Still Life Drawings/A Manekin's Lament: Mikaela Joyce

  

My model

In approaching a still-life drawing exercise, I decided to go back to the basics. I have a trusty wooden manikin; who I’ve kept with me as I’ve moved across states, schools, and jobs. The manakin was interesting to draw, as I could change its pose and form easily to produce different images. I drew the manikin in several mediums: ink, charcoal, oil pastels, and digital drawing tools in photoshop. Additionally, while adhering to still-life drawing principles, I enjoyed the premise of personifying my object. Looking at my final four images, I decided to compile them into a short comic exploring identity.  

The first drawing frames the manikin’s head and shoulders. I drew the outline with a black oil pastel, and added shadows and shading with charcoals and dry pastels. Then I layered gray and white pastel shades on top to give the piece dimension. For the second piece, I posed the manikin dramatically and got a wider crop of its body. For the third, I photographed the mannikin with my phone, then blended, blurred, and added layers of “paint” through photoshop. The premise of the last drawing was to do it “to scale”. I traced several outlines of the manikin on-top of one another. I enjoyed playing with the concept of a still-life being produced by the subject itself, and not letting my biases of how an object “should look” get in the way.

                            Drawing #1

Drawing #2

Drawing #3

Drawing #4

 

Looking at the four images, I wanted to tie them together with a conceptual or narrative premise. I thought about how I manipulated and posed the figure for all my drawings, and in one case, traced my pen around it over and over. By the end of my drawing series, the manikin was covered in charcoal and slightly bent out of shape. The reason these manikins are popular for drawing instruction is that they are a “blank canvas” in a sense. They lack complicated details, and can be positioned by the artist in a position of their preference. I essentially projected onto it and posed it how it suited me. I wrote a short lament from “the manikin’s point of view” that alludes to the meta aspects of the still-life series and my creation process. The final product is a short comic, designed for digital publications or zines.

 

A Manekin's Lament (2020) -Mikaela Joyce 

The first two still life drawings I did were fairly conventional; both in concept and medium. Utilizing Photoshop to “draw” or generate an image was inspired by the work of Shantell Martin, and other artists who use computer tools. I was somewhat concerned this was “cheating”, but I think it is important to explore the boundaries of formalism. Lastly, using the manikin as a stencil/to produce a to-scale image of itself was somewhat more experimental for a still life premise. It did challenge me to observe the curvature and scale of the subject matter more than any of the other drawings I completed.

 

The manikin is designed as a training tool, but is inherently a target of projection. Exploring its physical form, and exploring ideas of what it means to be an object rather than a subject brought dimension to this project.