Day exploring Manchester and Bristol

I took a small trip around Manchester before heading to Bristol the following day and decided to take further photos of the perspective view looking out of an attic room in Bristol. I took photos out of the attic room to show the perspective of the different buildings and houses and how they can almost look like patterns fitting into each other like jigsaw puzzles.

My tutorial with Rhianna was very positive. On the Monday, they talked about my work. It was identified that there is a very perspective feel to my work. I was also told that my pattern reflective work of Manchester buildings is my strongest point, and I should go on developing this. In addition, Rhianna told me that my work could identify with a lot of collage work, if I was to mix some of my drawings and paintings together and she said I should experiment with my body of work. We talked about how my view of photographs could be from the perspective of a worm’s eye view which involves looking at something below or from a low or inferred position (the opposite of a bird’s eye view) who looking upwards towards the building which identifies with my research into perspective. It was discussed that there were nice, intricate lines in my work that I should include elements from both the drawing and collage together on a large A3 piece of paper to create something that is quite outlandish. Rhianna said that I should identify with colour in my work and really research into a colour reference that reflects back to some artists I take an interest in. It was talked about in the tutorial group that I should look at an artist and lecturer teacher at MMU called Simone Ridyard and to join her online sketching group on Facebook. It was said that my work mirrors some of the concepts and style that Simone uses, so I will make an effort to research her work more thoroughly.

For the development of my research, I created a pinterest board of urban influences, so that I could get an understanding of how urban influences can be expressed. I looked at different artists and the ones that have inspired me for my development work is Dario Moschette, Wayne Theibaud and Edward Hopper. These artists all exhibit concepts of emotion and mood and that is very important in my work as well. I went to an art exhibition called Return of the Rude Boy over the summer at Somerset House In London and much of the photographers work was very urban inspired and correlates with the urban style in which I am interested in. http://uk.pinterest.com/amb1894/urban-influences/

Urban Influences 15-30 drawings

For my 15 drawings, I really wanted to investigate and explore the idea of urban scenery. So, I took my camera around Manchester taking photographs of the architecture and the cultural streets. I began my investigation by looking at an artist called Wayne Thiebaud (http://www.artnet.com/artists/wayne-thiebaud/). I was really interested in how he is able to change the perspective of a landscape and I am inspired by his use of colour. Colour in my work is usually very bright and bold and he also uses bright colours. I am interested in the way he uses colour and incorporates it into his drawings, making certain parts of his drawings highlighted.

I found that when creating my drawings from my photographs, that when I spent a lot of time on one drawing, it seemed to be neater and more organised. However, the majority of my drawings were constructed over a short amount of time. These drawings also seemed more expressive and conceptual. I like creating drawings under a short amount of time as they tend to exude character and help me to create lines that I usually would not create if I was to spend longer time on the drawing. I feel this is one of my strongest drawings out of the 15 and it is interesting that I did not spend a great deal of time on it, using only a black marker pen. This is a drawing of a street with a fire escape stairway attached to the building. I like the way I have taken a photograph and created something that does not look like the image itself, but has some similarities. This reflects back to Wayne Thiebaud’s work and how he is able to change the landscape and make it into something completely different. I think I need to develop my colour palette in my work as I think I am restricting myself slightly to use colours that I am more used to using.

Some of my strongest work is when I used a black fine liner and added water to the drawing to let it bleed on the page changing the whole concept of the drawing and giving it texture. For the development of my work, I want to create more fine line drawings and adding water to the piece as I liked how the black ink merges into different blues, greys and blacks when adding water. I also want to look at viewpoint in my drawings and create drawings looking from a perspective of someone looking at building or a piece of architecture.