It's all about the Making...

After treating myself to the wonderful book Making and Drawing I feel inspired to update on some of my recent making.

Making for me in very much a part of the drawing process, in fact, it could be seen as an exploration of line and mark itself. 

Surface, texture, form and conversations.

Let's have a look at what's been going on...

Exploring the relationship between size, weight, line and clay body 

these two objects have an interesting dialogue:

I have taken a cast of the inside and reverse of the same mould here 

and the surface quality is again interesting..

The way it picks up the stitch is magical:

And the depth of the line draws you in further still:

I then stopped to think about what has been happening during the whole process of the making....

> During slip-casting you are always left with waste slip. 

> Reusing the flexible moulds pushes them to their limits. 

They begin to disintegrate and become unusable, but surely this is not the end of their use?

I started to consider how I could utilise all of this....

and through a process of composing with the waste cloth:

...using the excess slip to take a cast or in this case 'print':

I have been presented with some interesting results:

Taking this further into the positioning of stitch, line and altered surface - 

 you are offered a whole new line of enquiry still!

I'm quite excited by this process and see lots of potential in its capabilities longer term.... 

I wonder how this might work in to my current degree show set up however, 

could this become part of / a canopy in itself?

and what about these forms:

They are starting to take shape a bit more too...

It's not that long away now, when this work will be up on show

I can't wait to see it!!!

But for now, it's on with the making...

We illustrate to say goodbye...

So today is the last day :( and after cleaning the house we have a last session drawing on the front terrace. When saying goodbye, there's no better way than representing it by line so whilst everyone sat here:

I drew them!

We said adiós to the village

Then relaxed on the beach, before we head home

And that was my trip! 

A roller coaster of mark, line and colour - I'm really glad I booked on to it! It's given me a sense of place within my work this coming year that I just don't think I would have got by staying at home. The sketchbook has been a place for me to think, explore and dream and bookending the long summer with drawing trips has been the best. Now it's back to reality, and the grindstone of uni, third year, life! Let's see what the next 9 months might bring....

Hasta la vista Cutar, hasta próxima vez

Day Six: Pattern Repeat & Colourful Cutar

It's the penultimate day :( Having spent the week visiting lots of locations 'off site' we spent the day in the village. This was great actually as it was the perfect time to have a day of reflection. Not only on the trip to Spain, but a reflection on the whole summer and time to consider what might be taken on into the new term and year ahead.

Having spent time in Cutar on two occassions now I had a real urge to draw the whole landscape of the village. On the first night we took a paseo and I was totally struck by the view from the top by the bus stop.

This was to be my chosen location for the day. 

So, after an early rise to catch the sun:

it was a day spent connecting with the village through line....

To start off however, we all had a repeat pattern workshop on the terrace

Collecting florals from the surroundings 

Then cutting them up to help start the repeat:

Positioning the flats on reverse of one another 

then filling in the gaps with more drawing:

Slicing the image again to create the full repeat

Then drop this into photoshop and tile up - It's quite tropical!

I then took myself to the top of the village

And began with some continuous line drawings:

It is interesting how the second drawing has become much tighter than the first 

- I must have been observing better!

I then went on to draw the same landscape again, but this time used colour! 

I'm quite pleased with the outcome here. It just goes to show that perseverence and practice is key to a better drawing!

Tutorial that evening brought a really nice close to the week's work. Both comparing our drawings from day 1 to those of day 6 we could all map our journey and progression of thought through the week. The key take away was that drawing (in terms of design) is a process not a product...so drawing from drawings is a must for developing ideas! I think that's been rattling around up there but having some time and ability to gain perspective on things this has really stuck. I'm going to take this into my work this coming year and really work from my work. It's all there, you just have to tweak it out, through looking, analyzing and recreating to transform again...I'm really excited!!!!

Day Five: Sugar Factory/Rum Distillery - a window to its soul

The old sugar factory/rum distillery...this informed some of my work last year and it is a very special place to be and draw. The life that this location use to have, lost to time and ruin. By sitting and looking, thinking and watching, scribing this place to a page, it's a very magical experience. 

I spent a while walking around the grounds before finding my spot to sit and draw. I chose this specific view as it seemed to hold everything I had been exploring on this trip so far: colour, surface, texture, windows, layers, framing and moment. By taking what was into what is I have given energy back to this static standing mass of brick and bone. I like that this image looks magestic, cathedral like in its stance. The colour too is so vidid and alive.

Exploring further patterns that can be found in the makeup of the building I kept coming back to all of its many windows... Could this be something to explore in my work this coming year...?

The setting of the factory is quite fantastic, how its architectural mass sits against the undulating hills, the composition was just crying to be interpreted in my sketchbook...

During the tutorial we talked about the reinterpretation of drawings through collage and other media. 

Drawing is an act of transformation, so transform it again through additional drawing!  

Day Four: Malaga

Today we went Malaga. There were some great exhibitions on and it was a good day for photographs and drawing.

The Alcazabar was my favourite location of the day last time and it didn't disappoint on a second visit! It is a most beautiful place - I love all that moorish styling and with a new found mode of 'useful drawing' I had a great day!

Here are my 'surface patterns' from the day:

And a more painterly psychedelic study:

There was an exhibition by Subodh Gupta: The Imaginary Order of things at the Contemporary Art Gallery which was excellent. My favourite pieces from the show ticked the texture box that I have been collecting:

The window holes invited you into another world: 

There were other sculptures playing with mirrors/concealment:

The 'combine' sculptures were my most favourite:

Along with the simplistic vessel forms:

The composition

And the layering

I mean look at it - wow!

That's some more details to add to my list then...hanging, fixing, rope and thread

We discussed relief painting in ceramics during the tutorial and ideas behind installation. I think this is the area I want to explore with my work. Although I would like to try lots of other materials, I can save some of that for later. Having enjoyed working with ceramics over the past few years I would like to challenge my current uses of it and perhaps incorporate more drawing... a good day though, on lots of levels, it's off to the sugar factory tomorrow - yippee!