Exercise 1.1

Getting into the zones.

Take an A1 sheet of paper and draw a circle (30cm) in the middle, write inside the circle a list of things you like, experiences you enjoy and feel comfortable with.

Now draw two larger circles (40 & 50cm) in the large circle write things you don’t like and stress you out, be expansive as possible.

Reflect on the completed exercise, reflect on your current creative practise and begin to identify new things you would like to develop through this course.

Respond to the questions below, pick ones to answer, or add your own question.

What areas would you like to develop further?

What things make you uncomfortable?

What do you enjoy doing?

Where do you want to start?

How do you think you can review your progress?

I started this exercise by drawing in my sketchbook the circles as specified, I didn’t have A1 paper and thought I could still achieve the outcome with out it.

Here is my drawing:-

What do you enjoy?

Sunshine, nature, animals, flowers, fashion, interior design, dark chocolate, cosy throws, maxi dresses, BBQ’s, drawing, painting, chicken, pizza, seaside, bath’s, Paris, Cotswolds, perfume.

What things make you uncomfortable?

scary movies, beef, lamb, kiwi fruit, the colour black, sport on tv, football, long car journeys, ice on the ground, slime, rap music, restrictions, thunder, rats, swearing, dust, spider webs, snakes, grit, hats, shell fish, itch fabrics, thorns, spiders, being ill, bad smells, history, Russia, America, the cold, drawing whole scenes.

What areas would you like to develop further?

I would like to improve on drawing whole scenes for illustrations, Having learnt surface pattern design in the last few years, I used to drawing elements, motifs one off illustrations that I can take into Illustrator and Photoshop and layer up into patterns. I would like to concentrate more on whole scenes like in illustrating children’s books.

I have found drawing people difficult in the last few years, but have overcome this in the last year, so I feel I am now able to move onto the next phase and pull all my motifs, elements together to create a whole page spread. I have started this in the last few months by taking part in Folktale week, I produced 4 whole illustrations which I loved, completely out of my comfort zone, and some of the prompts included a few of my uncomfortable things.

Where do you want to start?

I would like to start with pulling together my illustrations to create scenes, even if I make a back story up for the illustrations so I have something to work towards.

I could incorporate scary things that I don’t like that could help to help me overcome some of my uncomfortable things.

How do you think you can review your progress?

I would keep all of the pictures I created and could look back on them, to learn from them and also to see improvement’s. I would also try out different short courses or challenge’s that I can take part in to push me forward and take me out of my comfort zone.

Reflections

I think the main thing that came out of this exercise is that I like to draw happy things, be positive, sunshine, cute animals, beautiful flowers, yummy food, nice smells. etc.

I need to draw more scary, dark, negative things, and to put these into full scenes or story’s. Also I noticed that I draw more things aimed at women and girls, and should draw more things for men and boys.

I found this exercise interesting, it also helps you to define what your comfortable with and what your not, and also what your used too and what your not.