A better understanding...

Starting to understand

This week has been full speed ahead with everything. The first thing this week was the critical studies lesson, I think I’m actually starting to understand the concept and themes now. The text we were given was really difficult to understand and I didn’t really know where to begin with it, but luckily we were given a more accessible text on that day so hopefully that will have a clearer meaning and I might actually be able to understand it.
I learnt about connotation and denotation and taking how taking subjects and things out of their context will change the meaning entirely. This was quite interesting to know, the class got into quite a debate about this topic, I think this was good because we got to hear what everyone was thinking and think this helped us to understand it more as well.
Tuesday was a really interesting day, we had been asked to find an image and photocopy it ten times. I used one of my own pieces of work that I had already completed for my sketchbook as i felt that this would carry the idea on further.
Using this image we had to use the shapes within the image to dress a figure. At first I started to use the image but cut it into shapes to make actually garments, but then I realised that we needed to use just the shapes in the image to create a garment, even if it was unwearable. After doing this, the figures came out looking really creative and I really liked what I had done. Also we looked at different techniques and styles to make the images more interesting;
Distort, twist, rotate, reflect, bleach, digitally manipulate, collage, layer, rip, fold, burn, scratch, stitch, filter, deconstruct, enlarge, reduce, deco’ page, repeat, mould, shred, pierce, puncture, pleat, segment, cut up and reassemble, gather, blend and bind.
I think that I am going to develop what I have done by using different images, or combining images together to see what effect I get.
Wednesday was a really good day and I felt that my drawing skills have really improved. We started off by using different media and people just doing a 5 minute pose and we had to draw the best we could. At first when I started it was really awful and I found it really hard to get the proportions right, but after a while I really started to get it and did a few good pieces. Some we had more time for – 20 minutes, I found that these drawings came out a lot better. I preferred the drawings where I used mixed media as I felt it gave it more depth and more interest. I am going to try and do some more drawings of different people so I get used to drawing different shapes and sizes.
For the rest of this week I am going to try and develop the ideas that I have come up with this week and keep researching. I have found some books on illustration that I am going to look at which I think will help even more and maybe give me some inspiration as well.