Jonathan Yeo

Last week for life drawing we had to create a collage of the model, I've been waiting for a program to come on sky arts - Parkinson masterclass, 2 of his guests are going to be Photographer Don McCullin and artist Jonathan Yeo.  Today i decided to look Jonathan Yeo up online to familiarize myself with his work, he has some really interesting portraits including collages, i really like these ones its quite hard to believe they are collages i think!



http://www.jonathanyeo.com/

Last weeks life drawing

We had to break down the human form in to a series of boxes and tubes, it's quite tricky at first, but then once I'd relaxed into it I found it a bit easier. As for the next picture, we started to draw and then had to move 2 spaces forward to someone else's picture and take it over! So the drawing of the guy from the back is mine and Rachel's effort! I think we made his build a bit broader than it actually is and there's not quite enough tones and definition. The last picture is on grey paper, we had to do the white highlights and then the dark tones, and definitely NO lines, now I found this really quite difficult to resist drawing lines as you can probably tell! I used oil pastels for this and I find them quite awkward! I know I just need to keep trying with them, I like using the soft pastels but the oil ones I like the rich feel to them but I just can't get use to them! I know practice practice practice!

Saturdays experiments!

Well I decided that I needed to create some kind of colour chart for the car paints that I collected. But I got a bit carried away! The pure paint that isn't diluted by thinners is quite thick and glossy. When its thinned it can go almost translucent,obviously depending on how much thinners you add, this also does change how deep the colour is too.
I got a piece of acetate as a substitute for glass to make my "colour chart" and a small primed stretched canvas to maybe experiment on! Well the experimenting tool over the creation of the colour chart!
I started poring the pure paint from the tins and just watched how they interacted with each other, quite interesting in its self! They I realised I'd actually put far to much paint on the canvas, so I thought we what will happen if I lay the piece of acetate on too it? The first picture is the result.
There was still quite a bit of paint on the canvas so out come the air gun to distribute the paint about a bit, I richter and his abstract picture where he removed some of the layers of paint to explode the layers below came to mind. When the air gun blew the paint around it uncovered the first colours applied that had already started to dry some of them did get covered again the the continually moving paint. But the dried canvas in picture 2 looks pretty effective I think and I'm definitely gonna give it another go on a larger scale and I thin the paint slightly which also speeds the drying time up a bit. I also did experiment with applying the paint to different shaped glass (a jar) for my final pieces of extending specialist techniques, more worked needed on that tho.

National gallery of modern art - Picasso exhibition.

Well today we visited the Picasso exhibition. I'm kinda undecided as to whether I like his work or not! Not doubt he has skill, his sketches that I saw, I thought were beautiful and I'd never seen them before, very simple delicate line only sketches. His paintings ........ well honestly I'm not much of a fan, his palette that he uses I like for the most part, but the actual images, I don't like them that much, I find them quite ... disturbing almost when I actual saw the real thing, not an image in a book or online. The way he paints women, he's not very complementary! We are told that art should be question and listened to and what hearing from his subjects is "help get me outta here!" And the question I'm asking is "what on earth is going on in that head of yours Pablo?"
I did however enjoy seeing the Hockney pictures that were also part of the exhibit, particularly the photo collages, they were amazing! Far better than I could of imagined! The effect of all the individual photographs all put together and actually how many individual photos they are made up of is amazing, from the other side of the room it does look like its made of god knows how many separate photos! I also tried to copy a lithograph of hockney's on my iPad, (below) I don't think it's come out to well it kinda shows a rough idea of it, the original was pretty darn big! Hockney believes that Picasso's cubist work was a turning point in the pictorial arts. His influence is obvious in the works I saw today.
I also spent sometime playing around with photo booth on my iPad and taking photographs of the outside of the gallery. Some interesting results and fun results!

The Haining

I've been playing around with photoshop touch on my trusty iPad, and this is my latest creation with 2 photos I took on our visit. I changed the effect to sepia tone on both, reduced the opacity on the top one and selected a merge option to difference. I think it looks like an old grainy photograph.

Trying to get working

Well today in an attempt to get my head around a close family member in going through and how I feel about it, I decided to pull myself together get painting! I'll admit that my art work has ground to a halt this passed ten days and I'm finding it really quite hard to get going again. But today I gave myself a good kick and cleared the work space out and got the paints out!
Firstly I poured some paint onto some glass which I'll photograph later then I thought that's not enough, so I dug out a canvas.
I began by brushing on the green paint (which is for the heart according to healing colours) with a dry brush, I did the same with some Paynes grey but it just wasn't feeling right.... What to do? It needed more feeling, I went to the kitchen and there was some cling film, so I thought that that might help so I dabbed it on which created an interesting effect then I found some bubble wrap and dabbed that on which when I looked at reminded me of cells which fits in well. But it all needed to be enclosed hence the dark frame, the white was added to give the feeling of fading away. I quite pleased with it now.

iPad orchid

Here's a little doodle I did today whilst waiting for the tea to cook! Still getting used to the brushes app, it can be a bit tricky controlling the lines sometimes and mixing the same colour as you used a couple of minutes ago, but all adds to the finished effect! I'll work some more on this later, maybe add in leaves or more flowers before they all drop off the plant!

Observation of my hand

Today we drew our hands, quite tricky!
I started off drawing the outline with a pencil I then changed to charcoal to build the tones and shape of my hand, I also added a little white pastel for the highlights. I couldn't get the charcoal to stay black enough for the really dark creases in my hand so I used a conte pencil, which I really like!
I'm really quite pleased with the result, the only part which I feel I could of done better is the thumb area.

Recoloured photo

I've seen old black and wire photographs that have had colour added to them and I really liked the look, some years ago I was lucky enough to have access to a dark room. I printed a black and white photo of some roses and then once it was dry I added some red/pink to the flowers with a brush (I'll dig the photo out at some point and add a copy of it on) it came out ok and I did try it again with a photo of a car which looked better. Well now it's the 21st century! And my photos are digital! So I tried again but with the iPad apps, a photo of my daughter. I used the airbrush and coloured her hair a similar colour to what it is, emphasized the green of her eyes and gave her some lip gloss!
It's really changed the look of the photo, and reminds me more of the old recoloured photos I'd seen and I thibk it's also got a hint of pop art to it(?).
What do you think????

Drawing from today

Well this is my drawing from today, there's parts of it I'm pleased with like the handle of the upturned lid of the sewing machine (on the right) the cross bar of the bike with the letters on and then there's parts I'm not so pleased with like the round parts! There was lots of different angles and shapes, quite a puzzle really! Working it all out! I used a mixture of pencil, graphite and conte pencil.

More iPad doodles

These 2 pictures I made whilst sitting with Marco in the waiting room of the hospital, I was trying to create an image that some way described his pain(?) a bit abstract!

The Haining photographs

These are a few of my 109 photos from today's visit to The Haining in Selkirk. I've not edited any yet, there's a few that haven't come out so well (bit dark) but will have a play around with the editing software and see what happens!
Your feedback on them would be appreciated.