For this exercise I had to draw either a cat or a dog, the first image was to be drawn with some realism and accuracy, the second just with 5 lines, the third was to be a collage. Once they was complete I had to redraw the collage adding context and a background.
I chose a French Bulldog as they have a great expression and character. It was that I wanted to capture.
I found an image online, it was actually a toy or a sculpture but it had a nice pose and was looking up, showing off his jowls.
This was the first image.
The next part was the 5 lines, these could be joined. I’m not sure if I broke the rules here but I told myself if the pen wasn’t lifted it counted as one line no matter the complexity of the stroke. I drew the bare minimum that was needed to convey the shape and character of the dog (we named it Frank). I was pretty happy with this approach, it still looked like a dog and the same character was present despite a more economic approach to the line.
The next image was the collage, I really enjoyed this. I had been collecting magazines after reading about this section before I started, so I knew there was a collage coming up. I poured through the magazines for texture and did a separate pass for blocks of flat colour. I separated them into two piles and then divided the flat colour pile into different hues. I began by gluing the flat colour down the I tried to blend the colours so it went from red to orange to yellow. I then cut that out into a dog shape. Next I sorted through my texture pile and found some creases, these would serve me well in getting some body and depth to the dog shape such as his belly and legs.
This was the outcome.
Next I had to redraw the collage and add in a background, I decided to use the dogs angle and viewpoint as if he was looking at a bone to eat. Here was the final artwork.
Overall I’m happy with this, it was another project that made me think outside what I’d normally do. It restricted my choices and forced me to approach the exercise in a way I would not normally have done, it did not hamper my creativity.