16/05-18/05

09/05-11/05

This week at college I have mainly tried to focus on getting as much done in my sketchbook as I possibly could. Kat and Victoria looked at my work and explained where I am at this point. They seemed very positive however my feedback wasn't good enough as I want a distinction and at the moment a few catogorys are letting me down. I decided to focus on the things which are letting me down which included annotation and also my project proposal. I started to edit my project proposal by changing my action plan which is the only unfinished part. I've not completely finished it this week but it's near enough complete. I have also worked on expanding my annotation throughout my sketchbook. I have done this as a lot of my work is annotated but it may possibly not be at the level I need. I've also started an artist research page in my sketchbook as some of my feedback was to look at a few more artists for inspiration.
I've started my final pieces this week and stretched my canvases. This has proved difficult because I origionally tried to stretch my canvas on my own and struggles to get it tight enough to the frame. This was due to me trying to pull the material and staple at the same time. The next day I asked someone for help with stretching it as it was simply a two man job.
I started to prime my canvases and when dry I painted them yellow. There was a problem with the painting and the yellow kept peeling away from my primed canvas. This made me panick however I soon decided I was going to make this part of my work instead of painting over it! I did this to save time and also because It actually looked extreamly cool. I think the paint peeled off the canvas due to it only just being primed. The canvas was so smooth I don't think the acrylic had enough to grip onto.

05/05

Today I've started to create two MDF pieces of art to play around with the concept for my final piece. I decided to create these two pieces using similar colours i would like to use for my main piece which included yellows, pinks , blues and blacks. I will change my colours slightly for my main pieces however. I decided to do these pieces because i needed to have an idea of what two main pieces would look like together and how easily i could make the pieces look as though they followed eachother. I also wanted to look at the shapes of the pieces because my final pieces will be 100cmx100xcm square canvases and the mdf pieces are rectangle. I just wanted to play around with shape a bit. For these pieces i used crackle pastes, paint, tissue, spray paint and oil pastels. I want to use all of these techniques for my final pieces because the mixed mediums work extremely well. I encountered a few problems with these pieces however as i couldn't seem to get the backgrounds a block yellow this meant i had to apply 3 layers of the paint. However i think this will be different with my canvas as its white and on material not wood. Brad told me that the mdf soaks up paint really quickly which is probably why my pieces appeared patchy at first.
Today i also played around with positioning my two MDF pieces in different ways to see what looked best. I tried side by side but in different ways, Horizontal and vertical but also different sides of the pieces. Evidence of this is in my sketchbook.

02/05

Today at college i decided to concentrate on creating my creative business cards. I originally planned to create a book mark which included my details on the back and my art on the front. I printed one of my design sheets on thicker paper and started trimming them into strips. This suddenly gave me the idea to create wrist bands like the ones people receive at festivals. I really liked this idea so decided to try getting my design sheet put onto magic touch paper at reprographics. I then used the magic touch heat press machine on a piece of calico which is a wax based material. I cut this into strips the way i cut the bookmarks and they looked exactly as i had hoped. However, I was unsure as to how to get my details onto the bands correctly and easily and then i decided if i got my details on the magic touch paper just like my design i could heat press it on to the other side of my bands. Overall i was really happy with the outcome of my bands and i really loved all the positive feedback i gained off all my peers. I think my idea is unique and will look very cool at my exhibition.

27/04

Today I spoke to my fine arts teacher Claire about how I will be presenting my final piece. I've been unsure as to weather I wanted to create one final piece or two, or even more. After speaking to my peers many said they think my work would look better as two pieces together and after talking to Claire about my worries and ideas she agreed that two pieces would be cool. We decided that I could look at creating two separate canvases but using them to create one piece of art. This will mean I can create a crazy canvas full of my ideas and then a more simple one and they will still compliment each other perfectly. Next week I'm going to draw up some plans and decide what I'm wanting on each canvas along with sizings and colours.. I also hope to look at artist Clifford still as his work reminds me a lot of the stuff I'm doing and really makes me think about peeling paint.

26/04

Today I started creating a piece on mdf. I did this because I wanted to clear my mind from all my sketchbook and design work and simply work on some experimenting. As the yellow turquoise and pink colours seem to be more popular with my class mates I decided to follow this through with my mdf painting. I want to make my paintings look abstract but still link with and show my theme throughout. I did this by using crackle paint and spray paint along with lots of other mediums I've been experimenting with to create a textual piece that represents both peeled paint and graffiti in a really cool way. I hope tomorrow to create another piece on the second mdf board I have that will fit well with the piece I've completed today

25/04

Today was our first day back at college since the Easter holidays. I have come back with a positive attitude but still some concerns about where my project is going. I started the day off by showing kat where I was at with my work and what I had produced through the holiday. I also decided to ask a lot of my class for their opinions on my work as I was confused as to wether to simplify some of my designs. I started another design sheet to try and clear my head and decided on what I wanted to do. This didn't really help as I am torn between making my design more simpler and appealing to a customer or making it completely crazy which naturally comes to me. Tomorrow I am going to work on deciding on how I want my final piece to look and how many pieces I'm hoping to create.