A New Journey

Week 26

Pathways

So this week was our hand in so there was a bit of last minute rush once again to try and make sure everything was annotate and clear. I printed off some fonts to use them for a typography drawing, which was a drawing of a hand holding a pen, which initials written in it in different handwriting. I then made this into a tile to form a pattern so that the image was repeated 60 times as my concept was that there were 57 initials in the hand, to represent the 57 sales a second Bic has of pens every second, this meant that the image repeated 60 time formed a minute.

 I also flipped some of the tiles for a second image to make it more interesting.

After the hand in, we were given a quick introduction to our new brief. Our new brief is to make a book, following the theme of 'Journey'. I came up with an idea for this almost immediately for the theme of journey, which is following the journeys my Grandad made when he immigrated form Ireland to Scotland. I say journeys because I don't want to focus on the physical journey he made, but also the other journeys he made, like learning how to read and write when he made it to Scotland, meeting my Grandma and starting a family, moving from a place where you had to be mostly self sufficient, to an industrial area, and also growing up without his mum, who died when he was three.

Transformation

We did some painting this week on the canvases we made last week, the images were to be more abstract representations to experiment with using different brushes and different canvases.

i did two paintings, one form part of an image of an eye, I experimented with using a pallet knife, which is something I never really used before, and was surprised to find that I quite enjoyed it, as I usually work with more intricate work (not too intricate, but i usually try to make it quite detailed and realistic looking.) I think the reason I enjoyed it so much, was that I found it to be quite textured and expressive. 

The other one that I did was on the textured board, I used greens and yellows and after I found it to look like mould, and so since my theme is decay, I went with it and then painted an orange-brown line based on plasmodium slime mould (mould that rots wood and trees)

For our Friday lesson, we were to do some work on our own on the computer, so I worked on adding colour to my illustration of the car. This now takes ages to save, which is because my image has so many layers, so I think that the next chance I get I will merge some of the layers.

Contextual Studies

We have a presentation coming up in a couple of weeks, so we had a presentation from our lecturer on Pecha Kucha, a Japanese form of presentation, which is what we were recommended to do. This format is 20 slides, that each last 20 seconds, I'm still not 100% confident with presentations, but I am slightly looking forward to getting to use this format which I have never used before.

See you next week - Róisín -x

My Musical Logo

Week 25

On Monday morning I woke up with a headache and was quite dizzy, so I decided to give college a miss, and then if I felt better I could work on some stuff at home. I missed doing the presentations in PDP but I found out later that other people didn't get a chance to do them, so we will be doing them next week.
At home I  did some stuff for the ballpoint pen, since that was the other class I missed that day.

Pathways Project

For my textile idea, I was thinking of making a book that illustrated the story of the ballpoint pen, starting with Biro being inspired by newspaper ink and then continuing on to the creator of Bic.
I also used pens to create some contemporary art pieces. I used the outside of the pen and broke it into pieces by wrapping some in a towel and smashing them with a hammer, I then drew out a portrait of Laszlo Biro, which highlighted the shadows, and glued in the pieces into the places where the shadows were. PVA glue wasn't strong enough to hold the pen pieces onto the sketchbook paper, so I had to use contact adhesive.
I also had worked on a digital version of the portrait of Biro, which accented the shadows, I then added colour to this version. Using the skills I had learnt from my Friday class in Photoshop, I duplicated the image onto two layers, and then changed the mode of the top layer to get different effects.

Transformation

On Tuesday we learnt different ways to make canvases. We were taught how to make traditional canvases from scratch and were given the opportunity to make them for ourselves. We were also given use of different ways to prime the canvas, using: gesso, size, canvas primer, glue and glue with sand and sugar for texture. I used some wooden boards and stretched canvas over them and used different primers. I also had two boards with more texture, so I used gesso on one, and glue to let some of the colour shine through on the other. On another wooden board I had I put sugar and sand on for some texture and covered this in glue to prime it.
For our Friday lesson we were doing more stuff with illustrator. In this we were learning how to make different shapes using the shape and shape builder tools and how to align them on the screen. We started off by making a magnifying glass, we first made the guides visible so that they crossed over in the middle. We then used this cross to make two circles for the brim. Using the rounded rectangle tool, we drew in the handle and joined all these shapes using the shape builder tool, so that they formed one shape. By over lapping two circle, so a crescent moon shape was made and then holding the alt key and using the shape builder tool, so that it is on erase rather than merge, erasing the circles so that the moon shape was left. This was to be where the light was hitting the magnifying glass to make it look more realistic. We were then taught how to make patterns using this image.

For the pattern I drew some hexagons and used the shape builder tool so that they formed one shape.

We were then left to make our own logo using the skills we had just been taught.

I made the music note and then made a pattern using it, I made it into the shape of a music stave and used the shape builder tool so that it formed one shape. I then built up multiple music notes and made some of them overlap by changing what order they appeared on the screen. I then made a pattern using these and used the same process as the magnifying glass, only I changed the border to make it more interesting.

Contextual Studies

This week we got feedback for our critical review. In my review I was not critical enough and wrote more like I should in an essay rather than in a critical review. I was also spoke too much of my opinions for a critical review. I wasn't really surprised by my feedback, and was just glad I passed. I feel more confident about writing my essay, as in this I will be able to express my opinions more.

See you next week Róisín -x

Egon Schiele Illustrated

Week 24

Pathways  

I did some annotation for some of the artists that I had in my sketchbook. When it comes to annotation, I'm usually terrible at  it, and so, I always leave it to the last minute, which usually makes it worse. However as the year has progressed, I feel that my annotation is getting better, and I am not leaving it to the last minute as much. 

I was thinking of using post-it notes in some way for this project, so I wrote out some examples and filled an entire page with them. I also thought of doing some drawings on post-it notes and started a portrait of Laszlo Biro.

Transformation  

This week we used the calligraphs we made form last week to make prints. I used the one that I made with the leave, but after multiple prints it started to disintegrate slightly because I had to keep on washing it.

We were also introduced to illustrator this week, and we were to  use a self portrait of Egon Schiele, and then using the rectangle tool, make the shapes of the portrait and change their colour.

PDP  

We went over the time plans we made over the last week and discussed materials and their cost. We then had a presentation about analysis of information, and then we had to make our own presentation. Our presentation was for us to analyse a photograph taken of the college in three different methods.

See you next week-
Róisín -x

Inky Textiles

Week 23

PDP 

To begin with, we started with the PLPs we handed in last lesson for "The Emperor's New Clothes" brief, and added comments to each others PLP on how we thought they could improve. During this time our lecturer gave us feedback on our previous hand in on our work. Mines is a pass right now, but I think I could do better, so I will put in more effort in this part of the course to try and pull my grade up.
For next week we have to fill in a time plan for next week for our "brief", time is the factor that always lets me down in module, so it's good that I can see different methods of time planning.

Pathways 

I have chosen the "How do you celebrate the ballpoint pen?" for my warm up brief, so I started doing some research to give me ideas on where I could take the brief. I was thinking about looking at the inventor of the ballpoint pen, Laszlo Biro, and look at how to celebrate him. I did a drawing of him in pen, I really enjoyed doing this, as it seems to have been ages since I have sat down to put this much time and effort into drawing a portrait. Drawing people was how I got into art and how I was able to practise since I was young, so it felt good to go back to where I had started.

I also did some experiments looking t textiles as in this part of the course we need to look at all three pathways. After reading on the Bic webpage n how to remove ink stains, I cloured in part of some rags and broke the ink down using hairspray.

Transformation 

This week we were looking at collagraph prints, I turned up late and so didn't have much time to finish off in class but I finished them off at home.

In photoshop this week I went back to the illustrations we did last week and added colour to the car one. I used the mixer brush tool mostly and was able to gain experience in using it. For instance I found out that you can change the flow, load and mix of the brush so that you get the effect that you need. So the further along I went with the picture, the more I was able to get a smooth blend of colours. It's still not finished, but it should only take me an hour or so more to complete it now that I know what I'm doing.

Contextual Studies

Not much to say about this week, was off ill so we didn't have a class. I finished my final draft for my critical review and think it's okay, so I handed it into the staff room.

See you next week -
Róisín -x

Week off (Hooray) and The Cold (Boo)

Week 22

So before the week started, I had plans of doing a lot of work on transformation and my pathways stuff, and then on the first Saturday I got the cold and was floored the entire week. Soooo my hopes of getting more stuff done, and then getting a good start on my Pathways Project were shattered on the first day.

I managed to make a time plan for my pathways project and set out what I was going to do in my sketchbook.
For transformation I organised my printing stuff and glued them into my sketchbook, and then using the illustrations from last week, I used the free software I have at home which is an equivalent to photoshop (GIMP - GNU manipulation programme   http://www.gimp.org/ )  and did some similar stuff to what we did in our Friday lesson.

And that was all I was able to do this week, besides watching TV and feeling sorry for myself, so hopefully next week will be more productive :)

Presentations D:

Week 21

PDP

We were given the brief the third years' had previous. For this we had to write a PLP for it. The hardest part of this task was printing it out on A2 paper, since I was completely clueless on how the college printer worked. And so, in the end, I had 1 A4 sheet and 5 A2 sheets (I'm not sure how the 5 pages happened) so at least next time I need to print out on A2, I know to double check everything, and then double check again.

Pathways Project

So for our first of we had to show our presentations, which went better than expected. Before hand I knew exactly what I was going to say for each slide, and then when I stood up in front of everyone I forgot everything, so it was a good job I brought my notes up with me as a back up plan. I think to improve any future presentations would be to just practise over and over again, until I am extremely confident with my presentation.

So after everyone's presentations were finished, we were then given a new brief for the next part of the project. What we have to do is pick one of the briefs (How do you celebrate the ballpoint pen?; How can a strip of paper lead to the design of a functional object?; Can you turn someones name and address into a birthday card?; Roadwork or artwork? ) and then respond to it using each of the three pathways. It might be a little hard for me to do the applied design craft pathway.

Contextual Studies

We got our critical reviews back this week and I have some work to do on it but I have a week off, which I can use to finish this off. In my review I need to be a little more critical and be less opinionated.

Transformation

For the fly I rolled red ink on the left, blue ink on the
right and a mixture in the middle. I wanted the red
to be on the left because the fly's eyes were red.
The bottom print is in the mixed purple colour, and
 is of a decaying nectarine.

This week in mono printing I had more of an idea of what to do so I used colour this time.

I drew a rib cage in blue and then took the negative. 

This print is of a crow in blue, and its negative.

These two images are of a rotting car, the one on the left is in the purple mix colour.

The print on the right was first outlined using red ink, and then shading in with blue. 

For our photo shop workshop, we had to draw line drawings by hand and scan then in so that we could learn to colour them in and add tone. I drew these in pencil first and then went over them in a black fine tip pen so the scanner could pick up the lines clearly, so I could see them when it got to using photo shop.

PS: I haven't been keeping up with my blog in weeks, but I promise that will make it part of my weekly routine to make a blog post. So I will definately see you next week. (I have no excuse seeing as I have a week of ;)  )  

Róisín - x

Monoprinting and Blend modes

Week 20

PDP

So this week we got a lesson on PLPs which I found really useful as every time it comes to writing a PLP I'm stuck on what to write. So now I know what to do the next time I have to write one.

Pathways

Last week we were given a new brief for our pathways project and so we all have to do research into the three pathways in art and see which ones we may prefer in our later years in the degree. We then have to present our findings in a PowerPoint presentation which I am quite nervous for, as I have never done one of these since standard grade English in third year, so I am a little rusty.

My PowerPoint presentation.

For my chosen pathway I think I am most likely to go into Contemporary Art Practise, as I like conceptual pieces and I also most like painting and drawing. However I do Like certain aspects from visual communication, like lens based and digital media and also illustration.

Critical review

For my Critical review, I knew I wanted to do something related to Kokascha's Portrait of a Degenerate artist, which he painted in retaliation to the Nazi's banishing any art that wasn't considered "classical". After searching through some article, I found one on the guardian talking about the discovery of 1,500 pieces of art work in a flat in Munich. I found this article interesting as it talked about how this could reveal Hitler's true opinions on art.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/04/munich-hoard-lost-art-nazis

Transformation

This week we started a printing workshop for our transformation brief. I am glad we started this as printing is something I have always heard of other people doing, but I have never had the chance to myself.

We started off doing mono printing, I stuck to just using black, so I could get used to the process.

I took the negative of these prints after doing the first one. This is
the image of a single snowdrop - a symbol of death
to fit in with my theme of decay.

I did a quick sketch of a fly and I like how the negative of this
turned out.

For this one I tried to draw a crow, but it didn't turn out very well

The one on the left was the first print I did and I draw the Grim Reaper's
scythe. I then experimented with using my finger to smudge
 in the ink rather than using the pencil.
The one on the right is a simple sketch of a decayed brick wall,
when smudging I accidentally ripped the paper , so
next time I will know to lean more gently.

We also did more PhotoShop work in Friday's lesson, this time experimenting with different blend modes, for some I also experimented with hue, saturation and brightness etc.

 Fro this photograph of a bonfire, I used the blend mode linear light and overlayed a dark purple
colour on top. I also edited the colour balance.

This is a photograph of a fly, I inverted the colours, and edited how much it was
posterised and the channel mixtures. I then used the blend mode colour
dodge and overlayed a dark blue.

This is a photograph of a mouldy lemon, i used the blend mode divide
and overlayed green. I also edited the hue and saturation levels.

With my photograph of decayed nectarines I used a vivid light blend
mode and overlayed a dark red colour.

This is a photograph of a rusted swing and used
the hard mix blend mode. I then overlayed a red
green gradient over the top

On this photograph of a broken wall I used the blend mode linear burn, and overlayed a purple colour.