Textiles Turn...

I have really been on a journey with my textiles project. I started off with a lot of ideas, feeling quite lost. I persevered and spent a lot of time working on my final piece - not entirely sure what it would look like in the end. It turns out I am very pleased with the final piece, it is abstract and interesting to look at. I am going to continue by putting some different yarns into the piece.

Life Drawing Round 2

Okay....so it not as good as last weeks, however it was still useful to me. I have practiced constructing a drawing using only lines, no tone which I not my usual method of drawing. It has taught me the importance of getting the basic structure of the subject right before putting any tone in. The proportions of this drawing are not quite right, her lower legs is a bit wide. Also I think in trying to draw the contours of the body using line I have made her look too skinny, it looks although her ribcage is poking out, however these lines were just to try and give the picture depth and a three dimensional feel. Although I am a little disappointed with this drawing I have still gained a lot of knowledge from doing it.

Screen Prints

My textiles piece has evolved into a cross between Rebecca Earleys printed textiles and Debbie Smyths yarn drawings. The main foundation of the work is a piece of MDF - A1 sized. I have  covered the MDF with some fabric I screen printed. The design I used for the screen print was a photocopy of a wire structure I made earlier on in the project. I have never used the screen printing method before, essentially it is a design transfered on to mesh.Ink is pushed into the mesh causing the lighter areas of the design to let the ink pass through, whilst the darker areas stop the ink getting through. The result is a stencil like image that can be reproduced many times.This method is shown above.
So... the stage i am at now...my MDF is covered in screen printed fabric. I have traced an images of some chaotic electircal cables on an indian street. I am going to place this tracing on top of the MDF board and put pins into all the relevant points of the tracing. I will then tear off the tracing paper which will leave an almost dot to dot outline of my image. I will then 'draw' this image out in yarn. I predict the outcome will be an abstract piece, hopefully it will be visually exciting, I will keep you posted :)

She Done Him Wrong ?

So...does this image confuse you? I hope so! This is a page out of the zine I am making for visual communication. I am trying to create a visually interesting, yet totally absurd art work. This is based on the dream like creations of the Surrealists.I have used images from a variety of different sources that dramatically contrast with each other. The image above for example uses a page from a porn magazine and cuttings from an antiques books. I have chosen to use an sexual image as the background as I believe images of sex or violence arouse the human mind. This causes people to take more notice of the image they are viewing. I am going to get this zine professionally printed and hand it out to see what reaction I get :-) 

A Sense of Time.....

I based this piece on Jim Goldbergs work. I tried to create a narrative by putting photographs of a night out next to each other. The viewer is forced to look at the pictures in a certain way, they naturally try and fill in the gaps between photos. This piece can be likened to a storyboard used to make a film. I used quotes from the night out to further influence the viewers interpretation of the images. When looking at a single image with no text the viewer can easily make their own interpretation about an image. When images are presented in a set, with text this forces the viewer to interpret the photographs how the artist wants them to be viewed. I also duplicated some of the images and enhanced the colours to make the piece more pleasing to the eye.

Life Drawing

I did life drawing yesterday, we were only allowed to use lines no tone, we had 3 and a half hours to draw. I found this difficult because my natural style of drawing is to build up tone. I used my pencil to measure the models head and used that to scale my drawing. I then drew light construction lines to get the proportions right, then I went over the correct lines harder with my pencil. I am pleased with my drawing I think it shows an accurate representation of the model. I am looking forward to the next life drawing class, I thoroughly enjoy drawing the human form.

In contextual studies I hav been learning about Art Nouveau. I particularly like this poster advertising 'Job' rolling paper, the long flowing organic hair of the woman is typical of the Art Nouveau style. 

Ai Wei Wei, Keith Coventry and Pierre Cordiers

Hi, I have been in London the past 2 days :-) I really enjoyed visiting the Tate Modern, I saw Ai Wei Wei's seeds(shown above). The floor of the Turbine Hall is covered in a sea of hand painted porcelain sunflower seeds. I had heard a lot about this exhibition before I saw it, the seeds are a political statement about the nature of communism in China. It is incredible the sheer number of little seeds on the floor, each one unique.

On the trip to London I also went to an exhibition called 'High Society' it was about the history of drug use and art that has been produced by people whilst intoxicated. I find this link between drugs and creativity very interesting. I particularly liked Keith Coventry's photograph above, it addresses the dark side of urban living .  Also I visited the Victoria and Albert Museam where there was an exhibition called 'Shadow Catchers' this explored the technique of creating photographs without using cameras.I was particularly drawn to Pierre Cordiers chemigrams(shown above)I found them calming and hypnotic, I would love one on my bedroom wall :)