Day 23: Contextual Lecture and Life Drawing

Making Things

I have just had a lecture on making things and normally I genuinely look forward to the contextual and futures lecture but today I was really disappointed. I normally find I am interested in the topic, and hearing it was 'making stuff' I had high hopes! It turned out that none of the artists really amazed me, i'm not sure if it was how the lecture was presented or for a different reason but I found myself doodling alot!
Areas covered included furniture, architecture, fashion and a little on installation.

Artists, such as Robert Smithson (land artist) were mentioned and I remembered seeing a picture of an artwork by Christo called Surrounded Islands which I wanted to research into (picture to the right). I found out that this artwork was created in 1980-83 and this link described it as "a work of art which underlined the various elements and ways in which the people of Miami live, between land and water". I think the scale on which this artwork was created is very spontaneous and appealing and I think it really links into the idea of how things are made and on different scales.

I was amazed with the architecture of Falling Water and how the artist had used the environment as inspiration whilst also retaining a very modern theme. The building is made of the natural stone to blend into the surroundings and the light concrete to extend the waterfall. I also appreciate how the architecture has been designed for a person as they can look over the edge and straight into the pond and be at one with nature.

Jesus Soto was another artist mentioned but for his installations. An Installation creates an environment for the viewer. I think installations can have a bigger impact as it gives the audience an experience. This installation shows the variety of scale in making things aswell as the abillity to experiment with materials.

Life Drawing
I was really looking forward to my second life drawing workshop as I had been practicing using the measurement technique, to turn up and find that the first drawing had to be quick and rough with lots of marks! I really struggled with this as I could not get things in proportion and would do lots of shading to then realise that the body part was in the wrong place but I did manage to work on the background well (probably as it was still life!). The next stage we had to go back with a rubber and give the sketch areas of light and then work back into it making sure proportions were right. I found that doing the quick initial sketch helped me get the proportions as I had something to work from and adapt which was a quciker method than to map out exactly where everything was. I found this session really stressful because as soon as I got one thing in the right place I would notice something else was wrong, so it was alot of trial and error at first. At the end of the session I had managed to work on the top half of the body but struggled the most with the bottom half getting the perspective and proportion right. Below is a picture of my drawing.