Drawing Transformations - Visual Explorations

I have been working on another project alongside the ‘Colliding information’ project and I decided to link the two together because I feel like my ideas related to both projects.  It’s called ‘Drawing transformations – visual explorations’. My definition of the word ‘drawing’ has definitely changed over the past few weeks and I find it really interesting to see how my approach to drawing has changed in the space of just a few months.

My definition of ‘drawing’ at the start of Project 2A (January 2017) - I would define a drawing as a piece of work produced with pencils, pens or crayons rather than paint.  I would expect a drawing to include a range of tone and be on a flat surface such as paper.

My definition of ‘drawing’ now (March 2017) – I would define drawing as a way of an individual expressing their creativity, thoughts and ideas through a range of media such as pens, pencils and paint as well as other 3D materials such as sticks and tape. Drawing is a way of expressing yourself and often shows how an individual is feeling at a certain time, through mark making etc.

Through the ‘visual explorations’ workshop sessions, I have developed a body of work which extends my understanding of my own drawing practice. I used this as an opportunity to explore the media, contexts and applications of how I used and will use drawing in my practice. I tried to think about drawing in its widest possible sense. I tried to think about drawing as a ‘tool’ for visual thinking and research, presentation, plotting and documenting. I tried to explore how I extended my understanding of drawing into the media, by using new techniques and mark making tools. I also looked at drawing more conceptually – as a way of thinking about the relationship between drawing and ideas. The workshops and other related sessions have really supported me during this project, as well as regular critiques and tutorials with my friends and tutors.

During the first ‘Wednesday workshop’ I produced a series of drawings which showed transformation, after thinking about my values and usual conventions whilst drawing. I thought about what I would do to transform my approach to drawing.

The next workshop forced me to think about transforming my purpose of drawing, transforming my method whilst drawing as well as transforming the style and values of my drawings. I then went on to take photographs, experimenting with different features on the camera (focus – blur) and thought about how I could use the interesting shapes in the project.

I took photographs of some landscapes around Leeds and produced a number of drawings using a range of media. These included a quick observational drawing, a drawing using a pencil and an eraser, a drawing using graphite, a drawing using sharpie pens, a drawing using a ruler, a drawing using tape, a drawing using ink with the natural drawing tools I made, a drawing using acrylic and crackle glaze, a drawing using mixed media and a paper cut out, thinking about positive/negative colours.