Mixed Media

 This week we were creative with still life and did Mixed Media, a technique in which one artwork is made of many different media.

Watercolour

This week, we have been exploring watercolour, from resists and washing to mixing and blending. Once we practised resists using PVA, wax and tape and used salt and sponges to create effect and texture, we did a still life painting of flowers.

Composition

This week, we explored composition by using the 3 shapes: a circle, a square and a triangle. after, I picked one of my favourite and created an abstract image using paper and cellophane.

Still life painting

This week also in painting, we all had to paint an onion, pepper and lemon, with the lemon, I used a technique to create texture, when the paint was almost try I pressed it onto cardboard and it peeled some paint away.

Exploring Colour

This week in painting we explored colour. We explored all the different painting terms and learned about how to mix, blend and apply colour.

New Brief - Painting

Through this unit, I aim to develop my skills and knowledge in investigating and exploring the physical properties of different painting media and materials. through the process of experimentation and ongoing evaluation I aim to build up a personal record of my investigation that I will use to inform my ideas for a finished piece.
    This unit will consist of an introduction to a variety of techniques and processes that I will explore and research and then apply to my own work. I will explore the following techniques:

• Media, materials and techniques.
• Colour and colour mixing 
• Washes and applying paint
• Mixed media 
• Developing ideas 
• Investigating traditional ideas and
  contemporary still life painting 
• Exploring the work of artists

I have 5 targets for this unit:

• demonstrate an informed understanding of painting throughout the unit, and creatively apply it to my own work.
• produce evidence of extending the range and potential of my work to inform my artwork.
• show an imaginative approach to the relationship between subject matter and the materials used.
• record my information well and show that my evaluation compliments a sophisticated body of work.
• produce a sophisticated and exciting painting of still life.

Teapot - 3D

As part of my final piece for 3D, I made a teapot based on the sea, the main form of the teapot and the lid was made on the clay wheel, and the octopus tentacles were made with the pulling technique, and small round forms added for the suckers. Unfortunately, I unknowingly let the teapot dry too quickly and it became crumbly and began to break, although I fixed it, the teapot went missing later in the week.

Motif and Relief - 3D

 For this technique, we used terracotta clay and rolled it into an equal levelled, flat, rectangle form, after this I carved a gear shape out of one side, this is called a motif, next to it and bigger, I built up the form of a gear, and finally I lightly carved lines into the background. once the modelling process was complete, I put it in the kiln to be biscuit fired, which allows the clay to be hard and absorbent enough for glazes, coloured glazes and iron oxide effect, but not hard enough to be complete. On this piece, I rubbed an iron oxide/water mix over it, and scrubbed it back off, leaving it dark in the hollow areas. I then used a black under-glaze colour on the gears, and only on the raised gear shape I used a clear glaze. Finally, it was placed back into the kiln for a final, hard firing.

Continuing to explore clay

This week we have been continuing to explore clay techniques. This week, we made cylinder forms from clay and so using the theme of shells, I recreated a coral that appears as though sea creatures including shells has stuck to it over time.

Clay Techniques

 This week we have been continuing to use our drawings of organic and industrial objects to influence our work. This week we are using clay to explore different techniques.
SCRAFFITO scraffito is a technique in which you roll and cut out a piece of red/terracotta clay and coat it In a white decorating clay slip. You then leave it for 2-3 days before scratching into it a design with a sharp wooden stick, scalpel or for fine detail, a pin. SLAB FORM A slab form begins the same way as a scraffito piece, you roll and cut out a piece of clay (grey or red) and you may either work into it or add to it. By working into it you can impress marks either by carving or using a stamp. To add onto it to achieve a clay relief, you just raise images out of the slab form using other, small pieces of clay.

Glass Fusing/ Slumping

Glass fusing is a technique in which you have two clear piece of glass, say both are square, that are the same size. Between these two pieces of clay, you can put other small pieces of glass that are different colours, Frits, and bent wire shapes. Once you have a design that you're happy with, you place it in a kiln at 850c and the two pieces of clear glass will fuse together, sealing the design within it. Glass slumping is where there is a dent within a glad piece, and before it is placed in the kiln, small pieces of coloured/plain glass in placed in it, when it comes out of the kiln, the glass would have melted into its shape, filling the hole.

Organic/Industrial Drawings And Sculptures

In this first week of our 3D brief, we were given organic (skulls, shells, bones etc.) and industrial (drills, gears, clamps etc.) objects to draw. From these object drawings, we made organic and industrial simple sculptures made from planar (in flat form e.g. Paper, card) and linear (in lines e.g. Dowel, wire, straws) materials to recreate all, or part of these drawings in an interesting way.

3D Organic Industrial - New Brief

In this new brief, I will follow a series of organised studio sessions and workshops that will introduce different materials and techniques in 3D, sculpture and surface design. 

    I must record and present my back up notes, design drawings in my sketchbook, and my 3D activities with any outcomes / samples I can produce. Evaluate the effectiveness of my work in my sketchbook, and finally, create one final substantial outcome based on explorations of the working title Organic/ Industrial. 

I must also explore the following 3D materials and techniques:

 Planar materials

 Linear materials 

 Ceramics and glass techniques

 Carving and relief techniques

 Surface Pattern and decoration

visual communication final piece

For the final piece of visual communication, we had to design a perfume bottle. We had to initially come up with a logo, and a name logo, and of course, the bottle itself. We had to think about the box and the way the label would be on the bottle. After weeks of planning we had to come out with a final drawing to present our bottle as if we were to present it for selling. We had to take into account, the tone, ellipsis and other formal elements.

Final Piece - Surface Pattern

Following up to my final piece, I had to do specific research according to the theme of my final piece. As I was doing a Japanese themed collection, I decided to do a Japanese mood board and research page. I also researched other phonesocks, notebooks, stamps, mugs and wallpapers for inspiration. I also used pinterest. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the wallpaper sample I designed.

Oil Pastel Scratching - Surface Pattern

I created this technique by
completely covering a piece
of card with black oil pastel
and then scratching into it
with a pin. This gives a
lovely effect of a negative
drawing and if you scratch
deep you can also reach the
brown card.

Bubble Wrap - Surface Pattern

This technique was done by
ironing scraps of objects inside
 of two pieces of bubble wrap
(underneath a piece of paper
so it doesn't melt onto the iron).

Screen Printing - Surface Pattern

In this session we did a group Screen Print, we all drew a 10 by 10 drawing which was developed onto a fine mesh for screen printing. We printed them ourselves (the right picture is mine). Some did it on paper and others did it on old t-shirts and other fabric. This was quite a fun technique to learn about and do.

Kimono's

The Kimono is  a traditional dress is Japan worn by women and translates to "thing to wear". They are for social display and represent a woman's wealth, age, marital status and even emotion.

Oil Pastel Rubbing - Surface Pattern

Today we had a number of textured
surfaces such as wallpaper, netting
and ceramic tiles. We got some tracing
paper and placed them over the textured
materials and pubbed oil pastel over it to
make an impression, on some we then
painted ink over it.

Tie Dyeing - Surface Pattern

Today, We experimented with and learned the technique of tie dying. One that I created by rolling it into a tight sausage shape and bunching it together turned out to look like an ocean, inspired me to stitch two orange fish into it. The other one was done by folding and ironing and then tying together.

Batik - Surface Pattern

Today we did Batik, this is a technique from
Indonesia where hot wax is dripped onto a
piece of fabric and when it solidifies, ink is
used to colour the fabric, the ink spreads
everywhere but where the wax was dripped
and the wax is later ironed of once the ink
has dried.

Tiebele - Berkin Faso

This weeks culture reference of the week was the African village of Berkin Faso. Although it is considered the poorest country in the world, each mud house is decorated with beautiful tribal patterns, usually built by men and painted by women. This is always a community effort. Tiebele is the inspiration for our tribal pattern drawings we did in the second week of our surface pattern brief.

Object Drawing - Surface pattern

At the start of the second week we drew random objects placed in front of us, we could do this is any material we wanted, so I did a rubber duck in embroidery and a knitted dinosaur in ink.
This would later be the inspiration for designing our own repeat pattern.

Polytile Repeat - Surface Pattern

We experimented with polystyrene repeat printing.
We had a small polystyrene tile and with a small
template we filled in the corners, using a template
insures that when the pattern is repeated, it joins
up. We then dented the rest of the design in and
rolled out some ink. We then  rolled the ink on to
the tile and repeated it. I repeated this process on:
Fabric, coloured paper, and plain paper.

Drawing fruit and sweets with oil pastel on black paper - Surface Pattern

As a small task, we each had fruit and sweets infront of us to draw from. We were each given a black piece of paper and oil pastels. eventually we created drawings from our viewpoints, and zoomed into interesting patterns we saw within the fruit and sweets.

Using Shapes - Surface Pattern

In this lesson, we explored shapes to make pattern. In the picture on the right, we cut lots of two different shapes, and arranged several different patterns, this is just one of them.
   Once we were used to that, we began to make more complicated shapes to make more complicated patterns.