les girls

so, for the beginnings of my major piece; some contour drawings of slender girls (taken from magazines)

a bit of an experiment and some practice to see if I could stitch some work...

then after a bit of play with tracing paper, this design emerged and made its way onto some cream cotton.

watch this space...

bits and bobs

my attempt at Kat Macleod-esque girls.

inspiration: kat macleod

Uses ink, pencil, fabric, buttons, sequins, watercolour paint and emboridery to create these beautiful, fragile and highly gestural illustrations.

She has illustration 3 books: The Cocktail, Like I Give A Frock (genius!!) and the elusive and extremely expensive, Bird, as well as illustrating for many fashion magazines.

(photos via http://jackywinter.com/artists/kat-macleod)

the history and modern uses of drawing

The human being has always felt the need to represent all that surrounds him, finding in drawing the most interesting means to carry out this desire, the earliest examples dating back 35, 000 years, beginning with cave paintings.

The history of fashion illustration begins in the sixteenth-century when the increased exploration and discovery led to a fascination with the dress and costume of the nations of the world. Today, British artist David Downton creates beautiful fashion illustrations using watercolour and gouche paints, cut paper, pencil and lots of black ink.

Jewellery in its most basic form has been used since the dawn of man’s use of tools and clothing. In the Cartier design process, a sketch is drawn to serve as the foundations on which the jewel will be built. In most cases, the creation is centred around the stone, as it is usually the centrepiece. This life-size drawing that reproduces the colour, texture and density of the material in minute detail, will be used as the basis for all the subseqeunt stages.

Since the beginnings of time, human beings have tried to capture a sense of motion in their art. One of the greatest animators has to be Walt Disney. Many different techniques are used to create Disney Animations, including pencil and watercolour studies, ink character development, and ink and paint on celluloid cells.

In drawings, creative professionals record their first idea for a project and experiment with compositional schemes or study important details or their work. Drawing has become so much a technical by-product of studio work and is looked on merely as a preparatory aid to the artist, that for a long time it never occurred to anyone to treat drawings as works or art, to preserve them and value them in their own right.

(just some snippets from another research paper)

(photos via www.daviddownton.com www.cartier.com and The Art of Walt Disney)

drawing unit: mess

"select and apply drawing techniques and media to represent and communicate the concept"


mix glue and ink in a sauce bottle, then try drawing. its wicked.

spiralling

After playing with photo montages and much doodling, I've created some so-called 'major' works

blotted watercolour paint on watercolour paper with black ink detail

soft graphite on watercolour paper

painted faces

splashed some watercolour paint on them, framed them to create mandalas, worked pretty well :)

mandalas

The word ‘mandala’ originates from the traditional Indian language of Sanskrit, loosely translated as ‘circle’ or ‘wholeness’. Mandalas are concentric diagrams, often seen as symbolic pictures of the universe, that have spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as many other belief systems and cultures.

Making a personal mandala is often seen as a form of meditation. This involves making random marks within the confines of a circle, working with closed eyes, then open eyes, standing up and sitting down, turning the paper on angles. It can be done with many mediums; pencil, charcoal, pastel or coloured pencils are excellent. The aim is to avoid thinking about what the drawing is, or its meaning, instead allowing an automatic drawing to evolve.

design unit: the face experiment

"Research and apply history and theory of design to design practice"

Draw 9 faces, cut each one into quarters then stick them back together to create abstract designs.

I HATE drawing faces so it wasn't a great first exercise for me but then end results were well worth it! Painted versions to follow!!

brave

Last month I started a Certificate IV in Visual Arts at AICA. I wanted to write a daily blog to help document my progress but got scared the first week in. But I feel braver now.