To kickstart my project I accessed all the materials that were readily available to me and started drawing. I dedicated a space or a whole or bordered page for my drawing and drew until I felt like it didn’t need any more.
This is the first piece that I made in my self directed project, I had given my square page a border to work within because through out Emma Stibbon’s workshops I would give my works a taped border and I really loved the effect. I drew this work while on a call with my friends and I listened to them chat while we worked. we talked about our projects and they suggested I could do a drawing while talking to a different person each time and see if it starts to reflect who I am with and my relationship to them. I started thinking about doing it to different songs or artists and seeing if what I am listening to at the time makes an effect of my drawing. I am reminded of the story of the Little Prince (‘le Petit Prince’) and how he says that things become special ith the time that you invest in them, so if I was to do a drawing listening to a favourite song that piece of work would be more special to me just because of the time spent and therefore the association, even if it hold no other aspect of the song than that.
Right after the call I gave myself a different shape within a page to see its affect on my work. Because the space is smaller and my pencil blunter I made more stronger more simple marks, very decisive shapes and less shading. The smaller drawing has fewer overlaps and appears a lot less busy however this could be due to the fact that there was less available space, a rounded edge, or les conversation going on around me, as at this point I was drawing a lone in my room.
Thirdly I decided to experiment with some colour so I grabbed a blue pen and cut the square page in half for a surface. I really enjoyed the process and the outcome for this piece, while drawing the lines I thought about how I will probably draw these again in another project, how I will carry the parts that I like about this piece into another piece. I think repeated patters will be an interesting thing to look out for at the end of this project.
I showed this pieces to my tutors for some feedback and they brought to my attention the similarities between this piece and the nazca lines in southern Peru. I had come across these lines before but never looked into them and I definitely didn’t think about them while doing this drawing but it interesting to see the similarities.
These huge structures are believed to be religious of sorts, relating to the constellations or as a way to communicate with people where or how to find water in the destert landscape. Not much is known about these lines and yet it is believed that they were created between 500BCE and 500CE and have withstood the test of time. They are made by moving a layer of the ground to expose the less oxidised rocks underneath but how they planned the drawings from ground level blows my mind as they are fully visible from space.
During the call with my tutors for feedback, the first piece I did for this project received positive attention so I felt inspired to do another pencil only piece with the feedback in mind. The part that was appreciated in the first piece was the many layers that was going on and the more one looks the more details become uncovered. This is an aspect of my mums work that I really like and I can believe that I have tried to adopt this into my work. This piece was done on a smaller blank square page (without a border) than the first piece.
While making it I did feel the burden of trying to make it appear like my first piece weigh on me and start to affect the process. I had to loosen up and put it out of my mind to continue the piece smoothly and in the end I really liked the outcome.
The call with my tutors allowed me to present my idea and receive feedback and also lots of suggestions for experimentations that I could include in my process. It was suggested that I do some 3D work, that I experiment with paper texture by crumpling it up many times, and that I look into finding themes for each piece. Even though the theme idea would have some interesting outcomes I am hesitant to do it because it doesn’t feel like the direction that I want to take my project at the moment. I will consider doing some themed drawings to use as a comparison to my intuitive, themeless ones in the future.