Category: Research & Reflection

The parent category for research and reflection posts.

Messing around with oil pastels

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Experiment with oil pastel using heavy blending and graffito techniques. I was really apprehensive using oil pastels as I haven’t had a great deal of success with them in the past. But this actually turned out ok and has given me some encouragement to persevere with them, The texture of the pastels matched the run down feel of the old pipeworks well.

Playing with ideas after exercise 1.

I decided to try and use the idea of mark making to add feeling to a picture and check out the results. I had the idea of depicting a punky character in a toxic environment and kept it simple. 20180909_160835

I used a piece of old card I found at work to add to the dystopian idea plus the fact it had some thickness allowed me to scratch into the surface adding to distressed feel. I used oil pastel, ink and correction fluid (I’ll use paint next time, the fumes from the correction fluid gave me a cracking headache!) I used the sgraffito effect to add some idea of light hitting areas of the characters top.

All in all I can see how the marks and choice of ground can enhance the mood of the picture and look forward to taking these ideas forward.

Picasso Exhibition at the Tate Modern

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So let me be honest I’m somewhat cynical when it comes to abstract art but one of the reasons for taking this course is to broaden my understanding so when I saw that the Tate Modern was exhibiting some of Picasso’s work I decided to put my cynicism to one side and check it out. Now I know Picasso could paint realistically when he was in his teens and took a different path later so it was easier for me to think this guy CHOSE to paint and draw this way.20180902_102442

First thing that did surprise me was the variety of approaches in his work and the scales he worked in. From sculpture to paint to pen and ink he explored many methods to communicate his ideas and I was interested in the way he used shapes of colour against contour lines as colour was not always bordered by line in a some of his work.20180902_103120

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The second thing that surprised me was the thick almost crude brushstrokes with which the paint was applied. What I enjoyed most about “Reading” pictured above were the flowing lines Picasso used.I can see how a more angular line would give a totally different feeling to the picture. 20180902_10324420180902_103254

Woman in a red armchair interested me as it showed the use of light and shadow to  show form giving the shapes a feeling of three dimensions not felt in “Reading”

There was so much I could include from the exhibition but the last example is from a Picasso charcoal drawing20180902_10524220180902_104925

It was interesting to see where he had pursued on line to then discount it and try another. Reinforcing the idea posited  by E.H. Gombrich in the introduction to his book The Story of Art  regarding what an artist is concerned about when planning a picture is “has he got it right” (page 13, Gombrich, E.H. The Story of Art 14th ed. 1984). What is right for the artist may not be right to the observer.

In summing up I enjoyed the exhibition and came away with some new ideas. I noticed some similarities in some of Picasso’s work with comic art mainly solid black lines and flat blocks of colour. Have I changed my mind about modern abstract works …hmmmm…I’ll get back to you later in the course with regards to that.

Where to begin?

So I’ve started the course and am working my way through the 2nd exercise, so far so good. Now I need to decide on an artist to study and that’s when I started to worry. There are so many artists so many art movements will the first one I choose be a “good” artist will they be “worthy” will my selection impress others or alienate them? why does that question even bother me? These questions may sound ridiculous but I was having a real rabbit frozen in the headlights moment. That was until I discovered the helpful getting started study guides on the OCA website. Including the useful Looking at Artists guide www.oca-student.com/study-guides/looking-artists which pretty much answered all of my questions. If anyone  else is having similar problems or questions I hope this helps.