It was a tough old week last week and I have to admit I struggled for motivation. I’m finding it difficult to work out my life, work, study balance. As well not quite knowing when I’ve done enough on any given task. How deep should I be diving? It’s early days and I’m sure with time and a little guidance, I’ll be fine. I did however find motivation for one thing very easily, procrastination. You’ll be glad to hear that every pencil I own has been sharpened within an inch of its life. All my markers are in the correct slot in the rack, and most importantly, the writing on the caps is the right way up. I jest, of course, but on reflection it does point to an underlying issue, I’m finding these exercises difficult. This week’s exercise asked us to channel specific emotions and respond to them with abstract mark making. I’m an unashamed product of the 1990’s and I couldn’t help thinking about the comedy series Spaced when reading the brief.
Seriously though, I don’t do well externalising my emotions at the best of times, let alone on command in a visual medium. You have to marvel at people who have direct access to this internal information; ask me how I’m feeling and I’ll immediately respond with “I’m fine”. It takes significant effort for me to bypass my stock responses and access what’s actually going on. I’m evidently not dead inside, I tear up at the end of bad sports movies as much as the next man. It’s just not easy for me as I’m not used to opening up like that.
So after balling all my socks and organising my book shelf, I set to work. First things first, what materials should I use? The brief specified that only one colour was to be used and a neutral dark one at that. I went with black. I collected all the black materials I could find and set to work swatching them.
I’ve always enjoyed this process, making a mess and working out how materials work. From the selection I narrowed my choices down a bit and stepped away to consider how best to tackle the task at hand. I initially found it difficult to get going, the thought of diving into an emotion and starting drawing just wasn’t happening. But I was determined not to fall at the first hurdle, and would accept a few refusals before jumping cleanly. I did a few sheets of scribbling and gesture drawing to get myself loosened up and then took the plunge.
The first emotion I tackled was CALM. Before making a mark I sat quietly and focused on my breathing trying to bring myself to a relaxed composed state. I picked up a big charcoal block and began drawing (Top left). I was feeling that curves and organic shapes were appropriate. I next reached for a soft chalk pastel and continued with organic ideas (Bottom left). I felt this was more successful than the first drawing as I managed to vary the marks I made. The third panel (Top right) was done with a mixed media marker that I had filled with Quink bottled fountain pen ink. This panel I allowed the marker to lead my hand allowing the image to form one mark at a time without really being in conscious control. The final panel (Bottom right) was done by creating a dark ground layer with powdered charcoal and using a kneaded eraser to add lines and shapes. Over all I don’t feel this page is very successful at capturing the emotion and words I was thinking about. The drawings are too controlled and stiff and smell of an artist not fully engaged with the task at hand.
After doing the previous page I was feeling annoyed and a bit ANGRY with myself and rather than re-attempt calm I thought I’d use the feeling and move on to Angry. I firstly reached for a wooden kebab stick and my trusted bottle of Quink (Bottom right). Using the stick to rapidly scratch and drag ink across the page. I tried to avoid any nice curves, sticking to harsh angles and uncontrolled flicks. The second panel was done with an oil pastel (Bottom left), gripped in the base of my hand. I brought my hand across the page from right to left in a stabbing motion. Black chalk was used for the next panel (Top left) putting the sharp corner of pastel to the paper using only pushing motions. I then smudged away from the lines giving different levels of tone. The fourth panel (Top right) was born from a thought I’d been thinking to maintain my angry mindset. I put some sticks of charcoal on the paper, covered them with kitchen roll, and then beat the snot out of them with a rolling pin. The smashed up bits were then poured off leaving an interesting mark. The resulting image was then amended by smudging some of the coal with a finger.
After a bit of a break I proceeded to the next emotion. JOY. I endeavoured to think of word that embodied the emotion. The first panel I tackled was the top left, I used a thin liner brush and black ink. With speed I used the side of the brush to create wide marks altering the angle to achieve differ line widths. Also continuing to use the brush after the ink was drying out to get more scratchy mark. Next I took up the black chalk (top right) I made some sweeping marks. I then used my fingers recreating the same motion smudging the chalk in a wide sweeping arc. For the third panel (Bottom left) I used a wide tipped Sharpie, concentrating on the words I’d selected I made circular marks graduating in size. Once I’d drawn the circles I felt it would work better, have more pop on a black background. I filled the page with marks following the circular pattern. I used a large square block of charcoal for the fourth panel (Bottom right). Using only the sharp edge of the block I built up the drawing with a selection horizontal marks. I feel this page worked quite well, each panel has it’s own identity and the quality of the mark making is more confident.
SAD was the final emotion I tackled. Black chalk was first (Top left) I want to get across the feeling of being trapped and enclosed. I did this by stripping down in wide blocks. I varied the amount of pressure as I pulled down the page. This gave the strips a nice variety of tone and shape. Panel two (Bottom left) I used a chopstick and ink keeping the stick horizontal and dragging it across the page . When the stick was freshly loaded with ink I got large dark pools of ink which thinned to thinner spindly lines as the ink supply dwindled. The penultimate panel (Top right) was done with charcoal power. I applied a small amount of powder in a confined area of the page, using my finger to drag across the page I managed to get a great graduating block of tone. The last panel (Bottom right) was done with a black oil pastel. I started with a single line through the middle of the page after making this mark I decided that I would complete the drawing without taking the pastel off the page again. I’m not convinced that the drawings on this page capture the emotion as successfully as some of the other. But I do feel that the marks on this page are some of the most interesting, the techniques learned here will undoubtably come in handy in latter drawings.
Although this was a challenging exercise I did feel it got easier the more I did it. I also thought my mark making got better and more expressive the more I did. By the time I’d filled all the sheets I really felt I’d taken a lot from the exercise. I will definitely come back to this type of activity in the future to warm up and get the creative juices following.
In other news………
I recently watched a fascinating documentary about the autistic savant Stephen Wiltshire. Looking at his work I find it incredible how so very expressive his line work is. Up close the style of drawing is sketchy and scribbled but step back and the jumbled mess coalesces into a magnificent whole. I can certainly learn from this as I have a tendency to try and produce real, rather than an impression of real. He is often called a human camera, and yes, the drawing incredibly accurate depictions of urban landscapes from memory is very impressive. But to me, he’s nothing like a camera, the interpretation of the scene is the most impressive thing. These are not slavish copies of photographs, they are wonderfully naive humanised landscape scenes. www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk
Something else that peaked my interest was the discovery of Victor Lundy’s World War 2 sketchbooks. I was amazed at how so very alive these drawing are, he created amazingly engaging drawings with nothing but a pencil. They are nothing short of a time machine, you are transported to the time and place the drawing was made. You can almost smell the stale cigarettes mixing with sweaty unwashed bodies. www.mymodernmet.com/victor-lundy-wwii-sketchbooks
OK enough from me, I’ve got gammon and eggs calling my name. Happy scribbling.