Above is a series of three drawings by a student, Eileen Gillespie, which began with a focus on the subject of interior space. You can click on it to enlarge. She started with an 18" x 24" charcoal drawing of a window frame inside her apartment depicted with traditional perspective (not pictured). However, very quickly she began to distort interior spaces with sharp compositions comprised of large shapes, and also increased the scale of her work. Those shown above are roughly 44" x 108". As the complexity of the spaces increased, the drawing's structural physicality became more pronounced. Inevitably, viewers are compelled to navigate unusual, shifting perspective constructions, as they are pushed around or even expelled from the drawing and forced to search for a suitable reentry point.
Gillespie makes clear that for her architectural mayhem functions as a powerful visual metaphor for complexity, confusion, and frustration. Further, these unpopulated dreamscapes with strange and alienating presences convey a disconcerting emptiness.
Clearly, Gillespie's scale is beyond what would be expected for a six week project, but still seeing a series such as this one may provide inspiration for any of you to consider dealing with interior spaces.
Are enough time and commitment being put into the work? Considering that the expectation was for seven hours per week and that the project constitutes 30% of final grades.
Is a clear direction emerging, or do you sense several different possible directions? If several, what are they? Which one makes the most sense to you and why?
Does the size of the work and the media being used seem to be working with the ideas?
And as we get closer to critique, please consider:
Are there signs of a breakthrough or are surprising new directions emerging? Are these good surprises (positive potential for development) or bad surprises (unforeseen problems or contradictions)?
Is the work invigorating, that is, does it excite you? Do you feel fully engaged with it? Would you rather be working on your series drawing than just about anything else? Does the work interest other people?
There will be other questions posed along the way toward the final critique.
Have a good and productive break, see you Tuesday.
I think as of today I can answer most of those questions. I'm changing direction completely. I just couldn't get into what I had planned initially. I tried to take something that meant a lot to me. And it still does mean a lot, but, it was something from my past. I couldn't quite wrap myself around what I was going to draw, although, I was practicing and practicing before I was goint to put it to paper. Instead, I went with something that I do now and really enjoy to draw. And yes, I can say I'm excited about it.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I was struggling with was what to draw ON! I know you mentioned we could and possibly should draw on a new surface. I don't feel my skill level on drawing at this point is where I could draw on something like cardboard and make it look interesting. I'm still developing. But, as Brian knows, I was at Preston's and found a hand made paper that I'm going to use. The texture is different than what I'm used to so I can still branch out a bit and learn on a new surface.
Also, I wasn't sure what to use to draw this project. I've selected charcoal. What I'm drawing is 18th century encampments from the reenacting I do. The paper is a type they would have had and they most definately would have had charcoal to draw with, so, it's all in keeping with my subject too.
So, for me, it was a lot of questions to resolve before I could put pen to paper as they say. :) Hey, who ever said art was easy?
The paper I chose is really neat! And I think as an artist I'll improve because of this choice. It doesn't 'erase' well as Brian had told me it wouldn't. Even the vine charcoal doesn't just wipe right off like it does with the paper I use in class. I think it will make me stronger because I'll have to really think about each line I make as they will count in the end.
ReplyDeleteOK, first glitch... I've been practing with some photos of camp sites that I have and I've found the paper is to rough to get much detail with charcoal. I tried adding in some colored pencil for detail and I don't like the way that looks.
ReplyDeleteSo..... Here's my plan! I'm going to do a very rough sketch of sites with charcoal at the encampments and take photos. Then, from playing with the paper I added graphite for detail on one and it looks pretty cool! So, I'm going to finish them from the photos with graphite at home.
At least I 'think' that's the way I'll go. I want to play with grahite sticks on the next drawing and see how that works. It might be all graphite on them. I'm just not positive.
One thing I did do on the one I liked was my negative space first and as in class it really helped. As Shawn had told me it would, I think it added to my value scale on the sketch.
By the way, I'm having fun with mine. I hope the rest of you are too.
I have been really struggling with deciding on what to draw. I have had a couple of concrete ideas but until this weekend I was still undecided. I think that I was overthinking it. I think to some extent you have to go with you gut.
ReplyDeleteTatum, you might want to explore the idea that you ended the previous semester on, but explore it much further, more marks, more layers, more colors, more composition.
ReplyDeleteI am using that sample paper that you gave me during the first week of school. I think that my series is going to benefit from it. Thank you for the paper.
ReplyDeleteI began using different pastels and charcoal for my project on a 5" by 7" paper, much like a photograph. However once I started getting into the details it was hard on such a small scale with the pastel sticks. I think I might try to find the pastel pencils to get better detail.
ReplyDelete