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Making Art a Practice Reference and Sketchbooks

10/31/2014

During the VISA class, I was instructed to visit websites and collect images that appealed to me. From that I used images for inspiration, as in the series in Project #2 of the gloves and the frame, with the love note and picture of a bird flying.

I continued to gather images from the internet, often due to Wendy's suggestion on her blog for VISA, sometimes from magazines or cards, such as the birds.

Then, with this wide variety of inspiring images at my fingertips, I chose one part each of two images and combined them into my own image. Also, I was so excited with the addition of an interesting background bringing a new dimension to my images, I downloaded all kinds of diagrams, text, maps, and charts to print and paste into my sketchbook and created over top of these images. I printed one image and then printed another image over top of it before drawing, as in the last image below. I have repeating themes of the armilllary - measurements and increments - birds, and flowers and combined them with portraits.

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"Making Art a Practice" at Vancouver Island School of Art

10/17/2014

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This is the second course I've taken at Vancouver Island School of Art, and it was such an inspiring eye opener, that it really has changed the way I create my artworks. It was a course called "Making Art a Practice" which is a book originally - http://www.amazon.ca/Making-Art-Practice-Paint-Artist/dp/1844096076. Wendy Welch taught this 6 week course and I think she is an amazing teacher because she is so open to each individual's artistic expression while at the same time clarifying what works and what direction to explore to complete an artwork.

We had 6 projects and extensive homework in the course and Wendy supplied many avenues of reference and inspiration for each project. I have never drawn on a consistent basis, always running out of steam after a number of pages, whether in one day of drawing or over a period of a week.This course showed me how to take inspiration from other's artworks, and from my own previous artworks, and rework these drawings into something new. I have always just relied on "inspiration" which comes to me 2 - 3 times a month, often with a completed image in my head from which to work from. Other times, I work with the canvas and colours to develop an image in the process of painting, but have never done this with drawing. I discovered something absolutely amazing for me: I can create my own inspiration by combining specific parts of two images that I like into one new image.

This is one of the first projects, where
we took a photo of objects/scenery
from home and then drew blind contours, eventually painting a blind contour
with watercolour.

This is the homework I did, based on the previous lesson, using an photo and blind contour with watercolour.

We also had homework to go to the internet and
pick out favourite images of other artists and collect
these images in a journal. We could also write ideas
in our journal and doodle and experiment in journals,
as well. I picked this image as my first inspiration for
the following projects. I forgot to record the artist's
name or the website I copied it from, sorry.

This is the second project, where we used different papers and mediums to copy the original artwork.

We then used larger papers, such as a page of sewing pattern directions, wallpaper. The far right is monochrome on card. It was really inspiring to use the different backgrounds to draw on - whatever the background image, it added a new and often unexpected dimension to the drawing.

This final class on the project was to create my own version of the original artwork, using our medium of choice. It was exciting to use collage, and to add to the original image the pieces I felt were missing - broken poetry, and personal images such as measurement, here as watch faces.

The "aha" moment came when I was drawing an armillary in a project.

I had done these individual drawings, about 10 in all, and the final step was to trace one of the drawings many times onto a large piece of paper.

I also drew it in many different styles, on different papers/backgrounds and with different mediums.

We could group them in grids or in groups. I traced two groups and one single armillary onto my large paper. We were to use charcoal and two colours of chalk pastel.

What happened when I coloured in the armillaries, using my drawings as inspiration, the relationships between the groups suddenly shifted and I had a whole new meaning rise up off the paper to my complete surprise. I was stunned at how one minute the drawing was of groups of armillaries and the next moment it symbolized my search for the meaning of life and my relationship with God!

I am aware, from other artistic explorations, that there are recurring images in my artworks and that these have become my language of expression. With the armillary I also recognized that there was a combination of measurement and organic that were a curious combination for me. I continued to expand my vocabulary with other measurement images, and continued to explore new drawings using parts of previous drawings and adding new elements of language. The original bands of the armillary had changed and circles could be bands, spheres or discs. Lines and symbols of measurement expanded to include diagrams, clockworks, nautical and astrological charts. My latest "aha" happened when I used an idea from another artist's artwork and combined parts of a woman's face with the nautical chart - suddenly it appeared that the compass on the chart was in her mind and influencing how she saw. I am continuing to explore combining these new additions to my artistic vocabulary.

As an ongoing exploration of this image, I continued drawing inspired by the original.

I have been drawing every day, or 5 out of 7 days, for 1/2 hr. to 1 hr. each drawing. I am excited to draw a new drawing every day, using what I've drawn before, or what images I have collected in the meantime, to create something new and discover a new layer of meaning to my artworks. Wendy said that I would never run out of things to draw and thanks to her course, I have discovered that she is absolutely right!

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Making Art a Practice Reference and Sketchbooks

"Making Art a Practice" at Vancouver Island School of Art

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