Urban influences Week Five

This week I struggled and felt slightly overwhelmed and lost, as though I had no ideas for my development samples. I let this get on top of me earlier on in the week and fell slightly behind which I have no excuses for. We spoke about this in the tutorial to which my tutor said she was slightly worried. Although this was tough to hear it was exactly what I needed as I felt I had let myself down, it gave me the push I needed to get out of the rut I was in. In a way I am glad this happened to me as in previous projects I have gone through a similar stage and not known how to get out of it. Hannah said in the tutorial its amazing what a person can get done in a day let alone a week when they put their mind to it, this statement was extremely influential in getting me back on track. After the tutorial I got my sketchbook out and just quickly sketched some sample ideas, processes and techniques. This process was especially helpful s it gave me a variety or options to take in a little amount of time and by the end of the week was back on track. This process is something that I intend to take forward into future projects if I feel overwhelmed again.

 

I was inducted onto the embellisher this week, this was something that I felt my work would benefit from as it creates a rugged texture that links well to the theme of urban influences. I started by making a sample as this was something use never used before I was excited to see the outcome. I placed folds within the fabric to add another tactile quality.

After creating my sample a photograph came to mind that I had took in Manchester a few weeks earlier. The dark speckles gives implications of an embellished surface and so I experimented with a light grey pollyester and a black linnen. I added tailor tacking to further portray the rugged surface. This development sample shows clear links to the theme of urban influences and to my visual reserch.

  

After looking further into the work of Caroline Bartlett I came across some of her work where she has use the cornelli machine to build up a surface this was something i was keen to try and so I took my sketchbook for ideas to create some cornelli samples. I had jotted down some sample ideas earlier in the week and so got on with  them. Although Caroline's use of cornelli was inspiring sh uses it to create curved soft edges where I used it to create more sharper angular edges and lines as this relates to the theme of urban. I plan to take forward and explore more with cornelli in my further samples.

Caroline Bartlett

Urban Influences Week Four

After last weeks tutorial moving into a larger sketchbook It didnt quite work for me as I felt itwas ruining my drawings I gave it a few days but didnt want to fall behind so I asked a group of peers for their honest opinion and they too thought that my work was suffering from moving into a large sketch book so I hae chosen to move to the A3 square small then the last one but alot bigger then my first. I continued with visual research and sampling on a larger scale using the more tonal white greys and black as these were the type of colours that came from my photos. I also did some artist research and found Caroline Bartlett similarly to Mathew Harris, I found her work very inspirational as she uses layering to explore ideas of concealing and reveling which is something that I am interested in. I also found that her work through its colour scheme and composition had strong links to my visual research.

Caroline Bartlett

Caroline Bartlett

Textiles form the core of Caroline Bartlett's practice, providing not only the means and materials to process and articulate ideas, but  also often through acting as a reference point in relation to content. Imprinting, stitching, erasing and reworking, folding and unfolding  become defining characteristics, whilst explorations have also resulted in works which integrate textiles with other media such as porcelain.  Weebly. (2010). Caroline Bartlett. Available: http://carolinebartlett.weebly.com/. Last accessed 16th Oct 2014.

The samples  I created this week are far more successful in portraying my theme of urban influences than the smaller samples I previously made. The colour way Iv'e gone with shows clear links to both my visual research and artists work. I was more concise about the composition of my work as in past weeks the samples were very busy and overcrowded whereas this week I concentrated on having some parts heavily sew to create dense focal points and others vacant.I plan to experiment with a variety of sized samples as most are square; this isn't how I imagine my final samples to be shaped, at the moment they are mostly all a uniformed square. Whereas my vision for final samples is a variety longer and shorter irregular pieces as this would represent the theme of urban influences better.

 

This week I was inducted onto the ETHOS machine this was something I previously had no experience in, the idea of using the computers with a program I hadn't used before was very daunting, I initially though that I would struggle with the technology however I found it surprisingly simple and understandable to us. Although the this was an enjoyable process the outcome is very precise, flat and orderly and for those reasons isn't something i feel is relevent to my work in the urban influences project however now that I am familiar with the machine i would like to experiment and use this in future projects.

 

Urban Influences Week Three

Over this week I continued with drawing and sketchbook work aswell as this I began some initial experimental samples from my visual research. I concentrated on working with linier forms and circular shapes as this was something I found to be present in both my drawing and photographs.

I dont feel my initial samples wer sucessful for a variety of reasons the colour pallete wasnt't right I feel the red with the blue is confusing so there is no focal point to the sample aswell as this the composition is unsuccessful the sample is compleately layerd however I do think that using layering within my samples could be sucessful in portaying my visual research and the theme of urban i plan to experiment with layering in further samples using it to build up textures and areas leaving other spaces clear and simple an idea i looked at in previous weeks.

During this weeks tutorial we discused my samples and visual develpoment and I explained how and why My sample wer'nt successful aswell as the colour and compositon the sampleas were too small as was my sketchbook. We discussed how I was getting hung up on presentation and "being too careful" which is something that I challenged on the tram task with my concertina books. Lyne said it would be a good idea to create some more books and quick sketches and so i plan to move into a larger sketchbook in which to be more experiment in. I also plan to look back through my photographs and develop more samples. Aswell as this Lyne asked me why I chose to have a small A4 sketchbook and so i chose to go bigger I took the risk and moved into an A3 sketchbbok.

Urban Influences Week Two- Visual Research

I started this week by revisiting Manchester and taking photographs that I found inspiring in some way whether it be for the colour scheme, composition or textural effect.I plan to explore these photo through both drawing and sampling. I chose these images as they capture qualities that I would like to have in my work, The textures look very sketchy and rugged in contrast with the simple linear and geometric forms is something that interests me I plan to explore this idea further. As well as this when looking through my photographs a variety of technique came to mind such as cording, french knotts, pleating ect. I would also like to be inducted onto the embelisher as I feel this would work well within my samples to create surface textures.

after compiling a body of photographic inspirations I started working from these into my sketchbook using a variety of media that I felt best reprsented the textures and qualities within my photos. In my drawings I worked with the idea of light and shade, density and th idea of a lat surface which implies a three demintional texture. Iplan to expriment more with composition and create some experimental samples.

Urban Influences- week one

This week I had to choose my option. After looking through my summer sketchbook I found an underlying theme which linked well to the option of urban influences after choosing the there was a meeting of all the students who chose this option, during this a power point was played which showed a variety of artists inspirations and work around the theme, I found this highly inspiring as it gave me so many idea of where I could go with my work it opened my mind to other ways of perceiving the theme which I hadn't thought about. After the meeting we were given a task to go on some form of public transport, take some dry materials with you and do some on the spot drawings.

I took the tram from Manchester Piccadilly to Altringham before which I prepped a bag of materials to take with me, however I felt slightly daunted by the prospect of working straight onto a sketchbook page and so I made some small concertina books to work into. Because of the size of the books I found it a lot easier to quickly jot down surfaces and linear shapes as I passed them on the tram.

The task was extremely helpful for me as it aloud me to quickly build up some drawings as well as getting outside of my sketchbook which was an aim from the preivous weeks group session. From this task I learnt not to be too precious about my development work and not to worry as much about creating "good" drawings but concentrate more on experimenting with my ideas and just seeing where it takes me. This is something I plan to carry out within my sketchbook and development samples throughout this project and in the future.