Goya's Witches and Old Women Album drawings

Here are three drawings I produced while I was at the The Courtauld Gallery exploring through Goya's The Witches and Old Women Album, where the gallery had a series of drawings from a book Goya developed based around the theme of witches and old age in the later stages of his life, I drew the figures from three different pages from the book, where I focused on showing the positioning of the figures, where I wanted to drew the figures with accuracy also showing the darker areas of the illustrations, like the shadows of the figures. 

 

I did like the Goya's illustrations, where I found Goya work very interesting in the way he focused on dark themes in his work with loneliness being a large part of that. 

 

Just can't go on at the age of 98.

This drawing is a drawing of the illustration Just can't go on at the age of 98.

 

The original image is the last known page of the Witches and Old Women album. Goya presents a universal image of old age; an ancient person shuffling forward with the aid of two sticks.

The figure's isolation is suggested by the placement low on the sheet and the absence of any setting.

The caption underlines his or her mental and physical frailty.

Despite this infirm state the figure's struggles on' thus embodying an ideal that the artist himself always followed even in his own old age.

 

 I like this drawing I produced because I believe I have drawn the figure very accurately, with the position of the figure being similar to that from the original image, but I should have drawn the hand and different parts of the figures clothing with better accuracy.  

 

What folly, still to be thinking of marriage.

This is the second drawing I produced based around another one of Goya's Illustrations.

 

Isolated on the page as she is in the world, this haggard old women is accompanied only by her shadow, walking stick and Rosary beads, which she fondles with her knotty hands.

 Her folly is to be dreaming of marriage, even in the extreme old age.

Goya often addressed the subject of marriage in his work, including commenting on violent and unequal unions.

His Perspective here may not be entirely sympathetic as the old crone obsessed by her unrealistic fantasies can be interpreted as an example of the world turned upside down. 

 

I believe this drawing is alright because again the position of the figure is similar to that from the original image, but next time I need to as if it was coming out of the sleeve and to draw the figures face and head shape more accurately, I prefer the other two drawings to this one.

 

Showing off ? Remember your age Valentias ? 

This is the third and last drawing I developed again from one of Goya's illustrations. 

 

 The acrobatics of the women tumbling headlong down a flight of steps may initially seem to be captured spontaneously.

However scraping and small changes around the head and torso indicate that Goya deliberately reworked the drawing in order to fit the women's body precisely into the architecture of the stairs.

The inscription addresses the figure directly.

It may also refer ironically that Goya himself, still flaunting his bravura with brush and paper in his advancing years.

 

I like this drawing because out of the three I felt in terms of the position of the figure and stairs it was the hardest to draw, but I believe I have drawn it well where the figure I feel has been placed right in my drawing, similar again to Goya's illustration I feel, but next time again I have to draw the figures face with much better accuracy because it looks nothing like her.     

Lawrence Zeegan

Lawrence Zeegen's lecture was mostly about him as an artist his past, present and his own personal advice, like to be yourself, be creative, be afraid challenge yourself, try new things and many other ways to go about, look for opportunists

Lawrence Zeegen lecture is about is past, where he studied at Master’s Degree level at the Royal College of Art, which he knew he was interested in music, but didn't know what he wanted to study, Zeegen also gave an inside of Heart an agency he started, but left to teach and create an illustration and graphic design course in Brighton.

Lawrence Zeegen also showed books he had written about illustration, where he created a number of different books to do with illustration, which he also gave inside details into the process of creating books, where he revealed publishes won't allow people to design their own book covers and title the book.

In the lecture Zeegen gave his own personal views about illustration, where he believes illustration is what we all have a connection with, where Zeegen gives his details about his early illustration connections with illustration, linking it with children cartoons and book he used to watch and read as a small child, which spurred him on. 

During the lecture Zeegen shows how he believes each decade had a different effect on illustration during those era's, 1960s an era of utopian idealism, 1970s a decade of discontent, 1980s the designer decade, 1990's the digital dawn, 2000's a new wave, in which Zeegen showed different illustration pieces of work, which were produced during those era's.

Lawrence Zeegen's lecture was good in giving advice, be proactive, make your own luck, keep on keeping on, the lecturer showed ways in which he took risks in leaving agencies and creating an illustration and graphic design course, which in term lead Lawrence Zeegen to become the only professor in illustration in the country.  

 

 



 

Martin Robson

 

Martin Robson's lecture was about his work the meaning behind his work, why he choose to use government figures to produce funny bad looking cartoons of them, in a way so he could attack people who were more powerful than him, who he believes are mad and think that there gods and show them they are no better than the average man.

 

Martin Robson in his lecture give his own personal view where he does not see himself as an illustrator, but as a journalist who uses marriage of text and image to create funny drawings of Politicians, who he hates, but loves to draw them, where the whole point of these illustrations is to try and destroy there images, where they have to pretend to laugh about the illustrations.

 

In the lecture Robson shows his view about the history of cartoons, where he compared the idea of how Micky Mouse was just three black circles and Disney made a huge success from it and the world saw that, Robson also compares the idea of goofy with Anubis God of the dead, where Goofy has a dogs head on a human body similar to Anubis.

 

Martin Robson mainly talked about his own work, where he showed his drawings/ cartoons of Politicians, which he tried to make them look funny/ stupid, Nick Clegg in his cartoons was drawn as Pinocchio where Robson used the idea of how Clegg wanted to be a real Politician like Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy, Robson also gives a inside view into how Hitler was in league with the cartoonist, with his facial hair, where it could easily be drawn and cartoonist could easy draw it around the world.

 

Martin Robson also expressed his own personal views of Government officials, where he mostly talked about Tony Blair, which he showed a lot of his work to do with the subject matter of Blair, he showed a two clip animation of Blair licking George Bush's ass, where the tongue is moving towards Bush's ass.

 

        Robson's lecture was good in showing how you can keep working with the same subject matter/ style of drawing for the same figure and keep coming up with new ideas in how to use those illustrations, with theme colour and position.      

 

 

Nobrow lecture

Nobrow's lecture was about Nobrow the book publishing, print making company, which included it's history and present, the lecturers own history, in which how he came to be apart of the brand, the lecture shows their way of working and there work, the lecturer gives advice on getting out there in the art world.

 

The lecturer talks about his own history, where he studied in Central ST Martins, in which he started his working career in TV advertisement and wanted to work in a different medium a change in career, the lecturer also shows how technology has helped to bring down the need for print, which he believes is only useful in till the battery dies and how he states prints don't need battery's and that prints can be kept for as long as you have a use for them because they won't break like technology.

 

The lecturer shows how Norbow likes to work, where they like to work on different themes for each different magazine they produce and how they work with different illustrators to work on different images, where they allow the illustrators to work on what they choose as long as they stick to the theme, also how they like to link both the colour and theme together to show the meaning of the magazines, the lecture also shows there methods in manufacturing there work, where they print ten thousand copies of there books rather than one thousand because the printing cost for each book would decrease.

 

The lecture does show how they like to keep adult and children themed books separate and how they like illustrators to work in pure colour, the lecture also shows there ways of marketing, where the lecturer talked about which country's the company where big in like France and China.

 

The lecturer did give good advice on how to get yourself out there, spend a bit of money, look at yourself and let people know what your work is about, the lecture was interesting with the way of how Norbow worked the style of work and there use of colour.      

 

 

 

Paul Gravett's lecture

Paul Gravett's lecture was about comics, where Paul Gravett talked about how comics have changed over the years, with women creating their own brands through different art fields and how after the second world war, American comic books linked to adult subject matters.

 

The lecturer also gave an inside to how comics affected children over the years, where if children where caught or teachers found out they liked comics they would pressure children into burning there comics by there teachers in America during periods in the 20th century, because people believed the medium was to powerful for children to read.

 

The lecture included different ways of working with comics, which included showing different ways of presenting characters in comic strips, colouring one character orange and another blue, Gravett also showed how you could showed different characters through text, where you can have different styles, sizes and coloured pieces of text for different individual characters, this also included the use of speech bubbles which can connect two characters together to show that there in love.

 

Paul Gravett also showed different techniques of how you can show time and movement through the change of comic strips, where he showed three different strips from the same comic, where the strips all show the moon in different positions in the night sky, which represents how time and movement changes with each comic strip and how the story in comics advance with each strip.

 

Paul Gravett gives his own personal views on how the subject of comics, he believes comics have not really advanced or evolved, with theme, drawing and text styles like other art fields, but he does believe the comic medium will never die and gives an inside on how video gaming company's use comic artists for gaming.

 

Overall Paul Gravett's lecture was very interesting in the way of how comics have changed over the years, also gives good advice and shows how their is so many different ways of working with comics, as he believe the rules are still being invented, his advice shows how you should think about the story you wish to product, where you shouldn't rush and choose a subject matter that interests you.     

 

 

 

Truth and Fantasy painting

Here is a water colour painting I produced about the theme of combining truth and fantasy together, I decided to create an image of a man accepting his fate, with a fire demon symbolising the devil, coming for him bringing the fires of hell with it into the world.   

 

 This painting connects both truth and fantasy because the man represents truth, where he accepts his true fate and welcomes it and because the man is based around an image of a man I found standing in the same pose.

 

. The firer demon brings truth and fantasy into the actuation because the firer demon from Hell a place, where some people believe and don't believe exists, where some people believe mostly religious people believe the devil is the south of all evil, where evil beings are sent and others believe Heaven and Hell is nothing but a fantasy, that does not exist, also the firer demon is based around a devil like figure in a animation, where in the real world it does not exist, but the man does. 

 

    With the firer in the background I painted it based around the same image from, which I drew the devil , where the figures head is surrounded by different coloured flames.  

 

I do like the painting because I produced a better image than I expected, I believe the different colours used for the flames work well together with the different tones used, but next time I need to paint the yellow sections of the painting darker.  

 

 

 

 

painting over old drawing

 

This is a painting I did in water colour, where I found an old drawing of an trainer I did from three years ago, which I traced over recreating the image on another piece of paper and painted over the drawing in black, blue and white water colour paint, therefore recreating the image. 

 

I found the painting interesting, on how it changed the look of the image giving I feel giving the drawing more life a better effect.in the way it looks. I like the painting because I believe the three colours used have been used to good effect, in identifying the different section of the trainer like the lace and the Nike trick, but next time I need to make sure some of the paint does not overlap some of the lines and I need to have more control over what I'm painting over.  

 

This image is of the original drawing the one I traced over.