femaleartist – Dottie-may Aston

© 2020 Dottie-May Aston. *Nasal Cavity*.

At the start of this term me and Jonathan sat in on a horse dissection. To begin with it was horrid! After the initial shock of the situation and the overpowering smell, I was put at ease to be told that the animals had been ethically sourced. That is, they died from natural causes and their bodies used for educating future vets for them to better care for the animals. This information helped me get over the fact I was watching students cut open an animal. I was then able to focus on my sketches. The environment was no different from that of a painting workshop, people chatting about mundane subjects, giving the class a fairly normal vibe.

© 2020 Dottie-May Aston. Insides on the Outsides.

Attending these dissections over several weeks had improved both my paintings and drawing ability. Drawing something that I have never seen before in person was an exciting challenge and it has changed my perception completely. After the first class my eyes had started to see differently, making me more conscious of what’s under the skin, and how movements are made in mammals.As the dissection is a continual process, the whole composition could change in an instant. This has forced me to look even harder than I would normally. I’ve found that it has made my abilities with mark making as well as my drawing skills from life and imagination have both noticeably improved.

© 2020 Dottie-May Aston. *A Horse Kicking In the Bucket*.

The studies are all from my A5 sketchbook. To see all of them visit my sketchbook gallery. Most were done standing up which was somewhat intense, although I am used to standing up for art workshops. It is difficult to drawing without an easel, not to mention arriving at the dissection tiers due to it being a long steep walk to the campus. Like the smell, I slowly got used to this. I hope you found this interesting! Your welcome to share your thoughts in the comments, thank you.

Keep Calm and Sculpt on

At the start of the lockdown, I struggled a little bit moving out of the studio, not having classes or seeing my tutors. But when it settled down a bit I had a creative run! I was doing so much painting each day that was until, I realized I was behind on my art history assessment. This as usual paralysed my practical work because when I painted I was in fear of not getting my art history done. When doing my art history I was completely blank because I was stressing, it was gastaly! I decided that to keep myself claim, I should do some sculptural work.

© 2020 Sculptures in-progress, Dottie-May Aston.

It may appear that for me sculpting can sometimes be a form of procrastination. These are the sculptures that I have been distracting myself with. They are taking a long time to complete, because they are not part of my degree, making me work on them intermittently. I usually like to slowly build up the clay. Consistently working over dry layers that will gradually form the figure..

© 2020 Sculpture in-progress, Dottie-May Aston.

The picture on the left was taken July 1,2019. When she was in her early stages. The photo to the right is of another sculpture from June 26,2019. I had only just started sculpting this lady, as you can see I was working from a sketch. I think this is the first piece of sculptural work that I had made a physical plan for. Usually, I would just visualise ideas before picking up my clay, pondering on them as I work.

As you can see she has changed a lot from the beginning layer, and the original plan, but this is all part of the process. The only reason I noted this plan down as a drawing was because I wasn’t in the position to sculpt, when the idea struck.

Although she may look like she’s close to completion, I still have a lot more work ahead of me. Next I need to sculpt the ends of her fingers witch I will do individually so that I don’t accidentally destroy them – this cold take days. I also need to sand her and possibly carve some of her away as I think her knees need to be reworked. When the sculpting bit is done I will proceed to prime her with several layers of gesso. Then I will finally paint her, something that I’m both excited and scared to do.

I don’t normally share pictures of my work when it’s in-progress, nor do I share my sculptural work online, so I hope you like this post and share your thoughts.

“You find me at work; excuse the dust on my blouse. I sculpt my marble myself.”
-Camille Claudel