# OCA HE4 (Level 1), Unit 1.1 > Drawing For Painting Log • OCA HE4 (Level 1), Unit 1.1 ## Posts - [Exercise 6.9 • Labour & Time](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-6-9-labour-time/): In 2014, OCA drawing student Paul Grady made a series of drawings called 12 Months’ Hard Labour for which he made a drawing every day using a variety of highly labour-intensive techniques. - [Exercise 6.8 • Using Collage to be Specific about Tone](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-6-8-using-collage-to-be-specific-about-tone/): Another key aspect of drawing practice that collage can usefully help with, is the tendency to underestimate tonal range, overriding what we perceive visually. - [Exercise 6.6 • Large Figure Study](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-6-6-large-figure-study/): Aim For this exercise you have a choice. - [Exercise 6.3 • Three figure studies](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-6-3-three-figure-studies/): Exercise 3: Three Figure Studies Using a variety of tools, materials and supports, work on three large (at least A3) drawings of your model, using the following poses: - Standing - Seated - Lounging The aim is to make interesting studies of the figure to show you’ve understood the basic structural principles, and are able to incorporate these using whichever style or approach fits your subject. - [Research Task 6.2: Toby Paterson and Cy Twombly](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-6-2-toby-paterson-and-cy-twombly/): Toby Paterson uses collage and a collage-style approach so seamlessly that it is quite hard (and perhaps irrelevant) to work out which pieces of his are technically collage. - [Research Task 6.1 • Roman Ondak and Karina Smigla-Bobinski](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-6-1-roman-ondak-and-karina-smigla-bobinski/): Watch these videos about artists who affect space and the way it is experienced through drawing. - [Exercise 5.6 • Planning a Composition](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-6-planning-a-composition/): Aim Now is your opportunity to reflect on all the work you have completed for this section and to make two new drawings that explore composition in different ways. - [Research task 5.2 • Peter Doig](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-5-2-peter-doig/): The photographic image is usually the starting point for painter Peter Doig, often combined with memory. - [Research task 5.3 • Slow painting](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-5-3-slow-painting/): Research Task: Slow Painting Have a look online for examples of Tim Stoner’s drawings, watercolours and paintings (he has a very active instagram account: @StonerTim and at time of writing is represented by Vardaxoglou). - [Exercise 5.5 • Drawing with a Brush](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-5-5-drawing-with-a-brush/): You have been working hard on arranging compositions throughout this project, but for this exercise you are returning to making a series of quick studies in fluid media. - [Exercise 5.4 • Cropping](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-5-4-cropping/): Continuing to explore emphasis, you will be using cropping as a way of considering what is important about a composition, and how it might be altered to shift the focus. - [Exercise 5.3 • Focal points and emphasis](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-5-3-focal-points-and-emphasis/): As you are working through ideas about composition, you will be starting to consider what you find most interesting about your subject and what elements you would like to emphasise. - [Research task 5.1 • Brooklyn Collage Collective](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-5-1-brooklyn-collage-collective/): Research Task: Brooklyn Collage Collective Spend some time exploring the links below and the work of the Brooklyn Collage Collective. - [Exercise 5.2 • Drawing from collage](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-5-2-drawing-from-collage/): Aim Part of the process of planning a painting is to consider what elements need to be retained and developed, and what needs to be removed or altered in some way. - [Exercise 5.1 • Exploring composition using collage](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-5-1-exploring-composition-using-collage/): Aim For some artists, collage is their primary means of expression and an opportunity to create a unique language, for others it is a means to an end and even though the results can still be interesting, the purpose is to find a way of arriving at ideas for paintings or other art works. - [Exercise 4.8 • Experimenting with Dynamic Gesture](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-4-8-experimenting-with-dynamic-gesture/): Aim In project three you explored fluidity to suggest form. In this exercise, you will try to link mark making and movement to some idea of construction. - [Research task 4.3 • Foreshortening](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-4-3-foreshortening/): Try lounging on a couch with a mirror facing you from the foot end, then draw your body as you see it in the mirror. - [Research task 4.4 • Franz Kline](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-4-4-franz-kline/): There was no detailed guidance for this task but I found some from a GCSE guide (!), which suggested to look out for (1) facts about life and education to understand the context of their work, (2) Good quality pictures of their artwork, (3) find out what their process for making art was. - [Exercise 4.5 • Studies of Moving Figures](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-4-5-studies-of-moving-figures/): Aim Fill several pages of your sketchbook with quick sketches of moving figures. - [Exercise 4.7 • Experimenting with Immediacy and Fluid Line](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-4-7-experimenting-with-immediacy-and-fluid-line/): Aim This experiment with a fluid line drawing will give you a chance to explore process and materiality, working quickly and intuitively. - [Exercise 4.4 • Form and Proportion in the Figure](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-4-4-form-and-proportion-in-the-figure/): Aim When describing the form of the figure and creating the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional plane, it’s useful to think in simple basic shapes: squares, rectangles, triangles, circles and ellipses. - [Critical Review Writing: First Thoughts](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/critical-review-writing-first-thoughts/): Both artists use the visual language of childhood, its objects, spaces, and aesthetics, to explore something more psychologically complex than nostalgia. - [Exercise 3.6 •A Gathering of Ideas](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-3-6-a-gathering-of-ideas/): Aim For your final exercise in this project, you will first of all look through all the work you have produced so far. - [Research task 3.3 • Sarah Pickstone](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-3-3-sarah-pickstone/): Contemporary artist Sarah Pickstone made a series of drawings and paintings inspired by women writers who have walked the parks of London in search of ideas for their stories. - [Research task 3.2 • Alexandra Blum](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-3-2-alexandra-blum/): To better understand Alexandra Blum's art practice, I explored her website, listened to her artist's talk as well as the review of her work by Graham Crowley. - [Exercise 3.5 • Memory of Place](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-3-5-memory-of-place/): Aim For this exercise you are responding to the memory of a place, or a walk, you have been on recently. - [Exercise 3.4 • Image Folder](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-3-4-image-folder/): # Aim Your image library will be an important and inspiring resource that you will be adding to throughout the course. - [Exercice 3.3 • A Conversation Between Objects](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercice-3-3-a-conversation-between-objects/): # Aim Gather together four pairs of objects that you can hold in your hand. - [Research task 3.1 • Landscape sketchbooks](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-3-1-landscape-sketchbooks/): In this research log, I'm exploring how artists, past and present, use outdoor sketchbook work to inform their landscape paintings. - [Exercise 3.2 • Travels with your sketchbook](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-3-2-travels-with-your-sketchbook/): Developing artistic insight through fluid and bold mixed media techniques in diverse settings. - [Exercise 3.1 • Quick Interior Studies](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-3-1-quick-interior-studies/): “Source imagery can come from anywhere, although I'm still hooked on Dürer's Apocalypse woodcuts for the way he uses line so inventively to describe dragons and demons, patches of grass and cloudbursts. - [Research Task 2.1: A Mind Map of Landscape Art](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-2-1-a-mind-map-of-landscape-art/): Looking at different art from different eras can be overwhelming. - [Exercise 2.2 • Trees](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-2-trees/): The aim of this exercise was to spend time looking at a tree in detail and at least an hour on the drawing, using media which would suit the individual characteristics of 'my' tree, such as A3 cartridge paper and a fine drawing medium (drawing pen, pencil, or ballpoint). - [Exercise 2.1 • Observation of Natural Objects using Detail and Tone](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-2-1-observation-of-natural-objects-using-detail-and-tone/): In Project 2, I'm aiming to develop my drawing skills. - [Reflections on my first tutorial](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/reflections-on-my-first-tutorial/): On Tuesday 10th February, I met with Jane Frederick, my tutor for this unit. We reviewed my posts and discussed what a "good" drawing was. - [Research task 1.2 • Katherine Bernhardt](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-1-1-2-katherine-bernhardt/): Main Medium: Uses spray paint and lays the painting flat and paint with heavily watered down acrylic paint. - [Research task 1.1 • Wayne Thiebaud](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/research-task-1-1-1-wayne-thiebaud/): Thiebaud's painting of American desserts are mouth-watering even when you see them on a computer screen. - [Exercise 1.2 • Making a start](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-1-1-2-making-a-start/): The aim of this exercise was to take my ideas about the degree out into materials and express some of my feelings about the course through making. - [Exercise 1.1.2 • Reflections on my learning pathway](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-1-1-2-reflections-on-my-learning-pathway/): In this post, I share my thoughts on the BA Painting pathway and the Unit 1.1's aims and learning outcomes. - [Exercise 1.1.1 • Message in a bottle](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/exercise-1-1-1-message-in-a-bottle/): A letter to my future painter self articulating what painting means to me at this point. - [Reference links](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/reference-links/): Useful links to art practice tips, artists interviews and other resources for art-making. - [Thoughts on a postcard](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-pirate-radios/): Pirate radio's rise reshaped underground culture, challenging mainstream norms with innovative broadcasting. ## Pages - [Client Portal](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/clients/) - [Create Post](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/create-post/) - [Order Received](https://gaelle-artstudio.com/plog2026/order-received/): Hi, we have received your order. 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