Life Drawing

After the exploratory stage of the Design and Media course had ended, but before we were to go into our chosen pathways, we spent a day developing our technical skills through life drawing. We started the day doing a few conventional 5-minute drawings, encouraged to use charcoal as it gives looser impressions.

Having done life drawing before I have always enjoyed it as the quick drawings and range of techniques are interesting for me. I can often fall into the trap of being a bit timid and a perfectionist in my work and so these kinds of exercises loosen up my drawing style and I feel are hugely beneficial for my overall skills, techniques and approach to drawing and other forms of creativity.  

Graphite Stick and Oil Pastel Drawing poses with a prop - 5 mins

Right Handed Drawing - 5 mins - Graphite Stick

Drawing with Metre Long Bamboo Stick
With a Graphite Stick Sellotaped to the End
 - 5 mins

Drawing with Bamboo Stick (see above)
 Marker Pen and Blind Drawing (right)
 - 5 mins and 2 mins

Charcoal Drawing using only horizontal lines - 5 mins

Drawing with Graphite Stick Sellotaped to Elbow
- 3 mins

We spent the day doing a series of quick drawings in varying media and sizes. As is typical for life drawing workshops we used a variety of unusual techniques to improve our sense of shape and make us think about the kind of marks we are making on the page and the impression the give. We were also encouraged to focus less on outline and focus more on textures and tones within the body. The fluid and fast-paced nature of this was very enjoyable. For our last exercise of the day we spent 20 minutes focusing on one section of the body, thinking only about tone. I focused on a section of the model's back and hand while she was lying down and used a 4B Graphite stick to try to achieve a textured and layered tonal study.

3D Design Catch-Up

Since I missed the first day because of illness, the tutor gave me a brief and some materials to work with in my self-directed study days to try to catch up on some of the work I missed. He said that I wouldn't be able to do the drawing exercises he had introduced by myself; however I could do some of the practical work. I did the best I could with my home resources and no input or feedback from peers or tutors.

The first project was to create a structure to hold a water bottle out of two pieces of A1 paper. Ideas suggested were to play around with things not traditionally considered structures, such as numbers. I used the starting point of the number 8, my house number, and adapted this for its purpose. I ended up with a tube-like piece with holes (for the number) cut into it to support the bottle. I tried to keep to the time limits of the college environment and so the finished piece is quite rough in places:

The next project was to make a piece out of cardboard that could support your own weight about half a foot off the ground. I worked with triangular shapes stuck together for strength to create an octagonal shape. In many ways it was difficult to complete this project at home as due to a lack of feedback from tutors and peers it was difficult to judge and adapt my own work. Nevertheless, the piece did support my weight so I would call this project a success: 

3D Design Day Three

We started Day Three thinking about the shape and form of structures. Creating bridge-like designs in our sketchbooks we considered construction techniques and unconventional shapes. I found it difficult at first to think of innovative ways to manipulate the paper we were working with but eventually managed to create 4 models in my sketchbook using a variety of construction techniques. I plaited, bent, and folded the paper to create what I think are interesting forms. However, I did feel a bit uninspired for this part of the project and am unsure how original and inventive my work turned out:

For the afternoon we were then assigned groups of six and given a brief. We had to create a 12-foot bridge out of bamboo sticks and cardboard with these conditions: it could only touch the floor at two points, it had to be high enough for an upright table (or 'ship') to pass under it and it had to support and fit the dimensions of a toy car that would be driven over it to test our bridges. We had two hours to complete this project. It was also suggested to us that we use the bamboo sticks in some sort of structural capacity, as previous groups had all focused on them as supports and created the structures with cardboard. This led to our Group's original idea that we create track out of the bamboo sticks as our road, supported by cardboard pillars. However, due to the large number of bamboo sticks this required, we were unable to execute this idea. Instead we created bamboo tracks just for the start and end points and the road in the middle was made of cardboard. We also liked the idea of using intermittent tunnels on our bridge and ended up with triangular shaped coverings of varying widths. When creating the cardboard supports we made several boxes and slotted them together to create pillars, having made these the tutor suggested we should use them at an angle. This proved extremely difficult and compromised the strength and balance of our bridge. Furthermore, due to time constraints, we were only able to achieve this on one side of the bridge, so ended up with an asymmetrical design:

There were quite a few challenges faced when doing this project. The problem of design vs. practicality was a big one that presented itself further on, and due to time constraints in the end we had to make many compromises from our original ideas, going for simpler and easier solutions. Working as a team also presents its difficulties, particularly under time pressured conditions, though I felt out team worked well together and we finished in good time. 

I found this project interesting, having always enjoyed working with 3D materials but never being formally introduced to it as a subject. Missing a day did put me at a disadvantage, and I feel I may not have quite got an full idea of the subject and its principles. Nevertheless I liked the practical nature of the pathway, and the challenges it presented.

3D Design Day Two

 Having missed a few days due to Illness I joined the 3DD rotation week on day two, meaning I had missed some of the drawing principles and basic introductions to structure that had been taught the previous day. This made the project a bit more difficult as I was going in with no experience of the subject.

After experimenting and some design work in our sketchbooks we made a final structure using glue guns to secure the spaghetti. This proved very difficult as the glue took a while to cool making it hard to hold the spaghetti in place, which also broke easily. However I am pleased with the final result, in which I inverted the typical structure which thins out at the top, even though this made it difficult to balance and so lead to some modifications being made during the process. For practical reasons I had to add more supporting sticks than originally planned. I also played around with the ways in which the structure held the balls, having some displayed on the outside while some were contained within the piece. After completing the piece we photographed our work, playing around with shadows and the human relationship with an object, an exploration which I enjoyed contemplating: 

When making my project I took several themes into consideration and tried to communicate them in my structure. One of the ideas I played around with was of using different levels, to resemble a group of buildings. Another was to suggest the escalating perspective when a tall construction  is seen from the bottom.  I worked mainly with triangular shapes to create an asymmetrical piece.  I received positive feedback from peers and tutors in regard to my final product.

Class Work

After finishing our structures we had 45 minutes and 2 sheets of A1 paper to come up with ways to protect the piece from damage from a downward force. Working with ways to reinforce an object was something that had been introduced the day before so I had to rely a little on guess work, rolling up the paper for strength. This was difficult due to the fragility of the spaghetti, and I actually snapped one of the supporting sticks in the process of trying to strengthen it. I felt my final attempt was weak and was not hopeful for the testing stage of our work.

To test the structures we lined them up on the floor at which point our tutor (somewhat forcefully) bounced a basketball off each in turn. Few survived: 

All that was left of my structure