Sketchbook work:
A1 Collage drawing:
In my A1 piece, I took into consideration his work and also from another artist, Rosie James. For her work, she uses sewing to outline things and fabrics. For the umbrella, I used a sewing machine to outline it, leaving pieces of the end of the string attached to give it texture and difference. I made the insides using newspaper and PVA to give it a shine, as this gives it a layering looks and to make it more interesting. I used a tea bag to create the brown background, dipping it in water at wiping it along the page. For the two skulls, I used black and white tissue paper, chalk and charcoal, I then glued these down and plan on using PVA over the top when the entire piece of work is finished. I need to further develop this piece as it is a bit plain and needs more textured layers, colour and drawings. I need to develop other techniques into my work and work faster in order to get a better outcome than what I produced here.
Life Drawings 31/01/2012
Drawn with charcoal, these are of a man who came in to class and allowed us to draw him for a long period of time in different poses. I need to work on the proportions and make sure in future that I look at what I am drawing carefully.
Collagraphy, plate making for print using life drawings 07/02/2012
Today, we focused on plate making, a piece used for printing, called collagraphy. We were shown how the machines worked and how to use them properly, following certain safety procedures.
We had to recreate several of the life drawings previously done in order to create a template of what plate we wanted to create. Here (right) is the life drawing I chose to create the plate on. We had to gather bits of materials to create this image to be visible when we use the print machines, otherwise nothing would show up.
For the plate, we had to layer different items to create the life drawing that we chose. Different textures create layers and different outcomes from the print. I collected leaves, parts of a plant, string, wallpaper, cloth and I also used bits of masking tape.
Here is the finished plate. To create this, I cut out the wallpaper to create the shirt on the drawing. I used masking tape to surround it and cut cloth for his trousers, using the same technique with the masking tape. For his arms, I used parts of a plant and stripped them up and glued them down. for his hands, I used small leaves. for the drawings head and hair, I used string to create a texture that was a little bit like hair. I used the large leaf in the top left corner to fill up some space and create more layering. The string that goes across the page horizontally, I cut little triangles out so that the string would stay in place, and simply wrapped it around a few times, securing it at the back with some tape. I repeated this three times.
When finished, we used a layer of PVA over the top. This will stop ink getting into the fabrics used and staining things if the plate needs to be re-used with a different colour. With PVA, anything on top can be washed off of the surface much easier.
I enjoyed doing this work, I liked using different materials and techniques used to create it. When we get round to the print making after half term, I think it will produce a nice outcome.
Collagrahy printing 21/02/2012
We used the plates we created last week and took them up to the printing room where we used each primary colour to create a print, blue, red and yellow. These were then placed inside the printing machine and pressed creating coloured images. I found that the string that I used for the hair absorbed the oil that was used to clean the plate after printing, and when I next used it, it showed on my next print. I will take this into consideration next time printing and will have to use more layers of PVA to make it much harder for the string to absorb the oil. Also, even though I didn't use bubble wrap, from observing other peoples work I found that it was effective when it worked however, it came off easily and was difficult to maintain a good quality in extra prints. Finally, I found that although leaves created a nice effect, they would peel away and fall off of the plate.
Here, I took some of the life drawings that I did:
Barbara Rae
Barbara Rae studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1961 to 1965 where she was awarded a travel scholarship, taking her to work in France and Spain in 1966. She went on to lecture in drawing, painting and printmaking at Aberdeen College of Education from 1972 to 1974 and lectured in drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art from 1975 to 1996. Rae's work has been included in many solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Rae lives and works in Edinburgh. She has bold composition, strong contrast and richly textured painted and collaged surfaces she shows a unique look in her paintings. She is a highly acclaimed painter and print maker and her abstract works affirm her incredible gift as an artist. Her work is often inspired by specific places where she has travelled to. Rae uses strong strokes of bold colour; merging form, line and hue into each other. a lot of her work emits warmth and energy, this gets across how she feels about the place she is painting or printing. I like her work, it has a uniqueness in comparison to a lot of other artist's work and her use of colour make her work stand out from the rest.
Cy Twombly
An American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colours. He exhibited his paintings worldwide. At age 12, he began to take private art lessons with the Spanish modern master Pierre Daura. Twombly soon developed a technique of gestural drawing that was characterised by thin white lines on a dark canvas that appear to be scratched onto the surface. His early sculptures, assembled from discarded objects, similarly cast their gaze back to Europe and North Africa. He stopped making sculptures in 1959 and did not take up sculpturing again until 1976. Erotic and corporeal symbols became more prominent, whilst a greater lyricism developed in his 'Blackboard paintings'. Between 1967 and 1971, he produced a number of works on gray grounds, the 'grey paintings'. This series features terse, colourless scrawls, reminiscent of chalk on a blackboard, that form no actual words. Twombly made this work using an unusual technique: he sat on the shoulders of a friend, who shuttled back and forth along the length of the canvas, thus allowing the artist to create his fluid, continuous lines. Together with Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Twombly is regarded as the most important representative of a generation of artists who distanced themselves from Abstract Expressionism.
Another Life Drawing session:
We focused on pastels instead of charcoal, which I think created a much better effect.
When finished, we used a layer of PVA over the top. This will stop ink getting into the fabrics used and staining things if the plate needs to be re-used with a different colour. With PVA, anything on top can be washed off of the surface much easier.
I enjoyed doing this work, I liked using different materials and techniques used to create it. When we get round to the print making after half term, I think it will produce a nice outcome.
Collagrahy printing 21/02/2012
We used the plates we created last week and took them up to the printing room where we used each primary colour to create a print, blue, red and yellow. These were then placed inside the printing machine and pressed creating coloured images. I found that the string that I used for the hair absorbed the oil that was used to clean the plate after printing, and when I next used it, it showed on my next print. I will take this into consideration next time printing and will have to use more layers of PVA to make it much harder for the string to absorb the oil. Also, even though I didn't use bubble wrap, from observing other peoples work I found that it was effective when it worked however, it came off easily and was difficult to maintain a good quality in extra prints. Finally, I found that although leaves created a nice effect, they would peel away and fall off of the plate.
Here, I took some of the life drawings that I did:
and focused on certain areas, making them more abstract and less detailed.
Barbara Rae studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1961 to 1965 where she was awarded a travel scholarship, taking her to work in France and Spain in 1966. She went on to lecture in drawing, painting and printmaking at Aberdeen College of Education from 1972 to 1974 and lectured in drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art from 1975 to 1996. Rae's work has been included in many solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Rae lives and works in Edinburgh. She has bold composition, strong contrast and richly textured painted and collaged surfaces she shows a unique look in her paintings. She is a highly acclaimed painter and print maker and her abstract works affirm her incredible gift as an artist. Her work is often inspired by specific places where she has travelled to. Rae uses strong strokes of bold colour; merging form, line and hue into each other. a lot of her work emits warmth and energy, this gets across how she feels about the place she is painting or printing. I like her work, it has a uniqueness in comparison to a lot of other artist's work and her use of colour make her work stand out from the rest. Cy Twombly
Another Life Drawing session:
We focused on pastels instead of charcoal, which I think created a much better effect.
