Adobe Illustrator Time Lapse-17th February

I have been attempting to create a time lapse for a while now, and I have finally put one together, which shows the different stages of myself developing my work. Obviously, it’s not perfect as I can’t say i’m great at using illustrator. I have attached the link to the video down below. Pardon the very odd music in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOE55USnKss

I have also attached a picture of the end result, after I had turned my drawing into a pattern. Overall, I am very pleased to say I haven’t ever attempted to “paint” anything on illustrator. As I move onto my FMP, I want to create more work on Adobe software, as I feel that it could hold a more contemporary sort of look. 

Image Experimentation 13th February

I have recently been experimenting with shutter speeds and as you can see below, I achieved to capture some interesting and peculiar self- portraits, which I might go on to paint as part of my final major project. Although, after coming to the end of Unit 5, I have had some time to think about the work, which I have been producing and I have decided that I want to focus more on the photography side of things, as it is something I am passionate about and believe that I have been spending too much time studying the drawing and painting side of things.

Andy Warhol, is one of my favourite photographers, because I simply love his double exposure self- portraits as you can see below. The idea that the face grows more blurred as the series of images continue, really interests me.

Love this image of myself, as the way in which, the composition of my face turned out is really interesting and quirky.

I like the sepia effect, which my camera created for this image. Picture itself also shows some interesting movement.

I like the head movement displayed in this image, however not so keen on it as I feel like more of the facial features could be more focused. The white bar on the side of the image does add interest.

I like the fact that my face looks really deformed, and in some ways it’s definitely disturbing and that’s what makes it interesting.

I also want the opportunity to explore capturing some scenery, as well as portraits, as l feel that it would be really valuable to grow as a photographer in a variety of areas. Below are some pictures, which hopefully should capture dynamism and the movement of the individual in the image.

I prefer the set of two photos below, as they both create a suggestion of movement and the focal object appears to move away.

Uni Interviews-February 12th

I recently attended an interview for Blackburn Uni, which was very successful, and I received an unconditional offer, which I am pleased about. More recently, I have been focusing on building up my portfolio in preparation for my Manchester Met interview, which is scheduled for the 15th of March… I think.

I will post some of my more recent pieces of work shortly, which are going to be part of my FMP.

Feedback- January 31st

After having a discussion with my Fine Art teacher, I received some useful feedback about what direction, I should be working in and how I can continue to develop my ideas. Sally was impressed with my sketchbook work, and really liked the idea of using newspapers and headlines to create a collage with my sketches. This gave me the idea of creating some bigger pieces of work in the same sort of style. Furthermore, I am going to be creating some bigger drawings of my partially- painted portraits, which will hopefully be successful.

As you can see below, I have begun to collage onto an A1 piece of paper. The white area, which I have left bank, will be where I am going to be sticking my portrait onto.

Painting Development- 29th January

As you can see. I have begun work on my last painting, which will be part of a series of paintings, which I have talked about before in my blog. As part of a small piece of experimentation, I did a quick mock-up painting of what my big piece will look like and I must say that there will be a lot more detail and accuracy involved with the piece above hopefully!

In my next blog, I hope to post a picture of the completed painting, as I am eager to get lots of work done prior to my upcoming interview for Uni.

Photoshop Edits-27th January

On Thursday, I decided to create some photoshop edits of my paintings, which will hopefully inspire me to add text onto my work, to create an element of context to my work. As you can see below,  have tried to display the “two sides to every story”, as I feel that it is important to remember that a photo doesn’t necessarily reveal the true emotions of one’ self, due to that fact that it is merely a snapshot of a split second. In the work below, I have tried to incorporate appropriate items, which represent the migrant crisis in Calais, as thousands of immigrants are attempting to sale over to start a new life. The most vulnerable affected in the crisis are children and I feel that the use of the life-jacket in my work is symbolic to the idea of clinging on to hope and of course; survival.

Below is a photo of my Fine Art teacher’s son called Noah. Before  painting him big, I decided to add a African landscape to the backdrop, which I quite like and could be potentially suitable for when I add text.

In the past, I have created some partially- painted portraits, which I personally think, look effective as you can see below.

From creating the paintings above, I became inspired to use a different media to re-create something similar. Below are the early stages of an illustration using Adobe Illustrator. Personally I really enjoy using the programme, as there are so many different possibilities and outcomes,which can be fulfilled through using the variety of tools. I hope to develop this particular illustration, as I feel that it could have some potential and I want to bring it closer to my ideas about children and the contrasting dangers they face, depending on where they live.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.