Workshop Work
This week’s workshop was to bring in an object, any object to focus on. I honestly completely forgot to bring in a special object, so I chose to focus on something I had with me; a pencil sharpener. We repetitively painted our objects for different periods of time; 5 seconds, 10 seconds, up to 15 minutes. During the workshop progression I focused more on the blade of the pencil sharpener than the rest of the object, specifically in the last few paintings. It was interesting to focus on one object for so long and experience how time affects painting methods and practises. My favourite of my paintings was the final one, which I believe was 15 minutes. I like spending a lot of time on my work and focusing on detail and quality, so I was more pleased with this outcome than the others, but I appreciate the simplicity achieved with shorter periods of time.
Dragon Drawing Progression
The above images show the progression of an A3 dragon drawing I worked on throughout week 9. I started by sketching out the design in pencil, then blocking in the basic outline in black ink. I then sketched in more details with pencil such as the tail and wing details. Following this, I finished the complete outline in black ink including details such as the pupil in the eye and the dragon’s spine. I was then able to begin the shading and detail process with black biro. This process is very time-consuming but ultimately creates a nice outcome. I use different shading techniques for the body compared to the head crest, wings and tail of the dragon as they would be different textures; the body has a smoother shading where as the winged parts are more linear and shaped. Once I had finished all the shading and detail, I went in with a white ink pen to highlight certain aspects of the dragon such as the spine of the wings, tail and body, alongside detail in the eye, scales on the head and head crest. The last image is a digitally edited and inverted version of the dragon drawing, because I thought it would be interesting to see what the monochrome contrast would look like reversed.
The above images show the progression of an A3 dragon drawing I worked on throughout week 10. This drawing is a detailed close-up of a dragon’s head, horns and head crest. Like the previous, I started with a pencil sketch then blocked in the main outline in black ink, rubbing out the initial sketch underneath. I decided I wanted to involve a single colour focus into this design, so I used purple ink to fill in the dragon’s pupil. I then shaded the pupil and iris with black biro. I used black ink to carefully draw scales of varying sizes all over the face and head of the dragon, dispersing into the head crest. This process of creating a scale pattern is also very time consuming as it involves repetitively drawing various circles to create a texture. Once I had finished drawing out the scales, I went back in with black biro to shade the head and horns, and create detail and definition in the head crest. Like before, the last image is a digitally edited version with inversed colours because I always think it is interesting to see an image in negative form.
Dragon Model Progression
As I spoke about in week eight’s post, I wanted to create some kind of structure to hold and support my dragon model. If I had more time I could have made something from scratch, but I figured that what I wanted could be more easily achieved with a premade base. I chose to buy a small plastic dollhouse to contain the dragon model in. I wanted to continue the minimalistic and monochrome theme, so I decided to paint the dollhouse in black acrylic paint. I first cleaned and dried the structure of the dollhouse, then applied three full coats of black paint. The purpose of the dollhouse is to contain the dragon sculpture as a memory, and to present it as a part of something else rather than as an individual piece. The dragon sculpture represents memories of drawing dragons with my dad in my childhood home, so the dollhouse helps present this concept better to the audience.
Bibliography:
Louise Bourgeois: Moma (no date) The Museum of Modern Art. MOMA. Available at: https://www.moma.org/artists/710 (Accessed: February 22, 2023).
Tate (no date) The art of Louise Bourgeois, Tate. Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/louise-bourgeois-2351/art-louise-bourgeois (Accessed: February 22, 2023).
Peterson, S. (1995) The Craft and Art of Clay, A Complete Potter’s Handbook (2 vols). 2nd edn. London: Laurence King Publishing (The Complete Pottery Course).
Potts, A. (2000) The Sculptural Imagination – Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist. London, New Haven: Yale University Press.
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