Mark Making

Mark Making Week

Task: Make 15 line drawings, focussing on mark-making and pattern to define textures and shadow on the subject.

Working on full A4 sheets

I made my 10 drawings continuing on the same 'Circus- Freak Show' theme.

I have become really interested in the subject of conjoined twins and I have continued research in this area on which to build my study. I collected more images of conjoined twins and drew characters based on these photographs. They were not accurate references, but they did inform my understanding of the anatomy and the movement of conjoined twins.

Although I tried to force myself away from it, I found myself using mostly just fine liner this week.

STEP AWAY FROM THE FINE LINER

I found using fine liners useful for adding small details and for building areas of tone through cross hatching. I preferred using metal tipped, very fine liners rather than felt tipped because this produced a really scratchy, inky line - working to my fast pace and energetic drawing style.

Fineliners are ALWAYS JUST BLACK. This is why I like them but there is SO MUCH MORE OUT THERE. Be experimental, Jay! Don't stick to what's safe.

I attempted to use colour too. The drawing above was achieved using a red felt tipped pen, making repetitive dots on the page to draw lines and to construct darker tones of shadow.

I really like this effect - It looks like an oil pastel!

It took a long time to do this (so many dots) but I really like the line it produces.

I also think that using colour rather than just black all the time made the illustration much more interesting and eye catching.

I'm really enjoying the theme and the research involved with this task. I think it always improves my work to have a subject to focus on and engross my mind within. Having an interesting topic encourages me to keep working and to find more that inspires me. I want to find out as much as I can about this topic and through doing so, my drawings are relevant.

The rest of the group commented that my research had continued to inform my work and that my interest in the subject was evident in the illustrations I had produced.

I would like to continue using research and creating characters, which is another thing that my peers praised in my drawings. The characters, based on real people, were unusual and interesting.

A lot of my drawings were unfinished and I don't think that I spent as much time on this task as I should have.

I must use my time efficiently and always ensure that I have completed the week's task.

Some of my peers had obviously devoted a lot of time to this week's task and had made some really impressive drawings as a result. I don't want to compare myself to others, but in seeing this I know that I have slipped this week and I need to sort my time better.

Although I attempted to use full A4 pages, a lot of my images ended up being smaller and I wasted a lot of space. Giving my illustrations room to breathe is important and I shouldn't squeeze drawings into the corner of the page, so using a full A4 page might push me to use it.

Mary used separate pieces of paper to present her drawings on. She didn't restrict herself to a sketchbook and her drawings were a lot more free because of this.