Week 1

Black Ink on Paper!?

This week we've been given the task of looking on how to apply black ink on paper in order to create images. Black ink on paper is a staple of illustration, effective in it's ability to create a range of different mark making (if you know how to!) 

I've been looking at some inspiration or should I say Pinspiration on Pinterest... I've also found some artists on Instagram that create images using this method. Here's a taster of what I've been looking at (clicking on the images will take you to the artist website/ social media page) : 

Richard III by Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves)

I absolutely love Moir's work. It's very quirky, very odd...but that's what makes it so appealing to me! I've been a massive fan of Vic and Bob for a long time now, so when I found out that Vic (Jim Moir) also did art...I got very excited! His art matches his surreal like comedy and eccentricity. He's definitely one of my all time favourite artists. 

Also below you'll see work from David Shrigley. Another artist I love. I'm just a fan of the eccentricity and the dry humor.  Again, another one of my all time favourite artists, I have many Shrigley prints and pieces around my room. 

Crowd by Lana Duiverman

Ed Merlin Murray

Martin Cooper Portrait by Eri Griffin

Bob Peak

Bedwyr Williams

Bedwyr Williams (Welsh artist!)  is another I really like, I enjoy his satirical and sarcastic wit. I was fortunate enough to see a talk by Bedwyr Williams back in my foundation year, (he was also a previous foundation student at Coleg Menai) it was very inspiring and it was great to be introduced to his work. I like his simple ink drawings, usually made by whatever words he decides to put on there. He also makes short films, they're worth a watch if you like feeling like you're tripping acid... Here's one he did that made me laugh very hard during lockdown. He made a series of these, but here's one for your viewing enjoyment: 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bedwyr Williams (@bedwyr_williams) on Sep 14, 2020 at 2:53pm PDT

Anyway, slightly off topic with the pen and ink techniques, but this was too good not to include!

​Look...I've done some drawing and looked at more artists!

Here's some more work that I've been looking at, including Tom Gauld ( I found his book on my shelf, which belongs to the library and I've had it since lockdown and the inner librarian in me is screaming...however there has been a Global Pandemic so that's the only reason I've had it so long!!) â€‹So throughout the week, I've sought inspiration from other artists (as always) and sat down and forced myself to start working. After a long 6 months of lockdown, I've struggled to get back into the positive mindset of wanting to create again. However, I found that it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be and I managed to produce some work. Is it the best work? No... Am I getting into that work mindset again? Slowly but surely!

The few drawings I've produced and the inspiration from other artist's work has given me the inspiration to start drawing again, something I found very difficult to do during lockdown, I just wasn't in a very positive frame of mind, and picking up a pen or a pencil was something that became increasingly more and more difficult as the months went by (dramatic, I know...but true!)  However, I'm getting back to it now, and it's pretty good to be back. â€‹

I've also been looking at and practicing a lot of mark making: â€‹

And here are some random drawings that I've produced over the week:

I did a drawing of the sink, because I thought since being in university, the only thing I seem to do is wash dishes. Even though in our new house we've been given a dishwasher, I still seem to be washing dishes in the sink, every minute, every day...Dishes everywhere. Part of me thinks I should just get paper plates and then finally I'd be free from the menial task that is washing dishes...but no, I'm not that lazy. That writing you see, probably doesn't make sense to you...but it translates to, "Washing the dishes every fucking minute" because that's literally all I do. 

Here are a few pages from my sketchbook. This is where I was just practicing with the pen and ink, and trying to get a feel for the medium.