Photography Workshop.

22/09/2015

Key Words
Exposure - is the amount of light per unit area.
Long-exposure -  involves using a long-duration shutter speed to sharply capture the stationary elements of images while blurring, smearing, or obscuring the moving elements.
Aperture - the photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's or image sensor's degree of exposure to light. Typically, a fast shutter will require a larger aperture to ensure sufficient light exposure, and a slow shutter will require a smaller aperture to avoid excessive exposure.
Depth of Field -  A camera can only focus its lens at a single point, but there will be an area that stretches in front of and behind this focus point that still appears sharp. It’s not a fixed distance, it changes in size and can be described as either ‘shallow’ where only a narrow zone appears sharp or 'deep', where more of the picture appears sharp.
High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene.  High-key lighting is usually quite homogeneous and free from dark shadows
Low-key lighting often uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.
ISO - common short name for the International Organisation for Standardization. The ISO setting on your camera is something that has carried over from film. You would buy film rated at 100, 200 or 400 going well up into 1000's, the number refers to the film’s sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive to light the film is. Low sensitivity means that the film has to be exposed to light for a longer period of time rather than a film with a high sensitivity in order to properly expose the image. With a lower sensitivity you also get a better quality image.

During the first activity of the workshop, we paired up to take photographs of each others hands using a monochrome setting. We used our hands to form different poses that presented different patterns and lighting. Me and Olivia worked against a window, creating a great effect of shadowing on the hands. While doing this we experimented with the ISO of the camera.

We then changed the camera setting to portrait to take photographs of our hands showing our personality. We used materials such as ribbon, string and tissue paper to express this. We picked the trait 'shy' and used ribbon to wrap around and place on top of our hands to show very little flesh, trying to show that when you are shy you rarely like to be noticed or seen.

As a group, we moved into the studio to experiment with lighting. We set up the studio, placing the camera onto a tripod and placing lights to shine onto the subject, ie hands. We used a rotation setting so while one person from the group was modelling, another would set up the camera while another would change the setting on the light. We also used a reflector to reflect the light so it hit parts of the hand the bulb could not. During this we also used materials such as string and pegs. Again we played around with the aperture and ISO setting of the camera.

The last activity we did using the camera was long exposure. We put the shutter setting to 30. We again took it in turns to be the model, sitting on a chair facing the camera then placing our hands over our face after 15 seconds. Doing this created the effect that the face would be slightly visible through the hands. We also covered half of the face with black paper and after 15 seconds swapped the model and covered the opposite side of their face with paper. This created the effect of a person with two halves of a face. Using the hands theme and this effect, we moved our hands about in front of the camera, pausing for various seconds to experiment with the effect it would create.
Using long exposure we also tested light-writing. We posed our hands in different positions and using a torch on our phone drew around the hands. This created an effect of a continuous line of light weaving around the hand.

To complete the workshop we edited the photos we had taken throughout the day of photo shop. In photo shop we copied an image of a backdrop eg.wood and edited it so it was inside the hand. However, this did not work for me.

The role of an Art Critic.

16/09/2015

An art critic helps viewers perceive and judge artwork by interpreting and making critical judgments about specific works of art. An art critic can be a range of different people including: A newspaper reporter, a scholar writing for professional journals or an artist writing about another artist. Art critics tends to focus more on contemporary or modern art that is from cultures not far from their own.

There are two types of art criticism: Journalistic criticism and Scholarly Art criticism. Journalistic criticism is written for the general public focusing on reviewing art exhibitions in galleries or museums. Whereas scholarly art criticism is written for a more specialised art audience and appears in art journals. A scholar critic may be a college or university professor or a museum curator.

Recent art critics are Jonathon James who is an art critic for the Guardian and Allistair Sooke who works at the Daily Telegraph.

Textiles Workshop.

15/09/2015

Batik
Batik is a technique originating from Indonesia, where melted wax is used to create dots or lines  using a spouted tool called a Tjanting. The wax can be applied to material and then painted over using dye, the wax is then melted off using boiling water, leaving a pattern in the fabric.
During the workshop, I used a Tjanting to apply melted wax onto paper, then painting over the top using brusho paint. The piece was then placed between two sheets of paper while an iron was used to heat the wax. The paper soaked up the excess wax.

Screen Printing
Screen printing is a printing technique where mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil.
In the workshop, the substrate used was cotton or calico. Either a piece of cotton or calico was placed underneath the screen and a coloured pigment was pushed through onto the material using a squeegee. A pressure wash was then used to clean the screens. Gum tape was used on the screen to stop the pigment coming through where the blocking stencil had broken off.

Puff Binder
Puff Binder was used in the same way as screen printing, but instead of pigment, puff binder is used. A heat gun dries the binder, allowing it to raise. Dye can be added to change the colour of the puff binder. The screen is then washed with the pressure wash or a sponge if the binder dries onto the screen.

Heat Press
A heat press is used to transfer an image on fabric.
In the textiles workshop the fabric used was cotton or calico. The paper transfer was placed on top the cotton in between two sheets of paper in the press. The heat press heated the transfer and cotton for twenty seconds. The material is then removed and pulled away from the transfer.

Sewing
Using the design made from the heat press, different sewing techniques were used to add colour and effect. The main sewing technique used was the back stitch.

'Hands' -Pinterest Link.

https://www.pinterest.com/dutton0107/hands/

Domino Effect.

During the beginning of the domino workshop I put very little forward into the group. It was easier to do individual work and then join the pieces together instead of discussing a set pattern and help one another to construct it together. However, towards the end of the workshop I became more confident in myself making it easier to talk to new people and put forward suggestions on ways to build a group domino effect. By the end of the day I was able to propose new ideas in ways to lay the dominos out so they would fall leaving creative layouts on the floor.

Working as team, again, to start with I was shy and did little to contribute to the team I was a part of, but as we did more team work I became more comfortable with working with people I don’t know, allowing me to easily suggest elements in making our group work better.

Agreeing on tasks and dividing up responsibilities was fairly easy in our group. When a suggestion was put forward in the group that was liked, for example a small scale spiral, another member would pick up dominos and started constructing that idea. When other ideas, such as another spiral but on a large scale and a bridge to connect two groups together, were decided again we just split ourselves up so everyone was doing an equal part.

During the day, the only problems I encountered was accidently knocking over the whole layout of the dominos set up. This was very easy to solve. When it did happen, it was quickly laughed off and then rebuild by a number of team members depending on the size of demolition. To stop the same problem from happening twice, 1 or 2 blocks were taken out every 10/15 dominos to prevent a large number of dominos to topple over again.

I recorded what I had done in the dominos workshop by taking various photos of the different designs me and my team had created.

At the end of the day, the class was asked to produce a large scale domino piece that filled the full room and used different materials that we found in our workspace. The class was split into 4 separate groups which each found a small space within the room to work with. Objects such as barrels, boxes, tables and the ceiling were all interpreted into the class model. Each group individually produced a small section of the domino product and by talking to people within the others groups we were able to develop creative ideas in how to join everything together so could  generate a working large scale domino topple.

In personal opinion very little went wrong in comparison to the things that went well. As said before the only thing to go wrong was if the dominos was accidently set off, but this was easily overcome. The workshop showed me that art doesn’t have to be drawn or painted, it can be through using any materials. It also doesn’t have to be a permanent fixture. Another thing that I thought went well about the day is that it allowed me to explore different mediums of art and to be more confident in myself. I was also able to meet and talk to new people in my class. Personally I would not change anything.

I believe that I could have been more effective with my time. During the morning I spent more time watching what other people were doing instead of thinking about creative ways to build the dominos myself. During the full class piece, our group spend the majority of the time struggling to think of ideas in ways we could build our piece, this left us little time to actually construct.

With the day overall, I was very satisfied. I thought the day was fun and allowed people to mix amongst each other, particularly with people they wouldn’t speak to unless forced. This allowed me to make new friends within the course. The day has also abled me to be more confident with myself and with the way I create/design things. ‘You can’t go wrong in art’. The day also taught me to care less about what I do and what others think of my designs.

My strengths of the day were that I have a steady hand, allowing me to layout the domino designs without knocking them over very often.

To improve the piece I feel we could have made it bigger. Instead of being in the corner of the room, I know think we could have moved into the middle to make a bigger/better finale of the domino topple.

Being an artist/designer it is important to play with your work and be creative. Doing so can allow you to find unique ways to express yourself and allow you to become more confident in the way you do it.

Being creative is about taking risks and challenges and doing something just for the sake of doing something. I believe it’s about being more confident in yourself and your designs and ignoring any doubts you have.  It can be about changing your perspective and allowing yourself to thinking differently and work with different mediums of art. It’s about finding many different ways to reach the same conclusion and finding inspiration in even mundane places.