‘The art of words’

As I have great interest in Literature, I found this project very appealing. I took the opportunity during this project to experiment greatly with the use of materials, and as the word I chose to portray was ‘Ghosts’ I experimented with transparency. I was able to use the skills gained in fashion and textiles during this project, and felt the resulting three pieces were effective in creating a ghostly atmosphere.

‘Lists Lists Lists’

During this project I was able to explore my distaste towards wasps, as well as explore my interest in illustration. Initially I began drawing the lists for a range of lists, and I concluded that ‘10 places to hide’ and ’10 things I don’t want to hear’ had the strongest prospect. After further experimentation, I decided to pursue the idea of ‘10 things I don’t want to hear’. I began with looking at onomatopoeia, which gave me the opportunity to experiment with typography. I created different styles of font, and whilst thinking of ideas I began to take interest in the sound of ‘Buzzzzzz’. I decided to use this word as the foundation of the project, and thus decided to look at different species of wasps and bees, which create this sound. I chose wasps, as I find the sound produced from them more menacing and I wanted to portray this to the observer. I experimented with the use of light, and managed to create a leering effect which conveyed my distaste of the creature. Ironically during this project, I began to see the beauty of the creature as I began to look at different species of wasp. I had two separate outcomes of the final piece; however on retrospect believe one to be more successful than the other.

‘30 things to do’

I found this project challenging due to the amount that we were expected to do, however it was also due to this reason that I found this project exciting. The fact that we were expected to do thirty mini projects at first was daunting, however, I soon came to realise what a great opportunity it would be to push my creativity to its limits and create interesting interpretations of the projects. I believe some were more successful than others, and I decided to push the idea of ‘Write your name in water’ further. This resulted in using ice as a material for my project, something I had not previously experimented with. It was challenging and time consuming, however, despite this I believe the final piece was unexpectedly successful.

Area choice.....

Once I was aware of the subject matter of the rotation areas, my initial thoughts were that I would be best suited to Fine Art as it’s the area I had always practised at school and thus felt it would be logical and appropriate to choose. Despite this after completing the eight week rotations, I have decided that I am in need of a new path, and Fine Art may not be, as I originally thought the right direction to go into. After experiencing different skills and approaches to Art and Design, I have come to realise that I am a person who works well within guidelines/brief. I feel I am better suited to the approach designers take in opposition to Fine Artists and thus a decision had to be made between the design areas.

The first area which I completed was 3D Spatial, upon starting this subject I was unsure of what to expect from the two weeks. I found the process challenging perhaps because it was the first rotation, but also because I had always worked in 2D and on retrospect feel I found it difficult translating into 3D. I felt the three conclusive pieces were successful; however they could have been developed to a greater and more interesting degree.

The following area was Fashion and Textiles; a topic I also had not previously experienced. The two weeks were different to what I was expecting, and the experimentation I produced over the two weeks surprisingly appealed to me. I found the work process enjoyable, and was pleased with the pieces finalised. I also enjoyed learning the thought process in the cosmos of fashion, and my understanding of how work is produced in this area has greatly improved. The making process compelled me closer to the area, which is in contrast to the drawing exercises undertaken. This area allowed me to develop interest in different materials, and also how shaping can be developed from any environment.

Fine Art was the next rotation and I found the first week enjoyable. The pace in the studio was rapid, and I struggled to accustom myself to this as I am a person who likes to spend great amounts of time on particular pieces of work. I was pleased to be creating still life observational drawings, and also found the one day self project appealing. We also created sequential drawings, where acetate was used to develop these pieces. These drawings I felt had a greater quality over my previous work in the particular area. The second week was in complete contrast to the first and deterred me from choosing Fine Art as my specialist area. Little direction was given as we were able to create our own pieces based on what we found interesting. I found it extremely difficult in deciding what to do and thus a lesson was learnt that I need a strong brief to develop ideas and inspiration from. After completion I soon realised the subject is approached via a broader method to what I am used to, and may not be suitable as I had thought.

After Fashion and Textiles I felt I would find Visual Communication an exciting and inspirational path as it also worked strongly with a brief. The importance of ideas was expressed, and I found it challenging producing many ideas under time restraints. However, the next project was based on photo manipulation, which I found a strong interest and enthusiasm for. The project which followed, allowed me to explore the subject matter of illustration, which created great interest towards a topic I never previously considered. Overall felt Visual Communication was an exciting creative field, which I look forward to immersing myself into during the year.

Fine Art

Hey!...just completed my first week of fine art, and i'm really enjoying it :D....At the beginning of the week when we arrived at the studios there were four installations of random objects sitting there, waiting for our inspiration to be derived from them. We drew sections of the installations and that literally was the story of the first day, i was pleased to be doing observational still life drawings.
We got the next two days off....and so they gave us a list of photos and drawings to do. I ended up at Westminster and I started drawing figures. There were two artists sitting still whilst drawing so i decided to capture them in drawing. The Thursday i went back, a girl came up to our table in the cafeteria and asked for a chair and to my surprise it was one of the students i drew at Westminster!!! :D
Back in the studio we started doing animation pieces using acetate which i really enjoyed. We also used our photos we took and printed out with acetate to produce pieces. I felt this was my best work, so next week i feel i will do mixed media pieces, the theme is yet to be decided.

~ Lauren

Fashion and Textiles

Well today I finished the Fashion and Textile rotation. I thought it was going to be so different from what it actually is. I really enjoyed learning the thought process within the area, and my understanding of how designers etc. work has greatly improved :)

I enjoyed the making process, in opposition to the drawings we did. I ended up making a sort of lace design out of tracing paper, which was a delicate, time consuming but worthwhile process :D

Looking forward to Fine Art next week!!!...hopefully the rain will cease next week :)

P.S. I added a few photos of what I did...but the middle one isn't complete here :D
Lauren

Eadweard Muybridge exhibition

Well today using my 'get in for free Tate card' I visited the Eadweard Muybridge exhibition, and I was quite inspired by the photography I saw. The photos had a brown gradient to them...i'm guessing is due to how old they are!!! I thought it was amazing how this particular photographer was able to capture movement of both animals and humans. There was one in particular which stood out for me which was a sequence of photographs of a bird...very hard to do...I would imagine in today standards it would be equally as difficult :)

There were sequences of athletes perfoming particular movements...the tone of the photographs picking out all the details of muscles in the athletes legs and arms as they performed jumps and acrobatics.

There were many sequences involving animals, and I thought the sequences of the horses were particularly interesting, as you are able to observe how their bodies move as they slowly gallop across the picture, even though in real time the power and speed of the animal would have caused the eye to miss particular details.

Mubridge also had landscape pictures, and in fairly big glass cases there were photos joined together to display every aspect of cities in one piece. I hope to develop this kind of idea in my future work....overall i enjoyed this exhibition :-)