Didsbury exhibition of third year MA work 23/06/11

The third year MA students moved the Drumcroon exhibition over to the Birley Gallery in Didsbury so I went along to the preview. To be honest I wasn't sure how it would look at Didsbury after being in a white space at Drumcroon but all was well. The exhibition had been curated differently and so had a different feel than at Drumcroon, with many artists having more space to display more examples of their work. Again it made me think about my own exhibition and what my work would look like. It made me want to go home immediately and get my sketchbooks out. However, my tiredness prevented this and instead I have set myself a task this weekend to spend some much needed time indulging in my art. Watch this space!...

Digital illustrations...part three

So...following on from my illustrator diagrammatical drawings I have started to add colour. I haven't managed to add any texture yet (you know how life takes over sometimes!) but thought I'd give you a little sneaky peek at the beginnings of the work.

Drumcroon exhibition of third year MA work 05/05/11

The third year MA students work was exhibited at Drumcroon. I went along to see what was on display and I have to say it wasn't what I expected. The diversity of work displayed alongside each other worked extremely well and got me thinking about my own exhibition this time next year, how I'd like my work to be displayed and even whose work I think would complement it. I'm thinking, old bookshelves filled with my sketchbooks and some three dimensional fabric pieces, along with large scale printouts of my digital illustrations, although I do like the idea of them being small, framed pieces too! (This is starting to feel like a living room set design! I'm not sure whether that is a good or a bad thing!) Of course these ideas may change but it got me thinking...

Digital illustrations...part two

I enjoyed taking my illustrations in to Photoshop, removing elements and adding colour but I wanted to take the whole process further. As my interest was in the linear qualities of my drawings I thought it would be a good idea to take the work in to Illustrator and rework the lines over the top of my original drawing and take away all other elements in the image. Below are the results.

I like the way the drawings now have more of a diagrammatical feel and as they are all objects I own they feel quite like the beginnings of a self portrait, almost a recipe of ingredients for my life. I think I would like to take them further though and perhaps start to add colour and texture. I envisage lots of objects from my life suspended in negative space on an A1 or larger white page.
I think I'd better start drawing and documenting the hoardings of objects that make up my home and life.

Sketchbooks are delicious...

I've been very busy of late, hence the lack of recent reflections but I did start my new sketchbook and I have to confess it has changed my life! I am working in a delicious A6 size sketchbook and it is the best thing ever. I now feel like I cannot go back to the old size of sketchbook as the thought makes me shudder. I feel all my subsequent work must be in a similar size format to this new sketchbook that I have started and am unable to put down. I must go on the hunt for more tiny sketchbooks immediately!

Sketchbooks update...

I am happy to describe the bulk of my body of work as sketchbooks.
A little update...at the last count I had 11 sketchbooks each documenting life through my eyes. They are at varying stages but most of them are actually complete, each one containing different themes and sometimes working methods. They are not books to be developed from. They are my outpourings, to be closed again once read. Completing sketchbooks for me is a necessity. I see them all as final, completed pieces of work to be displayed in my exhibition space at the end of the course. Without them nothing else in my body of work would make sense. I'm not yet sure how they will be displayed but that'll become clear later down the line.
For now I shall just continue as I mean to go on...sketchbook 12 on the go!

Illustrations become more digital...

As always I've been enjoying my drawing but I felt like I wanted to continue to develop it in more of a digital manner. I played around with Photoshop in a similar way to how I ask my students to explore it and added colour to my work.

I feel like my drawings have started to become something else without losing their hand rendered, imperfect feel. I very much like the flat quality of the colour that you are able to apply when working digitally. This may be the next step in the evolution of my drawings. I now envisage some of them to be large scale and not the small drawings hidden away in my sketchbook. This is not somewhere I thought I would be!

I have even thought about combining images on the same canvas and subtracting any background that appears.  I am still happy with the idea of working with 'families' of objects and grouping things together. Eventually the combination of objects may be quite mixed, perhaps a form of self portrait that describes me through objects around me on a daily basis. This again constantly links back to my initial theme of documenting the world around me and looking for beauty in the ordinary.