Tutorial Feedback

Today has been a successful day. We had a tutorial with Robin to discuss our work (everyone turned up...apart from a couple, but we've never seen them before!) and then we had a short group meeting, discussing how we're working as a group and what had been brought up in the tutorial. Points made in the tutorial:

-We still need to find somewhere to exhibit our work- shop windows?

-Keep doing what we're doing- developing our work and then bringing it to the table 

-Final piece- panels of faces- each do a certain amount of A4 designs

-We should try doing a mock up of our final piece next week

-We don't need to worry about our final piece too much- at the end of the day we're getting marked on our blogs and our journey through the project- just have fun the final piece and the exhibition.

It made me feel so much better having discussed our ideas for our final piece, usually we've just decided to do more development work before deciding what to do. Our plan is to have a window full of A4 panels. Each panel is a photo of a face and then designs/motifs/3D ideas on top. We're going to stick with one colour palette and also have a running image throughout the panels, so when you stand back you can see it. We'll put the panels up onto a wall and project the image onto them; we'll draw it onto then paper and then take our individual pieces away and work with them. 

After our tutorial we went to the cafe in the art school to talk a little bit more. We discussed how some of us were a little bit worried about some members not coming giving much to the group. It was useful to get our thoughts out in the open as people didn't feel like they were being talked about. We also tried to get our heads around our final piece, discussed how we could go about doing the panels as a group or individually. Our aim is to go away this weekend and each produce two A4 panels; the image of the face has to be in black and white and then whatever we want on top: sewing, sketching, 3D work etc. Next week we'll meet and put all the panels together to see if it will work. My worry is that it could messy as we all have our own style, but hopefully I'll be proved wrong!

Colour

I've been a bit hesitant to bring colour into the project as I was scared that it may push me in a different direction, so I've decided not to think about it too much and to just go for it! I started of by using felt tip pens. I don't usually work with pens when applying colour, but I thought I shouldn't be scared of the bold colours; just see what happens, it may work but it might not.

I worked with the motif I produced earlier and experimented with placement and colour. Even though I like the colours and the motif; I think overlapping them didn't work very well. I'm not quite sure what I don't like about them...maybe it's because parts of the motifs look too much like eyes- it freaks me out! I therefore decided to take shapes from the overlapped motifs and create another motif. Once I'd created it, I worked into it with pen and also water colour.

                                                                                       (New motif)

Once I had applied the watercolour to the motifs, I decided to work into them using fine liner. I chose to draw from my own images; choosing faces that had interesting features/lines. After focusing on using purples,blues and oranges, it was really nice to see a different  brighter colour palette within the design. I took the colours from an image I had found on  one of my favourite blogs: patternity.co.uk

I never usually work with yellows as I feel it's too daring, however I really enjoyed using it for my motif. The water colour softens it and gives it a little texture. I think this is why I prefer using the water colour to the pens; the paint applies texture to whatever you're painting; it's soft yet still vibrant.

Group Tutorial

Today we had a group tutorial with Sarah. I've been worried lately about the amount of work some people have been doing. I feel like I have produced a good amount of work so far, however a couple in the group don't feel they need to do the same. Most  of us turned up for the tutorial, however the same few didn't  The only thing that irritates me about this, is that  we could get some really good ideas from all of us sitting down and showing each other our work. I know we do this quite regularly  however, it's the same people turning up to the group  discussions. Nevertheless, I think the group that we've made on facebook does really help to organise when and where we're going to meet. Just some people need to communicate better.

Anyway...back to the tutorial. We sat down with Sarah and each of us discussed, individually where we were going with the project and also what the group as a whole wanted to do. Some of the points made:

- We need to look at where we're going to exhibit our work- would it be good to find a hairdressers, seen as     it's to do with faces?

-Think about what surface to work on- will we be distorting things in a 2D or 3D way?

-Each of us should choose 2 faces each and share them with the group- this will mean that we can experiment with different images

-Include colour

-Experiment with low relief

The key thing that has helped me to move on with my own work is to include colour. I really enjoy working with colour and it's a key part of my work usually, however I've felt like I shouldn't include it within the project yet as it may push me in a different direction. Nevertheless, I'm definitely going to start bringing it into my work!

When it comes to problems with some of the members of the group, Sarah told us that we should just be harsh. At the end of the day, we're not going to get marked down because of them. Obviously it is a shame that they're not turning up/doing much work, but we've got some good ideas and all we need to do is develop them!

Inspiration

When looking on one of my favorite blogs, I came across some really inspirational images. It reminded me of my work a little and the way I was going with this project. It's the work of Graeme Monegomary; he uses bright colours and places interesting motifs over models faces.

I love everything about his work; the colour palette, motif used, patterns within the motif and the daring shapes. I would quite like my work to be a little bit like this in a way, but maybe having a slight opacity to the motifs so you can see some detail on the face. 

Combining Techniques

I'm still working the idea of producing a motif/print from my images of faces. I've been experimenting using line with fine liner and textured patterns, using shading with pencils.

I felt that like I was in a bit of a rut after doing these sketches; I didn't feel like any of them worked amazingly well so I decided to have a go at something else. As a group we're interested in the general idea of facial distortion using abstract techniques, I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate this with the idea of taking shapes from the image. I started by sketching a relatively detailed sketch of half a  face and then worked in the other half in more of an abstract way.

Obviously it's not my best piece of work, but the process and outcome of doing it really inspired me. I really like the combination of rough sketching and bold abstract shapes. 

Zero-waste pattern cutting

Today we had a lecture about sustainable fashion. Fiona Mill showed how designers are starting to research and use the idea of cutting down on the waste of fabric when producing garments.  There is about 15-20% of fabric wasted at the pattern cutting stage of producing a garment. This waste goes into landfills and cannot be broken down without oxygen and therefore becomes toxic. This obviously isn't very good for the environment; designers have started to research how this can be avoided.Fiona showed us many interesting designer/researchers who have started to work with zero waste. One designer that really stood out for me was Jungeun Lee. Se produces quirky one-off garments without sewing or cutting the fabrics, instead he uses heat.To create her “Wrapped Garments,” Lee molds synthetic yarn around a form to create the shape. The fibers fuse together to produce interesting garments.

Sketches -> abstract shapes

After working on sketches like the one above, I decided to focus more on taking shapes from the faces and creating interesting prints. I work quite abstractly as I enjoy seeing how I can create shapes from my initial research. The easy thing to do with our theme, would be to sketch straight from the images as I have done to get into the swing  of things. I find it more interesting to create something abstract from those sketches/images. 

I started this process by taking key features of the faces and drawing them roughly using pencil in a exaggerated way. I drew the features without any detail; just as they appeared as shapes. I also drew the shadows on the face as block shapes. This created even more interesting shapes and started to produce abstract pieces. I really like defined facial features, such as cheek bones and I find that adding more depth to the areas in shadow, define them even more. This is why I have decided to exaggerate all the shapes; if I were to be applying make up to a actor/actress, I apply make up to the darker areas to define every feature so the audience could see more expression on the actors face. 

Thinking about our groups idea of looking at distortion, I wanted to see what it would look like with different faces overlapping slightly. Therefore I decided to do a quick sketch from my own images of faces in different angles,overlapping them to see what it could produce. I was planning after doing this rough sketch to go into more detail, however I noticed the shapes being created around and within the faces. It was almost like the negative space; the space between where the lines touched. This then inspired to produce a abstract motif. I took shapes from the "negative space" and also from key features and produced a simple, abstract motif (as seen in the image below).

I really like the motif however I feel like there could be something missing. I am therefore going to experiment more with this idea.

Back to uni

After having a couple of weeks off, I was looking forward to today as we could see what everyone had done over the holidays. It was nice to see members of the group again as I got to know some people a lot more and had a laugh. Nevertheless, overall, I was pretty disappointed with the day. Only four of us turned up and it didn't feel like the day had a structure, so we ended up having to wait around a lot. Don't get me wrong, it was good that we could chat about our ideas with each other and the tutor, but I don't find the Hilton house inspirational at all.

 It sounds like I'm being really negative, but, like I said, the discussion with each other and the tutor was really helpful. Eleanor (the fashion tutor) was really nice and full of ideas, so as we got talking, ideas started to flow. Here are some of the ideas we had:

-Distorting an image 175 times, cutting it up into 175 pieces, or 175 pixels.
- Looking at the chemistry between a couple.
- Woven images, mixing facial expressions or two faces into one.
- Obscuring and removing the face, covering up areas of the face hiding away sections.
- Cutting away the face or the expressions and replacing it with other imagery such as chemical photography, street art, chemistry as a science.
- Print, using chemistry as a print idea to obscure an area.
- Projecting prints onto a face, like a mask.
- Burka's, how they are covered and only there eyes are visible, what if they were covered with a translucent material? It defeats the whole idea; is the message distorted?

After lunch we were told to produce a poster to display our ideas for the project. We tried to weave images of two faces together. It worked well, but on the poster it looked a bit childish. I found it a waste of time making a poster when we still need to do more drawings etc.



It's good that each group has their own space now as we can keep our things there and out everything up so we can see what's working and what's not. I just wish we had more facilities in the Hilton house!

.

Capturing feelings

Using the photographs I took the other day, I've started to draw from them. I chose two older women as I wanted to look at the lines on their faces. Using sketching pencils, I have created two portraits of these women, trying to show how they were feeling when I took the photo by carefully drawing the features. The lines look a little exaggerated as I wanted to see what shapes could  be created, therefore I couldn't use a faint stroke when sketching.

I'm quite pleased with these sketches, as I feel I have portrayed their feelings well, especially when drawing their eyes. I think I'm going to respond to more photographs in the same way and then move onto seeing what shapes I could use from those images to create a interesting motif.

To ask to take a picture of someone or to just sneakly do it anyway...?

I've had a productive morning today! I popped into Newcastle to take some photographs of people  with the intention of flashing my MMU id card and asking for a photo but instead didn't bother asking and just took photos anyway! It sounds weird but it wasn't as if I was making it obvious that I was taking a picture of the people. Instead, I stood at the side of the shops, pretending to take pictures of the hustle and bustle of the street, when I actually I was trying so hard to get a good photograph of people passing by. The reason I decided not to ask people to take a photo was because I wanted to capture they're natural expressions. If I did ask, they would probably have a massive grin on their face when really they probably didn't want to smile (after all, it was very cold). I wanted to capture their feelings in that second, not mask it with fake smiles.

 

 

 

Here are a selection of most of the photographs I took today. I'm really pleased with them as there are a variety of ages and genders, so I'll be able to experiment with them in different ways. Tomorrow, I'm going to start drawing from some of them...lets hope I get some interesting results!

A trip to 'The Baltic'

Today I also went to The Baltic art gallery in Newcastle. When I visit the gallery, I personally find most of the exhibitions to be a bit strange, nevertheless I usually really like one of them. This time I really liked Marcin Maciejowski's exhibition on the ground floor.

'Marcin Maciejowski's paintings re-present everyday images of our time- found photographs, movies, posters and newspaper illustrations. Inheriting the social and political implications of their source material, his paintings deliberately abandon the traditional subject matter of his chosen medium to examine its role in today's cultural world.'



His work is so beautiful. He uses oil paints to create a soft, textured surface. He blends his paints so they accentuate features and shapes of the subjects. I found it interesting how in some of his paintings, he would capture the persons expression brilliantly and then in others, the subject would have a blank face. He usually gave the celebrities and people who he had seen in a magazine/newspaper  the blank faces. Maybe this was to hide their identity or to create some sort of mystery behind the paintings. It made me think that maybe we could look at blurring the features on someones face or removing them completely to see what effect it has on the feeling of the image.



Could my initial drawings become patterns...?

When I first start drawing, I'm always thinking one step ahead; I'm always interested in seeing if my initial drawings could be the start of a pattern. I therefore took the girls face from the drawing done yesterday and started to play around with features that I thought could look interesting. I focused on the nose, lips and cheekbones.



After overlaying drawings and seeing what new patterns could be formed; I thought I would experiment with placement.

I always find it so interesting that you can create a pattern from something so "normal". I know that this pattern I've done isn't fantastic but it could be the start of a great idea. I started with a photograph of a couple and it's gradually developed into this! I'm going to start looking at new images and try and do the same and see how different the new design could be.