Drawing Statement.

Drawing Statement

This series of work is focused on gravity as it is an element that is there but is unseen, without it the world would be different. I wanted to try a variety of ways to see how materials can be manipulated by gravity, from the techniques of dripping down the page to the media being forced on the paper. My original starting point was animals as they are part of everyday living; they are in everyday life from birds to dogs. The fact that animals are different to humans interested me but animals have some characteristics that are similar to humans. What appeals to me the most are birds and butterflies as they are defying gravity by having the ability to fly and I wanted to show them being weighted down by gravity in my work.

The artist Marc Allante has influenced me as he uses the same subject and idea of gravity as myself. His work is controlled as you can see the structure of his animals yet uncontrolled due to the dripping of the ink. I have learnt that by using the correct colour and mixing it well it can produce the characteristics and personality of the animal, something that I am trying to portray in my work, so that the animal leaps off the page. From looking at Allante I have tried to follow the idea of fusing colours together and by letting the gravity marks do the speaking, it doesn’t have to be perfect as the viewer can interpret it. 

The media I had chosen was watered down paint and ink as it makes interesting marks when making contact with the paper and the pattern that it makes when mixing together is interesting as they have different densities. I originally dripped watercolour down a piece of paper in the shape of an animal as it shows the effects of gravity and the elongated paper. However I also used stencils as it gives the viewer the basic information of an animal without revealing too much, it makes the audience work for the image and to piece together all the facts. By experimenting with these two techniques it allowed me to understand the idea of controlled and uncontrolled. Controlled in the aspect of designing the stencil and uncontrolled as gravity effects where the marks are place. I chose the colours red and black as they are dominant colours that are fighting for control, the opposite of the qualities of birds and butterflies which are delicate and elegant. I want the viewer to understand that not everything is accurate and that somethings can be hidden, not everything has to be revealed for them to understand the image.