Drawing workshop

I made a resolution to actively improve my drawing while I am on the MA. I resolved to do this when I finished my degree, but to an extent I felt that it didn't really happen, and that I was trying to please other people a bit too much.

I don't necessarily mean that I want to draw like Leonardo Da Vinci, or in a photo-realistic style - those are technical skills, which are important, and it's good to maintain them...but they are separate.

I want to make pictures, or even just marks, that can be read by somebody and understood, and also, that create a feeling or a mood. I suppose that's what illustration is all about. But the most important thing is to create work that I am happy with.

We had a day-long drawing workshop yesterday by Roderick Mills, an illustrator and lecturer on the Illustration BA at Brighton University. We were given a big list of materials to bring, and when we arrived Roderick gave us a theme (for the afternoon it was Witchcraft), and came around handing us different pens and pencils and photocopies of images that we might want to use to make our images. There was also a life model, films on the projector, and music playing. And then we just got on with it and drew...and drew...and drew.

It was exciting. At first I felt self-conscious, but with all these things happening around me I found that I could relax very quickly, and I got into a rhythm.

Although I didn't make loads and loads, I am really happy with my drawings - to me they feel very free. Combined with how the rest of my work is beginning to develop on the course, the workshop really helped me to feel as though I am sticking to my resolution.

My studio space

Just because - I like it here. 

Some MA work

Here are some photographs of a handmade book I made for a mini-exhibition on my MA course. My project is about using mundane or everyday objects to tell stories. Up until last term I was mainly focusing on the written work. I am still doing a lot of writing and I love it, but it's been good to get back into the process of image making again in the past few weeks.
These pictures just show the start of this process, and the book is a very basic mock-up concertina, showing some initial drawings for three stories - 'Scissors', 'Skirt' and 'Green Elastic'.

 

 

 

Life stories

'In order to give meaning to our experience, we must organize it, frame it, or give pattern to it. 

To understand an aspect of our experience, we must be able to frame it within a pattern of experience that is known to us; we must be able to identify aspects of lived experience within the context of known patterns of experience.'

(A Proposal for a Re-authoring therapy: Rose’s Revisioning of her Life and a Commentary

David Epston, Michael White and Kevin Murray)

...and National Storytelling Week is 28th Jan - 4th Feb.

Being fearless

I made these drawings a couple of years ago, but I found them again and it's like finding a page from a diary that meant something to me. They remind me to remind myself - try to be fearless, and keep your promises (especially the ones you make to yourself).

day four

I tidied my room

I washed my sheets

I went for a long walk and found some feathers

I ate some noodles

day three in drawings

I helped kids paint peppers in an art class

I looked in some charity shops

I bought supplies

I tried to fix my bike

...the end.

another day in drawings

I drank a cup of tea and read a book

I helped my friend Beks to take pictures of her hair clips in my hair on the beach

I went to work and swept the floor

I ate some almonds and an apple

I cut my finger on a broken coffee cup while painting these pictures.

...the end. 

a day in drawings

I washed my hair

I ate my lunch while I did some work

I posted a letter

I went to my lectures

...the end.

To look at, I mean - not to read (though that's true too)