Tutor report Assignment 5

Formative feedback

Student name	Clara Maciulis	Student number	513759
Course/Unit	Drawing 1: Drawing skills	Assignment number	5
Type of tutorial	(eg video/audio/written)		Written

Overall Comments

Congratulations on completing the Drawing Skills unit, Clara. Your part 5 personal project is well considered, explorative, but with intention. You’ve produced a bold, dynamic series of work, culminating your ideas but allowing room to push and pursue things further in your learning going forward. Well done. You are allowing your research to inform your work and as a result can contextualise your own practice.

 

Feedback on assignment

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

The yoga mat drawings are process rather than product based, the activity of drawing being of central importance, when you used the charcoal on your hands and feet this connected you to your work and subject matter. It may be worth considering video if performance pieces are something you wish to pursue further, have a look at some artists such as Marina Abramovic, the Yves Klein Anthropometry paintings and even consider the likes of Cindy Sherman and Sherin Neshat  as artists to explore in more detail.

I am curious to explore the work of these performance artists. The yoga mat series happened rather spontaneously, out of an urge to express the feeling of the movement during the yoga asana directly. But I am curious where this new path can go.

Your flip book animation is another innovative piece, I enjoyed being able to interact with your work. This whole submission allows me the viewer to really engage. It is a simple work but successful.

Thank you!

 

There are some deeper issues beginning to be explored around feminism/post feminism in your work. I can see the beginnings of exploration about the female image in your collage works. Ensure to read or view the series on youtube of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, also read Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. Review dadaism and the history of collage. Look at artists such as Hannah Hoch and Barbara Kruger.

Happy to have so many things to look at and directions to explore! Collage is definitely something I would like to continue experimenting with.

Again the action of unfolding your concertina sketchbook involved me the viewer in the work, in the same way I unrolled the yoga mat drawings and flipped through the sketchbook. You executed this as a continuous line drawing and the result is successful.

 

In this body of work you have experimented with scale and media. There was a danger of becoming illustrative but you avoided it. You’ve reigned in your ideas, sticking with a singular theme and refining your ideas by using your research to inform. As mentioned before you have the beginnings of something to explore and experiment further with.

This makes me so happy to read!

Sketchbooks

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

You continued your development and understanding of the human form in your sketchbooks. Looking at stance, movement and gesture. Continue to work in your sketchbooks right up to the point of submission for assessment.

Research

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis

You’ve selected relevant artist’s work to look at, reflecting about what you like and think works well. Continue to push and delve deeper with your critical thinking as you progress through your studies. Have a look at the book How to write about contemporary art. Great that you are allowing your research to inform your practice, continue to do this, learn from doing.

 

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis

Within your artist’s statement you mention you are after a personal drawing experience so although you use yoga as inspiration your work is not about yoga. I think you have been successful in your attempts bringing depth and meaning to your drawings, they are visceral and as you refine and define your ideas further they too will develop.

 

Your blog is easy to follow and your images clear. You are beginning to focus your writing and research, honing in on the important elements. Continue to aim for clear, concise, relative blog posts about your work, be the critic and the artist.

Suggested reading/viewing

Context

I have mentioned some further artists and reading within the body of the report for you to look at in your own time. This is just the beginning of your learning journey so continue exploring and experimenting. Keep working at the technical drawing skills, learn the rules first and then you can break them!

Yes! still a lot of work here 🙂

Pointers for the next assignment

• Reflect on this feedback in your learning log.
• Keep up your sketchbook practice right up to the point of submission.
• Consider how best to present your work for assessment.

Please inform me of how you would like your feedback for the next assignment.   Written or video/audio

Congratulations on completing the unit!

Tutor name	Joanne Mulvihill-Allen
Date	19 August 2017
Next assignment due	N/A

This last assignment report for this course by my tutor Joanne Mulvihill Allen is so encouraging! I felt a little anxious about sending in an assignment with much experimentation and not really any outstanding final piece, so I am very happy that exploring different scales and media was recieved positively. And this report offers a lot of  suggestions, so many new exciting artists to discover and paths to explore- I am really excited to continue !

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Assignment 5

Exploring the human figure through yoga asanas (postures)

In this chapter, I was drawing through a series of yoga postures gathering ideas that I aim to explore now, through a more free and experimental approach.

RED SERIES- watercolor and phototransfer:

DEEP BACKBENDS- The fearbird

“The fearbird” is a personal symbol that comes back to me often, a flutter of wings in the chest when going into deep backbends, and then the release when the pose is completed. A flock of birds, or wings or the stiff frozen bird of fear are images that have often appeared in my drawings before and it is an idea I want to continue exploring.

Here I am in Laguvajrasana imagining a flock of birds released from my heart.

 

I make a series of experiments in A4 of different deep backbends- inspired by Louise Bourgeois using red watercolor:

It is definitely the last one that I will keep developing. I see the figure in watercolor as it is now, with the “fearbird” as a foto transfer of a flock of real birds. Here some small tests:

ROOTS

Roots growing through my feet or hands is another image that comes up in several poses like where the contact to the Earth is very dominant. It could be a close up of only the hands or feet with the roots growing.

Finally I crop the figure til only the feet are left- standing still in Samastitih- equal standing- stability and roots.

 

Roughly drawn shapes in watercolor (Louise Bourgeois, Marlene Dumas). But then I am attracted to the mix of the more illustrative feet of the last drawing, combined with the abstract shape of roots or connection.

I am testing various other wet on wet or watercolor approaches, but will stick to the red version with the fototransfer of the birds.

A third image I want to develop is Garbha Pindasana- the embryo in the womb pose. The name alone lends itself to a lot of imagination.

I am exploring how this can work in a series:

But it is definitely this version I want to develop:

This seemed to all fit very well til I got more experimental with the first posture- Garbha Pindasana and realize it really looks weird and difficult to understand if you are not very familiar with the pose (A4):

I will change for Balasana- the childs pose- a similar message but a simpler shape:

 

These are the final drawings in A4:

In a series it looks like this (3xA4) :

 

I am happy I experimented with fototransfer and explored the postures much more loosely and less detailed, it feels like new territory again. I am rather happy with the two drawings to the right, the feet and the backbend. The womb pose does not quite work yet.

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YOGA MAT DRAWINGS

In this experiment I wanted to explore the movement of the yoga practice without focusing on the external shape it takes. So I cut brown packaging paper the size of my yogamat.

And was drawing the marks left by my hands and feet on this mat. In this first version I was simply outlining the hands and feet with a black Uniball pen while moving through the yoga sequence. In the end I added white ink to clarify some surfaces:

Here are some details I really like:

 

I like the ghostlike character of the lines, but decided to try out a thicker blacker line so I switched to charcoal sticks instead:

and some details:

Here the smearing of the charcoal created some surface and I like this mix of multiple lines and some tone.

For these two drawings I kept interrupting the practice though, to outline the hands and feet, and now I wanted to experiment with covering my hands and feet with charcoal so that I could leave marks while moving fluidly:

Details:

This felt wonderful to draw, and I think you can feel the movement, but it all got very smeared. Lastly I added some outlines of the feet in white charcoal to bring back some clearer shape. I am quite happy with this mix of flow and line.

Lastly I repeat the same experiment stepping into acrylic paints, to try and keep the fluidity while preserving the marks as well:

Details:

In the end I dripped paint and ink over the marks, Jackson Pollock like. This version was really fun but the result is chaotic.

Finally I could of course not resist a photo session of my paint covered feet:

I am really happy with these yoga mat drawings. More with the process than with the results. It feels very much in line with my intention to explore this subject from a personal experiential place, rather than just looking at the shapes of the postures. It was  a very creative and spontaneous process that feels freeing and joyful.

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BACKDROP mini animation

I was looking at the series of picture of moving figures by Eadweard Muybridge, and experiencing my first backdrop after a long break- and practicing gesture drawing with action lines… Til it all came together in the idea of this small book of animation.

Every page has one part of the movement of dropping back. Flicking through the book creates a mini animation of the movement with the figure dropping back and standing up again. This blog does not allow videos… but maybe the idea is clear through these photos:

The backdrop happens twice in the booklet, dropping back, down, up, back down and up again.

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COLLAGE AND LINE – cutting through yoga magazines

Despite my keen interest in the subject, it is rare that I read yoga magazines. I used to work in fashion a life time ago, and I guess I have just had my share of idealized, beautified versions of women, of body, of life. I even feel a little frustrated flipping through these magazines now, but feel satisfaction at ripping them apart and cutting body parts out. As I have mentioned before, my experience of yoga is definitely not only one of serene smiles in the midst of lotus flowers, but rather a tool in working out some rather dark corners. Inspired by the work of Wangeshi Mutu, here I am swinging the scissors for some collage combined with drawings, all A4:

Cosmic Warrior Mama:

Natureasana:

Creatureasana:

Blissful eye:

I like the slick, clean look of leaving the background white and the figures standing out with a clear shape in the 3 first pages, so I decide to stop here. Originally I had some ideas of adding ink splashes or watercolor, but this “clean look” attracts me more. It also links back to the magazine world of beauty images.

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ONE LINE FLOWING THROUGH THE SERIES- A CONCERTINA BOOK

Similarly to when I discovered Tracy Emin, when I first looked at Chloe Piene’s drawings, I could really not appreciate them. But now having tried to draw similarly, I start seeing the beauty of them and how they have a very personal language.

Here I have interpreted yogaposes with a ragged flowing loose line, inspired by her work, all A5 :

Downward dog and backbend- these are my favourites and in orange just to try something different. Chloe Pienes drawings are always in black.

 

Lagu Vajrasana and shoulder stand:

Utthita Hasta Padangustasana standing and Paschimottanasana, seated forward bend:

It was again very freeing to use this wild crazy line .

And from here came the idea to draw one line through the series, connecting pose with pose like the breath connects the movement. For this I will use my small concertina sketchbook, that will then unfold to reveal the whole series in one line.

I start by sketching out the “correct” poses ligthly in pencil and then draw with the wilder free line in black pens. This is not the series as I would practice them, it is a sequence that unfolded drawing it.

It is not so easy to photograph- but the end result is a concertina sketchbook with 32 panels:

As it happened over a long period of time, the line is quite different and even in different pens. At times I think it comes close to Chloe Piene’s wobbly line, at times more strict and straight with geometrical elements and at times very “sketchy”.

This is how the series look:

And some close ups of my favorite moments:

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For assignment 5 , I connected two parts of my life that I love- drawing and yoga. I learned a lot about both! It has been very useful to continue with figure drawing. I love drawing the human body and will definitely continue learning here.

I was afraid I would fall straight into cliches about yoga art with this subject, but although my drawings are still too illustrative at times, I believe I avoided the most obvious pitfalls- not a single “OMmmmm” sign here!

I have really enjoyed looking closer at several contemporary artists work and let myself be inspired to explore their techniques or styles. My approach has become looser and more spontaneous through all these different experiments.

Through this assignment, I created the opportunity to use various media and combinations like watercolor with fototransfer and collage with line drawing, and also very different supports- from yoga mat sized drawings to two different series in tiny books.

Gesture drawing

Practicing gesture drawing again to learn more about the human figure in movement. Here I am focusing on the lines of action.

From online resources, 1 and 2 minute quick drawings:

 

Then I continued with focusing on yoga poses and their line of action.

 

 

Here some quick gesture drawing of poses from the primary series from memory:

Artists for Part 5

Louise Bourgeois, Marlene Dumas, Elizabeth Peyton, Wangechi Mutu, Chloe Piene

My tutor Joanne Mulvihill- Allen has suggested several artists whose work could be inspiring for my approach to Part 5.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS

Why am I so touched by Louise Bourgeois drawings?

I do not feel the same for the sculptures , but the drawings have such a personal vulnerable quality that really connects to my own fears and vulnerability.

They seem so quickly loosely scribbled, but just on the spot touch that sense of beauty while being scary and unsettling at the same time.

 

I wrote about Louise Bourgeois in an earlier post this year, after seeing her room at the Tate Modern in London and had to create a new category for that- the human figure- emotions. Although I felt a certain fascination then as well, I am observing how much deeper I am touched now.

Even her “patterns” or “scribbles” take organic shapes that resonate with some inner organs and movement.

Inspired by discovering these drawings again, I will experiment with drawing the poses of Assignment 5 in red watercolor and approach the form much more fluidly and less detailed than I have til now.

Momaorg. 2017. Momaorg. [Online]. [13 July 2017]. Available from: https://www.moma.org/explore/collection/lb/themes

MARLENE DUMAS

The south African artist Marlene Dumas uses all kind of photographs -portraits and figures- from newspapers and magazines as a starting point, then translates them into her very personal paintings by cropping, the choice of colours and mixing of several approaches in the same painting, like spots and splashes, blurred parts, scribbled, sketched sections and more.

 

In the above series “Models” she explores beauty models but also women that she considers role models, like Gertude Stein.

I really enjoy this loose, not detailed almost monochrome paintings and how they work in a series. It reminds me of the series of women by Tina Berning I wrote about earlier in this course.

She uses a similar language for figures and nudes- the shapes hinted at, the paint bleeding, some details standing out. This again is something I would like to explore directly for the Assignment 5 postures.

She often explores the theme of death or sorrow through various angles, like finding modern images of la Pieta in photographs of war or disaster zones.  Here is a self portrait as a skull that she drew to illustrate an interview with her in the magazine Zeit:

 

Marlenedumasnl. 2017. Marlenedumasnl. [Online]. [26 June 2017]. Available from: http://www.marlenedumas.nl/

Marlenedumasnl. 2017. Marlenedumasnl. [Online]. [26 June 2017]. Available from: http://www.marlenedumas.nl/wp-content/uploads/D-2015-Zeit-Magazin-short.pdf

ELISABETH PEYTON

I wrote a post about Elisabeth Peyton for Part 4- the face, where I focused more on her paintings with blocks of bold colors:

I think I was initially a little disturbed by the fact that she paints mostly famous artists or royalty, often from photographs, but now I have listened to a few of her talks and interviews and feel that I understand her attraction and curiosity. She is fascinated by stars as creators, as people who really make great things, and by how their genius and creativity shines through their features- which is what Elisabeth Peyton is capturing.

In her drawings I found a lot of the finished/unfinished balance that am drawn to experiment with.

I love how she focuses on the features, which is what fascinates her, and then leaves the rest of the drawing uncolored and “unfinished”.

Gladstonegallerycom. 2017. Gladstonegallerycom. [Online]. [17 April 2017]. Available from: http://www.gladstonegallery.com/artist/elizabeth-peyton/work

WANGECHI MUTU

Contrary to the sparse reduced works of Louise Bourgeois or Marlene Dumas above, Wangeshi Mutu’s art is an explosion of information and color and pattern.  She creates fantastic worlds, or fantastic journeys through collage and drawing.

I am really fascinated by Wangeshi Mutu’s work. It is a combination of pretty and gruesome, of playful and horrendous, with flowers and fantastic creatures mixed with women with chopped off limbs.

I also found myself really enjoying her video works that almost feel like drawings, with one motive unfolding slowly with sound and movement.

http://wangechimutu.com/art/in-motion/

In an interview with the curator of her show at the Brooklyn Museum (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux0C_c08dto), Wangemushi explains that her fictional dreamlike mythlike works express her opinions on questions like gender and colonisation, but they also act as portals for the viewer to access something very personal. This is how I feel when looking at her works- they allow the imagination to dive in and continue creating.

Wangechimutucom. 2017. Wangechimutucom. [Online]. [16 July 2017]. Available from: http://wangechimutu.com/art/in-space/

CHLOE PIENE

“Drawing is the first thing and it is the final thing, so it can encompass everything”

“Drawing is primal, drawing is underneath everything, drawing is your design, your mechanism, your motivation. Drawing is action.”

These are quotes from Chloe Pienes speech seen in the video from the exhibition Drawing now  2015 (you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EM_ky_hkZg)

She explains how the seen and the unseen work together. The figures are floating and also there is no horizon line, so the figure itself totally defines the space, almost as if they are the space themselves.

At first I had a difficult time liking the ragged disjointed drawings of Chloe Piene. After reading more about the artist and hearing her explain the work, I feel more drawn to it and am curious to explore using a very free line.

Chloepienecom. 2017. Chloepienecom. [Online]. [18 July 2017]. Available from: http://chloepiene.com/work.html

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All of the artists I have taken a look at here, inspire to create more freely, with feeling and spontaneity. It is definitely a path away from realism or illustration and I feel inspired to experiment and explore.

 

 

 

 

Yoga in art

With my exploration of the human figure through yoga poses here,  I am searching for a personal drawing experience, just like a yoga experience on the mat, more than drawing beautiful postures. So ” Yoga in art” is not really what I am aiming at. Nevertheless I decide to research this subject and a whole world of esoteric shine and colorful chakras appear, which is mostly what I would like to avoid. Some artists stand out with their very different personal voices though.

JOHN DALTON

Irish- Australian John Dalton explores yogaposes in a series he calls “gently does it”. Every image has elements of geometrical spheres, creating a layer of mystery. I like this combination of abstract pattern and the poses expressed rather vaguely but with a clear sense of how they can feel.

Johndaltonme. 2017. John Dalton – gently does it . [Online]. [20 June 2017]. Available from: http://www.johndalton.me

BOONCHU TANTI

Thai artist Boonchu Tanti is a friend of mine that practices ashtanga yoga with the same teacher, Sharath Jois, and we have met during some of our journeys to India. Maybe I find his cartoon illustrations particularly hilarious as I know the stories behind them well!

What I can learn from Boonchu is to draw every day, to look around with humour and to just draw what he sees and hears.

M.S. ANAND

Indian painter Anand is a master of Tanjali and traditional Mysore style paintings. I had the luck to study with him during my first trip to Mysore, India in 2010.

This type of painting is NOT creative, it is a form of devotion, or for the less religious- meditation. During the classes we students sit crosslegged on the floor and copy painstakingly detailed images of Indian Gods. It takes about a month to paint one image, and the copy does not leave room for any personal interpretation, except by the master. It is he who will add the eyes and eyelashes for example. If the painting is well done, the final touches are then done with real gold leaf, holding our breath while applying tiny tiny pieces of gold leaf.

I was painting an image of the elephant headed God Ganesh and I am not sure I learned much about painting, but it was a magic experience in immersing myself in the culture. I was the only western student, shifting around on the floor of Anands small studio among the sari clad Indian women. On Saturdays, the traditional rest day- Anand would take the whole little group on temple tours.

 

Since then, Anand has become a very famous painter in his genre. Two huge paintings adorn the modern Bangalore airport, painted by him and his now 10 assistants!

 

LESLIE SABELLA

I like the use of pattern and the merging ranges of colour in Leslie Sabellas drawings, although I am not drawn to the too obvious motives of Fatimas hands and meditating figures in lotus posture. I am sometimes a little confused by where to draw the line between illustration and drawing, but these are clearly illustrations.

Truespiritartcom. 2017. Truespiritartcom. [Online]. [22 June 2017]. Available from: http://www.truespiritart.com/

LOVETTA REYES CAIRO

The beauty in the simplicity of these single line drawings of yoga poses by Lovetta Reyes Cairo caught my attention.

They are a perfect example of exploring the line between finished and unfinished- how much can you leave out or crop and still clearly express the shape of the pose?

Loveheartsartcom. 2017. Loveheartsartcom. [Online]. [22 June 2017]. Available from: http://www.loveheartsart.com/gallery/yoga-line-drawings/

CHRIS CARTER

Chris Carter combines a very simple line drawing with watercolour. Again I am drawn to the beauty of the simplicity here and I will explore something similar for my assignment.

Chriscarterartcom. 2017. Chriscarterartcom. [Online]. [22 June 2017]. Available from: http://chriscarterart.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Postures step by step

Here I plan to draw some of the Ashtanga yoga asanas I usually practice physically as an exercise in studying the figure in the postures, and to gather ideas in my sketchbook so as to then let go of these precise forms and allow more experimentation and flow.

Starting point: Samastitih, equal standing.

Raising my arms into “ekam”, the first inhale, feeling the simultaneous pull upwards and downwards, grounding.

Dwi, trini..

I am looking for how the pose FEELS. Here I can see the hands and feet growing roots into the ground, connecting. These roots can dominate the drawing. They are an intricate system of letters and words maybe.

This is me doing Salabasana and upward dog:

I need to take a look at feet and hands..

Downward dog

These above poses are repeated over and over again during the practice. The repetition of these more geometrical simple poses in the same drawing could create interesting patterns and shapes.

The warrior sequence:

Vyrabhadrasanas- the warrior sequence- clearly defining a goal and following it fearlessly. Pointing arrows.

The triangle poses- geometrical again and possible to build together in sequences, patterns. Here I drew the arms too long and think of playing with amplifying that further- long long arm reaching up.

I also just did some fototransfer experiments ( see separate post) and am intrigued by using dense text that can look like skin. The left side pose would be possible to explore with a bodysuit of small patterns /letters/symbols.

Here some trials of that idea using collage and newspaper:

Connecting heaven and Earth, the arm long reaching upwards and the figure merging with the background. The newspaper parts would be a phototransfer of the yoga sutras of Patanjali in sanskrit for example, or possibly newspaper text in Kannada language.

Padangushtasana and Pada Hastasana- they look very similar but feel different. For Padangushtasna I hold on to my toes, for Pada Hastasana the palm of my hands are under my feet.

I drew these above drawings on old pages of exercises in mark-making and really like the effect- I will use some more old drawings as a background.

So here I was just having a little fun with an old drawing of strawberries…With pink yogaposes 🙂 The persons like small insects climbing with their funny poses on the huge stawberries.

Virabhadrasana B- the second warrior pose. Rotating gathering of strength and shooting out towards a goal.

Here I am using a page of sutras in sanskrit from the Fototransfer experiment:

The pose is Utthita Hasta Padangustasana and not very successful, but I really like the skin like texture of the background and possibly the contrast with the pink Uniball pen, but it has to be done differently.

A few more poses.. I don’t see how to develop the upper standing poses further, but a close up of the upper body of Utkatasana could be interesting.

Paschimottanasana:

 

Paschimottanasana is an intense forward bend, cultivating humility and looking inward . This is a recurring old image as well, the feeling of a huge weight placed on the back like a huge stone. Sometimes a Mysore teacher will lay on the back to produce that effect and it maybe looks scary but it feels amazing- like exploring inner corners that were previously hidden. Here I tried it out in pencil, black ink and watercolor.

Kurmasana/ Supta Kurmasana:

 

Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana- the turtle poses-  are the first leg behind the head postures of the primary series. Leg behind the head is an intense hip opener and if the contrary- the backbends- invite to open the heart also emotionally, these poses invite to set clear boundaries and learn to say No. I was playing with the idea of a turtles shell of course because of the name, but will not pursue that.

Prasarita Padottanasana:

Here again I come back to old ideas with the two drawings on the left.  When in this pose, it almost feels like the body gets turned inside out, and there is an intense focus on the space between the shoulderblades. A new “I”, “eye” emerging. And seeing the “fearbird”, my own symbol for hidden fears. This is an idea I definitely need to develop.

Garbha Pindasana:

Garbha Pindasana- the embryo in the womb posture. This is a pose I have never tried drawing before, maybe because it comes easy for me to do but is difficult to draw. Now I see a lot of potential- the name alone brings a lot of ideas.

I can imagine the posture in a womb like bubble, rather dark and around it again old sanskrit texts , maybe trough phototransfer.

Some “womb” experiments. I am not sure what media would be the best yet, but this is a pose I am curious to explore further.

 

Here some more details of hands and feet:

 

Marichyasana A, the first in a series of 4. Here it would be possible to play with some more extreme foreshortening:

Some more hands and feet in various stages of tension:

 

Savasana, the corps pose or simply “take rest” is the last pose of the practice and the last pose I will draw here:

 

Part 5: Written element

Exploring the human figure through yoga asanas (postures)

 

Part 4 of this course showed me how much I love drawing the human figure. Yoga has been part of my life for over a decade and here I want to explore the human form through the yoga practice.

I am used to a daily physical yoga practice, that I have had to pause for a moment. Here  I would like to explore the practice through drawing instead. So I will look at the physical aspect of the poses, and still have so much to learn about drawing anatomy. But more than that, I am interested in how the poses FEEL. Less than exploring yoga as a subject, I am searching for a personal drawing experience, just like a yoga experience on the mat.

I see the danger of falling into too illustrative or too anatomical drawings with this subject, so that is something I want to avoid.  Also , if I look at the representation of yoga in the media, it seems to always be linked to beautiful bodies, blissful smiles and lotus flower filled environments.  While this is true too, in my own experience yoga is also linked to the alarm going off before sunrise and a lot of sweat and pain and discomfort that most serious yoga practitioners I have met take on to deal with their own darkness and feelings and addictions.

In my research , I will focus on artists using real/unreal elements or finished/unfinished parts rather than any yoga related  art, and explore artists that have a more personal and emotional way of drawing, like for example Louise Bourgeois and Marlene Dumas. Inspired by Wangeshi Mutu, I will use collage to reinterpret some found yogarelated images combined with patterns, and drawn elements from imagination. “The fearbird” is a personal symbol that comes back to me often, a flutter of wings in the chest when going into deep backbends, and then the release when the pose is completed. A flock of birds, or wings or the stiff frozen bird of fear are images that will surely appear in the drawings.

The first step is however to better my general drawing skills of the human body . To give this some structure, I will follow the Ashtanga yoga primary and intermediate series of asanas (postures) , which I would normally do physically . I will draw through the asanas as an exercise to learn them, and to gather ideas in my sketchbook, but then let go of the precise form and allow more experimentation and flow.

As for most parts of this course, rather than one single final drawing, I see several different approaches of the subject with various experiments using mixed media, incorporating fototransfer and collage as well as experimenting further with ink drawings and bleach.

The yoga practice is a series of postures so it lends itself to a series of drawings. I plan to create a small series on A4, using watercolor and fototransfer. Then experimenting with  bigger support cutting brown wrapping paper to the size of my yoga mat. And finally to use a small concertina sketchbook to flow through the series.