Observe & Experiment Project (Week 1 Summary)

'Observe and Experiment', my first project as part of the graphics specialization, the project itself was a way of introducing ourselves into the new style of working (for those of us with little previous experience). The first task for the project was to create a 140 observational drawings/images e.g photographs from primary study, the images had to incorperate people, along side our chosen theme; mine being "Signs" I decided to go into the city centre and draw people stood outside shopfronts, sat inside cafe's/pubs, within shot of adverts/billboards.

Initially I found observational drawing quite difficult, the buildings and signs were easy but they were static, trying to draw people stood outside a shopfront whilst they kept changing position constantly was something I struggled with, not being able to focus on detail. However over the course of the week I learnt to develop my style into a more rapid sketching approach, focusing on the overall shape and distinctive details first; this I was able to gain a greater volume of drawings as I wasn't too busy drawing/readjusting a single image.

I experimented with different media as part of my observations, initially I drew with basic B, 2B, 4B pencils, then I moved onto graphite pencils, charcoals, 0.4 fine liners, chunky markers and coloured felt tip pens. I quite enjoyed working with fine liners and charcoals as they gave texture and depth to the image, rather than a flat pencil drawing but the media I enjoyed working with most was the felt tips, the bright colours maje the image jump off the page compared the monochrome pens and pencils.

I also worked in a variety of styles, initially i worked drew detailed pencil drawings, then developed further drawings in continuous line style; This approach to drawing moving figues gave the best effect as you could re-draw over the last piece and capture the movement of the subject. Sillhouettes, left handed drawings, timed drawings all provided interesting observational perspectives however my favourite was layering. I layered outlines of figures stood outside greggs, in felt tip, each layer with a different colour, the finished image, even though a rapid sketch, had a very quirky style to it, that I chose to look further into in my developments.