Induction Week - Line Drawings

9th September - 11th September 2014

  This week, I have been involved in an activity to create abstract line drawings to get a feel for different ways of how lines can be created.

  Material included pencils, A3 paper, graphite sticks, charcoal, oil pastels, chalk and drawing ink.

  The given instructions were plain and simple and were ours to muck about, have fun and do as we want with them, within the guidelines. How I approached this task, the first time, was pretty basic and as I reflect on the first drawing it was pretty boring and looked very same-ish to what what everyone else has done. We didn't think to draw a line with the side of a oil pastel/charcoal stick and do lines in a white than a visible line, or make marks with our hands from the dust from previous materials we'd been using etc.. The second product was far more successful for me because you can see how much I've improved and learnt through the first image to the second. At the end of this process through the three days, a group of three merged a section of each of our pieces and joined them up together and try and see something in the picture we've created.
  My group's joint line drawing looked almost like either a cave with the limestone dripping from the cave walls.
  A forest with the sharp looking edges on the right side, directing the viewers eyes towards the middle (kind of like thorns).
  An octopus from the left to right because of the smooth edges to the darker objects.

•   Easy? - To get the smooth blending in some areas and it was easy to grainy and imprints from the wall behind when I needed the effect.

•   Difficult? - As I prefer and used to drawing within guidelines and very detailed I found it very hard to let go and have fun with the materials I had. Being told there's a right and wrong to creating certain drawings before and having that idea flipped completely on its head is quite hard to come to terms with at first, but I know this is all in the learning process and the purpose of this workshop.

  I feel that this piece is very simplistic and almost washed out compared to other drawings that had been created around the studio, but different isn't bad at all. I did realize I enjoyed parts of the workshop in the end but at the time I found the task very irritating to grasp and didn't find it incredibly interesting. As I've learnt, this task to evoke our observant eye to find and appreciate whats going on in the drawings we've made; either they're accidental or purposefully made. It's just a simple exercise to make us aware of what we're seeing and drawing.

Finished work, but not a fantastic photo... (& my work is the middle section).

What I've learnt this week;

• Take your time.
• Take risks.
• Think about the proportions.
• Think about the process behind what you're making.
• Make use of the space you have.
• Being observant and having concentration is much needed.