Drawing Statement

For my drawing project I’ve been exploring faces. My original intention with my work was to explore the idea of taking away a person’s identity through portraiture. A face is full of so emotion and can give so much away about an individual, that’s what the original intention of portraiture is. So I thought it would be interesting to try and explore ways in which a portrait could come detached of human emotion.

Using artists such as Julian Opie as influences, I began to explore the unconventional ways of drawing faces, using lines as a starting point. Lines are linear and un-organic, which makes them a great starting point in the exploration of my project. I became clear to me that if I thought of the face as a structural object being assembled, as opposed to organic matter then that’s what my work would look like. I eventually settled on using the materials of pencil and tracing paper, as formally I felt they conveyed the idea of an architectural design the best.

My work has evolved into something slightly different. Instead of it being about the eradication of one’s identity, but instead it’s taking more of a formal meaning. The work has changed into exploring different ways to create a human face with geometric lines and shapes. I think this creates a better link with the final product of my work.

Circles

Experimentation with circles
pencil on tracing paper
A3
2014

I've been experimenting with using different ways to create portraits. This first piece was an experimentation of using circles created with a compass to draw a face. I'm rather disappointed with this outcome. It definitely doesn't have the same effect as my previous work. The face is non existent, which I feel would almost alienate the viewer from my work. 

I didn't want to give up using circles so I thought I would give it another try but using a different technique. I created a face by filling in defining features of the face with different sized circles. I was really pleased with the result. I like how even with minimum features filled in you can tell its a face, and even have a vague idea of defining features.

Circles
Fine liner on tracing paper
A4
2014

Circles
Fine liner on tracing paper
A4
2014

Different direction

I'd found with my drawing project that I hit a dead end with what I was doing. I felt like there was nothing more I could explore or develop with the line drawings and became very stuck as what to do next. I tried different sorts of ways of creating faces, but I wasn't happy with anything I produced ad felt like I was severely diverting from the original intention of my project.

I wanted to go back to exploring the relationship between lines and something as organic as faces. I came up with the idea of instead of creating cross over lines from different directions, using vertical parallel lines. Lines which never cross but instead are layered on top of each other to create the impression of a face.

I did a first attempt using biro on tracing paper. I was extremely pleased with the outcome. It was the first piece of work I was sincerely happy with in a long time. It's still using lines but is a different exploration from what I've been previously doing. I carried on in this media, finding that some of the outcomes worked really well, while some were not as successful. I'm not sure f there is a pattern or its just that sometimes the face I'm using doesn't work.

My next idea was to try and do the same thing but with using horizontal parallel lines instead. My first attempt at dong this was creating a face with minimal features, to try and create a sense of detachment. I only shaded n the background, his hair and his glasses. This was quite effective, it created something very stylised and almost looked like one of Julian Opie's computer drawings. Yet I'm not sure if it looked too much like a design and not very much like a drawing. So I decided to go back to creating layers of lines, and found them to be very intriguing 

Coloured experiments

I've been told to try and experiment with colour in my drawings. It's possible the colour might add something to my work. My first attempt was creating lines with colour, the colour being the same colour of the face that the line hits. I wasn't entirely pleased with this. There's something about this drawing which doesn't have the same effect as my previous work.

Coloured lines
Coloured pencil on tracing paper
A4
2014

 This was another colour experimentation. Instead doing the same pencil line technique. but adding block colours to certain areas instead. I did prefer this outcome to my last drawing. But I'm still not entirely happy. The block colours make the face much more evident, thus making the lines almost unnecessary. I feel like this takes away from the ambiguity of the work.
 

Blocked colours
Pencil and coloured pencil on tracing paper
A4
2014

Drawing Crit

The drawing crit for my installation went quite well. There was quite a lot of discussion about my work, which was pleasing to see. These are a few things that were said in my crit.

• Pieces could be about madness because of how busy the drawings are. There are areas of busyness but as you move away it starts to calm down in certain areas.
• Tangled
• Perception and space, different density of lines
• A map of all the points on a face
• Faces can not be made out from close up, only when staring at it from a distance you can make out he faces
• Isometric chaos

Media

• Very formal
• Muted tone is framing a more conceptual reading of work- You look through it and in some ways do not see it as a piece of art. Every line has a meaning
• Something you have to read into
• Materials are not designed to seduce the viewer, more for conceptual pleasure
• Maybe add colour to exaggerate areas, colour might give the piece more depth

Tone

• Detached and analytical, very formal and lacks emotion
• There is tension between the subject matter and tone
• Confusion-not seeing a way through something, problem with processing information
• Uncertainty
• Instruction manuals- has the same tension as work. Narrow instructional information, medical encyclopaedias, factual- similar detachment in the images
• no empathy- almost socio pathic  

Display

• Displayed in symmetrical way- Aesthetically pleasing 
• Maybe too close together, eyes are drawn to work next to it- maybe detracts from work
• It is unclear whether they are separate pieces or all the works to be seen as one piece
• Possibly could have been lifted off the wall  

Agnes Martin

Agnes Martin was a Canadian-American abstract painter. She is often referred to as a minimalist and an abstract expressionist. The work that I'm interested in is her grid like paintings created with acrylic paint and graphite. To me the painting looks like it could be a template or structure for something else, as opposed to the final product. The painting 'morning' is based on a rectangular system of coordinates. Yet it is also supposed to be about the happiness and bliss of the morning.

Morning 

1965

Acrylic Paint and graphite on canvas

support:1826 x 1819mm

frame: 1840 x 1832mm

vitrine: 2075 x 2070 x 90 mm

This work is not directly linked to mine. She is not creates portraits or any type of organic object with the lines like I am doing. Instead she is almost creating something from her imagination. Yet it s similar to my work in the fact that we are both using the medium of lines. Similarly I want my drawing to be structural looking, almost like the blueprints an architect would draw when they are designing a new building.

Julian Opie

Julian Opie is a visual artist, and part of the new British Sculpture Movement. He works a lot in sculpture but what I'm interested to look at is his portraits.

Opie' creates a graphic portrait style using some sort of computer software. Because of this, he moves between the fields of contemporary art and commercial design. These portraits caught my attention because it was similar to what I've been trying to portray in my drawing project. The drawings are cold and detached. There is no emotion, just blank faces all made to look the same.

Although his portraits and not similar to mine in a formal way, the tone of his work is what I want my work to be. I want to create portraits which are completely detached of human emotion, something I feel would be fairly difficult to do, as human faces are full of emotion.

Graham Coxon

C-type colour print on paper laid on panel, 2000
34 1/8 in. x 29 7/8 in. (868 mm x 758 mm)

Drawing- Three dimensional

This was an experiment to try and make my drawings more interesting and 3-dimensional. Instead of drawing the lines to make the face, I folded them thus making this ambiguous, sculptural looking face. I do like this outcome and thinks its definitely a change to the drawings I've been doing. However I'm not sure whether I'm going to carry on with this method or not. 

folded tracing Paper, A3

Dryden Goodwin

Dryden Goodwin s a British artist who is know for his intricate drawings, and often combines mixed media such as photography, film, screen based installations and soundtracks.

He has a fascination with drawing but doesn't execute it in a conventional, traditional way. His approach is more contemporary and he looks at the sculptural potential of two-dimensional images. The reason Goodwin caught my attention was his unique way of drawing faces. He uses lines and scribbles in an intricate way to create a face. For my drawing project I'm trying to create a face with only the use of straight lines. His work is not entirely exactly what I'm producing, but I think the way he tried to create portraits in a unique way, links his and my work together.

Drawing- Identity

For my drawing project I'm exploring the idea of identity and making something as personal as faces detached. These are the most successful pieces. I discovered a method which created this cold detached tone that I'm trying to achieve. By drawing straight lines where a feature of the face would be, it creates this structural and very technical looking drawings. 

Drawing- Identity

This is the starting point of my drawing project. I've drawn a generic face and experimented with ways in which to remove the faces identity. These are all the outcomes of the experiments. I want to move on from using this face and use photographs that I've taken.