TEXTURE

I've loved working with shape and approaching image making with a collage process.

I like to build images and characters on the page, rather than directly interpret from observation. Cutting and arranging items on paper feels much more natural and fluid than that of structured drawing from life, although I have learned that this too is a valuable illustrative skill.

I enjoyed the work I made during SHAPE, but I don't think that it is an example of my best work. Even though I put in extra time to re-make the images a second time, I don't think that I committed to the brief enough for that to show in the work I produced. When I look at those images, I just see characters spooled out of my head, I don't see outfits or shapes being showcased there.

This week I am trying to stick solidly to the task at hand and not zone out into Jayland. So what if you're not interested in fashion? FIND FASHION THAT INTERESTS YOU.

Looking back on the work I made for LINE, I really don't like that either. I didn't push myself. I stuck to what I know and I wasn't very experimental. Line is a basic but really powerful tool. If I have time over Christmas I would like to revisit LINE.

Shape can help to simplify and reconstruct the basic elements of a subject, and texture is a way of bringing information (about light, material and surface) back into the frame.

Making Collections of Marks and Textures: 

(my favourites are marked in bold)

Dry brush,

Acrylic paint,

ink,

brusho dyes,

crayon,

half-dead felt tip pens,

AND several actions using each media:

Scratching

stabbing

scrawling

scribbling

scraping

dabbing

dotting

dragging

I became quite fond of the rough textures achieved through applying a little Quink to a dry brush and dragging this across the page. Using paper with lots of surface fibre (bumpy, not smooth!) allowed the dark media to find these lumps'n'bumps and show them off.

Self Portrait

I hate the feeling of sugar paper. It soaks up water much too quickly and it's so flimsy. I like a sturdier stock that ain't so gross to touch. It's got to be bumpy, but not quite as dry and grainy as sugar paper next time, hmm...

other people in the studio were making really funny portraits of themselves, using shape to convey humour and skew proportions.

I had a go at this. I made my hair, which I was wearing in a ponytail, much shorter than it really is, but to reflect the way that I see myself. A silly hairstyle and a stupid expression on my face. A big nose and a noisy background.

SECOND ATTEMPT

Desperately trying to be funny was pulling me away from the focus of texture. I took this task home and concentrated on the challenge of TEXTURE in my room, where I couldn't worry about what other people may be doing in relation to the task.

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THEY ARE DOING! HOW THEY INTERPRET THE TASK IS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.

CRAYON! I love my Stabilo Woody pencils - these hugeass pencil crayons that are also water soluble and smudgeyable. I made several more pages full of textures using this pencil and then chopped them up to make a second attempt at a self portrait.

It doesn't look like me.

But it does feature several different textures; it is an image bursting with information - but too much? Is there a limit to how much texture should be described before it begins to take AWAY from the image?

I'm pretty proud of myself for having another go, even when I have a lot on schedule already and it wasn't mandatory to do anymore work. I feel productive for doing so, but what I've done still isn't good enough.

Goddam hate being a perfectionist. It'll never be PERFECT but it's got to be up to Jaystandards, and by Jaystandards, Jay's work doesn't cut it.

THIRD ATTEMPT

this time using pre-made textures too. The black background is black carbon paper.

Having a stronger contrast between foreground and background/light and dark has made this image much stronger than the previous attempt, since it is easier to look at and the shapes are much more defined against their constrasting neighbours. Blacks are shadows and whites are highlights, rather than shades of grey (although these are still present and have power too, I prefer the image to have the perfect balance of tone and levels).

The outfit needs much more attention, it is flat and ugly. There is no suggestion of posture or body shape. Zoom out the composition to see a little more of the arms?

LEAVING OUT THE MOUTH WAS A MISTAKE. I dropped the fragment of paper I'd cut for her mouth, but liked how this mouth-less face seemed so confused. 

I'M NOT HAPPY AND I'M NOT SAD.