Artist Research – Expressionism, Automatic Drawing

Foundation 2D – Artist Research – Natasha

(Will probably take it down when I can print and stick into my sketchbook next week; I realised that I didn’t really include personal reflections? Just research. I did choose them because I found their work fascinating, though.)

 

My Line is Emo

Foundation 2D – Finally, we’re here! It’s been a long ride through the last few weeks of the Project Emo Assignment. With mixed emotions (ha!) I present to you my final in A1.

Final Work (A1) of 18 Emotions
Final Work (A1) of 18 Emotions
Close-ups of Final
Close-ups of Final
Close-ups of Final
Close-ups of Final

The emotions I eventually settled on doing were: harassed, apathy, disdain, sanguine, recklessness, aggression, exasperation, irritation, contentment, entrapment, stress, discomfort, grouchiness, awkwardness, sympathy, playfulness (is that an emotion?), vulnerability and indecision.

For documentation’s sake, the following contains the method each was done with.

Harassed – watercolour, paintbrush

Apathy – calligraphy pen, water

Disdain – metal kitchen scrub, watercolour, poster paint

Sanguine – ink on newsprint

Recklessness – acrylic paint, cotton wool

Aggression – charcoal on crumpled paper

Exasperation – charcoal on twisted paper

Irritation – soaked paper in water, scraping with metal kitchen scrub

Contentment – watercolour, hair on my head

Entrapment – pencil, pen

Stress – watercolour, poster paints, scrubbed with metal kitchen scrub

Discomfort – watercolour, poster paints, menstrual pad

Grouchiness – crumpled paper, stamped made in ink

Awkwardness – acrylic paint straight from tube

Sympathy – ink, bayer

Playfulness –  shoe, acrylic paint

Vulnerability – pen knife

Indecision – tearing of paper

All in all, it was a rather adventurous process that enabled me to get to this point. I used my favourite methods from each of my explorations (which, if you would remember, included me throwing my journal into ADM fountain water) as well as some new, unconventional materials, such as my old shoes (finally got around to doing it!), a menstrual pad and my own hair (link).

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While I find automatic drawing cathartic, I do however feel that I should focus more on positive emotions which would probably help me be able to process these feelings of joy, peace and contentment. These emotions are more difficult to portray however, in monochrome, as positive emotion would probably be easier to portray in bursts of colour. For example, rubbing a layer of charcoal evenly to create a hazy effect would be something I could do to portray peace – but at the same time, one might interpret the end product to be portraying emotions such as apathy or disinterest. Still, the process is one that helps free up my emotional thought space, and I really did enjoy it overall.

Thank you, and I hope that you enjoyed reading about the process as much as I did going through it! 🙂

Memory Drawing

Foundation 2D – In our last 2D lesson, we were given an emotion and prompted to think about a memory that links up to that emotion – then to close our eyes and use our non-dominant hand to draw, expressively, what we felt.


 

Happy - in a time where "hey, want to hang out?" was not yet found in text messages, she knocked on the dusty glass panels of the window to class during recess, calling for me, wanting to spend time with me - and in that moment I felt what it was like to feel affection.
Happy – in a time where “hey, want to hang out?” was not yet found in text messages, she knocked on the dusty glass panels of the window to class during recess, calling for me, wanting to spend time with me – and in that moment I felt what it was like to feel affection.

Emotion: Happy

Medium: 4B graphite pencil

Words that come to mind when looking at the end product: yelling man, faces, conflict

Yes, it doesn’t look like the happiest “happy” drawing that I could have done. In my defence, it was the first drawing we did, so part of the reason was because I was still warming up; on the other hand, it is completely my fault because I chose what one would call a bittersweet memory. There’s a lot of conflict, a sense of loss and longing involved in this memory – probably not the best memory, heh.

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On Mark-making & Exploring

Foundation 2D – Today, we brought our mark-making tools that we prepared to class. I wasn’t too sure what to prepare, so here’s what I brought:

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Picture 1: a cream cracker, the most perfect walnut in my entire walnut stash, bubble-wrap
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Picture 1: From left to right: ribbon, cotton, synthetic rope, thumbtack, cardboard

I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but class did not disappoint: automatic drawing!

Expressionistic gestures come quite naturally for me. Of course, given that it’s difficult to apply formalistic language to expressionistic works, it’s difficult for me to benchmark myself and compare one gesture to another. Someone wise once said that we are our own worst critic, something that is particularly true to me as I hold myself to high expectations. It’s quite liberating to turn off the critical voice in my head, just create and enjoy the process.

Below are the things that I did during class today. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!

Continue reading “On Mark-making & Exploring”