Notan - Visual communication - Week 4

Today in Visual Communication, we explored Notan, a japanese design concept that involves the play and placement of light and dark. Notan translates as 'lightness-darkness' and is the balance of the two. Yin and Yang is an excellent example of Notan as it is a perfect balance of both light and dark. Above you can see I created 3 separate images of this art style. I created these using black and white paper, cutting designs out of the black and flipping it on to the white. i really enjoyed learning about and creating Notan, and will definitely use it in future.

Recording My Work - Creative Self Portrait - Week 4

Recording our work is a vital part of the course. Recording our work allows our teachers and assessors to understand the journey we took from start to finish. It is also a bonus if we can make it artistic, with cool patters or a wash of watercolour. Above you can see how I have recorded the development of my final creative self portrait.

Creating my Creative Self Portrait - Week 4

To begin my painting, I got a photograph of me in this position crouched around leaves and woods. I blew it up and photocopied it in colour, and took it to the light box where I traced it onto a piece of A2 cartridge paper, rather than the coat i was wearing i styled myself in an Alice in Wonderland style dress. I then began to paint it with acrylics at home, while in college i made cotton flowers that would later be placed on a wooded frame.



           


Once the painting was complete, I cut around the painting in a random pattern. Once I did this, I cut out a piece of would slightly bigger but the same shape. I then stuck it on using PVA glue and let it dry. Once dry, i thought about varnishing it before deciding not to as it was a risk to the painting itself.


     

Once I was happy with my work, I heated up the hot glue gun and stuck each individual flower I had made on to the visible wood.

I am very happy with my final piece, it took a lot of decisions, ideas and development. 

Visual Communication - Week 3

  In this lesson we began by shading a face purely out of shadow rather than line, I enjoyed this as it is something I have never tried before, and found I actually did okay with.

we also did a nose which is made up of forms we have worked with: A cylinder, a sphere and two partial spheres.

I did this using charcoal sticks, a material I really like doing sketching with.

  We then went on to explore the Golden Section. this is an                 important part of composition in art and has been used by 

many artists and even in ancient architecture. It is also

 found everywhere in nature, and even in the human

 body. It is known as the Fibbonacci Spiral. 

Creative Self Portrait - Tester Piece - Week 3

I decided on my final piece being the nature painting and decided to do a tester piece in acrylic. As you can see, I have styled myself in an Alice In Wonderland style dress. I am pleased with the outcome and decided I will go with this specific design as my final piece.

Visual Communication - Exploring Tone - Week 2

On the second week of visual communication, we explored tone and shading in shaped to create realistic drawings. We explored the tone in a sphere, a cylinder, a cone and a cube. We then created a drawing that would show the skills we had just learned. I chose a curved vase with ridges in the top, I also included perspective in the way I drew the shelf. I really felt i had learned a skill i did not have before this lesson.

Creative Self Portrait - New Idea - Week 2

I came up with the new idea of painting me surrounded by nature. I thought of this because although the puppet idea was creative, it wasn't me. so I came up with this as I really love nature and it's something that I find myself happy around it. I decided to go with the middle design as I like the vibrant colours and the idea of dressing myself in an Alice In Wonderland style dress. 

Creative Self Portrait - Artist Research - Week 2

This week I have been doing artist research to broaden my mind, creativity and development towards my self portrait. I chose to research Chuck close as he chooses to use both photo realistic techniques, and he warps his images in creative ways. I also chose to research Frida Kahlo as one of my portrait ideas is to paint me surrounded by nature. Frida Kahlo works nature into a lot of her paintings. 

Creative Self Portrait - Designs - Week 1

After researching artists well known for their self portraits such as Van Gogh, I began to develop designs as a rough idea for a final piece.
      The top left hand design, is one I decided that if carried through, I would do in watercolour, and rather than build up the picture with line, I would build it up with light and dark tone.
       The top right hand picture would be an acrylic painting of myself as a puppet, but rather than in cartoon style, or portraying myself in the style of a traditional puppet, it would be a realistic image of myself, I would have strings attached to my arms and legs, and a hand at the top of the page would be holding the strings.
     The bottom left hand image, would be a pencil crayon or watercolour painting of my eye. The top would be either happy or sad, the middle closed and the bottom again, either happy or sad. Each opened eye would have an image inside connected to the emotion. The final design (bottom, right) would be of myself half realistic, and half skull, this would be done in acrylic. From each of the four designs, I am undecided on which one I prefer.

Beginning our Visual Communication Brief - Week 1

As this is a separate brief, I decided not to mix the visual communication work up with my main sketchbook. This is why I decided to create a new sketchbook specifically for this work.
      As the aim of this project is to create a perfume bottle design, you can see I created 3 small watercolour drawings of perfume bottles in the middle of the cover, I also drew my hand in a few different positions at the bottom of the cover to show drawing from observation.
     Finally, I completed the title 'Visual Communication' with ripped pieces of paper and a light wash of pink watercolour.

We began the first task of naming formal elements in drawing such as:
Lines, tone, depth, texture, perspective and scale. We then focused on line and began to explore it's properties and potential.
     We found that it can create tone, and that the softness and hardness of it can be used for the basis of important elements in art such as calligraphy, depth and perspective.
                                         


We then explored how using lines in simple shapes such as circles can create form, and make it appear 3D, this is called contouring. I also created the image of a leaf and gave the image the appearance of curves using only light and dark lines.
     

          We then went on to draw a Mobius Strip                   using only lines to highlight it's shape and                   curves, rather than tone or shading.    
 


 
                                     

New Brief Task - Week 1

For this task, we had to create a list of words that are associated with us. Each word wasn't deeply thought about, but just words that popped into our heads, e.g. places, names of family, star signs or things you like. After completing the list, we made a creative mind map/collage of our list as you can see on the right. I completed both tasks, by using washes of watercolour, fine liner and felt tips.

Introduction To New Briefs.

For the next brief, we will be doing 3 separate briefs alongside together:

Creative self Portrait-

For this brief, we are working towards developing a creative self portrait. We will begin by researching and developing ideas through other artists. We will then begin to visualise some of our best ideas by sketching and developing them in our books, experimenting with different materials and media in order to reach a point we are happy with, so we can turn a development into an outcome.

Visual Communication-

This unit aims to develop our depth of our visual communication knowledge, skills and understanding. We are expected to study the many ways in which practitioners use visual imagery to communicate ideas, messages and meaning, and to apply the ideas in our own work. Throughout this brief, we must research into advertising and design aspects of the retail of perfume, to eventually design our own bottle, perfume name and logo, and to present these visually through an advert.

Computers in Art and Design-

For this unit we will be using photoshop to extend the artwork we create in our sketchbook. We will also be using Illustrator, in our graphic design project, creating logo, brand identities and packaging. We will also be using cinema 4D, which is a 3D modelling/animation software for our graphic design project.

End Of Week/Brief Log.

I particularly enjoyed working with lettering this week, using our creative skills to produce classic and fine art from our own imaginations. I felt that this week I really have learned a new skill, and new technique of presentation.
    We have now come to the end of our first brief which I have really enjoyed. I have also learned a lot such as techniques, visual recording and how to use different materials.
     Throughout this course, we have explored tone, line, scale, stylising, pattern, mono print, cubism and abstract art. To allow us to explore this brief further, we have explored other artist works and blogs along the way whose works are similar to the work we were doing at the time. These artists included: Dan Young, Jeff Koons, Ralph Steadman, Quentin Blake and also researching the Book of Kells.

Group Abstract Drawing!

For this small project, we were put into groups of 4, where we put 4 pieces of A1 paper together and drew a circle on it. We each had our own corner where we had to pick parts or a part of our sketchbook and draw it. We also had to try and blend it into each others. Mine is the top left hand corner with the clocks. I really enjoyed the teamwork involved in this project, I had a really good time and am looking forward to working in teams in the future. At the end of the day we all had to vote on the piece we thought was best and ours won!