Coursework Shows and Recent Studio Things...

Apologies for the long delay in between posts, been busy lately with coursework-related projects in campus, and with a pretty hectic moving schedule over the summer break. Had a bit of downtime lately, so will catch up with showing recent events and things happening.

(above) Shots from a recent MA interim show that we were a part of in London, the space was absolutely massive as seen from the pictures above. Pretty intimidating space to fill with work...

(third image down) My small contribution for the MA Art & Science course- a series of inked etching plates of anatomy studies done at the Gordon Museum, King's College, London (more to follow in later posts about this particular project!)

(above) This tiny study made it in to the recent Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Show in the Mall Galleries in London. Sadly didn't manage to get a photo of the panel with the frame, turned out pretty nice

Studio in progress.

Sketchbook drawings and paintings, round 3

 

A bit of painting & drawing studies for the new year!

Several poster studies from a while back & Boldini/Velazquez study

Panorama Studies

 

Unusual compositions for panels and canvases are often interesting avenues for experimentation. These are a series of small rooftop and hilltop studies done over the summer, a small counter for the grey xmas week!

Sketchbook Drawings and Paintings, Round 2

More sketches and figure drawings. Trying out certain approaches towards construction in figure drawing, i.e. 'less blocky', going for identifying sweeping, gestural statements and then narrowing down to key anatomical aspects. Some orchestral sketches to add to the mix as well.

Finished charcoal drawing for the painting re-try.

Landscape Study, King's Cross

The sun sets, man dies. It is right. But what a pity not to be able to paint anymore.

Mancini, Antonio. (c.1852) In: Heisinger, U. W. (2007). Antonio Mancini: Nineteenth-century Italian Master. 

 

One of the last of a series of major projects attempted for the end of my undergraduate course. The location was the handyside area near the renovated granary square near King's Cross Station. Took about 7 weeks on-off, partly because the study was started in mid-April, but due to a bout of really bad weather and setup for the degree show the study was postponed for most of May, and it was finished at the current state in June (something like 7-8 overall sessions).

(above) The first drawing of the study- many, many, many changes to the drawing, perspective from this initial state.

 

 

Halfway through the study- the lay-in was relatively there, but it was time to get more specific and more accurate in the drawing. From this state, had help from a member of the KX Estates people who would stop by and offer crits and point out the mistakes (in the drawing, especially even up until the end!) Many thanks to Aleks for his boss observational skills

This study was counted of sorts as a graduation piece, I am beginning to confidently work on a sustained study with improvements in the overall drawing- the challenge of a long study seems to be being able to tighten the drawing stage, and accurately expressing the visual phenomenon in regards to the amount of information that can be conveyed. 70% of the time unfortunately is a waiting game, having to sit out until the correct lighting situation presents itself. Out of an average 3-4 hour session, there was perhaps only a 1-2 hour window of opportunity for observation of the cast shadows (even then it changes dramatically depending on fluctuating light). So plan the drawing! The perspective was a real pain, and the drawing changed quite a lot throughout the session, partly because every subsequent sessions seemed to present new information.

Poster Studies

A 'poster study', or a quick, small-scale mass sketch is helpful to solve issues in getting the visual impression from a particular composition, scene, pose, etc. It's meant to be the broadest and simplest possible expression of what you see, but also must contain some basic information that you could use in aid of the actual work itself. 

Time taken ideally for a poster study or sketch? Depends, really on what you want to achieve. Most of these were done in various drop-in evening classes, sketching sessions, life drawing sessions, from photographs, etc etc etc. usually when working in mass is more preferable than linework. They usually stop short at the 'block-in' stage, right before attempting to correct/amend drawing and considering edges. It's quite fun doing poster studies, and a goal once set by a tutor was to attempt 50 successful poster studies in the course of a single year to force yourself to think in much broader, simpler terms in mass expression. 

Procedure was like zapping solid blocks of mass in place until the overall impression is reached at, or the entirety of the support is covered. The compromise between accuracy of drawing and the overall vision as defined by the restrictive time limit is something that has to be learnt as well- the broader the overall vision, generally the more accomplished the draftsmanship involved.

Sketches and non-paintings

Something not paint-related... some scans of old and some new-ish sketchbook drawings, a mix of different things, just looser and more gestural work in pencils and some older pen drawings. 

The double studies in charcoal are initial stages in the drawing meant for a painting project started a year ago... having to refine the drawing and with a greater sensitivity for draftsmanship this time round, I felt that the end result this time round will be much better than the first attempt at the painting.