NIKI PILKINGTON

Images from Niki Pilkington's website 

These are two images from the 'Glorious Truths' series by Welsh artist Niki Pilkington. These mixed media pieces may have been for exhibition purposes at the 'Pick me up' exhibition in London. I have chosen to analyse her work because she uses more than one technique on a single piece and my preferred medium for drawing, which is what I would like to potentially do for my final outcome for the personal project.

After looking at her image, it looks like she has used a pencil, most likely a graphite pencil to draw the female subjects, and for the bottom picture, she may have used a pink biro, as well as coloured card for the crown and the paper chain. The drawings themselves may well have been from observation, which is whatI have been doing. There is minimal colour however, I feel that this is good because this could have been too overwhelming for the viewer. The scale of the work is unknown, but they probably are A3 size, so that the text is readable. There is a lot of shading, which adds depth to the face, so she may have used graphite pencils, as they have this quality. The typography is simplistic and easy to read, and fine liners and markers may have been used to write these.

I would probably consider this work to be a portrait, but the possible theme may be lifting people's spirits through surrealism. The text is that of motivational quotes, including 'free admittance to those who dream' and 'dance between the raindrops', emphasises the possible theme.

I do like the simplicity of the work, it hasn't been overdone with lots of colour, and the main subject has been placed in the centre, which allows the attention to be on her. What's more her drawings are detailed and rather delicate, especially from using graphite and pastel pencils, and I like this effect. So she would be a major influence in my final outcomes.