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.