I had my first feedback session today with my tutor following completion of part 1. I was apprehensive to start; unsure of what to expect.
My mind immediately took me back to the time I had attended an interview as part of my application for an art foundation course at my local collage some 30 years ago. I had my heart set on the course and I suppose a bit of an assumption that my eagerness and talent would be enough to get me through. Anyway, all I remember is that it wasn’t that straight forward and the interviewers made me leave the room so that they could consider whether I should have a place on the course which brought me to tears!! I did get a place, but I left within 2 months – on reflection I think their hesitation was well founded and I was not ready.
This time round of course it is a completely different scenario, I have been considering this for years and I am ready to commit myself, to put the effort in and to gain everything I can from the course – therefore I shouldn’t have worried about this feedback meeting!
I found my tutor very positive and constructive and her feedback consistent with my own feelings and perception of how I have performed, but with equally helpful discussion, exploration and achievable ways of moving forward.
I found it particularly useful to consider experimenting with reductive charcoal drawing as an alternative to the assignment I have done just to see where it goes rather than because of a need to re-work the assignment. This idea is appealing to me as it removes the pressure of the assignment, which hopefully will enable me to fully engage in the process and really gain from it.
We also discussed reflection and about how I need to take this further and build on what I see and what it means to me, where I can take things to.
Practical and specific things were also discussed – the need to practice elipses which also moved into a discussion about posture and how this can effect movement and drawing. This was interesting as I spend a lot of time considering my posture in other walks of life – work and running, but for some reason it had never dawned on me to consider how poor posture when drawing may not only result in some aches and pains but could limit the range of movement in the arm and therefore affect what is drawn! It so obvious!!
I feel I’ve been given some really practical ways to move forward and have reassurance that I’m going in the right direction and that this course remains an achievable goal for me. I also feel that with this reassurance, some of my apprehension is removed. I do have a tendency to be rigid in some of my work in relation to detail or following instructions; in a sense this feedback helps to give permission that I can be a bit more loose and experimental (although I’m also very aware this will be a very long work in progress!).
Deborah McAulay 