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.  

Intentions- Inspiration workshop

After creating a summer project sketchbook we were set into small groups in which we each individually presented our sketchbooks. I spoke about my inspirations, techniques and media Id used aswell as how I could take my work further. After this the peer groups we were put into gave me feed back on my work;

Firstly my peers gave me feedback on the strengths of my summer project sketchbook we spoke as a group. We found that I had used frequent mark making techniques this is a strength in my work as it shows textural qualities this is also shown through my use of experimenting with a variety of media including gouache, pencil, fine liner, ink, acrylic, ect.

I experimented with working on different surfaces including cello tape which this photograph shows. Another thing the group picked up on was my colour palette of rich reds and oranges and how they all worked well together.

Aswell as speaking about strengths we also spoke about areas of improvement one of which being scale and how I should and intend to experiment with a variety of scales rather than just sticking to sketchbook size.

As a group we spoke about the textile artist and member of the 62 group Mathew Harris and how his work shows clear links to the work I had produced over summer.

Mathew harris cloth

The links are shown through my similar colour pallet and use of linker shapes and lines as well as the placing of it.

The textural and mark making processes I've used show a clear link to the specialism of embroidery which Im going into the group of peers picked this out in my work. As with this project I didn't concentrate on a specific theme and more on experimentation there was no overall concept to my sketchbook however my peers picked out that throughout my sketchbook I had found inspiration from mundane day to day things such as walls and clothing. Now continuing with my Intentions brief I plan to take up the improvements that the group spoke about and to find an overriding concept to my future sketchbooks. 

Summer Intentions influences and inspirations

Over the summer we were given the take to create a sketchbook on influences and inspirations.When I initially got the brief I felt slighty overwhelmed about having to do a sketchbook with no clear instruction on what to write about. I created a sketchbook I jotted down things that were around me and so this sketchbook is mainly about the environment that surrounded me at the time. I went to turkey and spain in the summer and so alot of my drawings are from the surfaces and textures that were around me. This project further confirmed the my handprint as an artist and how I draw with mark making and illustratively

 

I started to look at practtioners that influenced me and came across Mathew Harris for his use of layering and similar colour scheme I am also interesteed by the composition of hes pieces this mark making is something I enjoy and would like to experiment more with printing onto materials and layering if this fits in with the project after summer 

This summer project forced me to confront drawing when I felt aprehensive, I some time on thi sketchbook due to being overwhelmed and scare to start it so ide just put it off therefor I plan to find a process that will be able to get me into a project or piece of work when I am feeling this way again in the future

Final Bag

Overall I feel the bag I created was a sucsess it shows link to the theme of fairground from the twisted leather and shows clear links to the artist Llane Alexis from the colour scheme and the textural effect of the weave. I found the sewing together of the leather quite tricky because on some parts it was several layers and others only two layers. I feel that this unit has taught me some vital skills in leather which is something I never had, these skills will be something ill take forward in my further practice.

WEEK 4- Leather and Sheep-Skin

This week was the week of the construction of my bag, I began with the strap as it was the longest piece of my bag and so would hypothetically take the longest amount of time, my thinking was that after making the strap I would get an inkling as to how much waxed thread I would use and the amount of time it would take to sew the bag. Robin showed my two different ways of making the strap one quicker and the other more time consuming, I chose the latter one as I felt it gave a more professional finish to the strap.

constructing the strap was a very time consuming process however I found that it took much less waxed thread than I initially though it would do. I then sewed the back to the width of the bag and began constructing my woven front piece. I cut a variety of thickness' and colour blue and black strips of leather and played around with the placement. I wrapped strips of leather around other strips to create the circular pattern I had seen on the heltaskelta and candy floss sticks and used these more textural strips within my weave. The weaving process itself I found quite fiddly as the leather would move around in the weave and so I decided to add a small amount of glue to the edges of each strip to keep it in place this was very efficient as it kept all the strip in the correct placement and the process became allot simpler.

WEEK 3- Leather and Sheep-Skin

After looking back through my research I had decided that I would create a woven front to my bag, I knew that the company which sold and suplied the leather would be coming later on in the day. For weaving I would only need strips of leather and as I wanted my colour scheme to be a variety of blues I didn't want to buy lots of large leathers.I worked with the group and explained that I was creating a woven front and so would need strips of any blue leathers and they were very helpful and I gained a variety of coloured blue leather.

At around eleven o'clock the spokesman for the company came in to sell the group leathers of our choice at the discounted price of five pounds.Before selling us the skins he explained how there were many different types of leather and different animal from which they come from I learnt that pig suede could be bought and is a well used material this was something I was oblivious to before the talk. Throughout the talk the man kept reiterating how their company was an ethical company and all of its leathers and skins were a by product of the meat industry and the animals were not killed purely for their skins. I hadn't realised that using leather bothered me slightly however once I found out that the skins with only a by product my mind was settled and I felt allot more comfortable using the materials. I purchased the leather that I would use for the side panels back and strap of the bag and so after lunch began making my pattern

As I learnt from making my paper bag in the first week, I was very exact about the measurements when creating my pattern and so the process of creating my pattern and transferring it onto the leather was something I found quite simple and enjoyable. However when it came to my strap I didn't have enough leather left and had to go into another pieces with a lighter tone this didn't matter as I was creating a woven front to my bag I could just incorporate the straps leather into the weave, from this I learnt that if I was to do it again I wound create and have my pattern pieces with me whilst choosing the leather to make sure I had enough.