Tutor report
Student name: Cecila Barandiaran-Sprot
Student number: 516830
Course/Module: Drawing 1
Assignment number 2
Tutorial type: Ghangout
Overall Comments
I was pleased to see your work and your learning log/blog.
The images on your blog are good and I am able to read the work.
I like the real way that you are using your sketchbook, keep this going, add to it, be more experimental within its pages, in this way you will find new paths and be less anxious about outcomes.
I will certainly try to do that. I do tend to be a bit anxious when working, and have a tendency to keep working to try to make it better, with the risk of overworking the piece and losing freshness. This is one of my major reasons for taking this course; to learn how to work freer, experiment more and learn when to stop.
You would benefit from working with small studies/partial studies to try out techniques- this will help you with the decision -making process.
Yes, I will do that more often. When I was doing the exercises of Still Life in Tone using colour I found that I got a better result doing a number of studies before deciding which one to use.
Follow your instincts. From your reflective writing it is clear that your hunches are good and that you just need to believe in yourself and your abilities more.
This is a very important comment as I struggle with that especially when making decisions on how to improve - another major reason for taking the course
The start of good art studentship that you can build on. Well done.
Assessment potential
I understand your aim is to go for the Painting Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, providing you commit yourself to the course, I believe you have the potential to succeed at assessment. In order to meet all the assessment criteria, there are certain areas you will need to focus on, which I will outline in my feedback.
I understand your aim is to go for the Painting/Textiles/Creative Arts * Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. However, from the work you have shown in this assignment, I am concerned that you may struggle to meet the assessment criteria, and recommend that you instead consider taking the personal development route rather than seek assessment (see Conditions of Enrolment, Section 2 a). I will review your work again in terms of readiness for assessment at Assignment 4.
I understand you are not aiming to put your work forward for assessment. However, from the work you have shown in this assignment, providing that you commit yourself to the course, I believe you have the potential to succeed at assessment. I suggest you consider keeping your options open. I will review your work again in terms of readiness for assessment at Assignment 4. I recommend you keep a learning log, as this is an important learning tool and essential if you do decide to submit for assessment.
I'm not sure which of the three comments were intended but I want to go for assessment now and promise to work very hard.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
To sum up our tutorial:
Enjoy the work now it has purpose, often having the scaffold of education can help us to progress in a more robust way with our practice.
Compositional aspects are working well, and you can improve and strengthen on this as you develop- be aware of the way that other artists compose and really observe this facet when you go to galleries- make notes/drawings about it in your sketchbook.
Make short (5 mins) sketches so as to decide on the composition.
Make more than one variation of a drawing.
Draw fast and slow, use your right and left hand- see what the differences are.
Construction/depth- look at The Execution of Lady Jane Grey and also Dutch masters to teach us about viewer space.
Differences in texture with the charcoal/pencil beginning to develop- continue to be aware of this and experiment to evoke texture.
Differences in tone- mid tones especially will help you to describe and articulate what you want to. Practice your tonal values in the way that we discussed.
Consider the edges of the paper and let the composition flow rather than contain it specifically (so that it is not squashed in).
Practice your colour work with pencils, try to use a variety of ways and colours to gain shadows and tones. See how other artists have used colour to evoke a subject.
You working methods are good and developing and I really feel that you should spend a bit of time reflecting on the value of your immediate observations. Think of this as your Morandi moments (Georges Morandi spent a huge amount of time staring at his subject before trying to evoke them through painting and again masses of time before ‘finishing’ them off) Less is often so much more.
Very encouraging comments and I will really make an effort to reflect on each point specially the last paragraph as I normally struggle and doubt my observation. I spend a lot of time looking for external reassurance which is not always available, and when I get it I don’t always agree with it, so I get into a vicious circle of wasting time rather than looking for answers inside me.
When you use colour, the colouration is interesting and quite well observed, further blending of colour would be of benefit- try this out in your sketchbook in small patches or squares.
I will do more exercises of colour blending in my small sketchbook.
Overall a good assignment, take this opportunity to work over the respective pieces after thinking about my remarks, particularly should you wish to go for formal assessment. This is normal artistic practice and you shouldn’t worry about it- the studio environment is a lot about ‘push and pull’ until you are convinced of the work.
I will certainly re-work the exercises you mention and will send them to you by post when I hand in Assignment 4
Sketchbooks
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
Your blog indicates good sketchbook work keep this up, use it as a place to experiment, loosening up, new ideas and material and compositional workings out. The start of good art practice/process is visible.
Thank you, I’m enjoying working in my sketchbooks and have a few in use at the same time. At the beginning I thought of using separate books according to subject and medium but that didn’t work, so now I just get the first one available as long as it’s the right size, though I like the paper in some books more than others. I will try to do more experimental work.
Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays
Context
Your insights are good, writing fairly clear and articulate and very enjoyable to read. Below I have pasted a guide to help you look at works of other artists in order to evaluate them for your art practice- you can take these questions to galleries to help you to try to analyse the works.
There are four main component parts to thinking about and discussing a work of art. We need to think about content, form, process and energy.
Content:
What is happening within the work?
What is the subject matter? Does the subject matter suggest a deeper meaning? Is it direct observation, remembered, invented or imagined?
Is it realistic, deliberately exaggerated, distorted or abstracted?
Describe the content in detail.
Describe the Size/Form/Placement (part of a series, particular installation arrangements etc) When was it made?
Form: Is it 2d or 3d? How have the basic elements been used in the work, such as line, tone or materials? Is there a colour palette? If so can you work out why and how it is operating? Is it subtle, vivacious? What appears to be the artists’ intentions? Think about, series, lines, rhythm, texture, is it shiny or matt?
Process: What is the work made out of?
What media and processes has the artist used? Why might the artist have used these materials? Have you discovered any supporting studies/preparatory work? If so, how does it inform the work? What other skills may the artist have needed to create the work?
Energy: What is happening outside of the work? How does the work affect the surrounding space? Is there an atmosphere created? Does it remind you or evoke of a feeling/time of something else/another art form?
Why do you think this work may have been produced? Is there a political/social context apparent in the work?
Was the work commissioned?
What is your reflective opinion of the work (given the above investigation) how does it relate to your own work?
Thank you, this is very useful. I will print this guide and take it with me on all my visits to galleries and exhibitions.
Suggested reading/viewing
Context
Downs, et al (2007) Drawing Now: Between the Lines of Contemporary Art
Drawing Now Eight Propositions
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Look at the work of Tacita Dean (re drawing) to think about contemporary responses, also look at Jerwood www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/
And also www.drawingroom.org.uk/
Pointers for the next assignment
Take a little time to review your works and decide which pieces to improve on.
I will be happy to see the results at the next hand in.
I will certainly re-work the exercises you mention and will send them to you by post when I hand in Assignment 4
Tutor name
Michele Whiting
Date
1st Nov 2017
Next assignment due
9th January 2018