Part time Degree in Art and Design, Combined Studies
9 years without really doing any pure art, painting, drawing or anything to do with fine arts, only photography (of buildings mainly) and architecture related sketches and design. Now it is time to do some fine arts again. It is where my heart lies, at least a large part of it. If it wasn't for my mother, i would probably have been an artist, I even did the Slade summer foundation course after my A-levels. I begged my parents to let me do art foundation course as my gap year, but they didn't let me, and at the time, as I didn't apply for Fine Arts at Uni, I was not eligable to apply for scholarship to do the foundation course, I had to rely on my parents to fund me. :( Oh well, now I get to do what I like... :P
9 weeks into the course - painting the human figure - I'm really really enjoying it. First two weeks was hard, getting my eye back in, proportions of the body etc. The colours was the easy part, it always had been. I had a few peices of work now, our classes consists of one pose every 2/3 weeks, each time with different model, throughout the term.
Last week was very frustrating, it was to do with measuring the legs, slight foreshortening. I accidentally spent the whole 3 hours doing a pencil drawing which started life to be 'only a sketch' to place the figure and work out composition etc. It took almost forever to make sure that the beautiful woman in front of my eyes didn't turn into a ten feet tall wierd shaped monster on my page. I almost cried and stamped my feet about two thirds of the way into the lesson. It got a bit better at the end.
This week I moved on a lot, I did something that took me by surprise, and to my amazement, good.
I transposed the figure I drew last week onto oils paper (enlarged), then taken the background cloths, shape and colours around the figure, into the figure itself with extended lines. The composition of the background with lines is at a contrast with the voluptuous body of the nude. The division of the body by the panels of background colour is partly informing the actual tone of the finished nude, which is half transparent and merging with the background. It is really hard to describe. But so far I am actually happy with it, though it can be improved on next week for certain.
A guy came over to my easle at the end and said to me: How much are you going to sell it for? It is not even finished yet!
I have been praised most of my life about my art work, but actually not that many peices i liked, or really think that I achieved anything spectacular. (sometimes I even think that just because I had a reputation of being good, people praise your work even though its bad, depending on who it is, I suppose) This one, I actually quite like, plus it is not like anything else I have done before, (well there were some slightly similar idea still lifes, but not quite the same). The main thing is, it is a great experiment that I am really enjoying. I think my enjoyment comes through in my painting. :D
One more week to go. I'm really looking forward to finishing off this last peice of work. I am also having an end of term review with Derek McGuire (my painting class tutor) about my term's work, interested to see what he has to say.
There will be an end of term exhibition at the ECA. Derek is going to be designing and coordinating the show. He threatens to exhibit my work. Hmmm.... to the real test when the public points and sniggers at my work... :P
This weekend I'm doing a stained glass course, it will be great fun, I'm really looking forward to it, however the ECA being SO ORganised still hadn't told me what time it starts or where to meet! really! those pissartists!
9 weeks into the course - painting the human figure - I'm really really enjoying it. First two weeks was hard, getting my eye back in, proportions of the body etc. The colours was the easy part, it always had been. I had a few peices of work now, our classes consists of one pose every 2/3 weeks, each time with different model, throughout the term.
Last week was very frustrating, it was to do with measuring the legs, slight foreshortening. I accidentally spent the whole 3 hours doing a pencil drawing which started life to be 'only a sketch' to place the figure and work out composition etc. It took almost forever to make sure that the beautiful woman in front of my eyes didn't turn into a ten feet tall wierd shaped monster on my page. I almost cried and stamped my feet about two thirds of the way into the lesson. It got a bit better at the end.
This week I moved on a lot, I did something that took me by surprise, and to my amazement, good.
I transposed the figure I drew last week onto oils paper (enlarged), then taken the background cloths, shape and colours around the figure, into the figure itself with extended lines. The composition of the background with lines is at a contrast with the voluptuous body of the nude. The division of the body by the panels of background colour is partly informing the actual tone of the finished nude, which is half transparent and merging with the background. It is really hard to describe. But so far I am actually happy with it, though it can be improved on next week for certain.
A guy came over to my easle at the end and said to me: How much are you going to sell it for? It is not even finished yet!
I have been praised most of my life about my art work, but actually not that many peices i liked, or really think that I achieved anything spectacular. (sometimes I even think that just because I had a reputation of being good, people praise your work even though its bad, depending on who it is, I suppose) This one, I actually quite like, plus it is not like anything else I have done before, (well there were some slightly similar idea still lifes, but not quite the same). The main thing is, it is a great experiment that I am really enjoying. I think my enjoyment comes through in my painting. :D
One more week to go. I'm really looking forward to finishing off this last peice of work. I am also having an end of term review with Derek McGuire (my painting class tutor) about my term's work, interested to see what he has to say.
There will be an end of term exhibition at the ECA. Derek is going to be designing and coordinating the show. He threatens to exhibit my work. Hmmm.... to the real test when the public points and sniggers at my work... :P
This weekend I'm doing a stained glass course, it will be great fun, I'm really looking forward to it, however the ECA being SO ORganised still hadn't told me what time it starts or where to meet! really! those pissartists!