Elena Angelini

I loved looking through your works, I really liked the chunky, street-style character they have even within describing natural objects as within the pepper or the river. I think you have a very specific and distinctive style that runs throughout your experimental works that vary from collage to descriptive and realistic drawing or painting. I’m also a great fan of the way you manage to abstract urban views to create interesting patterns and vary the natural and lifelike scenes to create a different way of perceiving reality and the world around us. I found the way you mixed up and combined various techniques and subjects very interesting as within finding a connection between banana skins and the study of the bridge in your “talking pattern” task.

I also think that you should definitely combine the human studies from the “talking colour” task, that were drawn with an outstanding technique, to the more non-pictorial subjects of the second task to create a bond within the two, especially within the line drawings, that I personally find very similar in a certain way to your urban views. This could create a broader range of subject matter and bolder compositions that could give more to your textile production. I also think you should experiment more with the oversaturated colour palettes you have sometimes used and try to bring your drawing to 3D works to analyze subjects from a different point of view. 

I overall admire your designs and the variation within techniques and abstract or more material topics in your pieces, all with very engaging lines and colors.

At first, since I was in self isolation for the first part of the unit, I drew what I had inside the house; so my roommate’s body from different perspectives and changing styles, giving a different angle to my perception of the human body and it’s shapes. I also experimented with clay, turning objects I had in my house to distorted pieces of furniture that I modeled in a deformed way to highlight the textiles and patterns within the initial piece of furniture.

I later linked my study of bodies to my intrest in portobello road market to draw peculiar people there using different techniques and concentrating on different traits of the individuals. I then made the drawings I started with more abstract, I concentrated on the visuals and colours that hit me, leaving the resting details behind. I arrived to a result that was more a mix of patterns within clothes and visuals around me than a realistic overview of my surroundings.

I think I could’ve played more with edgy perspectives and peculiar angles of things to distort my subjects even more.

I was at first overwhelmed by the broadness of the “talking colours” task; there was so much around me I didn’t know what to choose to draw. After a couple of experiments with different kinds of media in Holland park, the major part of my drawings of this unit took place in Portobello road market, where I was intrigued by the variety of different objects and unique people that were there, all belonging to different cultural backgrounds.

I like the fact that this task finally managed to free me from all of my academic rules and standards linked to school, to let me find my own style and way of expression. Experimenting with unconventional media, such as chenille stems and tissue paper, gave me the chance to look at certain subjects from a different point of view, letting me detach from my usual realistic approach to art.

I found it very challenging to do quick, instant drawings and therefore most of my sketches are on a small scale and the ones on bigger scale look unfinished. I’d like to develop my skills to capture movement and instant things to make my drawings more expressive.