Drawing Workshop Outside with John (Workshop 6)

Context & Research
Before this workshop, I decided to look into comic illustrator Oliver East. He recently came to my University to give a guest lecture and I was interesting as to how he got stuck into each place he visited and how he produced really quick drawings. This has inspired me to try and do this for my workshop to get down really quick illustrations and visuals of Huddersfield which could be used to create some digital art. I was inspired by his comic "Trains are mint" with quick fun illustrations and basic colours to get across what he saw.

 


The Workshop
Today was my final workshop with John, luckily because of the weather our workshop was altered and we was doing something slightly different to our original task. Our task was to go to three different location and draw capturing people, perception, architecture and lines. After the last workshop I was not feeling too excited as I know drawing is my weakness but John gave me some really helpful advice that as a designer we create quick sketches from memory and not every designer is an artist. This changed my outlook on the workshop. I decided to work to this idea and create quick sketches from memory based on the way I interpret an image or visual. The first location we visited was near the gallery and in the middle of the shopping mall, the second location was near the church near the kirkgate buildings and the final location was near primark. I created the following drawings...

The story behind my drawings

Drawing railings above USC

Drawings inspired by a man and to the right inspired by the big blocks that make up the bench

Inspired by the range of different shapes that make up the bin (shows minimalism in product design)

Inspired by some lamps in the lamp store

Inspired by the butchers store

Inspired by a women walking holding a traffic cone and a very big pigeon 

Inspired by the type, love this style

Texture based on the image below at one of the locations. I created this by placing my paper on the  floor and using a pencil

After the Workshop

Although drawing is not an easy thing for me, I decided to put this aside and transform my drawings into something that I find one of my stronger points: digital art. I am really strong at layering and creating a piece of art through materials and images in order to collage them together. I decided to do this with my collection of drawings to create an image from my drawings. My first digital creation was combining all of my sketches onto my background texture I took from one of the locations and compiling them together to create a digital piece of art. I actually really like this as even though these are my best sketches, it looks like I have just drawn these all together at the same time which I think is really cool.

I really like this next digital creation as it looks quite freaky and weird and makes me as a viewer question what is going on. It is really intriguing to see how the image above has a complete different narrative to this image as the image above creates a sense of calmness when drawing however this image creates a sense of tension and danger through the use of colours and how the lines In the drawings especially "weekly" look like it has been drawn when I was angry. It even makes me question whether the turtle in the second image is a turtle and the man listening to music is he holding a candle or a flower. It makes me question whether the lamp is an umbrella which creates a whole different narrative for this image.

Finally I also really like the idea of placing my drawings on a black and white collage of Huddersfield to create a sense of place. I really like how I have been able to take my basic drawings and add sense of depth and realness to each one, each creating a completely different narrative and meaning.

Conclusion

Before doing todays task I was not looking forward to it. The last workshop with John I really struggled and it was out of my comfort zone and it made me not want to do this workshop at first when I heard we was drawing at first. Even when we started drawing I still had this thought at mind until John gave me some words of wisdom. He made me realise that not all designers can draw and as a designer we create quick sketches to get across a simple idea that can be developed further through our vision. As the workshop went on I started by going shop by shop and location by location and challenged myself to pick one thing to draw and I had 30 seconds to draw it. These came across really rough but actually was quite fun and comical in the end. This made me draw from memory and work on this idea of quick sketches to visualise a simple idea. After the change of thought and using Johns words as inspiration, my opinion has now changed and I had a great day today drawing. I am excited to do something like this again as It was an eye opener for me. I enjoyed creating my digital art with my drawings as even though I am not strong at drawing, I have used the idea of collage and Photoshop technique to give my drawings life and a sense of depth and realness to make them appear more interesting.