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Initial colour reference -

‘Sirana, the path’ - Joan Miró

Aldous quotes:

‘The naming of things is the least interesting. What’s interesting is the focus, what things are doing, what the story is, where everything is placed’

‘When you’re making something, you don’t need to finish it as you go along.’

It’s important to remember:

-Consistency of the paint you’re using

-Economy of brush strokes/marks, which could include fine, flowing line, or a staccato line, or big heavy strokes, or light washes

-to practice at home frequently

3 things to think about when making a mark:

Direction, pressure, speed

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Aldous quotes:

- Brush marks can be Piano and Forte (quiet and loud)

- Don’t go past the belly of the bruh

- Just because you see detail doesn’t mean it goes first. It usually goes last.

- Picture of nature and the nature of a picture=not the same thing

- Using different materials/colour palette is the same as playing the same tune with a different instrument

-painting = colour and shape + how things work together

-Be conscious of your visual optical response to things

- when drawing/painting, you have to start thinking about how the brainy functions and how the brain sees things.

- Remember FIGURE AND GROUND

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I mixed my palette loosely based off the painting ‘in the desert’ by Paul Klee, 1914, but didn’t consistently stick to it.

We started with some quick exercises to loosen up. It took me quite a while to get into it and to paint more freely. For some reason I struggled quite a lot, stopping and starting the paintings again. I also felt like the colours were an odd choice and weren’t working. I kept trying to get a good sense of light and dark without having to apply layers and layers of paint over the form like I had so often done, but I found that quite a challenge. I also kept feeling overwhelmed that there were so many elements in the scene that I needed to incorporate into the painting, but something Aldous said made me a lot less stressed ago it that. He said something about some other students that had created a world of their own in their paintings, and said that you use what’s in front of you to inform your painting, and then once you’re painting to let the elements in the painting inform what you do next.

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Initial colour references: ‘La Ciotat’ - Emile Othon Friesz, 1907

‘La Ciotat’ - Georges Braque, 1907

Sketch for ale Bonheur de vivre, Henri Matisse, 1905.

As shown in these pictures and in the picture prior, the first task we did was briefly apply blocks of colour and line, and then work from life, incorporating the model into the composition in 6 minute intervals. This was to ease us in and help us loosen up after the Easter holidays. We did 4 of these, and then went on to do longer poses, but with a different pose of the model wearing a colourful shirt and writing while sitting at a table. From this pose I was able to exercise a quick way to get down a narrative in simple ways, by observing the most obvious aspects of the scene and focusing and exaggerating them. The next task we did was a similar concept of the narrative, with the model sitting on the couch with the skeleton. The pose after that was more of a dramatic one, with the skeleton leering up from under the couch.

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Aldous Quotes:

- Use other peoples ideas, take inspiration frequently ‘Nothing belongs to Daphne’

- Have a good range of different brush types and applications

- Illustrators do not make unique objects, they make art to be reproduced

- When you’re drawing or painting, it’s not what the thing is, it’s what the thing is DOING. You will always be telling a certain narrative

- Make sure to get the three tones down, light, middle and dark

- Be clear about what your focus is. Think about how you organise a picture

- Different words to use: STYLISED and SCEMATIC

- You are allowed to exaggerate the form

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Today I worked on a big sheet again, and used Toulouse Lautrec’s painting, ‘In a Private Dining Room’ as a colour reference, which resulted in me mixing an array of greens, blues, wines and yellows. Before we began painting Aldous made sure to stress that we needed to start looking at a picture/painting in a different way, one of those ways being by including some sense of dark, mid-tones and light. He said that a good way we can change the way we think about a picture is by making going to galleries and seeing images a habit, seeing what we think is eye-catching and then asking questions about what elements make that image significant.

While we began our four three minute studies, Aldous asked us to think about different ways to think about how we might approach painting, such as using organic or tectonic areas, natural shapes, arabesque, structural? He also said that if we wanted to use any line, to make sure to only use it at the end once mostly everything else is established. Making a line initially and filling it in, although it being some way people work, means that one has stopped thinking in painting terms, approaching a painting like one would a drawing.

I worked by layering each figure and composition over each other, blocking out what I thought didn’t work and keeping what I thought did, making sure to enhance and highlight bits as I went along, so as to keep it somewhat noticeable from further away. I found it quite challenging to balance out the colours and dark, mid and light tones in an effective way, working over and over certain bits to a point where the paper eroded away in one area.

I mainly used a mix of quite spiky flat brushes, as well as some filbert brushes, and this gave the painting quite a textured, imperfect look which I quite liked.

I also tried to imitate some elements of Toulouse Lautrec’s painting….mainly the organic, flowing lines and movement, and the whimsical brush strokes.

The hard part was working out a good composition and mix of different forms and poses, since it did at one point begin to look quite flat and similar, but Aldous gave me a couple words of advice also mentioning that a good rule of thumb is if one side of a figure is bold, make the other side light, if one side is geometric, make the other side more organic, to give a sense of balance and contrast.

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Life drawings from Monday class!

I was a lot more experimental with colour than I have been previous Mondays (most likely due to Aldous’s endless painting with colour lessons)

I think the last painting shown I did worked the best because of the balanced mix of dark, mid and light tones, or at least that’s what Aldous thought. I did quite like the colour combination as well, and the upright scratchy scratch marks I made that sort of compliment the vertical drips on the other side.

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20-30 minute paintings of my own taking inspiration and reference from my previous collaborative task

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Paintings I contributed to that I thought worked very well compositionally

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Process of collaborative painting

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Today we began by painting quick three minute colour studies to loosen up, and then went straight into the collaboration task, which demanded us to paint for two minutes on our own work, and then speedily move onto the next, which would be a random person’s work. Collaboration is important because it is the only way the world can function without active collaboration and a diverse range of directions, views, etc. Final decisions would be a product of many passive individuals and people who simply followed the leader. Collaboration is also a very significant part of creative practices; Aldous used a stage design job he previously collabed on as an example, stating that he was not called to assist in a passive manner, who followed absolutely exactly what a leader requested, but instead as an active contributor and creative mind that brought forth new ideas, compositions and alternative direction. He relayed this to us to stress the fact that he wanted us to be confident with the idea of changing up the composition, layout and different brush strokes and qualities of other’s work when we felt like it may be needed. He encouraged us to not be polite, to allow exaggeration and some abstraction of the images. I found this task enjoyable and insanely helpful, as it pushed me to make brief and bold decisions, and helped me not be so precious and cautious as I’d usually have that attitude towards my own work. I took pictures of my work each time someone worked over it, and maybe I’m just being extra judgemental, but I found that no one ever added anything interesting or contributed to the composition in any significant way at all, instead overlining and muddying the figure time and time again. I didn’t mind so much, since I had put more love and effort into others work. I also found that I learned very quickly new ways to organize a scene, and incorporated some of this into the piece we made after, which was our own, and was supposed to be a direct response to everything we had experimented with, and learned about painting that day. I found that I was a lot looser, and made bolder exaggerations of the form. I also covered the entire canvas, something I’m not so accustomed to. Something Aldous stressed time and time again was that he wanted us to think and paint like painters. It’s often a bad habit many get into of treating a painting like a drawing. He also stressed that we should learn to relearn things constantly, and to not get so hung up and emotionally tied to the way we like to do things. He also said that through painting there are so many things you can show about the image, such as certain movements, tensions, connections, separations, space, etc. He used cats cradle as an example, the way the strings intersect and connect from hand to hand and finger to finger. He also said to keep the placing of the form interesting, since the common habit is to pay the most attention to it and place the entire thing right into the middle of the page. He said that if a whole film was shot in this manner it would be quite dull and that we would lose interest very soon. Basically, a variety of different angles, closeups, placements and focuses is essential for creative effective visuals and potentially keeping an audience’s eye interested. At the end of the day I did one more twenty to thirty minute painting and painted in quite a different way than I had previously done. I painted completely in blocks and fluid shapes, apart from some small details and highlights, making sure to fill the entire canvas with warm and cool colours.

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Today we were back working with colour again. The life model didn’t show up so Aldous decided to model instead, clad in a one-piece jester suit and a kind of shawl/kimono red thing over the top. For my painting of Aldous I prepped the paper with blocks of green and yellow. For my book reference I had taken out this comic-type book called ‘Tumult’ by John Harris Dunning and Michael Kennedy in some potential attempt to create a graphicy AND paintily piece. I did drop that idea as I began painting quite intuitively over the colour blocks. I tried in a failed attempt to stick to the colours of my chosen comic spread, but instead ended up choosing what I thought was best. I did like this piece, but it turned out almost too realistic and refined, which I don’t necessarily mind, but I was wanting to be slightly more experimental and exaggerated. Aldous spoke a good deal about translating effectively what the mind and eye sees onto paper, most importantly by getting rid of nouns in your process, recognizing significant qualities of objects, shapes and people and their relationships rather than the names and our own preconceived ideas of what the objects, shapes, people, etc look like. He also spoke about people’s attitudes towards certain things and how that can create bad mental habits and often stunt one’s progression. He stated that if someone can draw a vase, they can draw a hand, but only if they approach it with the attitude that everything is just a mixture of different shapes and qualities. Aldous also gave us a kind of introduction to paper, of which I don’t exactly remember the specifics but I do remember that he spoke about that paper used to be made predominantly out of linen. He also said that one of the main paper manufactures reside around the area of Brixton Academy and that you can get paper in bulk there for half the price. Something useful to remember. 

Overall, in terms of the paintings I did today, I think I pushed myself colourwise, and the combination of colours I used I think work well. I’m happy with the way I communicated dark and light, since I did it without once using black.  

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Still focusing on painting in non-naturalistic colours, we carried on the theme, the model clad in garish costume of some masked scoundrel, going by the name ‘Zoro.’ I chose to paint on very large paper, of which I’m not quite sure were the dimensions, but it was quite big. I painted with the thought in mind that this could potentially be displayed in the atrium, so I attempted to use big, bold marks with vibrant colour so that it would be significant from afar. The hardest challenge for me was probably trying to create an effective composition. After a little while Aldous advised me to step back quite a far way away, and once doing so, I was visually informed by where I was going wrong. (In this instance I had focused too much of my darker details in the centre, resulting in it looking quite muddy.) Aldous proceeded to let us know that when up close while drawing/painting, what you see is what you perceive the image to look like, but when you step back and look from a distance, you see the image for how it really is. After being reminded of this, I made sure to step back every time I changed colour or brush-type, just so I was able to fully see and decide what next creative decision would be best to take forward. I also found that drawing while standing up makes it 10 times easier to remember to step back. So far I have been predominantly sitting in lessons, making it way harder to remember. The composition I made revolved mainly around the curve of Zoró’s hat, bringing that dynamic shape outside of the more detailed bits and accentuating them, making them cut quite dramatically through the painting. I think this did add quite a united look to my composition, and may be a little idea to use again in future compositions, that being using shapes and themes within the detailing and actual subject to exaggerate and extend.

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Art from the life drawing class on Monday.

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Today we chose a painting from one of the art books based in the room and mixed a colour palette together based on the colour combinations included in our chosen piece. Aldous said that Van Gogh or Money would mix all their colour together prior to going out to paint. (I don’t remember if it was Van Gogh or Monet) I chose a painting by Gust de Smet of a nude woman sitting down on a bed. (I forgot what the painting was called) The colour palette was made up of predominantly naturalistic tones with darker shades of purple and burnt umber, but I picked it because I quite liked the lighter blue accents, since as subtle as they may have been, they contrasted against the warmer tones very nicely. Unfortunately, upon reflection, I don’t believe I translated the colours and mood very well into my own work. I ended up subconsciously exchanging Smet’s paler yellow for a brighter, more orangey alternative, and the burnt umber/brick colours for strong, dark sections of orange. The dark purple was the only aspect I kind of got right. Despite my unfortunate mistranslations, I do love the combinations of colours I used. The purple with the yellow and orange is something I’ve seldom experimented with, and of course blue and orange remains a no-brainer. My final work that I did at the end of the day I did not end up liking at all, so Aldous inspired me to paint over it. I wasn’t feeling all that anarchist at that moment, so I did comply with a begrudging disposition. Instead of painting over it I decided to scrape blue paint across the surface, squeegee style, and then scraped some of it off with a card, only in the area where the form previously was. I then hastily added some highlights and outlines to accentuate it, and ended up really liking the end result. It’s something I shall definitely repeat in future.

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On this day we began painting with complimentary colours using acrylic paint. We first observed Goethe’s colour triangle to identify primary and secondary colours, and then began painting quick five minute poses, focusing on creating the forms with brief shapes rather than outlining and filling in. For my first studies I accidentally ended up using every primary colour instead of just two like we were advised, but for the second one I made sure to use yellow and purple and hints of green. I’ve also included another students work at the very bottom that I thought worked well because of their use of bold, geometric marks that look quite effective and contrasting against the bright yellow of the figure. I then went on to paint using red and blue, making a lot of sheer watery marks. Upon reflection I don’t think the composition of this piece works well, so the things I could’ve improved on I incorporated into the next piece, where I used a good combination of different brush strokes and paint qualities. For the next 15 minute piece I used orange and blue in a more discreet way. I think I focused too much on finicky detail here, and forgot to step back, meaning some of the proportion was quite off. I also used a similar colour palette for the 40 minute study, and then right at the last 15 minutes used red and green. I find that right at the end of the day I produce the best work since I feel a lot more carefree and experimental.

The most helpful advice Aldous gave today was that ‘painting and drawing is not rehearsed, and it doesn’t need to be perfect but it does need to be well thought-out and considered.’