MY PROJECT:
My overall project is based on nature and environment. I want to focus on the little details that we miss in our everyday lives. The things that most people don't get the the time or chance to view close up. Normally our lives are very busy and we could walk down the same road and still not notice tiny detail if we rush and only have the aim to get to the destination we are going. I want to focus on plants, bugs and landscapes that might be overlooked. The first thistle painting was lightly inspired by artists such as Paul Morrison and Nives Palmic. These artist do bold black and white line work either with print or paint. I think doing this piece in black and white was a good choice as it makes the viewer focus of the basics of the flower. Its detailed shape wise but doesn't actually have any detail but we can still get a lot of information from the shapes that we do see, it makes the viewer have to study the piece more carefully to understand it.
This is the start of a series of A3. I decided to do 4 pieces that looked like silhouette of wild thistle plants. The idea behind my project is to show things that we miss in day to day life. This is one aspect of this that I wanted to do some work on. Silhouettes are created when the light backlights the object. This is normally something we only view through pictures of on peoples Instagram's. Although my project was originally meant to document the detail that we miss within nature and the world, I think its also nice to break down this detail into the different shapes, patterns and movement. I feel like from these paintings we can feel the plants slightly blowing in the wind.
I really liked simplicity of this design as it creates more contrast and creates the drama that I wanted it to. I wanted to create an atmosphere in the background so I added some light and darker paint splatters in the background. I did these pieces on white A3 paper and used black acrylic paint to create these bold, block colours for the shapes of the thistles. I like the impact that the piece creates as the simple design makes the viewer start at the first one and and follow along the line of flowers. I also liked the small white border that I left around the edge of the pieces as it creates more of an impression that the pieces are part of a set even though they would make sense individually too. The one thing I would do to Improve these pieces is have one or more of the thistles cross over onto the next piece of paper as this would really make it clear that these images are made to go next to each other.
These are some of the bugs that I drew as a part of a 4x A3 series that I started. I decided that I would do 4 pieces that connected together to make a bigger picture. I thought that doing panels would make the image more visually appealing and makes the images more dramatic. These where something I added after doing the main thistle paintings as I thought it would be a good representation of the things that we miss or don't see in day to day life. I thought it would be nice to show some of the insects that we don't see on the daily because they live underground and are too small to be seen unless we are looking for it..
This is the final result of the the 2x4 A3 panels that came together to create one big piece. I really liked the way this turned out overall as I think I got creates the effect of the flowers being on top and the bugs being in some sort of underground burrow. The overall impact that the black and white contrast has on the overall piece is very visually appealing and makes it clear where I want the viewer to look at or focus on the most. If I was to change one thing about this piece is the fact that the first panel underneath the thistle isn't overlapping with the others. This makes the bottom half look a little bit overbalanced on one side even though I still like the overall effect of the overall full piece.
BUG MODEL 1:
This is a model that I made based on my own macro photography. I made this little plant with wire, masking tape, glue gun and acrylic paint. I think overall this turned out quite well as it was sturdy enough to hold my bug model and still hold its shape. I thought that it would be a good idea to use these glass containers as it makes the piece more eye catching and almost means that I have actually captured and kept the detail of the beautiful insects that we wouldn't normally get to see.
This is the first version of the bug that I made. For this I used tinfoil to create the shape of the bug and then covered and shaped oven bake ploymer clay. I then painted the model with acrylic paint. This first model didn't work out as it was very rough and the small legs kept breaking off. Overall I just wasn't happy with the overall finish of the bug so decided it would be best if I remade it with the same materials but make sure it was more refined and so it wouldn't break so easy anymore. I think the second version worked ok.
This is the finished result of the bug model with and without the the glass cover. I think the glass cover really finishes off the piece although I couldnt get a good picture of it with it on. I was quite happy with how this turned out. I loved the colour used as well as the textured look that created using a range of different materials. I think the clay worked really well to make the model the second time as I took more time to make sure it wouldn't break and that it was smooth.
BUG MODEL 2:
This model is also made from polymer clay and is painted with acrylic paint. Although I liked the way this one turned out, I don't think this one is my best or my favourite. This ladybird is also based off my own macro photography which I will be including all my images down bellow after my models .
BUG MODEL 3:
This is the third model I made with the same materials as the other as I found that this method works pretty well. The thing I like the most about this model is the way I painted the wings, I liked the dark green colour that the bug is and I think I did a good job in shading and making the body look more 3D. Overall I think these bug models where quiet effective and I think I will still make more so I can improve on these skills.
This is a drawing that I did with coloured pencils, again this was based of my photography . I decided it was a good idea to do a drawing and to use coloured pencil as it would allow me to document all the detail that the models didn't let me get.
This is a painting that I did with acrylic paint. It was from a picture of a local park. I simplified the image to document the main elements that make this scene so beautiful and visually appealing. I overall like it but also think I should do a fully detailed version.
Detailed Painting:
This piece was done on A1 paper. I did it from from photography of this view .I took this image so it would have a shallow depth of field and mainly took the viewers focus to the detail of the rocks, moss and leaves. I decide to make this piece bigger as an experiment because it makes it easier to show more detail and gets me out of my comfort zone as I usually don't work on a big scale as I find it easier to work on smaller pieces, overall I enjoyed trying to do a bigger piece but will keep experiment on different sizes and materials to do this to.
CLOSE UPS :
Here are some close up pics of some of the detail that you cant see from the pic of the piece far away. I used acrylic paint for this piece but also decided to use a few coloured pencils and a white pen to go back in and add even more.
My Own Macro Photography :
My photography plays a big part in my work and is normally the starting point/ reference to all of my work. These pictures are taken with a Nikon camera and a macro lens and I have decided that I will get some of these printed as part of my work. I think these photos came out really well and the detail that the lens picked up on is amazing. Overall i'm really happy with how these turned out and this is why I have decided that I will get them printed so they become their own individual pieces.
Wood Board Paintings:
I really liked the visual effect of the work I did with the thistle piece so I thought I would play around with light and dark, negative space. I decided to revisit these piece as I wanted to see what else I could do with it. for example , I ended up painting half black and half white on these MDF boards. I think overall these pieces turned out well . I wanted to create a bold piece that had a lot of contrast in it. These remind me almost of a reflection from water like a lake or river.
Large thistle painting on paper:
This Is a bigger painting of the thistles that I started off painting at the start. I decided to revisit this concept as I really like the contrast and black visual effect that the black and white had. I think these pieces of work show the beauty of overgrowth and the power that nature has to over take a certain area. I also think by reducing it down to just black and white (creating the effect of a silhouette) as if someone is laying under the plants looking up to the sky. I am happy that I did this painting at a bigger size as it is again getting me out of my comfort zone and I think that this allows the piece to be more impactful and makes your attention drawn to it more. Its almost like its too big nor to look at. I think If i did this smaller the effect would be lost a bit as the larger scale really emphases the contrast and the negative space. The next thing I would try would be to do this the opposite way round so do white thistles on a black background to see if the effect is lost.
These are some of the copper scratching pieces that I did. Overall liked the effect of these and think that they look really cool under different types of lights. I didn't have the correct scraper tool to use to do this so I ended up having to use a palette knife so the lines where not as clean as I wanted them to be but overall I think these worked out really nice and I will continue to experiment more with this medium to see what else I could create with it. I think there are a lot of things that you could try with this medium and I could use different tool to leave different marks.
Copper Scratching work:
REARRANGING MY WORK IN MY STUDIO SPACE:
This is the original layout I had for my work but the order didn't make sense and I knew I needed to organise and regroup my work. These picutres are from before i grouped and sorted out the placement of my work.
AFTER:
This layout is now ordered and is done in a more visually appealing way. This ordering will help me talk through and explain my work more clearly.