WHAT?
My tutor fed back to me in a very helpful discussion via Zoom on 30th November 2020, and also sent me a summary of the points by email.
SO WHAT?
Particular key features of the discussion I want to reflect on:
- My assignment piece and preparatory work: I was glad she liked looking at it, which I guess is high praise to an artist. I too still find myself standing and staring at it – the chalk household paint does give a rather surreal effect which is increased by the black egg tempera background. I found the preparatory tone drawing with charcoal and putty rubber a really useful reference and will try this again in future work.
- Tips:
- Important to give a viewer somewhere to rest in a painting – not something I’d thought about.
- Beware of the term “loose” – it should imply fluid rather than chaotic marks – I think I can be a bit lazy with the distinction.
- Figure and portraits:
- My figure drawing is tentative. This has made me stop and think. I guess it is – I only started doing it because I was required to in Drawing 1, having studiously avoided it before through lack of confidence. Need more practice, clearly.
- Use reference points in the background to help measure, and get your easel on an eyeline with your view
- “You paint an awful lot of heads before you get to portraiture” – my job is to treat the head as a visual problem to solve
- Consider painting in grisaille (greyscale, lightly) before going in with colour, and take the colour out again if it’s wrong
NOW WHAT?
- Get in as much drawing (especially drawings of people) as I can to build confidence and experience
- Remember the tonal charcoal drawing, it’s a useful problem solver
- Work on understanding colour and what effect it has, rather than just grabbing the first tube that comes along
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