Lens Based Media- Research

 

I really like how this video was created. 

It was made using the paper cut method, and the small pieces of paper would be gradually moved. I think it is really effective how the pieces of paper have been layered to create more dimension on the page as backgrounds. 

Here are some screen shots from  the video: 

I also found a video showing how it was made, which was really interesting. It showed how many people were involved in the making of the video, and how much time it took too. 

I thought it was also interesting at how many things could be made from repeated shapes too. 

http://vimeo.com/m/3090846

Task 2- Ecological Peace

Our group was given the theme of Ecological Peace. We decided this could include things from the environment, people, and life cycles. We made some mind maps on the things we could include.

We decided to think about rainforests, and wanted to include something with People and the environment, as we thought this was connected to Ecological Peace. 

We all created a few mood boards inspired by the natural environment, and put them together. I really liked the visuals we were inspired by.

We then started coming up with storyboards. 

Our final plot was to start the animation with a man around a campfire telling a story, and then flashback to back when he was a child. Then we would show how the rainforest was for his Native American community, and how it would be cut down to make way for cities and skyscrapers. 

We were going to end it there, but we decided that it should end with the best of both worlds, with city and greenery, to show that compromises can be made to show Ecological Peace. 

Next we started taking roles in our group.  Everybody made a background, while Schiel created the characters. 

We decided to make a stop start animation, by moving the character slightly, taking a picture, and then repeating the process. 

I was given the task of creating the rainforest background. 

I really liked how it had turned out, and I think the natural colourscheme worked well. 

This was the beginning scene that Izzy and Grace had made. I think it worked really well, and gave a really good idea in the animation from what was happening. 

This was our main character that Schiel had drew. We thought that the visuals of him and the background worked well together. 

I really enjoyed the filming part, and I found it really effective that we moved the images very slightly, so that it flowed a little easier. We also made sure to move things in the background, like animals and clouds, so that the scenes were busy and interesting. 

It was also my role to create extra scene props that we needed, for examples the sun that was in the background, and fonts that could be used too. 

Once we had finished filming, we had to start adding sound effects. This part was also enjoyable as it really brought the animation to life. We wanted the noises to be very busy, just like a rainforest and a city. We filmed some of our own noises, for example animals, and added busy background noise on the computer. 

Lens Based Media- Task 1

Our first project was to create an animation in one day based on the character: "Tony the Superhero." We had to animate this to "The Pixies- Tony's Theme"

We were allocated our groups, and decided to base it around the superhero Turtle Neck Tony. 

The story we decided on was that his turtle neck gave him super powers, and his neck grew as he travelled around people's houses. 

We thought out the story line carefully, and came up with scenarios that could happen in our animation. We decided he would travel through people's bathrooms and bedrooms. 

 We then allocated each team member a part to do. We all created one background, and Elliot and Schiel focused on drawing the characters.  

I drew the bathroom scene, and Schiel created this character. 

We decided to keep the drawings very minimalistic as we only had a short time period, and we tried to focus more on filming the animation and adding quirky details. 

This was another one of the characters that featured in our animation. We made the arms and body parts move. 

I really enjoyed this project, and seeing everything come to life. We used stop motion animation, and would take a picture, then move it, then take another. When it was all edited together it looked really good, and the music really brought it to life.

Task 3- Political Poster Design

Typography- Practising Types

Next I experimented writing different types using song lyrics. I wanted to design the type in fonts that could relate to the image the lyric was conveying. I wanted to sad lyrics to have a very dreamer/ flowing feel to them, to portray this message. I tried to draw "I feel numb most of the time" In the style of calligraphy.

Typography- Artist Research

               Bob and Roberta Smith

Patrick Brill is "Bob and Roberta Smith."

He creates bold graphic fonts and slogans, and founded the "Art Party" which rebels against Michael Gove's policies. I admire the use of typography, and the bright texts and backgrounds have a very retro feel to them. Some of his pieces are very humorous, and focus on politics and art.  This is something that he feels very passionately about.

I like this piece by Bob and Roberta Smith because of the bright colours and retro feel.

                                   David Shrigley

  

David Shrigley is a British visual artist and illustrator. 

He labels himself as an "outsider of the art world" and his comical illustrations represent this well.

Some of them don't make a whole lot of sense, but I like the sketchy texts he uses.

                                          Allan Sanders

Allan Sanders is a Brighton based illustrator. He creates screen prints and hand-written texts and type, as well as illustration. Sanders had a brief career in computer programming, but then decided to make drawings. He has worked for many clients including "The Guardian" and LA Times.

                                          Tracy Emin

"You forgot to kiss my soul" 2001

Rhianna Wurman

Rhianna Wurman is one of my favorite type artists. She has a girly vintage style to her work, which is lovely to look at. I have been very inspired by her pieces, and I especially like her positive quotes and illustrations. She also sells her hand lettering pieces on her etsy store.

Typography- Visual Communication

                    Typography

"Typography is the design and use of the letterform as a means of visual communication."

Daily we are surrounded by type. Fonts, banners, signs. During this project I will be looking at, and experimenting with many different types.

 

Our first task was getting used to type, where we tried tracing different fonts using the slogan:

"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"

We used this phrase because it includes every letter in the alphabet. 

I then experimented with my own page full of fonts. I added different textures and layers to it.

        One Day Project with Rob

We then had our one day project with Rob from VisCom. We had to create our own fonts, creating both the upper and lower case letter. I was given the letter R.

We had to create them out of shapes, and at first we could only use 3 shapes, then 2, then however many we wanted. 

I first created this R using 3 shapes. I wanted to add a cut out to it, to make it more interesting, and I also suggested shapes were there, rather than putting them in. 

It turned out to be quite a 1920's font, quite "Great Gatsby", so this font would look great in films or posters, set in the 20's. 

                    What's your type?

Next we had to recreate a newspaper spread, playing around with layouts and fonts. I enjoyed playing around with the layouts, and creating interesting images and captions.

Task 3- Chuck Close

Chuck Close

On the 13th of January we started looking at Chuck Close.

 He was born in 1940, and is an American artist that mainly focuses on portraits, and photography.
He uses the grid method to create these portraits. Due to his Dyslexia, he struggles creating something as a whole, however breaking pictures down into small parts is very beneficial to him.

Close had been interested in art ever since a young child, and found it was a way of dealing with his dyslexia. His parents were also encouraging, and his  Mother used to take him to art galleries. 

In 1962 Chuck studied at Yale University, where he went from painting abstract art, to painting photorealist portraits. He had previously been inspired to create abstract art by Williem De Kooning, and Jackson Pollock, who were both abstract expressionists. 

In 1967, Chuck Close created a 22ft painting called "Big Nude." which Close had "wanted people to notice." It consisted of a naked woman, exposed 22ft wide, and 10ft high.
The "Big Nude", and the next self portrait he created in 68, seemed to be a big statement. It was almost as if he wanted people to realise he was more than an abstract painter, and that he wanted to be something different.
"Big Self Portrait" was created using an airbrush, which sprayed black acrylic paint mixed with water onto the canvas. The grid method was used, and the overall portrait has an overpowering feel to it.
It has a very James Dean punk vibe to it, which i really like. The detail in this self portrait is incredible.

In 1988 he was left in a wheelchair after suffering a spinal stroke, which left him paralysed. His hand-function came back, and now paints with brushes strapped to his wrist.
After this Close then started to make paintings using the grid method, but by using the style he is most famous for.

His Grandmother used to crochet, and he liked the idea of lots of small squares, of different shapes and colours, joined together to make one big piece. This is the concept that inspired him to make various self portraits in the style that he did.

 

After doing lots of research about Chuck Close, I began creating my own self portrait in his style. 

I first measured out my squares, and then had to put the picture to scale.

I then added the base colour to each square, and as it dried i started to add more shapes and detail on top.

  I really enjoyed painting in the style of Chuck Close. If I had more time I would add more contrast in the hair, and add more tone. 

It was also hard to paint on the eyelashes because they overpowered the rest of the painting. If I could, I would try and find a way to encorporate the eyelashes, which would complete the face.

Task 2 - Large Mixed Media Self Portrait

We first practiced drawing quick 20/30 second portraits. 

I like my drawings to have a sketchy/illustrated feel to them, so I experimented with 1 minute illustrated drawings. 

I also experimented with drawing faces, as I used to find it difficult to draw accurate faces, however over the course of this project I feel I have improved. 

I experimented drawing the faces in Biro, with ink, and with paint.

I then made my first portrait in pencil. I tried to draw it freehand without using the grid method. It was quite hard to get the proportions right, and I'm not too pleased with the outcome because of this. It was also hard because the photograph was taken at an angle.

I then recreated the same picture, but used the grid method instead. This one turned out much more successful. 

Mixed Media 

I then started a mixed media painting. I used decided to use watercolours to give a soft/dripping effect. 

As you can see from the picture, I first drew it in pencil, then added watercolour.  As the watercolours dried, I added fine liner detail. 

I found it quite challenging to draw this, and I wish I had used the grid method, however I was overall quite pleased with the final outcome. 

I thought too much of a background could have distracted from the face, so I decided to add a soft watercolour background around the face.

Task 1 - Artist Research

                                         Billy Childish.

 

 

Billy Childish is an Artist, Poet, Musician, and has many more talents too.

Though i'm not a huge fan of his work, it was interesting to visit him in his studio, in The Dockyards, to see what he had to say.

I was quite nervous to visit him, because the persona he puts on seemed to be very no-nonsense, however he seemed friendly.

He openly admitted that when he was very young, he used to copy Van Gogh's artwork, (which is noticable by looking at his paintings,) as at home, his Mother had a copy of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" on the wall. He also mentioned that him and his older brother (who was also into Art,) would use their Fathers paints and brushes when he went away.

I did see a  few pieces that he had been working on that day, and the day before, which was a painting of him and his Daughter, on a walk in the woods. I really liked these paintings, as they showed a softer side to his personality, and didn't have a "im such a rock and roll artist" vibe to them.

 

 

 

 

 

Gillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing is a British Conceptual Artist, born in 1963. I discovered Wearing whilst googling self portraits, and was really intrigued by her work. Wearing also seems to enjoy discovering things about other people, which then allows her to find out more about herself during the process.

She was also part of the "Young British Artist" movement, which happens to be one of my favourite movements in Art History. Gillian Wearing is married to the artist Michael Landy, whose exhibition of "Saints Alive" was one that I had seen at The National Gallery.

In 2003, one of her self-portrait pieces was a series of masks she had made of family members, which she then wore.

"Self Portrait as my sister Jane Wearing"

 

"I tried to make each member around the same age, late teens to early 20s, so we are equals in a way, regardless of the roles we had within the family."- http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/mar/27/gillian-wearing-takeover-mask#/?picture=387780735&index=2

 

I thought these were an interesting look on the words "self-portrait" and one of my favourites of the series, was a self portrait of her at 17.

Wearing is wearing a mask of her teenage self, with only her real eyes showing.

This image can be responded to in many different ways, but to me it represents Teen angst. It also reminds me of an 80's movie, where they have their pictures taken in a prom photobooth, although Wearing would much rather be at home listening to Elvis.

(Nope, just me that does that??)

Wearing's work really appeals to me. They have deep feeling to them, but they also seem quite weird and sinister too. They are also extremely realistic.

 

Andy Warhol

 

 

Andy Warhol is an American artist, most famous for his key part in the Pop-Art movement, in the mid 1950's. However he has also created many self portraits, and this is one of my favourites.
It was made in 1978, and is a screenprint on white paper. I love the illustrated look of this self portrait, and the fluid and jagged lines really make the picture for me.

I also like this photobooth strip of Warhol, which was one of his earliest photography experiments, in 1963. To me, these also represent self portraits, and Warhol has created images in the style of Actors he had idolized, as most people do.

"In these little curtained theaters, the sitter could adopt a succession of different roles, each captured in a single frame"

- http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1996.63a,b

Warhol has taken on the Persona of James Dean, "icons of the youth culture that he idolized."