End of Week 2

How do you understand the rationale for the Drawing Programme?

I think that the reason why we do the drawing programme is because drawing is a huge part of art, media and design, and forms the basis of a lot of what we will cover over the rest of the foundation, whether thats in the form of illustrations/art pieces, quick sketches to show and develop ideas, story boarding, composition ideas, and a variety of other uses.

What are your feelings about drawing?

I love drawing and always have, so the last 2 weeks have been really fun for me and I have enjoyed going back to techniques I have done previously and getting a refresher on some of them. My teachers at my previous school always stressed a real importance on drawing so I definitely see it as a fundamental part of all art and design, so I love the fact that this is how the foundation begins.

How have you made use of your studio time?

I have embraced all of the exercises that we have been given, and also have gone home and done some more practice using them. I found that I had done a lot of the exercises before which was really nice as it meant that I didn't have to worry so much about getting it right and could relax into the drawing, and attempt to produce the best drawing that I could for each exercise. My favourite was probably the composition work, and I loved going out to do studies from around campus, which I found exciting because we were completely free to experiment with different compositional ideas.

Which skills introduced last week have been useful this week?

I would say that the idea of how free and experimental this course is has come in useful this week as it is completely different to A-levels, so I am glad that it was introduced last week so that I wasn't shocked or in over my head this week. I found that the composition rules that we learned have come in useful with life drawing this week, as well as the exercise we did blind, 'blind drawing' which helped me to see that it doesn't have to look perfect to still be interesting art.

How have the artist references you have found helped you think about new approaches to your work?

I think that all the new artists we have been shown and have had thrown at us has given me a greater understanding of the style that I like, and what interests me from an art and design perspective. Not to say that I didn't know what sort of styles and aesthetics I liked before, but I have found out a lot more in the last 2 weeks simply because of all of the completely different artists and designers we have been shown, and the fact that they don't have to relate to a project in any way like they did at A-level; if I like the artist's work then I can go away and research it, and let it influence my work whereas at A-level it all had to link to the project in some way which meant that a lot of artists who I liked got swept under the rug because they didn't relate to the project.

How have the practical and material elements of the work gone? (a) have you kept notes?

I have kept notes in my learning journal and then I have also written up and analysed my work in a larger sketchbook, and also on this blog to cover unit 6.

What could you do better next week?

I think that next week I could be more open to where the creative process takes me and work on thinking more laterally, which is something that I have struggled with in the last 2 weeks as I am much more comfortable with a design brief which is more fixed, but I am open to change and would like to work on thinking more laterally.

If you had a tutorial this week, how might you use that to reflect on your progress?

I am going to take the things that my tutor has said to me and use them to improve in the coming weeks ahead, so that I can get the most out of stage one of the foundation.