I have had a revelation between Assignment 1 and Assignment 2 – I have decided to do all my paintings from sketches from now on.

I don’t want to copy photographs anymore, they are not how we see. This is a combination (and build up) of influences but the trigger was the chapter in Art and Today on Art and Time.  And once I’d emotionally unhooked photographs from how we see, and despatched the notion of photographs as in any way an objective (or for that matter subjective) record of what we see. I suddenly couldn’t use them as my primary source.

I’m not doing a degree (and a degree is all about change) to copy photographs – I could become very skilled at that by watching You Tube videos… I want to create and capture human vision, and be skilled enough at that that people will want to pay to buy what I paint.

It’s embarrassing it’s taken two terms to reach that point but it’s such a huge step maybe I should be kind to myself.

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First I did a line sketch on A4, then a tonal sketch and finally a colour sketch. I photocopied these, stuck them round my canvas and painted my collection on A2 from these, without use of any photographs. The collection was nearby in case I wanted to check anything, but as it wasn’t lit I used it as little as possible – and I wanted to work off my simplified sketches not detailed real life.

Line drawing on A4 drawing paper with office fine liner:

Tonal sketch using 2B and 5B art pencils on A4 drawing paper:

Acrylic on A4 drawing paper:

I really, really, really like some of the marks on this, it’s so much freer than anything I’ve ever done before.

This is definitely the way I want to go.

It doesn’t work as a whole and some of the shapes are way off but this is so much better in terms of looseness – it’s fresh and expressive. How to go from my first step to something complete is a mystery but I don’t have to solve that right away.

I chose acrylic because it gives me the greatest flexibility colour mixing but wet on wet with one brush on A4 it’s a nightmare to control. So one way might be to do colour sketches in pencil???? And the painting up in paint? (Acrylic or oil)

This is tonal as I painted straight onto the paper so there were never any lines.

Apart from how difficult wet on wet is I also learnt that the tonal differences are much less than I thought.

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The Assignment asks me to combine my experiment with line and tone which is potentially difficult.

I shall have to have a think – maybe if I draw my collection with liner pen and then paint over with acrylic, with reference to the tonal and colour sketch and colour sketch, but leave some of the lines showing that would work??????

Collection painting on A2 drawing paper with black liner pen and acrylic:

My work station: (No photographs and no access to the shells)

My initial line drawing:

I realised that I needed more information, especially on the shadows but I quite like the looseness of this. I drew the shapes quickly, then stood back, had a long look, and adjusted as necessary… trying to remember what the shell looked like so that I could get it to ‘feel’ right.

The shadows and background:

This was very interesting as I realised the flat shells didn’t really cast a shadow. It was also quite difficult getting the right difference in tone between the shadows and the ‘black’ card.

I accidentally painted out my small muscle shell so had to paint it’s outline in light grey.

Again, even though this is very far from accurate in realist terms I like it much more as it’s got a freshness that none of my copies ever had. And it’s starting to do some very interesting things visually.

I worked quickly with a fairly big brush for the big areas and a smaller brush for the fiddly bits, but even then I was deliberately quite loose and didn’t go to the tiny brushes I would have used in the past.

This way of working is very liberating.

First shell:

I didn’t know the shell intimately so was using my sketches and intuition. Frequently stepping back and looking at the shell and letting it form in my mind, and then listening to what my mind was telling me it needed. So that I was constantly trying things out.

The process was much more like making a shell than painting one, or like casting a pot… I’d throw the paint on (I love the texture of the impasto)… see what worked and then have another go. All the while trying to remember the colours and shapes on the original shell.

It’s probably not very like the original shell, and the colours are off but it has a quality – a sort of naive perkiness – a ‘shellness’ – that I find much more attractive than even my best ‘photographic’ copy. And, anyway, I don’t want to copy a shell nobody has seen… what is the point in that apart from a technical exercise – I want to start putting some of me in my painting.

This is very much the first step on a new journey – I start to learn to paint from here – but is definitely the path I want to take.

PS: I just had a look at this shell… apart from getting it wrong the shell suddenly makes sense and I can see so much more about how it’s formed in space and what information I’d need to sketch an accurate copy.

This is so much better than working from a photograph, after which I had no better idea of a shape in space than when I started. I think over time this way of working will significantly improve my drawing.

If I can do an accurate sketch from life I can then adapt it as I want – or re-invent it, but at least I would be able to capture the raw material.

Shells and stones painted up:

Not a photograph in sight… it made me realise just how much information I need in a sketch, and what kind of information… and that I’ve also got to have a memory in my head of what I’m painting.

This has a totally quality I really like.

As I didn’t have the objects or a photograph the object isn’t to paint a copy of a moment in time, but to capture the essence of the objects and my feeling for them.

Each shell has a different memory, and though I was painting from my sketches I also did a lot more looking than I would normally do and much of my painting was from ‘memory’ of the shell, and whether it looked right.

I also, I think subconsciously bounced and echoed the colours, it’s a restricted palette of blues and yellows, and changed shapes to compose it.

I know this Assignment is about collections (though I think every time an artist paints a picture they say something new, it captures their spirit, vision and voice – I don’t have any problem with having something to say)… but I think the biggest change is how I’ve started to look at the world differently. It’s as if my sight has suddenly gone into turbo charge.

How successful is this and why?

I think it is very successful in being my first painting that I have wholly created myself and is starting to breathe (rather than a clever realist copy of a photograph). It is starting to speak. I chose the objects, I arranged and lit them… and I painted them from inside me.

How would you develop the work?

I’d sketch it again, only this time my drawings would be much better. I’d also try different ways of doing colour sketches.

It’s not that I’m after a realist copy in any way, though I do want it to be representational, but I want as much information as possible to work from.

Having got better resources (in terms of my sketches) I’d try and paint looser and faster and do a series of paintings.

Which artists have influenced me and how?

I’m reading 1001 Paintings to see before You Die… and am up to 1922.

The paintings from about 1850 have exploded, they’re so interesting, I’d say every one is an influence… my main take away is that ‘realist’ painting is only a very tiny genre of painting. Expressionist, cubist, futurism… the list is endless. Psychologically, emotionally, visually artists are taking the world to pieces and rebuilding it.

At the moment there’s a kaleidoscope of artists and influences. I’m trying to start to sort what I like by collecting all the paintings that make me go wow, I’d like to paint that. But it’s like my brain has opened up and artists and influences are flooding in.

So the main influence is that the 19th century and 20th century art has made me think fundamentally about what painting is and what sort of a painter I want to be.

The first stepping stone is to stop copying photographs, start looking at the world properly and explore myself by allowing me into my paintings.

What do I hope to communicate?

I think there’s two things an artist can communicate… one is an outside idea projected onto the canvas like Cubism or Futurism and the other is the artist.

I hope to communicate how I see the world.

There may be times when I have a ‘message’ or want to change the world but at the moment I don’t want to ‘say’ anything exterior, I want to communicate me.

Reflection:

Demonstration of visual skills:

I think I have demonstrated that I can paint a representational painting from sketches and used my visual memory as well as knowledge of how light falls on objects to create a pleasing and interesting painting.

Quality of outcome:

I wanted to create something that wasn’t dead, that would engage the viewer and be other than a skilful copy of a photograph.

I think I’ve done that.

Demonstration of creativity:

I experimented with lots of different brushstrokes and allowed my personal voice to come through by working from sketches rather than photographs.

Context:

Collections are a sub genre of painting and can say something about the subject depending how natural they are and how they are selected and presented. However, I chose not to use this Assignment to focus on ‘Collection’ painting but rather to start to find my own voice.

By allowing a whole generation, or two, of artists into my head I’ve found it impossible to carry on painting as I have done so far.

This has meant a radical change as I want a voice like all the artists I’m looking at. And the first step is to start to paint in a way that allows me to be creative not constrains me to be a copyist.