Part 5: Assignement 5 - 7 Days KS

 

First thing I did was brainstorm Ideas, I found it hard because of how open the theme was, nevertheless I did stumble upon a great Idea.

That Idea was to give myself an art exercise of drawing/painting producing the same image for each day of the week. I created a brief that gave myself clear expectations. I was thinking of literal things that could happen in the space of 7 days such as the worlds creation and the life cycle of something like a butterfly but randomly thought of giving myself a mini journey and opportunity to explore mediums and how my motivation or skill varies from day to day, like a visual diary as I wanted to write about my process of creating the piece.

 

Brief for 7 days

The title if 7 days. Give yourself 7 days to journey through this theme, you are to use or find/take a picture of anything e.g., a person, animal, object, environment… anything that would provide you with a good variety of shades colours features textures. Once a visual reference is established working at an a4 size you are to each day choose a different medium and or technique or style of your choice to illustrate the image or thing. An example: Monday - using pencil to create a continuous line drawing, Tuesday to use things in your environment such as household objects like kitchen roll and then the next day’s reverting to traditional tools. There is no limit to what materials you use as long as the same image is created each day; so, at the end of the week you’ll have a mini gallery of all the days. An interesting thing you could do is after your complete each piece of art you could reflect on your mood, expectations, inspiration that’s day or making the piece and so you can look back and have the thought processes for each piece.

 

Questions to ask myself:

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

Was anything challenging?

What was the mood or thought process throughout?

 

Thinking of what image to use I wanted something that would provoke feelings as I produced it, I took a more personal approach to the brief. I decided to use a picture of My nans, Both beautiful people this picture I thought had colours, textures, emotion a good amount of things I could paint/draw…This

 

Monday

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

I used pencil on paper for Monday, I am very comfortable with this medium as I have always used it it’s one of those foundation mediums you begin with.

 

Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

I did enjoy using this medium it was easy in the sense of drawing the shapes and how I could rub out things if I made mistakes. I also like the differences in pencil thickness, for the lighter less obvious details I used H2 and 3 which produce a very thin and light pencil lines and then for the darker I used a regular mechanical pencil up to 3b. I didn’t go to heavy on the illustration because it’s quite small and working with thick pencils wouldn’t work. I like the unfinished faded look I’ve created

 

Was anything challenging and was there anything that didn't turn out the way you wanted?

Because this drawing turned out quite small, I found it tough in keeping the details good enough especially the teeth I tried to simplify them as much as I could as to many details looked ridiculous. Proportion wise I didn’t do too bad but there are elements that don’t resemble the original like the eyes and mouth. If I did a bigger version, it might have been a little easier to capture the similarities.

I generally enjoyed drawing this it did turn out a bit tedious some times because I couldn’t get things right and I’m still not very satisfied with the teeth. Its technically only a sketch but I did like how it turned out, you can tell who it is and it is an easy comparison. I think part of my struggles are due to spending a lot more time now drawing digitally I've lost a bit of traditional skill.

Tuesday

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

I used Pencil on black card and then a white biro. I am used to using pen to outline or overdraw lines.

Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

I did enjoy the negative outcome of the white on black I could focus on the lines rather than tonal value and shades and such.

Was anything challenging and was there anything that didn't turn out the way you wanted?

The challenging part of it was trying to get the proportions and details right because I couldn’t rub out the pen or change anything if I went wrong. It turned out well, a bit scary with the white on black but I can still tell what the image is.

 

Wednesday-

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

I used my iPad to do this digitally, I am very familiar with this medium as most of the work I do now a days revolves around digital.

Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

I really enjoyed working digitally, my favourite part is when the line work is done, and I can start to add the colours and shadows and detail.

Was anything challenging and was there anything that didn't turn out the way you wanted?

There wasn't anything challenging doing this one, there’s a lot of freedom drawing digitally because you can easily change and fix things and my style is manipulating features anyway so there’s no perfectionism needed.

 Thursday-

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

I used watercolour for this one on newspaper because I wanted to be able to see through to the text on the page. I don’t use watercolour very often it’s not my strongest medium, but I do like the challenge.

Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

I did enjoy experimenting with layering the colours, but I also found it a bit frustrating cause I couldn't easily fix my mistakes.

Was anything challenging and was there anything that didn't turn out the way you wanted?

The whole thing was quite challenging because I struggled with the making the right colours and successfully painting the proportions and small details. I should have made the picture bigger, so these elements were easier but nevertheless there is still a look about it that resembles the original picture.

Friday-

 

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

The medium I used on Friday was pastel, I am quite confident with pastel just not as confident as I used to be as I don’t use it as much anymore. I was quite busy on this day so this was a very quick sketch, however, even though it was quick I think It has a lot of character and the colours are vibrant.

Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

I really enjoyed creating this, going mad with the colours, and not caring about proportion as much, its kind warped which I enjoy. Doing this has inspired me to maybe use pastel again as I sued to do pastel pieces all the time as a teenager.

Was anything challenging and was there anything that didn't turn out the way you wanted?

The challenge was the time I had which meant I couldn’t focus on details and proportions as much which is why it’s a bit spontaneous and cartoony. Regardless It’s one of my favourites of the week.

Saturday-

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

I used black and white charcoal sticks on this day on grey paper. I thought I’d see the effects grey paper had at making the darks and lights stand out more and I think it did. Like pastel I sued to use charcoal a lot as a teenager, so I am familiar of how it works.

Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

I really enjoyed taking my time with this one, I’ve always liked the texture and softness charcoal can have. How It can be smudged and cancelled out by the white charcoal. The look I went for was lines and sketching I didn’t want a full covered image just a simple but effective illustration that still has all the detail and tones in it.

Was anything challenging and was there anything that didn't turn out the way you wanted?

This piece using the medium and such was smooth sailing it was just a running theme throughout these 7 days I struggled to capture my nan (Vera) on the right, there is always something slightly off. It does look like her enough, but I think cause my other nan (Pat) has the more prominent things like glasses and a crown and specific hair I've failed to catch my nan on the rights likeness. This out of all I find the most accurate, the likeness is a lot more present.

Sunday-

What medium did you use today and how familiar with it are you?

The medium I used was pencil on this last day. But I used my left hand, an exercise I have done in the past to see how different a picture can turn out using my bad hand. I am very familiar with a pencil Its a first choice when drawing and sketching so there were no obstacles there.

 Did you enjoy creating this illustration and using the medium?

I really enjoyed doing this one, there was a challenging element that left my all disorientated, but I found the lack of control funny and interesting.

Was anything challenging and was there anything that didn't turn out the way you wanted?

This whole thing was a challenge, the unfamiliar movement of my left hand left me with the urge to just swap back out of habit. The lines I couldn't keep very long they're all small and wispy and the proportions are awful quite amusing how it turned out but, I still enjoyed the strange sensation of drawing with my left hand; holding a pencil was even weird. I think the more I use this technique though it might make using my right hand a lot easier, the lack of control and the accuracy of proportions and likeness could help me loose a bit more control on my right creating fluidity and helping me focus on things like shapes and such rather than being so detail orientated when using my dominant hand.

 

Throughout the week I decided to keep a traditional feel using mediums. It was a little bit of a challenge in the sense since using digital platforms to create cartoons and strangely shaped creatures where nothing must be accurate, I've lost a bit of skill creating traditional art. My faces aren't as accurate as they used to be, and I find it a bit more tedious and boring. This assignment though has inspired me to try use a lot more traditional medias in the future and maybe spend a bit more time relearning the basics.

As for the purpose of these illustrations I would call it a tribute. The immediate audience for this project would most likely be only a small amount of people which includes me and people who would know my Nans. Alternatively, I imagine seeing something like this in an exhibition where a lot of personal work is often presented by artists dedicated to someone or something. Some may even find it relatable as most people associate their nans as being one of their favourite people. There is a happiness about the image, the expressions may invoke feelings of comfort and warmth and again reminding someone of their own nan. It’s almost like a reflection of people in your life seeing an artist’s perspective may inspire someone to think about their own lives and the people they know or love like you would a Nan. I like that it's a more personal interpretation of 7 days, it’s a lot less literal then If I did something that would take 7 days to occur such as God creating the world or the stages of a butterfly.

 

David Hockney and Picasso family art reasearch