"Every mark that you create leaves an impression."

 

As an artist, I am primarily interested in creating works that capture a sense of expression, whether it is expressing a particular type of energy, dynamic movement or depth, these goals can be achieved through the building up of layers. While observationally investigating the figure in space, I found that my project veered off in three separate directions, which incorporated the use of both traditional and non-traditional drawing.

 

After drawing the same model in three separate positions within space creating the illusion of three separate figures, I became interested in pushing my work towards abstraction. Leaning towards a different methodology, drawing digitally and overlaying poses that eventually became the grounds for a semi-abstracted impression of the figure. Sitting within the confines of a square canvas, the variation in heavy line simultaneously highlights whilst abstracting: One can see a figure but the transparency of each drawing purposely obscures both proportion and perspective.

 

I then applied the same overlaying technique to my traditional observational drawing. For each lesson, I would draw multiple drawings on a single sheet of heavy-duty paper. Each time rubbing back, the impression of the previous line-work would become the background for the final figure drawing. I recorded the stages of progression, to try to show how each mark created and the change from one drawing to another. I felt the transition was too jagged to express the process when compared to the final drawing.

 

I have always been fascinated by the nature of animation, the way it achieves life and movement of a figure in space. It was only until I began working with it that I began to understand the amount of work it takes to create a smooth animation. I had to create multiple drawings of the figure, each from different viewpoints to create a sense of rotation. My love for the sketchiness versus achieving a smooth animation of a single movement led me towards the idea of rotating around a figure in space. By combining both the idea of animation along with the energy of line work I created a small animation of a figure rotating within a space.

 

It shows that although life drawing is stationary, life itself is not.

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