I don’t have much to say because the report was written as the result of a Skype tutorial, therefore it was more of a discussion and I took my own notes.

I was relieved at Bryan’s positive response to the work I submitted for Assignment 6.  As I said at the time, I wasn’t convinced at it’s success, and was very much outside my comfort zone, but Bryan has reassured me that my reaction is a good one, as it shows I am pushing myself and not just staying with what is comfortable.  I appreciate his feedback and will crack on with getting my submission ready for the November Assessment.

A Changing Scene

I agree I could have achieved a better outcome in this exercise.  I feel that time is against me as the assessment approaches,  so don’t think I will be able to go back to a busy shopping centre and sketch the figures, this time tracing the path they follow and perhaps trying a chalk drawing showing the movement and direction.

An Artists Book

I spent so much time researching Artists Books as it’s not a medium I’m familiar with, that I didn’t give my take on it. I will do a second draft of this.

I’m curious about Bryan’s reference to Cy Twombly’ interest in the scribbles and subconscious mark-making, so I will definitely explore this.  In addition, I think I realised myself that I should develop the idea of doodling whilst listening, and what these drawings could mean.  Overall, Bryan’s comments are positive and encouraging so there’s nothing else for it, I need to push on through my discomfort and try to experiment more and try to have some fun with it. I like Bryan’s phrase ; Making copies of the pages and working into them again (and again, and again) might also reinforce the repetitive nature of bureaucratic systems.

Bryan’s collage work is interesting and I’ll look into this further.

A Finer Focus

Again I have positive feedback here, but need to think more about how it felt to make the work and perhaps link it to my Parallel Project.

My research on Stephen Walter’s drawings needs more work.

Time and the Viewer

I am pleased at Bryan’s positive feedback, but unsure about his suggestion of adding text.  I could play about with it a little on photo shop etc before committing to any changes, as I do like it the way it is.  I like the key reference as per Peter Blake’s Sergeant Pepper and will definitely do this.  I’m really interested in Bryan’s reference to the YES logo.  This interests me a lot.  I’ve read about other artists inspiration from music, or poetry etc, but never been sure how to use it.  I definitely think my love of YES’ music is relevant.  It is unfashionable, uplifting, technically brilliant, poetic and random, all at the same time. There is a place for it in my work some where.

Bryan says ; Often our work can be informed by other cultural interests? How might different artists approach cooking, for instance? Andy Warhol: a ready meal? David Hockney: something tasty and fresh, but improved from ingredients? Whereas a conceptual artist might follow a recipe meticulously.

I also like the comment; ‘In a sense, this could be viewed as the artist having power over the viewer and the ability to ‘steal’ their time’ – is interesting. Does the art work also steal time from the artists, demanding to be made in certain way.  This is definitely true, much to the frustration I felt making A Finer Focus and Time and the Viewer.  I will include some dialogue about this in my blog.

I’m interested in the suggestion of a Mind Map covering all the work I’ve made for Drawing 2, although I think it would be huge and quite detailed but it is worth pursuing.  I need to research the Contextualising Statement more before attempting this.

Pointers for the Next Assignment

Reflect on this feedback and link it to my last report

Think back over the course and eke out links between things

How does the statement ‘As an artist you are responsible for not only making your  work but also recording its making, especially in THIS context’ fit with the ‘Artist as a Recorder’?

Student name   Anne McLeod       Student number 497519
Course/Unit Drawing 2 Assignment number 5
Type of tutorial (eg video/audio/ written) Written

Overall Comments
Thanks for submitting the latest set of work. I know that this portfolio has been a difficult submission but I think that you’re really getting somewhere. I read back my last report and your comments on it before writing this one and I hope that you feel more confident. There are tricky steps as you’re challenging yourself all the time and learning a lot. Your work is moving from representation to something more profound.
You are outside you comfort zone, but – trust me – the work has some really strong qualities. One advantage about working in a more speculative way is that each piece ought to throw up problems that need addressing, which gives the impetus to make new work in a way that a rounded-off or ‘complete’ work doesn’t. Stuff that is looking for something will always stumble across other stuff that’s fascinating and worth exploring.
In this report I haven’t separated out the ‘work’ from the learning log as they seem so closely linked. My main focus has been to try and help you recognise links that exist in your shelf directed parallel project work and the more ‘brief-driven’ exercises. You may not see the links as clearly as me (and perhaps I’m looking too hard to link everything), but there are connections. Your underlying ability to draw is fine and you shouldn’t worry on that score and you have potential to do well on the contextualisation and creativity elements of the course, but you need to push on a little. This won’t necessarily be easy, but it’s a journey worth making as the world will look more exciting and interesting once you’ve done it. I have also returned the draft of the critical review with notes on it and you should refer to that document too.

Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of
Creativity
A Changing Scene. Well done for trying various approaches to this problem. I think that you preference for the drawing with the shadows is perfectly reasonable. Its composition is interesting and there’s a sense of time (and space) unfolding. I do think, however, that if the shopping centre drawing had been denser that something rich could have been made. You’ve stopped quite early in the process, I think, and not given it chance to breathe. You’re interested in your position as an artist as recorder, and I wonder if there wasn’t more mileage available to you here. You could, for example, have traced the routes people take through the shopping centre which would have conflated the car headlights idea with the observation. I do like the use of the water and the soluble ink and would be interested to see you push this technique further.
An Artist’s Book. You’ve looked at the work of the artists suggested but I really wanted to get your take on their work. In the section on Botticelli, you write that ‘the imagination used is amazing’ and I wanted to read how? Aside form the technical aspects (‘His draughtsmanship is perfect and the fine line drawing technique employed often implies movement of the characters so that you could almost be looking at an animation’), what moves or excites you in the work? What can you borrow or learn from it? In your summaries of the other artists there’s very little of your voice. You mostly quote from other sources and don’t agree / disagree with the statements. Although it’s tricky, I want you to bring something of your knowledge or opinion (which is informed by your education and practice) to bear on the subject.
You do establish a relationship with another artist’s work when you come to make your own book, which is great. The idea of using notes and ‘doodles’ made during phone
conversations is really strong and pulls on all sorts of strands in contemporary art. I know that you put this aside as you progressed but its something you should consider
reincorporating. Aside from Martin Wilner’s work there’s something of Cy Twombly’s interest in scribbles and (possibly) subconscious mark-making.
The pages of the book have a vibrant but evasive quality. Parts of the images shift into focus and others are obscured or tricky to read. The ambiguous orientation plays its part too. You managed to re-think what a book might be. It’s not narrative and the front and back (and in terms of a time-based project, this is important) is perhaps arbitrary or complex. I’d call this a success and though you’ve puled back from using all the material you considered you might want to return to the sheets to explore the form further. As I’ve already written, you could employ the technology of bureaucracy (photocopiers and scanners (which I mis-wrote as ‘sinners’ last time)) to fold elements of the work back into itself. Making copies of the pages and working into them again (and again, and again) might also reinforce the repetitive nature of bureaucratic systems. I really think that this little book has legs and ought to be pursued.
Don’t forget that you can layer the image with different colours in different sessions. You might also attach other bits of office paraphernalia to the main substrate. You cool for example staple stuff onto the pages or add posit-its (you actually mention this in your notes on my last report), or even rip or cut stuff out, or censor it. The key phrase in your reflection is:

If I were to do this exercise again I think I would try to include doodles and
sketches done unintentionally whilst listening on the phone and perhaps look
into what the subconscious meanings of these could be. Why not keep this going by adding this sort of material? I’m reluctant to say ‘start again’ as I think it would be better making this denser and more complex. The idea of doodling and then
analysing them is really very good as it makes your position as maker more problematic. You become a subject in your own work alongside the people you are quoting. Problematic is good. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet I have been collaborating with a friend on a series of books in which we work onto a pre-printed surface (also designed by us) in different ways to create a deliberately disorienting experience for the reader / viewer. The background includes photographs of a dense installation we made as well as material found online. It’s a ‘real’ collage on a digital one and each book will end up being unique:

A Finer Focus.

This is a good response (and a really solid drawing) to the brief and I’m glad you’ve thought about it in terms of your parallel project. In the light of the theme of the submission being ‘timelines’ I would be interested to know how it felt to work this way.
Making even a small drawing with such meticulous attention to detail can takes ages and you’ve implied as much in the text. How did it feel to make slow progress, but progress nonetheless? Is there something related to the speed of the bureaucratic machine here? Perhaps I’m over-stating it but the task of drawing something in this way of almost like the character in Franz Kafka’s Trial who goes round in circles trying to escape a legal system. The more you look, the more there is…
Also, the reflection on Stephen Walter’s drawings is very brief. What is it about having to get close to drawings to understand them? Is something lost even as the viewer reads more detail? More please, as I think you could get a greater insight into your own work by addressing these issues.
Time and the Viewer.

It’s here that you resolve – or explore – some of the issues raised in the other exercises. The text you’ve written is good and adds to the work, I think. The plain and
clear way you write about how colour and black and white work differently is  convincing and unpretentious, for example. Visually the piece relates not only to the precedents you mention but to the artist’s books you made, though all the elements are more ‘equal’ in status. The idea of time is very visibly encoded into its making, too. The reposted material from the OCA forum is a great inclusion as it shows how a work is ‘read’. It’s an obviously symbolic or allegorical piece and invites the viewer to speculate on meaning and connections and you see this played out in a very
clear way. Does this, I wonder, have a part to play in the piece itself? Is there room for some of this text to be incorporated? Perhaps also you could draw the key, like this:

This would provide a visual map rather than just a list and would extend it just a little further. On a side note, I’m interested in the YES logo and wonder if their work – detailed and technical, with a little bit of the ‘kitchen sink thrown in’ approach could be seen as an analogue of your approach? This isn’t as trivial as it seems. Often our work can be informed by other cultural interests? How might different artists approach cooking, for instance? Andy Warhol: a ready meal? David Hockney: something tasty and fresh, but improved from ingredients? Whereas a conceptual artist might follow a recipe meticulously.
The final comment – ‘In a sense, this could be viewed as the artist having power over the viewer and the ability to ‘steal’ their time’ – is interesting. Does the art work also steal time from the artists, demanding to be made in certain way.
All in all these are interesting projects and while they may seem fragmented and unrelated to (a) each other and (b) the parallel project, I think that connections can be made. I’d recommend drawing a mind-map that covers all the work made for Drawing Two to plot the links. This could be quite big and incorporate thumbnail sketches as well as writing (and be as dense in tis way as Faust in his Study). You could write a contextualising statement and include both in your submission. If foldable, like a map, it could be a artists book.
This is in line with the ‘reminder’ on p68 of the course:

Pointers for the next assignment
● Reflect on this feedback in your learning log and link it to the last report which still
has relevance here
● Think back over the course and try and eke out the links between things
● As an artist you are responsible for not only making your work but also recording its
making, especially in THIS context. How does that fit with the ‘artist as recorder’ idea?
Please inform me of how you would like your feedback for the next assignment. Written or video/audio? I’d really like to speak to you again a I think that at the end of this course you have made real progress, but lack a bit of confidence in its value or the objectivity to see how it might all be linked. A conversation would really help, I think.
If you decide to make some more work (and I hope you do) and rework the text a bit, we can talk about that.
I look forward to it.
Tutor name                     24th June

Next Assignment due ; 31st Aug 2016

You say that after the third image on the blog you felt you were ‘getting somewhere’.  This is what you want to expand on.  Where are you getting?  What are the clues?  Which bits are really working?  Is it the process or the outcome?  Try and ask yourself ‘why?’ whenever you make a claim and find a way of backing it up  If necessary make comparisons between your works to make your point.  If you’re feeling ambitious compare your work to that of others.  I’d be interested to see you write about Twombly or Pollock after making these.

This is a fair point.  It’s these areas that I struggle with, and I know I need to try to identify what it is that I think I’ve achieved by being specific.

As the work progresses (And it’s good that you’ve kept at this and produced a lot of work) you’ve tried to collide abstraction and figuration in the ‘tree’ works. By the end you seem quite in control of the processes (good) but there are consequently fewer surprises.

This is true; I decided fairly early on to make a tree drawing, and perhaps as it was an interpretive drawing I should have been open to making different drawings and experimenting with whatever sprung to mind during the music.

The photographs of the details have potential. What is their status? (remember the digital / analogue or ‘in the flesh’ conversation we had?) Are these works in their own right or just documentation of some thing else? It would be good to read your thoughts on this sort of issue. It starts to get at something fundamental about this body of work.: where is the work? Is it the process, the object, or somewhere in between?
The answer might be that it skips around, never quite settling. the the object, or somewhere in between? 

This really interests me because I was quite excited when I looked at the close up photographs.  it did occur to me that they could be a work in themselves.  Again though, I need to reflect why I thought that and be specific.  I think it would help to perhaps look at another artists work who has done this.

Drawing Blind: These are good – especially the two lyrical black pen ones – and you’ve made progress. It would be good to see some of this approach filtering in to your normal practice.

This has also occurred to me.  Whilst making the blind drawings I observed that the lines were less hesitant and rendered more confidently than when I normally draw and it would be good to be able to harness this is some way, and again I need to practice this.

It’s good that you linked these to Nicholson, but I’d like to see the link explored more. It’s not just a superficial visual similarity, but something that deals fundamentally with the nature of the object in question. It gets at big ideas like truth and beauty.

It’s the ‘big ideas’ that I find daunting!  I really need to think about how to address this.

Your analysis of this work is based the making and not on what the work might evoke or ‘mean’. Try and speculate a bit on that,

This is an area I struggle with.  I can feel an emotional response to an image, but sometimes struggle to put it into words.  I was pleased with the ‘blue spot drawing’ but struggle to say what it is that pleases.  It’s back to trying to be specific

Perhaps gridding up one of the charcoal drawings and making a facsimile of, but painstakingly done, would be an interesting way to extend / collapse time.

This is an interesting idea because the drawing was made by the machine quite quickly and the marks are in some places controlled and in others quite accidental.  Gridding up a drawing would cause my marks to be precise and laboured and my drawing would take much longer to do.

An Emotional Response: I’m not sure that these work as well, but I like the approach It would be good to think of the works as having the statements as their titles. I don’t normally suggest that students worry about making ‘art’ or anything ‘meaningful’, but you might want to start pairing text with the visuals. Don’t try be poetic or even descriptive, but perhaps simply explain something a bit. Have a think. It might feed into your Parallel Project, especially if you pursue abstraction. The rupture or juxtaposition of plain words next to complex imagery can be interesting. Perhaps the text could even become part of the imagery.

I totally agree with the critique and recorded my thoughts as such, I my blog.  Had time allowed I would have had another go at this exercise.  The comment about text is interesting because I had already planned to try this out in the Parallel Project.  I bought some letereset for the text and have researched some artists who use text in their work.

By the way, I think the first attempt at a self-portrait is interesting as the face is nearly blank and reminiscent of John Bellany’s work.

Very interesting comment.  I was so focussed on technique and getting the proportions of my face correct that I never actually noticed how the drawing looked with no features.  That does evoke an emotional response; makes me think of a loss of identity, anonymity, a mask, dehumanization, a person lost.

This is, again, clear and well-thought out and, with regard to others artists’ work, very thorough. As before I’d like to see a bit more reflection on the effectiveness of the work (yours and others) and not just a technical description or appraisal. It’s a subtle difference, but it should help you situate the work in terms of your ambition for it.

I think I need clarification on what ‘effectiveness’ means.  Does it mean what was the artist’s/my intention, and was this met?

Plotting your work in relation to that of others (that is ‘contextualising’ it) is crucial. It’s what you get marks for, after all. You’ve come to some interesting and insightful conclusions in the ‘research / reflection’ part of the blog. It would be good to see some of that shown in amongst your own work.

For instance, when you made the video did you feel you were documenting a performance?
Try and apply this sort of thinking to what you’re doing a little bit more. 
On the ‘Erased DeKooning’ (which I love, by the way) you say that
Interestingly, I was more excited by the assertion from Rauschenberg that if de Kooning hadn’t been home, then ‘that would have been the work’, and then if he hadn’t agreed to giving him a drawing, ‘that would have been the work, and so on. That is a very interesting concept to me, and somehow I can understand it better that the erasure of the drawing.
I want to read about why you thought that would be interesting. It touches on a lot of Conceptual Art practice (inspired in part by Rauschenberg’s gesture).
On the whole the blog is very good. It would be good to see some ‘bleed’ between reflection on the work of others and your own work. You’re doing it, but I need to see it in writing. 

Most of the comments made in this report pertain to relating my own work to other artists, or contextualising.  This is the area I need to focus on in Part 4.  It is my intention to look at blogs of other students to see how that works in practice.  In addition I intend to address each point in this report and go back and make changes in my original reflections.

Positive critique is;

Thesis a difficult assignment but you’ve approached it with ambition and purpose. Well done. The intensity of the drawings is good.

As the work progresses (And it’s good that you’ve kept at this and produced a lot of work)

Drawing Blind: These are good – especially the two lyrical black pen ones – and you’ve made progress.

Mark Making: Throughout this exercise you move neatly from drawings that are simple observations to something more intriguing and well done for thinking of the parallel project while working on them.

The roses end up giving you a strong patterned work that borders on abstraction while referencing calligraphy / writing. Well done.

The drawing following the roses is intriguing. I like the ambiguity of the space and the way to recedes and flattens the subject. It starts to reads as a landscape but then suddenly snaps to being an interior detail. More please. This could be the first step in an interesting journey.

The ‘blue spot’ drawing is good, too. I like that you have to improvise and use lots of small pieces of charcoal

Drawing Machine: It’s good that you kept working at this until you doing that altering the variables made a difference to what was produced. By sticking with this you’ve inserted some deliberate authorship into what might seem to be accidental. Making hand-made version of them was a good move, too as it should help you incorporate some of the marks into your vocabulary.

This is, again, clear and well-thought out and, with regard to others artists’ work, very thorough.

On the whole the blog is very good.

This is very positive and encouraging.  I have a clearer idea of the areas I need to focus on when going forward to Part 4.

Anne MacLeod       497519

Drawing2               Assignment 3

Overall Comments
This is an exploratory set of work. The exercises are radical and demand much of you. They are designed to make you leave ideas like technical expertise behind and to examine process as well as physicality and gesture. Sometimes students find this difficult or even silly, but you’ve embraced the work and pushed at each exercise to find out what they can offer.
There needs to be more analysis of what’s going on, but you’re getting there.
Feedback  on assignment  Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity 
Thesis a difficult assignment but you’ve approached it with ambition and purpose. Well done. The intensity of the drawings is good. You say after the third image on the blog that you felt you were ‘getting somewhere’. This is what want you to expand on. Where are you getting? What are the clues? Which bits of the work are really working? Is it the process or the outcome? Try and ask yourself ‘why?’ whenever you make a claim and find a way of backing it up. If necessary make comparisons between your works to make your point. If you’re feeling ambitious compare your work to that of others. I’d be interested to see you write about Twombly or Pollock after making these.
As the work progresses (And it’s good that you’ve kept at this and produced a lot of work) you’ve tried to collide abstraction and figuration in the ‘tree’ works. By the end you seem quite in control of the processes (good) but there are consequently fewer surprises.
The photographs of the details have potential. What is their status? (remember the digital / analogue or ‘in the flesh’ conversation we had?) Are these works in their own right or just documentation of some thing else? It would be good to read your thoughts on this sort of issue. It starts to get at something fundamental about this body of work.: where is the work?  Is it the process, the object, or somewhere in between?
The answer might be that it skips around, never quite settling.

Projects Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity 
Drawing Blind: These are good – especially the two lyrical black pen ones – and you’ve made progress. It would be good to see some of this approach filtering in to your normal practice. It harnesses a new way of perceiving, less based on ‘seeing’ or what you know already. Defamiliarisation is quite a common approach to making at the moment and it stems from exercises like this. It’s good that you linked these to Nicholson, but I’d like to see the link explored more. It’s not just a superficial visual similarity, but something that deals fundamentally with the nature of the object in question. It gets at big ideas like truth and beauty.
Mark Making: Throughout this exercise you move neatly from drawings that are simple observations to something more intriguing and well done for thinking of the parallel project while working on them.
The roses end up giving you a strong patterned work that borders on abstraction while referencing calligraphy / writing. Well done.
The drawing following the roses is intriguing. I like the ambiguity of the space and the way to recedes and flattens the subject. It starts to reads as a landscape but then suddenly snaps to being an interior detail. More please. This could be the first step in an interesting journey. Think about how the different areas can be amplified (that is, detail becomes very detailed and large blank areas become very black or flat), anyhow scale might play a part in this kind of work. I can imagine this as the basis of a giant painting.
The ‘blue spot’ drawing is good, too. I like that you have to improvise and use lots of small pieces of charcoal. This is what a studio practice does: it pushes you to make things by engaging with difficulty to find solutions rather than freezing or waiting until conditions are perfect.
Your analysis of this work is based the making and not on what the work might evoke or ‘mean’. Try and speculate a bit on that,
Drawing Machine: It’s good that you kept working at this until you doing that altering the variables made a difference to what was produced. By sticking with this you’ve inserted some deliberate authorship into what might seem to be accidental. Making hand made version os them was a good move, too as it should help you incorporate some of the marks into your vocabulary. Perhaps gridding up one of the charcoal drawings and making a facsimile of, but painstakingly done, would be an interesting way to extend / collapse time.
An Emotional Response: I’m not sure that these work as well, but I like the approach It would be good to think of the works as having the statements as their titles. I don’t normally suggest that students worry about making ‘art’ or anything ‘meaningful’, but you might want to start pairing text with the visuals. Don’t try be poetic or even descriptive, but perhaps simply explain something a bit. Have a think. It might feed into your Parallel Project, especially if you pursue abstraction. The rupture or juxtaposition of plain words next to complex imagery can be interesting. Perhaps the text could even become part of the imagery.
By the way, I think the first attempt at a self-portrait is interesting as the face is nearly blank and reminiscent of John Bellany’s work.
Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays  Context 
This is, again, clear and well-thought out and, with regard to others artists’ work, very thorough. As before I’d like to see a bit more reflection on the effectiveness of the work (yours and others) and not just a technical description or appraisal. It’s a subtle difference, but it should help you situate the work in terms of your ambition for it.
Plotting your work in relation to that of others (that is ‘contextualising’ it) is crucial. It’s what you get marks for, after all. You’ve come to some interesting and insightful conclusions in the ‘research / reflection’ part of the blog. It would be good to see some of that shown in amongst your own work.
For instance, when you made the video did you feel you were documenting a performance?
Try and apply this sort of thinking to what you’re doing a little bit more.
On the ‘Erased DeKooning’ (which I love, by the way) you say that
Interestingly, I was more excited by the assertion from Rauschenberg that if de Kooning hadn’t been home, then ‘that would have been the work’, and then if he hadn’t agreed to giving him a drawing, ‘that would have been the work, and so on. That is a very interesting concept to me, and somehow I can understand it better that the erasure of the drawing.
I want to read about why you thought that would be interesting. It touches on a lot of Conceptual Art practice (inspired in part by Rauschenberg’s gesture).
On the whole the blog is very good. It would be good to see some ‘bleed’ between reflection on the work of others and your own work. You’re doing it, but I need to see it in writing.

Suggested reading/viewing  Context
On the whole this is fine. You visit galleries and write well about artists and their work.
If you become interested in process based work, have a look online at conceptual art from the 1960s and 70s. The stuff that gets called conceptual art these days isn’t really.  Start at the Wikipedia page and spread out from there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art
There’s a really good book in the excellent ‘art and ideas’ series by Tony Godfrey called Conceptual Art and published by Phaidon. A good library may have it. I don’t think you make this kind of work but some of your comments make me think you could apply some of the approaches within a more ‘hand-made’ context.
I can’t see anything (aside from the blue pot work’) from your parallel project. If I’ve missed it, send me a direct link, and I’ll add something to this report. I couldn’t see a specific section on the blog.
Pointers for the next assignment

• Keep your open mind open. It’s serving you well and there’s a palpable sense of someone discovering stuff through doing. Keep it up.

• Keep asking yourself ‘why?’ • Think how you can use work you’ve already made as raw material for the next section. This will add complexity to the submission and show that you can edit and select stuff that is rich.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with

Bryan Eccleshall  23/10/15

Next Assignment due Dec 2015

Having been disappointed in having to wait 6 weeks for a Tutor Report on Assignment 2, only to be told I was having a change of tutor, I was very relieved to have contact from Brian Eccleshall very quickly, and thought it was a good idea when he suggested using Skype.  He arranged this very quickly, and this helped to get my motivation back on track.  I hadn’t started Part 3 whilst waiting on the tutor report.

I was very impressed that Brian had looked at my work on my blog before the tutorial and had made some notes.

I was encouraged by his assertion that I needn’t worry about my drawing skills.

Project 1 Exercise for space, Depth and Volume

I was slightly disappointed in his comment about working from ‘contrived’ still lives because I am enjoying the fact I now have my own studio to work in.  I have set up a ‘still life area’ with a back drop to drape material over and have lots of vases lying around.  Having vases of roses around helped me experiment with the studies for Assignment 2.  Having said that, I totally understand where he was coming from and that using ‘found’ groups of objects can be more interesting.  If I felt strongly that I wanted to work from a still life I would still do so and would explain why I wanted to do it in my blog.

Project 2 Mark Making Materials

I was interested in his comments on the Mark-making materials exercise because the two versions that he was most interested in were ones that I liked too.  His comments made me realise that perhaps I’m not trusting my own instincts, and instead thinking about what would be most pleasing to others.

Project 3 Narrative

I was pleased with Brian’s response to these exercises.  He really got the emotion I was feeling when completing them and his comments about not setting up still lives made sense.  The items I was sketching were put together authentically, as they had been on my mother’s bedside table.  The unusual inclusion of the Irn Bru bottle made it different or quirky, and therefore more interesting than a conventional still life.

Research

I was very interested in Brian’s comments about the research I’ve done because I’ve always recorded it in my learning log in the same manner and no other tutor has commented, I suspect only because Brian is much more thorough in his review on my blog.  It’s good to have constructive criticism and a steer on how it should be done.  I will review this area and edit it.

Assignment 2

Brian began by asking me what my own thoughts were on my final piece for Assignment 2.  When I answered that I wasn’t convinced I had the best outcome and preferred some of the black and white drawings and he agreed with me, in a way having what you suspect confirmed by another is reassuring.  My gut instinct was that I could have had a better outcome.  I need to trust this instinct in future and not be swayed from it.  I think I’m still trying to come up with a final piece that others will like, i.e. the final piece where I used watercolour and ink and printing etc, I thought appeared more finished or polished that a black and white drawing.  If time allows I may have another go, or try what Brian suggested with collage etc.

Parallel Project

Brian’s suggestions for the way forward for the Parallel Project were very exciting.  He had an endless stream of ideas.  I felt encouraged by his enthusiasm and more confident about tackling it.

All in all the tutorial was a very positive experience.

Brian began by saying; you can draw, that’s a solid foundation you can build on but there’s always work to do.

If the exercises don’t excite you, don’t be afraid to ‘push it around’.  For the exercise on drawing machines it can be a toy, human body etc, at level 2 you need to be trusted to find your on way of looking at the world.

Project 1 Exercise for space, Depth and Volume; you’ve handled the medium pretty well, good drawing and use of tone.  Drawing in this way forces you to edit.  You set up still lives a lot, there is nothing wrong with this but also try to find subjects to draw that are all ready there, things that you come across and are less in control of.  Go out into the world, you cannot control the environment in the same way.  Look at shoes left at the door etc.

Project 2 Mark Making Materials; I’m captivated by the second one, it has a dark, gloomy atmosphere.  It has an interesting composition and there is a subtlety to it.  I like that you reversed what you had done in the first one, ie black tree instead of black background.  Does it look better in reproduction than in real life?  Me – yes, a bit.  That is quite common.  It has really quite a haunting silhouette.

I also like the one where you used acrylic paint.  It is less showy and more brooding and seductive.  Start breaking the rules and making mistakes, you’re quite experimental, keep that up.  You’ve got permission to try different things; try it, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t matter, there is no obligation for everything to be good.

Project 3 Narrative

The results from this exercise were quite moving.  I liked the drawing of the Irn Bru, in some respects this is what I meant by not setting up a still life, but using things already there instead.  It is a nice drawing, I like the paint effects and the use of the white paper.  The drawing of the humbugs is a sweet little study.  Recording different stages of a drawing is useful, Matisse did this and sometimes the final painting looked nothing like the photographs of the different stages.  I found the sensitive subject quite moving.  You’ve really achieved something with the humbug drawing, it’s really neat, unpretentious – it’s a good example of the advice – don’t think about art, don’t try to make art, you don’t need to make a grand statement.  Drawing 1 is all about enquiry, finding out about different medium, Drawing 2 is finding all about drawing.  I like the white paper that you’ve left, there is an interesting tension between the drawing and the space.

Research

Something obviously chimed with you when viewing Duncan Shanks work.  Steal his ideas, borrow ideas, the level you are at in education, the idea is to learn.  I do drawings of other people’s works.  Look at composition, materials, mark making, use the format.  Looking at the photograph of Duncan Shanks’ sketch book with the Cow Parsley flower drawing on the left page and a painting including the flower on the right, you might decide to use this to do a diptych.  If something excites you, use it.  When you write about other artists, you write a little about what they do, then you can sometimes be a bit dismissive.  You don’t need to like the artist’s work that you are looking at, you only need to write about it.  If you don’t like it, go into more detail about why, e.g. “I was unconvinced by his use of….., although colourful, this didn’t work for me because…..”, do more digging and be more analytical.  The easiest way to do this is to compare two artists, e.g. John Pyper draws landscapes…., which is different from David Hockney, who uses colour….  Or compare with and relate to your own work.  You may want to review your research again and edit it.  You given your opinion on the use of digital work, we are all digital artists; we paint, we photograph the painting and post it on-line where others view it digitally.  Try to find something positive to say about something you are reviewing, don’t be dismissive, or too gushy.  I’ve written about artists I don’t like, but by the time I’ve researched them and written about them – I like them.  Grayson Perry said he wanted to put up signs in galleries saying ‘You don’t need to like it’.  If you like flowers, look at botanical studies, such as those of John Ruskin.  Georgia O’Keefe is having an exhibition next year in London.  It’s difficult to see her work in the UK.  She does massive paintings and uses a zoomed in quality.

Assignment 2

Your studies are really interesting.  There is some really interesting mark making and a few quite nice gestures, there is a rhythm and energy.  In the first drawing there is something really quite bold, quite free, you’re not over thinking, just making art.  I really like the pattern on the cloth, it adds interesting detail and texture.  In some of the exercises you try a few things then settle quite quickly on what you’re going to do.  For the assignment you have been much more experimental and your work is better for that.  The black and white drawing of the five roses has a graphic, almost Japanese quality.  It is a nice piece of work on its own.  Was it a conscious decision to use calligraphic marks, almost a written painting.  There is real clout in there.  Likewise, in the drawing with the grey wash, the subject matter is not arranged, it’s just lying there.  There is an interesting use of negative space and the composition goes off the edge of the paper.  There is lots of intuition going on in your sketches, you’ve not tied yourself to any medium, there are lots of black ink, you’ve not tied yourself to any style.  There is some really rich stuff going on.  Brian asked me how happy I was with the final piece.  I answered that I wasn’t sure;  I wasn’t convinced I had the best outcome, when I looked back over the sketches I had done.  I liked the black and white drawings I had done, but had not developed them further.  Brian answered that it was ok to feel that way and that it was a sign that I was trying to propel myself forward.  He suggested that I play about with it; photo shop it, cut it up and collage with it, and draw over it.  When I pointed out I had changed the image on photo shop he commented that I was a digital artist!

Brian commented that he liked the photograph with the newspaper, pencil and rubber and other paraphernalia in the back ground and found it interesting.  I replied that this wasn’t intentional, I was just in a hurry when posting on my blog.  Brian said that accidents can be exciting, art happens, take notice of the world.  Start to contextualize your own work, which will come from looking at artists that are relevant.

Parallel Project

Brian advised me to look at a blog post he had done on D2 student Sarah Euston, who had scored 78%.  She had grabbed hold of her subject and milked it for all it was worth.  She focussed on a place, where she later found out Cornelia Parker had worked.  Her assignment piece was a film of her painting onto glass then smashing it at the end.  It was quite high concept, but it’s up to you how far you want to travel.  She also integrated a lot of the exercises into it, once she had decided on her subject she based the exercises on it.  The critical review should relate to the contextual study and should be relevant to the parallel project.  Compare and contrast, for example if starting with the work of Alistair Gray, look at his approach as opposed to mine, what is different, as opposed to a recording or CCTV surveillance?  What does a drawing give you?

Also what about the restrictions and obligations I have to clients, not just in not naming them, but also without showing them?  How do you make work when you’re not allowed to make work?  There is an interesting set of constraints.  Think about what it is to observe, not just appearance, but you are privy to their personal lives, but honour bound not to discuss, you carry that around with you.  Also the bureaucracy, a client becomes a clerk of their own life, and needs to record their own efforts.  For the critical review, record how I first encountered it, who did I compare the work to?  E.g. someone more abstract in approach.  Think about institutions that structure people’s lives and impact on their routine.  Think about daily project, e.g. 4 month diary, narrative or drawing.  You could focus on 3, or 4 people only and record, or do a drawing of what you have for lunch that day, or a drawing of the weather that day.  Set up a process or a routine and at the end I will guarantee that the outcome won’t be what you expect.  What are still lives around the office, what is just lying there, or think about how a court reporter records what happens when only allowed to draw from memory.   The procedure could reflect the bureaucracy of the place.  Don’t waste time thinking about it, just set up a structure and work on it.  What about Stations of the Cross?  In a diary of a client, when he gets a job, his pages are left blank.

I also really like the dots on the screens.  I’ve written that I would normally concentrate on people, but I had to wait until the office was closed, so what else is interesting to look at.  I also like the reflections; these can reflect what I’m doing.  What do dots make you think of, e.g. Damian Hirst.  The critical review should be an informed commentary.  Don’t be afraid to try different things, you can always pull back.  The Job Centre, I would imagine, can be a real gritty place.  Look at other ‘non places’ in geography, I. e. no one lives there, other examples would be petrol stations, air ports etc.  The client doesn’t have a choice he has to go there.  Working over a space of 4 or 5 months could build up a lot of work, what shifts over that time?