Current work/work in progress

This series of chalk drawings began as a demonstration to one of my S5 pupils studying Portraiture for the Expressive unit. We both started the drawing together and I tried to encourage my student to be a bit more expressive in her approach. I was standing working she was seated. As the work progressed I found the need to add an additional sheet of A3 paper onto my study as it had developed somewhat. (This can be seen in eye 1 and eye tulip). I attempted to demonstrate that as I stood, I was able to use my body in a different way to create the art work; I could sweep my arm around, drawing an arc, curved lines and express myself through the drawing. My student continued to sit. I then added contrasting colour to the drawing and started to see abstraction in it which had the potential for further development. My next step was to seperate the two pieces of paper and work into the second sheet.  I used Adobe Photoshop CS2 to manipulate the drawings, posterising and adding contrast to create depth. I also moved the drawing around to check composition and really liked the effects, each turn of the drawing creating a different view. I then produced paintings from this work which can be seen in the (un) learning, (un)doing art post. Picasso stated that ‘There is no such thing as Abstract art.You must always start  from something. After that you can remove all traces of reality’ (taken from Google quotes on art).  This chalk drawing of an eye was a perfect example of this. What started as a study of an eye had become a landscape, a tulip, an interior, or whatever your imagination makes of it.

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