During this exercise I wanted to produce work with a bit more imagination than in previous exercises. I have strived up until now too, as far as possible, faithfully represent my subject in a mostly realistic way. I took inspiration from the example piece in the course literature, I would attempt to reduce and simplify forms to get my point across. I would draw the street I live on.
Following the instructions I produced this preliminary drawing. I thought about how to capture the feeling of the street and how I see it day to day. I experimented with distorting the perspective, trying to get interesting shapes and interesting relationships between those shapes. I liked the simplified, almost child-like drawing style. It gives the drawing a sense of fun, something that’s sorely lacking in these pandemic riddled times. I liked the feeling of the centre block of houses, it felt solid, contained, a complete unit. I don’t think the odd perspective works, it detracts from the drawing. Some of the mark making feels rushed and not thought through.
These next drawings where done as a direct reaction to the first. You can see I’ve removed the three dimensionality and significantly simplified the marks. This wasn’t satisfying to me, I felt they needed to be given a sense of place. That’s why in both I’ve attempted to add other landmarks from around the town. This proved fruitless, it just didn’t make any sense. What I was beginning to realise was that I really like this little island of houses. How they are connected and what that says about the terraced neighbourhoods of Northern towns and their history. I took these 2 drawing and developed them into this final piece.
There is a lot I like about this drawing and also a lot I don’t. I like the pavement, how it wraps around and tells you there is more around the corner. I love the addition of the drain, it made me smile the moment I added it. Although all the rest of the drawing is contained, these few little marks tell you this isn’t a model on a model train enthusiast’s diorama. I’m standing on the opposite side of the street, all you have to do is cross and you’ve reached the island. I don’t particularly like how I’ve represented the bricks in the main block of houses. They aren’t real they don’t look or feel like this, the end on house though does. My choices of line weight are confusing the image, they break the illusion especially in the background. This may be far too illustrative for a fine art pathway, but I do ultimately like the result. Finished in full vivid colour I could see this appealing to quite a few people, even if they are all postcard collectors.
Happy scribbling
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