Elizabeth Peyton

Elizabeth Peyton is an American painter living in Long Island, New York. She got some attention in the mid 1990s. Here are some of her drawings.

At first glance, I thought this painting was a picture when it was not enlarged. The woman gets her eyes and mouth widely open as if something startles her. The black background gives me a kind of depressed feeling but it is helpful for the light effect. My favourite part is the lilght.  I can tell exactly where the light is coming from since there is a kind of strong comparison between the left light part and right shadow part of her neck.  Here is another thing that I just wondering the part of her right arm. Where is it?

This picture depicts a skinny man. The gesture of this man makes him look like a professional of magic,  especially his hands which give me a kind of tricky feeling. Just like the painting displayed above, the artist pays much attention on the effect of light. Again, not only can I see the direction of the light, but also can I tell some planes that contains different lighting values. One example is the right and left sides of the top part of his trousers.

From this angle, we can observe the partial structure of a room. It seems that the artist really cares about the light effect which can be reflected by the blue door, the black floor and the top left corner of the room. I would say that the artist must spend more time on the left side of the painting compared with the rest as you can see the shelves and books are just like the detailed drawing we did in the class.  Another thing is about the colors. Without two colourful doors and black and yellow floors, the whole painting would be much more tedious.

                                              

  

Paul Noble

Paul Noble is a British artist who comes from the village Dilston, Northumberland.

It seems that this drawing depicts a part of a small village. The whole painting  gives me a kind of tranquil sense becasue there are no people, animal or anything lively. I am fond of the pool shown in the picture and I think it is not easy to draw this "mirror" vividly because it needs a good understanding of the techniques of symmetry and overall mix colour effects.  We can see certain things clearly like trunks, walls of houses although the overall background is a little dark and vague.

We can clearly see that the whole area of drawing is divided into four identical parts just like the technique we used in class and the base of this huge object consists of immense rectangular stones which enables me to recall the practice "using rectangles and squares to fill the positive and negative spaces". There is a main entrance leading to the inside of this tower like building. I cannot really figure out what it is, but the thing on the top makes it look like an ancient sturcture of religion or worship.

Do you see these dark trenches and the lights above? At first sight, I think these strange looking structures are the superficial entrances of the secretive underground buildings. The light coloured  ground and plants suggest a desert area to me. There is a person standing in the middle of the two thick stones. I cannot say exactly what he is doing right now. Maybe he regards the place as a urinal.

Memed Erdener

Here are some drawings of Memed Erdener.

This drawing depicts a hilarious woman. We can find the outlines are very clear and there are multiple colours which make this character quite vivid. It seems that the woman likes to play with that catapult and I think it makes her a little childish. The background is vague and  dark, compared with this figure. The shadows are natural and it is easy to see where the light is coming from.  I have not figured out what the background is. It looks like some ground mud, or maybe that is the atmosphere when the dusk is coming.

Who can tell me the meaning of these Arabic like words? The drawing looks like a picture of  anatomy which shows all of arteries and veins of this decapitated person. The artist deliberately made the drawing disproportional. A helicopter is removing the huge head and there are two tanks near these words. I guess the artist is against wars and that may be a reason to creat this picture.

This one is a little weird. A pipe is connected to each human's head and there are three dashboards on the surfaces of the machine. The most strange thing is that the machine also has a brain. It seems that an advanced intelligent machine is used to measure human brains. But  why does it need  an operating handle if it has a brain?

Robyn O’neil

The artist I want to talk about today is Robyn O’neil who is from Omaha. I found that she likes creating drawings with winter backgrounds which are usually related to a group of cult-like radical people. In general, the general atmosphere is pretty dark, presenting a kind of hopeless feeling.

A group of crazy people are fighting with each other and it seems that some of them are injured or may be even killed. The only audience, an owl, is staring at them indifferently. The thing I like most is its atmosphere. Chilly snow covered ground, dark sky and deciduous trees all present a kind of desperation. I think these are the most successful elements.

This time, the focus is not the environment any more. Apparently, the main characters in the drawing are these people. For some reasons, I have a negative feeling toward these people. Maybe I dislike their dark uniforms, or their gestures. Any way, for me, it presents an evil, cold blooded, well-organized,cunning and stubborn group.

Here is an interesting device. It looks like a combination of the wheel of a unicycle and a part of automobile. I think it must have a unique sense of ride. However, I wonder how can it  deal with the problem of sight block? At least I cannot tolerate a bold black line while I am operating this machine.
Perhaps I am wrong because the aim of existence of this drawing is to enlighten us rather than invent something real.