Coursework – Learning log for OCA POP1

Part 4. Looking Out.

I like landscapes as a genre. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and there wasn’t much else to do apart from appreciate it. Exercise. A Review. I saved this exercise until there was hope of going to a gallery exhibition again, and for this I found myself lucky – given that everything isContinue reading “Part 4. Looking Out.”

Part 3. Portrait and Figure.

I spent a long time on this Part for Drawing 1 Part 4, doing life drawing classes with Kieran Stiles (with whom I have done many life drawing classes before starting the degree course, as well as other local artists) as well as working through Brague plates. During the life classes I learnt to useContinue reading “Part 3. Portrait and Figure.”

Part 2. Close to Home.

Project 1. Understanding Colour. I spend quite a lot of my time thinking about colour – of things that I see in everyday life, of paintings, in nature, people’s clothes, the walls and other parts of my house and, in these strange days of 2020, of other people’s houses on whatever digital platform we areContinue reading “Part 2. Close to Home.”

Assignment 1.

Before I started the assignment, I attended a two hour course on 31st July taught by Keith Ashcroft for OCA, called ‘Working from Dark to Light‘. It seemed almost made for this assignment, and it was very good. So I tried to put into practice this experience, as well as the various exercises in theContinue reading “Assignment 1.”

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro (or claroscuro in Spanish) is ‘the dramatic contrast of dark and light in an image’ (White, 2011: 33). It is not therefore restricted to static images, and indeed the first time I felt like I really understood what it meant was watching the Godfather. For painting, that means a piece that involves strong contrastsContinue reading “Chiaroscuro”

Part 1. What paint can do.

Project 1. Basic Paint Exploration For this part, I used acrylic paint. I have used both acrylic and oil in the past, and prefer the latter, but for the purposes of exercises I did not want to have to wait for things to dry. It was exciting to be using colour again after two yearsContinue reading “Part 1. What paint can do.”