Tutor report

Overall Comments

• Electronic submission, followed by video tutorial. [Student lives in USA]

• Work well-organised and easy to navigate.

• Very productive and clearly engaged with studies

• Good grasp of basic print techniques.

• Ability to work with texture. Work with colour will benefit from the use of reference materials.

Assessment potential

You may want to get credit for your hard work and achievements with the OCA by formally submitting your work for assessment at the end of the module. More and more people are taking the idea of lifelong learning seriously by submitting their work for assessment but it is entirely up to you. We are just as keen to support you whether you study for pleasure or to gain qualifications. Please consider whether you want to put your work forward for assessment and let me know your decision when you submit Assignment 2. I can then give you feedback on how well your work meets the assessment requirements.

Feedback on assignment

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

Project 1 First Monoprints

Mark-making. Followed the brief satisfactorily. Greater variety of mark-making would have added interest e.g. wide brushes contrasted with thinner brushes; brush handle lines in specific places rather than all-over. Busy and quite areas a recommended strategy.

Painted monoprints from life. You are already addressing problem of ink drying too quickly, also try printing in stages with a hinged sheet as described by myself.

A good, exploratory and productive effort. As a general rule, keep things simple. Complex images likely to need larger scale.

You may wish to replace your thin glass inking plates with Perspex or acrylic sheet. Much safer.

Project 2 Positive & Negative Masks

Good, workman-like approach to the task. You understood the importance of a simple image.

Project 3 Two-Colour Masks

Two-colour print. You have understood the process.

Variations. Lovely exploratory body of work, well done. The clematis images and the textured pattern images particularly successful. You have grasped the interest that can arise from playing with misalignment. Also, you are able to make textures work together.

The back-drawings are often over-inked. Strip off the surplus with a sheet of newsprint before drawing.

Project 4 Texture & Combination Prints

Again, a very productive response to the brief.

Shoe series lacked forward motion and real interest. Consider subject matter – does it have visual interest in the first place?

Leaf series much more open and experimental, some lovely results.

Skyline series began experimentally, but settled into work which made visual sense, so was a good demonstration of your ability to develop a focus from uncertain beginnings.

Pond series contained some interesting mark-making techniques, which you have used intelligently to differentiate the various pictorial elements e.g. foliage and light/shade. A larger scale would have given more room to move

Work with colour throughout Assignment 1 is rather hit and miss. Instead of inventing, use references. See Suggested reading/viewing below

Sketchbooks

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

These comments include the supporting studies for your print work.

Sketchbook is used correctly as a working tool.

Various pages were discussed. Some good composition on the page. Clearly most comfortable with pencil work. Seek to broaden range of media.

Improvements to cross-hatching technique discussed.

Need to establish visual linkage with reference artists.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

Context

Blog very thorough, well-organised and well written. You value its use.

Content good, covers visual and technical matters, research and reflection. You are also finding your own artists for reference.

You expressed uncertainty as to the meaning of some assessment criteria. These were discussed.

Suggested reading/viewing

Context

Useful colourists:

Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954)

Howard Hodgkin (b. 1932)

Patrick Heron (1920-1999)

Crosshatching:

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Look at his etchings and drawings

Strong, simple composition:

Woodcuts of Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brucke groups

Pointers for the next assignment

Lino cutting safety discussed.

Explore and develop several options. Draw with thick line e.g. marker pen or brush. Select a simple, bold image.

Use reference artists more directly. Learn from and demonstrate this in sketchbook.