Drawing Statement

I decided to study the urban environment. To get started I made some Ink drawings of various locations around Leicester that I thought might be interesting. I found myself attracted to areas which are more derelict, such as Frog Island. There I discovered a myriad of run down buildings which became subject of my initial drawings. I was very interested in the structure of the buildings, and the lines which form them. I used India ink as this is a very direct medium, which was great for getting the structural elements of the landscape down onto paper. As a development to my initial drawings I started working on a larger scale (A3), as I found these drawings lend themselves better to larger scales than smaller ones. I felt that some of the previous drawings had no sense of depth to them, so I started using both charcoal and black emulsion to form the drawings. Firstly, I draw out the basic structure with the charcoal, then I go back to the studio to add the black emulsion, which then gives the image it's 3 dimensional-like depth. I have been particularly interested in the electricity pylons which I have encountered while studying the landscape. The Pylons 3 dimensional structures seem to me like skeletons - which made them an fascinating subject for me as i'm looking in particular for interesting structural elements. I decided that I working on a larger scale (A0) was to be the next development. The A0 size allowed me to use the Emulsion paint to its full potential, with a thicker brush encouraging lots of expressive drips to run down. I started using masking tape to add a third layer, as the larger size allowed for more room for wider use of materials. I sought other artists who have applied paint in this fashion, in doing so I came across Franz Kline, whose enormous black and white paintings have confident marks. I started to work much faster and with less carefulness to produce my subsequent pieces. I found that paper was not suitable for the media I was using, and the was I applied it, so I opted to use Cardboard, a much more rugged material to work on top of. The textured corrugated cardboard also made for some interesting marks. I decided to continue studying Pylons and just build upon that idea, rather than diversify the subject matter because I know that Pylons lend themselves well to larger scales. Working with masking tape for my previous pieces proved effective so I experimented with Duct tape. The Duct tape provided a much deeper black than the black emulsion paint, and seems an appropriate material to use to represent the strong steel that forms the structure of the Pylons.Using what I'd discovered from the project I created my final piece, which brings everything together. This is by far the largest piece of cardboard I have used in this project as I feel that it needs to be this size in order to tower over the viewer, just as a Pylon does to people looking at it from the ground. I have used a craft knife to cut away sections and paste them around, further adding to the layers of the piece. The speed and vigor I have applied the materials mirrors the power of the high voltage electricity that runs through the Pylons with such speed and danger.