Assignment 1-5. 
At the very beginning, I was really excited to start something new. I had the passion but had only basic drawing skills, not much experience and never practised regularly. My visual skills, knowledge of the medium, techniques needed great improvement. At that time I had a very “shy” approach, using only graphite pencils – occasionally charcoal – and my drawing style was very tight – due to the fear of failure. I did not enjoy the first couple of exercises wholeheartedly because my sketches were way too far from my expectations. The first valuable lesson was from this course that I had to be in less control and I also had to introduce the regular practice into my everyday life if I wanted any improvement. Slowly but surely it happened so even though my first assignment was done with a pencil and still looked tight I felt I had the ability to improve. In the formative feedback for Assignment 1. I was advised to do more preparatory work and overall practice – like thumbnail sketches. From Part 2. I started drawing more and did more quick sketches for the next Assignment.

In part two, there was an introduction to colours. The second feedback from my tutor suggested understanding colours more and offered some really useful reading materials. Apart from the liquid medium, I tried a very wide range of colouring tools. I found pastel is very expressive and I really enjoyed Inktense pencils because of their powerful and bold colours. I was determined to learn more about how colours related to each other, how you can reach certain effects with different tonal values, blending and generally about harmony and intensity. Later on, I used many times the ‘Interaction of Color’ from Josef Albers suggested by my tutor. Still, my favourite exercise remained the still life using line, because of the fresh and clean image done with black ink.

Part Three Expanse was the most troublesome, though I enjoyed learning about different perspectives. I think the reason for not being drawn particularly to landscape is that I tend to draw every small detail (leaves, pebbles) instead of suggesting their presence so it was overwhelming sometimes and seemed an impossible task to finish. However, those exercises did loosen me up noticeably.  Part 4 made an improvement in my observational skills especially the drawing exercises in three dimension. I really enjoyed every part of it but clearly, I had to (and still have to) work on proportions and tones a lot. My personal project in part 5. was a really good experience and reflected my journey through this course. In this last feedback, my tutor suggested attending life drawing classes. I feel that would do good, too and planning to look for classes once the lockdown situation is over.

In the beginning, I was not really keen on the research part but the more I did the more I enjoyed to the point when I spent long hours online just wandering from painter to painter through centuries and art movements. Overall I learned a lot through this course, I am happy with the improvement I made and looking forward to the next chapter.

‘The Card Game’ using colored pencils

When I looked through this course I found Part 4 was clearly the most enjoyable for me. I was drawn to this subject due to my interest in the detailed observation of the human body. Also – even though most of the time I had no model – the variety, the endless possibilities inspired me to work much harder. From the start, I wanted to depict figure(s) and still life in the background. I really fancied the idea of cardplayers at that time since over Christmas I saw my relatives playing almost every evening. I tried quick compositions with different media as a start.

I liked the idea of the figure just getting up from a chair so I made a longer study with colours.

I didn’t really like it. Then one evening one of the players hurried upstairs during the game and there was this empty chair with a jumper negligently hanging on it (he dropped a  card on the floor when I made the very first sketches and since then I always draw one card on the floor, too) I realized that I do not need the presence of the other cardplayer. I just need to know that he’ll be back soon. I was gonna use lots and lots of colours. Recently I read a book Interaction of Color from Josef Albers which was a really useful tool for this adventure. I played around with colours on the man-made and natural objects I originally wanted to include in my picture.

There are some sketches of the seated figure

I tried to draw the head in a different style to see which one would be the most interesting

Finally I started drawing using HB pencil

I decided that I would draw with pencils only because -though I like the crispiness of ink drawings – blending with 4B-8B pencils and Inktense would give the soothing impression I wanted. For the same reason, I reduced the variety of colours so my final drawing was made with  limited palette.  The natural light came from the window mixed with less artificial light from the lamp.

The final drawing

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I chose my subject because of my deep interest in depicting the human body and the fact that I had a chance to watch cardplayers for a relatively long time and found the subject really promising. At the very beginning, I did not really have any other real direction so I checked some related drawings/paintings online and in the library. I tried to work with live model as much as I could because the finer tones seemed to fade away on the photos. The idea of using ink dropped quickly when I realized I wanted to include reflective surfaces and some soft material thrown on the chair. Though I left the bottle out of the drawing at the end,  pencils were still a much better choice because of the smooth blending. I used brownish shades – bark and baked earth colour, the latter is slightly reddish – with yellows. I left both the clothes – the jumper on the chair and the baggy top on the figure – with no colours as I noticed earlier too many different shades could look overworked and exhausting at the same time if a small format is used and my final work is on A3 size that is relatively small. It really helped me to work on this part to have a look back to Part 4. Project 1 Fabric and form exercises where I had to identify the light and dark areas.

When I planned the perspective of the table I was inspired by Felix Vallotton The Poker Game, and the Chairs and Table by Sophie Walraven. I also liked Cezanne Card players series including 5 paintings with different sizes and different numbers of players especially one of the sketches that were made in preparation for the final paintings. This particular one – ‘Study for Card Players – is graphite on paper emphasized with small colour detail in watercolour. I was not happy with some of my poster-like colourful images so I decided that I choose not too many colours, possibly a limited palette.

The other painting that really moved me in the right direction was Hugo Oehmichen – The card game. This picture tells me a story about the mother and daughter seem to be in happy league with each other with a standing figure behind who fills the whole picture with warmth. I wanted to express something similarly obvious feeling with the figure’s posture and facial expression, I tried to depict this little bit of other-worldly gaze on the face that I saw on the painting ‘Young man at the Table’ by Mihaly Munkacsy. Probably I could have worked more on the contrast on one side someone waiting patiently and on the other side, someone just left quickly, dropped a card on the floor without being noticed… Whilst this work may not be very good technically I learned from it a lot to follow my instincts and be more experimental.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

With this assignment, I tried to work with large gestures but also depicting subtle details carefully when it was needed. I started this course only with graphite pencils and even though this drawing was also done with pencils, I explored line and tonal values on this journey and slowly introduced colours, too.

Quality of outcome

This assignment was partly successful. I liked the message in it but I could have emphasized more because it looks a bit ’empty’.

Demonstration of creativity

I could have worked more on tones especially with the shadows, also I left out the still life part on the table and it should have been there. However, I found the composition interesting and expressive.

Context reflection

I enjoy more the research now than I enjoyed in the past. I realized it did help me to find more interesting compositions and pushed me to dare and explore rather than staying in my comfort zone. At the beginning of this course I thought it was a bit of waste of time, now it is a useful tool.

Reflection on Drawing Skills 1. course

Assignment 1-5.

At the very beginning, I was really excited to start something new. I had the passion but had only basic drawing skills, not much experience and never practised regularly. My visual skills, knowledge of the medium, techniques needed great improvement.  At that time I had a very “shy” approach, using only graphite pencils – occasionally charcoal – and my drawing style was very tight – due to the fear of failure. I did not enjoy the first couple of exercises wholeheartedly because my sketches were way too far from my expectations. The first valuable lesson was from this course that I had to be in less control and I also had to introduce the regular practice into my everyday life if I wanted any improvement. Slowly but surely it happened so even though my first assignment was done with a pencil and still looked tight I felt I had the ability to improve.

In part two, there was an introduction to colours. Apart from the liquid medium, I tried a very wide range of colouring tools. I found to work with sepia pastel is very expressive and I really enjoyed Inktense pencils because of their powerful and bold colours. I was determined to learn more about how colours related to each other, how you can reach certain effects with different tonal values, blending and generally about the relativity of colour, harmony, and intensity. Later on, I used many times the ‘Interaction of Color’ from Josef Albers suggested by my tutor.  Still, my favourite exercise was the still life using line, because of the fresh and clean image done with black ink. Part Three Expanse was the most troublesome, though I enjoyed learning about different perspectives. I think the reason for not being drawn particularly to landscape is that I tend to draw every small detail (leaves, pebbles) instead of suggesting their presence so it was overwhelming sometimes and seemed an impossible task to finish. However, those exercises did loosen me up noticeably. Part 4 made an improvement in my observational skills especially the drawing exercises in three dimension. I really enjoyed every part of it but clearly, I had to (and still have to) work on proportions and tones a lot. My personal project in part 5. was a really good experience and reflected my journey through this course.

In the beginning, I was not really keen on the research part but the more I did the more I enjoyed to the point when I spent long hours online just wandering from painter to painter through centuries and art movements. Overall I learned a lot through this course, I am happy with the improvement I made and looking forward to the next chapter.

Underlying structure of the body in historic and contemporary art

When is about the structure of the human body, among other great historic artist the one who comes first to everyone’s mind is Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519 Renaissance artist, scientist, architect) One of his most famous drawing is the Vitruvian Man

Leonardo used pen, ink and metalpoint on paper. This drawing is a great study how human body corresponds with a circle and a square based on the works of Vitruvius, Roman architect. Leonardo performed dissections to explore the structure of skeleton and musculature of body. In 1510-11 he created several precise drawings representing body parts in transparent layers accompanied by his famous mirror writing.

Nunzio Paci is a contemporary artist from also Italy. I am truly fascinated by the astonishing combination of anatomy and nature in his art. His anatomical studies are clearly leading us back to Da Vinci’s drawings. According to the artist “my intention is to explore the infinite possibilities of life in search of a balance between reality and imagination.”

Faces (including self-portraits) in historic and contemporary art

Amadeo Modigliani was an Italian sculptor and painter is known for portraits with elongated faces and figures. Influenced by African sculpture he created stone heads with elongated and simplified forms. Those unmistakable characteristics became typical on his paintings later on.

Whenever I am researching contemporary art online it’s always like being a child in a candy shop. There is always something fresh, something different to find. Recently I found William Kentridge beautiful charcoal drawings.

These drawings are very thought-provoking and informative. You can read each and every story behind. Last but not least here is his self-portrait

Through his artwork he is often expressing his view about social and political injustice of his homeland (South-Africa) and more broadly about other (European – leading back to his Jewish roots) conflicts from mostly the history of the 20th century.

And finally I would like to compare some of the self portraits of Vincent Van Gogh. Between 1886 and 1889 he painted over 30 self-portraits.

In 1886 he arrived to Paris where he met Gauguin. Apart from the difficulties caused by living together with his brother Theo, he had a really creative year then, producing more than 200 paintings within two years. This first painting was made in summer. Although the colours (his favourite yellow) are vivid he looks relaxed and content.

In 1888 he moved to Arles where he painted mostly flowers and trees and from October he lived with Gauguin in a sort of “artist community”. Unfortunately at that time he showed signs of serious mental illness. He spent some time in hospital, and in January, 1889 he painted the third self portrait above. He looks very lonely, this impression is more emphasized by the happy-coloured and detailed Japanese drawing next to his face.

The last one was created in September, 1889. I believe that was his last self-portrait. At this time he was in hospital again. The colour of his shirt and the background is almost the same, his eyes are cool and restless at the same time but he does not have that wounded look nor the hopeful and happy face like on the previous pictures.

Figure study using line (A1) -Seated model in an upright chair

Those two drawings were created by Pablo Picasso. The first is Igor Stravinsky, the second one is Erik Satie. The drawings are very similar, both model were seated on the same chair. The beauty is in their seeming simplicity: he used quick, single strokes.

I like those images because using only the technique of contour line drawing – no shades, colours just simple lines – still makes me feel that both of them are complete and dimensional.

My first drawing is me, sitting on the balcony of a holiday apartman last summer. I was gonna use brush pen first because I wanted the image crisp and simple but then I decided to use Black Inktense which lately became my favourite medium. I started the very first sketch with charcoal though, just to see the difference.

Then I moved on to pen, drawing basic shapes with quick strokes representing the central axis.

Final drawing

I was a bit afraid to fill this large piece of paper with only lines, I thought there would be disturbing “empty holes” but somehow the paper was just enough for this composition. I found difficult to depict the facial expression. I tried to put the shades with not much success. Overall I think there are slight problems with proportion but I like the composition and the chosen medium worked out well, too.

Figure study using tone (A1) – Reclining model

My model wore a jumper and jeans lounging on a couch facing me from the foot end. Natural light came from the window behind his head. I used pencils/charcoal for the final drawing. On the first sketch I outlined the basic shapes.

With the first I just tried to see the shapes, the second one is more about details and composition.

Final drawing

I think the composition looks balanced and I was quite happy with the tones and foreshortening of the lower body part. But then the left arm and the head went completely wrong. I tried to erase them both and draw again differently but it was just getting worse with each attempt.

A portrait or self-portrait combining line and tone (any size)

I did not know who to choose for this assignment so I did some sketches from pictures online.

The last one was a young girl looking back over her shoulder I thought the pose was interesting to draw. I used mixed media, crayons and pencils with shades of sanguine and black.

This drawing did not take as long as two hours but when I finished I felt I could only make it worse if I worked on it more. This was more tonal drawing than line using. The pose was really interesting however the use of media or technique was not experimental at all.

Reflection

That was my favourite part in the whole course, I really did enjoy all the exercises. Also developed confidence when drawing figures. Probably that’s the reason why I am a bit disappointed that my assignment did not exactly go as I planned.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills: I feel, the composition worked well on the drawings and I was happy with the chosen medium on the first part.

Quality of outcome: Although I am not satisfied with the pieces this time I can definitely see the improvement due to various exercises.

Context and reflection: during this journey I met some really inspiring artists and in part 4 the book “Art Anatomy” from Jeno Barcsay was a great source.

Draw an outdoor scene of your choice. Try to find a view that has some demonstrable depth to it. Spend anything up to two hours on this final drawing. I tried different ideas before I found the one I wanted.

I decided to pick one of my photos from Dalmatian Coast with steep stairs running down to the sea. My first sketches made with different media, charcoal, pen and HB-2B pencil.

For a final piece I decided to use 2B-4B pencils and coloured pencils.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills: I think I chose a really interesting and strong composition, these stairs really work well to give this drawing a sense of depth. I also assume my observation skills seem to be improved since I started. However, I struggled a lot with this part of the unit, especially the landscape bit. I’m still using traditional medium, a bit slow to try new things but I’m working on it.

Quality of outcome: I played by the rules finishing this drawing just under two hours as was advised but – probably I should have done some more preliminary work – I couldn’t get some of the details and colours how I wanted originally. Also I need to put more notes about my challenges, thoughts and ideas, I know..

Demonstration of creativity: More experiments and introducing more techniques and practising, practising and practising.

Context reflection: I love research. I love to discover, to try out, to be amazed. I do not really like to write about it though, that part needs to be improved because it is noticeably inspiring and helpful to make my critical thinking better.

Use your reading list and other sources to find contemporary artist who work with landscape and a range of viewpoints and compare their approaches with those of earlier artist.

Tacita Dean is a British visual artists who lives and works in Berlin. She is best known for her work in 16 mm film, photography and drawing. Her series of six multi-panel blackboard drawings ‘Fatigues’ from 2012 showing the peaks of magnificent mountains of Afganistan.

Georges Seurat was a French post-Impressionist painter. He developed pointillism technique with Paul Signac. His drawing ‘Landscape with houses’ from 1881 was made with conte crayon.

• For me, the most obvious difference sits in the feelings awakened due to different technics and medium. The realistic, sharp contrast of black and white on Dean’s picture giving a sense of keeping distance from a viewer, quite cold and Seurat’s drawing kind of warmly luring us closer to the houses like you are in a dream – so much more intimate – as a result of his chosen technique.
• The other significant difference is between the choice of the subject: natural and man-made.
• Both artist used black and white only, the foregrounds remained black on both pictures, however on Dean’s image the black sky contrasts the white mountains and on the second one the sky is rather light-toned.

As mentioned above, both are monochromic and very still. The presence of houses normally indicate a sign of human or any life but to me both of them seem to be uninhabited places.

I was sure I’d like to draw an interior for this assignment however for a short time I considered some half-withered flowers in a vase. When I finally decided that it must be something else, I started roaming in the rooms with no success for a while. I sat down helplessly in the living room with a what-am-I-gonna-do face and then I saw it. The door was wide open because I was waiting for the postman (the bell isn’t working) and the lights came through the outer door, two umbrellas peeped out from our ridiculously small ante-room, the scene looked interesting.

First sketches with different media (pen, pencil) and small details..

I knew that the real challenge would be using colours, because I hardly ever used them in the past. I didn’t know what to use first, so I tried with pastels then watercolour pencils

I have never used watercolour pencils before, I had to try them out first. I really liked them and even though the pastel looked better, I decided to use watercolour because of the smaller details. Later on I realized that the chance of more smudging was in direct proportion with colour intensity and I could not work the fine details out well.

I started with the line drawing to catch the best perspective and proportion.

Then I started put the colours on. I used water pencils, some pastels for the bigger area and white ink for the small highlights.

I was quite happy with the chosen colours. Several shades of brown, from the lightest through reddish mahogany to the darkest. The yellow walls and my olive coloured coat hanging at the back created truly beautiful colour composition. The umbrellas are not quite fitting into the scene so I cheated a little. I wanted something a bit harshly sticking out from this harmony and because my son’s umbrella with the red/blue strips (Fireman Sam themed) just looked simply wrong, I changed it into a rather vibrant orange/green stripped one.

The final piece

Self assessment

Visual and technical skills: my compositions seems to be better than at the very beginning, but my technical skills have to improve way more. Also, I missed to work out some details.

Quality of outcome: since I started to communicate my feelings and ideas I keep facing the fact that I do not always draw what I see, it’s rather what I think I see and that’s frustrating and overwhelming sometimes. I am not completely unhappy with this drawing – it taught me more- but it is still far from my intention.

Creativity: I don’t think that was a particularly brave or creative approach to the subject but there are parts of it I like.

Context reflection: I have found amazing works of different artists – through the researches – I have never seen before and in my small spare time I actually tried very different approaches from several inspiring art movements and hardly wait to try some more.

I would like to observe the works of three contemporary artists who focus on domestic interiors.

Anthony Green is an English painter and printmaker. My very first impression was that his pictures are like cut-outs from a colourful magazine. The multiple viewpoints into one image including a very high one is putting me into the room and far from all the elements at the same time. His figures are in distorted, awkward positions due to the irregular form which is the preferential – and only – option for the shape in his work.

The fact that he simultaneously used several perspectives made me think of Paul Cezanne. Seems like the same idea arised and turned into a powerful message by two different artist born exactly a century apart from each other.

Dickon Drury was born in Salisbury. I was really pleased to discover the work of this young artist. He often paints domestic interiors, birds and still life, too. All his work has a hint of absurd comedy with a fresh and playful imagination of a child.

This is a mix of domestic interior and still life. The colours and shapes are bold, simple and calm but the peculiar mix of those carefully picked items and snails (!) are there to surprise us, to stop us walking away, to make us say: Wait!…What?! I assume, the leftover bone on the plate is teasing the good old symbol of the Vanitas paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Roy Lichtenstein was an American artist. Alongside Andy Warhol he became an iconic figure of Pop Art. This art movement started in the 1950s expressing images from the modern popular culture. He has a cartoonish style, his best known works, such as “Drowning girl” and “Whaam” based on panels of comic books. He also created series called “Interiors” and “Waterlilies” in the latter he reworked the impressionism of Claude Monet’s waterlilies. He reproduced other famous painters’ work, for example “Bedroom at Arles” from Vincent van Gogh.

For me, it is a “straightened up” version of the original painting. He replaced the chairs with modern flattened chairs and the shirts became somehow crisply ironed businessman-type clothes. In his Arles period, van Gogh’s favourite colour was yellow, in Lichtenstein’s work the yellows are brightening up the room.

This is a fresh, humourous approach with respect. Lichtenstein himself said : ” The things that I have apparently parodied, I actually admire.”