Final outcome evaluation

My final outcome came out better than I expected it to, however I would change many things about this piece. I like the use of levels/layers in the piece as this gives a three-dimensional effect as if the work is jumping out of the page towards the viewer of the piece of work. I also like how the entire piece is devoid of colour and is only in black and white, except for the colour red which also features in this piece of work as it represents love, romance, intimacy and passion as well as being a vibrant, memorable colour that captures the interest of the audience of the piece. I would change this piece a lot if I could do it all again, I would like to change the main background and not have it collaged with photos as they are distracting from the main focus of the piece and look rather messy/unprofessional. I would also find a better way of suspending the heart shaped borders above the piece than folded paper as it bends and collapses if the piece is touched.

My piece was predominantly inspired by the work of Lizzie Mary Cullen as I found the small, intricate patterns used in her work, very interesting and decided to try and use them in my own work. I also used Lizzie Mary Cullen's detailed style of illustration in my own work as well, an example of this is the illustration of the Warehouse theatre in Croydon and the "Make your own memories, visit London" typography. I did however experiment with illustration-only techniques like Lizzie Mary Cullen's and decided that I wanted to add something more to it, to give the piece an interesting contrast of techniques and ideas in order to give an interesting and memorable effect overall.

My ideas have changed greatly since I first came up with this concept in my "Initial ideas". I initially thought about doing a hand-drawn-illustration-only piece made up of a mixture of moments/experiences in my life that have been memorable for me and took place in my chosen city of London. I decided that these moments should be themed and so considered using moments/experiences that took place in London and have been memorable with friends, best-friends, family, school, college, relationships etc. and came up with a list of memorable experiences for each. The list was as follows:
Friends- shopping, talking, meeting for the first time, finding out stuff about each other, sleepovers
Best-friends- meeting for the first time, running away from angry neighbours, sleepovers, inventing a secret language, making mini-versions of each other
Family- moving house, celebrating occasions such as anniversaries, teaching the kids family recipes, spending time with one another
School- first day, meeting best friends, engraving name in desks, weird/scary/funny/inattentive teachers, having detentions but waiting for each other
College- first day, meeting new friends, doing yoga in class, bunking because of getting lost, creating a tower of diet coke cans
Relationships- meeting for the first time, becoming a couple, first kiss, first time, falling in love, standing on a roof holding each other watching the fireworks, planning a future together, falling asleep in each others arms
I decided to go for "Relationships" as it had the most ideas I could use and it was also a very strong, meaningful theme.

Once I'd decided a theme, I decided to create a slogan for my poster that would encourage people to visit London but also tied in with the idea of having many amazing and memorable experiences in that place. I considered using "Memory filled wonderland" "London in love" "Remember your visit here, always" "A place like no other" "Where memories are created" "Make your own memories" "Remember this". In the end I went with "Make your own memories" as I felt that it was the most dynamic/powerful slogan and it captures the viewer's interest/curiosity whilst also bringing across the theme of love and making them want to visit London.

Overall I feel that my piece is convincing, memorable and unique, however I feel that I may have gone a bit overboard with the mixed media used such as rose petals, wooden hearts, collaging etc. as it looks rather busy and over-crowded and perhaps a simpler, two-dimensional design with less going on all over the place would have looked more professional and been more effective than the piece I created. 

My photos of London that I intend to use in my final exam piece

Development

I have collected primary visual research relating to the theme, I have done many observational drawings of London and visited an exhibition in London and drawn observational sketches from there too. I have also collected a number of photographs from both the exhibition and around London.I feel that I have explored and developed my ideas imaginatively, I have demonstrated this by taking influence from an illustrator and experimenting and adding my own style to her work and using mixed media and developing using different materials. I have mainly focussed on the work of Lizzie Mary Cullen, however I have not only experimented with Illustration like she does, I have been experimenting with collage and photography and paper installations too. I have experimented with both handmade and computer generated techniques, I have drawn out designs and edited them using photoshop as well as taking photos which I edited using photoshop, I have hand-drawn using pencil, fine-liners, felt-tips and ink. I have developed my outcomes through experimentation by using different materials and techniques and combining these to create my final design. I have written about all my experimentation and development on my blog and have used this information to help me to improve. My work is both original and exciting as it includes a wide range of techniques/materials put together to create a mixed-media piece that is both interesting and memorable. I have been annotating my blog thoroughly throughout the entire course and explaining everything that I have done. I have been practising my exam outcomes by creating mock-ups of what my final exam piece will be like, these have come out well and look very interesting with a broad range of techniques used. I have created an exam plan which I will follow over the two days of my exam in order to complete all the work that needs to be done.

Final design

This piece was created using a mixture of hand-drawn and photographic elements. I started off by sketching out each separate layer of the design in HB pencil, then went over the design using fine liners, artists pens and black indian ink. I then edited my photographs of London which I have taken, using Adobe photoshop as well as scanning a few of the hand-drawn elements and editing them using Adobe photoshop too. Once I had printed all of the edited pieces of work for this piece, I cut them out and stuck them down where I wanted them to be placed and added hand-drawn and ink layers on top of these to make them look more interesting. Once the entire background was filled, I created a heart-shaped frame which I filled with patterns similar to the ones used in Lizzie Mary Cullen's work and then proceeded to at that atop the background which I created earlier. Then I added some paper rose petals and wooden hearts to the piece too in order to add another element to the design and represent the idea of love and romance which fits the theme of my work. The final element of this design is the hand drawn piece in the foreground which, although it is difficult to tell in this photo, are suspended using folded card so that they stick out of the page, coming towards the viewer of the piece. Overall, I like the idea of this design and think that I will use this as the basis for what I do during the exam.

Paper installations

Exam planner

Ideas for final exam piece

I created this piece using a HB pencil, black artist pens in four different sizes, black ink and a thin paintbrush and a red felt-tip. I started off by sketching out the design using HB pencil, I decided to use the Warehouse Theatre building as the main feature in this piece because it's a very interesting looking building that has rather unusual features such as a set of tables and chairs on the roof  and arches in the windows and a lot of different patterns and textures are involved all over the building. Initially I didn't have the smoke cloud in the sketched design but when I looked at it I felt that there was too much empty space and it needed to be filled some how so I decided that as there is a chimney on the top of the building, I would create a smoke cloud coming out of it in which the lettering could sit and I filled the smoke cloud with spirals and curls to make the piece more interesting to look at and more memorable as well as incorporating more of the style of Lizzie Mary Cullen within my work. When I started going over the pencil sketch using artist pens I felt that although Lizzie Mary Cullen's work is monotonous, the part of the work that I wanted to stand out-the text-wasn't entirely clear with all the details in the background of the text so I decided to incorporate a main colour to the typographical areas. I chose the colour red as it symbolises love and passion which suits the theme of the piece, as well as being a bold and vibrant colour which would draw attention to the typographical elements which is what I was trying to achieve by adding colour. I felt that there was still something missing from the piece when I looked at it and realised that it was because there wasn't very much contrast in tone/shade so I decided to add ink to certain areas of the piece to improve the overall look of the piece and create a more realistic contrast of tone. I am happy with how this piece turned out, however I feel that I could still add more to improve the piece such as creating a background instead of leaving it white as it is right now, I could add a general wash of colour/colour using watercolour paints to the paper before drawing upon it or I could tea-stain the paper or do something similar to create some sort of background. I could also add an element of collage to the piece such as photographs of more buildings or layers of the same building from different angles, or find a newspaper article relating to the theme of London, love, memories or the location of each building drawn and cut them into building shapes and layer then behind these images or something similar. I could also add three-dimensional elements to my work with certain areas sticking out of the page such as the word "London" or I could have the piece build up with three-dimensional elements places atop one another to create an interesting effect.

Characteristics, potentials and limitations of Lino

Characteristics of lino:

Smooth

Durable

Bendy

Tough

Hard

Flat

Thin

Reinforced

You can cut it/carve it

Potentials/Advantages:

Carve it

Print it

Emboss

Rubbings

Reduction printing

Tough/Sturdy 

Print onto different surfaces

Easy for simple designs or big size pieces

Limitations/disadvantages:

Mistakes are irreversible

It's not 3D

You have to work hard to get texture

Hard to cut

Limited colour application, rollers etc.

Hard to clean/hard to get off hands

Barrier cream for hands

White spirit -> fumes

Long time to dry

Time consuming

Difficult to carve in detail

Final paper installation

This is my group's final paper installation, it took us roughly three hours to create.  I think that this is a very interesting technique that can be interpreted in many different ways. A broad range of techniques have been used to create this paper installation, some parts of this piece have been created in 2D and some in 3D, some are brightly coloured, some are not so bright in colour, some details have been drawn on, some details have been cut out and stuck on. This mixture of techniques used makes the piece more interesting to look at which makes it very memorable. I particularly like the trees/bushes in the piece as they have been created by scrunching up tissue paper which gives a somewhat realistic effect. The only downside to this piece is that there is a lot of empty space which I believe needs to be filled to make the piece a lot more interesting, however there are a number of unusual and inventive techniques used which I think could be developed further.

Trip work

A quick observational sketch created using a black biro, of a building sitting upon the river Thames. I filled the background with patterns and distorted the building slightly in an attempt of trying out a simplified version of Lizzie Mary Cullen's work.

Yet another observational sketch in biro, this time using blue instead of black. This was a quick basic drawing of a clock that sits atop a building by the river Thames.

A collection of observational sketches of things in and around London's Southbank.

We were given guide books as we entered the exhibition and there was a point where  we had the opportunity  to emboss a page of the book with phrases that were related to the exhibition.

These are a selection of phrases from around the exhibition, I  took the phrases and wrote them out in fonts that I feel represent each phrase.

This is a phrase made up by myself, I left this piece of typography on a notice board at college.

This is a map of the United Kingdom, it is filled with images and words that represent my relationship with different areas of the UK.

There was a tiny, metal stick man outside a set of glass doors at the exhibition, this is my drawing of that stick man.

These are observational sketches of stuff around London's southbank. One is typography made out of lighting tubes and the other is of a ceramic egg.

A sketch of ceramic flip-flops from the exhibition.

A quick sketch of a piece of work from the exhibition, I found this piece very humorous,

Another quick sketch of a piece of work from the exhibition, this piece was amusing and memorable as well as being created in a very simplistic style.

Primary research visit

The exhibition was at the Hayward gallery at the Southbank centre, the artists exhibiting were David Shrigley and Jeremy Deller. Deller had the bottom floor gallery spaces and so his exhibition was the first we saw and Shrigley had the top floor galley spaces which meant that his exhibition was the second one we saw.

David Shrigley was trained as a fine artist in the department of Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art. He uses a very sketchy, basic style on purpose in his artwork. His work showcases witty and wry observations on everyday life. He uses a mixture of techniques including basic illustrations, paintings, animations, sculptures and mixed media pieces. I find Shrigley's work both humerous and witty.
Jeremy Deller studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute and at Sussex University where he did an MA. Deller uses a wide range of techniques in his work. In the exhibition, Deller explores humanity and his work is presented in interesting and sometimes very unusual ways including a 3D of bats flying in groups titled Exodus. Deller creates works with a wide range of collaborative groups.

My favourite piece of Shrigley's work is this piece:

I particularly like this piece because it is so simple yet it makes a point and in it's own way is rather humorous. It shows that a piece of artwork does not have to be complex in order to make a statement and have an effect on the audience of the piece. As Shrigley describes his work, this piece  "communicates as simply and directly as possible"
My favourite piece of Deller's work is this piece:

I particularly like the 3D film, "Exodus" as it was interesting, memorable and captivating for the audience of the piece. This was an unusual take on what is usually presented in an art and I think that Deller's approach to it was an effective one, the piece left people wondering what the meaning behind it was and many visiters to the gallery were interacting with one another and talking about what the film could represent.

My least favourite piece of work by Shrigley is this piece: 

I didn't particularly care for the dead, taxidermy animals around the gallery. The "I'm dead" comment was humorous, however I didn't like the use of the dead animals in the piece. The piece itself is a perfect example of Shrigley's unique style of work but I personally didn't care for the use of taxidermy, but that is just my personal opinion.
My least favourite piece of Deller's work is this piece:

I didn't overly care for this piece of work as I couldn't see the point in it really, although the free tea was enjoyable, I didn't fully understand how this piece fitted with the rest of Deller's gallery, I have researched and still don't completely get it. I would probably prefer this piece more if I could see a point in it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the exhibition. I was inspired by much of the work and I found the tasks we had to complete particularly interesting as they allowed me to involve myself with the artwork surrounding me and gave me the chance to immerse myself in the artist's exhibitions and gain a deeper understanding, interest and inspiration of the pieces than I would have done simply walking around and looking at them. 
This exhibition was relevant to the exam theme of "Combinations and alliances" as the two artist's work complemented each other in their quirky yet meaningful style however they also had an interesting contrast of techniques.