Visual Communications

During the week I spent in Visual Communications I tried out new ways of making grounds and drawing with different types of media on these grounds.  We spent a lot of time in the first session doing timed line drawings which are two things I have never really done before. My usual way of working is quite slow and laborious and I've been known to spend hours on one image in the past until I feel happy with it. These line drawings of objects relating to our 'Senses' project brief forced me to work quickly and carefully as the media used meant it was impossible to rub out. I like how each drawing is in a different place on the paper as this makes for a more interesting piece overall but I still feel as though the images could have been scaled up more so they didn't leave as much negative space. I also think that the ground worked quite well as I used the same materials on each separate section so that they would work on their own as single pieces as well mounted altogether.



Top left: Shoe in graphite crayon, Top right: Lipstick in felt tip
Bottom Left: Sunglasses in ink with stick, Bottom Right: Shoe in oil pastel

The next session involved observational drawings that were still mainly linear and still had a time limit but this time were of shoes other people in the group were wearing. I feel as though the drawings I did were not as bad as I had expected them to be seeing as I only had around a minute to do them but I was still not totally happy with them as I thought they looked quite flat and simple. However I felt the composition of the image worked quite well as each of the drawings were overlapped and facing in at different angles as well as being done in different coloured media so each image was distinctive and recognisable.

Observational linear drawings of shoes in graphite crayon and felt tip

The second half of the week was spent focusing on typography, which again was a totally new area for me. Drawing hand rendered type is something that I would previously have thought would be quite difficult but I have since found out that it is just the same as any other kind of observational drawing. Initially I didn't particularly like the ground as I felt it looked too bland and I would have preferred it with a colour. However after doing the type over the top I have changed my mind as I think that coloured papers on the ground would have clashed with the coloured pen and the oil pastel too much. I think the two top pieces are the two best ones as I really like the section of the Guinness bottle that I drew as the sizing of it fills the space and it isn't totally straight like the bottom two seem to be. Even though the type on the right hand side isn't straight, I feel as though it was quite well controlled to say it had been done using a stick and ink.


Top Left and Bottom Right: Guinness Bottle in Felt Tip and Oil Pastel
Top Right and Bottom Left: Paprika Tin in ink with willow stick and graphite crayon