Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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Perspectives

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This vase is driving me totally squint-eyed. I’m sure I used to have perspective nailed but from this evidence, clearly not. The proportions are out too and the one on the left doesn’t fit onto the page again. Nice colours though. So how can I tackle this? Take a photo, cut out the silhouette and draw from that to get a feel for it? Put in vanishing points and set the object within those? Go back to some of those exercises in perspective? All of the above? Since I only have one ruler and it never seems to be where … Continue reading Perspectives

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Assignment 1 tutor feedback

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’d forgotten how containing feedback can be, especially when the subject matter and structure are unfamiliar, so this was very welcome and encouraging, and also gave me direction that I hadn’t managed to extract from the course materials. Frankly, having underlined almost the entire feedback document, I’m struggling with what to extract and respond to. It’s all relevant and I have to say, the pointers you’ve given – artists Paula Rego, Anita Taylor, William Kentridge, and the body of work cast as Symbolism – could hardly be more up my street, I’ve been totally nailed at the first encounter! Then … Continue reading Assignment 1 tutor feedback

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Assignment 1 reductive reworking

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’m embarking on some re-working here on tutor advice to see if I can pull the objects out of the background, which she absolutely nailed as having been applied last. Truth is, I’d run out of road and I wanted it gone in order to get some initial feedback. I’ve learned a bit since then, and I’ve also been let off the lead a little too, so I feel able to give this a better grade of attention. I take photographs of almost everything I do, sometimes because I can pull out a detail from an otherwise mundane piece and … Continue reading Assignment 1 reductive reworking

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Reductive drawing

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’d heard of this but not quite taken on its meaning which is, somewhat biblically, to bring light out of darkness, unlike redaction which does the opposite with regard to information you’d quite like to get your eyes on. My tutor pointed me at Anita Taylor and William Kentridge who both use charcoal as a base from which to pull detail using an eraser, and I found Mark Hufford’s neat demonstration video of his technique. I’ve used erasers quite a lot in the past and seen them as a drawing tool rather than an instrument for correcting mistakes. But I … Continue reading Reductive drawing

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There’s a cow in the basement …

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

… what are ya gonna do? Luvvit, that’s what! This is, let’s call her Muriel, whose first job was to illustrate a story called The Bridge in Not Being First Fish, and who today has joined several cats and a sheep at The Basement93 in Steyning. Here’s the rest of the gang. You can have a flick through the book and if you like what you see (read), you can nip across the road to get a copy at the Steyning Book Shop, otherwise you can click your way over to that there Amazon. From February 1st, the gallery will be … Continue reading There’s a cow in the basement …

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Grey scale exercise(s)

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Probably the first of several so I’ll collect them here. Hopefully, I’ll remember to come back! I’m still besotted with gesso so this is a pre-prepped A5 sheet in a sketchbook on which I’d blended dark grey charcoal before applying the gesso. The next day (today), I used each of a series of graded charcoals to make the boxes, finger-blending line 1, cross-hatching line 2, and describing small circles in line 3. Line 4 is the black and the white crayons applied with different pressures to give graded tones. I’ve done this with pencil on a previous course but need … Continue reading Grey scale exercise(s)

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Part 2, Project 2, Exercise 3 mixed media

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

After some very helpful feedback from my tutor who, in essence, said to just get on and experiment [apologies if I’ve made an interpretation of convenience there!], this is an A3 piece, gesso prepped, and then layered up with pastels and oil crayons. I’ve also dribbled and dabbed inks onto the red vase in homage to the pattern it has across the front. I’m very fond of what gesso does to a surface as there are so many surprises that I can capitalise on with the subsequent layers. Some of them can be a little inconvenient – that patch to … Continue reading Part 2, Project 2, Exercise 3 mixed media

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Part 2, Project 3, exercise 3

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Experimenting with mixed media. I should be in my element here as I’ve never been afraid to mix anything with anything else – gouache and pencil and ink and acrylic and bits of collage and sometimes a drag or two of oil pastel. I’m guessing some sort of discipline about choice might be more important in this task though. I’ve begun by applying a coarse layer of acrylic gesso on a sheet of A2 cartridge because I like the texture it provides and the way it holds all sorts of media, although I haven’t tried with inks or pencil yet. … Continue reading Part 2, Project 3, exercise 3

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Part 2, Project 3, Exercise 3

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Replicated from a previous post in which my ability to keep track of my parts, projects, and exercises was exposed to be lacking. After some tutor feedback encouraging experimentation (also ‘try not to make a picture’ but let’s park that one for now!), this is what throwing acrylic gesso-prepped support [<– new word for my artist’s lexicon], pastels, oil pastels, and inks looks like in a first draft [is there a word for that?]. The white strokes down the centre are new gesso as I’d messed up (in my view) the transition between the first object and the second. When … Continue reading Part 2, Project 3, Exercise 3

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Art and politics

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

There’s no credit for this image on the Facebook page so I’ve clipped the whole post and added a link. I find this profoundly moving, skilful, and so simply, alarmingly, graphically on point. Science fiction has produced numerous stories of the environmental apocalypse of our own making [unfortunately I can’t put my finger on one for now] but this sculpture is the best illustration I’ve seen. I like art to have meaning, which is not to say I need it always to make political points or to be in-your-face emotional wrecking balls, just to say something that prompts a bit … Continue reading Art and politics