Still Life Creations
Our SDS task for our visual studies class asked us to create two outcomes from what we had learnt in class that day, but apply our chosen artist’s techniques to them.
As my artist is Ed Ruscha, I began thinking about certain mediums like acrylic paint and bold, graphic structures to create drawings in his technique. However, when it came to constructing the composition of my two still lives I struggled to gather objects that I felt reflected Ruscha’s work, as he mostly used words and buildings like gas stations. I would have liked to use some sort of map, but I did not have any lying around my home so I resorted to other ideas.
My first still life consists of a card that states “YASSSS”, which I thought was perfect to reflect Ruscha as his style is characterised by these big and graphic words. I then placed 3 small bean bags around the card with colours that arranged well with the composition, while also considering the idea of having block colouring to further showcase Ruscha’s visual ideas. This composition is quite simplistic, which is what I prefer when I’m drawing, as I find it easier to recreate linework when I sketch. I used acrylic paint pens to make this drawing, as I did not have acrylic paints. This was my first time experimenting with acrylic paint pens and they were not what I expected. I thought the tips would be thicker than they were, therefore imitating a brushstroke, but the tips of these pens were quite thin, despite having an acrylic paint texture to them. Because of this, I was unable to achieve the fully block-coloured outcome I was going for and ended up only shading in some sections with lines and scribbles of colour to somewhat gain that effect. I think if I were to try this again, I would invest in acrylic paint to fully achieve the look I was going for and stay true to Ruscha’s technique.
Throughout all these drawing tasks, I am also discovering I’m quite bad at placing things into proportion and often misunderstand the sizing and placement of objects in the compositions I create which can affect the balance of the overall drawing. I’m thinking, to resolve this, I should create a grid over the top of the composition I am drawing off of by taking a photo of it and editing a grid over it, as well as simulate the grid onto my actual piece of paper to ensure my proportions stay in check.
For my second still life composition, I placed a pair of decorative ceramic shoes on a windowsill and captured a small snippet of the nature outside in the top part of the shot. From this, I aimed to hint at Ruscha’s use of landscape in his work and thought the shoes were a nice nod as a fashion element of the composition. To create this, I used a mixture of mediums including watercolour pens, fine liners and collage.
Admittedly, the still life compositions I created are arguably not very still life. I think that just comes from my minimalistic nature when it comes to art and design – I don’t like to overcomplicate things to a point where they become unachievable because then I let myself down. In saying this, I could also be lacking giving myself a challenge when it comes to my physical artistic abilities, but because design isn’t a pathway I’m considering, drawing as a skill has always just been on the backburner for me as more of a hobby than a career choice.
Overall, I did not particularly enjoy this SDS task as it didn’t pertain to my personal skillset and I found it quite difficult to come up with still life ideas. However, I am not too disheartened by this experience as I was able to experiment with new materials I have never used before like acrylic paint pens, and keep persisting with heightening my drawing skills. I think I’d like to attempt this task with a different artist if I were to recreate it in the future as I don’t think Ruscha particularly dealt with still life a lot or objects.