Assignment One–Feedback Reflection

Last Saturday I was fortunate enough to have a face-to-face ‘tutorial’ session on my Assignment One submission (before an OCA Study Visit). I now have Bryan’s notes, too, so this is a summary of, and reflection on, what emerged. The overall summary is that I have made a good start; that my Learning Log and reflections are ahead of the work making (not surprising, since I’ve been ‘reflecting’ for several years); and that I should feel free to be more experimental and exploratory – particularly in the drawing/photography and digital/’real’ interfaces.

Beginning with feedback on the Assignment One drawing itself, I want to first respond to the indication that I need to either work to the edges or crop the work after completion. Below is the drawing, as submitted, at A2 size.

In a previous post about planning and preparation – here – I suggested that I wanted to crop my drawing in close and intimate, and I included a preliminary study that did just that. When it came to the final version, I did, initially, play with the idea of drawing it as a crop, but decided on this version. On reflection, I should have looked at subsequent cropping as part of my actual submission. Revisiting the idea now, the image at the top of this post is a tight, square crop, along the lines of the one in the previous post. I have tried a few others – below.

 

Each has its merits – the square crop probably achieving, most effectively, the desire to draw a viewer right into the image, as does the first of the three above, to an extent. The latter is cropped to a 6:7 ratio, which was, more or less, where I was heading when first starting to draw; and it is, I think, the one I would select overall. Perversely, perhaps, having tried these, I still feel comfortable with the uncropped one that I submitted, where the drawing floats within the frame. It’s probably not good practice but I have to admit that it appeals to me. If anyone reads this and has an opinion, please feel free to express!

The feeling is that I have “got away with” the use of different media (both pencil and ink in the same drawing) when it can seem more like collage than drawing. I did it to achieve better contrast; and another comment from Bryan is that I should try to push the tonal range more with graphite. I can see that this is so – I think I’ve been reluctant to really apply some pressure to get a black out of the 4B or 6B. Some experimentation since Saturday is putting that right.

I am being encouraged to explore a more effective use of negative space (a specific topic in the next part of the module). There is, certainly, very little use of negative space in my drawing. It isn’t a conscious decision and the arrangements of the objects is partly practical (the album cover is leaning against the bottle, for example) and partly a result of my desire to create a relationship between them all (so some intent, I suppose); but I can see how it can create interest. Bryan specifically pointed me towards Egon Schiele’s figure drawing e.g. this, where the (unnatural) pose of the figure creates a geometric space that becomes a feature of the image – adds an abstract quality, I guess. Coincidentally, a link to some recent work by a Dutch contemporary artist, Jordy van den Nieuwendijk popped up in my Inbox yesterday, and I saw this oil pastel. This is certainly something with which to experiment and work in the next section.

My sketchbook is a “rich document, full of questions and ideas”, which is a very satisfying piece of feedback to someone who has never used a sketchbook before! I have, I agree, tended to include one or two topics in the sketchbook that could/should also appear here in the Learning Log – and I can put that right in the next few weeks.

David Hockney’s ‘A History of pictures’ is recommended to support my research/reflection on drawing and photography – it is now on the Christmas list. And, in the feedback notes, Bryan also says not to ignore the reading list (which I haven’t) – especially John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’. Now that is a book I have read at least twice, possibly more, during my previous studies. It’s an important book (as was the TV Series) that has influenced us all to some extent; but I have to admit that I (unlike most fellow students and tutors alike) have never warmed to Berger – great writer and thinker that he undoubtedly was. ‘Ways of Seeing’ is, I feel, a little dated and, for me, ‘of its time’, which is not the crazy visual/cultural world of the post-internet age. I may dutifully revisit it, but I think I’ll get more from the Hockney (having already read ‘A Bigger Message’, the previous publication of conversations between him and Martin Gayford.

So – some helpful guidance on my drawing; encouragement to press forward with some experimentation; a pointer to further reading; and overall, a promising start. I’m not going to rush the next section and have tentatively set first week in April for my next submission.