Drawing
Relevant Artist Research – Vito Acconci
Acconci’s work is mainly composed of digital renderings of architectural designs, but also includes constructed architectural buildings and a few design drawings. His architecture is the main reason that drew me in to his work, seeing how he uses the space and designs it around public interaction. This is a feature which I aim to include in my work, creating a structure which gives the viewer access to different areas of the installation. I do also admire his drawings and how he creates very detailed designs for his work.
End of Project Statement – ‘Press Release’
This project has been about how my work relates to the outside world, and the context with which it stands. During this project, I discovered that my work fits better in a gallery context; all white walls, big open space, large enough to walk around in and for there to be an artwork. But I also discovered that my work isn’t just about the exploration of the spatial environment, it’s also about exploring the mind, my mind, and how I see spaces and how I interact with them.
In this piece I used fishing line to create a support structure for the piece, and then laid out the string throughout the space. This created this beautiful architectural drawing within the space, among all the translucent wire. Creating landscapes within spaces is what I’m best at, and in the future I will be exploring my ‘true’ reason as to what my work is based on, the theme in other words. I shall also explore other materials and incorporate more of my imaginative landscapes within my installations.
Project Four Update
This week I have made a new temporary installation in my space, I am continuing to use new materials and experiment with different techniques in which to display the installation. With this installation I have used the wire to form a space/wall in which the viewer is able to walk around. I have also suspended a section of wood which is only supported by the string from the ceiling, the other end is laid on the shelf.
I have also been experimented with Photoshop with creating space-like scenes. I have worked out a simple and quick way in which to create these scenes, and I intend to improve my skills to make more detailed drawings. These drawings are being uploaded to my Redbubble account, where you can buy these drawings in various items such as t-shirts, mugs, cases, etc.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/railstonartwork/works/20789257-space-drawing
http://www.redbubble.com/people/railstonartwork/works/20801448-space-clouds
http://www.redbubble.com/people/railstonartwork/works/20808864-cosmic-colour
Project Three – Installation #1
With this installation I decided to take a more geometric look at things. I wanted to try and make this installation look like a drawing you would make while bored in a Maths class. Initially, it went well, but as I make more and more I noticed that I started to dislike it more and more. After its completion, I took the time to observe its shape and form, and give it time to digest in my mind. I still came to the decision that I don’t like this method of working. So when I go on to make the next installation, I will be going back to similar methods I have used in the past.
Below are the images of this installation. Enjoy.
Project Two – Installation #1
Hi everyone! This is the first installation for this particular project. I have placed hooks within my space to create permanent fixtures to design installations; once made and documented, the installation is removed from the space and the fixtures are used for another installation/design. This is the first installation within this space; there was no particular thought process to designing this installation; the process was mainly to explore the space and experiment with the environment.
This project (Project Two) was carried forward from Project One. The idea being about creating a space/environment of my own imagination/creation, this then lead to wanting to explore space and involve interactivity. Project Two is now lead by the desire to create an interactive installation which explores its environment and develops its own world/space, allowing the viewer to walk through and experience the space thus interacting with it.
These are some of my documentation of the installation.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
Artist Influence – Jeremy Miranda
Jeremy Miranda is an artist who I came across on art blog, and their work stood out amongst the rest, so I decided to investigate further. After viewing Miranda’s website, it looks as though the artist only works in paint, if not also in digital media. The interesting part of Miranda’s work is the combination of worlds and transition between the two; the worlds in the paintings are closely related by blurred between the lines.
The piece I’m more interested in is the painting in the image above; the transition between the two compositions is a very blunt but was also smooth as if looking through a window, and the way how everything is related, from the drawings of the ship to the ship in the sea.
Miranda looks as though they are building up their work into a portfolio at the start a career. I will be on the watch any new work Miranda makes, I will draw inspiration from their work and hopefully have the chance to contact them about their work.
The text above is a mix of my own opinion and research of Jeremy Miranda.
Information and pictures found at the sites below:
Project One – ‘Connecting Through Making and Thinking’
Hi everyone, this is the first official project of the year. I’m going to try and make Tuesdays my weekly catch up on the past week of my course. These posts will contain information like workshops, ideas, progress, evaluations, resolved work, etc. I will try to post up workshops on the day they’re done, but I can’t make any guarantee’s as the wifi in my accommodation likes to turn off sometimes.
So without talking too much, here’s last weeks project.
This project is named ‘Connecting Through Making and Thinking’. During this project, I will be using and learning a wide range of methods, from ones I know like drawing and painting, to ones I don’t know, like metal work, wood work, metal casting etc. The aim of this project is to gather ideas and find a path of art which I enjoy the most, and then develop that path/media into a professional practice. I for one already know I’m more focused towards Sculptural Installation, but this project will give me access to even more areas than the foundation could.
The duration of this project is fourteen weeks, not including winter vacation. The first week of the project mainly included drawing; the task was to make six A2 sized drawings, out of these six, two had to be figures, two had to be objects, and two had to be interior/exterior (landscapes). By the end of the week, I had drew eight drawings in total, where two where figures, one was a landscape, one was an object, and the other four were able to be classed within all three categories. The outcome for these drawings was to get information; to get true information from real life objects and people, for example, light and shadows, size and shape, perspective, etc. The aim of the current week of the project, is to take one drawing from each of the categories, and paint the chosen three into one image.
Also, during the past week I hand made, and stretched my own canvas during a couple of workshops. I had to make the frame/the stretcher for the canvas during the first workshop, and during the second I stretched to canvas over the frame.
So that’s what I’ve been doing over the past week. Sorry if I don’t make my target of posting these every Tuesday, the student life is very busy, especially since my timetable for every week is 9:00 am to 5:00 pm every day. I know I forgot to post last Fridays Instagram post, I will combine this weeks images with last so you get to see all my work and progress.
Enjoy.
First Week Project – Self Portrait, The Inner Body
So for my first work week at Sunderland University, I had to draw a life size self portrait of myself. On the Friday previous, I went with the uni to see the Gunther Von Hagen’s Body Worlds Vital exhibit in the Life Center in Newcastle. The exhibit is composed of real human bodies which have been preserved through the process plastination. For my self portrait, I had to draw my anatomy; my own personal view of my anatomy. I used Hagens work as a starting point for the project, then I researched Leonardo Da Vinci, Antony Gormley, and some concept/in-game art from some games which I play. I used Hagen and Da Vinci’s work so I could understand the nature of the human body and where certain organs can be located. The main influence of Gormleys work was his metal sculptures which are formed from the human body. The brief of the project said to use our imagination to create the anatomy within the body, and to show our interests; so I decided to use games as an influence for my portrait; I mainly used an idea/concept from a game I enjoy and created my own design based from it.
As the week went on I drew A5 sized drawings depicting parts of the human anatomy in my own design, and by the end of the week created a life size self portrait of myself showing my interests and thoughts. Below are some images of the portrait which I drew.
Enjoy.
Fictional Worlds – Everything At Once
Sorry for the delay in this being posted, but hey, it’s finally here! Enjoy.
My project is about how we create our own fictional worlds, and how we can create objects, people, and even space out of the most minimal idea. The piece I have created is to illustrate my own worlds and everything that happens within them; as we can’t see everything that’s happening in our world, I decided to illustrate everything that happens in mine, so you can see everything at once.
This project began with the plan of using mark-making and drawing to music, this idea came from the Visual Communication project in the exploration stage of the year. I began to listen to music from the game ‘Minecraft’ and started to draw random shapes and designs, which slowly turned into a landscape. ‘Minecraft’ is a computer game, where the landscape is made from cubes and pixels and you can change, build and create your own world. I then explored the idea of fictional worlds and to create more detailed and meticulous drawings, evolving them to what they are now.
For a while, my drawings developed on their own, I would place them on my wall to give influence to the next and that created a chain of drawings which then started to illustrate different dimensions of my fictional world. I researched Paul Noble’s work and gained some influence from his ‘Nobson Newtown’, an illustrated world of his own creation. I was also inspired by Sarah Sze’s work and how she collects and groups her work and creates her own world in her installations.
Once I finished drawing, I decided to collect my work and develop the piece further. I went back to ‘Minecraft’ and decided to use its architecture; I then created cubes out of my drawings and using my influence from Sarah Sze, I invented some ways to group my work and how it was to be displayed. With ‘Minecraft’ being a constructive game, I decided to use it as a basis for the presentation of this piece. The outcome is a world of my own which is driven by imagination and creativity. A world where everything is happening but nothing built in the same way, where you can continue to change, manipulate and play with the architecture to make your minimal ideas expand.
Drawing has been a massive part of this project, but drawing is a minimal part of my life; I’ve realised that I have my own style of drawing and I now understand its importance. I will be continuing to draw in the future, now that I understand its ability, and mine.
Final Major Project
Here is an update on my Final Major Project.
My project is about creating fictional worlds, using mark-making to create landscapes and planets. During the project, I have been listening to music from the video game ‘Minecraft’, and from that I’ve been drawing out the music, creating organic shapes and designs. ‘Minecraft’ is the main force behind the formation of this project, but it also backed up with the Visual Communications project, where I drew to music and created my own window into space. I chose to use mark-making from the beginning of this project, but I had no idea that it would lead to creating multiple drawings.
I have recently came to a point in which I need to focus on a different pushing force and create something from these drawings, so I have took more inspiration from ‘Minecraft’ and have created boxes which have my drawings printed onto the faces. I’m trying to bring the ‘Minecraft’ world into reality, and using my drawings to create a new style of landscape in the ‘Minecraft’ style. I also have the idea of using animation, and collage to enhance the drawings.
I’m still in the process of making work and planning an exhibit, so there will be more of this project but for now, enjoy.
Final Major Project
For my Final Major Project (FMP), I have decided to do ‘Fictional Worlds’. I’m still not 100% on what the main idea is or how to fully describe it, but what I’m doing is listening to ‘Minecraft’ music and then translating that music into drawing. I started this project looking at mark-making, and the translation between other forms of art (e.g. music, sculpture, paintings.) to marks (drawing). I started to look at Sol LeWitt, and how his methods use precise rules. I then started to look at my previous project Visual Communications, and how I translated that music into drawing; from this, I then started to go straight into drawing the ‘Minecraft’ music.
From then to now, I don’t really know how to explain the project, so I will update you all when I am further on with my work.
Below are a few images of my drawings and a link that will take you to YouTube; the video will contain the music I am listening to. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obgSqOyM8Q0
GamePlay – Digital Drawing
Hi everyone!
I’ve been doing some digital drawing of stills from the videos. All I’ve done is sketch over the image in Photoshop and then done a another (more refined) sketch on top of that.
Minecraft – Digital Drawing
Here is a couple of digital drawings I’ve done for GamePlay. I originally started GamePlay with looking at how gaming has affected people/what gaming means to different people, I was a bit unsure about what to do so I played a bit of MineCraft and did a couple of drawings before I changed the idea to look at reversing video to make magic.
Enjoy
Life Drawing
During the Drawing week I progressed massively and it has improved my confidence to drawing the human figure; plus, I learnt the method of using a pencil to measure the scale of what my drawing should be. Enjoy.
Critical Studies One
What Is Drawing? Review
The What Is Drawing? exhibition is being held at Customs House Gallery and is open from 21st September – 17th November 2013. The exhibition is about how different artists view drawing and it shows artworks that each of the artists have created based on how they view drawing and how it can be presented.
The Artists exhibited within the show were asked to create a piece of artwork based on their idea of what drawing is; the artists also had to write one hundred words explaining what they thought drawing was – and what it was about. The artists in the exhibition were selected because they represented a wide cross-section of drawing in a range of media, from pencil and charcoal to light, from 2D to 3D and from black and white to colour.
The project and exhibition were planned in a way that allowed the viewer to take their own view on the concept of drawing. At the end of the exhibition, there is a board that invites the viewer to write about their own take on what drawing is. The way the exhibition is presented gives the viewer time to examine the artwork at their own pace and come up with their own explanations for the pieces.
One piece that caught my eye was Jennie Speirs Grant’s Farne Island Sketchbook. This work shows a long strip of paper with drawings representing her journey between the Farne Islands and also includes her expressions of the sounds around her; the piece can be described in either length or time. The part that fascinated me was how you can express time within a drawing whist showing the surroundings and sounds. I believe that the artist is trying to give the viewer a taste of what it would be like to go on a journey around the Farne Islands. The way in which Grant has drawn the lines shows different forms and can also be an indication of what the scenery looked like; if the sea was calm the drawing would be smooth and flat.
I agree with the concept of the show as it explains how everyone has their own views on drawing and how they express it. The exhibition shows multiple methods of drawing and many ways on how ideas can be expressed through drawing. This exhibition lets the viewer draw their own conclusions about what drawing is.
In conclusion, the exhibition has a wide variety of art based around an exploration of just what drawing can be. None of the artworks exhibited show a right or wrong way to draw; many of the works capture the idea about someone/anyone can record their daily life. This exhibition has taught me that drawing is not just life drawing with a pencil; drawing can be walking over a piece of paper to record how far you walk or that it can record time, or that can even be a three dimensional installation.
Link>>>Customs House – What Is Drawing?<<<Link
Fashion
For the Fashion rotation, I decided to do a ‘protest’ and not do fashion and instead create something different. The topic that I was given was ‘Black is the New Black’, so I did start off with looking at a bit of Fashion, but nothing appealed to me. So I took a different approach and kind of took a step back into the Visual Communication rotation and decided to do another drawn based piece of Art.
At first I did struggle to find any artists to be inspired from, but after a small chat with the tutor, I came across Marina Abramovic. Abramovic is a performance artist who shows how far the human body can be pushed over it’s limits, and then some. A lot of her work is endurance based, where she doesn’t stop the performance until she psychically can’t do no more. The one piece of Abramovic’s work that influenced me was ‘Freeing the Body’, in her piece she stood naked with a scarf around her face and danced to the rhythm of an African drum beat; this piece continued for six hours until she collapsed on the floor from exhaustion.
I intend to do a similar piece of work (not nude), where I will wear a white box on my head and draw to the sounds I hear around the studio that echo inside the box. I will also still stick with the ‘Black is the New Black’ theme by wearing black clothes.
The images below are a time-lapse of the performance, the final image is the Final outcome.
Railston Artworks 