1. Cardboard and acrylic paint. I etched the jigsaw puzzle and overlapped the cut out circles. I had a bit of a paint disaster with this, and the drips turned out to be huge blobs of black and white.
2. Paper and ink.
3. Mixed media – wire mesh, wool, cardboard and wire.
Developmental Drawing
These are all based on the 4 prototypes. I’m afraid my drawings are a bit crap. I’ve been slaving over them all day, and I’m exhausted, so they’ll have to do. They are all centered on having items coming out of the canvas, and whichever one I like best, I will carry forward to the final piece on Monday. (Click on all images to enlarge).
I thought I’d just share with you all the news that I got my interview date through for Art School this evening! It’s fixed for 14th April at 9am. Oh dear, I’m not going to get any sleep the night before! Why couldn’t it be in the afternoon? I feel a strong glass of wine coming on!
What this all means is that I’m going to be ridiculously busy over the next 4 weeks. I’ve got so much to do! I think the excitement is going to my head. I say excitement, I actually mean anxiety. I will try and post what I’m working on, but I’m afraid I won’t have a lot of time to comment on everyone’s blogs, but I will still be reading them when I have a free moment. Also, it means I won’t have time to fix my blog just now – another thing I hope you’ll bear with.
I intend on taking a few days out to go visit mine and hubby’s family over on the West Coast, which means no drawing/painting/internet. A shame really because the scenery is absolutely stunning there. I do hope to take in a visit to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow, so there’ll be some kind of art related stuff going on!
Something has completely screwed up how my blog looks, and the text was all over the place! I changed the base size of the page so that my text field was wider for reading, but found it threw everthing out of alignment, so I reverted back to the original size, but for some reason it has stayed the same size!!! This has made my blog look a mess. So, now I’m trying to fix it but because it was completely illegible, I’ve had to throw up another theme in the meantime. I apologise for this and I will get it fixed as soon as I can. The page layout is pretty much the same as the previous theme, so you’ll find your way around with no problem. It just doesn’t look as pretty! Normal service to be resumed soon…
I have been a bit swamped for the past few days trying to get all my projects finalised so blogging has been a bit slack. I have just completed all the work for my Life Drawing class, and have successfully passed. I have one painting left for Contextual Studies, which I have started. I have one sheet to complete for Creative Textiles and my 3D Design project including 3 sheets of developmental drawing and then it will all be over. Some of my classmates have started receiving their interview dates for university, so I’m expecting mine in the next few days. One thing that is missing from my work is a lot of observational drawing.
When I attended the portfolio surgery at the School of Art, I was told that they would like to see more of the development process in my work, such as lots of quick sketches, playing about with composition and trying out colour schemes. The person who saw me said that I have heaps of finished work, which is good, because it shows that I can complete a work, but that they’d like to see less finished pieces. I told the instructor that I have lots of developmental work, but that I tend to take each development piece and complete it. I generally don’t do rough sketches. I see everything in my head, and that is my process. So, to remedy this, I have taken on an extra course of work.
The class in year above me take an Observational Drawing class, similar to my Analytical Drawing, but there is much more development in terms of sketching. My tutor gave me the brief for it and said just to work through it, and do what I can. Because I have pretty much finished most of my work, I’m working on this brief in the classes where I have completed my course work. The interviews seem to be around the week of 12th April, so that gives me 4 weeks to get the work done.
I have taken an object that I have in my living room, which is quite a complicated object, but I think it’s good to try and challenge myself. I started working on it tonight, but I haven’t completed it. The first item on the brief is to create a well-observed visual using a pencil, biro or marker pen, experimenting with line and tone. I thought I’d give drawing with a biro a go, and have worked with line as tone. This is also something that I don’t really do. So, this is what I have so far:
It’s a two-headed wooden statue, and I think it’s a Hindu representation of a goddess, but I’m not sure. It was a gift from my friend, Agnes, shortly before she died 2 years ago. I love this carving and I treasure it because she bought this after spotting it in a shop, and thought I would love it because I have lots of insular artwork and antiques. There’s lots of swirls and etchings carved into the wood, so it’s quite intricate, and a great challenge for me. I’ll post more when I have finished it.
I have no artwork of my own to show tonight, but I thought I’d share something with you that captivated my heart instantly. I watched The Secret of Kells, a film animation that was just nominated for an Oscar, and quite frankly should have won in my opinion. Perhaps I’m biased here, because I adore Celtic artwork, and well, I’m Scottish!
The film is about a young boy, Brendan, who lives in a monastery run his uncle, Abbott Cellach. Brendan is not allowed to go outside of the monastery walls because of the impending invasion of the Vikings. Then one day, Brother Aiden arrives, after fleeing the Isle of Iona to avoid the barbarian incursions and protect the Book of Kells manuscript, which had been started by Colum Cille (St Columba). It is Brother Aiden’s intention to finish illustrating the book. Abbot Cellach feels this is foolish and insists that the priority is to finish building the wall surrounding the monastery, and young Brendan must assist. However, ink is required for the manuscript and Brendan gladly offers to go outside of the walls into the forest to retrieve the berries required to make the ink.
It is in the forest that he meets Aisling (pron. Ash-link, and meaning dream in Gaelic), who is a fairy belonging to the Tuatha dé Dannan or the People of Danu ( pron. chewa jay down-an), and is the protector of the forest. What follows is the boy’s determination to see the beautiful Book of Kells completed, and Abbott Cellach’s struggle to protect them all from the outside world.
This is a hauntingly beautiful film, and the animation is nothing short of breath-taking. It is old-fashioned hand-drawn animation, but it is also much more than that. You can see the mark of the Book of Kells stamped all over this film, from the Celtic knotwork to the triskeles, and the stooping figures of the Abbot and young Brendan are instantly recognisable from figures within the manuscript. For any student of Celtic History, so much of the tale will be familiar to them. It is the reason I myself am so drawn to it, having studied Celtic History at university and studied much of the artwork. I gave a lecture on the artwork of the standing stones of various schools such as Iona and Oronsay from the 5th to the 14th century. So, I have a great deal of love for this particular subject.
However, this isn’t just a film for historians or history enthusiasts. This is a film for anyone who loves to see beautiful artwork and for those who find CGI graphics just a bit too sanitised and soulless. I have included images from the film and from the original Book of Kells MS, as well as two trailer for the movie, including the beautiful song sung by Aisling in both English and Gaelic. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the whole song clip on video, but I hope you love what you do hear.
The lyrics are as follows:
(Apologies if my translation isn’t exactly right, but it is sung in Irish Gaelic, and I can only speak Scottish Gaelic, but it is very similar.)
I'm a student artist, and have just started my second year at college. I work in many areas of art, specialising in abstract fine art, and I'm also studying traditional realism at an Atelier School in Aberdeen. Follow me on my journey, and share my experiences, as I progress through my studies.
