'Hello Beautiful' Brief: More Observational Work.

After doing my found imagery collages, I decided to focus on the other two words I hadn't used, 'Growth' and 'Life'. For this I thought I would do some object drawing with plants and flowers, since I thought they fit those words very nicely, and they're beautiful and resilient! I was focusing mainly on shapes and leaves.

I started with this, still trying to keep the work in minimal colours, I think this spread works because of the masking tape, I'm not sure why! 

Some flower studies in different drawing techniques, I'm particularly enjoying the green felt tip and the black fineliner! 

I wasn't sure about this but it's growing on me! I think the masking tape and cut out silhouettes work well, it was the scans and placement I wasn't sure about. 

I did a very simple plain fineliner study, then picked out details and etched them into the page with scissors, revealing them with shoe polish. I love the texture this creates. I want to keep on this track, as I think there is much more I can do with it and I'm enjoying the outcomes. 

'Hello Beautiful' Brief: Observational Work.

Our newest brief is for a foundation called Hello Beautiful. We've been set the task of creating an image for an exhibition in college around the principles of the Hello Beautiful foundation, raising awareness and supporting those battling breast cancer, focusing on positive thinking, empowerment, happiness and healthy living.
We started as a group with word association, then stripping it down to a few key words to focus on, I started looking at hair, growth and healthy living. I did some drawing with objects connected to these words to start me off with the project.

 

I was trying to work in limited colour palettes similar to those stated in the brief, as our final image can only be in two colours. I really like the effect the water has on the lines in the second image.

For the healthy living objects I started working with grounds, I wish I'd done a few more like this, it works well and adds something extra to the image as a whole.

I'm happy with how the majority of these turned out, but wish I'd continued with a wider variety of objects, and continued to work on grounds. I think it's a great way to generate ideas moving forward though! 

'Body Parts' Brief: Day One.

We were set a new brief for the next two weeks, the title is 'Body Parts'. The brief is completely open and in our control, which is both exciting and a little unnerving. We started off just covering the brief and then it was up to us! I did a quick mind map in my sketchbook covering possible areas of interest, and then went to do some artist research. I found two artists yesterday who's work inspired possible ideas for experimenting within this brief.

The first was Nicolai Howalt, the images were from a series he did called 3x1, where he documented a stay with a family.

I thought these images were so simplistic but striking. In terms of 'Body Parts' I hadn't thought about being so obvious with ideas, but looking through his work I thought it may be a good place to start. I love how the hands (both right) are so controlling in the images.

The next artist I looked at was Isidro Ferrer.

I loved his work, I printed off much more that this but these were some of my favourites! His work is clever and witty and something I would like to look into doing more! It was very similar to what we were doing today.

As well as artist research, we worked on creating different images/objects out of separate parts. It was the beginning of the 'Body Parts' brief and gave us an idea of the different ways we can interpret the phrase. I had so many different objects to choose from, and I tried to be quite imaginative with the shapes and what I was doing. 

A drip and a hook, I like the drip but i'm not sure it's obvious what it is. The hook was a little too obvious.

A question mark and a scooter, I'm happy with both of these. I think the simplicity of the question mark works well, and the yellow material with the colourful scooter is appealing.

A telephone and a dragonfly. These were the last two I did and I'd finally got my head round what worked and what didn't. These are probably my favourites from the day.

Playing around with the nails and creating different emotions.

A bare coat hanger, and one with a shirt on it. I don't like the shirt, I should have found a thinner material to do the outline, it just looks a bit off and awkward.

A man, and another face.

A face and an eye, The eye was probably the only one where I layered materials up.

A face and a chest of drawers, the drawers were the first thing I did, and I think you can tell. It's too simplistic and not really clear what it is.

Overall I had a really interesting day, and I have come away with a few ideas on where to start with this brief. I'm excited to get started and experiment with different possibilities.

3D Design: 'Enclosure' Brief part 2.

After developing my first two responses, I worked on constructing a further 3. I struggled with the wire when trying to keep it straight, and so started to experiment with different materials as well as different shapes when looking at ways of responding. I found some double sided card (white on one side and grey on the other) and thought the contrast was really interesting. I planned out different techniques in my sketchbook, like hole punching and gold eyelet detailing, and started to construct my first spherical cage.

I used staples to fix the card in place. The finished response was surprisingly strong! I was very happy with the strength and look of this response. I moved on and started experimenting with more materials, paper, canvas, plastic coated wires etc... I wanted to create a very colourful piece to contrast with the previous one. I took pictures as I put it together to show the layering of different materials, like the hidden canvas I tried out on the inside! 

For my third and final structure, I decided to risk using the wire again! I thought it would be easier to bend into a circular shape than keep it straight. Alone it looked boring, so I wove green thread round it. I loved the contrast of colours and also the straight angles created within this circular shape. It looked really interesting! 

...and here is all 3 displayed together! Overall this task has been fairly beneficial, I enjoyed working into and developing my responses, and looking at all the possibilities that come from one word! I'm happy with my structures, however if I had more time I would have tried to suspend them (cubes and spheres) or display them in some other way. 

3D Design: 'Enclosure' Brief.

After being split into groups, we were given a word which we were to generate thoughts and ideas around, and eventually create 3D responses to. We were given the word 'Enclosure'. Straight away I recognised this was a really nice word to work around. Starting with a mind map, we came up with different areas relating to 'Enclosure', for example...

• Cage/Box
• Clothing
• Transport
• Housing/Ships/Rooms...
• Shapes, Circles
• Phobia, Claustrophobia/Agoraphobia  

After watching demonstrations of paper folding techniques, I decided to try out different methods and see if the material was suitable for 3D construction. I decided on using paper for my response, and using a traditional 'cube' layout to construct it. However, I wanted to make the box more cage like, so used cut outs to make it look how I imagined.

After creating this response, I wanted to make a similar object but with different materials. I had not yet worked structuring and welding wire so I decided to do that. After planning/refining ideas in my sketchbook I got to work creating the structure. I found the wire quite difficult to keep straight, and I struggled with incorporating different materials. I'm happy with my responses so far, and if I had more time would have used fish wire to suspend one cage within the other.