- Demonstration of technical and visual skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills
- I have expanded my range of materials and techniques since Part 1; I have had a bit more of a go at using marker pens, I have experimented with mixed media, I have completed whole drawings in Conte crayon, finally dug out my Chinese brushes and inks and used them to pleasing effect, and I particularly enjoyed drawing with a putty rubber into a charcoal ground. My observational skills are quite good when I concentrate, although I am still having to consciously analyse perspective, which I suppose leads on to my visual awareness; I often used to think I walked around with my eyes shut, being so involved with what was in my head – but I found myself yesterday brushing my teeth whilst looking out of the window and analysing the perspective of the roof tiles on the house across the road, so the visual must be improving. My design and compositional skills are developing, particularly towards the latter end of this Part of the course.
- Quality of outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas
- This Part of the course has been very spread out and disjointed for me – I started it waiting for the arrival of my granddaughter (gorgeous, thank you), had a long interruption caused by serious illness and a prolonged stay in hospital, and have slowly had to gear myself up again to studying. I suppose I have developed much more of a sense of what might make an interesting composition; subject matter which seems quite mundane can be made interesting with thoughtful composition. I hope my work is presented coherently. Conceptualisation of thought and communication of ideas…..I think I began this Part very much with the mindset “here’s a group of objects and I’m going to draw them”, but I do feel now, approaching the end of this part, that I am on the edge of something rather more nebulous, which I’d like to talk about more in the two sections below.
- Demonstration of creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice
- I have to say that, the first time I read this criterion, I quailed as I thought that, frankly, I didn’t have a creative bone in my body. However, towards the latter stages of this Part, I have felt braver to depart from the norm, free up and try some things out. I really want to do some more Chinese brush painting, which has the potential to be wildly free and gestural yet minutely exact at the same time. I also want to do more work with charcoal and a rubber; I listened to a podcast the other day, when the pencil artist Nina Mae Fowler was talking animatedly to Nick Park (of Wallace and Gromit fame) because she’d finally found someone who would be enthused about her wide collection of rubbers, and I felt a bit like that, having recently discovered the joys of the Derwent battery eraser. The red monochrome drawing was a departure for me in that I was not completely just drawing what I saw. Project 4 has made me look closer at things which have been in my house all this time (e.g. the lamp and the dressing table mirror), see them differently, and attempt drawing which I would have considered beyond me at the start. Not sure the personal voice is there yet, I still feel there are far too many avenues to explore, but now I at least see the potential for it.
- Context reflection – research, critical thinking (learning logs etc)
- My tutor has modelled the conscious use of research – hand on heart, I have not achieved much of that in this Part because of it’s broken-up nature and the need to crack on with the exercises. However, what I have found is the effect that my reading and research has had on me on a more subconscious and intuitive level; I have found myself interested by particular images and wanted to try out some aspect of them myself. I think this is a good thing and a development; my tutor described my research notes in Part 1 as book reviews, which is exactly how they felt to me – whereas now I feel I am on the road to understanding the point of research, and hope to move forward to being able to use it as a proper resource and jumping-off point for my own work.
- I have found writing about my thinking has actually made me think in the first place. My writing can be a bit rambling and stream-of-consciousness, but I have always found writing a good way to work through a difficult place or problem; so, helpful for me, although possibly tiresome for the reader. My next step is more joined-up progress of thoughts – at the moment I am a bit like a child in a sweetshop, jumping from one thing to the next and forgetting what I had just discovered a few minutes earlier.
Drawing 1 Assignment 2 Reflection on assessment criteria
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