16 February 2021

Drawing Tuesday - juxtaposition

Quite simply, juxtaposition is: " the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.  " (Simply explained, with an art example. at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRyo0bMRx20&ab_channel=Philinthecircle in half a minute.)

"Two things" - ah, what sort of things? Objects probably; media, or techniques, too - scale, tone, etc, or are those opposites simply a matter of "contrast" per se?. 

Can more than two things be placed close together "with contrasting effect" - ? Or is the attempt to do so  what makes some collages look so muddled? 

The interesting thing is that the "contrasting effect" is what adds another dimension to the image, eg -


Some more examples from Instagram - 








and in 3D (this is about 6 feet tall) -


The possibilities are endless....



From Carol -  Flowers in the snow – not often seen in London. Pencils, pen and gouache – quite tricky but fun.



From Ann - A surreal image..using drawing of own hand and life study.



From Richard - a photo of textures/materials: bubble wrap (shall I tape this to that draughty window next?) + black quarry tile + plastic packaging foam. Then a cropped version. New Town murals from the 1960s?



From Judith - Juxtapositions with previous sketches
An Old General Store
Olive tree
From photo of three beavers I couldn’t resist




From Sue K - Here is my juxtaposing of shoe tree/shoehorn & brush. Interesting shapes which look rather like a horse chomping on straw! 



From Joyce - an unfinished slave sculpture by Michelangelo which I sketched at the Academia in Florence 2002. I have dressed him in Crystal Palace’s strip.



From Mags - Took some photos in the snow yesterday when I went to post an important letter. Today I've been having a fine ( if messy) time drawing from them with ink and cola pen on a variety of papers. Rosehips on a Colour Catcher and Tracks on Abaca tissue ( liking the interaction of marks when folded and scanned )




From Gill - white card on bronze paper -


From Janet K - Last summer the willows in the park in front of us were given a serious haircut. Planted in 1956 the willows  have been losing large branches in recent wind storms. The tree trunks are very sculptural which you don't see hidden beneath the leaves. The street lamp helped to match up the 2 photos I had taken.



From Najlaa - from yesterday's newspaper



From Sue M - my collage of two juxtaposed objects I loved the boy’s expression


From Janet B - two drawings taken from favourite photos. A highlight of my island walking tour, which several of you have done and you all have an open invitation to do once lockdown is over, is seeing the sheep in Mudchute farm and the incongruous background of Canary Wharf. The second photo, taken 15 years ago on a beach in Hong Kong, is of my son leaning against a tree. 




From me - Freedom vs restraint, spontaneity vs endless tweaking. On the left, a shape emerged from some blots of ink caused by wiping out a brush - a few lines with the inky brush currently in my hand, and the ample figure enjoys the sun on her face and the wind in her hair. On the right, after three weeks of trials and erasures and redrafting: I hope this is the final version of the kokeshi-doll figures, and their clothing designs, for the "children's day" woodblock print that is this term's mokuhanga project. Some of the drawing is a rubbing from the already-cut board, some is "colouring in" to get a sense of what the large figure's design will look like when the lines are cut away. 



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