Why do you think it's important to work in a series of related drawings? First, staying with an idea or theme over a period of time helps us to establish a definite and considered attitude in our work as possibilities in the subject are discovered. It is that attitude and the possibilities that are pursued that distinguishes one artist's work from another. Look at the examples again, the differences between Hillary Brace's Clouds and Nate Stormer's still life drawings on one of the handouts. Both have a remarkably contrasting attitudes, and they are both powerful bodies of work.
Work that remains on the surface of an idea only goes where many other artists have been before. If you're considering portraits, for example, look at other contemporary artists who explore that idea, such as John Currin, or Zak Smith, (be careful with Smith's web site, he gets a little saucy at times) or even the modern painter, Alice Neel. There are very distinct attitude about the same subject. However, if you push your ideas in a focused direction, you will get to a place in your work that you didn't realize existed.
In short, working in a series often will lead you to drawings that you never would have created otherwise. Drawings that will communicate your ideas, insights, feelings, your gut responses in greater depth. With this level of involvement it stands to reason that you ill have more invested in your series that in the three days per week class sessions because you will determine the direction. So don't just remain on the surface of your idea.
Some other interesting series to look at and consider, Stephen Talisnik, and Mark Milloff's Moby Dick series.
It is important to look at an artist's work as a body of related pieces in order to discover the influences, sources materials, processes, expressions, and use of media. Whatever your idea, spend some time looking (Google it) and see how other artists, especially contemporary artists, have dealt with the same subject. It will help you to find your way, the honest way of your expression.
Have a good weekend.
As we've discussed, I pretty much know the direction I'm taking with the series at this point Brian. With the self portrait I was able to try the Arches Cover 100 paper and I was quite pleased with not only the way it held the water color but the pastels and charcoal as well. Today I'm spending sometime looking up artists that might have used these together for tips. I also have an ample supply of Stonehenge that I can test out for the series as well this weekend.
ReplyDeleteFollowing that I'll make my decision and order what I need to get started next week.
I also found the picture I want to use for the poloroid effect and I set that up in Photoshop and I'll print it next week so I know exactly how large I need to make each drawing.
Good luck all! I love this part of the summer class. But, Brian's right. Get started for those that haven't. Just when you think you've made up your mind you will quite possibly morph completely from the direction you think you're headed.
I thought I might post some thoughts on my series progress. Maybe it will help someone else. I really wanted to find a way to make my series work. You guys all critiqued my work and gave me some useful feedback. It's always good to have other artists look over your ideas. After some sketchbook work and some discussion with Brian, I came upon the idea of creating two drawings for each subject, a diptych. In one half I can show a nice drawing and the other half show the darker side, or my interpretation. So each work in my series becomes a pair of drawings. Brian had the idea that the second drawing should even have surreal or emotional interpretations. So, I will take these ideas and do some quick sketches. I may end up in an entirely new direction before it is done, but at least I have a direction. Work in the sketchbook. Test my theories. Get some feedback and critique. Continue to refine my idea. For example, I am thinking about a nice innocent drawing of a well paired with a surreal twisted form of a well, chains leading down, tipped buckets, wet hand prints, who knows... maybe it won't even resemble a well when I get done.
ReplyDeleteI think shawn really stinks.
ReplyDeleteYAY! I HEART YOU, SHAWN!!! Again, thank you so much for figuring this problem out...
ReplyDeleteWhew, now... I just wanted to keep you posted about my drawing series. I made a blog about them other day so if you wanted to know more, then you could check my blog out. My drawing series' theme is "The Sounds of Silence", they are supposed to express my feelings about my deafness. I will make four drawings, two will show pros about my deafness and other two will show cons. So, what do you think, Brian? :)
oh and I forgot to ask you-- the series project has to have all drawings to have the same style (abstract, realistic, etc)? Also, do I have to use the same paper, medium and size for all my drawings? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRandilyn, many elements can help pull together a series into a cohesive whole. The subject matter alone can sometimes be enough. But, you are doing the right thing by planning ahead. I recommend you try doodling a few sketch thumbnails to imagine what they might look like together. Don't be afraid of taking a new direction along the way, however. Having all the works in a series similar in size and format help the viewer view them all as a whole. Sometimes a design element like color can work. I think the more creative you are tying them all together, the happier you will be. Try looking at Francis Bacon for some inspiration. He did some insane small series work.
ReplyDeleteI did just order the water colors since I know I'll use them anyway, but that aside. Since I needed those anyway I looked at the paper at Daniel Smith's. http://www.danielsmith.com/ There is a shipping charge, so this won't work for everyone, but they do have quite a paper assortment there as well and many are 40% off. For loose sheets they have a 10 sheet minimum. I got a couple sheets of paper to experiment with pastels with. But, one of the papers that was on sale was the Arches Cover in a couple of colors. I really enjoyed working with that on the paper experiments we did with the self portraits.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, this won't save everyone money. But, since I had to pay shipping for something else I needed ANYWAY I saved a bit on my paper for the series. So, if you need any other supplies you might want to check it out. Plus, by the time I would have paid gas and driven to a store without even knowing if they had what I wanted in stock I figured for me it was worth it.
I'm also grateful that Shawn found the problem with the posting issues, Randilyn. I think your ideas sounds very interesting and working out those ideas in your sketchbook would be a productive start to developing the series. The working process or approach is an important issue for artists and the balance of preplanning and spontaneity is something to consider.Some artists know what the outcome will be before beginning their drawings while others make most of their decisions during the process of drawing. Try to remain open to both ways. Visualizing the working process and preparing for it are pretty important, but there can be a vital role for discover and creative accident once the work has begun. Qualities of marks such as the degree of expressiveness or refinement in a finished drawing can reveal a sense of the artist's process, but more than markmaking must be considered in determining the artist's balance of planned and spontaneous process.
ReplyDeleteIf your ideas are would be more strongly communicated with one medium, but then you find during the process that another medium, or media, would be better at reinforcing the idea, then you should pursue that. Don't box your self in to the extent that your creativity doesn't have flexibility. As long as the series works as a series. Although any drastic changes may constitute a 'new' series. Work with your idea in sketches and see how the develop. Experiment with
different media. Be open to possibilities that aren't necessarily about traditional drawing.
The deadline has been extended through the Summer. IUS Review Call for Submissions
ReplyDeleteI vote to add a new topic... landscape drawing, figure drawing, a local artist.
ReplyDeleteMaybe something from
here or maybe here.
REMINDER: Just to keep things in perspective, we have about a week and a half until mid-term critique, June 1st, of the series progress. If you are having trouble or procrastinating get some advice or get busy as applicable. Time is flying.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of starting a new topic as well. I think it might be helpful to possibly have one for the various work we are doing and will be doing in class even before we start the drawings. These are all things we'll be doing in the semester. I have found that with the format that we can't start a thread and have to take something off topic if we want to add something we're thinking about.
ReplyDeleteThat is a wakeup call with June 1st Shawn. I do hope every one is toying with their series quite seriously or you will be rushed. I ordered my paper, water colors and various things I'll need to work on mine and should have them by Tuesday. In the mean time I'm playing in my sketchbook with the sizes I'm batting around using with the various images I want to draw to get a feel for what will work best with this. And with the self portrait I actually got to test out the paper I elected to use.
How is yours coming along Shawn?
Brian, I did a whole post that didn't take. I'll let you know if I get any more glitches. This is the first time that's happened to me. And I know I did everything because I recall keying in the code after I hit Post Comment.
ReplyDeleteShawn, can you elaborate on your vote? Are you suggesting that a topic about landscape drawing, or figure drawing, or a local artist be started? What local artists would you like to look at and/or discuss?
ReplyDeleteHey, Connie and Shawn, how about if you start a blog for art students, or a Facebook page, or something that is controlled by fine arts students that establishes an arena and forum for the topics you want to cover. As you both know from looking at the number of participants who engage with this blog, starting "new topics" is essentially preaching to the choir. I hoped that more would get involved, but it doesn't seem to happen. In fact, if you look back at past postings, the only time there was an active participation was when it was required, and then most of that participation happened on the last few days of the semester when folks wanted to meet the quota. Perhaps there would be more involvement if it wasn't connected to a particular class. I have tried to bring relevant topics and artists up for discussion and for the most part the two of you are the only ones who will jump on a discussion. In fact, if you look at the issues that were brought up in this particular posting, including the artists, there has been very little discussion about it, but rather mostly about materials, although there has been some ideas discussed between the two of you and Randilyn. If there was a fine arts student blog started and you opened it up to anyone wanting to post topics for discussion, there may be much more activity. Look at other instructor based blogs, there will always be a few who are active, but only a few. If it's not instructor based, I would think that there might be all kinds of things that would be discussed that students find pertinent to their studies and development. Maybe instructors would learn a lot from that.
ReplyDeleteI just thought that maybe a more open topic might get people blogging instead of driving by and lurking. I know they are reading it, just not posting. We are almost mid-term and we only have two topics here containing comments. I hate Facebook because I don't really care who is in a new relationship or how their farm is doing.
ReplyDeletehttp://takeastepbackintime.com/index.php
ReplyDeleteI made this board up with all my personal interests just because I wanted to see how to do it. I have a section on art there. But, I also have other sites that I took the domain for already too and I could easily make us one specifically for art and it wouldn't cost me anything extra to do.
Basically, because I own my own space I can pretty much take any domain name for $10 a year. Once I have the name I can make a php board from it. And I already have extra names.
So, if anyone likes this format I'm more than willing to toss one together. Just let me know what general areas you think we should have. Obviously, we could have an area for drawing, painting, ceramics, computer art.... whatever. We could have an area to sell art or display art.
We could have an area for beginning artists, current students at IUS and even invite some alumni.
I can even make 'hidden' areas for anything that might be more adult in nature for members only.... all kinds of things.
Yeah, I learned that preplanning and brainstorming would be very helpful before you start something on an expensive paper. I've already brainstormed some and printed some images to help me to develop my perspective skills (especially with details I want to draw). I will practice by drawing thumbnails in my sketchbook before I start because who knows my idea could change and add something more to it. Like you said, Brian, some already know what would the outcome be before drawing starts while others would change the outcome during drawing... I will try my best to be open and follow my instincts.
ReplyDeleteI also will use chalk pastels because I feel more confident to draw with them.
When y'all mentioned about trying to get other people to make blogs over art topics and I thought that'd be a great idea but you know Facebook would get more people's attention and make comments over art topics because they wouldn't feel like to make another account since they already have Facebook... They do have a "fan page" about different art topics and a lot of people are very responsive to those pages...
Hi there Brian, I have been following your summer class' posts. I am curious about the series project. Are there certain criteria? What size paper do you suggest. I have read that some of your students will use watercolors and some will use pastels. I wish I had experimented with the pastels/colored pencils more during our class projects (I loved the drawing your wife did with the cig and lighter!), so I'm thinking I might try my own series design using color. What do you think about a series of hands, from birth to the casket? Not to sound morbid but as a tribute to my mom (d. 2007). I want to draw something in her memory but I think a portrait would turn out cartoonish. She loved sunsets, so I was pretty emotional when our class used pastels outside for the first time this spring. Let me know what you think about the hands, if I'm way off track or not. Thanks for your time!
ReplyDeleteI'm one of the people with the water color Jennifer. I'm not using either or. For one thing, this is a drawing class. I used water color in our printmaking and loved the way it enhanced things. It will be intended to be an enhancement to the drawings, not a replacement for drawing. I'm to excited to get all my 'paper' and high quality water colors this week. They're due for delivery on Tuesday. Thus far I've been working on proportion and perspective of what I want to draw until they get here.
ReplyDeleteAs for your hands series I love that idea! I had thought of something similar recently based on a photo I saw on Facebook from a friend. It was her hand with her grandmother's hand. They had posed them. I soooo wish I had something like that with my family to draw. I don't know how good you are with photoshop, but if you have any of your Mom or Grandparents with a similar lighting possibly you could transpose it into that for a 'model' to start with. And by the way, I would love to see the outcome. If you don't play with that I might.
Thanks Connie for the feedback. I hadn't thought about photoshop. You go for it, I would like to try something with the hands just not sure WHAT at this point.It would be interesting to compare the different approaches in the end products.Have fun!
ReplyDeleteHi back, Jennifer. I think the hands idea in memory of your mom would be a very nice tribute. Like Connie suggested, it you have photographs that are clear enough to work from, that would be good. Or, if your hands or a sister's hands are similar to your moms, you could use them as the 'model.' Heather, our daughter, has hands that look very mush like Cynthia's. The series project for my drawing class is a very independent project. They generate the idea and/or theme, they choose the medium or media, dimensions. We have our first critique on June 1 of the series in-progress, and that'll be the first time any of us will see what the others are doing. They will talk about all their decisions, and then we'll discuss the success of those decisions. I may be using a similar approach for my fall drawing class as it was very successful last summer and I'm very confident it'll be really good this time around as well.
ReplyDelete