And so I reach the end of Making Marks.
It has not been an easy road. Although I have not published much, my goodness, much of my thinking time has been taken up with the course and coursework. But I feel more settled and feel I can now get on with the projects which I am looking forward to.
I have discovered how holding pencils / drawing instruments in different ways can produce different effects. I have tried out a range of tools, liked some but not others.
I have also organised a study schedule to pace myself gently and continuously through the course.
And I have also invested in the Reader's Digest Complete Drawing Course book to give me some supplementary resources.
I am ready to start the real thing now.
28 November 2010
P1 Mark Making Research - Vincent Van Gogh
Since the last post, I discovered big time how LIFE can get int he way of Distance Learning. I'm still struggling to get it together and what I am realising is that I have to organise myself in such a way, that this becomes the first thing I do in the day. trying to do the studying after a day's worth of work just does not work for me.
So today, feeling bright breezy, I come back tot he course.
Today's learning task was the Research Point - Studying a Van Gogh pen and ink drawing.
After looking extensively on the Internet for drawings, of which there are many, I turned my attention to searching London galleries for a drawing. my thinking being that it would be better to see one 'in the flesh' so as to speak. I'm gutted to find that I missed the Van Gogh exhibition earlier this year at the Royal Academy. Still it has taught me to be on the lookout. I can't find any Van Gogh pen and ink drawings listed in any of the London galleries, so back to the Internet.
The drawing I have selected is Tree with Ivy in the Asylum, chosen primarily because there was an example of it on the Internet with a good enough resolution for me to print it out in A4 to study it. I love the drawing. I love the simplicity that simple short lines, straight, round, curled, twizzled, cross-hatched of different lengths and thicknesses can result in such an artwork.
I can honestly say that I have enjoyed this morning and learnt quite a bit about Van Gogh. It has enlightened me and I feel more confident to take on this course.
So today, feeling bright breezy, I come back tot he course.
Today's learning task was the Research Point - Studying a Van Gogh pen and ink drawing.
After looking extensively on the Internet for drawings, of which there are many, I turned my attention to searching London galleries for a drawing. my thinking being that it would be better to see one 'in the flesh' so as to speak. I'm gutted to find that I missed the Van Gogh exhibition earlier this year at the Royal Academy. Still it has taught me to be on the lookout. I can't find any Van Gogh pen and ink drawings listed in any of the London galleries, so back to the Internet.
The drawing I have selected is Tree with Ivy in the Asylum, chosen primarily because there was an example of it on the Internet with a good enough resolution for me to print it out in A4 to study it. I love the drawing. I love the simplicity that simple short lines, straight, round, curled, twizzled, cross-hatched of different lengths and thicknesses can result in such an artwork.
I can honestly say that I have enjoyed this morning and learnt quite a bit about Van Gogh. It has enlightened me and I feel more confident to take on this course.
15 November 2010
PART 1 MARK-MAKING AND TONE - THE START
After the excitement of receiving all the OCA material, the reality of the pace of the course hit home and deflated me for about a week. I enthusiastically set up a timeline for completing exercises in order to meet the assignment 1 date but as the days went by, I realised that the pace was just too fast and nothing was getting done because I was panicking too much.
Thoughts that perhaps I could just skip the exercises and get on with assignment 1 drifted in and out, but then I decided that no, i would work at a more leisurely pace and try and learn from each exercise.
To be honest, I have realised that i didn't really 'get' what I was supposed to be doing. It's only now that I have completed the Trying Other Media exercise that the penny has finally dropped and i feel I have learnt something new.
So enough prattling on, this is what I have gained so far from the course.
i have spent the past few weeks doing odd hours of practice. The early exercises of holding pens and pencils, doodling, mark making techniques, lines and other marks i did mechanically, not really getting much out of the exercise. of course I realise now that the point was to discover the different drawing effects you can achieve. So I suppose that although what I did was pretty rubbish, the learning outcome has been that if I want to go back and re-do the exercises to experiment with mark and line effects, these are the exercises that are going to help me.
The last exercise Trying New Media has been a turning point in my learning.
I knew I had many drawing media around the house and it was quite fun to dig it all out - quills and drawing ink, stabiilo pastel crayons, petel oil pastels, sparkly pentel 1.0mm ball pens, rotring drawing pens and an Ecobra Border pen.
I started this exercise with the quill, dipping it into ink. It was very hard work trying to get any ink onto the paper, let alone try and draw something. The quill had to be dipped into the ink frequently but i found that by changing the position of the nib that I was able to get different effects. i thought the quill would be great for a small scale fine area.
Next was the stabilo pastel crayon - did not like this at all but I can see that for a large scale drawing would be quite effective. Not that suitable for drawing finely in a small area but great for smudged effects.
The same with the Pentel Oil Pastels. Definitely liked these the least.
The Pentel 1.0mm ball pens were fun. I was given a set of these sparkly pens as a present and it's quite interesting just how thick the ink is. but the nib doesn't lend itself to creating different effects, just a uniform one so you would have to resort to other techniques to achieve shading etc.
The rotring pen was just a disaster. i spent 20 minutes cleaning it out but I suspect it needs another clean.
By far, what I enjoyed drawing with most is with the Ecobra Drawing Pen. This is not a pen with a nib as such but rather a drawing tool that picture framers use to draw borders on mounts around pictures. Many years ago I was taught to picture frame by a master framer and he showed me how to mix watercolours and change the size of the drawing tool to achieve thin and thick lines. It has been many years since I used it but I really like it because of the total control I have over the thickness and thiness of lines drawn. I used it with a watercolour and was very pleased that I could create different effects. Of course, using this type of drawing tool means that the ink dries out quickly and you can achieve the same effects as with a pastel crayon or charcoal - the ink is just too uniform.
So all in all, I feel I have learnt quite a bit both about tools, different types of drawing media and about myself.
I once more feel in control and enjoying the course.
Ta ta for today.
Thoughts that perhaps I could just skip the exercises and get on with assignment 1 drifted in and out, but then I decided that no, i would work at a more leisurely pace and try and learn from each exercise.
To be honest, I have realised that i didn't really 'get' what I was supposed to be doing. It's only now that I have completed the Trying Other Media exercise that the penny has finally dropped and i feel I have learnt something new.
So enough prattling on, this is what I have gained so far from the course.
i have spent the past few weeks doing odd hours of practice. The early exercises of holding pens and pencils, doodling, mark making techniques, lines and other marks i did mechanically, not really getting much out of the exercise. of course I realise now that the point was to discover the different drawing effects you can achieve. So I suppose that although what I did was pretty rubbish, the learning outcome has been that if I want to go back and re-do the exercises to experiment with mark and line effects, these are the exercises that are going to help me.
The last exercise Trying New Media has been a turning point in my learning.
I knew I had many drawing media around the house and it was quite fun to dig it all out - quills and drawing ink, stabiilo pastel crayons, petel oil pastels, sparkly pentel 1.0mm ball pens, rotring drawing pens and an Ecobra Border pen.
I started this exercise with the quill, dipping it into ink. It was very hard work trying to get any ink onto the paper, let alone try and draw something. The quill had to be dipped into the ink frequently but i found that by changing the position of the nib that I was able to get different effects. i thought the quill would be great for a small scale fine area.
Next was the stabilo pastel crayon - did not like this at all but I can see that for a large scale drawing would be quite effective. Not that suitable for drawing finely in a small area but great for smudged effects.
The same with the Pentel Oil Pastels. Definitely liked these the least.
The Pentel 1.0mm ball pens were fun. I was given a set of these sparkly pens as a present and it's quite interesting just how thick the ink is. but the nib doesn't lend itself to creating different effects, just a uniform one so you would have to resort to other techniques to achieve shading etc.
The rotring pen was just a disaster. i spent 20 minutes cleaning it out but I suspect it needs another clean.
By far, what I enjoyed drawing with most is with the Ecobra Drawing Pen. This is not a pen with a nib as such but rather a drawing tool that picture framers use to draw borders on mounts around pictures. Many years ago I was taught to picture frame by a master framer and he showed me how to mix watercolours and change the size of the drawing tool to achieve thin and thick lines. It has been many years since I used it but I really like it because of the total control I have over the thickness and thiness of lines drawn. I used it with a watercolour and was very pleased that I could create different effects. Of course, using this type of drawing tool means that the ink dries out quickly and you can achieve the same effects as with a pastel crayon or charcoal - the ink is just too uniform.
So all in all, I feel I have learnt quite a bit both about tools, different types of drawing media and about myself.
I once more feel in control and enjoying the course.
Ta ta for today.
6 November 2010
LAUNCHED
D-DAY has arrived! OCA Drawing 1-DAY that is!
And phew, what a whirl my brain is in. So much to take in. But can't wait to get started.
So what have I done so far
that's enough for now but keep reading - this will be my amusing journey from complete drawing novice to hopefully respectable drawer in 8 months time. we'll see !!
- read through the literature
- logged into OCA with my student id
- joined the Mensa Art and Literature group (might get some high-brow help!)
- added Assignment 1 to my Outlook Calendar (yes, need to see it each day to keep motivated)
- added all the exercises to my Outlook Task list (yes, I'm afraid I'm a big TODO list person)
- oh, and yes, created a BLOGGER account.
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