Assignment 1 - Recording and sharing your work

In this assignment I was asked to produce a sketchbook based on the theme of the everyday, based on the previous exercises and what I absorbed from them thus far.

 For this task, I made different sorts of sketches, some were drawn fast, others were drawn with less pressure and ended up more elaborate. Mostly based on observational drawings, I had no intention to consciously add a mood to them but perhaps the marks made were a reflection of how I was feeling.

I didn’t know exactly how to best approach this assignment, so the way I came up with to tackle it was to just post the pictures and adding a few comments to them. These series of sketches were made as suggested by the theme, it is a reflection of what I experienced since the start of the course.

I gained a great insight by studying not only the artists sketchbooks which I selected but also I started to pay more attention ,although more superficially, to other artists as well. I paid special attention to the ones who are more confortable exposing to the world their mistakes because I believe there’s more to learn from them rather that a finished picture.

Without further ado, below are the pictures, I organised them in chronological order of execution rather than sorting them by elaborate and not so elaborate (fast drawings); Most of the sketches were made in my workplace, which is a secondary school, but others I’ve made it more recently when I went on holiday to my hometown.

Sketch made in a science class, I liked the different forms of this device,
which looks taken from a Sci-if film. It had some potential if, for instance,
I decide to work on a science fiction story.

Sketch of my kitchen made during my holiday in my hometown, I it took me 1 hour to make the marks.
Later when shading with different grey markers, I had to rush it as the sun was setting fairly quick.
It ended up as a happy accident as the more dirty lines of the marker gave a mood to the picture.

Had a 4 hour flight, and that’s how long it took me to sketch this POV,
I found it to be more interesting and less intrusive to other people to sketch what was in front of me.

A 10 minute sketch made in a Caffe which I go frequently, made thinking about the course theme. 

Some objects which I “look but don’t see” during my everyday.
Fairly quick sketches.

Doing lunch duties at school is an excellent way to portray my everyday, you see various pupils in a highly dynamic environment, which makes it challenging to make an accurate sketch. So I had to sketch quickly and capture the gesture the best way I could.

In one of my lessons supporting students, there are times when they’re doing independent work  and you get a window of opportunity to make fast drawings, in this case I had about 20 minutes, maybe less, to capture as much as I could, I disregarded the accuracy and focused instead on the gestures.
Whichever spare time I had, I used it to shade the picture. This picture was inspired on the “fish eye” sketches from Jared Muralt. 

Sketched this picture at home, thinking about the everyday. It was made in a drawing tablet thinking about the the,e.
In this case, I wanted to sketch my partner reading without her noticing, I had spare time and liked the direction the sketch was going, so I developed it some more and ended up finalising the sketch with some colouring.

Subjects from a classroom, inspired on the exercise 1.2.

Quick sketches of everyday objects/people.

Again, some more subjects from my everyday, an office chair + a pencil case.

Had the course theme in my mind when I made this page, which  nicely portrays my routine, I like how it became like fragments of my everyday. The top left sketch was a development of my back view sketch from exercise 1.2 whilst the fish eye view was based on my artist research.

Sketched again at a cafe, it ended up with a “pessimist” mood to it, although it primarily was intended to be a cleaner drawing, I liked the scribbly lines which just added more of a story rather than portraying exactly what was in front of me. 

After doing exercise 1.2 ,it stayed with me doing the fast drawing exercise and making the quick decisions of what to add to the paper that will create a story more effectively.

This sketch was made in about 2 minutes, probably “my worst” sketch, I was aware of the time and tried to draw as fast as I could and capture as many elements or the most important ones to add to the narrative,

The last 5 pictures are a series of fast sketches, trying to put in practice exercise 1.2.

Made during lunchtime at my workplace.

Sketching pupils in classroom.

Sketches made in the airport on the past Saturday (15th February) whilst waiting for my flight.

My first sketch made for the course, used a pen and watercolours.
Went to Watford  high street, close from where I live, I had already an idea to sketch interesting buildings but this pub caught my attention due to sun setting behind it which created a nice silhouette to the building. I could have Using just a pen probably wasn’t going to create the same mood hence why I developed the sketch with watercolour. It kind of reflected my state of mind that day.

This sketch was meant to be submitted for exercise 1.1 but decided not to do it as I felt that the imagery didn’t quite fit the topic intended, however, this same imagery would suit better in the overall theme of the everyday, portraying situations/places/thoughts that make me grab the sketchbook and use it. A more imaginative sketch compared to the previous ones. 

Reflection:

Having the aim to do more sequential art, the series of exercises thus far maybe weren’t aimed towards that end, but nonetheless, the exercises and research, strengthened and enriched an aspect that was lacking in my drawing endeavours, which was to look around more often, to see objects which I started the course, didn’t give much attention to.

By drawing the most mundane objects and situations lies great potential to develop into more imaginative sketching.

In the book “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud, he describes some panel transitions as subject to subject, which means that you put into different panels elements that could be existing in a particular setting, (E.g. In a classroom, there are pencil cases, white boards, computers, desks,etc) to provide a mood or to give more clarity to a story. With that in mind, sketching the everyday, is a great series of exercises to build on that. 

Furthermore, by drawing what you know, what you experience on the everyday, I believe it to be the foundation of what I wish to create in the future. By better sketching my everyday, I could transfer that to making a character and imagining how his “everyday” would be like.

Making those mini-books on exercise on 1.2 (drawing fast and cutting) resonated with me and i found it a great exercise to develop a story sequence and I produced one mini book after the exercise and I’m using it to date.

Another point I’d like to add, is about some of my sketches which look like final drawings, but the truth is that they are actual sketches which still have the potential to be further refined.


Regarding sharing my work, I’m happy to share my less fortunate sketches provided they are relevant with the course aims.