I knew I wanted a drawing element to my degree show to work alongside the photographic element. In thinking about this side of my practice, I have considered the hierarchies of my drawing. What is most important to me in the work? Is it the line, the tone, the details, the materials, the subject matter, or just the concept?
Returning again to artists such as Rachel Goodyear, I begin to understand the importance of stepping back from filling in every detail and taking time to make decisions on the next marks based on the overall atmosphere and narrative I am aiming to bring forward.
The concept behind the drawings I am currently working on is one of the lost voice of the inner child due to aging and trauma response and also the lost authenticity of the child due to unacknowledged neurodiversity. Initially, I was going to have full drawings, including coloured animals to represent the outer masking of the inner persona. However, upon sketching out the ideas, it quickly became clear that the animals would detract and add too much noise to the important point of the work.
Following this I began the drawings by working on the bit I was most worried about (with a view to it being easier to start over if it all went wrong) and began with the greyscale skin tones with a view to filling in all the other details later. However, after seeing the skin tones in place against the minimalist sketched clothing, there is a part of me that wonders if I want to give much more substance to the rest of it. What does it add? What is the relevance of the clothing in the grand scheme of the narrative?
Portrait artist Alice Neel’s 1965 work James Hunter (Black Draftee) is a brilliant example of listening to the work and knowing when to lay down your paintbrush. The painting was not physically finished, but Neel signed it and displayed it. For her, the emotional story of the piece was complete. The sitter, James Hunter, had just been drafted to the Vietnam War when he sat for the portrait, and his melancholy demeanor at the news is perfectly captured. He never returned to sit for the remainder of the painting.
