Summer 2014

I have been thinking how I will spend my free time over the coming Summer holidays. As well as working 5 days a week at Hawick Knitwear I have 2 holidays to look forward to - Nairn, Inverness with my family and Poland with 3 friends, both in June. So in no way will I be 'bored' this Summer.

Receiving an A4 Moleskine sketchbook from my friend Flora will likely prove a very worthy - if a little belated - birthday present indeed. I plan and hope to keep up my creative ways throughout the summer and keeping my sketchbook at hand will almost certainly help.

Updating this blog will be a regular occurrence. I am also hoping to pursue a certain extra-curricular activity that will involve some guts (I don't mean intestines) and patience, then again it might not happen, probably because of the risks involved...I hope I'm not hyping it up too much ha ha.

Anyway this post was just for me to affirm my intentions for the coming months. I hope it helps!

'Fragment'

I recently discovered an app on my iPhone that is able to let you edit your photos in a unique and creative way that I have never seen before! I was excited at first because I knew it meant I was going to be able to adjust my personal photos if I wanted to share them on Facebook or whatever, but today I realised I could put it to the test with some of my artwork.

Below is a photograph I took a while back of a screen print I completed near the end of last year.

This wasn't the final stage in this particular screen printing series, I decided to test it on 'Fragment' it because of it's 3 colours. After glancing at the different tools available on the app I figured, the simpler the better for my first try!

Above, is what I came up with. I found the choices of shapes interesting, you are able to include different patterns on top of your photograph. As well as being able to adjust the contrast, colour, brightness etc., it allows you to decide the position in which the squares - or any other shape you want - are placed in relation with angles and lines. I, by no means wish to display this edited photograph as my original work. I admit some creativity on my part went into the adjustment of colour and composition, but overall - it's an app! If anything, the experimenting I have been doing has so far influenced me into thinking about straight lines and angles, especially how they effect the composition of images.

I felt it was necessary to post this because it has played a part in my important and expanding learning process, plus I needed to get it out there before anyone wrongly praised me for my digital talents...I've not mastered Photoshop yet!!

Progress Update

This past month has felt like a mad rush. Next week we have our Viewpoint unit hand in and presentation, as well as Exploring Specialist Techniques. Both units have been great fun and I have learned many things since beginning them.
The week after next we have our Botanics unit to hand in and present. Being the most tricky of the units so far to initially get started with I am pleased with how my sketchbook and final piece have progressed! I enjoy drawing, so having to include sketches of various flowers was a pleasant experience.

As for Viewpoint, I've felt the only way express my creativity regarding ideas for my cover and centre spread was to have a bash at Photoshop. Although weary to begin with I soon grasped the basic idea and how the different tools worked. Many if not all my ideas for the final pieces required me to get them down on paper first, just quick sketches. This proved a valuable reference when trying to convert the ideas onto the computer.

Exploring Specialist Techniques has allowed me to further investigate printing, and more particularly, lino prints. I have really enjoyed cutting my designs and experimenting with colours and composition.

I hope to achieve good grades with my last 3 units of 1st year, fingers crossed!

To The Kwai and Back

 

As part of my Exploring Specialist Techniques unit I have recently discovered an illustrator by the name of Ronald Searle. I came across him whilst researching other artists for my sketchbook, and his work instantly grabbed my attention.

He was called up for national service during the Second World War and subsequently was captured by the Japanese and forced to work on the Burma rail line. Although weighing in at 6 stone and living under the most hellish conditions, Searle still managed to maintain a sense of acute awareness. He believed that it was his duty not only to survive, but to record the experiences he and many of his fellow soldiers and officers were going through. He often hid his small drawings and quick sketches under the beds of his dying comrades, as the enemy would have no reason to go looking for contraband in such a place. 

After looking around the internet for examples of these impressive illustrations, I ended up discovering his book 'To the Kwai -and back' and could not resist purchasing it for myself. I have not yet had a proper read through my copy yet but the pages I have had a look at are great, it just amazes me to no end that this man had the patience and focus to record such a time in history of which he was a main part of.

This discovery is just another example of why this course is proving to be extremely eye-opening and enlightening. I may sound like I'm exaggerating but I guess I just become enthusiastic about a lot of things I like and admire. If nothing else, books like this one and people like Ronald Searle provide me with inspiration and a drive, they inspire me to maybe create something (hopefully not in the circumstance of a World War) that will live on after me.

My Interests

I have noticed with every unit we have embarked on, I have taken a keen interest in each topic we are asked to research and develop.

This may already be obvious due to my previous posts but I felt the need to address it's importance!

The latest unit my frantic curiosity has chosen to pursue is 'Viewpoint'. Coming right after 'Typefaces and Letter forms', it has managed to keep hold of my attention and in doing so has made me feel aware of magazines, their purpose and how they are created.

My years subscription to GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly) is becoming more and more worth the money with each issue that arrives in the post. I can now appreciate the text and typefaces on the front cover, along with the content inside. I look at the cover for while before beginning the magazine. Just figuring out what they want you to take from the information they have displayed. It's always so glossy and sharp, not to mention the smell! But that's beside the point...
What I am trying to say, is that as well as the research and cutting and pasting into your sketchbook, I feel if you actually understand the system in which magazine design is held under, it will help you a lot more in the long run.

Here's hoping I'm able to display this enthusiasm and understanding in my work!

Visual Recording

After today and experiencing a more structured lesson in the studio I am happy with the amount of work I have completed. This unit in particular is an opportunity to develop and practice my skills in drawing from observation. Whether it be realising how perspective comes into play whilst drawing buildings, or how the depth of certain lines matter in still life drawing - I finally feel like them sticking in my brain.

Today after moving on from full arm length drawings of our chosen objects, the next stage was to hold the pencil in our usual drawing position. This allowed me to switch back to a more controlled way of drawing and funnily enough made me feel more able and confident about drawing from observation.

Siobhan had mentioned a lot today about using tone and how hard we were pressing our pencil against the paper whilst drawing. I heard what she had said and decided to put it into practice. Once my shoe had been drawn I chose certain lines to darken, lines that I found were more important than others and right enough it gave my drawing depth and definition. It was suddenly brought off the paper and I was pleased and surprised at how a simple technique can change how effective a drawing looks.

Happy and perhaps a bit proud of my shoe, I continued working on tone and focusing in on other areas of shading. This is just one of a few examples of how little bits of advice have helped me improve my drawings, and understanding of different techniques.

Helvetica

Watching this film in full is fascinating, and utterly brilliant. I am being taught so many things about the complex and detailed world of typefaces. The passion and energy that fuels graphic designers and type designers minds is inspiring.

There are so many typefaces i see every day, all the time, and they just pass me by. I think now, there is no getting away from it. The fact that the space between each letter, the white and the black all contribute to how you feel when you read a word or sentence is mindblowing! 

It feels ridiculous that i haven't noticed until now, but it also makes perfect sense. Of course companies and their designers are choosing certain words to be printed in certain typefaces, of course they are! It feels as if i've been so ignorant all this time. There is no doubt in my mind that i realised at some stage in my life that advertising was this thing that gripped our attention from the word go, and made us spend our money and react in certain ways, that much was clear. I guess i just never had the inclination and reason to delve more into the mechanics behind it all.

If any of that makes sense, and i hope it does, i'll un-pause the movie and get back to broadening my mind.

Artist Rooms: Louise Bourgeois, A Woman Without Secrets

We recently took a trip to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art with the college. The exhibition we were visiting was a collection of works by the late French-American artist Louise Bourgeois. Her subject matter involved topics including childbirth, adolescence, mothering and various emotions.
I had no previous knowledge of Bourgeois or her work upon attending the exhibition, and so was intrigued and interested in what I was going to see.

After spending around an hour and a half slowly taking in the paintings and sculptures I had chosen one piece that specifically stuck out for me.

Ode a la Bievre, 2002

This was made by Bourgeois as a material book, based upon her memories and melancholic relationship with her childhood environment. These individual pieces reflect upon what her home town was once like, and how she remembers it. It was triggered by a visit she took with her own children to Bievre, on arrival she began to notice differences in certain surroundings, she has managed to convey her very sentimental reaction to this change through 25 archival dyed and lithographed images. They were completed using old clothing and combining text with an interesting collection of colours and images, Bourgeois has achieved an inventive piece of art very personal to herself. "witnessing the past through the present moment" Is how she put it.

I very much enjoyed the exhibition and will be returning before it's end as I feel I can learn a lot from this particular artist.

Large Head

Large Head

Georg Baselitz - Woodblock and monotype on paper - 1966

I notice a lot of emotion in this piece. The aged face looks worn and fed up, the obscure shapes that cover his cheeks and forehead indicate pain perhaps. His small, almost squinted eyes seem to be staring out at something, deep in though indeed. I always like looking at portraits, I like to imagine what the person is thinking of at that moment or, why the expression on their face is that way. I like this print and although not the most complex or hard to actually produce physically - I think that a lot of energy went into conveying what this man was feeling. 

Favourite Chair

Favourite Chair

Gillian Golding - Linocut - (year not found)

This ominous looking print intrigued me upon first glance. From what is visibly a human sized rabbit sitting in an armchair covered in smaller, more colourful versions of himself looks relaxed. The woman stood a fair bit away in rabbit slippers is staring across at him, with a green door even further away. It's hard to tell what the woman is feeling or thinking, but what I find interesting about this print is how the rabbit is facing away, we are left to imagine the expression on this huge rabbits face, and I can only imagine it looking either smug or upset. Again, with some of the other prints I've looked at I am amazed at how much effort and concentration that must have went into making this print. In particular the intricate patterns upon the armchair, I am also impressed with the composition and structure of the objects. I like this print, and the way it makes me feel, it activates my imagination and grabs my attention.