Drawing for illustration - Illustration (L4)

In continuation of this week exploration into the printing making technique of Lino, I explored a number of different artists within this art form and how they visualize mark making through printing.  For instance, a Lino print artist I explored is Carlos Palomares a Mexican printmaker who predominantly creates black and white compositions to enhance the line, tone and form of they're pieces. They're work is significantly inspired by the environment and culture of Mexico, creating dramatic pieces that explore the visual elements of lighting, texture and typography. Grabado en Linóleo, 2023. (reference for image *1) Pulque Bendito, 2023. (reference for image *2) Furthermore, another lino printing artist I explored is Andrea Lauren who is an English printmaker based in the US who is notably inspired by pattern marking in both printing and textiles. Lauren's compositions are significantly inspired by travelling and employ bold expressions of colour and form. Mushrooms (referen...

In the fourth week into the module drawing for illustration, we explored the printing method of Lino relief printing inspired by our trip to the BCB exhibition.  To begin this process I chose a subject from my sketchbook (the bird stone carving as shown below) and developed a finer and cleaner line version of the original sketch. Moreover, I also decided to rotate the composition facing upwards to change the perspective of the design as if the bird was flying upwards towards the sky. Then, I transferred the image onto my soft cut Lino block which I had painted with a thin layer of red acrylic paint to make the carving process easier. To transfer the sketch I employed charcoal to leave an indentation of the lines and ensured to flip the sketch so that when the design was printed it would be the identical orientation. I utilized a carving tool which has multiple varieties of blade sizes to carve both larger and smaller areas of the composition.  Once I had completed the carving,...

In continuation of this week's exploration of the British Ceramic Biannual I further explored the print and mark making within the creation of tiles (as explored during our natural tile making session during the exhibition). In England there are a broad variety of different tiles preserved throughout history that have used various techniques, materials and processes to create ceramic architecture and art pieces. For instance, these include types such as; Roman tiles  Medieval tiles Delft tiles 4th century Roman mosaic pavement (reference for image *1) Stamped relief designed medieval tile (reference for image *2) Delft tile fireplace (reference for image *3) Despite these different types of tiles being significantly different in employment of materials, processes and techniques, most commonly in design they all use forms of pattern and repetitive mark making. This spans from different categories of mark making such as typography, limited line and colour designs and symbolism. Refer...

In the third week into the module of drawing for illustration, we visited the British Ceramics Biannual to explore the medium of ceramics, the concept of a sense of place and developing sketchbook experimentation. For instance, below are some of the pieces displayed at the exhibition that particularly interested me and the sketchbook notes I collated during the visit. Stone carving in holy water font at exhibition  Growing moss maze Botanical composition Body sculpture Natural tiles drying display Sketch of piece at exhibition Sketchbook spread of different features surrounding the exhibition  Tile designs inspired by session with acrylic paint and marker pens During this visit we also took part in a natural tile making session (as shown above) in which we learnt about ancient ceramic history, techniques and integration with wild plant life growing schemes. For example, there were three options of tile clay (combination of mud and clay) that differed in acidity levels that wer...

In the second week into the module of drawing for illustration, we continued our observational drawing skills utilizing a collection of different objects in a viewpoint. Throughout this session we experimented with composition, for instance using different mediums, challenges and times to complete a composition.  Firstly, we began our session by choosing a viewpoint and sketching the subject object in 10 minutes. As shown below, I sketched a cardboard barn primarily focusing on the the lighting and form of the subject in pencil. This first sketch helped to warm up and also presented how I went to traditional, realism and detail oriented style by default. Therefore, as the session went on we began to try different techniques and mediums to explore composition and change our perception of the subject. First observational drawing: Barn drawn with pencil Continuous line observational drawing with pencil Pot of flowers observational drawing with ink Stormtrooper Lego through the vegetat...

In this first week into the module of drawing for illustration, we began our exploration and development of life drawing skills and mark making. In this group task we were seated across from each other along two rows of chairs in which depending on the time length of the subject switched seating positions. While we aimed to display and develop our proportion and perception skills during this task, we were also challenged to develop and try differing techniques and mediums with our changing subjects. This stretched my life drawing and mark making skills from my previously more traditional tutoring and challenged me to explore how different mediums and techniques altered the visualization of the subject (such as line, form and tone).  Firstly, to warm us up to the task we began with a 4 minute life drawing sketch of the person in front of us (Ariel) using our chosen tool in which I chose a 2B charcoal sketching pencil. After this with the same subject, we did a 4 minute continuous li...