Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Showing and Telling - Recent work



This is a piece that I have been working on recently. I was reluctant to post it as I am not at all happy with it (yet).
I have been playing with these organic forms in my work for ages now and I'm beginning to find them stiff and unexpressive, is it just me?

I began this piece with the aim of combining my life drawing style and my illustration style, which, are strangely miles apart.

I would appreciate any feedback you have.

3 comments:

emma rowe said...

have you ever seen an illustrator called Fumi Nakamura came across an image of hers just the other day and made me think to suggest her after seeing this, she plays a lot with human, animal and organic forms interwoven in her work.

I guess you get so use to using certain forms in your work that it can no longer seem expressive but mechanical, its nice to see your life drawing coming into play as its something you've done for a while, so maybe bring this element in will change how you view or even the styling of your organic forms.

anyway what I like about the piece is the bold black form of the body, your taking the forms that life drawing teach and bring it into your graphic style. those quick poses they make you do teach you to capture those important expressive shapes and forms of life drawing .

my drawing/painting style is miles apart from my illustration/rants style, I feel like Jekyll and Hyde and view them as very separate. Don't be afraid to deviate. My painting and drawing, I still find them hard to reconcile maybe because I don't have the space to paint so drawing became the main element in my painting endeavors and thus my subject matter and what I was interested in doing with subjects changed but this was good cos I left college interests behind. So mixing style can lead to fresh ways of viewing work and how you approach work.

anyway ramble over for now .....

Claire said...

Thanks a million Emma,
This is really helpful. Thanks for the Fumi Nakamura reference. Her compositions are really well balanced and intimate. She is a master of negative space! I'll keep her work in mind for the next step.

You're so right about the space issue. I have a small corner of the apartment dedicated to drawing, I think it makes my ideas smaller! At the life drawing sessions I have an easel and loads of space. I'm going to see if I can improve my set-up.

Thanks again :)
x

I like paints said...

I really like this piece.I love the textures against the silhouette of the form. I think its a really strong piece. Margaret kilgallens work came to my mind when I saw this. Its beautiful.