Art and more Art……………
Had another workshop and the craftsman in me couldn’t resist making more of these boxes. Just needed some kind of design, luckily I’m writing an essay on Robert Delaunay. Particularly his work from 1920 onward, I’m a big fan of Orphism so the pattern just came naturally. And I swear circles are taking over my art.
So part of my creative process involves some level of craft. I remember doing so many scoobies back in the secondary so I thought I’d start doing more again. I used the wool lying around in our 1st year studio which is completely covered with junk. I’ll post evidence of the messiness, but hey it’s all part of the creative act ( MARCEL DUCHAMP O_O”). My aim is to make bigger scoobies O_O”
Haha well I’m adding more paintings to my work in progress, this painting is of a good friend of mine. We took a series of photos only relying on his lighter as the light source; I chose my favorite one and well painted it đ I just used black for this (and a bit of white for the highlights) as I relayed on the canvas for the other tones. Poor guy suffered a burn for the sake of my art, who says art doesn’t come at a cost >:) This will be a series of paintings I feel as I hope to end with the use of colour. I skipped the imprimatura stage as I liked the white of the canvas purely for its tonal value.
A2 Acrylic on canvas
Learning so many new techniques, LOVING UNI đ So we had a casting crash course last Friday and our tutor Derek Gave us a short introduction to Modroc casting. We each had to do our partners lips; I was curious as to how my lips would turn out, and not one to brag but I easily had a ‘noticeably’ fuller lip cast than my peers but hey the outcome was AWESOME thanks to my partner’s (Alice) Modroc applying skills đ
This image is the wax positive of the Modroc cast.
So I bought a Wacom Intuos 5 and fell in love with the pad before I could even do anything on it, it’s so CUTE!!!! đ Any who, my sister wanted to see my work and I promised I’d do some kinda portrait. Of course it had to be centered on the old master flow I’m on now for some reason. So I did a sketch, taking my inspiration from Da Vinci’s anatomical sketches. I then used gimp (as I’m saving up for Photoshop and Corel painter đĽ ) to edit the portrait the way i wanted and for a 2 hours mess around I’m pretty happy with the results đ Can’t wait to do more stuff on my wacom tablet đ đ O_O”
The latest project we had was dismantling an object and putting it back together in an interesting way. I chose a camera I picked up during the first stages of our course with this exercise in mind so I made a mobile with my visit to the Ashmolean museum in mind; especially the Egyptian exhibit. My chosen theme was yet again Ma’at the belief of a balance between all opposite forces in the earth which the Pharaohs were apparently supposed to maintain as Gods on Earth, yet again I find myself dealing with religious subjects BUT WHO CARES! I love all things Egypt and as a Christian in gives me an understanding of the type of religious surroundings at the time of Exodus when the Israelite nation fled Egypt.
Update I’M OFFICIALLY IN OXFORD!!!! LOVING THE CITY WITH EACH DAY THAT PASSES. So it’s now officially 1 month since I started studying Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University. I’ve been a bit busy with projects but decided to update my blog as I always try to. To break the ice and to get us started on our art journey (again) we were put in pairs, in which we each had to come up with ideas and presenting them as the weeks go by. I have to say I’m quite lucky to be working with the guy I’m currently working with. He’s Tom James-Brown an up-coming (I feel so anyway) Welsh artist who deals mainly in sculpture and installation. We have had some crazy adventures already and I’m beginning to  notice a more playful side to my art work; he does things when ever he feels inspired so our projects have often involved very quick sessions of practical work but through deep discussions.
So for one of our weeks we had a drawing exercise discovering various methods of drawing with our definition of a drawing simply being a means of communication, after that we were set our usual group work and were given free reign to determine what we were going to draw. Now of course this was too broad as we were basically told WE COULD DO ANYTHING WE WANTED! So after a short dialogue with Tom we decided to do an interpretation of each other’s chosen memory. He had to draw a memory of me being in the middle of a blackout in Botswana and a child fearing the stairs as they where to dark to go down. His chosen memory for me to interpret was when he was stuck in Croatia having missed his flight being left stranded with no funds at the time.
Now I had great difficulty at first as I couldn’t really put myself in Croatia, so I thought of what I could have done in that situation based on the subject of ‘Sanctuary’. I googled (as you do) images of Croatia and was fell immediately in love with St James Cathedral in Sibenik which features both Renaissance and Gothic architecture. I knew I had to do something based on this cathedral so decided to make my interpretation of the distinctive dome on the cathedral (bearing in mind the the ‘drawing’ is simply communication of an idea). there was a lot of trial and error which I’ll try and post in order, but the end result looked quite dark and scary WHICH WAS AWESOME as that’s what we were aiming for. the end result was an installation with my dome on top and a T.V. Tom brought back from Wales that was broken and would fizzle to a black static visual experience which gave the viewers an uneasy feeling (which was AWESOME). My dome (not really a dome as it was so badly made BUT WHO CARES I HAD A WEEK and I claim artistic License) was made from an edited skeleton structure made from wood rods and bin bags held together with staples.
Felt nocturnal today so I decided to draw another portrait. Normally nurses do not get too emotionally attached to patients but my mum couldn’t help herself this time. This lady (of course I can’t mention names for patient confidential reasons then again I don’t even know her name đ ) is now in her late 80s currently fighting a critical illness. Doctors are fearing the worst yet she still has a smile on her face, helps that she’s Christian too. Her faith is probably the reason why my mum and her get on so well; Long story short she gave my mum and I a beautiful Rosary and blessed us both so I had to do something in return. Her daughter showed my mum a certain image of her in her early years and it’s as if my mum FINALLY GETS WHAT IMAGES I LIKE đ Now I think this must have been taken either in the 40s or 50s, I SWEAR EVERYONE THEN HAD STYLE!!!!!!!!!
A4 Graphite – 4 hrs
I drew this the same time as I did Tanya’s portrait; have no idea why it took me this long to post it. I didn’t take pics in between as I had to get it done quickly. Didn’t want to ruin the surprise đ The initial image had a low resolution which sucks for me as I’m crap at being creative and adding shadows were I feel fit, another thing I need to practice on, but once again for 5 hours I think it’s not bad đ
This is a portrait of my sis in Christ Tanyaradzwa; she was determined to get me to draw her. I guess her persistence paid off, I like the finish however the drawing highlights the fact that I need to have more patience when shading hair, but you can’t blame me it’s not like I was ready to do every BRAID! In all this took me 5 hours not bad for an A4 drawing me thinks…. Once again the photo does this portrait no justice!  Should really use my Nikon but I cannot be bothered to pause and take pics that often so my phone will have to do đ
Felt lazy, I always had this image of Estelle; one of the best photos I feel she’s ever taken and the symmetry of her face……………..just had to draw it!
Still rusty with my shading and I still need work on drawing lips BUT in all I can see a definite improvement! Only way is up BABY! LMAO and I need to work on my photography, but with all art it looks better in person.
I have no idea what lead me to do this but all I know is that it was during a nice conversation with old school friends, It’s always nice to catch up. Expected rain, but instead was greeted with a grey sky and humidity. It’s nice to see a change in my thinking.
tinkhanib.com 