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Research & Reflection, Uncategorized3 Comments

What are you looking at? by Will Gompertz

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Subtitled 150 years of modern art in the blink of an eye, this is not for the purists but it is for me. So much so that I have all three versions – audio, kindle, and paperback; one to listen to while mooching around, one for its search, links, and notes facilities, and one to flick through when neither of the others will do. I have the kind of memory that places something on a page – bottom left, middling-ish on the right, that sort of thing. I can do it with ebooks so long as the font stays the … Continue reading What are you looking at? by Will Gompertz

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Part 3 project 5 exercise 4 – statues

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’m not a fan of statues. Too often they represent a defunct empire, colonialism, and men men men men men (to quote Mary Beard in a documentary some time last year). That or delicate flower women, often with a naked breast or two on display if not actually totally in the buff. I make an exception for the ones that move if you shut your eyes … From Dr Who episode 10, Blink. BBC 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByPrDPbdRhc accessed 28/04/19. There are some beauties though, or at least the detail and the skill that went into the execution of them. I’m thinking particularly … Continue reading Part 3 project 5 exercise 4 – statues

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Part 3 project 5 exercise 1 townscape

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’m using my own photos for these as standing still or sitting in unsuitable seating is problematic due to a back injury, and keeping hold of items such as drawing implements and sketchbook tricky due to Dupuytren’s contractures in both hands. I also need glasses to see the page and sunglasses in bright light which is an incompatible combination. These are largely inconveniences most of the time but, in these circumstances, comprise an impediment to on-the-hoof sketching. Luckily, I often take photos and I have quite a few suitable ones. This first sketch though, is from a paused dashcam video … Continue reading Part 3 project 5 exercise 1 townscape

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Part 3 project 4 exercise 1 – parallel perspective

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Parallel perspective is the one that goes straight down the middle of the ‘page’ towards a vanishing point somewhere uncomplicatedly just ahead. The task is to draw an interior and, as luck would have it, I already did. It formed part of a series of indoor sketches and I chose to develop one of those on A2 cartridge. These were 5-10 minute round-the-house sketches; quick and dirty, as it were. I used Prisma colour pencils for this first one. This is white charcoal on pink sugar paper, looking through the doorway at my sofa. White charcoal again on purple sugar … Continue reading Part 3 project 4 exercise 1 – parallel perspective

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Part 1 – piece of fruit

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

At the moment, there’s just an apple so – here’s a progression of apples. I’ve used just four colours: cadmium red, cadmium yellow, violet, and cadmium green, (all student grade Royal & Langnickel so not very pigment dense) along with just one brush, a Royal & Langnickel size 6 which is soft, flat, and not very large so ok for A4 size and the little bit of detail I want to trickle in. After letting it dry a little, I added more colour from the same palette then scraped lines into the wet paint with a pebble (a Catalyst W-01). … Continue reading Part 1 – piece of fruit

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Assignment 3 – outdoor scene preparatory work

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I think I’m working my way towards using the underneath of the bypass for this. I liked the exploratory sketches and the brutal nature of the concrete, which has nevertheless been appropriated by humans, and how it sits in the middle of a natural environment of clay, rocks, uncultivated vegetation, and water. It’s often dripping; the sounds under there echo; the traffic rumbles and thuds above. Today, I was on the far side from where I’d taken those initial photos and I could hear music. It was coming from the vicinity of a man who was sitting on the river … Continue reading Assignment 3 – outdoor scene preparatory work

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Sketch book: tone and Morandi

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I should number these. Maybe. Anyway. After a tutorial and the advice about practicing tone, I’ve taken to an H grade pencil and a piece of conte. For this first exercise, I’ve made horizontal lines first then gone back and made vertical ones. The top two rows are H grade pencil and the bottom two, black conte. The texture of the paper comes through, which I like. This one is just conte and capitalising on the support as a medium in its own right. The top is an attempt at a graded sweep across the page, and the middle a … Continue reading Sketch book: tone and Morandi