Year 1 Art

For this topic, I wanted to focus on addiction, how someone becomes addicted and different types of addiction there are. I began my research looking into the medical side of addiction, and what causes or triggers addiction. According to the NHS website (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/addiction-what-is-it/) having an addiction is the inability to have control over doing something to the point where it could end up harming you. I find this quite interesting that someone would do something intentionally that will have a negative effect on their body or mind. Looking further into different types of addictions (gambling, drugs, smoking and alcohol being the main ones) it's quite common in the sense that these things (mainly alcohol and smoking) are so widely available even though they can be detrimental to someone's health. I want to look more into what causes people to become addicts, and how different factors can play key roles in one's addiction. From ...

At the beginning of the year, I found myself slightly lost when it came to ideas and techniques I wanted to investigate more. I definitely had a lot of weak areas also, the main one being time management, as between 3 A-level subjects I struggled to manage all three conveniently, I found myself focusing on art a lot, as I found the workload quite heavy, but as the year progressed I found it easier to manage as a spent my time more wisely. I began focusing on planning my work as soon as the task was given, a good example of this is the unit one journey project. When we first got the task I was confused on what to do, as I'd always taken art quite literally in the past, so I thought of doing something to do with biology and evolution, but settled on doing something quite personal and emotional relating to my great-grandad and his journey from Burma to Assam, but he failed to make it. Before we started that unit,  we did a lot of workshops which helped with developing techni...

For this project, we were told we had to incorporate textiles into our work, my previous final on the 'unit 1 journey' project I used embroidery and I found the technique quite effective, so I wanted to explore it further. Firstly we experimented with a variety of printing techniques, including monoprinting and collographs. A section of prints I did, which I analysed on a previous post. I found these prints quite intriguing, especially the top to, as I found the reminded me of abstract skulls, or portraits, so I decided I wanted to focus more on portraits, and faces, and maybe even including some photography, which I've never done before. Following on, I drew some sketches of skulls, using a reference off pinterest, in different styles. I found I liked the cross-hatching, as the lines create harsher and darker tones, which match the sharp angles on a skull, as well as the curved lines, to match the rounded shape of the top of a skull, I then photocopied the s...

The second workshop we did was printing, we did monoprints (addition, subtraction and relief), collographs and embossing. For the collographs and embossing we used a press. This piece i did on some old music paper I had, I used subtraction monoprinting and I dampened the paper and this was the look I got in the end. This piece I did on dry paper using addition monoprinting, This is my favourite piece by far as it slightly resembles a face, and has a mysterious feel to it. This was the final outcome of the experiments I did on printing, the top 2 are monoprints and the bottom 2 are collogrpahs. I did a small print of an eye on top using relief monoprinting, the middle piece is the plate I used for the collograph, and ther bottom one is a emboss of the above stamping plate.

During these workshop sessions, we did two separate things, the first was collages using materials we found on a walk, and the other was printing. Collages The first workshop we went on a walk through the park, to study the textures which could inspire us for some experiments. I collected mostly leaves, and some daisies to incorporate into my experiments. Whilst out, I took some photos of some textures which interested me: The sharp edges of the leaves and the few in focus add depth, and the leaves are arranged in very neatly in rows. The earthy colours of the tree bark mixed with the layers it creates adds a layered effect, which could look interesting in a collage. The shininess of the wax on this leaf I found quite inspiring to create a reflective collage This photo interested me as its mostly shades of beige but layers can be seen, also the weathering as the layers are peeling away.   For my collages, I first wanted to do one inspired by the shiny l...

I've decided to change my final, to make it more simple, but organic and raw at the same time. Following my reflections after my first final, I think 5 canvases would look more effective and bold than just 3. I plan to do more developments in a sketchbook, in a similar style to my mixed media book, overall I think these pages look more effective, as the colour palette is limited to browns and earthy colours, making the piece look more organic and aged. I used some fabric which was cream, and stained it with tea to create the more beige colour, I then used crumpled up newspaper dipped in the same tea to add more texture and to break up with blank white page. I used a page from another sketchbook which I photocopied and glued down over the fabric, I used a mix of the ink I made from tea and black fine  liner to continue the lines across the page, continuing from the map, making the piece flow together more, as with my previous final I focused more on replicating the map inste...

Developments from line research After researching Rachel Perry, I created this experiment by using all the pens I had in my bag at the time. I also did a tally of the pens I used to keep count and to know the order of colours, similar to how Perry presented one of her pieces, Chiral lines 24. The vibrancy and boldness of the highlighters contrast the thin and dark biro, which makes each line stand out individually, as the colours clash. I followed the same techniques as Perry, using both hands to create a 'whole' piece. On the right, the lines are tighter together and each one follows the previous very closely, I think I achieved this as I'm right handed and had more control over the pens I used. On the left, the lines aren't as close together, as the go further out onto the page than the right. They're also not as smooth as the right, as my left hand isn't as stable as my right.

Evaluation For my final piece, I used the maps as my main influence, drawing them in fine-liner onto the background of my tea stained canvases. I'm glad I used tea to stain my canvases rather than paint, as the tea symbolizes my family's work history, which adds another layer of meaning, I could have added some tea leaves onto the canvases to add more texture, which would have made the tea concept more obvious.  This is my final piece. I used the tea staining, textiles (the thread tieing the canvases together and the sewing around the photos and embroidering the words), drawing (for the maps), and burning the holes in the canvas. From afar, you can tell its an old map, but when you get closer you can see the details of the map, and when and where its from. Here are close-ups of the canvases, I tried to line them up best I could by sewing them together, they had a bit of give which meant I could alter them slightly once they were hung up. The green represent...

Artists research Rachel Perry was an American artist born in 1962. Her work is mostly conceptual, using a variety of mediums including photography, video, drawing, sculpture and performance. A piece of work by her which I find inspiring is ‘Chiral Lines’ which is using lines in a unique way. She uses all the drawing materials she can find to draw lines onto paper, this first piece uses two piece of paper, using the same pens but one with her left hand and one with her right. The lines look similar but the differ as one small moment can become exaggerated very quick by the repetitive lines. Some of her work is presented larger than others which shows the time taken, to firstly find all the drawing materials, pens and pencils and markers etc, and then draw lines very close together without overlapping and to try and keep the work looking near, although the lines aren’t straight, it shows the naturalness and the unique style of each piece. When presenting her work, Perry uses v...

For my final, I plan on creating 3 canvases which I plan on, sewing together, in the configuration below, using green thread on the Indian side of the map, and red on the Burma side, to represent the fire and destruction Rangoon faced at this time. I also on this mock just burnt holes, but they look too small and it took a long time to do. So on my final I'll cut holes out and just burn the edges, so I'll have more control and I'll be able to pick where I want to create the holes. I'll also embroider like I did in my textiles sketchbook, to label Assam, India, and Burma, so the view will know which side is which. I plan on hanging photos off the canvases, the photos I'll use to hang off are these ones: I'll use the family portrait on the left side, which is Assam, India, representing safeness and protection, and progressing to the right and the right-most photo will have burnt edges to match the burnt holes that will be in the canvas...

This sketchbook I focus on textures, using layers of paper, newspaper and tea leaves. Even candle wax poured directly onto the page created an interesting texture. I used a layer of tea stain and let it dry, I then when it dried it created a ripples texture on the page, and then using several shades of green acrylic and a metallic gold acrylic and a dry brush to create texture. This helps show the textures of the paper. For this one, I glued down ripped pieces of a map. and the bottom left is where I drew a map in fineliners, I used papier-mâché paste and newspaper to add texture, once dried I used green acrylic and a metallic gold acrylic on a dry brush to bring out the texture of the newspaper. These pages have a base of tea stain, and then a brown candle wax that I poured it on the page in a circular motion, but the texture of the wax went too lumpy as it dried, and it went through onto the pages behind it. These pages have prints on which I did using polystyrene ...