Assignment Four: tutor feedback and reflection

Tutor report

Student name: Cecila Barandiaran-Sprot

Student number: 516830

Course/Module: Drawing 1

Assignment number 4

Tutorial type: Written

Overall Comments

It was very good to see your working through of previous assignments (on your blog), on the whole you have made improvements, but importantly, I think that you have understood the value of re-looking and re0-working where necessary, and this is important to our development as artists. I can see development from the first sketches ( in your sketchbook selection) to the finished self- portrait, and this is good to see. It would be good now, for you to look back and reflect on how you have improved and where you can build on., I have indicated areas in the feedback below to guide you.

Yes, now that my knowledge and observation skills have improved a lot I can see more clearly where I went wrong, though I still have a long way to go and will work very hard to achieve the best of my ability.

Assessment potential

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 think there may be some confusion here as I had indicated that I wanted to put my work forward for assessment in July, and was working as hard as I could to get ready for it.

Unfortunately, due to your unforeseeable circumstances my preparation for Assignment 5 was complicated by the delay in receiving the report back for this Assignment 4. I had planned a trip to Peru in the period and allowed time for what I had to do before leaving, but sadly things didn’t work out as planned. In the event we didn’t have time to discuss Assignment 5 and decide on my final piece, and I had to send Assignment 5 before I received your Assignment 4 feedback. I do understand that things happen unexpectedly sometimes, but wanted to explain the knock-on effect on Assignment 5. Hopefully not impacted too seriously.

Feedback on assignment

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

The notion of how and why women artists make self -portraits is a very good place to begin your investigations, and the final- outcome has some good qualities about it, that show a reflective (and perhaps a little troubled) image. This ability to show

some interior emotion or characteristic is the strength of this self -portrait, and you have worked hard to convey this.

It is also good to note that this was your intention, following on from the Rembrandt research point- so well done.

Thank you for the comment, very encouraging. I try hard to keep in mind that a successful portrait needs to show the emotions of the sitter, and not just achieve a likeness.

The composition is good and less usual than the standard, It allows the viewer to consider and pay attention to the eyes, allowing the gaze to then take in the whole. This again is difficult to achieve and you have managed to do this with some conviction. At the moment, the curtain behind has a visual parity with the face and this causes a bit of visual ‘noise’, that you could re-consider. Perhaps you could ease back the curtain just enough (be very careful), so that there is difference between the two, and so that the visual priority is with the face. Stressing that this is just ‘easing’ carefully and not re-working. You could do this with a rubber or another method that helps to calm down the vertical marks a bit.

Thank you for very encouraging comment. I find it hard to decide on compositions and it takes me some time to become convinced that what I choose will work, and I’m not always sure even at the end. I need to keep practicing so my choice of composition becomes more consistent. I will try to improved the curtains.

The preparatory sketches show various methods of drawing, which is good to see- trying out different mediums and so on- the results are more variable, but none the less you have stretched yourself in the ‘doing’ of it. The soft charcoal drawing has some soft and quite enigmatic marks in it- there is an interesting method here that you could follow up on- it is slightly misty even and soft- perhaps this method might be useful for another subject matter as well, such as landscape or even an object if you want to convey an emotion or message.

Thanks. I enjoy experimenting, and hopefully by doing more and more I will get used to it and it will became part of my routine.

I would advise you to continue to work with the line (such as the stick drawing) so as to practice how you can integrate the marks into the overall. In doing this try to consider the thickness and thinness of the mark, how close together the marks are, and the proximity with which you are holding the stick. If you try to vary this proximity it will bring about a different sort of mark. You could think about the introduction of water to the ink, the viscosity of the ink and so on, to see how far you can push this sort of drawing. So, I would advise much more experimentation around this so that you can build up your material knowledge.

Thanks, I will do so.

The overall breadth of your experimentation with mediums is good however, so just keep working with this and developing your skills with the mediums. In particular the use of pencil and ink (as you noted in the work of Gildo Medina), refining the drawing and continuing to consider the way in which you apply the ink will help these experiments. Why not make some more small quick drawings and try out ways of ink application and drawing medium further?

Why not really look again at Gildo Medinas work and try to think about the separate elements that come together to make the images. How are the properties of the work defined? Can you define them? Is there a cultural context for the work? Can you see the intentions of the artist? You can bring this into your research and reflective writing more fully.

Look to see if there are other artists working in this way that you can feel a connection with, or have aspirations regarding their practice- this can be inspirational and instructive.

This is very useful advice, I’m doing more and more research and my ideas are developing, and I sense that my work is changing and improving all the time.

As you continue to draw, think about the pressure on the page/paper and be aware of this, as it has an effect on the mark. If you vary the pressure more you will gain more control of the pencil and be able to use it very finely/lightly or more assertively dependent on what you need for that individual subject.

As indicated, I’m aware of the value of experimentation and that I need to do more and more.

Strengths: medium exploration, building contextual research (continue with this) Areas for development: Tone and colour.

Sketchbooks

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

Seen through selections of the blog. Keep working in your sketchbooks- use it as a place of experimentation.

Try different timed drawings more in the preparation to your final drawings- such as 5 minute sketches, 10 minutes and so on, this will help you to a) decide on the final composition, b) help you to decide on the nature of what sort of drawing it will be.

Looking back through your sketchbook selection on your blog it would be good for you to try some reductive mark drawing. Try to cover a page with charcoal and use a rubber to take away. This will help you to consider the tone more and how you can build solidity. Look at the work of Anita Taylor, which is done using this method. I would try this a number of times.

I will do, thank you

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

Context You have started a good survey of self -portraits and some commentary- it would

be useful you to begin to compare them more so as to unpack them in a sense. Each one is like a stand -alone look, whereas it would be useful to look side by side almost so as to ‘see’ correlations in concept, techniques and also the disparities. Look at the marks made and try to see the gesture of the artist in them? This can all be written about.

Reflection

The reflections that you write have good insights, and you are self –critical, such as in your wedding portrait. In recognizing the ‘shortfalls’ you are achieving a level of understanding that is helping you to build your practical work.

Now aim to see how other writers speak about the works of other artists.

Use the questions on looking at a work of art (Ass 3) to help you to interrogate a work more thoroughly.

As indicated, I believe that expressing myself in writing is one of the maim areas I need to improve so I will keep working hard to do that.