Gregs Art Blog

This week we started one of our units which I'm really excited about. And that's of course observational drawing. I did this unit in the BTEC course quite a few years ago now and it was one of my stronger units. now that I'm doing it at HNC level I'm expecting more of a challenge  So we came in on Thursday morning and sat down ready to start. we didn't know what to expect. just that we would be drawing. we are then instructed to bring the extra chairs from the second room through which was odd as we had plenty for the students. We then moved all the tables back to make way for all the chairs we brought through. We then we witnessed the creation of a mountain of chairs for us to draw.   This was the first task we were set out to do which was on yesterday. We were to draw using only line work which was an interesting challenge. it made us think more about the definite shapes of the objects and we had to work out perspective. We were given

For our first assignment we were told to choose two painting from a Presentation, which we went through in class. The subject of these paintings was aimed at the female body. It was interesting to see the different approaches the artists took and the different techniques to achieve these great pieces of work. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque , 1814, Oil on canvas, 36" x 63" (91 x 162 cm),   I've chosen to review this painting done by Jean Auguste-Dominique Ingres. I've chosen this painting because it stood out for me amongst the rest that were shown. The main reason is because of the way the subject is positioned so discreetly from the rest. I first thought that most of the work was focused on the background. I thought this while observing the silk curtain, its one of the most realistic parts of the painting. I got a very orental feel about this painting while looking at it. The anatomy of the lady is all over the place, her spi