The Word Becomes Art

I really like the images I’d created by photographing my still life of black and white things. Having edited and presented 20 of them, I wanted to do more. This isn’t part of the exercise as written by OCA, I just wanted to do it.  I found lots of patterns and shapes in my photos. As well as creating some interesting tonal images, I got a bit obsessed with the white dots on the black tray. I wanted to see what the effect would be if I printed some of the photos onto pre-printed backgrounds. The white areas would print as blank, so parts of the underlying image would be obscured and others revealed. While the passages of the photos including the spots were often atonal, whatever I printed onto would show through and create new areas of tone. Here are my prints. These two are printed on hand-painted papers which I photographed and printed before printing the image on top. Here I made two versions of an image, one with high exposure and contrast and the other with darker tones. I prin...

Whereas the previous exercise investigated line, this exercise is about tone. We were to set up a sill life of 5 or 6 objects that were black or white. These were to be lit by a lamp from one angle in order to enhance light and shadow. In the photography option, we were then to take 10 photos of the still life, looking at the aesthetics and design possibilities of tone. Following this, we were asked to change the light source so that the still life would be lit from another angle, creating different shapes and shadows. We were then to take 10 photos of the still life in this new light. Here is my still life: Here it is after I changed the light source. I am not good at taking small numbers of photos once I get lost in an exploration like this! Therefore I took more than 60. I like to have lots to choose from and then edit the ones l like best. I then scooped them all up and put them into their own album. I spent some time just looking at them, then deleted any that I thought would defi...

This exercise investigates the use of line. With an HB pencil we were to draw 5 minute line drawings of the following items: A cup or vase or similarly smooth object. A piece of furniture like a table or chest of drawers. An article of clothing, like a pair of trousers or shirt folded or screwed up so there are contours and folds. Either a portrait of the face of someone you know, live with or a self-portrait drawn in a mirror. A view of the outside world, maybe your garden or street or the view through your window. Here are my drawings: A cup A chair Some fluffy socks A self portrait The street outside We were also advised to use as few lines as possible. I found it hard to fill the 5 minutes on each drawing except for the socks. The problem with this was that I ended up adding unnecessary and less connected lines rather than staring at my watch. Initially I tried to draw ‘properly’ in terms of using straight lines and making shapes match up, so that the squares on the mug followed th...