Sketching and painting 7th March 2014

I have been drawing using ink and pen and also watercolour.  Just really playing around to see what happens and what comes out.   Using my photographs as primary research, I have scanned in what I have done.

photograph of an alleyway leading down to the sea 

drawn in gel pen this is an alleyway between houses leading out to the sea - looks better scanned than it does the original - what could I do with this next?   I could use text where the steps are.... which is what I have done (see below).   

Again another image leading down to the sea - I have not included the sea but more of the sky and horizon - the darker colours of greys black and orange show the sun setting 

a bundle of sea "stuff" 

Using Photoshop I have opened up the scanned images and they actually look different on screen, or I am seeing them differently, in a more positive light.   On paper they look to me a tad dull but when on screen, the lines are enhanced.  

In photoshop, I have added some colour.  Initially to the drain pipes which I coloured blue, using only 49% opacity so that the original lines can be seen under the blue.   In the middle of the picture there is a set of steps which look nothing like steps as I have been unable to achieve that look - presumably something to do with the angles of my lines.   Therefore I thought of putting foot prints on them and I opened another photograph which had my feet on it and using the magnetic lasso tool, I traced around the feet, copied and pasted into my sketch.  The impact of the feet at the size I had copied them, the tone of the flesh against the pen drawing hit me.  To me it resembled a surreal image.  I have worked on this image adding more texture from original photographs using the clone tool.  I copied rocks, sand and the sea and the effect I have printed out contains cloned wall colour and the sea and some sand where the steps are.   I have printed it onto linen fabric through my own printer.   

The linen fabric comes A4 size and has a backing sheet.  We talked about this fabric recently after I had been researching fabric business cards and Lance thought we had a printer to be able to do this and it turns out we indeed do have such a printer.  However it hadn't been used for a while, and need cartridges so Emma suggested photocopying an image onto the fabric. We actually used a cotton sheet of fabric and the photocopier produced an unexpected but interesting result and I wanted to try it on linen.  I have subsequently printed it on my inkjet printer.  I was concerned that it might get jammed but it went through the printer happily.   My printer is in need of new cartridges so the colour may be improved when I replace them.  

I can see the potential though of creating more pieces of work similar to this on the different fabrics.  The fabric is quite sheer so could be layered up.  This is something I will continue to sample.   The fabric pieces can be obtained from http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/default.aspx.  The linen fabric is around £3 per sheet and the cotton only £1.25 so there is bit of a different.   The cotton is more sheer than the linen.

This is the different types of fabric that Craft Computers can provide to print on 

The text I added first and then the feet came later however whilst creating layers, I removed the text and decided the image is more thought provoking without it.  Whilst studying for my Foundation Diploma, I remember I received feedback for a photograph project on sheds and I had in effect ruined it by putting text on each image so I am taking on board that feedback now!

I am going to now contact my peers and ask for their feedback.  What do they see?  What do they think of it?  How could it be improved?

My personal opinion is that I love the effect I have created.  It was unintentional, and from a sketch I thought wasn't any good, I have made something from it.   From here, as it is printed on linen I can stitch into it giving more texture.

Feedback from peers:  Lotty and Becky both gave feedback which really confirmed my thoughts.  The text isn't necessary.   The right foot could be cropped further around the ankle area.  The mixture of the original line drawing and then the adding of the colour in photoshop and the reality of the photo of the feet work well together.

Sampling with sunset image - 6th March 2014

Today I set myself the task of creating a fabric piece based on three sunset photographs.  I had previously created a sample of what was in my head by putting together some fabrics as shown below and previously referred to in blog post.   I wanted to emulate the sun setting with fabric.   I had picked up some mustard coloured fabric - thick upholstery type fabric scrap from the play and recycling centre and I wanted to use this as the base for the sun setting. 

One of my previous samples in my sketchbook had been noted by Mark as being interesting and infact Emma asked me what I thought of it and I said it just looked like fabric stuck onto a page.   But no, apparently it didn't look like that to trained eyes.   So, my piece today is the next stage to the sketchbook piece, using the same fabric, but embellishing it to the sun set coloured background.  

The fabrics I have used are satin, lace, and a polyester type fabric, ribbon and some fleece.   The texture of each fabric is different.  The satin smooth and shiny, the lace delicate, soft and feminine.
I have a large pile of fabrics which I have brought with me today. 

I laid out the base fabric and 3 photographs and loosely laid on my lace, satins and other fabrics to see how it would look.  I did think about stitching it on by hand to hold in place whilst i was embellising but I decided not to do that. 

I discovered whilst embellising the lace to the fabric that the black shows up the base fabric giving the impression that the sun is behind it.   

I have used the lace to give a fluffy effect of the clouds because to me, clouds look like wool.

I have embellished large long strips of fabric one piece at a time, as opposed to many layers together. 

I don't feel I have achieved the right colour within the black area.  I was aiming to a have a lighter area where the sun is higher and where the sun is going down the black area should be darker.  I have tried to represent this by using more lace where the sun is up.  Were I to do it again, I would use lace only on the left hand side, together with a dark grey satin rather than black.  

Problems encountered were with the thickness of the base fabric in that the embellisher struggled wtih its thickness in parts mainly where the fabric has raised parts which are pattern.   So if I create a larger piece I will use a different fabric, possibly calic or linen and dye it to the colour I want which is this colour.

If I do a larger piece I would also use the sewing machine and hand stitching where necessary.  Although the embellisher gives some interesting effects i.e. scrunching up some fabrics and giving a bellowing effect on the satin.  I feel with so many layers it needs the security of some permanent stitch.

Feedback received suggested I concentrate on one sun setting as opposed to the three.  I have added more detail and texture to the textile piece using gouache to fill in areas that were slightly bare.  

My next step is to dye some heavy and light calico and create similar samples.   The calico will work easier with the embellisher. 

Research for FMP

I met with David Matthews who has been visiting Borth since he was a child, and his connections to Borth were through his grandparents who lived there.    My notes are shown below.

I feel I got a sense of the progression of Borth as a fishing village to a holiday destination and also the reason why there is not much more development in the area due to the marsh land being lower than the sea level.

Proposal for FMP

My proposal for my FMP is completed.   I started it a few weeks ago after talking to Emma as initially when given the proposal details, I thought OMG this is going to be hard to just write the proposal.   However, on reflection it hasn't been.

rough notes for FMP 

I have my primary research already and this was beneficial because I had my starting point and knew my topic was going to be about Borth.    I have received feedback on my photographs last year and advised that did I know that they fell into groups already and I hadn't infact noticed it.   I don't see things like this necessarily in my work so it was very useful to have this pointed out to me.

I did a draft proposal and asked for feedback from peers and tutors and was given pointers where I needed to add more information, which I have now done.  These areas included adding references where I had obtained information from, references for companies I will use and more details of cost of the project.

We also then were taken to see Mark Davies for his input into our proposal.   Mark talked about the horizon being infinite and unachievable  i.e. when you walk towards it, it gets further away.  This fits in well with the horizontals and vertical themes within the project.   Mark gave me some books to look at whilst with him and I picked up a few pieces of work including the following:

Fat Monkey made from flip flops by Florentijn Hofman - from this angle and distance you cannot see that it is a money or what it is made from.   Close up reveals the media used.




http://www.florentijnhofman.nl/dev/project.php?id=171

This appealed to me because of its size primarily.   The fact that it is also made from flip flops is even more appealing as it's so unusual.   The flip flop is apparently the national icon on of Brazil which is where the Pixelshow was being held.   How does this influence my project?   Well it just makes me think out of the box about making something largescale for instance the rocks that I sat on, so smooth to sit on and touch, but so awkward to walk on and not too comfortable either.

Alfred Wallis


http://www.andyblair.co.uk/alfredwallis/






http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wallis-houses-at-st-ives-cornwall-t00239

Alfred Wallis' work looks primitive and I love this type of work.   From a personal point I would hang this work in my home, and similarly, my own work to date tends to have a naive/primitive look to it which I used to call child like when I first started out on the foundation diploma.

Self Employment

For the self employment project to research self employment I typed into google self employment and started off looking through the sites that initially came up.   I discovered many sites that offered a step by step guide to becoming self employed from the Citizens Advice Bureau to HMRC.  There are comprehensive guides for all aspects of becoming self employed.  

I have found this project quite straightforward and enjoyable.   Having had a professional back ground and being a mature person, some of the aspects of self employment I have come across already.  I already have a selection of research on law within my specialist area so I have been able to use some of this information.

As regards my organisation of this project, I only discovered the week before we broke up for half term that there were documents on Moodle relating to this project.  They are too long to print out I discovered, and I had already made a good start prior to looking at these documents.  I don't know if my not knowing about these documents in my me having my ears closed or just not thinking to use the resources available to me.   This I feel I could have done better and can learn from.   

Also, today I discovered from fellow students that amongst these documents there are some worksheets we have to complete and today is the first I have heard of it.   So having not been in class this morning due to interview, Lotty has photocopied the sheets for me and I need now to fill them in ready for hand in tomorrow.

I have put together a good selection of information I feel, finding resources that people may not think of or would dismiss i.e. MoneySavingExpert.com.  

I feel my life experience has helped me in this project.   

Tuesday 4th February 2014

So, last few months of the course has started.  I have spent the last few weeks preparing a proposal for my final project which I have done.  This last project will take me up to leaving in May.   I have chosen Borth as my subject with the focus being on the landscape and the history.  I will be producing work using techniques I have learnt already and not going out and learning new ones. Techniques include hand knitting, embroidery, embellishing, felting and machine knitting.

I also have 3 interviews lined up for universities for topping up my foundation degree to a BA.   Not for the title in any way, but because I haven't finished learning yet.   I want more taught stuff, as opposed to going out and doing it for myself.   Really I suppose I'm going to be paying upto £9,000 for using facilities, materials and knowledge of tutors so when I think of it like that, is it worth it?   Or should I take the plunge, continue in the care working and do my creative stuff on the side?  Or should I try to get a job in the creative industries?   To be honest, I hadn't really given that one much thought.

Uni Interviews update 26th February

In late January I received notification of interviews for Birmingham, Bath Spa and Derby.  I set out putting a portfolio together.   I had no clue whether I had to start creating brand new work for it so was guided by Emma Strange and Sue.   I put together a portfolio of work from diploma and degree courses, which included actual work, photographs and a written piece which Bath Spa asked to be done on contemporary art and that could be a recent exhibition attended.  I had been to see On My Mother's Knee in January so I wrote the follow piece which I then had checked over by Emma to see how it read.

I have attended Birmingham and Derby interviews.   Birmingham for textile design and Derby for Fine Art.

On the day of the Birmingham interview the word design as in textile design hit me.   I put Birmingham in as my last option and in hindsight textile design is not the course for me.   The interview itself though was a very positive experience.  The building and facilities were great as they have a brand new building.  The staff were also helpful, positive and knowledgeable.   The feedback I received from two tutors was that they felt by missing out year 1 I would be missing the design process and therefore they would suggest I come in at year 1.   I'm not keen to do that as I dont have funding for another 3 years, and also it's a completely different route for me.   If I hadn't done the FDa CAP then I would probably go there and try designing.  However, given that I've now done two years, I will continue down the route i'm doing which is being more of a creative/artist and not a designer.  Birmingham also said I had a good portfolio and I came across well.

Today I went to Derby for the Fine Art interivew.   This interview was tougher than Birmingham I feel.  I was asked to pick one piece of work and talk about it, the thinking behind it, where I could take it to next were I to continue with it?.   I was asked why fine art and not textiles, what my favourite film is and what book i had last read.   I was convinced I wasn't what they were looking for and therefore surprised when they offered me a place on year 2, which is what I had applied for.

I have the Bath interview in a couple of weeks as I postponed it from last week.   Birmingham is not going to be an option for the reasons I have said above.

I have come out of my interviews feeling good about myself and my work.