Portrait Birthday Party!

I've been wanting to have a 'Portrait Party' for a long time. Some of my course mates and I have also been planning a little get-together before everyone left for the three week Easter holidays (spring break). And with it being my birthday tomorrow, we though it would be great to make it all come together! So Alice, Rich, Jennie and Luke all gathered at ours yesterday for an evening filled with fun and laughter and plenty of drawing, eating, drinking and being silly. It wasn't as well organised as Rama's, but we were having too much fun to really care :)

Alice, Rich, Jen, and I managed to draw a lot ... we took it in turns to pose while the rest of the group drew the model together. At the top of this entry is the other's portraits of me :)

Below is everyone's portraits of Alice.

Then of Rich...

Then of Jennie ... Sunshine got in on the act too here.
He'd been playing host and providing 'entertainment' most of the evening.

So obviously we had to all draw him too ... (his entertainment consisted of finding us funny and silly web videos to watch between drawing sessions!).

Luke-the-lovely had offered to cook so was slaving away in the kitchen making Goan fish curry -YUM! - while most of the drawing sessions were going on. But as you can see he did get in on the act and draw Sunshine, and we all got to draw him lounging about with his glass of post-dinner wine.

And Luke also managed to do Jen, Rich and Alice all in a row on the sofa drawing me!
Proof that the Portrait Party did actually happen...

And a lovely evening was had by all!!!

Edit: Thought I's better tell you their full names so yo can look them up when they're all rich and famous artists! Alice Hyde, Richard Partridge, Luke Elston, Jennie Gyllblad, and 'Mr Sunshine'.

Panoramic: Panoptic

Click on it for a much bigger and better version!

As promised, this is what we made last Thursday (took a while to get good photos). The idea was to work in groups of 2 or 3 and work on location around Bush House (where the illustration studios are) to record the environment in a 360-degree panorama. Didn't have to be exact, just our version of it. We could include anything we wanted including interiors, snippets of conversation overheard, people, buildings, anything really. ... I teamed up with Luke and Jen and we all went out for about two hours drawing quick sketches (we had to make about 32 each of about A6 size). We three have very different styles and it was nice to see how it would all come together. I also took some photos and did some rubbings (which the other groups hadn't thought to do!). Here's some of the stuff I managed to do in the freezing cold (some were done out of the studio windows when we couldn't take the cold and wet anymore - hence the one through the dome shaped window!)







We then congregated back in the studio and started photocopying the drawings; changing their scale, making some of them negative; and in our case, as I managed to get hold of some acetate, making some see through images too. We cut these out and stuck them down on two large A1 sheets stuck end-to-end. It was HUGE and actually quite difficult to do any decent composition-ing on as we couldn't quite see what it would look like. The process was obviously quite organic with us cutting things, moving things round, and running back and forth to the copier making more stuff. And in 2 hours we made what you see above ... I think actually it came together quite well, and we worked well as a team too. I've actually really enjoyed this fast paced generation of source material, and then manipulation to produce a final image, and am quite tempted to try some more ... Below is a close-up of my favourite bit of the image, the bottom right corner ... I love the series of boats and series of cranes.


I'll be putting up more work from Luke and Jen (and a couple of others) in the next day or two. I've had them all over today and we've had a portrait party! Its past my bedtime now so I'll do the collating and stuff tomorrow ...

Portrait exercises

Last Thursday (yes, I am a week behind on updating the drawing module work) we spent the day doing portraits in pairs. I paired up with the lovely Mrs Charlie who you see above (no guarantee of resemblance!). Our first task had been to take it in turns to draw a detailed portrait of the other - on for ten minutes; then swapping; posing for ten minutes; etc. We each did 4 or so sessions, so the drawing above took about 40 minutes in total. Gary the tutor was very keen for us not to 'draw' per se, but just do a lot of measuring (pencil at arms length kind of stuff) and marking off where things were, and building up on that. Most of us did a bit of that to get proportions right, but then started drawing in details. I think though what he had really wanted was for us to just keep measuring and making marks, and hoping that that would eventually form itself into a picture of the person. I understand this now ... and I think I might have another go at this with Sunshine as my model.

Then we had to look only at our drawing, and generate 6 new smaller drawings which were, from top left; continuous line, blind contour, only tonal, left handed, using different media, and last but not least, from memory. I think the continous line one is my favourite.


Then the exercise was repeated, but looking at the real life model. We were being quite pressured for time by this point and you can see that we had both started drawing at the same time (Charlie's looking away from me) as we didn't have the time to take it in turns. It was fun though - and we were having a real laugh! I managed to draw her smiley face blind and make her teeth look like a mustache (!) whereas in one of her drawings she managed to make my nose look like a pig's! Very very funny .... but we didn't really care. It was all about loosening up and trying things that we don't normally do and looking at 'drawing' in different ways.


The last exercise was to start with a full portrait and then make each progressive one simpler, and simpler ... and see what you're left with...


I must say I struggled with this whole session as it was several things that are mental blocks for me - drawing people, drawing from an 'alive' subject, and on a couple of them, drawing faces from memory. EEEkkk!!! But I'm pushing my comfort zones, and that can only be a good thing ... And it was really nice to have Charlie as a partner - as we mostly struggled with the same things and could push each other on ...

We had a fab time at the drawing class today - I'll hopefully update all about that tomorrow when I've managed to get hold of some good pictures of what we've produced. It was also last day of term, before three weeks of Easter break! Yippee!!! I shall be celebrating my birthday on Monday not worrying about handing in assignments (although a lot of Easter break will be spent on the Narrative and Sequence module book project) or having to wake up early the next day ... aaaahhhhhh ..... lovely ....

Bookforms

We spent the last two days on a bookforms workshop. I made something titled 'Choreosophy in Blue'. Choreosophy is Greek, meaning 'the wisdom of circles' and my book is based on circles. Our brief had been to make something with just shapes and colours, no text, but thinking about pacing, rhythm, and structure. There were some really creative things that people managed to make in a day and a half. Here's mine:

This is what the whole thing looks like all concertina-ed out.

More pictures (with some macro shots) here.

I also did a small mock-up of another book which is a looping story of shapes and colours.

Crafting hands

So there you have it, these are the originals from which the final drawing was done. Sorry for the lightness - they were done with quite hard pencils on an off-white cartridge paper sketchbook.

Thank you to everyone who has been leaving me messages about sewing-drawing. It appears I have the special plate necessary to be able to do this on our sewing machine, and I've also invested in some embroidery hoops ... really excited about having a go!

HANDcrafted

So this is my response to last Thursday's homework. I sat down and drew lots of crafting people and hands based on the photos I'd taken on Monday night at the stitch'n'bitch group, and was playing around with the hands and have come up with what you see above. I was trying to give it the feeling of a lot of activity - because, honestly, that IS what it looked like - a flurry of active hands making things! If you look carefully there is a cutter, two knitters, and three crocheters ... (click on the picture to enlarge to a better view). I quite like how the original sketches came out as well but I haven't managed to take decent scans of them - they are quite light, having been done with a 3H pencil on some off-white paper. Sunshine says there is a possibility that he can take photographs, although that has to wait till daylight ... so I'll try and upload some photos tomorrow of the original drawings.

My intention had also been to make a kind of poster-thing to advertise the group; using fabric and sewing as part of the drawing - didn't have time to do that, but I think that is definitely something I'm going to have go at over Easter. Anyone out there can give me tips on freehand sewing machine drawing?

EDIT: I think I wasn't very clear with my question (thank you for your drawing of a sewing machine though Shirley!). I have my own sewing machine (well, I have Sunshine's one). I would like to learn how to 'draw' using a sewing machine - freehand stitching I think its called? Like these three illustrators do. The mobile I received as part of the swap had some too - maybe I should ask its maker for some tips...

(Not so) creative crocheting

The lovely Milla put me on to this ... A new Stitch'n'bitch group round the corner form where I live! And there I learnt to CROCHET!!!

Notice the bad crocheting at the bottom (beginning of the evening) and better at the top (end of the night).

I learnt from this lovely lady called Amy who is a GREAT teacher, and she even loaned me her wool and needle so I can keep practising for the next month till the next stitch'n'bitch.


I'm SO glad I went - I'd been cranky at home all day yesterday - I think I'm coming down with something - feeling very frustrated juggling lots of different projects and not seeming to get anywhere with any of them ... blah blah blah ... This was SUCH the lovely thing to do ... Meet local crafting ladies and do a bit of crafting and socialising. I'd actually gone in with my sketch book so I could draw people and then use it to do something for my drawing in location homework. But its difficult to draw people's hands moving so fast! So I took lots of photos instead and may do something with those ... and I learnt to crochet! Here's the proof (notice open sketchbook in the background):


There was all sorts going on - crocheting, knitting, cutting, gluing, sewing, etc etc ... pictures here of you have a facebook account. Come along next month!

Exquisite Corpses - update

Remember this from last week, and the sneak peak? Well, I've finally managed to finish them ... Meet, erm... 'Sweetie', and erm... 'Circus' .... Ok OK I'm not very original with names ... maybe some of you have better ideas? Yes, I know, my paper mache skills are deplorable ....











I'm not quite sure yet what I'm going to do with them, The original brief was to take at least two characters and do a narrative ... I think I might just 'play' with them for a bit and see if a narrative suggests itself. Then draw some backgrounds and photograph them in front, interacting to act out the narrative ... hmmmm.... Easter homework ...

Carwash

This morning Sunshine and I went out for a lovely walk to Ashton Court. On the way we visited the carwash ('cause the car REALLY needed a wash!). After Thursday's drawing on location stint, I was determined to get into the habit of drawing whenever I was out so I took my new handbound sketchbook with me. Can't say these are the best drawings I've ever done, but I know I need to do this to break through the fear of drawing in public without a care whether the drawing is 'good' or not ... its all about the practise, practise practise ... On the right is Sunshine looking out the car window while we were in the carwash. I must say, it was no where NEAR as exciting as I remembered as a child (the whole car shaking to the thudthudthudthud of the spinning washy-things!). Infact, the car hardly shook at all, and I can't say the machine did the best job of cleaning - I think we may have to do a bit more scrubbing with a bucket and sponge tomorrow ...

Still, it was a lovely day out in the gorgeous sunshine, walking through the park, looking at the deer and the trees (and contemplating a possible wedding venue?). What a lovely day to start my birthday month! Oh yes, its been such an incredible year this last 12 months, and I'm so SO happy to be where I am, doing what I'm doing, that I intend to be excitable all of this month (hah! like I'm not always quite excitable!)... ;)

And what better way to start the month than to be mentioned on not one, but TWO other blogs ...

The lovely Suzanne over at 'An open [sketch]book' also teaches at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Interior Architecture. They have set up blogs for the students (which I think is SUCH the fab idea) and Suzanne featured me on their blog as someone to go and have a look at. What a compliment!

Then, yesterday, my foundation final major project stuff was featured on Easternblot (only biochemists will get the joke), a blog celebrating the art of science. Thank you Eva!

I LOVE March :)