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.

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.

 

Mapping the City

I have decided to document my journey from Manchester to Breadbury.
In order to get to Breadbury, I will need to walk to Piccadilly train station then get the train to Breadbury.

People mention that I describe a lot, so I descibe what I saw, heard and sensed.

As a starting point, I have written down a list of items I carried with me.

I have also used photography to record my surroundings.

 

 

Instead of taking photographs from usual angles, I started to think about seeing things differently, for example, taking photographs from below, because I took Fiona, my dog with me on the journey, I thought it would be interesting to adopt her point of view, therefore, I have used black and white images.

 

Later on, I have used my images as a template and worked on them with black ink, I drew a list of objects, in the order that I walked past them, and I have placed them on a piece of paper, thinking about the composition to represent my journey.

 

 

 

I have also tried to draw straight lines while on the train to recreate the movement changes on the train.

 

Thrying to push the idea of mapping the city further, I plan to collect found objects to create a collage, so I can relate this idea to collecting data.

 

I can also use the found objects as a drawing tool and use it to record my movements on a piece of paper.

 

I plan to look at related artist, Candy Jernigan for inspirations of found object in order to push my ideas further.