Getting started...drawing.

Yesterday I started to work from a photo I had taken last week. It's a image of  a couple; they're faces are close, the boy facing the girl , with her eyes slightly shut and a big smile on her face. When I saw them, I knew there was some chemistry there. The closeness of the couple and the expression on the girls face said everything. I therefore started to respond to the image, firstly by doing a sketch. Today, I didn't want to do another detailed sketch as I wanted something a bit more abstract. On a larger scale, I started to quickly draw the same image but in a different style. Still using pencil, I focused on sketching the lines on the faces; lines created by the shadows of their features or simply the overall shape. I wanted to portray how comfortable and happy the couple are together so I made sure I used fluid lines; trying to show the excitement within the relationship.

I then decided to take shapes from this overall composition; taking the girls eye and cheek bones and these stood out to me. (drawing on the left) It reminded me a little of Matisse's work; the spontaneity of the shapes and fluid lines, almost creating a movement. I quite like the outcome so I think I'm going to continue responding to images in this way. It is still early days so I'm free to experiment.



Quick brainstorm

Today I was talking to my parents about 'Unit X' and what my group had decided to do. I explained our theme; '175 Faces Of Chemistry' and they seemed really interested. As we were talking about it, we started to create lots of different, new ideas.

I started to jot the ideas down, here they are:

 

* 175 pixels- zooming/blowing up an image to 175 pixels/175 squares

*175 pieces- cutting an image of a face up into 175 squares- putting them in different places and seeing what pattern is created

*175 faces in All Saints Park- maybe advertise it on facebook, see how many people turn up

*Repeat a face 175 times- what pattern does this make?

*Couples- try and get images from far away of a couple- chemistry between them

*175 Watt bulbs- take a picture of someone standing under a 175 watt bulb

*175 combined age- 1 year old,65 year old etc

 

We don't necessarily have to use these ideas, however I think it's best to always keep a open mind and jot the ideas down anyway.

What should we do over Easter..?

I'm really pleased with our groups progress. Even though two of our members haven't even turned up, we're getting on with it and moving on! We met today to discuss what we should do over the holidays. We have decided to not limit ourselves with our research; look at our theme broadly instead of focusing on one idea. A good starting point would be to take pictures of a variety of faces, either at home or in Manchester and then start working from there. I would really quit like to look at texture and lines within the face. It would be interesting to see what patter can be created from looking at the skin/features on someones face. Nevertheless, I'm going to try not to limit myself to this idea; I'm going to do some more general research to see what inspires me and this may make me do something completely different but that doesn't matter; it's part of the process! I'm just going to be quite relaxed about my work, I don't mean not do any but let my ideas flow, because if I restrict myself, I'm not going to produce any good work.

I'm looking forward to coming back after the holidays and seeing what we have all found and produced. Hopefully everyones strengths with inspire new and intriguing ideas. Throughout the holidays we will stay in touch through facebook and twitter to share ideas and encourage each other.

Hetain Patel

Today we had an interesting lecture given by Hetain Patel. He is a visual artist who graduated in 2003 and has been working on a variety of pieces of art ever since. He focuses on using photography and film to express whatever theme he wants. He uses his own body within his work,; for example he paints himself in many different ways and then photographs his work. I really liked these images as there was a lot of texture involved; creating different shapes within the design.



 Kanku (left panel from triptych), 2003
Lambda Prints

Mehndi 3, 2004
C-type photograph

His practical work began with a focus on pigments from the Indian rituals he has grown up with at home. These pigments for him have been strong signifiers of Indian identity, and include the red pigment Kanku more commonly used to mark a dot on the Hindu forehead, and henna paste. Hetain showed us a very interesting piece; a live performance called 'Copy/Paste 2006' in which members of the public could enter and exit whenever they wished. It involved him and a henna artist painting his body with henna paint. She painted his back while a camera filmed this so it could be projected onto a screen in front of Hetain so he could copy the design and paint it onto his front. Hetain explained how when he first asked the other artist to help, she didn't quite understand as she had focused painting faces/hands for weddings. Nevertheless after the performance she was very excited and couldn't stop talking. He found it interesting how at first they didn't share a common language through art but after actually doing it they created a new dialogue. I could relate to this as when working in our groups for this project,everyone comes from a different specialism and have different ideas, however when we come together it creates a new, interesting artistic dialogue.



Poster Presentations

I have found today quite interesting as we have been able to hear other groups ideas based on the starting point 'One Seven Five'. In the workshop this morning as individual groups we had to put our posters up somewhere in the studio so everyone could see them. We then stood around each groups area and watched them present their ideas. Some ideas were really interesting and were presented really well. I think our presentation was pretty good; it was natural and every member of our group said something that reflected our ideas well.



Our posters were presented on a window so it doesn't look great in the photo, nevertheless I think we all collected a good amount of research. If we could do it again, I think we should have put them up on a wall and also thought more about how we could do that. Also I think they would have looked better all the same size and colour scheme, however this could just be me, being a perfectionist!

Creating my poster

Yesterday we found out that we needed to do individual posters rather tan one group poster. We discussed on facebook what we should do and decided that we would all do a poster based on the idea 'faces of chemistry' but see how we all interpreted it. I stuck with my idea of looking at lines and texture on the face.

I found this image on another blog; I found it quite interesting as the lines created new and interesting shapes. The lines pick out all the features emphasising the bone structure. I therefore decided to try this with my own image and include it on my poster.





This is the poster I created. The reason it doesn't include colour is that I didn't want the colour of an image to get in the way of our/my ideas. Colour is such a key part designing and I believe if it had been included in my poster, it could have portrayed a different feeling, whereas I just wanted to show the idea. I have included texture with the images I have used and also key words to get the message across. The photographs I have taken and the images I have found have really inspired me to move on  with my ideas. The on the top left has given me another idea of maps. The shapes created by the lines have reminded me of lines on a map showing the steepness of an incline/decline. I am therefore going to explore this idea.

Collecting the research

Today we met in the Holden Gallery to discuss our ideas for the poster. Even though not all of our group was in, everyone seemed really nice and we all got on. First we discussed what two of our members found out from the twitter meeting and then  we got onto our poster. We have decided to all collect separate research and then get together next week to put our poster together. As our theme is 'Faces of Chemistry' we have decided to take photographs of 175 faces. Initially, the idea is for all of us to get about five photographs of people we see on the streets of Manchester. We could do this by either: counting 175 steps and then taking a picture of the nearest person, counting to 175, taking 17.5 steps or counting to 17.5.  It doesn't matter what we choose to do as long as we record it and stick to one method. I want to get a variety of people; different ages and genders as it means that I could respond to the images in different ways. We also thought it would be quite a good idea to maybe record our journey round Manchester by drawing out the route we have taken. We could do this roughly or on a map and hopefully it will create some interesting shapes. As well as collecting our own images to put on the poster, we can also look at blogs or anything we find inspirational. This will mean that we will have a variety of information/images thus giving us more ideas to take forward into our work.

Tonight, I have created my own twitter account as I am a bit behind with the times! I don't not what I was scared of; it seems pretty easy. Also a couple of members from the group were talking about 'Pinterest'. It's a social network where you pin up pictures of your work, others work that inspires and anything else you find interesting. You can follow people and invite friends to look at your page; generally sharing your inspiration. I have therefore created a pinterest account so I can share what I have found with my group.

Faces of Chemistry

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into uni yesterday as I was ill, nevertheless I have caught up on what I missed. My group has decided to look at 'Faces of Chemitry'. This theme was created from finding out that it was the 175th anniversary of q group of scientists therefore they are doing a project where they take part in 175 experiments. We're not looking at that exactly, instead we are interpreting our own way; taking 175 photographs of different faces around Manchester. We will obviously ask their permission first and then go onto asking a few questions about themselves. The reason for this is so we can get some background on who they are s a person;what's their interests etc and does this reflect with their facial expressions of style. I like the idea of looking at the texture of someones face; maybe taking a photo of an elderly person, magnifying the image and looking at the lines on their face close up. Also maybe looking at their eyes; do they tell a story?
Even though I was quite sceptical of this project; I think I'm going to quite enjoy it!

Unit X...what is it?

   (X)..?

   Today, my brain turned into mush! Film and media, TIP and fashion students were brought together to discuss our new unit; Unit X. Our first lecture was to introduce our unit although this made me so confused as all I really got from it was that we had to collaborate. We were shown students and companies work which were mainly films and were to that it was key to ask questions and explore. Even though at first I was ridiculously confused, after the second lecture, I kind of understood our unit a bit more...I think. Our theme is 175 and we have to work in groups to produce something (I think) and we have to reflect upon the work we have done through our blog. We attend work shops and lectures but really we can chose what we do. I think this could be difficult, especially we haven't met our group member, therefore we can't decide which sessions we will attend. So, I think the best thing to do, is just go for it! I'm not going to worry too much about not quite understanding the unit, as it's early days. Lets see how 175 can inspire me! Here we go...