Art: Life Drawing

Today, I decided to go to a life drawing class. I felt that my Figurative drawing could be better. Therefore when I seen one available I thought why not?? Although I didn't stay to long I felt this experience quite valuable. Heres a few of the sketches I did throughout the day.

Although this didn't relate to my course I felt it quite an useful experience. I was able to try out my many different media's when drawing from life, my favourite was pen. I feel it defines and adds structure to the body. I feel this experience will help within my art work as it has helped me to relax a little bit within my drawing and give me more freedom, a day well spend!!

Week 3: Painting

Today was the third paining section. A little disappointing thinking its to be one of my last sessions. After the first two lessons, I had felt I have really developed my ideas, and I was buzzing to experiment further. After doing a lot of work over the weekend I had ideas flying all over the place. I decided to pin point an idea down so I started with some graph paper doing a few blind drawings of a bracelet I was wearing I loved the effect of a backdrop of graph paper. I did these drawing in thin pen and felt tip. They look quite unique but to simple on there own.  
 I wanted to take this idea of blind drawing further. I really liked the overall finish of the drawing the bracelet looks quite quirky but simple almost losing its look as bracelet.
I wanted to take this idea further therefore decided to work on it in different textured paint. Within the colours of the bracelet red, brown and yellow, after finish it it off with a dab of textured paint to add a nice finish and depth to the painting.  I was really excited to start developing my  ideas in paint this became a real exciting opportunity.

This is the image I came out with I used red, blue and yellow paint and to create this bracelet. I added texture paint, to add slight detail to the painting. Once it was dry I added ripped graph paper to add highlights to painting. To finish the image off I outlined the bracelet in black ink pen and added a wash. Overall I am really pleased with painting. The painting has lost its bracelet looks the image almost becomes landscape like. After doing a few more different scamps and ideas with the bracelet I wanted to try something different I decided to move back onto the idea of the blind Ipod drawing I had created. 

This was what became my final painting. This is only a section of the drawing. I used my blind drawing to recreate a painting in the three primary colours. Overall I was really pleased with my final painting. I was so pleased and inspired by this piece I ended up doing a larger version of this painting. 

Art: Research

Today I have been working on my research file. Throughout the drawing and painting workshops I have been jotting down different artists and pieces of work that have inspired or interested me. However today I decide to research much further into this. I was unaware how excitng this would become. I coulda help but share some of the gorgous pieces I found throughout my research.

Devendra Banhart

I adore Devendra Banharts work, I was really drawn into his childlike little drawings. His work is very much inspired from when he is travelling on tour with his bands. He creates many different eccentric characters within his work. His passion for music works parallel within his art work.

Marcel Dzama

Dzama also works extensively in sculpture, painting, collage, and film. Dzama's work has been used on the covers of a number of albums, notably The Else by They Might Be Giants, Guero by Beck and Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans. His work looks very childish with bold block colours, very illustrative. At a glance his work looks fun and exciting however look deeper in to the image and he has a more darker side with characters holding guns and smoking. 

Ghada Amer

She is seen as a bit of a feminist. Her work is very contemporary. She is living and working in New York City. Much of her work deals with issues of gender and sexuality, particularly the representation of female nudes in art history as ideal objects rather than human beings with a sexuality and eroticism of their own.

Peter Doig

Peter Doig is a very contemporary artist. Themes running threw his work are that of magical realism stream, capturing timeless moments of perfect tranquillity, where photo-album memory flits in and out of waking dream. Many of Doig's pictures are landscapes, very abstract, with a number harking back to the snowy scenes of his childhood in Canada. Doig’s landscapes are splendidly layered formally and conceptually, and draw on assorted artists from art history, including Edvard Munch and Klimt.

Week 2: Painting

Today was my second day of painting. To be honest I had not enjoyed the last painting lesson so much, therefore was not looking forward to this lesson very much. However I came to be suprised. I started the day by exploring the different types of paint in my book. Such as the retardant, this didn't effect the paints look. But slowed down the drying process which abled me to work into the paint and explore its properties. I also used opaque paint by mixing it with the paint and placing it on top and underneath different coloured paint. I liked the shinny glaze it added to the paint. I also explored matt paint, I found this really dulled down the image and give it quite pastel look.  Lastly my favourite type of paint of the texture painted. I mixed it with many colours. I used it to thicken paint and add a different dimensions to my image. I also had fun making the paint into little peeks on my page. Almost reminding me of a mini little landscape crawling across my page. Overall I had really enjoyed experimenting with paint. I found it really inspired me for the rest of the session.

This was another experimental piece.. using red paint I slightly mixed it with a glaze to add a shine to image. I also added the retardant to the paint. This slowed down the drying process of the paint, which abled me to work an image into it. I really like this image. It works well with the contrasting blue of the graph paper. The carved out drawing adds real interest the painting, with a slight glaze just finished the painting off.

This was my final outcome of the day. Using a mixture of paints (opaque and texture) in different tones of orange and yellow. This added more dimensions to painting and lots interest. It has created quite a interesting background for my painting. Looking back I think I should of toned down the background slightly, as it is quite overpowering. I used blue and red paint to paint onto of my adventuous background. The painting was of a previous blind drawing drawn in the pervious week. I wasn't to pleased with the painting. It looked quite exciting to look at but sections didn't look quite right. However when carrying the painting home, many passers by commented on it. One even said "wouldn't look out of place in the Tate Modern". What a nice man?! 


While painting the pictures, I couldn't help be reminded of the work of Jackson Pollock. With the layers of paint carefully placed upon each other. However the meaning and process of his paintings and mine couldn't differ more. 

Week 1 Painting

Today was my first my painting class we were asked to do some blind drawings from an object from out bags. I choose my ipod, looking directly at an object and not the paper while drawing  it. This was done on graph paper. I used many different colour felt pens to do this and a few times changed angle of my paper, to express a more unique and exciting image. I found this exercise quite a challenge to start with although I had experienced a similar technique in drawing classes. However in a weird kind of way I was really pleased with my wacky colourful drawing, it gave me so much freedom within my drawing and produced quite an expressionistic piece of work.  During the lesson I also learnt about different types of paints and their properties this did quite fascinate me. I learnt about acrylic gels, glazes, opaque paint and matt.

I found blind drawing quite exciting, but also difficult, I found I needed a lot of self control when drawing, so that I wouldn't look at my drawings. Here is another I did at home. However I did this one in graphite pencil and then pen. Although this image is quite hard to identify what it is, a few different lines and shapes within the drawing make it a recognisable ipod. 


This style of drawing very much reminded me of surrealistic art with bold lines and dream like imagery. Similar to that of the artist surrealism artist Miro.

I really like these two image by Miro they look really bold and exciting to look at. Challenging the perceptive of reality.