Painting Methods, Life Drawing

Wartime Drawings

My project is about rationing during WW2, so to prepare I've been doing pen and wash drawings of wartime subjects. 

in the Anderson shelter

nurse and children

fixing a toy car

preparing a cow for the blackout

Coventry Cathedral

Painting Methods, Life Drawing

Today in Painting, we looked at complementary colours and shadows.  I drew a red circle and stared at it for ages, then looked at a blank part of the page and saw that the after-image was pale turquoise.  I tried again with purple and got a pale yellow after-image.

The teacher set up a blue and orange still life, and got us to think about using blue elements in the orange parts, and orange in the blue parts.  I'm happy with this and think the reflection of the oranges works well.  This is only my third attempt with acrylic, and the bottle does look like it's made of glass, and the middle orange's tummy button (?) looks effective, I marked that with the hard end of the brush.  I added a mottled teal background (harmonious with the blue bottle) because I thought the white space looked a bit empty and I suspected it would give me a better idea of how the colours in the main subject were working out.  We were supposed to be experimenting with impasto but I don't like that -- using lots of paint is expensive, and using a little but thickening it makes it a complete pain to handle.  I will tackle impasto at some point, but today was not the day!

Funnily enough, I hate oranges.

In Life Drawing, like last time we drew a full-page figure, trying to get it as accurate as possible.  Then we had to work out where the shading was and build it up using collage, a mosaic of tiny bits of scrap paper and newspaper.  I didn't think I'd like doing this -- I found it tricky to get the figure right and then it seemed a shame to start slapping glue on it.  But I love the effect of the tiny newsprint words creating shading, so I'm going to keep experimenting with it and finish the picture properly when I get a chance.

Photoshop, Contextual Studies

In our Photoshop tutorial, we learned about the stamp tool, effects and filters, liquify and motion blur.

Contextual Studies covered 1400-1500: specifically, Giotto, the Wilton Diptych, Uccello, Masaccio, Brunelleschi and Leonardo.

Fine Art

Fine Art today.  We talked about our Self-Initiated Project, or SIP.  It still needs to be on the theme of Food and Drink but now we're given free rein to interpret that how we like and come up with our own brief.

Project Content
- Mind Map, brainstorming ideas and focusing them into a brief
- Introduction
- Contextual artist research.  6-10 artists, equal split of historical and contemporary.  Keep linking this research with the idea development to show influences.  Do some exercises 'in the style of' if that helps.
- Experimentation with different media: paint, printmaking, collage, stitch.  Observational drawing.  Plenty of primary sources (museum visits).  Interviews?
- Development of ideas.
- Final Outcome - simple but well-executed is better than ambitious/incomplete.
- Final Evaluation. 

I was happy to find out I can use my research at the Imperial War Museum and work on a WW2-themed project.  I made my mind map, there were too many ideas there but after a chat with the teacher I worked out that the thing that interested me was the worry of trying to feed a family on rations -- wanting to protect loved ones against the great tide of history, and the vulnerability of families and ordinary people.  Women having to make decisions about the family on their own, as well as having to do war work.  All the official paperwork and tidy, stoic queuing being the only way to get through a terrifying time.  Still need to finesse it a lot, but that's the key for me.