College Arts Festival 2013 - Influences

I went around the college Art Festival looking at Year 2 students work.

I'll start with the things I liked which could influence me and had name tags, and 

I'll upload the other pictures which didn't have names, on another post.

Emma Lewis, Art & Design

This section caught my eye because of the almost layered composition of her stand. It's brightly coloured and the wool balls which represent planets act as a curtain, almost, to slightly reveal the rest of the display and therefore make you want to look closer. This technique could be useful for next year or even in future sketchbook work to compel people to look at it. 

She has adopted a tie-dye theme in her display, and all parts have a futuristic consistency. She has used wool or paper wrapped around a metal frame to hint at planets, and created two tie-dye tee-shirts which blend in well with the theme. There are three canvas prints which have a tie-de background. She has used 3-D methods on the moon on the middle one for more impact.  I love the composition as each component has a nice flow and it is close together so it stands out more. 'Always think about composition' is the influence I'll take from Emma Lewis. 

Lauren Jenkinson, Art & Design

This student is on this course but has clearly started specialising in photography. Her display was very interesting, and although there wasn't an accompanying description, I believe her concept is about exploring manipulations of figures during movement. 

This is an example of the series on display. The camera has captured the movement of the subject's head, which causes it to blue and appear ghostly. This is definitely a useful technique if I was to explore abstract art or ghostly films. I like how the images are printed in monochrome to emphasise the impact on viewers.  

Peta Fordee, Fine Art 

I took a notice to this display for obvious reasons, it follows a link into Illustration which is the field I want to go into after College. This student has done a full abecedary just like I did for my last project. It is a series of prints which depict an illustration of something beginning with the letter, with ink being dripped over the top to hint at colour. The images themselves appear to be scanned drawings or mono prints. I like the childlike quality in the style and the dripping of colour - a childlike action as well as being a modern way of adding colour. I can definitely influence this student's techniques to modernise my designs and add an urban effect.

Rose Timperly, Art & Design

This reminded me of the paper-cut illustration book I saw at the De Montfort Open Day. I love the build up of the image when viewed from the front which is made up of several perspex sheets with images printed on. Repetition of certain parts build up shade on the front-on view, and thus brings depth to the image. I love how such delicate drawings build up to quite a creepy end result. Again, I like looking at different techniques since this one is quite illustrative as well. 

Chesterfield College Fashion Show 2013

It's almost the end of summer term, and students from the

many fashion courses showcased their designs

in a mini-fashion show



It was very interesting to see the work that textiles students had done, and how they interpreted the given or negotiated theme. The area for this event was very professional-looking, with a runway, over head lighting and thumping disco music to match the collection theme well.

All of the showcased work was interesting and unique, but a few stood out to me;

Some year 2 students produced structured silhouette garments, which consisted of corsets with 3-D detailing to produce angular shapes. A concept which interested me was a collection named 'Living Dolls', which consisted of completely paper-made outfits.

A couple of collections were very unique, since they came with a year group which had a negotiated theme for each student. Some of these examples were very good; 'A Bug's Life' which had billowing puffed skirts at the back to resemble insect abdomens, and 'Elementary', influenced by Sherlock Holmes, giving a modern and feminine version of the iconic outfit.

There was also a mini-collection of a negotiated theme which stood out to me, but I can't remember the name of it. It looked like a modernised take on Tudor fashion, done in brilliant orange and gold. An inside-out concept also stood out, with circular fringes decorating the side of trousers and skirts to look inside-out. I thought this idea was very clever.

Overall, I liked the designs; however with the actual presentation itself, it was messy at times. Being the perfectionist that I am, I would have liked it if all of the models walked to the beat of the music, or with each other for that matter as there were times when two models walked down the runway together.

Visualisation: Techniques & Evaluation

Well we had a lot going on today; did loads of new techniques!

Happy reading

The outcome for today was to compose a mixed media collage; however before we started, we were shown possible techniques to include: mono-printing, and emulsion photo transfers. 

You've seen it all before; mono prints on my blog. This was like a reminder exercise.

The image shown here is my own sketch of the front of Chesterfield Cathedral, I think this turned out very well considering I haven't done printing in a good few months!

Yes, I could have maybe put more pressure onto the left side but in a way the faded effect adds mood to the print.

Okay, print number two! I'm actually really pleased with this one. It was done from a photograph of some Tudor style buildings in Chesterfield. 

Although the lines aren't very defined, it is still visible to show what it is, but gives an old, weathered quality as well as maybe some ghostly atmosphere. 

With this one, I went over every line with a pencil but did it scruffily so this added to the effect.

Moving on to the photo transfer... Don't know how to do it? Well...

1) Roll out a layer of emulsion paint

2) Place your image FACE DOWN into it and smooth out ALL bubbles on the back

3) Peel off carefully

4) Transfer to a material of your choice and repeat stage 2

5) Wait a couple of hours, and gently rub off emulsion with a damp cloth 

This is my emulsion transfer of Chesterfield Cathedral. It turned out well since only small parts of the image were completely taken off. I decided to leave the remaining smears of emulsion on the image because the grainy effect gives the impression that the photo is very old. I'm quite liking the spooky atmosphere this brings as well! 

So, on to the collage. I don't have the photos of the processes any more, but I will upload the final outcome and you can spot for yourself where things are!

1) I printed off a colour and black and white photocopy of a photograph of the side of the    Cathedral. I chose this because it has an interesting angle. 

2) I combined the two images by cutting out some parts in colour and placing it over the same place on the black and white version to create contrasts.

3) I created a photo transfer of extended lines, which was very faint so I went over it in charcoal so it stood out.

4) I referenced Lyonel Feininger's work to create atmosphere by step 3 and by layering tissue paper in a rough fashion in the sky and on the bricks to add more texture and impact.

5) I added charcoal to the stone tissue paper to bring out the detail, and did the same thing with the sky but added watercolour as well. I did this in a patchy way so mood was created.

6) I made a mono print consisting of two layered images of the Cathedral and placed it in a seemingly random place, but I was trying to add Cubism like Feininger. 

Here we are! I quite like the composition but it adds more mood and effect in black and white:

I began to add colour back into this using watercolours. I chose purple and brown because they represent stone, but they're also quite moody colours. 

Watch out, next week we're using bleach in these collages!