Setting up the exhibition space

• Clearing work space
• Moving furniture
• Putting the boards up
• Gum strip between the boards
• Using filler - covering scratches in the boards
• Sanding the filler and boards
• Painting

First island up and a booth set up for one of the students. We thought setting the boards in islands would make maximum use of the space. We had to use the space behind the boards to store the furniture.

Second Island

2xA0 Drawing for the exhibition

I made a drawing of a friend using charcoal and oil pastel. These were drawings I decided to re-work. I had already drawn them both in charcoal, then added colour when I came back to them because I wanted to experiment with oil pastels large scale before choosing work for exhibition.

When I re-worked the drawings, I didn't have the models there however I knew where I needed to add colour because of the way I had drawn it.

Tracey Emin drawings

Tracey Emin artwork is based around extremes of personal bodily experience such as birth, sex and death, includes the making of art with spiritual or religious content. Emin's confessional art can be seen as a release. She deals with her own mental, spirituality and bodily reality on her own terms.

Terribly Wrong 1997
Monoprint on paper
58.2 x 81.1
Tate

Sad shower in New York
Monoprint
42 x 59.4
Tate

Drawing today - Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach

Head of J.Y.M. 1984

Charcoal on paper

78.7 x 71.1cm

Head of Catherine Lampert

IV. 1980.

Chalk and charcoal on paper

77.2 x 58.4cm

Leon Kossoff 'drawing is not a mysterious activity. Drawing is making an image which expresses commitment and involvement. This only comes about after endless activity before the model or subject, rejecting time and time again ideas which are possible to preconceive. And, whether by scraping off or by running down, it is always beginning again, making new images, destroying images that lie, discarding images that are dead.'

He draws, erases and re-works his drawings. It shows how complex his drawings really are by the variety of marks and their different weights and rhythms built up. 

Start of copper wire sculpture

I started my wire sculpture. I decided on copper mesh because I preferred the colour. I began by cutting off and rolling up a rectangle piece of mesh and then sculpted the face from the photographs I had taken of the life model. I hung the images on the wall in sequence so that I could see the model at different angles.

I came to a problem when I wanted to attach another piece of mesh. I used a sewing technique using strips of wire mesh that had fallen off when cutting off chunks of mesh. I only fixed them loosely at first because I knew that I would need to change the positioning of the attachment because the positioning of the attchments was important to supporting areas of the sculpture.

Meeting our framer

We met with a professional framer, Abdul from Tilt in Blackburn. We discussed these options for our work: Type of frame, type of mount, Thickness of frame and various finishes.

Contact info:

http://www.visitblackburn.co.uk/shopping/tilt-p609030

We immediatley decided to get rid of any coloured or decorative frames because there is no need and would only be a distraction. We chose the white wooden frame because we wanted a minimal approach and we had to work with in our budget. We was influenced by the presentation in the ICA Gallery on our London visit.

ICA Gallery, London

We wanted to frame everything with the thin frame so they would all look the same however the thin wooden frames wouldn't support the weight of the glass at sizes A1 and A0 - the frames would bend under the pressuree so we decided on different thicknesses. The ICA must have used aluminium frames which are stronger. We had the option of using aluminium frames but they were too expensive and it would have taken to long to order.

We decided on these wooden frames with a coated finish to give a clean look - also keeping costs down.

Small - A2/A3

Medium - A1

Large - A0

We also chose the most simplistic mount which was an off-white with one simple cut around the inside. We also chose to dry-mount  our work onto foam board and to float the work.

Drawing another student

Direct observational drawing of a friend who was drawing her artwork onto the wall. The last decision I made on the drawing was the red lines, I think it added depth. I was skeptical about this drawing at first because I was unsure whether I liked the way it was drawn. I used pastels to begin with then the oils.

'Untitled' Oil Pastel and pastel

Drawing Today Arnulf Rainer

Drawing Today- book

Tony Godfrey -

'Drawing is the most important and exciting development in contemporary art. Because it is such a direct and expressive medium it has always been considered a crucial artistic practice'

Arnulf Rainer

Untitled. 1969/72. Oil

Crayon and ink on paper

60.7 x 50.4cm.

Private collection 

The overdrawn photographs are Rainer's most potent work. The example here; a photograph of himself, shows extreme body language. As the photo loses its boldness he restores the strength of his facial expressions drawing  bold lines around the edges of his profile with crayon and ink. He has disfigured his face and has been interested in disfigurement since 1954 when he began to draw over old drawings. 

Rainer's involvement in campaigns into help bring the mentally ill back into the community runs parallel to - his belief of a necessity of the art of the mentally ill, 'whose unknown meaning and expressions must be brought into normal discourse' 

After reading a bit about his work I really like his idea of using drawing to disfigure the face and body. Rainer tends to  show distressed and extreme body language throughout his drawings. He may have witnessed people who are mentally ill and these drawings are his thoughts and reactions to the behavior or he feels he can relate to them.

A Nose Adjustment (Face Farce) 1971

Oil pastel and photograph on paper

support: 608 x 507 mm 

frame: 823 x 731 x 22 mm

Untitled (Body Language) 1973

Oil pastel and photograph on paper

support: 595 x 501 mm

Untitled (Face Farce) 1970-1

Photograph, black and white, on paper, wax crayon and watercolour

support: 590 x 417 mm

Farbige Oil crayon in colors over black and white photograph
Signed and titled lower left. On barite paper. 59,7 x 49,5 cm (23,5 x 19,4 in), the full sheet

Large scale drawing

This was my first large scale drawing from direct observation. I found it more challenging because I had to adjust my height depending on where I was drawing on the paper. I asked the other student to stand on chair so that she was at eye level.

I liked the minimal approach to the drawing but I'm going to leave it on the board because I will probably re-work it, possibly adding ink or colour crayons. I definatley think I need to do alot more drawings before i'm happy about hanging these large scale drawing in the exhibition.

Life drawing

I wanted to work with the life model and do some extra drawings. The life drawing class on the degree course on Monday morning were a good opportunity. I was able to have the model to myself so I decided on doing some quick drawings. The outcome were these minimal drawings using charcoal, pastel and pencil crayon.

Practising 3-dimentionally

I planned to just make a small 3-d clay sculpture of a human figure to prepare myself in working three- dimensionally, because I didn't want to jump straight into making my large wire mesh sculpture. My plan was to make a large wire sculpture of the human form after researching into some of Antony Gormley’s wire sculptures. I just want to be able to transfer my drawing skills over into 3- dimension work.

I didn't want carry on using clay for studying the human figure with becasue I find using wire much more interesting material to work with and more immediate

I wasn't particularly enjoying making this because I prefer working with more unconventional materials for sculpture.