Mysterious Jonathan Owen

Since visiting the 25 Generations exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art I've been drawn to Jonathan Owen's work. Questioning how the hell he does it.

As I walked into the room containing his work, I noticed one of his sculptures Untitled (2013) light dimly, placed at the back. I was amazed at the structure of the unidentified being.

I've noticed a pattern, that I'm quite drawn to pieces without familiar faces, pieces that have had their faces played on.

In my first sketchbook for Fine Art I took faces from magazines, covered them so they wouldn't be identified then started drawing on top, also for my final piece I was placing facial features including the eyes and mouth in different positions. For Special Techniques I spray painted the forehead and eyes of front cover models which was a technique used by the French street artist Zevs. Second last unit, Viewpoint, I was inspired to paint over peoples faces to create a new identity. 

I read the description of Jonathan and found out that he was born in Liverpool and teaches at the Edinburgh College of Art. I also found out that he works by hand rather than use Photoshop. I found this shocking as I looked at his erase drawings.

 "the art uses an ordinary rubber to erase parts of the image". 

I had to try this as soon as I got home. I used my putty rubber, didn't work. I went out and bought ordinary erasers, didn't work. I scratched away some of the ink on a magazine, still didn't work.

I began writing this post a couple of weeks ago, just recently came back to edit it and I've realized that maybe he uses the rubber to outline the figure. I can certainly see it in this photo above but I'm unsure about the previous one. 

Due to my frustration I ended up just trying it digitally. These were the results so far. 

Audrey Hepburn

Moulin Rouge

This was the very first on I done, starting of in full colour. I noticed that the marks I was making were noticeable so I decided to switch to black and white which benefited the image. I found it interesting, trying to imagine what the unseen background looked like.

Mum and Dad at St Andrews Cathedral 

One thing that bugs me about this picture is the dark mark above my mum's head, you're able to notice where it's been doctored. I'll try and sort it out and see what happens.

Dad at Lower Largo seafront