Sam Birdwood Bice

2009 - The first year of my four year visual arts degree at ACSA (Adelaide Central School of Art). The good, the bad and the ugly; I will try to post everything that I do (eventually, and incrementally as time permits). If you have any comments, questions, etc. feel free to email me or post a comment (see bottom of page). The images I post here are not necessarily about being a finished image, or a great work of art. Some will be finished, some won't. Some will be recording processes, and things that I am learning. Some will be about documenting work as it goes through different stages, that are destroyed and worked over as part of the process; for my own benefit as much as for anyone else to look at. The ones that turn out really well, ... well, they will just be about showing off won't they? :P

23.06.09 - Life Drawing; Annie, Stage Three; Charcoal, Conte & Patel On Canson Paper. 75x55cm - I will write something here asap, the next two days are craaazy with getting work finished for assessment. :)

19.06.09 - Painting; Broken Colour; Stage Three; Oil On Canvas. 50.5x61.5cm - Our third session with broken colour. Still working on the second layer, I have not had time to scratch myself this week; let alone get any work done on this painting for homework. Been frantically working on lots of subjects for moderation next week. Seeing 4:00am from the wrong side a lot this week, then dragging myself out of bed to get to school. I got a bit stuck today, trying to start the second layer on the woodsy-tree section. I was heading towards brown-town. I got a bit of good advice from Daryl, and then was away and running. Daryl said I was getting the hang of handling the paint in this style. So that's a good thing. :) One more session on this next week while we take turns going in for moderation. So I might do a bit more work on it tonight. See if I can't pull it together, finish the trees, and work on the water more in time to do the last bits and make some adjustments next week.

18.06.09 - General Drawing; Setup; Stage 2; Charcoal & Pastel On Dark Grey-Brown Canson Paper, 55x75cm - This is our final drawing for this term that we are working on with Chris. Unfortunately I ran out of time to photograph it as a tonal underdrawing before I had class and had to draw over it, but cést la vie. I had a crap week drawing this last week, and only managed to pull it together in the last 20 minutes or so. Was feeling over-tired and emotional. Had a good session this week though, the colours are really spot on. Which is the main objective for this project. That level of observation, and layering of the pastels to achieve the particular colours in the setup. A really great position to be in with this drawing with an entire session left to tighten it up, and bring out more highlights like the light falling on the left side of the dress. Chris said to focus on my edges between objects next week too. Roger. Over and out.

18.06.09 - General Drawing; Homework; Pastel Still Life; Charcoal & Pastel On Paper, 42x59cm - Homework for this week was to do a pastel still life, with a charcoal underdrawing. Continuing on in the same way we are working up our final still life drawing for this term at the moment. So the image is drawn tonally using charcoal, then worked over the top with colour pastels. I quite like this little drawing. As I have said before, it is astonishing to realise how many colours it takes to draw with a level of realism. It is about much more than local colour. E.g. a red capsicum, is not just red. It took reds, purples, white, green, orange and yellow to get that nice shiny capsicum. It was also interesting to note the reflected light bouncing off the objects, so their cast shadows on the white surfaces around them were actually given colour form the objects. Hmmm, must remember to carefully observe that. And you gotta love that glossy little mandarin!

16.06.09 - Life Drawing; Annie, Stage Two; Charcoal, Conte & Patel On Canson Paper. 75x55cm - Agggh! I slept through my alarm. I was awake very late doing coats of silicon on my moulds for sculpture (I will post sculpture photos when I have some time to photograph them); So I only had an hour and a bit to work on the first pass, adding colour to this drawing. I mostly caught up on par with the class though, which is awesome, in half the time. Other students liked the mark making style I was using, more scribbly and layered, than heavy blocking (thanks to Deb Trusson :) ). I can see the lessons that I learnt with the drawing of 'Ken' a few weeks ago paying off in this drawing. I took it as read, that there would be a lot more colours in the skin, than the brain willingly accepts; something that I was slower to reconcile when colouring Ken. I used various tints of; light orange, permanent red deep, permanent rose, red-violet, bluish-grey, gold ochre, yellow ochre, green-grey, caput mortuum red, raw sienna & phthalo blue... phew! One more session to go on this drawing.

12.06.09 - Painting; Broken Colour; Stage Two; Oil On Canvas. 50.5x61.5cm - Second session on our broken colour painting. I thoroughly enjoyed this today, and made some real progress. Was very relaxing being able to be loose, and getting used to how the colours mix. We began working on the second pass over the painting today. Starting to get a sense of the image now. The shadows, and the rocks in general reached a point where I could not do anymore on them today, without the colours blending together too much. I like this painting, but the photograph doesn't do it justice; It got blown over once, face-first into the dirt while I was trying to take a photo. Cold and blustery here today. So I just had to get a quick photo, and am going to replace it when we have a finer day that I can take a photo on.

10.06.09 - Sculpture;Vertical Mould; Terracotta & Silicon; 25x17x14cm - Last week I made a clay replica of a Murano vase that I have, for our third casting project. While the clay is wet, we build up layer after layer of silcon over it until we have a thick flexible mould. We then have to put on some silicon seams, and make a multi-part plaster casing over the mould. In my case, this object will need a four part mould. three sections on the outside, and then a final part for the inside. This is after the first two coats of silicon. I will post some more photos of this when the mould has progressed to the next stage.

09.06.09 - Life Drawing; Annie, Stage One; Charcoal & Conte On Canson Paper. 75x55cm - First session on a new drawing, with a new model today. We did some warm up drawings with the model. Quick one minute drawings, to get to know her. Then we moved on to laying the figure down on the page. I think the best thing about this drawing so far, is a bit over half way through the session I felt like I had too much of the figure on the page; So I rubbed it all out and started again. Without being mortified at having to do it, and drawing it in a second time was quick and easy. Now that we have some tone, and fall of light information on the page, we will be working over the top of this with pastels for the next two sessions.

05.06.09 - Painting; Broken Colour; Stage One; Oil On Canvas. 50.5x61.5cm - First Session on a new painting today. We have been learning some tonal realism, painting alla prima, and painting with scumbling and glazes. Today we started our first painting trying 'broken colour'; where we use our basic pallete of six colours with a warm and a cool of each primary, and are not allowed to mix any colours on our pallete. We are allowed to mix a little on the canvas, but the aim is to have the image made up mostly of our primary colours. Letting them optically mix by laying them in next to each other, and overlapping them a bit. Today was mostly about covering the white with a very thinned wash of our colours and a lot of turps.

General Drawing; Fall of light, including light source

04.06.09 - General Drawing; Fall of Light; Charcoal On CA Grain paper. 60x84.5cm - We had one session to start and finish this drawing, before we start on a new setup for the last three sessions of term. The objective was to observe fall of light, and include the light source. After finding the drawing on the page, I often begin by layering, and drawing the tone in very softly. I reached the point in this drawing as I have in a couple of others; where my charcoal actually started to rub off when I was trying to darken it. With some advice from Chris, I figured out that I have to start to press harder when this happens, if I am not at the stage where I need to fix the drawing. It was quite remarkable in this drawing, how nearly effortless composing exactly where I wanted the boundaries of the drawing to be. I was also trying to stay aware of not rubbing and smudging the drawing too much, to maintain the integrity of the mark making. Doing it many, many times is really starting to pay off. For a large, one session drawing, I am very happy with this. :)

02.06.09 - Life Drawing; Homework, Self-Portrait; Charcoal On Paper. 43x60cm. Homework for life drawing this week, was a charcoal self-portrait. I am very happy with the result. I am going to work on this a bit more on the weekend, and finish the hoodie and some more of the background. The thing I was most happy with about this drawing, was that I didn't use a stick, or measure out any proportions; it was all very spontaneous. I just started with a couple of quick ellipses for the head, and was away. I was definitely conscious of checking relationships and angles, and all those things that we have been repeating ad nauseum as I was drawing, but it was not something that I was stopping and thinking about... it was just a very natural part of the process.

02.06.09 - Life Drawing; Ken, Stage 3; Charcoal & Pastel on Paper. 85x60cm. Third and final session with this drawing. We fixed our charcoal drawing that we had been doing so far, and started working over the top of it with pastels. I mangled the head! lol; There was a lot of coloured reflected light from the cloth around him, redder areas of the face, and then a different skin tone altogether where his head is shaved... so I found it difficult to pick out exactly what was happening. But I think there are some passages on the body that are starting to work quite nicely (easier to see if you cover the head). Very interesting how many colours it takes. I used: pinks, oranges, greens, blues, red and purple. This is our first foray into drawing in colour since the course began, and flesh is not exactly the easiest thing to start with! :)

29.05.09 - Painting; Setup, Stage 2; Oil On Board. 51x61cm. This is where I am up to in our first painting in colour! I am a bit behind with this painting, missed the first session while I was sick. Then it took me ages to block it in getting the colour relationships approximately right. Trying to be aware of the colour relationships, and the tone at the same time... while not being very experienced with mixing colour from a basic palette was a serious challenge. I discovered after a while that I needed to add more medium to my paint, to get it to spread better; it was taking ages to paint in areas. I also got over feeling like I had to mix up all I needed for each colour at once, scared that I would not be able to mix it again. Started to get on a roll as I began the second pass, just starting to see evidence of it in the cloth now at the bottom left... Slow progress, but happy so far. :)

26.05.09 - Life Drawing; Ken, Stage 2; Charcoal on Paper. 85x60cm. This is our second session working on this drawing. Concentrating on tonal work. I really focused on working fast and loose; general to the specific (lol, Yve's voice is ringing in my ears); trying to overcome my tendency to be excessively controlled and tight when I am drawing, and I think it worked for me. Trying to keep at the forefront of my mind, to relax and just make the marks. Because even if, worst case scenario, I end the day with a really crappy drawing... the most important thing is that I learn something from it. We have one more session on this drawing next week, to introduce some colour with pastels.

15.05.09 - General Drawing; Setup, Stage 2; Charcoal & Conte on Mid Grey Canson Paper. 60x85cm. This is our second session working on this drawing. Concentrating on tonal work. I was most interested in that awesome reflection in a piece of black glass behind the setup. I was just starting to get into the texture of the piece of fabric behind the jug, when we ran out of time and the session finished; always battling the clock in drawing classes :) .

12.05.09 - Life Drawing; Marilyn?; Charcoal on Cartridge Paper. 85x60cm. This is our first drawing working with a reclining model, it took most people by surprise at first; and we were a bit thrown about translating our methods of getting proportion, etc at first... but we all got it during the session. The arm is a little 'wet noodle' ... just a bit more kick upwards on the wrist and I almost had it though.

08.05.09 - General Drawing; Homework; Charcoal & Conte on Paper. 55x38cm. Looking at fall of light on white objects. I was sneaky and put in a black object to increase the contrast of the image. ;)

16.04.09 - Painting; Setup, Oil On Board, 40x50cm; We have been working tonally with only black and white, doing little studies, and tonal scales. This is our second painting, using only black and white oil paint on a mid-grey board; learning about scumbling and glazes. Very interesting, I am learning a lot!

09.04.09 - General Drawing; Fall of light; Charcoal & Conte On Mid-Grey Canson Paper. 75x55cm - Final drawing before the mid-term break. A very cool setup to draw. We worked on getting the image down on the paper last week, working on proportion and accurate relationships between the objects. This week we worked on the tone to describe the fall of light. Starting with working broadly; blocking in the shadows, and the highlights. We then had the rest of the session to adjust, and get more finessed and detailed. This is my last class for the term, two weeks holidays, woohoo! (Well, one make-up class for painting in the holidays, damn public holidays! lol)

25.03.09 - Sculpture; First Head, 'Alice'; Terracotta; 33x22x20cm - After sculpting a few objects and some basic figures, we spent the session last week and this week working on our first head. Learning how to build the work on an armature (timber framework), and using 'butterflies' (wooden crosses looped over the armiture) to support the weight of the clay. James has told me a couple of times so far that I am smoothing everything off too much, so I concentrated in these sessions on trying to be a bit looser, and looking hard at who was really in front of me. Trying not to make an imaginary/archetypal head from memory. The idea of what a head, or a person in general looks like, as this happens a lot with beginners with any situation with a human model. I have posted this and two other images of this head, to try and give a view of what the object looks like in three dimensions. I will probably do this with most sculpture work I guess? As it is a 3-d object, you don't just see one side.

?.?.09 - Life Drawing; Ken ; Charcoal on Paper. 60x85cm. Find the envelope, check the proportion, find the enclosure, carve away the space. Find the envelope, check the proportion, find the enclosure, carve away the space. Find the envelope, check the proportion, find the enclosure, carve away the space. LOL

12.03.09 - General Drawing; Setup; Pencil On Paper, 42x59cm - TBC.

?.?.09 - Sculpture; Seated Figure; Terracotta; 27x16x16cm - In a couple of weeks when the holidyas start, I will update the info on this; once I have a bit more time to figure out the order that it belongs in.

.02.09 - General Drawing; Setup; Pencil On Paper. 42x59cm -

26.02.09 - General Drawing; Homework; Pencil On Paper, 42x59cm - TBC.

19.02.09 - General Drawing; Negative Shapes; Pencil On Paper. 42x59cm - Our first not-drawing-boxes drawing in our general drawing class. Working on our laps on boards, we had to draw the objects put in front of us, but we had to draw the negative shapes around the objects, and in the spaces, not try to actually draw the objects themselves.

2008 - A couple of images from a short drawing course I did at ACSA (Adelaide Central School of Art), with Deborah Trusson. To get back into drawing again after way too long stagnating. Also to build up some work to use as a portfolio to apply for the four year visual arts degree. The best part was, it worked, and I got in. :D

..08 - Life Drawing; Marilyn; Charcoal & Pastels On Brown-purple Canson Paper. 55x75cm -

..08 - Life Drawing; dylan; Charcoal & Pastels On Brown Canson Paper. 55x75cm -

..08 - Life Drawing; Karen; Charcoal & Conte On Mid-Grey Canson Paper. 55x75cm -

Pre 2008 - Some drawings that I did as part of a short design course at T.A.F.E. many years ago. Plus a few random bits and pieces that I have done over the years while I dabbled in making things, wishing I could study art. Dreams come true, hey?

working picture of what I'm working on at the moment

30.04.07 - A couple of working pics of what's happening in my studio; Experimenting with getting some really corrosive, shockingly vibrant colours and a slick glossy surfaces... with acrylic paints mixed with a gloss medium, and paraloid high gloss varnish.