30/11/2010

I love the photography of Bernd and Hilla Becher. They deal with similar themes to my project, presenting images of various man-made structures in groups, in black and white. I think it's beautiful.




Idris Khan is another artist whose work I admire, and I'm very drawn to the misty, ethereal quality of the his photomanipulation. He compiles many photographs of the same sort of structure and superimposes them, adjusting the opacity levels of each layer until the desired effect is achieved.
I'd love to try this, with photos of the water tower from different angles.

09/11/10

In preparation for painting it I did a tonal study in charcoal of my view. It's three A1 sheets together, and my hands are still a bit grey.

I also did a few paintings and ink drawings of the watertower, simply investigating the form and perspective.

 I am not very confident with colour so I'm hoping these tonal studies will help me.

01/11/10

I finished and printed another woodcut. I'm really enjoying it and want to experiment more with the medium. I'm pleased with how this one turned out, more so than he first - I think it captures the starkness of the metal structure against the grey sky.

25/10/10

Cut block:

 

And finished print:

Current plans are to make another woodcut, this time drawing from the photos I took much closer to the watertower.

18/10/10

After attending the print demonstration last week I became very interested in print, as it's something I've never really done before. So.
I made a rubber stamp out of a normal pencil rubber. My ink pad is too small so I'll have to get a bigger one, or alternatively paint the ink directly on to the stamp.
A few impressions:

I carved a woodcut today of the same view and will print it tomorrow if all goes well.

An observational painting I did of the view from a bridge in Limerick across the river towards the Clarion hotel. Acrylics.

11/10/10

So far I have been experimenting with inks mostly, as well as pens and a bit of watercolour. Here are some pages from my sketchbook.

Here is a pen drawing on four pieces of watercolour paper.

05/10/10

I'm working on the theme of 'skylines' for my project. I am investigating the different patterns made by buildings against the sky, different textures and shapes, materials and processes. I intend to experiment with 3D construct, using wire and maybe paper to create skylines. A print of some of the drawings I have done might be a good idea as well.