Today we had, in my opinion, the most engaging life drawing session so far. Lead by Astrid, we were told to put aside any charcoal and graphite sticks we had brought and instead to pick up our coloured paints and pencils. We looked at tackling use of colour in our drawings and I absolutely loved it. I normally work with precision line work, but the success with pencils and pens tends to be quite low. However, I really engaged with using paint brushes. We used a thick and a thin paintbrush and I was able to cover a larger area of the paper and gain confidence in transcribing the models form.

I’m really pleased with the outcomes, I loved working with colour and want to take all of the skills I learned in the session into my own practice!

The little experience I’ve had with printmaking prior to starting my studies here has been pretty disastrous. 17 year old me sabotaged my first attempts at lino and the mandatory etching that I hadn’t completed for assessment hung over me for so long that it just pissed me off. But since starting the processed rotations I’ve begun to develop a real love for all things printmaking.

We were told at the beginning of the workshop that we would be using cyan, magenta and yellow for our printing. The tutor had premixed our inks with a translucent medium, meaning that where colours overlapped they would mix ie. yellow over blue would make green and so on. There weren’t many worries to be had on this occasion regarding the order in which I printed them, but it was tricky ensuring that the correct areas were removed and it was the first time I’d worked with more than one layer in a print.

I decided to translate a doodle I’d done the other day of a pair playing a game of poker. There were a few mistakes that were part of the learning curve, for example the ashtray in the doodle was accidentally rubbed out and I didn’t leave enough ink to give a significant impression of the smoke the cigarette is emitting. I’ve found with Monoprinting a real liveliness is created in the image by overlapping layers of ink. My favourite section of the image is where the gent is holding his cards and there’s a slight disconformity where the colours spill out the edges. Overall I’m really pleased with the outcome! It’s definitely a technique I’d like to revisit in the future.

Lino printing is something I have always had a difficult relationship with. Form and colour is something that I’ve found tricky, but I had the best time learning how to do it properly today. I am looking at American Horror Story in my Drawing project and so took an image from that to work from for the session. I am so pleased with the outcome and look forward to using the technique more in future projects. I immediately booked in for another session and have bought my own lino cutting tools! I am going to print the piece in black also to adhere more to the dark theme of the series, as there wasn’t an opportunity to do so in the induction. There is also something infinitely therapeutic about the process, which is an added bonus.

Life drawing is something that I always felt that I would enjoy, but haven’t ever participated in. People have always been my most engaging subjects so I was very excited to get to grips with this new activity; it didn’t disappoint. I completed various two minute poses and another 20 minute pose that I wasn’t particularly happy with. However once I gained a little confidence I produced pieces that I was very proud of. The collage piece was my particular favourite, attempting to carve the limbs as I went the final design is a little rough around the edges but otherwise effective.