Observational Drawings

Visual Language

Visual language is about image making with no context. Its about drawing to play, think and ask questions. It is about the construction of a piece of work, how they have made it and the key techniques used in the process. I aim to experiment with a wide variety of materials and techniques.

Observational drawing forms a strong relationship between viewer and subject matter. It enables the viewer to intensely analyse and get a greater understanding of the visual language presented.

Drawing from reference is also value because it enables you to interpret your own style on the piece. It is also easier to access.

For our fast task we had to analyse a photograph for 5 minutes, fully absorbing the structure of the image taking in as much visual language as possible. We then went into another room and tried to memorise the image and draw it. We repeated this process.  

We were restricted to ink and brush which gave us freedom of expression. I liked how the task allowed us to make our own interpretation of the photograph and not just replicating it into a drawing (making a detailed copy).

What I really like about my 4 drawings is the clear progression and improvement from my initial drawing. As you can see as my drawings developed, I started to become more and more comfortable with adding tonal values and more aspects of  the composition.

After this, I used a plant which i bought in as my subject matter. From this, using only black ink and a brush I started to experiment with different techniques to create multiple varieties from close observation.

So here are my 8 experiments of one plant. I wanted to capture the essence of the plant by using a large brush with simple free flowing brush strokes. This gave a whole new take on the plant and showed a completely new interpretation. I experimented with framing certain parts of a plant to show a whole new dimension.

I decided to walk around the room and pick out other peoples work which I felt showed a great deal of skill and success. Although this one is considerably small in reality, I just thought they really capture the significance and beauty of the plant. You can tell this is a framed image, zoomed in to show an alternative aspect of the plant. I really like the detailed analysis through tonal values and fluid structure.  

This one I find incredible interesting. I love that splattered effect and think the subtle expressive freedom at which the person has attacked this makes it even more successful. It creates a whole new perspective on the plant with firework connotations perhaps. 

With these two pieces of art, I particularly like the simplified block nature and expressive freedom. I feel like the more freedom put into a piece of art the more interesting the outcome is because it creates alternative structures and therefore emotions. Both the negative and positive images convey a sense of minimalism, The simplified image gives a stencil like composition something which would be interesting to pursue, adding colour to create another dimension.