Day 1 Pinterest and mind map

Today I have started by simply making a Pinterest board. I have tried looking for artist s and pieces of work that relate to the project however also have an element of my style in them. I have also been searching on Pinterest about different colour theory's and symbolisms.
Today I also started a mind map in my sketchbook which has helped me a lot in deciding the routes that I could possibly explore and go down.
Developing a Pinterest board on this project has helped me to find different artists who look closely and a mother and child's bond. I have found artists of very similar style which is brilliant as I usually struggle to find that.

Mother and child project

Today we have been given our new project 'mother and child' this project is inspired by the work of sculpture Sam shendi and his work that has been recently exhibited in the civic art gallery in Barnsley.
We have been asked to fill a full a4 sketchbook with research on the project and asked to interpret the brief in our own unique way.
Straight away I had ideas as me and my mother have an extremely strong bond so I defiantly wanted to do a project that could link in with them emotions. I also wanted to try and tailor this project to my abstract style and I have straight away had a thought on looking at colour theory and symbolism.

6/10/2016

Today Claire let us start our final Lino piece. I decided to go with my wood idea because I thought it would be more effective with what she wanted us to do. Claire wanted us to do a gradual Lino print meaning we print one colour then go and take more Lino away then print another colour to show a build up of inks. I started by sketching my idea onto the Lino using permanent marker! I then went straight over to the printing area to start my first print. I wanted to have a plain block colour in the background so I decided on yellow. I printed the block yellow 5 times and then washed my Lino. I then cut away more Lino and printed the next colour over the top. It was very confusing at first and I found it hard to understand but I soon got the idea and knew what I was doing. I only did 2 layers today but I am hoping to do 4.

5/10/2016

Today I started to create some samples using actual Lino. I used an A5 piece of Lino cut into two to create two pieces. A mushroom piece and a wood one. This went really well and I found the Lino a lot easier to cut that I originally thought! However i had a few complications where I cut too deeply into the Lino causing the Lino cutter to go all the way through to the other side! My final two lino cuts looked very good though and I will be trying them out with inks one day next week.

4/09/2016

I stared on my second design sheet today which is inspired by the texture of wood. I started by gathering images and inspiration and then looking through them to come up with a Lino plan. After deciding on a design I then started to create a background for my design sheet. I did this using tissue paper, PVA and brown paints. After my background dried I then went over it using oil pastels which gave a wood effect! I also created another polystyrene mock up to show what my print would look like. I printed these on my design sheets to show my sampling and then went over them in fine liner to give a bold stand out look. I then added my design idea to the sheet including different papers I want to work on

29/09/2016

Today I started making some polystyrene mock ups of my mushroom Lino print idea. I did this by faintly drawing out my idea on a piece of polystyrene and then using a pencil to flatten down polystyrene where I didn't want colour to be. I did this to get an idea on how my first design would look and also to add more detail and colour to my design sheet. I started using the polystyrene example by painting it in acrylic and then printing it on bits of paper. I think it worked very well and I was extremely happy with the results I got and the quality of my first design sheet. I used the polystyrene example on my design sheet to show my workings.

28/09/2016

Today in sole I carried on with my design sheets. I decided that I wanted to have a play around with how I wanted my mushroom print to look so I decided to trace some ideas on tracing paper and normal paper. I looked at different backgrounds I could work on too, I used grey paint to create a background sample and also experimented using different types of paper including tissue paper and brown parcel paper.

(27/09/2016)

Today I started my design sheets. We got asked to create 2 design sheets to help us to achieve a final Lino print idea. I decided to create design sheets based on the mono prints that went well which where the mushroom mono print and the wood effect mono print. I started on the mushroom design sheet by printing some inspiration off including some of my own photography! After looking through what I had gathered I decided that I really liked one picture I had taken of a mushroom that was growing in my garden. The reason that I liked this image was because of all the textures and folds you can see throughout the mushroom. I started by sticking inspiration on my design sheet to show where my ideas had come from and then thinking about what design would work.

22/09/2016

Today in Claire's lesson we started making mono prints. We did this using a plastic wallet taped to our desk and water based inks. Mono printing can be done in two different ways, you can free hand a drawing straight into the printing ink and the put your paper over the top or you can put the paper over the top and draw over the paper. I chose to freehand my mono prints because I wanted a selection of different unique prints. Mono printing worked out really well, my wood textured prints and close up mushroom prints went the best. I will think about this when I am creating my final lino print. Today in Claire's lesson we also created a colagraph plate by layering up different textures and pieces of card we then covered it with emulsion ready to use next.

21/09/2016

Today I finished some artist research pages off ready to hand in to Kat. I actually managed to create 5 artist sheets but only handed in the four that I felt happy with! I finished off the artist research sheet for Cy Twombly who was my favourite artist to look at out of the selection I picked from. I think his work is very unusual and after looking at him briefly in my FMP last year I knew that he would fit into this project with his rose collection of paintings.

Studio work 20/9/2016

Today we started with artist research pages. I decided to look at some artists which have inspired me through this nature project. I found it difficult because I couldn't find many nature artists that had an abstract and unusual style like mine.
I emeded up finding some artists that I really liked and wanted to try and recreate the work of.
Whilst I was stuck I started looking at cy twomblys pieces. I noticed he did a small exhibition of work which involved roses. I really loved these pieces and knew straight away that I wanted to look closer into his work. I also found another great artist named Hiroshi Matsamoto her art involved using oil paints which I am not 100% comfortable with. However after using these paints again I realised that I really like them, I loved how easily they blended today and how smooth they applied and I feel the piece I created will look nice in my portfolio of work.

Studio practice 15/9/2016th

This morning we had sole where I finished my moodboard and continued with sketches from the farm. 

Then through the afternoon I had my first fine art session with Claire. She decided to do some observational drawings with us and she gathered lots of items for us to draw from.

She had a long list on the board with ways she wanted us to create our drawings. 

I really enjoyed this activity because she encouraged us to create work in the styles that suit us. I am externally happy with the outcome of this session because I left it with one piece of work I really want to use in my portfolio.

I enjoyed creating compositions with the objects Claire gave us and trying to draw from them in my own abstract style. I used all types of mediums throughout this class because that's what I felt most comfortable doing.

Farm day 14/9/2016

Today we took a trip to the farm. We did this to gather even more research and images and also to create our own studies whilst there. There where so many different animals at the farm and they where all really interesting to look at and photograph! I really enjoyed drawing the animals up close and not just from images. I created my studies mostly in pen and water colour and my favourite animals to draw turned out to be the chickens. I got some really interesting photographs because we where so close to all the animals! I also looked at a lot of the nature around the farm that wasn't just animals such as the plants and the trees. I took some close up pictures of flowers and leaves along with some zoomed in images of tree bark and logs.

Studio work, mood boards 13/9/2016

 Today was our first day back at college, our first artistic task was to create a mood board based on what we had researched in our sketchbooks throughout the summer and what we are hoping to focus on for this project. I started off by printing images both primary and secondary to stick on my mood board and to work from. I wanted my mood board to be based on both images and my own studies. I decided that textures in nature was definitely the way I wanted to go with this project so I gathered images of different textures I had looked at in my summer sketchbook.
I also printed the textures images I had taken of things like leaves and mushrooms to show primary research. From these images I created my own studies in water colour and inks to show the way I wanted to recreate these textures.

Pollock doc

The documentary I watched was ' Jackson pollock love and death on long island' I really enjoyed this documentary! It was a really interesting way of hearing about pollock and his work. 

Jackson Pollock has been my favourite artist since I can remember! I have always been inspired by his art work and his role in abstract expressionism. 

The documentary showed many pieces of his work throughout and showed videos of Jackson painting in action. This was really exiting to watch and helped me see further into his techniques as an artist! 

The documentary showed a lot about the Jackson pollock film that was made and the effects the film had on Jackson and his mental health, it showed Pollocks struggles with depression and alcoholism throughout his life which are really important issues to me. 

I could defiantly relate closely to the documentary and the reasonings behind certain pieces of Pollocks art work. 

The thing that I enjoyed the most about the documentary is the opinions and explanations of fellow artists and Jackson Pollocks close friends all the way through. I feel that these opinions had a great importance in the documentary and they helped form my opinions on Pollock as a person. 

I didn't enjoy the fact that a large part of the documentary betrayed Pollock in a very negative way and strayed away from the greatness of Jackson Pollock as an artist! Overall I really did love watching this documentary (more the positive parts over the negative.) 

Summer school

Today in summer school we looked at how to improve our sketchbooks I'm creative ways! We looked closely at different books with certain techniques and ideas in them. We also looked at some example sketchbooks to compare to our own and other peoples. These sketchbooks where really interesting to and 

I felt that they gave me a really good idea on what makes good quality work. 

I particularly liked the sketchbooks that had more texture and 3D elements because I think they look loads better than sketchbooks that are just flat. 

I also took pictures and developed ideas using the books given to us to look at. There are so really cool techniques in them to improve my sketchbook

FMP (27/5/16)

And here is my final piece.

Evaluation

Evaluation – Unit 8 – FMP

For our Final major project the word 'Structure' was given to us. We got told to interpret this word however we wanted and that we could use our imaginations to create a good quality final project. At first I was slightly nervous about the project, I started researching into plant cells, buildings, humans, the body and I couldn't manage to pin point and exact way in which I wanted to go. All I knew is that I was an abstract artist and loved to express myself using thick layers of paint, bold brush strokes, mixed media, and mark making. After a fun visit to York I came home with a busy mind. I gathered lots of photographs of buildings and architecture that really inspired and intrigued me however I wanted to link my expressive style in with them. I decided I would focus my work throughout this project on buildings and the textures they hold; also alongside that I looked closely into the abstract styles of art I truly love which show the heavy layers of acrylic and detailed mark making that I can relate to.

Throughout my sketchbook and canvas pieces I linked both abstraction and architecture together to create pieces which show the style I am comfortable with. This was why I called my project 'archi-texture'. During the project I have filled my sketchbook with all kinds of personal studies, artist research and experimental work. I have really appreciated and enjoyed the time I have been offered to research the artists that truly inspire me such as Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly and Brice Marden and others. All the artist research I have collected has really helped me to expand my knowledge and techniques in fine art using experimental work. I have looked at many different materials and incorporated these into my art work creating mixed medium pieces. I have experimented greatly with collaging and using scrap / unused materials such as; magazines, bits of metal and cardboard. I have also looked deeply into different effects and textures in which a palette knife can create using different sizes and working from a variety angles.

I have visited a variety of exhibitions and art galleries such as York art Gallery and the Yorkshire sculpture park in order to gather information and broaden my knowledge on different styles of art work I wouldn't usually be interested in.

Whilst working on my FMP I have produced a number of small canvases in the lead up to my larger main piece. These canvases all got produced as part of my development work and each canvas holds different techniques and methods I wanted to try out. These smaller canvases helped me a lot when going on to starting my main canvas. They gave me guidance and inspiration and a much clearer idea on how I wanted my main piece to look and the feelings I wanted it to give. I have worked a lot on large sheets of paper throwing paint (action painting) and loosely drawing on them this has given me the confidence to then go onto my main piece with a similar relaxed attitude towards it. Creating my main piece meant that I had to get into a rhythm and relax myself. I couldn't be too precious about the piece or the final outcome wouldn't be the way I wanted it. I also had to focus on colour and texture which are all parts of the elements and principles of art. I looked into shape and form when I sketched over the top of my paintings using oil pastels creating shapes that go smoothly with the bold colours I matched together using certain complimentary colours. Purples and yellows, pinks and oranges where the main colours I started with on my main piece.

The only problems I discovered during this project are simply with the main piece itself. I found it really difficult to stick to a certain idea and I found myself feeling conscious of ruining the work I had created by adding more. However once I got over that hurdle I managed to build up a good texture and some bright layers of colours and techniques. Throughout the project I have been trying to keep up to my work and avoid issues that could crop up especially with time management. I have been doing this by filling out the SMART target sheet given to me by my tutor. This has simply helped me organise my time well and ensure I'm giving myself enough space to get things done. I have been following this quite seriously so I am not behind and don't miss any important bits of work out due to me forgetting. I have also been recording everything that I do and produce on my blog helping me remember what I have done during that week. This has just given me a good plan of action throughout the project helping me achieve better. I wouldn't do anything differently when looking at my final piece. I really love the bright, bold, complimenting colours and the many different marks dotted around. I feel my main piece looks great, it's not how I expected it to turn out however I feel that it has gone better. It's something I'm very proud of and I feel gives great happiness to look at.

When showing my peers, family and friends my main piece many have pointed out certain parts which they feel look like objects. For me that shows that my art work has had the exciting effect I wanted. Comparing my evaluation to my project proposal I do feel like my ideas have differed. My plans have changed many times and my ideas have adjusted. However; I still feel I have met the requirements I set for myself in my project proposal and I'm very pleased with the outcome of my final project. I think my end of year show will look extremely simple due to the fact we're only allowed our main pieces. I think it could be really effective though due to my vibrant work. I will also have a stand with some sheet work I have produced to show the audience to show a good variety. I had a plan to present some canvases I created on a large easel and I really liked the layout. However, the teachers didn't think it looked appropriate enough for the final show. I have also been preparing for my final presentation by carefully picking out the photographs that best show my journey through this project. I have met each of the seven unit 8 assessment criteria. I have managed to do this by creating 3 different mind maps. One mind map on structures in general, one on buildings and one on the assessment criteria’s from these assessment criteria’s I have put together my own project proposals and set my own smart targets.

Overall I think that this project has been a brilliant one. I have loved working in the style that I am passionate about and looking into the artists that truly inspire me. I have enjoyed every minute when creating my main piece and seeing it transform and grow has been really fulfilling.

FMP (27/5/16)

And here is my final piece.

FMP (26/5/16)

Today I experimented using different amounts of pressure using my oil pastels. My idea was to tape my oil pastel to the end of a long stick and work over my main piece with it from a far distance. This was really good practice for me and gave me lots of ideas for my future piece. The lines looked so different compared to the up close drawn lines and it really added extra to my main piece. 

FMP (25/5/16)

Today I practiced creating some pieces using inks. I did this after being inspired by several artists. These ink paintings have been created by dripping random spots of ink and soaking it up using tissue paper. Also I have experimented with painting shapes using the ink and a paintbrush.

FMP (24/5/16)

Today I worked back over some work I created on canvas. I thought that they looked too plain and needed some more texture and colour through them. Whilst asking my peers for advice I realised that they all really loved the pink and yellow piece which came as a suprise to me seen as though I wasn't too sure on it. This has really made me reconsider which pieces I want to put up in my expedition. 

FMP (21/5/16)

I I continued creating abstract small pieces today in my sketchbook. Most of these are created with acrylic paint however i did experiment with using marked pens and working back into the pieces with doodles and intricate lines. 

FMP (20/5/16)

Today I started on a new piece to present with my final piece. I really do love this piece and I got really positive feedback from my peers. However I was told the black was a bit too bold. I think that the black contrasts really well with the light pastel colours and I really think it works. However I am going to tone the black down somehow. I created this piece using acrylic paint,pen,ink and oil pastel on canvas. I came up with the idea of presenting my pieces stacked up on an easel like the picture somewhere below. My teacher didn't like this idea however I'm still going to experiment with it for future work. I think it looks very cool with my work but a lot of people didn't get it.

FMP (19/5/16)

Today I focused on roatating my final piece to get different effects. I liked the idea of my final piece making sense all ways round so I decided to work all ways around. It helped me a lot with evening my main piece out and adding something to the plain parts. I also carried in working into my main piece with oil pastels paints and pens to get the cool fine detail I wanted. I wanted to add bright bold parts to my main piece that stood out compared to the rest which I found difficult because of how bright and bold the colours already where. 

FMP (18/5/16)

Today I added more detail and texture to my main piece. I realised it was a bit flat and I wanted to create more texture with my range of pallete knifes and thick paint. I decided to add more splashes of bold colours to the main piece and also I worked into it with pens and oil pastels. I think the bits of texture add something to my main piece. I personally love to feel my art work and all the raised bumps and different feels around it. Working into the piece with oil pastels has brought more colour and boldness to it and I really like it.