Sketchbook work-25th January

As part of my work in my current unit, I really want to capture the idea of danger being inflicted upon children everywhere, no matter where one lives. As I mentioned in my previous blogs, I wanted to try and incorporate current affairs, which would give a suggestion of what the child is supposedly going through. And so, I began to read through a variety of different news papers, before cutting out some of the headlines, which appeared to be the most striking. As you can see in the image above, I incorporated my own painting of a child into the composition.

Furthermore, I gathered some of the drawings of the different children,which I had been sketching and created a sort of montage- style piece. Ultimately all of this work is going to push me to create my big series of oil paintings, which I have been working on for a while now.

About a month ago, I created a set of paintings which were partially painted to demonstrate the emotions of a child, as they are constantly changing and morphing into different expressions. As you can see below, I have took the paintings and give it them an appearance of being decayed as well as adding a bold headline, which has supposed relevance to the child in the painting.

(The quality of the images are terrible because the macs at college are so slow, that I can’t download even a good quality image)

After I had completed the above, I went on with the idea of distortion, as I love the idea of viewing the face in a completely different light. Jenny Saville has inspired me in the past to challenge the pre- conceptions of what the body and more importantly to me; what the face represents. I believe that if one gets the opportunity to look at the image of a young child, who represents vulnerability and naivety, they can immediately gather the dangers which they face due to the possible manipulation of their face as is displayed below and above.

Aarron Deleavy- 18th January

We had a lecture with Arron Deleavy, who showed us a film, which he had made in Uni; based in Blackburn. I found it interesting that all of the actors were unscripted and I found that it gave the film a more natural style. Arron also told us that before uni, he planned to stay in Blackburn but began to feel lost and last minute, he got the chance to go to London, which helped him to develop as a person and as a director.

We also looked at a film, which he had created for FAD which was scripted from the the film called Submarine. I could definitely see the change as a film maker from FAD to uni in the two different films, which we got to look at.

Aaron then showed us another film, which he had created in B-tec, which I thought to be the most engrossing and I loved the idea behind it.

 

Sketchbook Development – January 15th

I have been exploring the idea of children in crisis, and so recently I have been studying  images of children,who appear to have been affected by different issues. The sketch above was taken from an image of a young boy, who was caught up in the Syrian bombings and as you can see he appears to be in distress and is clearly upset.

Below, is a picture of the latest development of my oil painting, and I will be ressearching the issues which surround the girl in my painting, to discover what danger means for her.

Contextual Research- January 11th

As my series of recent work focuses on the dangers, which are posed to children around the world, I wanted to make sure that I was fully- aware of the issues, which are currently going on in today’s society and more importantly, how that links to the social networking site called twitter. I have mentioned before that I want to try and bring out the contrasts of the sort of danger, which one might be going through and so I decided that it would be appropriate to learn about the different types of dangers and problems.

Below, I have constructed a list, which you can see below:

World issues include: overpopulation, resource depletion, pollution, water pollution, waste and waste disposal, ocean acidification, acid rain, ozone layer depletion, global warming/climate change, loss of biodiversity and habitat loss, deforestation, and urban sprawl.

I also came across an article, by Rosamond Hutt, which is about top 10 Terrible Issues Facing Children Worldwide. I discovered that the top issue facing children is military use of children, which seems to be a big issue; approximately 250,000 children under the age of 18 are thought to be fighting in conflicts around the world, and hundreds of thousands more are members of armed forces who could be sent into combat at any time. The second biggest issue, mentioned in the article I was reading was trafficking and slavery and some of the most affected countries are Bangladesh. Pakistan and Sudan.

Discussing this matter of slavery taking place in the middle east, I also wanted to think about the Syrian Refugees, who have been covering the news recently, with the likes of artists such as Banksy, who has been raising the issue with his new exhibition called Dismaland. As you can see below, he created model boats,which were tightly- packed with what appeared to be refugees.

I also went on to think about some iconic images,which were all over the headlines in 2016. The first image was the image of the Syrian refugee, who unfortunately did not make the crossing to Europe. This picture raised controversy and some people felt that these images almost dehumanized this child; as though he was a dead bird or fish, washed ashore. More importantly, some people felt angry that these immigrants would try to make the dangerous journey risking their live’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After carrying out some research, I have been inspired to carry on with my investigation and look at some other areas such as North Korea and poverish areas situated in America and Mexico. In the painting, which I painted of my cousin, I am going to paint a life jacket onto her and give her Syrian characteristics, which should successfully highlight the key issues of the migrant journeys to Europe.

Below, I have inserted some images of children crossing over to Europe in their life- jackets, which will hopefully give me some inspiration for my own work.

 

 

 

 

 

Progression of Second Oil Painting – 11th January

As you can see above, I have moved onto a new painting, which will feature as part of my series, which is going to highlight the contrast of dangers, which are posed to every child across every area of the globe. I am not used to painting dark skin tones, and I must admit that it is harder to create the darker shades however I think that this piece is progressing okay.

An update on this painting will come next, when I have completed it.

Interim Assessment- 10th January

Today, we grouped up into our pathways and talked about our progress, which we had made since the we last made our proposal for the start of Unit 5. Sally informed me that I was currently working on a Merit, which I am really pleased with and I have been motivated to create more work to boost my current grade. After talking about my work, and where I am going with it at the moment, I received some really encouraging critiques from my peers, which I have included below.

“I like the way you’re going to do more portraits to relate to the issues around the world.” “Very good theme”

Below, I have inserted an image of my strengths and weaknesses, which I received from Sally. Hopefully, I should have completed the targets, which I have been set by the end of next week.

 

Above is the nearly- completed oil painting, which will be part of a three-piece series. In the picture, which I used as reference for this piece, the eyes were a darker, green colour, and so I felt that I could alter different features of my cousin’s face to create more of a foreign sort of look; to tie in with the work I will be doing.

As you can see below, I personally think that changing the eye colour can make differences to the piece as a whole.

 

Research and Development – 9th January

After some thought and time to think about my series of oil paintings, which I am currently working on, I have had a lot of time to think about why I’m carrying out my work and what it means to me. As I have previously mentioned in past blog posts, I behave been researching the Artist called Tomoko Sawada and I became really drawn to the way she composes her work into what you could call a geometric, gridded kind of pattern. I have admittedly swerved away from the idea of the instancy of changing emotions and moved onto the idea of children and the contrasting dangers, which each and every child faces in every corner of Earth.

I love the idea that from looking at a painting of a person; unless you know that person, it is not possible to grasp what that person is like and so we can only make a pre- disposed judgement based on the way they appear. Through my artwork, I want to use the concept of social media to put forward to the viewer, that even if the child might appear to be happy or angry in the picture, that doesn’t neccasarily determine their real emotion inside. These days, everyone is using an extremely relevant social media site called Twitter, and it can be a great place for spreading news and so I plan to place tweets below each of my paintings, which will not only highlight the dangers , which are being posed onto the really young generation, but they will also create a contrast of different themes, which vary depending on where each child comes from in each painting.

Below, is an image of a mind map, which I created today, and as you can see I have collected some images, which I am going to be transforming into paintings in the next few weeks or so. I will be making sure to alter characteristics in the pictures using my artistic license, as I want to make the work tie in with my ideas.

Sketchbook Lecture – 4th January

We got the chance to sit in a lecture , so that we could learn about the best way to layout sketchbooks. Our lecturer told us that he liked the idea that identity is hidden when people wear helmets or masks etc. and so he wanted to explore that idea throughout history. He also began to create his own helmets, which were inspired by what he already knew. We also got the opportunity to have a look at some of his work, which I did take photos of, but unfortunately lost them. Overall, I have been inspired to continue working in my sketchbook and make sure it is aesthetically pleasing for my interviews. 

Brush experimentation-8th January

I have recently purchased a new set of brushes to use with my artisan oil paints, as I discovered that it was becoming difficult to apply my paint due to my brushes being too soft and small. I feel that my oil painting skills might develop on as I continue to paint.