MA
WIN A PENCIL! Student discounts again after 30 years! ...but wheres the CHEAP bar ?
DRAWING
C4D? C4RD? we are all TOTALLY confused!
UNIT ONE 2015-2016
NAKED
OR Nude
SIDE FREE IN-s tep
is THAT the question?
Step-by selfie guide
Alison Christie
S E I F L E S SHOCKING
) ? ? it a r t r o p lf e s a (Just WHAT IS
...GO ON check me out!
LALA gets her kit off
P LUS!!!!
PORTFOLIO ● LECTURES ● WORKSHOPS ● VISITS ● WE ALL DRAW ● EXHIBITIONS ●
About me..
S
.
ince leaving art college in 1984 I’ve been a successful graphic designer in the magazine industry. Over the years I’ve risen to the heady heights of Art Director for three major weeklies (the biggest selling 650,000 copies a week and number 2 in the UK magazine charts !!) But now is MY time. This year circumstances have led me back to my old stomping ground - Wimbledon. Fate brought me back! - I once took a week off work to do a course on life drawing which I love and the tutor singled me out and said, ‘You should do an MA here” 18 years later and I’m doing just that ....my love of life drawing has formed into a study of myself - so I’m working on self portraiture which is extremely challenging after full time work and attempting to relax my classic style! - lots of these are very experimental!
Self portraits from school
MA DRAWING
Alison Christie aliboodles@btinternet.com 07889485017
Contents Events Exhibitions Portfolio Pull-out Workshops & Visits Lectures MY CONTRIBUTIONS: DESIGN OF THE FLYERS FOR BARGEHOUSE AND C4RD ADVICE FOR THE POSTERS (BARGEHOUSE) FRONT OF HOUSE/BOOK STALL (BARGEHOUSE) AND RESILIANCE OF DRAWING EVENT MAPPING WHOSE PIC WAS WHERE (BARGEHOUSE) HELPING INSTALL LATER CONTRIBUTORS WORK (BARGEHOUSE) BAR MAID (BARGEHOUSE AND C4RD) READING JASON1966 IN A BOB HOSKINS STYLIE IN THE PLAY ‘ THE CRISIS OF BILDUNG’
MA Events
1 w a r D We All
DRAWING
A
ngela Brew asked if I could help her with the posters for this - but it proved difficult in the time frame due to fonts, version of indesign and generally passing the info to each other...however I managed to design the private view invite which I was quite happy to help with. The exhibition/symposium was held at the Bargehouse Oxo tower - which was my old stomping ground when I worked at IPC Magazines. The space was old and cold and rambling and I loved the atmosphere - it really sparked me up - the return art college again and took me
This man won the ‘socks with sandals ‘ tombola prize
back to the excitement and camaradarie of art college, relaxed informal and creative. I had no idea what to expect. Due to my work pressures I couldn’t do as many workshops as I would like to have done but managed to attend the one with Tania (my tutor ) that I had missed at college as I had been working. There was a very international crowd that attended. I also did front of house and book sale plus the bar which I enjoyed!
PRIVATE VIEW
BARGEHOUSE, OXO TOWER WHARF southbank
WE ALL DRAW @
Friday 6th November 4-6pm
Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargeh ouse Street, South Bank, London, SE1 9PH PLEASE RSVP TO brewdrawing@gmail.com ONLINE PREVIEW OF SHOW: https://drawingandcognition.wo rdpress.com/symposiaseries/2015-symposium-southban k-london-7-8th-november/ ual/we-all-draw-ual-2015/
I designed the private view invite
EXCUSE ME, I'M LOST - SVETLA NA RADIONOVSKAYA, CAMBERWELL COLLEGE OF ARTS
My picture in the exhibition
MY CONTRIBUTION: DESIGN OF THE FLYERS ADVICE FOR THE POSTERS FRONT OF HOUSE BOOK STALL NOTING WHOSE PIC WAS WHERE HELPING INSTALL LATER CONTRIBUTORS WORK BAR MAID
MA Events DRAWING
Tide T
his was a DRAW event that followed on from our visit to the exhibition in Somerset House of ‘One and All� (see exhibitions). Our course leader Tania Kovats was part of that show and this was the digital part of it that we were invited to discuss. This is her first digital drawing work and the theme carries on her passion for all things watery!... In the One and All exhibition she was showing a bell that had been cast on a beach - that was installed and was to be rung every day at high tide. The digital drawing shows the progression of the high tide coming in at Lands End and splittin around the north and the south coast, flowing up and around the UK. The images were very beautiful. I found the whole discussion fascinating especially the part about how do you archive something that is live online - and the fact that one day it would just stop running as the software that created it would be out of date...
How can you archive something live online? DIGITAL DISCUSSION WITH TANIA KOVATS AND SIMON ALLEN
Digital tour
DRAWING AND WRITING THE INTERSECTION CHELSEA UAL
WITH STEPHEN FARTHING
The first event that I attended with Stephen Farthing. Although he is good at projecting himself and presenting a talk I did wonder if I had actually learnt anything significarnt at the end of this talk. Perhaps the idea was really to give food for thought - which this certainly did. It might seem obvious that even if I write my name I am drawing! Cartographers, engineers , the medical proffession all draw and even copying type from the blackboard is drawing! This did make me think in a different way.
DRAWING EXPLAINED: A FILM PREVIEW AND PANEL DISCUSSION LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION
Another event with Stephen Farthing as the main speaker - previewing his film that was taken in October at the Draw the World event - up at Kings Cross, and mainly filmed from above by drones. I liked some of the film - people coming together to draw a map of the world and communicating together. Nice. However I didn’t feel the film got to the ‘meat’ of the topic. I certainly came away not thinking that drawing had been ‘explained’ in any way whatso ever. Clearly I was not the only person to feel like this - the panel didn’t seem particularly fired up or to have any agreement on anything.
THE RESILIANCE OF DRAWING: LAUNCH OF THE CENTRE FOR DRAWING ONLINE ARCHIVE CHELSEA UAL This event was to launch an online archive for the Wimbledon Centre for Drawing, because of its place in the history of drawing . The event was hosted by Tania Kovats and included some wonderfully inspiring artists to talk about their practices, including Rachel Whiteread who was fascinating Its so brillaint to hear from artists that live their life for their love of their work and she was passionate about hers. The speakers included Mary Doyle who is co founder and co director of the Drawing Room. Which promotes drawing in the UK and Europe. Hilary Muskin is a californian artist who discussed her project which investigates landscape imagery through public ‘draw-in events’ Tim Knowles was exciting - I loved his work that is made through journeys directed by winds drawn by bizarre apparatus he would wear!.
MY CONTRIBUTION: FRONT OF HOUSE SIGNING IN ATTENDEESBAR MAID IF REQUIRED
MA Exhibitions
William e g d i r t Ken
DRAWING
MORE SWEETLY PLAY THE DANCEMARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY
O
n a rainy day in early October I visited this exhibition. It has stuck in my mind ever since. Willliam Kentridge likes typography - horay! and it appears throughout his work. I loves all the slogans and rough news paper - reminded me of graphics associated around the time of punk rock. I spent a huge amount of time in the room watching ‘ Notes Towards A Model Opera’ a film that was projected on three walls of the room and so felt completely absorbing. The imagery is all mainly mono with a strange sound track based on the communist anthem, ‘The
Internationale’ ranging from 1950s dance bands to chanting. The main image that stays in the mind is the ballet dancing lady brandishing a machine gun. Ive no idea what it all meant but it all felt very political with uniforms, maps and flags featuring strongly. Upstairs was even madder! More Sweetly Play The Dance , again projected onto three of the four walls - felt fairly claustrophobic and macarbre. Featuring the grim reaper , processions of peolpe holding what looked like heads on spikes and walking machines which I liked to Pink Floyds ‘The Wall’ It was all very striking and unforgettable
Tania’s bell relaxing on the beach (see ‘Tide)
ONE AND ALL A VOYAGE THROUGH SIGHT, SOUND AND SEA SOMERSET HOUSE This show was commissioned by the National Trust. It showed work by three important artists - Tania Kovats - our course leader, Owen Sheers and Martyn Ware who I was excited about knowing so much of his musical background in the 80s with the Human League and Heaven 17.
MA Exhibitions DRAWING
Celia in her 70s smock
David y e n k c Ho
T
his was a wonderful exhibition given my subject matter of self portraiture. It was interesting to see how David had worked in such detail using pen and also coloured penicils . I could have stayed here so much longer but the gallery was a strange place, rather like someones home, on about 4 floors with stairs and small alcoves. It was also incredibly croweded which made it difficult to relax and take in the work so well. I love the drawing of Celia Birtwell - the colours used - she was in his circle of friends and really captures the decade with her style of clothing. I also noticed that on occassions he would focus on one detail of the drawing - particularly the eyes, and almost leave out everything else out - a feature I do very often. Im fascinated by his detail too - he must have loads of patience!!
The exhibition shows portraits of his first great love Peter Schlesinger.
MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY
T
his was held in the centre for drawing and was a fun exercise... we were asked to draw anything onto a rizla, then to scale it up onto a larger piece of paper after folding into 8 sections...using the folds as a guide . As the papers were different dimensions the resulting drawings were interesting to say the least. Then we got ourselves in to groups of 4 and put all our drawings together.
Stunning use of colour
MA Exhibitions
w n U e b o e h P n i w n U e b o e Ph
DRAWING
DISTANT PEOPLE AND SELF-SOOTHING OBJECTS BARGEHOUSE, WILKINSON GALLERY OXO TOWER WHARFF ainy and grim - the only way I
R
can describe Hackney the day Lala the chihuahua and I went searching for the Wilkinson gallery. But very glad we did make the effort as it was well worth it. Well hidden - yes but a lovley space - that we had totally to ourselves. Not knowing what to expect - these wonderful works totally fascinated me. I think the stark white moderness of the venue really emphasised the mono tones of the work and almost gave the pictures a feel of hints of colour. It was the mood these evoked that suprised me. Coming in from the cold and rain I felt I was in a meadow, bees humming and the sun shining - on a lazy sunday afternoon. The shadowy forms felt warm inviting and relaxed. The figures feel real and yet a bit shadowy and immaterial - they are ‘soothed’ by their headphones and mobile phones. I came away entranced, as did Lala.
win
All we need is a picnic
MA Exhibitions DRAWING
Cha
Terracotta cows.....!
e f i l e n ampag SAATCHI GALLERY
O
MG, I went along to this exhibition as Sueng Ah Paik had been brought to my attention and I knew I was inspired and wanted to use her in my essay. To me it was a fun exhibiiton (mainly) but not too happy about stuffed dead horse on deflated balloon (Soheila Sokhanvari,). All the works had been done by women from every continent, but I really wanted to see autolandscape by Ah Paik, and it didn’t dissappoint - not one bit...I’m not sure I can go into too much detail here as I spent so long talking about her in my essay . But as you can see - they are massive works, taken from the artists veiwpoint looking in wonderment at her own body. We never see her face or head.
MA Exhibitions DRAWING
DRAWING IN SILVER AND GOLD BRITISH MUSEUM
E
ntering into this exhibition was a bit like going to see a film in the middle of the day, the lights are so low that it was difficult to see some of the drawings with out looking really hard, and after a while my eyes became sore. But I was very glad I went. All of the drawings are made using metal point. This technique (explianed once inside) is one that uses a metal rod - silver or gold - on to a specially coated paper . The drawings are intricate and delicate and rather wonderful. So why did draughtsmen decide to use this complicated drawing technique? The answer varies from century to century. Initially metalpoint was used in the workshop as a drawing tool to make very fine and precise
lines as other drawing tools, such as a chalk sticks or quill pens, were not accurate enough. The preciseness of metalpoint allowed for highly-detailed drawings and this made it a very suitable technique for young artists learning how to draw, or for more experienced artists who copied other works of art for reference. Taken from ttps://blog. britishmuseum. org/2015/09/25/ the-art-of-themasters-drawingin-silver-andgold/
Portfolio
The story so far...and how
NAKED OR NUDE? FREE
SPECIAL PICTURE PULL-OUT
BECAME
‘What is a self portrait?’
F
rom my first interview with Tania before I was accepted on the course, we discussed my passion for life drawing. So we decided to frame my work around the question, Naked or Nude? After realising I would need new glasses to deal with life drawing I set out and joined the UAL Life Drawing Society, but with work commitments I found this hard due
to the short poses and difficultly transporting an easel and A2 paper around after a day at work! I became really fustrated and in my 2nd tutorial changed my practise theme to self portraiture given the fact that I want to rediscover myself again!
Turn the page to see what happened next
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Portfolio
Getting started Due to the difficulty of finding decent life classes to attend after work (and in town) I decided the best way to start was to ‘copy’ some that I admired. (as had been suggested on the CD Connecting Lines: Artists Talk About Drawing.) This is a portrait by Stanley Spencer of his second wife Patricia Preece. I love the composition of the body framed by the space. I also like his self portraits. Here I used charcoal and initially planned to do more in colour. However after my tutorial with Tania I opted to get stuck straight into self portraits!
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
The first self portraits These were two of my first attempts - above in graphite and on the right a charcoal and graphite drawing. I think show my lack of confidence. I had always been top of the class as a life drawer but this was a different thing completely. I attempted to use the same style I do for life drawing but it doesnt translate so well for a portrait. I feel they are very niiave and basic - and also I found it hard to get used to the new glasses! The one on the right was the hung for our first Crit at the end of term. I was very nervous as I felt I could do so much better but the Crit was thankfully really positive and encouraging and helped me realise I needed more of my personality to show through
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Pen and ink.... ...in fact i used a ‘Sharpey’ for the portrait on the right! The same we use at work to mark up layout changes - how apt!..I like this one..it captures something about me and I like the fact I’m correcting the mark as I go along. The picture above was another attempt at a classic style portrait - I concentrated on the eyes - something I noticed that David Hockney did in a lot of his drawings...I found that a strong feature of his portraits.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Trying different media Above was an experimentation with oil pastels, I enjoyed working with them but they aren’t so easy to manipulate. But was quite pleased with the result although unsure I will try again with them. On the right is a portrait done in charcoal, although my face is not done in too much detail I think I have got the ‘essence’ of me, and yes - all this looking and studying myself in mirrors is hard and I realise how much weight I’ve gained - hence the comment!
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Following on from my next tutorial ...and Tania suggested I loosened up more and tried some experimental methods. We also discussed bringing in my publishing career to the pictures - using collage. Given the nature of the real life magazines I’ve worked on for much of my adult life - its very cathartic to purge all the ‘triumph over tradgedy’ stories from my past! This is oil pastel on tracing paper - giving a 3D effect that was inspired by Georges’ peer workshop. My CV is ripped up on the bottom layer and I’ve traced off some everyday headlines . At the bottom of the picture is the definition of a self portrait printed out from the wikipedia page. In my hand I’m clutching a glass of red wine - my prop of choice to deal with all the pressure and the nature of the job.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Serious collage I used the fact it was a really sunny sunday to draw the above picture. I did this with no glasses and very very close to a mirror - I think its a strong image but again quite sad. I used charcoal and pencil. On the right was a picture that followed on from the previous pages work. I did’nt set out with a particular plan but go with my intuition. To me this says that I was always trying to get away from my label of art editor on Real life magazines. There is my real self behind me made of flowers and nice colours but more or less obliterated in the foreground by my proffessional persona This is still work in progress.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Painting revisited Doing my A level meant a lot of time in the art dept at school - and that was where I learned to use oil paints. I really enjoyed pushing and layering the paint around to give movement and depth - so in this picture I tried with acrylics., and a mix of watercolour. I feel this could have had more time spent on it - perhaps I will revisit this again sometime.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Dark and fleshy! Above was my first revisit, (since art college in the 80s), to chalk pastels ...this was done on black card - again it was a sunny day and I positioned myself right by the window and mirror. I’m not convinced it looks like me but it has an interesting intensity about it. However - learning about contempory art and self portraiture led me to Seung Ah Paik and Jenny Saville - (both named in my essay) and who insprired me to chalk pastel my own body. I shall certainly be doing more like this in unit two.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Back to black (charcoal that is!) With this portrait I think I was worried about straying a bit too far from my safety net! Unused to more experimental work I think I panicked and felt the need to convince myself that I could still draw ‘properly’. Once I had done them I realised they lacked the spontinaity of the collages and bear little resemblance to myself!
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Water soluable pencils By this point I had cleared my living and dining room and set up my studio, with space dedicated to materials and 2 easels. Being a small Victorian cottage the light is not good all day - so I moved my mirror into the kitchen where there are bigger windows - this is why the last three portraits are all done from the same angle. I was also finding glasses wearing a challenge from the point of seeing everything clearly, and became fustrated with this situation.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Collage and acrylic
I loved putting this picture together. It was done in several stages and I am not clear why I used newsprint as the base. Puzzles, top tips and headlines really bring to mind my proffessional life. The leopard print reflecets my style - it is my preffered ‘pattern’ in fashion. I think this stems from my punk days at art college in the 80s. I use layouts I actually designed if at all possible, and this features the ‘Corpse’ headline which came from Full House magazine which I had totally redesigned and so is close to my heart. It felt right to include Lala my chihuahua.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Real life reflection
Above is a mix of pictures blended in Photoshop and indesign using transparency and fades. The page in the background is a feature from Chat magazine featuring my family , and the joy of our strange nomadic childhood. My dad had worked alongside the army and so we found ourselves moving around Germany and thus having holidays all around Europe. My mum loved this feature almost as much as she enjoyed her German lifestyle. I feel sad and happy when I see this as it brings back memories of her. The pencil drawing (right) was an experiment inspired by David Hockney drawings and his use of colour. Philip Goss curator of Centre for Recent Drawing remarked that I should do more in colour pencil.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Red, red wine Back on the chalk pastel without glasses ! (well, WITH wine glasses! ) This was a sunday picture, and I had been out the night before and felt I looked old and hungover. The next day I decided the picture was in fact scary! So later that day I added the wine glass as it seemed the obvious (too obvious) focus of how my weekend had been! I think this is one of the instances where I overworked the the image and should have left it. However - in my Tutorial with Philip Goss (C4RD) , he remarked that he liked the composition.
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Chihuahua or blueberry muffin? Another picture in chalk pastels. I really enjoy this media. I had recently been sent an image via facebook showing chihuahuas compared to blueberry muffins. It reminded me of how we would label lookalikeys in magazines. This was very soon after my talk with Philip Goss and he loved my cv showing layouts and said I should draw familiar layout items from magazines in my work - take them out of context that audiences were familiar with. There are also astrological glyphs and the Gambian sunset in the background.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Working from photos This is chalk pastel and collage on black card. Whilst researching Jenny Saville for my essay I noted that she takes photos of herself to work from, and so I started doing this myself. I find it much easier to work this way . This is a feature from Full House magazine that was terrribly sad - ripped up like shards cutting into me. The stories could ‘cut you up ‘ if you actually let them. To retain normality it was essential to not get too emotionally involved which is in itself quite ‘abnormal’.
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
The CV I worked from the same photo as with the previous work. This time in acrylics - letting the print show through. Im hoping to add my hand on a computer mouse in the foreground as I look as though Im staring at the screen - and doing my work.
Portfolio
MA
Portfolio
DRAWING
Trying to escape Another drawing based on a photograph and again the holiday feature from Chat magazine. I was attempting to escape my magazine world and break back into reality with my family. Although many people would disagree that my family are ‘normal!’
: E N I L F O T U O
F ITION OARY B I H X E AN ISCIPLIN MULTI-DG PRACTICE, DON DRAWINWING, WIMBLE MA DRA , , Drawing N, N1 1SB r Recent , LONDO entre fo d C a , o D R R 4 n gton) o C ti lin ta Is S & ry ry u u b 2-4 High be station Highb tu (nearest V: hibition/P 6-8pm , of the ex Opening April 21st, 2016 , Thursday : the public 23rd, e open to and Saturday b ill w n Exhibitio d, 10am - 6pm 2n Friday 2 m 6p 10am .org.uk www.c4rd
ungson, drew Yo stie, An anza, ri h C li li iu A ,G aL WITH: anqi Liu D , -Cole, e is g n a v n a E Caragh S cqueline a J , a n on, c a a Talf achel Ba Georgin Clarke, R er, ic rk N a , B ll a d n Janine H s, ll, Rosali n Radne elo Lope ry st a th C a o K iĂŁ y st Ra a b e o S a , M d i hmon nd Yuwe Ruth Ric onfanti a Wu, Su B g n a u h S
O
ur venue for our exhibition was the Centre for Recent Drawing up in Islington. Our job was to organise it - delegate jobs to all of us including , pr and social media, invidulating, drinks for private view and also mailing lists for the invites. There was also the installation to consider and and the posters to distribute. With my background I offered to do the posters which would double up as the invite to the private view also. I arranged a meeting to discuss images for the poster and luckily Janine had a fantastic idea and created this shot of the pencils above. Because of the diversity of our class mates there were a few typos which I managed to put right thanks to the wonders of photoshop. It took a few goes for Rachel Bacon who was wonderful at co- ordinating the whole operation, and Philip Goss (cutaror) to decide on the final version and by the end of sunday we were ready for printing. It was smal cosy space - the private view was buzzing and so was I when a retired doctor popped his head round the door and asked if he could buy my work!! I took his email address and told him I would let him know the price after I had conferred with the curator. We are still in negotiation!
Su and Ruth check out the talent
Janine’s work
My creation
The rather unwelcoming entrance
MA Workshops&Visits
a h c u K a Pech
DRAWING
LECTURE THEATRE, WIMBLEDON COLLEGE 14TH OCTOBER
T
his was our first stand up talk in front of our MA group plus the Fine Art group too. Each participant has 20 slides which each get shown for 20 seconds each - the prestenter has the time to discuss each slide and explain why they chose it in this time frame. We were asked to show items that inspired our work - however for me this didnt seem appropriate so I chose to show items that have been inspirational in my life.
Starry Starry Night by Van Gogh
My art teacher at shcool (Mr Arnold) would jump onto the desks when this Don Maclean song would come on the radio and he would say ‘listen to the words of this beautiful song’ - and then chuck his chalk at anyone who would talk through it!
Neuschwanstein
Mad King Ludwigs fairytale castle in Bavaria. We drove to Bavaria on holiday one year when we were living in germany - I must have been around 14, and saw this castle from the distance - it really looked like something from a Disney film - so wonderful and sunrreal....The King also had several other castles we visited including Linderhof, which had a huge grotto with a lake situated under the gardens where Wagner operas were performed.
The face (magazine)
Art college in the 80s was a way of life - the culture, the music, the image, the lifestyle all intermingled - art college was like a fancy dress party every day. Wonderful and inspirational.
Leopard print
When I mentioned I was doing a presentaion on things that
inspired me to a collegue, she said ‘leopard print - Ali your house is full of it!’
Debbie Harry
Strong, stunning and sexy - I wanted to be her.
Life drawing
My fave topic at college cos I was good at it - leaving out faces, hands and feet of course.
Peu jesu
I had singing lessons for a while and find songs like this aria very uplifting.
Astrology
It all fascinates me and has done since a very early age - and I still do courses (often in Greece) as its all incredibly accurate. Yes really!
Hampton court
I was a Tudor in a previous life and this feels like home - and am fascinated with Tudor history and architecture
Typograpphy
I love fonts - and have been known to discuss the font, leading and point size of a pub menu (before ordering a drink!)
Nick Cave
A man who has an immense talent and gets better and
better as he gets older. He makes his music come alive in his performances - I cried during ‘Mermaids’ when he was touring ‘Jubilee Street’.
Horses and drawings of them
Loved to draw horses when I was young - and loved riding. At Christmas I would always ask for ‘a white horse and I will call him Boris‘. One year I got one - it was an inch tall and made of white china.
Bob marley
What’s not to love? Long haired rasta men, beaches, chillin’ and some BIIIG TUUNES! A genius at songwriting.
David Lynch
David Lynch and his films ‘Wild at Heart’ and of course Twin Peaks bonkers and surreal and at the time I think I was the only person that watched the series to an end - totally gripped and it was Bob!
Iron Men
on Crosby Beach by Antony Gormley - I found this quite unsettling but totally unforgettable.
A ho Bori Mar
Nicholas Cage and Laura Dern in Wild at Heart- love the snakeskin! and below is Neuschwanstein castle
The beach has a very eerie feel about it
orse (not is) and Bob rley (right)
I always wanted to look like Debbie, but as you can see from my self portraits this was not the case!
MA Workshops&Visits w WING DRA
e a drawing one of mine The wasgroup - always drawing smudge....cant
I designed the private view invite
w a r D f Rules o AT THE BARGEHOUSE WITH TANIA KOVATS
T
his was the workshop I missed through work commitments early in the course, luckily I was able to do this on the Saturday at the Bargehouse. It was principly about ‘making and breaking’ the rules of drawing. The other people in this group had signed up and were taking part in the symposium so they were all strangers - I had no idea of their backgrounds until Tania asked us to introduce ourselves. There were teachers, actors and students
like me in the group. Then we were asked to write down 10 rules we imposed on ourselves whilst drawing. Mine included ‘smudging’ as I use a lot of charcoal, and never using a rubber, I always draw over mistakes. We were then asked to make a drawing disregarding these normal rules. How hard was that?? I found myself drawing a chair in white chalk on black card and rubbing bits out! Finally we all made a drawing together and using our own rules. This highlighted techniques to try in my own work.
wing
DOUBLE TAKE AT THE DRAWING ROOM This was a talk about the show currently at the Drawing Room and simultaneously The Photographers Gallery. The topic was ‘drawing and photography’ and how these two techniques are often used together. Although I enjoyed the exhibition and the visit to this venue I found it hard to follow the discussion due to the delivery of speech and mumbling involved. Very dissapointing.
MA Workshops&Visits DRAWING
g n i l a c S
CENTRE FOR DRAWING, WIMBLEDON UAL
My man became thinner and taller
T
his was held in the centre for drawing and was a fun exercise...we were asked to draw anything onto a Rizla, (I drew a copy of a man from my sketch book to keep it simple), then to scale it up onto a larger piece of paper after folding into 8 sections...using the folds as a guide. As the papers were different dimensions the resulting drawings were interesting to say the least. Then we got ourselves in to groups of 4 and put all our drawings together. This was the first time I have collabborated with my fellow group members and found it to be highly inspirational and very bonding. Good for losing inhibitions about your own ability.
Fantastic mayhem
The final piece
Starting the group picture
SCREENPRINTING INDUCTION
This was run by Ling who is the print technician. It took me back to school where I did do a lot of screen printing - mainly woodcuts from what I can remember. We only had the morning and there was the whole group of us so we were split into groups of four. We cut out large flat shapes from black card and the others used ink on an acetate layer. The final prints were all extreemly diverse - even though we were all using the same subject matter, which was this rhino - orignally by Durer. We printed a good quantity of each both with 2 colours which we mixed oursleves, then did the exposing of screens and of course finally - washing it all down
MA Workshops&Visits
g n i k r o w Wood
DRAWING
T
his was fun. I love a bit of DIY. We were shown around the workshop, had all the tools and machines described to us and were made to use them to make sure we understood the dangers.There was a band saw with really thin blade, and a fret saw too. The main aim was to make a frame for a canvas - and to make it perfectly square. This involved using a special machine (see pic below) that can mitre the wood to perfect size. I had several goes and was nearly perfecting the skill. I was also well impressed with the magic machine which stapled the mitered corners together....hopefully Ill remember how to use if I ever need to.
Watch your fingers...ooops!
This is a very expensive machine!! Caragh gets familiar with the fret saw
METHODS AND MATERIALS 1 AND 2 This was a workshop I would be happy to do again. There was so much information to take in it was amazing. Nick Mansur who took the workshop was a total encyclopeadia of knowlegde. I was fascinated by the amounts of techniques required for making and chalk ground and really really would like to find the time to attempt this. Hopefully I can try in unit two.
MA Workshops
p o h s k r o Peer w
DRAWING
with Georgina Talfana WIMBLEDON STATION AND BACK AT COLLEGE CFD
B
rilliant fun! We all met up outside Wimbledon station in the freezing cold sketch books at the ready and raring to go. Geaorges workshop was based on how we evoke our emotion to our viewers through our drawing. Does the environment influence the way we draw? We all set up around the station foreground to record the town centre as we felt and saw it. Tricky given I prefer to draw people! Again I relished the camaraderie of
the group as we set off back to the centre for drawing after our 45 mins allotted time . Back in the warm we split into groups and looked at each others work and make one work from that that was to show the sense of Wimbledon. We used layers of tracing paper which built up the feeling of depth and inpsired me to use in my collages and drawings in my own practice, I really enjoyed this and looking at the work we all created together.
I think the use of type added a conversational element
p
Our final masterpiece reflects the towns ‘buzz’
MA Workshops&Visits
p o h s k r Peer wo
DRAWING
with Rachel Bacon
WIMBLEDON CFD
T
his was really interesting. At a time when work was serioulsy affecting my college time and head space Rachel did a workshop that acted like therapy. She emailed us with, “Feeling overwhelmed? Not able to keep all your many ideas and plans organized in your head? Don’t worry! Tomorrow’s peer workshop will hopefully help you sort it all out on paper. (There’s a slight chance however that you will become even more confused, but don’t worry about that either as you’re in good company…!) Once I stared it was easy to write
what was in my head for the designated time. It was getting the one word onto paper I found difficult to do . However again once I started it all came flooding out and after this exercise I did feel like I had organised myself in my head.
Everyones work was so varied
Can you guess how I was feeling ?
MA Workshops&Visits
l a n o i t a N Gallery
DRAWING
A
day out in London at the National Gallery was a welcome change. Colin Wiggins was to show us around initially and then we were briefed on our project. This was to find an item or picture that interested us and our particular field of interest and to think about how to use it for an exhibition here in June. Colins knowledge made the gallery totally fascinating, showing how pictures were placed to mirror their original settings, such as church altars. We also learnt that artists would go to the church where their
Whistlejacket by Stubbs
commissioned work would reside and measure and calculate how it would be viewed. In the picture of Christ below - it appears as tho the artist couldnt be bothered to paint anything in the bottom left hand corner of the painting if standing directly in front of it, also the perspective of the floor is all wrong. In fact this picture would never have been seen straight on as it would have been by the altar and the congregation would have seen it on and angle on the left hand wall. When viewed this way the picture makes more sense.
This man is standing in the wrong place to view this painting
NATIONAL GALLERY PROJECT I didn’t have to look far to find the picture that I thought would be most relevant to my working practice. Although tempted by Stubbs ‘Whistlejacket,’ I thought
that Valazquez ‘The Toilet of Venus’ offered more scope for the life drawing perspective and also the self portrait involved. My first idea was to paint just my face
and my important items onto a copy of the picture, but it has now evolved and I am going to paint myself naked in this pose . That is on my ‘work in progress’ list!
MA Workshops&Visits DRAWING
Swans in space?
k c i r b u K Stanley Archives LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION
I The man himself being observed.
n the run up to coming to see these archives I watched a great deal of Stanley Kubrick documentaires particularly the one about his boxes. This mans attention to detail was incredible. Everything was thoroghly reasearched and drawn and the range of drawings were breath taking . Naturally we couldn’t see everything in his archives but what was there was a rivoting glimpse by artists of their view of the future (for 2001 A Space Odyssy.). for example (main picture) this is
THE MUSEUM OF LONDON ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE An afternoon sketching at this strange place full of archived boxes of bits of all sorts!..There was so much history in so many boxes. I chose to draw this dog scull as it was the closet thing to real life I could find in there!
k This dogs head was bigger than all of Lala put together
what an art class would look like in space in the future. The material on hand to view was a collection of set, location and film photographs, slides and transparencies, scripts, shooting schedules and polorioids detailing film situations. We saw graphics for A Clockwork Orange Logo and film posters for the Shining. All in all something I should take note of and learn, taking notes , researching and storing information is vital especially when doing an MA!
MA PGLectures DRAWING
ELEANOR BOWEN ‘DEVELOPING A RESEARCH QUESTION AND METHODOLOGIES’
GREG WILLIAMS ‘THE PRINCIPLES, METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF SURREALIST DRAWING’
EDWINA FITZPATRICK ‘LARSEN’S LOST WATER’
ANNE-MARIE CREAMER ON HER PRACTICE
MA PGLectures DRAWING
IAN MONROE ‘MATERIALITY AND IMMATERIALITY’
RICHARD BARBROOK ‘IMAGINARY FUTURES: FROM THINKING MACHINES TO THE GLOBAL VILLAGE’
JUSTIN CARTER – THROUGH THE LENS OF PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY
TANIA KOVATS ON HER PRACTICE
MA PGLectures DRAWING
ANDREW GRASSIE AND HIS PRACTICE
LUCY DAY ON HER CURATORIAL WORK
DAN HAYS ‘SCREEN AS LANDSCAPE’
DAVID CROSS AND THE CRISIS OF DOUBT
MA DRAWING
2 T I N U N I COMING MORE REAL LIFE NUnDNEaSt
Update o Gallery Project
P LUS!!!!
FULL LENGTH PORTRAITS ● MORE COLLAGE ● BIGGER WORK ● PLAYING WITH MIRRORS
●