Sketchbooks-
From Collage to Pencil Portraiture
Past Education -
From Human Form to Architecture Sketches
My collages were created during my Art Foundation course at Sixth Form College and are mixed media pieces containing original photographs, magazine clippings, text, tracing paper, pressed leaves, stenciling, wallpaper and wax. They usually contain quotes relevant to the story I'm trying to portray and one is usually born organically from the other. Text from books can be circled and new stories can be told through the individual highlighted words in series.
The rightmost picture is an acrylic painting I did of the streets of Hong Kong using only a piece of card to drag the blocks of colour into shapes in the landscape and a fine brush for the detailing. To cut the paint back and remove it from the canvas I used a palette knife. The piece was originally A3 sized, but I cut it into section to fit into my first year sketchbook competition.
Most of the pencil portraits in this vicinity were done during my A-Level Art course. My project was based around mental health, especially that of my Mum, Lynne, who died when I was 10. I used scrapbook photographs and distorted them by putting them in a photocopier and shuffling them around while they were scanning, to pull the image. I also explored blurred rapid ragdoll-like movements with my friend Hattie to externalize the pain felt on the inside.
There were also instances where I used charcoal on large canvas to blow up the scale of the head (or heads) to exaggerate the internalization and existential crisis that my Mum felt at times, but bottled it up allowing it to build up and consume her.
Just below this text on a cheerier note, are extra sketchbook competition submissions pages in which I did quick studies of people from life, and from story books and illustrations I've seen. There is also a fine-liner study of the Empire State Building that has been worked back into with pencil and yellow marker to put emphasis on the brightly lit windows and the life inside.
On the left is a drawing of the Colosseum done with a combination of fine-liner; to get the depth of the arches and the shade, and biro for the lighter detailing and texture of the stone. This is paired opposite with a drawing from one of my own photographs of Spa Bridge, again with fine-liners and biro, to create the perception of depth within the steel trusses and arches on the underside of the bridge.
Another building study -unfortunately not from life- is the Dancing house in the bottom left. This was made exclusively with fine-liners of different thicknesses, some of which were starting to run out. Other features of this page are the Vitruvian Man and facial studies that I did for a sketchbook submission in 1st Year, as part of the 'Architectural Communication' module. All other pictures on this page are from either my 1st or 2nd Year competition sketchbooks.
The bottle of Kraken, the monkey, rhinoceros and anteater were drawn in fine-liner, but while the animals are mainly spotted using pointillism, the rum bottle is cross hatches and coloured. I had spent recent times developing and experimenting drawing styles and usually opt for sharp geometric sketches of the face, almost polymer-like where shadow is reduced into blocks, and the effect of this is the impression of depth. Undulations on the face, under the chin and in the eye sockets. I also wanted over time to become looser with my architectural sketches, so created the three blue pieces at the bottom to communicate the city without slaving away at it. The speed allows the urban lanscape to look gritty, as it is.
