First experiment

 To start off the experimentation, I decided to make something that could link to Francis Bacon's style. I drew an outline of a human head and gradually deformed it by adding a lot of marks to the drawing. First, I used some blue ink to mark out the basic shape and some shadows, and to continue the line control practice, I drew with a thin stick, instead of a paint brush. I then used charcoal to draw on top of the ink and start adding more shadows and texture. At the end, just to finish off, I also used white acrylic paint in some places. I tried to use lumps of paint to add a "dripping effect" and some more texture, especially on the left side of the drawing, to create contrast with the right side, which is mainly black.



David Whittaker and Francis Bacon

To get some inspiration and develop my current work, I have looked at the work of two artists. David Whittaker and Francis Bacon.

 

David Whittaker was born in Cornwall in 1964. He is a self-taught artist. "Most of his work is based around the loose form of human head and its metaphysical core". His art balances out contrasting emotions and states, like confidence and nervousness, hope and fear, conscious and subconscious, male and female. All of these are universally human. In a way, his paintings unmask and reveal a true identity that he explores through art.
I really like the way he portrays the inside of a human head by painting a really clear and detailed landscape and then outlining the shape of a human head around it, but making it very messy, unever and not completely clear to see.

 

 

 

http://www.millenniumgallery.co.uk/davidwhittaker/davidwhittaker.htm

 

Francis Bacon 1909 - 1992
"Francis Bacon, the artist, paints provocative and disturbing images that carry a raw sense of anxiety and alienation. They reflect that existential fear, loathing and incomprehention at the atrocities of the Holocaust that came to light at the end of World War Two".
Bacon decided to become an artist in 1928, after he saw Picasso's exhibition in Paris. He set up his studio in London and began his work that was influenced by Surrealist abstraction. However, he didn't gain much critical success and aroun 1944 destroyed most of his artwork, as he believed he failed to communicate his views and feelings.
After that, Bacon began to work on some more disturbing pieces that were meant to shock the viewer. He gained a lot of criticism over his horrific imagery.

 

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francis-bacon-682

Brief continuation

 

Rather than start a new brief, our new task after half term is to continue the previous theme on "traces" and develop our work and final outcomes. To start with, we did some line control studies of a skull.
The first one I've done was drawn using a 4B pencil that was tied to a long stick. It was quite hard to control the line, but I was able to come out with a sketchy outline, that I after went over with a 3B pencil held at an arm length, to improve the outline and shading.

 

 This one was a quick sketch where I used a 2B pencil held at the end at an arm lenghth. Itried to only use straight lines. It was easier to control than the study with the stick, but the pencil I used was harder, so I had to press the pencil more in order to get darker lines.

 The last one was done with a piece of charcoal tied to a stick. It was much easier than using a pencil, because the charcoal would leave clear marks on the paper even with little force used, so I didn't have to press it very hard. However, the line was still a little hard to control.