Body Casting: A Rake's Progress

In this class a few of us made plaster body casts of each other in different poses, all based on the eight paintings in A Rakes Progress. The pose i adopted was from the eighth painting (Bedlam) where Tom Rakewell lays in only a sheet, insane and in the comfort of Sarah Young. the first body cast below is the one of myself, in the painting my character is to the right behind Sarah, sat cowering with his hands clutched beneath his chin (shown in the first image below).

 I enjoyed being cast and also casting others. I will definitely say i was glad when i was free to move again though, it reached a point where my hands and legs were aching to move and stretch as i was sat in that same position for a while, i was aching everywhere. Also after the majority of the plaster had set it became harder to breath because i wasn't breathing heavily, i was taking small breaths and when i needed to take a big breath and expand my lungs i wasn't able to without damaging the cast, so that became quite a pain nearer to the end because whilst not wanting to break the cast i also felt rather claustrophobic. Although being uncomfortable and restrained i would still definitely do it again because i really loved the final outcome after i was free and it was set.

 

Mask making

Printing in Textiles

Introduction to Prosthetics

Today in class we all experimented and learnt a little about prosthetics and created effects such as lost fingers, bruises, aged skin, cuts, burns and makeup like the classic Joker from Batman. I experimented with DreamWax and paint to try create the effect of a hand wound and surrounding bruising. It was actually really fun and i greatley enjoyed taking part because i've always had an interest in prosthetics and going for the most realistic believable effects.

Using ordinary paint, only Blue, Red and Yellow, made the task slightly more difficult compared to if i had prosthetic make up and fake blood at hand etc... I had to mix the right colours to create realistic shades of blood and bruising which was difficult using three very bright colours. I'd say i did well to create a gory, fairly realistic  looking wound and i'm pretty pleased with my first efforts.

I'd certainly love to have a go at re-creating this effect using all the correct, most effective equipment so i could spend more time focusing on the wound it's self rather than going back and forth trying to correct the shades of blood and bruising.

Drawing Skeletons

On this day we spent time in siolence drawing either full or sections of Skeletons in certain poses from the angle we had our easels. It was the first observational drawing of the course under these conditions with spotlights and greater concentration. The images below are of my drawing, i struggled to see much detail as i didn't have my glasses causing me headache and possibly overworking areas of the drawing making it look worse but i still found it enjoyable and wasn't to upset with the outcome of my work. 

We used measuring techniques for these drawings and attempted using curved strokes of the pencil to bring a 3 diminutional element to the drawing rather than flat block shading. Next time in observational drawing i am going to focus more on not over working areas and focus on giving rounded features a spherical look on the paper instead of appearing flat.

After doing this, i think i would really enjoy life drawing every monday because i did enjoy this excercise and life drawing will be better purely because it's a new experience i've not tried before and it's a living model rather than a skeleton, therefore it litterally presents me with more life to transfer and express in my drawing.

Different mark making styles!

On this day we each had an object to draw, but using different styles such as using a rolling pin attached to my foot with my pencil on the end, taping the rolling pin to my head like a unicorn and drawing with the movement of my neck rather than my arm and wrist. It was rather funny seeing the entire class taking up different stances, adopting comical, unorthodox poses to create their drawings. Using strange ways and tools to draw on an easel was incredibly funny to be a part of. It was really interesting to do this because the marks you make are really different and not necessarily in a bad way, it's not as accurate but the marks have more life and are not small concentrated marks together to create an edge, but big bold continuous marks stretching the full length and come across a whole lot more natural and not so planned and flimsy.

My first drawing was one of a batman figurine, drawn using a few different styles. The charcoal was taped to the end of a cain and i held it at arms length, also the rolling pin on my foot and my head were used to draw part of it and shade it. My second was of my fellow student Dan, sat at his drawing board un-knowing of my drawing of him to begin with as to keep him in a more natural pose to work on the shape, size and placement of his features. It was quite difficult doing this using the charcoal on a cain, but i still enjoyed it and was surprised at the outcome as i think it showed a real likeness to the subject.

    

The images below are of my work and showing a couple of the tools i used to draw with.

The deconstruction of our Exquisite Corpse story

From our Exquisite Corpse story, we transferred it into random relevant drawings then created characters and storyboarded a story of our choice using the elements we had and presented it to the class. Then using out story boards we individually created and designed, we took to deconstructing them into a very large experimental, expressive piece of art, aimed to be powerful and have visual impact on a viewer .We were taking aspects of the story and creating a very expressive painting using different methods like painting with a sponge on the end of a length of cain, or using our bare hands to create expressive marks and straying outside of what we are used to and outside of our comfort zones.

 Although i normally like to be a perfectionist and create whatever imagine to the finest detail, i found this exercise pretty fun because there weren't really any boundaries to the tools and methods i used to create the images and marks. Also it was interesting to see how it turned out without planning or concentration, just using marks and unorthodox methods of painting.

My piece incorporates both characters and items from the story which i are vaguely recognisable such as deceased Mario, the eyes of the evil bunny Bun Dee and the Fire which is shown on the first image below, created with a sponge on a stick and wild expressive marks without much care or attention.

3D Class: Space, box experience

Today in our 3D class, we again experimented with and examined different aspects of space and how it's used and perceived. We spent an amount of time enclosed alone in large cardboard boxes. After my eyes adapted to the dark, I took to observing how light penetrated the space and gave the area a completely different appearance and created art it's self using reflections and the beams of light. I recorded the way reflections landed and where they landed, on a sheet of A2, stapled on the interior wall of my box. The light formed unique patterns across the sheet that changed each time i moved or rotated the box therefore changing the entry point, angle and intensity of the light penetrating the space.

We also recorded how the box made us feel, the affect it had on us in the moment and the thoughts that entered our minds whilst inside the box. Being enclosed in a space, removing the visual sense of the classroom, i found greatly enhanced the audio, noticing the sheer volume of students voices and the clarity of which specific noises can be heard with that added concentration. I spent time using my imagination to add a visual explination to what i could hear, when students were observing the use of space with plastic bags i could hear the rustle's and the coinciding laughter generated within the room, i used this to conjure up my own visual version of the events outside the box.

After some time we started looking at things differently, like how if someones inside a box and just their head pertrudes through the top it changes the way you precieve what your actually seeing, not knowing what could be hidden behind the box's walls, only having an expectation of what's normal and what fits the metaphoric boot. The possibilities are endless in ways to deceive perception and its also very simple. Today i did this on a mild scale, i combined two boxes vertically and stood on a chair with only my head visible neck upwards through the top giving the impression i was extremely tall, because it wasn't visible what was happening inside the box and how the space was being occupied, the first conclusion that comes to mind is that i am simply tall, because that's what you think you're seeing. Although you may have an idea of what's behind the box walls, you are in fact un-knowing of the chair's presence beneath my feet.

I enjoyed todays lesson and found it rather fun how being alone enclosed in a space creates a whole alternate world, letting the imagination run free and then the way you occupy the space psychologically manipulates spectators to adjust their perception.

Me inside my box

My markings of the below reflection:

My original view of the reflection inside the box 

Textiles: My first work- Introduction to textiles

In our Textiles class we've been experimenting with different methods of creating art. I first used a sewing machine in this lesson, in an attempt to draw a picture using that method of stitch, i found it quite difficult for a short while, whilst adapting to use the machine. Despite initial difficulty i did enjoy this and found it very different and interesting, mainly because i enjoy pencil drawing, using scattered or layered individual marks to express light areas or the absence of light wether it be in the shadows of a face or in a scene.

I've also in my second lesson experimented with a technique called Batik, which was unheard of to me until that day, using hot wax on a material to separate areas designated for different colours of paint and even to crack the dried wax and dip the material in paint to create an affect similar to dip dyeing. I used Batik to create a colourful Lion and i love the way my first attempt turned out so i very much intend to create something beautiful along the length of the course using these techniques as i love the affect and look you can create using them individually or combining these techniques, such as the work of Jenny Belton combing different textile techniques.

My work (first attempts):

Artist: Naum Gabo - A pioneer of constructive art

Naum Gabo

This artist closely relates to what we have been doing in our 3D class, with the manipulation of positive and negative space, but he uses his knowledge to form beautiful eye catching work as show below. I love Naum Gabo's work, for example, in "Linear construction in space no 2" the way he uses the placement of the wires to create a stunning form and how each and every stretch or wire has it's own specific slot within the art, all mathematically placed to create the beautiful affect. Each work of art shown below beautifully occupies a whole area and claims the space for it's self, whilst minimal physical space is actually being occupied, considering the size of the pieces, very little of the area is used as positive space.

http://www.naum-gabo.com


Linear construction in space no 2