Author: saravipond

Idea #1: Value changes and variations within a portrait

My plan here was to take a self-portrait and reproduce it with varying degrees of two or three value adjustments. I have always been amazed how artists convey a likeness of a representational portrait sometimes with such limited amounts of shadow/silhouette. I was hoping this would lead to some degree of abstraction, but it really didn’t end up doing that. Even with the limited amount of shadow in the last drawing, it is still recognizable as me. At least it is to me!

I suppose I could have fragmented these drawings and rearranged them, but that was not my intent in this exercise.

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Idea #2: This was a felled and sawn tree that struck me as being full of all sorts of abstract shapes. It also had the advantage of two components to the wood, either the cut, round cross-sectional surfaces or the bark-covered, outer surfaces.

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I tried using close-ups of my larger drawing. In the above image, I focussed in on the right side of the drawing. This image would not be recognizable as a felled tree on its own. I was left not really knowing though if any of these close-ups made for good abstract drawings, as I don’t think I know enough yet about the concept of abstraction. Intriguing nonetheless and something to consider for the future.

Idea #3 – Geometric/perspective drawing

My idea here is to take a landscape scene that has strong architectural and perspective elements. I am impressed by the work of Sarah Morris and can see how she transforms such representational objects to more abstract shapes, particularly when her works have a 3 dimensional feel.

The fence panels below with the patio stones in the foreground were an obvious choice from our house. The fence panels are at right angles to each other and align with both directions of the patio stone seams. I have previously thought about how best to draw or paint this part of our yard.

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These are my plannings for colour and pattern. I want the two side panels to give the feeling of movement away from the picture plane and into the background, while the middle panel, parallel to the picture plane, sits counter to that movement. I would like it to represent a static and solid object as opposed to the dynamic movement of the side panels. I feel the roughly 15 x 15 squares of the middle panel conveyed this idea more than the much smaller number of squares I had planned earlier. I want to keep the same 4 rough colour bands of the background, but will change them to something that might be more appealing to the eye. I think I will go with the original 4 large colour bands alternating with black for the side panels, rather than the 8 I have here. I think this will better convey the sense of receding movement.

FINAL DRAWINGS:

“Fore and aft”, December, 2020.

Drawing #1: 15 1/2″ x 17 1/2″, Chalk pastel on paper

Drawing #2: 15 1/2″ x 17 1/2″, Chalk pastel on paper

Drawing #3: 15 1/2″ X 17 1/2″, Pastel pencil on paper

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As a triptych.

My intention with this series was to take a landscape with strong geometric and perspective components, and transform it into something more abstract while maintaining its planar and directional elements. I originally thought I could do whatever I wanted with the colours, but as I began to simplify the second drawing it felt natural to stick with the original colour pattern and simplify the swaths of colour as well. They do represent the background. As I went along, it became apparent that the foreground paving stone lines were a subtle but important part of the directional movement of these drawings and thus they remained a part of all 3 drawings. The title, “Fore and Aft”, alludes to these foreground and background elements, while the fence planes are obvious anchors in each drawing.

Bonus Artist Talk for FIN 210 – Katie Brennan

ARTIST TALK – Andrew Moncrief

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Human Form and Anatomy Notes & Drawings

The Figure and Anatomy notes

-artistic anatomy- how the substructure of the human form influences the surface appearance – this especially relates to the skeletal and muscle structures, their relationship to each other, and their relationship to the visible surface of the fleshed figure

-surface activity can be very subtle or very abrupt

-bony landmarks- where skeletal structure rises to the surface and makes itself evident

-musculature- note especially how it relates to the skeletal structure and how it changes with various movements and positions of the body

Cumberland Life Drawing October 21st

GESTURE DRAWINGS October 30, 2020

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Sketchbook drawings

Cumberland Life Drawing November 4th

Drawings – Week of November 2nd

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Week of November 9th

Critique Drawing

“New Horizons”, October, 2020. (22″ x 30″)

Chalk pastel on white Stonehenge paper.

Although enjoying himself, my son was finding life away from home for the first time somewhat difficult, especially in the face of the pandemic. So when he sent me videos of himself rock climbing I felt the parallels with what he was facing were very evident. I reviewed a variety of figure positions in the videos, but felt this was the best as it had areas of muscle tension and relaxation, some challenging foreshortening, and I liked the sense of movement of the figure up the wall. The holds/rocks are as they were in the video, so this further convinced me to use this composition as they too contributed to the sense of movement.

I felt limited by the detail I could get with the chalk pastel, but perhaps a larger variety of colours might help. In my mind, I wanted this to be more finely detailed and shaded, but I was left feeling the chalk pastel don’t lend itself to that effect. The raw sienna I used for the background was more concentrated where I had rubbed out my drawing grid lines, and I couldn’t get rid of it. However, it mimicked nicely the seams of the plywood on the walls anyway, so I left it and thoroughly erased all the grid lines to get the same effect.