Creative body of work
- Dylan Osborne
- Feb 18, 2022
- 1 min read
18th February 2022
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Kickstart Project | October 4th - October 8th
What we had to do
Explore room and meet people
Take photos create work based on your findings
In small groups discuss each others interests and goals for this unit
Break off into pairs/threes and produce a piece of work based on the others aspirations for this unit but not in their style.
Olivia's aspirations
Oil painting
Body
Figurative painting
Less realism/more expressive brushstrokes
My ideas
Try oil painting as I have wanted to try it for a while
Possibly draw the male figure as she usually draws the female figure
Draw my body instead
Combine black and white with colour maybe?
Creating a piece of work in response to Liv's intentions for this unit
Figure 1: Initial sketches
I decided to draw my own body to become more intimate with myself and try to think less about the things I don't like and celebrate what I do like about my body. Overall it was quite a comforting and mind opening experience as my body is something I am insecure about.
Figure 2: Final painting
After my sketchbook drawings I decided to reuse an unfinished canvas from Unit BA1b which was a project based on myself and mental health. I painted out the outlines and background and then, using large brushes I began to sculpt the figure. I liked the way the body looked like it wrapped around its self as it went up the canvas. It added a nice movement to the canvas. However, I was quite rushed painting this and didn't leave the layers time to dry which resulted in the painting being quite dark. I didn't mind this too much as it gave it quite a nice low lighted atmosphere. Overall I felt like it was a successful attempt at tackling the brief and Olivia said it captured what she is trying to do
Make it Manifesto | 6th October
What we had to do
Create a piece of work on the idea of what a future university would look like
What does the future of my practice look like?
Figure 1: Collaborative piece with Esther Ladipo I wasn't really sure what I was doing at first so I just let my brush stroke move randomly in a mark-making process to spark some new ideas which is seen in the top 3 images. Me and my course-mate were doing a similar process so we decided to collaborate on a larger piece made up of 2 pieces of paper joined together. We threw different coloured paints that was made to represent everything. Universities are represented by the people who go there so it represents people of all races, genders etc. We wrote over the painting in black and pink, "We are different, we are the same" because we are in all of our differences, the same.
Sketchbook Portrait Drawings
Figure 4: Initial sketches The sketches in figure 4 are just ideas and a practice of form that were to get me to produce work as I didn't know what my project theme was at this point in time
Figure 5: Sketches on the train home In the first term I went home twice by train and each time I decided to get some drawing done to pass the time as it was a 7 hour journey. The left and right images are both of photographs I found on Pinterest but the middle image is more personal as it is of a man that I helped while on the train. He had flown into the Uk from Qatar and messed up his trains. I helped him out and said I'd let him know when his stop was and while he waited I decided to draw him to keep as a memory of that long day of travelling. It is an example of why I love people, a question I have been asked a lot throughout my education, "Why do I like drawing faces?". Hyper-realistic Portraiture
Figure 3: Hyper realistic graphite drawing on paper, 29.7 x 42cm
Figure 3 explores an area of art that I am particularly interested in, the hyperreal. Although it doesn't relate to my project entirely it was definitely worth doing as it really helped me develop my drawing skills and made me realise what I am capable of doing when it comes to realism. It is a drawing that I am incredibly proud of.
Drawings of objects | Glass Sculpture | Matka Pots | Gallery Visit
Glass Sculpture Drawings
Figure 1
During a drop in session with Craig in the studio he asked me "how can I challenge myself?" to which he suggested drawing objects as a change from faces and to also think about objects that have meaning to me. While I was at home shortly after this I decided to draw some glass sculptures that belong to my parents. They are very pretty and my parents collect them from charity shops as most of them were made years ago. Although I initially hated the idea of drawing objects because I thought they were 'boring', I enjoyed the outcomes once they were done as they didn't necessarily look like glass objects.
Matka (Matki) Pot drawings
Figure 2
On the subject of objects, I decided to look into Indian pottery as It was depicted in a lot of the traditional Indian paintings I was researching. I stumbled across Matka's which are a clay pot dating back to the ancient times. Matka in Hindi literally means earthen pot and was used as a water storage system in homes all across the Indian subcontinent of every class. I decided to sketch some different versions of them from their unglazed forms to their fully decorated forms. The large yellow pot has been painted in the style of Kerala mural painting which is an art form I have researched. This is something that I could possibly develop into further paintings later in my project
East Asia Collection Gallery visit
Figure 3
I took a visit to The East Asia Gallery in Norwich and they had some amazing references from all aspects of Indian culture, from sculptures to ceramics, rugs to clothing and more. I even got the opportunity to see some Tanjore paintings and prints from Raja Ravi Varma's printing company in person which was such a surreal experience after researching them. I took photos of lots of the gallery and decided to draw some as seen in in Figure 3 above. Sadly I didn't find out about the gallery until a week before submission but moving into the next unit I will definitely be visiting again. One of the employees also told me that last year they had a public workshop where they got members of their community to use their printing blocks from India to create a printed piece of fabric which is on display in the gallery currently. I bought some of their printing blocks which I would like to try out at some point.
Quick Drawings of old photos
Fig.1 and 2 shows some drawings of old photographs of some of my old relatives like grandparents and great grandparents throughout their years. I managed to gather the photographs from relatives who were close to them and decided it would be a good opportunity to draw them. It proved quite difficult because as I was working from very old photographs so the quality was not the best. However, I really enjoyed the experience and it felt very personal as they were part of my family.
Figure 1
Figure 2: Drawing of my grandparents in their youth
Figure 3
Mandala practice
Something that I have researched in this project is Mandala art as it is a very common occurrence in India. Below are some of my own attempts of drawing Mandalas.
Figure 1
In this project I have written about how I want to have a reference to the circus in my work so I have been thinking about ways that I can show this. Once of which is the idea of when creating my own mandalas, using something symbolic of the circus in the mandala, as seen in 2 of the paintings in Figure 1 I have drawn elephants in one of the circles as there were 3 elephants in the circus my great grandad was in. He is also photographed next to some of these in the circus parades. Besides the symbolism of the circus I thought of key symbolism in India, like the lotus flower and the peacock. In fig. 1 you can see some of the mandalas are made up of peacock feathers which was an experiment.
Figure 2
In fig. 2 above you can see the symbolism of the lotus flower which is a symbol of purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth. These mandalas also reminded me of spirographs which is something I could also explore further in my work.
Bharatanatyam Photoshoot
I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph my friend in her traditional Indian dance costume. The experience was very insightful as it gave me a first-person insight into what a small part of Indian culture is and gave me a large collection of reference images that I could use for painting and drawing in the future. The poses and dance moves she showed me were a combination of very symbolic moves representing Indian Gods and Goddesses and just general dance moves/hand gestures that have no meaning.
Figure 1: (Lord Krishna (Anandashayanam (Top left), Goddess Kali (Bottom right)
Figure 2: Lord Shiva (Top Middle), Meditation (Top right), Feminine (Bottom left), Sitting on a lotus flower (Bottom middle)
Figure 3: Masculine (Right)
Figure 4: Krishna (describes the women from their village (Left), Krishna (Hand gesture represents Krishna's flute)
Figure 5: Lord Krishna herding cattle (Top left), Feminine (Top right), Parrot (Bottom left)
Figure 6: Close ups of the Bharatanatyam outfit and garments.
Figure 7: More close ups, Chelenga (Bottom right)
Sari Photoshoot
I had another amazing opportunity to photograph my friend in her traditional Indian Sari with the matching garments. The sari is composed of a blouse, underskirt and wrap that doesn't have much symbolism as it is just a every day piece of clothing. There are different variations of a sari, general saris, wedding/formal saris and different variations of a sari in each state around India. Like the previous photoshoot this also gave me plenty of reference photos for drawings and paintings. In her hair she wears a string of Jasmine flowers which are a symbol of beauty and happiness worn by many South Indian women.
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Holi Photoshoot
In a group tutorial I was asked how I could incorporate myself into my work. I brought up the su object of cultural appropriation and making sure I keep my work culturally sensitive. However, after some thought I had the idea of doing a Holi photoshoot where I get my friends to throw coloured pigments at me as they would in the Holi festival. In India the festival is one where all people in India come together to celebrate it no matter their religion or background. People travel from across the world to experience this incredible sight and so I decided to bring it to my studio.
I really enjoyed the experience and we found lots of joy in it while also gathering a good amount of photos for references. Using the bright coloured pigments was also a way of showing myself in the work as I feel as though colour represents a big part me being a gay man.
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Digital painting plans
Through this project I had some very ambitious ideas so I decided to plan these on procreate using my own images and images from online to plan out compositions for my paintings. These also show my vision for some of the canvases that I won't finish during this unit but will definitely finish next unit. The elements in the paintings are things that I think showcase India such as the wildlife, temples, patterns, people and the clothing they wear. There are a lot of recurring elements running through the canvases such as peacock feathers as I want them all to link together somehow while also representing different parts of India.
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Holi inspired paintings
First stages of painting
For the first stages of painting I mixed acrylic paint with a flow improver to dilute the paint which I then poured onto the canvas from different heights to get a random placement of colour. I then used a hairdryer to blow the paint around the canvas creating some splashes of colour which reminded me of cells or tendrils. This was a process I was familiar with from first year in my self portraits series but I tried experimenting with more colour combinations and different sized canvases.
Figure 1
Second stages of painting
For the second stage of painting I used the colours already on the canvas as a guide for my placement of colours. I took a large brush and using large and aggressive strokes began to cover the canvas with colour. These canvases were inspired by the Holi festival in terms of colour palette and I tried to mimic the effect of colour being thrown which I believe I achieved. The paintings themselves will be used as backgrounds for paintings and I might also try some mixed media by stitching mandalas and symbols into them.
Figure 2
Process of my painting
Figure 3
Third stages of painting
Fig. 4 shows an unfinished painting that I honestly really hate. I was impatient and decided to paint by eye rather than my usual grid method. This resulted in me restarting the figure multiple times on a canvas that I was initially very excited to paint as I had a great concept for it. Moving forward, I want to finish the painting and follow the idea I had envisioned by using the grid method.
Figure 4
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Figure 6
Fig. 5 and 6 show some experimenting with thread and stitching into fabric and one of my painted canvases. I had mentioned previously that I wanted to experiment with this and really loved the outcomes. I have currently left Fig. 6 unfinished but I actually quite like the look of this with the threads draping down the canvas. I also love how you get to see all of the underpainting in this canvas as this would have usually been covered up once I had painted the subject matter into it. Mixed media is definitely something I'd want to look into moving into the next unit as I have never really experimented with this previously. More specifically texture.
Figure 7
Fig. 7 shows a work in progress of a Bharatanatyam dance move that I photographed. I am extremely satisfied with the painting at its current stage as I feel like I really captured the likeness of my friend. Of course the painting needs to be finished moving forward but so far this painting has gone very smoothly. I had an idea in this painting to stitch in some of the embellishments on the jewellery worn once they have been painted to add some texture and dimension to the painting as well as trying to make some of the colours look like they are bleeding out of the fabric and into the canvas that is already an explosion of colour.
Peacock Painting
Figure 1: Peacock painting, oil and acrylic on canvas
Figure 2: Close ups
Figure 1 shows an un finished painting I have been working that depicts different Indian subjects that have connotations of beauty, power and strength in India. I have painted my Indian friend wearing her traditional Indian Sari and all the matching garments like the Bindi representing the 6th chakra, red lips and a string of Jasmine flowers in her hair traditionally worn by Indian women symbolising beauty, happiness and elegance.
The peacock is seen as a symbol of beauty and power, hence why I have exaggerated the size of it. I was worried it would look wrong compared to the size of the figure but it actually ended up looking better than I expected. The temples in the background are part of a large Dravidian temple complex in Tamil Nadu, South India and is dedicated to 'The Supreme God Vishnu', who is known as the protector and preserver of the universe. They are contained in a circle cutout that is a representation of a mandala
Leading into the next unit I want to finish this painting by adding some final details to certain elements of the painting, finishing the temples and adding something to the bottom right of the canvas to balance it out. Possibly a collection of pots that I have been drawing throughout this unit?
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