Many ideas come when I sit down with a piece of paper in front of me, pick up a felt-tip pen or a crayon, and make a first mark. For some reason, the first shape is almost always an oval for a face, and then the rest of the picture sort of spools itself across the page. As I go along, I listen and respond to impulses to use ink and a brush, colour, and various motifs.
I decided to go to a bookshop and buy a book about anthropology. So I found an Oxford publication: 'Social and Cultural Anthropology - A Very Short Introduction' (I really recommend it, easy to read and fascinating). There are a few photographs in the book and I had a thought that I would do some portraits of anthropologists, so here they are. They all look pretty serious and brainy, I think. I intend to pursue my reading in this field, so whenever I run across more anthropologists, I will add them to this portfolio. These are done using brown oil pastel, and various inks.
I worked on mono-prints for a couple of days and found it really exciting. I like working with images, taking them from the original observed sketch through the process of printing. This method was demanding that I push the boundaries of what I am comfortable with, in terms of drawing. "Be bold, make decisions, go for it!" my inner-tutorial voice was saying.
Four new pictures that are part of a series I began a week or two ago. The images were intended as scenery, something like a stage backdrop, for figures I would collage into the foreground. But, strangely enough, the pictures have started to take on a life of their own and they seem to be quite happy to exist without people in them! The elements and motifs in the pictures keep getting stronger, so I have to modify my original intentions. I will take a back seat, keep painting, and wait until the first character appears...
***************************************************** The other day I started a new sketchbook (hardbound A5 Seawhite, my favourite) by drawing my breakfast toast. I sometimes focus my attention by asking myself what interests me about a subject. In this case it was the pattern made by the grill rack, so I really enjoyed using a ruler to draw that in. ***************************************************** I start the day with a hot water and lemon, which explains the next picture of some segments of lemon in a bowl. I want this sketchbook to be a mixture of drawing, colour, collage, and surprises. Out in the shed I have some boxes of odd scraps of paper. So here goes... ***************************************************** The starting point for this page was a newspaper photograph of a Brazilian chef from Sao Paulo. ***************************************************** The elements here are images of Italian politicians at an EEC summit in 1978, a page from an Arabic school workbook I found in a second-hand bookshop, a piece of wrapping paper and a raffle ticket. ***************************************************** I have no explanation for these faces, they just happened. Using washable fountain pen ink and a brush, with oil pastel. I guess the link from the previous pages was the collar and tie. ***************************************************** These are the last two pages from that day. They seem a long way from the toast and lemon slices, and I have by now gone back to one of my favourite themes:portraits. I think it is easy to see how the process of working with collage remnants and ink washes has refreshed my portrait work at this point.
The portrait on the right was done on a piece of wallpaper. ***************************************************** I did a series of small pictures of faces, using oil pastel and gouache. The faces just happened - spontaneous creations. As soon as I had done them I had the urge to cut them out and stick them on some kind of background. I started with fine contour lines using a dip pen, and with some of them drew in white Tippex pen over the black ink. I like the way things happen when I decide on a series of simple images and on a number to work with (8 in this case). It's good to set specific boundaries and rules, so that you can be playful and experimental within the context of a project.
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Julia SuddabyTracking my art projects, week by week. Archives:
August 2014
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