playbook 1: reflective report

playbook task - initial thoughts

when we were briefed on the playbook task, my first thoughts were that it would be good fun but also a little bit challenging for me. i'm not really used to drawing animals so i was apprehensive about which animal i was going to get and about whether i'd be able to capture it well, but excited to take on that challenge and start drawing exhaustively again (especially after such a long summer break of not drawing so much).


zoo task

my initial drawings for the zoo task weren't my favourites. i was still unsure about whether i liked my animal and trying to figure out what the best way to draw it was. but, in retrospect i understand how important they were for me to do. i actually really enjoyed drawing multiples - i felt that i was studying it and really getting to know it the more i drew it and i found that by the end of 100 drawings i would have been happy to carry on making. 

looking back, some of my favourite illustrations are the ones where i have used mixed media; which isn't really surprising to me because i find that that's a way of working i'm constantly drawn to. i really enjoy using different materials and making textures to work with. these particular ones i really like because they're fun, they're cute and most importantly, they capture the elegance and softness i could see in all those okapi reference pictures i was looking at. 
in saying that though, i've started to feel like these are looking a little bit like they are catered towards children. i'm not sure if I think that because I've looked at them too many times or because it has some truth in it. either way, i'm not too sure that's a quality i like to see in my own work. 

besides that, i was also really happy with the simple pencil drawings of the okapi I did; the ones where they were starting to look like characters and less reference-based/observational. you can tell they are still informed by reference photographs but they're also beginning to look more charismatic, which i really like.

grassington field trip

these were possibly my least favourite drawings so far. i found it really difficult to draw from nature in the rain and wind. my sketchbook was A4 and quite flimsy so i felt really awkward trying to draw on it. i would 100% bring a smaller, hard-back sketchbook if I were to draw outside again. 

i think they have some level of charm to them but they're simple drawings and there aren't as many of them as i was expecting to do. i feel like i need to try to do observational drawing out in nature again to overcome the challenges i found this time around. 
i thought of using some of the pictures i had taken on the day to draw from, but ended up deciding against it because it would defeat the point of the trip, which was obviously to draw from real life.

on observational drawing and drawing from reference

i like observational drawing because it's fun but also really difficult. it forces you to focus and to really take in what's in front of you. it's also a way to show the world through your eyes in the most authentic and organic way possible. i feel that with pictures it's very easy to resort to photo-realistic ways of working that are often boring lacking personality. when you're drawing from life, your drawing is never going to look the same as someone else's and there's something quite special about that.

on the other hand, i also really appreciate drawing from reference because it allows me to understand the dynamics of subjects that i might not understand or have access to. it would have been difficult for me to find real okapi to draw from, so it was really helpful to use found imagery to inform the drawings that i was making.