Ceramics Workshop

In the ceramics workshop I began to sculpt the arches for my final design. My instructor Deborah told me to create a paper template for the arch so each clay model would be the exact same. As the arches in my design are quite large, she told me to cut the arches in half and glue them together once fixing the whole sculpture together, as the top of the arch may become weak and shatter or change shape once in the kiln. She also told me to make double the amount of piece I needed in case any were to break in the kiln. Once I had prepared and cut out all eight half arches, I left them to dry over dinner. After dinner, I then used a cup of water and paint brush to smooth out all the edges to once they had be baked they're we're not sharp edges that would spoil the finished sculpture.

 

 

Design 3.

For a third design, I experimented with a Frank Stella inspired 2D relief. I also experimented with more medias and materials. For the base of the design I thought of a basic wood based but painted black, and using the etching design made in print making, print that in top in White. To add more detail to the background, I thought of designing a modern type building made from paper but cutting into it to design the windows. A yellow Perspex would be placed under to create the effect of the light glowing through. As this design is also inspired from Renaissance buildings, I took the arch element again and framed the design with mirrored arches.

After designing this I quickly made a paper maquette using scrap pieces of paper and paint. I sprinkled white brusho inks over the top of the black paint when it was wet to create the effect of a starry night, but the ink bushed off so instead it flicked white paint on using a paint brush. 

After creating this maquette, I felt that it looked incomplete so I designed a boreder on the design sheet. As if had already stuck the paper maquette unto my sketchbook, I didn't not design a miniature sculpture of the frame. 

Design 2.

Like my first design this draft is based around arches. I have taken the abstract arch I designed in the first design as I feel this would be a practical shape to work with using different materials as well as looking effective. I have used different sizes of this arch and simply placed them in a line along a wooden plinth. However, even though this design is very basic, if you look at it from different angles, it becomes different elements. For example if you face the plinth on its side and look down the arches, smallest to biggest, it becomes a stair case, another element taken from a renaissance painting. If you look at it from the biggest arch to the littlest it was attempted to look like a church. As if you wee stood at the bottom looking down, each arch getting smaller the further away it was.

To make this design linked to 'transcribing Caro', I would paint each arch in a bright colour, like Caro does in some piece do his work.

Design 1

After drawing different elements of renaissance architecture, I started designing different sculptures which may be used as a final design.

For my first design, I looked at different Caro pieces and tried the 3D, large scale designs. I took the traditional arch styles and mixed it with an abstract version, to link the sculpture more to Caro's work. I then randomly placed and drew the different arches around the base in different positions and sizes. After I did this, I debated which arches would look better as wood and which would look better as clay, as well as being more practical and sturdy in each material. 

I didn't not like this design once it was draw, therefore this will not be used as my final design.

Strike Day.

In this lesson I concentrated on elements of renaissance architecture again. However, in stead of the building itself, I focused mainly on the different patterns used within the art. I found images on Google that influences these designs, such as the initial pattern and the colours within them.

I also looked at different patterns such as architectural patterns used by artists such as Julie Mahetru. I incorporated these as well into this page. For the gold and silver, I used gel pens and paint.

Renaissance elements 1.

M3/11/15

I'm today's lesson I started transcribing different elements of Renaissance work to develop them into abstract images to incorporate into my final design. 

 The first element I chose was different forms of arches. Particular arches that intrigued me were the ogee arch and the common Gothic arch. Therefore I split the page in half and drew both of these arches, using tone to capture the different shapes and shadowing of the architecture. 
Both of these images were found on google images. The second sketch of arches was significantly easier to draw than the first as I find it easier to portray circular movement easier that straight, square shapes. Also as the first image is particularly shadowed it was harder to pick out where the lighted areas were.  I feel somewhat proud of this page as I feel I have illustrated the tones in arches well even though I have not shaded sketches for 4/5 years. 

I also started to draw an old Renaissance building but I do not like this so I won't add it as a page in my sketchbook. 

Photography workshop

24/10/15

In today's photography workshop we started started by looking through different images of paper sculptures made by professional artists. Then using a craft knife, a cutting mat and a sheet of paper we started making our own paper sculptures to use to take photographs of. I tried making a sculpture made up of cylinder tunes taped together but I didn't feel it looked good so I restarted. I then tried to make a swan instead. But this was not finished in time so I used my paper sculpture I made last Thursday in my sketchbook to take photos of. 

We than placed each sculpture onto a product table with a reflector dish placed behind to give off light. A beauty dish was placed in front of the product table to give light from that direction too. This light was moved around to give off different shadowing effects. While taking photos of the sculptures we changed the ISO settings to change the colours and effects of the photographs taken.

Half term work.

Over half term I started artist research pages. I did four on Anthony Caro and two on Alexander Calder. 

The first research page I did was the string copy of Caro's metal sculpture displayed in the Hepworth gallery. As I was searching through images for inspiration for the research pages I knew that I wanted to try to recreate this sculpture but instead of using staple materials, I wanted to use household items.  Doing this deemed more difficult that I expected. In some one case I overestimated each size of string so they all had to be cut down so they would all fit onto the page. Then each piece of string was very difficult to stick down onto the page and the frayed edges I feel made the finished piece look messy. Another problem I discovered was that I stuck each separate piece of string on top of another as I went along, then realising that some of the beams of the sculptures went behind, in front and overlapped different beams. Therefore I had to peel up some parts of the string so I could slide others under to give a more thoughtful finishing piece. 

              

For a second page of artist research, I wanted to keep the page simple with only drawings. I used two images, one of my own taken from the Hepworth gallery and a second found on the internet from a leaflet promoting Caro's work at the gallery. To make the page slightly more interesting, I layered parcel paper onto the page and drew part of one sculpture on that. 

                                

For a third artist research page, I wanted to show as much of Caro's work as I possibly could. The best way to do this I thought was to create a college of the different work he produces such as paper sculptures and staple material sculptures. I printed off 25 '4x6' photos, or as close to '4x6' as the image would allow, and placed them evenly around the page. I left a large enough space around the page so I could draw in the Caro's name. 

                               

For a final artist research page on Caro I wanted to show in detail what other sculptures he creates instead of the ones he makes using staple materials. Therefore this page is about his paper sculptures. I scraped pastel coloured paints across the page using a small piece of card to create the background. I then stuck both primary and secondary photos of his paper sculptures onto the page. Using the paper I made in the textiles workshop I attempted at making my own mini paper sculpture, I then added this to the page. To finish the page I used a calligraphy pen to add in the title and the annotations. 

For Calder I wanted to demonstrate the two styles of sculptures he builds: wire and metal. 

The first page is wire. For the background I mixed red paint with PVA glue to try and create a marbled effect but it did not work. I then manipulated wire to try and recreate a sculpture he had made. However I had to remove parts of the hair as it would not all fit onto the page. I then stuck it onto the page using double sided tape. 

                                   

For the background on the second Calder sesch page I used blue and red brusho inks. I dampened the page using water and a sponge, sprinkling the inks over the top. Some of the ink did not blend very well so I used a water spray to wet the dry ink. However, the water was projected onto the page instead of sprayed creating large puddles of ink. I then drew one of caldera sculptures on a separate page. I painted it grey so it looked more like metal and used a darker grey to portray the joints in the material. I then cut this out and glued it onto the page. 

                                       

Sketchbook work.

22/10/15

In today's lesson we started our sketchbooks. However instead of doing it on the project brief, we started on how to produce quality sketchbook pages that are exciting to look at. 

For my first page I layered it with newspaper and then using a stencil I made by cutting out 1cm squares, I layered the paint with different colours of paint. 

For my seconds page in my sketchbook, I wanted to use a theme, don't chose 'Alice in Wonderland'. I folded the pages so it looked like a sort of leaflet and drew the rabbits pocket watch on, surrounded by flowers. On the inside I drew Alice her self with coloured pencils to make her a focus point on the page. I then layered the page with parcel paper and drew different characters from the original book and stuck then onto the page. On the second page I took a quote from the Cheshire Cat. I then painted the page black leaving the quote and the cats eyes and grin in white. 

Also while doing this, I made homemade paper in the textiles workshop. The pulp for the paper had already been prepared. As the paper pulp was set in a container of water, I used a sift to pull out the pulp. I then placed it onto a cloth, removed excess water using a sponge and peeled away the sift so the paper was stuck to the cloth. I then moulded the paper around a balloon so that when it dried it created a dome that could be used in my final design. 

3D workshop induction

21/10/15

Today I had the 3D workshop induction to learn about all the safety procedures and how to use the equipment. 

We were instructed on the pillar drill, band and fret saw and the disk and bobbin sander. For each of these pieces of machinery you must remove your lanyard, tie long hair back, wear strong shoes in case anything hard is dropped and wear goggles. For certain pieces of equipment such as the saw, ear privation must be wore. 

On each machine we were also taught how to stop/start it and how to stop it immediately incase of an emergency, as well as how to set each piece up by fixing in drill bits and saw pieces of needed. 

To start the workshop off, we made various lines on a small piece of wood to which would be our guideline when using the equipment. We made a straight line down the edge of the wood, a circle in the middle with a centre point marked out. A random shape was the made around that. 

The pillar drill was used to drill a hole through the centre point of the circle.  I then used the band saw to cut through the line at the edge of the wood and then the outline of the circle. The disk sander them sanded down the edge of the circle. We used the bobbin sander to smooth out part of a curved piece of wood. Finally we used the fret saw to cut out the random shape on the middle as it is best used for smaller detailed cuts.