Over the Christmas holiday, I have focused on continuing to
research my themes of sculpture and movement and curves. I have done this
mainly using the internet, as being away from Univeristy means being away from the
library, however I have re-discovered many old books at home which have been
inspirational. These include Matisse, The Cut-Outs which particularly
encouraged me to use scissors and paper cutting to create curved shapes.
Another artist who I’ve been really inspired by is Aino-Maija Metsola, whose
Weather Diary collection for Marimekko uses moody colours and gestural patterns
which really appeal. She likes to work in watercolour, ink, markers and
gouache, which are materials I also like to use for mark-making.
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| One of Aino-Maija Metsola's weather diary designs for Marimekko. |
Having taken photos at the Yorkshire sculpture park of works
by artists including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Tom Cragg, I started to
draw from my photographs. Initially I wanted to collect lots of visual imagery
from sketching and mark making, so instead of just focusing on illustrative line
drawings which is what I often do when I start a project, I tried to branch out
and do more expressive mark making and paper cutting. I also experimented with
cutting out curved shapes to use as stencils. I found this liberating and think
it has been a good starting point for drawing research, but hope to take this further,
by taking my drawing out of my sketchbook and onto larger sheets of paper. I
find being in a sketchbook makes my work less lively as I tend to sit down
whilst doing it, whereas I think using bigger sheets of paper may encourage me
to stand up be more expressive.
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| Cut-out shapes used as stencils. |
I decide to use sculpting tools for mark making to combine
my theme with my drawings. This worked reasonably well, although I found that I
stuck to a few tools, such as a metal smoothing tool and one with a serrated
edge, as lots of the tools created similar types of marks. I also discovered
using interesting materials such as bubblewrap and carpet underlay for printing. I was much more
experimental than I have been with my drawing in the past, and I plan to expand
on this throughout the locating unit by continually collecting interesting
objects to draw with. As well as sculpting tools, I used kitchen utensils for
mark making. I used cut out shapes and rafia as resists which as technique I often use because I like to explore the impact of negative spaces.
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| Sculpting smoothing tool. |
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| Kitchen utensils for mark making. |
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| Another sculpting tool. |
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| Carpet underlay. |
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| Raffia resists. |
Next, I’d like to move from mark making in 2D to creating
3D, raised structures, which I can then photograph and manipulate on Photoshop
to make more interesting designs, playing with angles, light and relief. This will
help with the Fashion, Form, Fabricate brief, as I will need to explore 3D
structures when designing my collar.
I have started some basic modelling with air-drying clay,
making some simple balls and cylinder shapes which I covered in paint and
rolled over paper to make some interesting marks. I’ll continue to explore this
using different types of clay and moulding materials.
Overall, I have really enjoyed this drawing and research process
so far. I’ve found it good to be less concerned with drawing perfectly from my
photographs and have particularly enjoyed making grounds to the cut up and make
new shapes out of. Drawing with scissors, as Matisse did, is a process I find
helps spur new ideas.
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| Clay shapes. |
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| Ground done using sculpting tools and underlay. |
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Ground made using underlay.
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Over the next week, my main aims are to start doing expressive,
large-scale drawing, start putting together my research file and also start
making some 3D drawings/constructions.
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