14 Comments

1. Jayne Stansfeld
   September 21, 2012 @ 9:02 am

   have just signed up for the course and can’t wait to start this next week, I have been getting a small group of adults drawing water and was really impressed with the results.

   I was inspired by Turner and the Elements at Margate earlier this year. and have been dying wool and yarn inspired by the colours of the sea so this is very timely for me

   Thank you

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   • Paula Briggs
     September 21, 2012 @ 9:33 am

     Sounds fantastic. Out of interest what kinds of dyes are you using? We’ve been meaning to create a resource about dyeing using natural materials for a while… keep us posted – it sounds fascinating, and pls feel free to upload images which stray away from drawing if its feels right!

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2. Glenis Goodman
   October 16, 2012 @ 12:09 pm

   Drawing fire was the most challenging of the Elements drawing tasks, which I guess is why we were given it as the last task… I began by using coloured chalks in stereotypical colours of flames – oranges, reds, yellows. The only reference flame that I could use was a candle, the centre of which is blue / lavender, indicating a cooler temperature. After a few false starts, I drew a bonfire from imagination and added successive layers of colour, including blues and purples and some charcoal streaks. I was not really satisfied with this because it seemed too dense and one-dimensional, and didn’t convey the sense of burning air. However, when I zoomed in on sections of the drawing, there was a sense of flames. I have attached one of the cropped images here.

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   • Sheila Ceccarelli
     October 16, 2012 @ 1:18 pm

     Thanks for sharing these images Glenis – and I agree a difficult subject matter – not least because of the practicalities around having access to it! Interesting, however, your process and that the subject matter did some how give you access to using your imagination and visualizing a bonfire. It looks like you built up a rhythm in your mark making and had an opportunity to explore colour and mixed media. I did not see the image and see ‘stereotypical’ colours – but did immediately see ‘fire’! It sounds also like you’re developing something interesting cropping parts of your image and blowing areas up. I wonder if you could do a ‘drawing of the drawing’ or a series of drawings of drawings, where you get deeper and deeper into the original image as a starting point to extend the process and see where it takes you.
     In your second drawing you’ve captured the flame very successfully with gesture and I think the form and movement in the lines and marks you have made are successful. Have you cropped into this image too to see where it takes you? Really interesting looking at your work and reading your process. Thanks.

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     • Glenis Goodman
       October 16, 2012 @ 3:22 pm

       Thank you for the feedback, Sheila, and also for the idea of exploring an image on an increasingly small scale, marks within marks. I have really enjoyed this course for the range of tasks which are unlike things that I might do on my own and which push me to extend my range of mark-making – always a good thing!

       By the way, would it be possible to receive feedback for the “Structures with Sticks” task (Task 3), please?

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3. Glenis Goodman
   October 16, 2012 @ 12:14 pm

   For the second drawing, I chose to use charcoal and a sepia lead in an attempt to capture the light and movement of a candle flame, an evocation without colour.

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   • Benedicte Foo
     October 27, 2012 @ 5:20 pm

     Glenis–very evocative! I see a candle flame–and also something to do with hands–and also the back of a figure bent forward. Is this something to do with pictures we see in flames?

     Thanks for sharing your drawings and your thoughts over the last weeks. i’ve enjoyed them.

     All best
     Benedicte

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4. Benedicte Foo
   October 27, 2012 @ 5:13 pm

   Been away so only able to tackle the Fire element now. Had dreamt of making a bonfire but reckoned without the weather ! so drew a gas ring and thought I’d have a go with chalk and oil pastels which I’ve not managed before. Amazing how something I’d always seen as mechanical and regular isn’t! and how hard to capture something which is even more insubstantial than water.

   Thank you for a very stimulating course! I’ve enjoyed it–and the shared feedback–and feel encouraged to keep drawing.

   Benedicte

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5. Benedicte Foo
   October 27, 2012 @ 5:14 pm

   Drawing 2 from Benedicte

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6. Trisha Goodwin
   January 14, 2013 @ 3:41 pm

   I think this might have worked better had I access to a real fire in a grate or a wood burning stove. As I’ve been afraid of fire since I was rescued from one as a child, I didn’t feel inclined to light a bonfire, nor have I ever done so! I took the rather less exciting option of a tee light left over from Christmas, hence the melted wax is red. To my mind the flame looks too solid although it does have that rounded shape in reality. The main thing that surprised me was the range of colours I could see within the flame. Any movement is more visible in the outline shape around the edges of the flames compared (I imagine) to a real fire, where the changes are from within the structure. I feel the flame looks better close to, so have added a second photo.

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   • Sheila Ceccarelli
     January 14, 2013 @ 6:14 pm

     Hello Trisha, Thanks for sharing your images and process so openly. I have to admit that I read with some horror that you were rescued from a fire as a child – terrible! It’s interesting though, isn’t it, how one can not know, whilst developing drawing exercises the sorts of memories that they might conjure – food for thought for Paula and I. Great that you tackled the exercise anyway and a tea light a perfect source. You have captured the fire and great that you’ve used colour as well. Looking back at your water drawing though, this one seems more static – though there is some movement evoked by the blue and black lines. I wonder if it might be worth you having ago at drawing the Tea light in black pen – so you can compare the process and images produced with the water drawing – you might even find that a series of studies starts to evolve?
     Really well done for confronting fire and thanks again for showing us.

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7. Trisha Goodwin
   January 14, 2013 @ 4:04 pm

   I think the flame looks more interesting here in isolation. I must say I’ve really enjoyed these exercises, I thought the first one – the hands, was fascinating, but I’d say now, I enjoyed and learnt the most from the water one. I came back from visiting Finland (where I have inlaws) this summer with a small sketchbook of drawings done from the jetty ajoining their summer logcabin, but was unhappy with the quality – poor as “proper” drawings – when I got back home. Looking at them again, I can see why I found them so exciting to do – the movement in the water appeared as a constant, but in fact ever changing, moving around obstacles, then flowing in new directions, affected by the day, the winds, the tides, the reedbeds, fallen logs, rocks, etc. I feel this is a metaphor for life, as much as a portrait of water. It has been good to get feedback, as a tutor it is daily in the other direction and I feel quite isolated sometime, with my own work, which there is little time for either after teaching. It is all to easy to forget to take the advice you give to others as well and be kind to yourself. I will follow through on the follow up suggestions you put forward in the water exercise asap. I also intend to rework the Finnish drawings in other mediums, blown up in serctions, etc to see where they may lead. I have a little more time this year to develop my own work and now am really looking forward to doing so. Mnay thanks for all your help so far.

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   • Trisha Goodwin
     January 18, 2013 @ 9:38 am

     Thanks for the feedback; yes I felt a lot of the work, apart from the water study, to be rather static. I have difficulty drawing things I don’t feel very much affinity with.As I feel an affinity with water (perhaps it counteracts the fire fear intuitively too?!)I seem to always draw it with more life and energy than many other subjects. I will consider the AccessArt Tutorial Group; peer feedback would be a brilliant help. Many thanks, Trisha

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     • Sheila Ceccarelli
       January 18, 2013 @ 12:02 pm

       I look forward to seeing more of your work.
       Best wishes,
       Sheila

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