Monday Drawing

I loved Friday drawing last year, so I was pleased to find out that we would be carrying on with it this year in Monday drawing sessions. The best thing about it for me is the fact that I get to spend an afternoon away from my main project, but still doing something creative and beneficial to my practise.

The sessions this year have mainly been re-iterating some of the methods we learned last year, such as blind drawing, timed drawing, left-hand drawing etc. These always help me when I am stuck in a rut, so I’m glad that we have come back to them this year. The nature of these techniques means that every drawing you do creates completely new shapes and lines, so it always reinvents your ideas. Although I’m not always massively pleased with the drawings I produce, there’s always something in them which can be developed. Timed drawings have also been a great way of being more creative but with restrictions. In the same was as using oblique strategy cards, I find imposting rules on my work can actually make it more creative.

Still life set up from the fist session.

The second session, where we had to take pictures relating to a set of words (e.g coagulated, cushioned, caked) and then recreate them in 3D and then re-draw them has been the hardest for me. I find working in 3D really challenging so I had to go way out of my comfort zone. I’d like to go back and do this again because I was so stuck during the session that I didn’t really feel like I got the most out of it. Having though about it since however I have more ideas of how I could make 3D objects which represent the photos so I could do some more successful drawings.

Photographs of things which relate to the words, cusioned, grainy etc.

My favourite sessions have been the collaging and mono-printing sessions. I think I have enjoyed these the most because they have the most relevance to my floral geometry project. This is at odds with why I like Monday drawing in the first place, because it’s time away from my main project. However, doing techniques which relate to my project in this context has allowed me to think outside the box for my project. I want to try more mono-printing. I love it because you can get such a strong line and combined with the mottled effect from the printing ink on the background it creates a contrasting effect which makes the lines stand out. Because I’ve been focusing a lot on lines recently, I love this way of emphasising lines in a different way.

Overall I have been engaged with Monday drawing this term, not only because of the tasks and the chance to do something different, but because we do in in big groups, you get to see the ways in which other people work and think through problems which is really inspiring.