Reflections

I realised that I haven't really articulated what my new plan is on this blog. After various group discussions, talking to Amanda, research and practise I realise I have reached a sort of hybrid cross in my piece of work, between an image that represents nostalgia, family history, and general things that go with the sort of Kodak golden years of the past- colours, archaic images and settings, things we associate with nostalgic feelings, and this crossed with an experiment in the practise of drawing- so I am repeatedly drawing the photo of my dad on a layout pad, and seeing what happens.

This came a lot from what I was thinking about Death of the Author, when my drawings came up as different family member's faces rather than my dad's. As I've been drawing I have noticed definate changes from image to image, even though each one is drawn in the same conditions. Often, they look like my face as a child.

In exhibition, my piece will visually look quite a lot like Dryden Goodwin's Sustained Endeavour, something I am quite concerned about, as the ideas behind my piece are very different. Although this is a concern, I still think that a loop of the drawings coupled with the origional drawings themselves is the best and most effective way to present my work in exhibition, so that comes over a concern that it is not a totally origional presentation. Dryden Goodwin's piece is about the endeavour of drawing matched with the endeavour of rowing, whereas mine is about the physcological triggers in memory that effect the end result of each drawing I create, when the media taken in is the same each time.

One thing I've found interesting about this project, and that I think has taught me alot about my own change in attitude to my work and how I work, is that I am less precious about drawing. Whereas before I would take days on one piece, I am now turning out several in a day. I don't know whether this is a good thing or not. I think in the context of the piece it is good, but I don't know if afterwards I will have permenantly changed my approach. Since studying illustration I have definately opened up to a 'looser', quicker, drawing style, but I have also carried on creating sustained drawings. I think that in this piece I'm not always happy with the quality of each drawing, although they produce the result I need, in a similary context of drawing from photographs I would usually spend a lot longer, and also be working in ink rather than pencil. I think it's been really important going through this process to realise this isn't always the best way to communicate what I am trying to illustrate.