Assignment 1: Tutor report

I received my first OCA tutor report yesterday.  To my great relief, it didn’t say ‘what on earth are you thinking of… you can’t do this!’  Nope, not even once. Here’s what it… Continue reading →

Reflection: Thoughts between one part and the next

With Part 1 of the course behind me, and Part 2 beckoning, it seems a good time to reflect and look forward… Part 1 was many things. New – I hadn’t studied for… Continue reading →

Exhibition visit: BP Portrait Award 2012

It’s not often I have the opportunity to get to exhibitions – certainly nowhere near as often as I would like.  This is partly due to living where I do (in South Devon,… Continue reading →

Assignment 1: Check and log/Reflection

Did you do enough preliminary work before starting on your final pieces? In general, I would say I did.  In the case of both my finished pieces, I found that I changed my… Continue reading →

Assignment 1: Made objects

  I’d had the idea for what to use in this drawing some time ago (and actually wrote it down at the time… a practise I’m trying to adopt increasingly).  The boots struck… Continue reading →

Assignment 1: Natural forms

One thing this first assignment taught me – it would be possible to plan forever.  Past a point, however, planning becomes procrastination.  Eventually, it’s necessary to put pen/pencil/pastel/tool of choice to paper.  I… Continue reading →

Check and log: Enlarging an image

How successful were you in copying the lines from the smaller squares to the larger squares? I think I copied them reasonably well, in that there are no glaring disparities.  Sometimes, when working… Continue reading →

Exercise 20: Enlarging a simple flat image

Select three or four objects and make a quick sketch of them.  Then transfer the image square by square as in the previous exercise. This exercise was marginally easier than the previous one,… Continue reading →

Exercise 19: Enlarging an existing drawing

Draw a thumbnail sketch of a simple object in your sketchbook.  Draw a grid of squares in pencil over your sketch.  Draw another grid of larger squares on a larger piece of paper,… Continue reading →