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Irina-Stefania Plutasu - The Open College of the Arts

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Irina-Stefania Plutasu

OCA tutor and assessor Diana Ali looks at the work of Drawing 1 student Irina-Stefania Plutasu. She compares the differences between monochromatic and colour work and how sometimes you can lose detail and depth with the latter. She encourages students to compare their work and bring the successful elements through to the colour work to show a natural progression.


Posted by author: Mark Lomas

3 thoughts on “Irina-Stefania Plutasu

  • Lovely work – I do wonder Diana, why is it so important that work holds depth when translated into colour ? I found the second figure study very interesting, especially because of the selective use of red pattern, which inevitably will cause a reduction of depth or illusion. Thinking of David Hockney’s wonderful drawings of Celia for example, that flattening is – as you say – associated with colour, in particular since modernism. Is it that at level 1 we really want students to learn the observational and illusionistic techniques prior to departing into modern or post/ after modern ways of handling space, figure etc? Very interesting choice for featuring on blog. Thanks for introducing critique points – it makes this a more useful reflection exercise on what makes a good drawing.

  • I think that drawings each have their own purpose-sometimes colour can be used in drawings for others reasons than to describe form (the work of Glynn Boyd Harte as well as Hockney’s drawings comes to mind.)

  • I agree that flattening with or without colour can be fascinating and challenging. Diana, do you have any tips about how a student can translate the more successful three dimensional form aspects from monochrome to colour? One thing i find with colour drawings is that quite often the coloiur is added after the monochrome as a kind of colouring in- in the worst cases a ‘filling in’. I think colour should be used from the outset, alongside monochrome or on its own. That way the colour is taking a leading, rather than subsidiary, role.

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