadow, positive and negative space multiplied the line. 

           


 

 

 

 

Later on, I was looking at Candy Jernigan's work and I like how she uses different ways to represent her found objects, through collage and drawings.

I have taken this idea from her on board, it happened accidentally. My dog chewed up the twigs I found at the park, and she also chewed up my Embroidery wooden hoop in to many pieces. I used those wooden pieces and placed them in five orderly lines, and another piece at the other side of the paper. I then started to draw them, drawing the found objects, within the found objects themselves.

 

20 lines drawing

This is a 20 lines drawing from the chance cards task.
It amazed me how much details I can get by using only 20 lines.
I have draw part of the plant and not the whole, because I like working with space, less is more. Also, because I have combined the instructions with draw with 20 lines only with another chance card, use only 50% / 80% of the paper, I have thought of leaving some space and work with my line drawing to create a sense of compostion.