Final Pieces presented

 

Final Pieces Presented

 

 

 

Final piece

 

 Final Piece Making

For my final piece I decided to use two baby pictures of me and my brother to represent old memories. I had two pieces of wooden card, that were slightly bigger than A3 format. I painted them with white acrylic paint to have a clear background.

 

 

At first, the ink I used for the outline didn't come out strong enough on the painted background, so I had to work in layers. Luckily, the ink would dry quite fast, so I didn't have to wait long before applying another layer.

 

At the end, I also added some red acrylic here and there to make the ink a little darker.

Just like in one of my previous studies, I wanted to make the portrait look quite deformed, with a lot of marks and dripping paint, to represent an old memory that is slowly being destroyed/decaying, as well as link to my artist research.

 

 

When the ink was dry I started to draw some patterns with charcoal, trying to apply it in a way that will make the red ink stand out more. I used more on the right side, to indicate shading and create contrast with the left side that has much more white. I also went over some of the charcoal with black ink for stronger contrast.

 

 

For the second piece I used the picture of my brother. I wanted to use a different color ink this time, to indicate that it is a different person. Blue is a cold color, so it shoud create some contrast with warm red.

 

I repeated the process like before, adding layers of ink and acrylic paint.

 

 

Finished pieces will be mounted onto the wall this week.

 



Sketches

 

(...)

Dawn Mellor

 

Dawn Mellor

 

(Born 1970 in Manchester, currently lives in London)

Through her work, Dawn Mellor deconstructs the structure of the cult of celebrities, as in the modern world it appears that it is a substitute to religion. She often chooses a well know celebrity and portrays them in a quite disturbing way, also adding the theme of religion – e.g. by putting a halo above the celebrity’s head. This is meant to present how in today’s society we worship well-known figures based on how they are represented by media. They tell us what we should look like, what to wear, how to behave.

Dawn’s paintings show a relationship between the star and their believer - the fan.

 

http://www.likeyou.com/en/node/7726



First experiment

 To start off the experimentation, I decided to make something that could link to Francis Bacon's style. I drew an outline of a human head and gradually deformed it by adding a lot of marks to the drawing. First, I used some blue ink to mark out the basic shape and some shadows, and to continue the line control practice, I drew with a thin stick, instead of a paint brush. I then used charcoal to draw on top of the ink and start adding more shadows and texture. At the end, just to finish off, I also used white acrylic paint in some places. I tried to use lumps of paint to add a "dripping effect" and some more texture, especially on the left side of the drawing, to create contrast with the right side, which is mainly black.



David Whittaker and Francis Bacon

To get some inspiration and develop my current work, I have looked at the work of two artists. David Whittaker and Francis Bacon.

 

David Whittaker was born in Cornwall in 1964. He is a self-taught artist. "Most of his work is based around the loose form of human head and its metaphysical core". His art balances out contrasting emotions and states, like confidence and nervousness, hope and fear, conscious and subconscious, male and female. All of these are universally human. In a way, his paintings unmask and reveal a true identity that he explores through art.
I really like the way he portrays the inside of a human head by painting a really clear and detailed landscape and then outlining the shape of a human head around it, but making it very messy, unever and not completely clear to see.

 

 

 

http://www.millenniumgallery.co.uk/davidwhittaker/davidwhittaker.htm

 

Francis Bacon 1909 - 1992
"Francis Bacon, the artist, paints provocative and disturbing images that carry a raw sense of anxiety and alienation. They reflect that existential fear, loathing and incomprehention at the atrocities of the Holocaust that came to light at the end of World War Two".
Bacon decided to become an artist in 1928, after he saw Picasso's exhibition in Paris. He set up his studio in London and began his work that was influenced by Surrealist abstraction. However, he didn't gain much critical success and aroun 1944 destroyed most of his artwork, as he believed he failed to communicate his views and feelings.
After that, Bacon began to work on some more disturbing pieces that were meant to shock the viewer. He gained a lot of criticism over his horrific imagery.

 

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francis-bacon-682

Brief continuation

 

Rather than start a new brief, our new task after half term is to continue the previous theme on "traces" and develop our work and final outcomes. To start with, we did some line control studies of a skull.
The first one I've done was drawn using a 4B pencil that was tied to a long stick. It was quite hard to control the line, but I was able to come out with a sketchy outline, that I after went over with a 3B pencil held at an arm length, to improve the outline and shading.

 

 This one was a quick sketch where I used a 2B pencil held at the end at an arm lenghth. Itried to only use straight lines. It was easier to control than the study with the stick, but the pencil I used was harder, so I had to press the pencil more in order to get darker lines.

 The last one was done with a piece of charcoal tied to a stick. It was much easier than using a pencil, because the charcoal would leave clear marks on the paper even with little force used, so I didn't have to press it very hard. However, the line was still a little hard to control.

Fine art brief - final

Combining the techniques and research I've done earlier, I made my first two finished outcomes for this brief. The composition is pretty similar, but one of them was painted straight onto card, while the other one uses layers of tissue, tracing paper and masking tape. In both of the pictures, the figures gradually dissapear, showing the theme of fading memories.

 

No. 1 - paint on card

 No. 2 - paint on layers

 

Close up

To present the final outcomes I scanned and printed them onto photographic paper and placed them in picture frames next to each other, so that it looks like they continue one another, emphasising on the theme.

 

SET 1

 




 

 

SET 2

 

Traces brief continuation (4)

Starting the ideas for my final piece, I decided to do it on a long piece of card, combining people from all my photographs, and make the figures gradually dissapear towards the end, to emphasise the fading memories theme.

I first made a sketch on some tracing paper, again, trying to use layers of paper and paint.

 

I continued to explore ideas for the background. Instead of just using using paint and tracing paper, I also tried to add some masking tape and tissue. I used a tracing paper sketch on one of them to see what it will look like.



Traces brief continuation (3)

Continuing my work on the theme of memories I tried to combine techniques and different ways to make the pictures "fade".

Below, still using Maaike Schoorel's work as influence, I used very light and limited colours. I think it turned out quite well and is harder to see, but I could have used a bit of a different background colour than white, perhaps a really light yellow or orange.

 

Here I tried removing the human figures and only using the outline created by paint.

I also made some mono prints and tried painting on top of some of them.

This picture was meant to portray a person in the forest. I quite like the patterns that were created by the trees and their shadows, the whole piece looks messy and disjointed. 



 

Here I tried to combine pen and pencil sketches with oil pastels

 

 

 

 

Traces brief - continuation (2)

 

Working further with the theme of traces and fading memories, I continued to produce experiments using my old photographs as a reference.

 

 

 

 I tried to make some sketches of people as well as try out different techniques of making them dissapear into the background.

Below is an experiment with graphite powder mixed with white spirit and oil. It produced some ineresting patters and smudges that I could use in my work.

 

I also tried to use layers, to see if I could come up with some different textures. Here, I used layers of tracing paper and paint.

 

 

 

 



Portfolio prep

3D PROJECTS

MASKS AND HEADS

 

In the last year's brief we were looking at heads and faces, and had to produce a 3D outcome for the final piece. I never work in 3D and it was really hard for me to start anything, but I decided to make something that would resemble the African tribal masks - using only sticks, leaves and other natural waste that I found. In the beginning it kept falling apart all the time and I even considered giving up about halfway, but in the end I managed to put it together, even though it didn't turn out exectly how I planned.

 

 



Photo manipulation in photoshop

 

Original image

 

 

Curves Adjustment

 

Hue/Saturation

 

Invert

 

Filter (chalk & charcoal)