This evening we were at the back of the classroom I was leading on a wonky table with 3 other people. The talk was about the choice of either working on your writing up for your evaluation or either trying out a special kind of mod rock method. Which in my case was going to be my choice. This gave me a great chance to learn a new method of mod rocking. 

Their were two teachers at the front who had a display of a tray full of water and sheets of mod rock along with some Vaseline. So while the big people of people went off to practice their evaluation writing. I chose a stool at the front, they started off his showing us what to do to stay safe and why it was important to apply Vaseline to protect your skin from the mod rock sticking. Then this teacher started to put the mod rock into the water tray to dampen it before applying it to her hand in strips around her hand. She didn't do the full demonstration of what to do but she told us so far as to apply it with care and smooth it out with water afterwards. 

It was then time to give it a try for ourselves in pairs of two, I was lost at first as to who to go with some I chose to go with this girl who looked lonely. I went to ask her if she wanted to go with me and she said yes. So I went pick up our tray which she quickly took off me and offered to fill with water. Just then Lauren came to tell me to pick up the things I needed so seeing the table full of resources. I picked up the things I needed that I'd suddenly remembered. 

I took off my coat that I was wearing and started to prepare myself, I decided to do my full hand as it was big and detailed. The fingers were long and I could capture a good pose to use to cover with mod rock. I started to layer the first layer of mod rock it felt tickle like something wet had gone onto my bare skin. I liked the way it was easy to mold onto your fingers and on the palm of your hand. The first thing that got me was how quickly it dried so I made a few layers on top. I was watching Lauren my teaching assistant doing it as well and she had made a O shape with her thumb and her finger. 

My palm was covered with mod rock followed by my fingers which were also covered with mod rock I made another layer on top to make sure it felt like a mold after. I may have over done it with my small finger. While I was waiting for it to dry I could feel the mod rock stick to my skin so I had to twitch my hand and fingers at times to free the friction. I had trouble getting it off my hand so the teacher gave me some scissors to use to cut free the mod rock, this gave me a good chance to try to free my hand. Eventually my hand was freed. My hand was swelled up. 

This morning was another oversleep I woke up at half 8 before rushing out the door. The thing I came across this morning was finding myself with a hot chocolate which was good for me. Plus I missed Life Drawing. 

I red my text messages from Lauren this morning and I was glad to know that Life drawing was in the morning. This meant that by the time I would of got to college it would of been too late for life drawing, this was reassuring. It also meant that I could have some time to complete my Blog. 

Cubism helped him understand the pictures space. A Jungian helped him get rid of his alcoholism encouraged him to draw drawings, this later led to his paintings. Including surrealism. Pollocks understanding of his pictures may have been influenced by modern humanity living in the shadow of nuclear way. Picasso the drawer and painter inspired Pollock. When he created his drawings they helped shape Pollocks understanding of his pictures that were outpourings of his mind. In his developing of lines from colour may have a connection with the history of modern art. Along with pictorial space. In 1939 he began visiting the Jungian analyst who helped him get rid of his alcohol addiction and led him onto drawings. When it comes to painting my pages I usually make a background colour by making long brush strokes. I liked the way the documentary started as it came from a new angle, it shown the artist with his long brush making lasso marks over the transparent plastic. 

Jackson was the first american painter to capture the popular imagination. It was interesting to see how he became who he is today when it goes into detail about where he lives and he grew up. The part where they explained about his dad being a farmer who was a weak man was interesting to see what background he came from. 

The part where he talks and explains about how he likes to work when doing art, the fact that he likes to work on the floor is very close to him he feels a part of his work. I really thought the way he gave us in introductory paragraph was very interesting it was also like set by set introductory. He likes to work at home is intreeging due to the fact that artists usually find it better to take inspiration and new ideas away from home.This of been because he likes to keep his style in art, however I noticed that he also took inspiration of his work from friends and people he met. I liked the way it shown us his work as he developed. It was also interesting to see the way he would apply paint to his work by using either a stick or a brush.  

The usual thing about he begin was he mentioned the fact he likes to use fluid paints to drip his work onto the canvas after pouring it with whatever colour paint he wanted because originally I thought he used a plain paper rather than a layer of white paint poured onto the paper. 

I liked the way one of the interview said "Is a natural growth out of a need he expresses his feelings technique in means that arriving at a statement" by saying this I can gather that he enjoys showing his feelings in a certain way so he writes what the painting is. 

It then explains about how he moved to East Hampton in "Long Island" where he continued much of his great work. He was also among other painters that they were part of a movement called the abstract painters, he followed himself out there, which I thought was interesting to see how he became more abstract in his paintings. 

It was also interesting to see how they carried out their artwork they were referred to as strong men, which I thought had some connection with the way they made pieces very big and strong. The time period I found interesting as it was after the war so this may have had something to do with the possible new start in art which may of had something to do with his work with Picasso. 

This morning a fun one as is every morning, though this morning out of any morning I woke up to the sound of ringing. I decided to ignore it as it rang through I hadn't notice much to my weary sight of vision that my clock said 10'o clock, this could only mean one thing that this call could either be coming college or who I originally excepted it would be Mum. To my surprise it was my mum this was reassuring as my mum had something to tell me as I knew it it was that college had tried getting through to me but my phone was off due to my every night power saving device. 

I reassured her that I was getting dressed as I was on the phone and that I would be in college before 11. So off I went grabbing my usual mp 3 player. When I stepped out the door today I was lucky to come across the 24 bus route that got me to college in lots of time. 





Body Photography




When I got there I wasn't too surprised that We were doing photography as we worked on our photo shooting of our favourite objects with Corrie last lesson. This was going be to be a great chance to work on my photography techniques. 

The task was to take photos of people and try to take as many different angle shots of them so for example their shoulder or body parts that weren't sexual but weren't too revealing. To help us we could try to change the lighting that hits their body parts. That would make it more unusual. 

I had a good chance to get an idea of what ideas I could use and how to go about taking the shots. As I was wondering what shots I could take and use, I was thinking about my picture frame that wasn't yet complete. I had only a couple of sessions to complete it and my head was a panic of how to complete in time. I was watching Grace of Mimi and I noticed the angle Mimi was sat while Grace was taking the photos and this gave me an idea of what angle to take at. Suddenly before I had time to think I took the camera off Grace who had it and took a photo of Grace's feet and leading up to her knees. The angle was a good shot but it wasn't one of my best, so I went with an ear shot of Grace's glasses stem with her hair behind her ears. I wanted to give off a sense of mystery of part of the person it was that took the picture of. 

This was an artist I was inspired by because I wanted to make a fully sized painting of this artists work. As it brought back memories of when I used to visit my grandparents house and the down stairs cellar where they kept some of their art pictures. This came later after decorating some of my pages in my sketch book, I was flicking through the pages I'd already done and I remembered the Art Deco stain glass window that I'd made. It was formed from paper straws that shaped the windows frame along with the with some delicately brushed paint to represent the colored glass. This was a good start to my new artistic page. So I made this copy of the design I found off the internet. 

It was a Friday morning and we were given the task to take a photo of a special object that we wanted to shoot. This was part of our photo shooting activity we did on Friday 20th where we were instructed on how to prepare the white screen for our photo taking of our special object. This was an mp3 player I chose to do, the outcome wasn't what I'd excepted but I thought the position of it in the photograph was good and clear. However much of it was bright and needed a darker and more clearer appearance. As you can see much of my finger prints were left behind along with a smudge of sticking butter on the key. 

Today In Lucy's lesson 

we started to produce our pictures, we had the choice of either starting them in 3D or 2D. At first I struggled a bit because I didn't know whether to start mine in 2D or 3D and this worried me a bit because I was one of the last to start. Eventually I decided to make mine in 3D which I'm still currently doing, I had a look on my phone for 3D drawings and paintings because I really wanted mine to look like it was coming out of the picture frame. 

I came across a lot of really cool crazy chalk drawings that people had made on the outside floor on these photos, followed by that were the really wacky paintings that looked like they were actually coming out of the photo frame.  I had lots to chose from in a small space of time. 

This one really caught my eye as the chose of colors really go well with each other and they compliment the animal that looks like its coming out of the picture. The way the paint goes from dark to light looks 3 dimensional in the sense that its coming out like its a hunting animal. Along with its dark and light tones on the animal that also bring a 3D effect. I also liked the way the artist has left the watercolor paper shape off the picture that shape the sharks nose and fin this creates the overall 3D effect in the painting. 

In this one it has a very wintry feel to it as the color tones set the piece out as a slight dark but joyful tone. The colors look soft and shiny like winter and the edges of the picture for example the log look like their actually there on the tiles even with the back shadow certain parts look like their coming out of the picture for example the trees and the log. The end of the log looks like burnt wood bits on the end that have that very wintry feel almost like sitting round a fire on a snowy day outside.  

However I went with a slightly different approach for mine I decided to make a 3D vortex to decorate with the back board of the frame. I decided to make a vortex because the task was to make something in either 3D or 2D but I decided 3D so I went with a vortex idea where by I would make the vortex look like its coming out of frame. I've to layer the paint over to make it look 3D the shape would look triangle like, However I slightly regret the idea of its being paint instead of colored paper. 

It was English Today and I had arrived on time, thank God. I saw the tables were rearranged so their were two big tables and half the classroom was warden-ed off, and all went very quick in my opinion, Stella had given us a task of continuing our Children In Need Radio Recording that we were going to be planning what we were going to say in the Radio Recording. We had watched a Children In Need sponsor advert and they had used a catchy slogan of "Put on your ears", which was one of the things they wanted me to do to be part of the fund raising activity. I took some inspiration from the video in terms of a catchy slogan, I had been given a sheet of paper to prepare my radio recording. 

Lauren my teaching assistant gave me a start, the start was a beginning which was going to explain about the Children in need purpose, and the middle which was going to be about a poor family living in a house, and the ending being the "Buy a Pudsey Badge" and finally the final picture with the website address followed by the telephone number and website links. 

It was then time to put my idea with someone else's and straight away a boy with blonde hair told me his idea about this old woman called Gertrude who lost both her legs followed by her arm. He used my name of Pete as one of her sons that lost his hand due to a lorry accident. These were stories we were then going to bring together to get people on our side in terms of money giving. 

TIME

Over the weekend I had brought some mirrored paper that I'd especially brought to decorate the front cover of my sketchbook. I wanted the cover of my book to look like the Time Mr Lebowski mirror in "The Big Mr Lebowski" film I'd watched. These are some examples of the "Time" mirrors.

So I went out to buy some mirrored paper, I remember leaving the house as quickly as possible to find some while I still could. I tried Paper chase first and they were out of stock, they suggested trying Hobby Craft so I went over there instead. I managed to find some in the paper section of the store.

When I got home I started work on the front cover. I remember being amendment to finish it so I rushed a bit, however I still managed to keep the border straight and the Time title on. After time and much effort I managed to finish it. This is what I would of hoped for in terms of accuracy... 

This however was my outcome...

I still had some left because they came in packets of 5's, so I did another one only this time decorating the boarder with roses, as I thought it went well with a calm natural feel to my sketchbook. 

I also made another flowery boarder only this time using a sharpie pen. 

I also took some inspiration some Grayson Perry's work and made a string pattern page in my sketchbook where I'd stuck the string pattern done first and layer it with pink paint afterwards. However I had to wait a long time for the glue to dry and some of the glue mixed with the paint bled through the page. 

Here I'd originally decided to paint a black crow sitting on a branch, but I decided to use a thick layer of paint so that crow looked like it was coming out of the page. However during this process I ran out of black so I decided to use navy blue as it was full and I wanted to continue the process. This gave me time to redecorate the background as well. 

And this is what It looked like.... 

When I originally did the background a grey color I wanted it to tie into the sort of colors banksy used i.e Dark and light Grey. It also reminded me after I had made the sponge marks of explosion of light on a page almost like an old cinema and the black and white screening they used. 

As you can see the way the grey color fades into the black background goes very well together.

Along with the blue bird I also made a back drop with the blue light hitting the crow and the tree behind however I left the tree with the branch I left brown because I wanted it to be more closer so the light was coming from behind. This is just a preview of the work I did for that page but I'm considering doing it again. I Did this page because I felt like it linked well with the banksy info page I had done next to it, It also demonstrated what wildlife he included in his graffiti for example dark things like crows. 

Here are some example of the type of things he used...

In this piece he's made the crows invading the CCTV camera, he likes to make everyday objects and things seem darker with his approach. Often CCTV cameras are very tall and have a dark portrayal like death is watching everyone as they pass by. They also have that basic police feel to it almost like its not interesting but its there where you least except it. 

I really like the way the seats match the painting on the wall behind. Their very white and bright like some of the other CCTV cameras you see for example some of the cameras they have in shops where their like white rotating balls. The seats also match the police style of clothing as well for example white shirts. Often if people say that something is white with black as the writing it stands out. A bit like if you hold a tube of white paint and the letters on the front are black it makes it easier to read rather than a black background with white letters on the front. It's much more eye coordinating. It's also like every other warning sign or direction sign or street name you see. They chose those colors to make it easier for someone to understand. The chairs also compliment the graffiti behind. 

In this photo of the very rough crow the position of the crow works really well as its almost like its at the corner of the wardrobe or cupboard which makes it less obvious. Along with that its also like those horror movies where the crow is one the end of a gate or fence which usually symbolizes darkness or some religious belief however I don't entirely agree with this. I also like the way the crows feathers are very ruff and scruffy as they match the wood work on the door. I like the way the light hits the crow as well as it makes seem like its there if you stare at it for long enough. The light hits the birds feathers brings out some of the detail in the feathers. The way the tail feathers are long as it hints the fact that its a long life crow. The door and the crow have a connection with their design and features in terms of scruffiness.

 This is another graffiti piece he made, where he used crows to use as fading away from a human form i.e the scarecrow and the way the crows are all bunched together to create the scarecrows shape and how they fly away afterwards in different directions, It also reminds me of the way our universe has us as people all together on our islands and the way we suddenly all go off in different directions similar to the scarecrow shape. I also notice the background area it's set in is very damp and dark and dingy like the inside of a long dark tunnel. Along with the window with the bars covering with the window. This suggests that the scarecrow is imprisoned somehow, Usually when people relate to prison especially in the olden days they think of escapism. The way the scarecrow disintegrates into a storm of crows suggests escapism. 

This picture of the crow is very final like the crow is sitting there perched as if he had won the battle of something and is sitting there in victory with a finger tied to his beak. The sky seems full of what was left over after the battle had finished like the fumes left over at the end. The way the light hits the crow suggests a slight capture like something has come along and spotted the crow. Like the crows in the spotlight, the sky almost suggests a new dawn approaching like the mist of the past is hovering over the crow who sits there proudly. 

In this picture of the man standing, its very dream like like he was about to say something or make a sudden move before he started to fade away into millions of crows. It has that very soft free feel to it almost a bit like when somebody puts their thumb on the block of pages and flicks through the pages. 

Art Deco 

This page I have not yet complete, but made a college of a stain glass art deco styled window. 

Grayson Perry 

This was an artist page I had done in my spare time of Grayson Perry. The thing that interested me about his work was his eye catching pattern in some of his ceramics and Tapestry. 

I decided to use his colors of pink and make a nice boarder to go round the page. I was also really interested in his motorcycle so I added that in too. 

Banksy 

Across this double page I had made some cut outs of images that I'd found over the internet that were work of Banksy. I was sat in the library looking through my sketchbook when she suggested doing a page on Banksy as I'd said in the past that Banksy was my favorite artist. This got me thinking of all the different ideas I could try and the first idea was a Ronald McDonald pop out, I got this strange idea from a dream I had once about a strange encounter with a Ronald McDonald costume I had found down the side of a toilet cubicle. I originally had the idea of making the Ronald McDonald top pop out from behind these curtains I was going make across the top of the double pages. But my mind took me else where, I found sticking the tissue paper down quite hard and felt like it got in the way of the painting I had made. I was sat at the dining room table painting the man throwing the flower bomb. I used a cut out rat and stuck it on the page above the man. 

For the Parachute Rat I'd painted it on paper and cut round it and stuck it in my book.
I had to be careful that I didn't go over the drawing line I had done. 

For the Ronald McDonald I had painted the costume at the dinner table when I came home from college before painting the man throwing the flowers. I had used very fine brushes to make up his costume, along with some red glitter to cover his sleeves. I then used string to attach the cut out to the page. 

I then began on my man throwing the flowers, I had used a image off the internet to refer to while I was painting. I layered it in black coats to make sure it was a solid black, during this process my mum had come in after picking my brother up from school. I was finished with the man before I knew it. 


I then had a look at the image of the man and lady who was being invaded by the flock of pigeons on the park bench. This gave me some ideas of what to add to the Double page of Banksy. 

I made a mini painting of the woman sat at the bench in my book, I stuck some pencil sharpening's across her face to represent the pigeons. I felt like it needed something more to show the busyness of it so I added some glitter. Looking back at it I felt like it could of been a bit bigger and May have used something different than glitter. 

To complete the page off I printed some different images of work Banksy had made, and decorated the page with layered brick work, to give it that very graffiti like effect. 

Escher 

We had been given some homework set by Tweeney which was to create a title page on Escher with his information. I decided to be more creative with mine, as it was the first page of my sketchbook that I'd really started to involve color. So I used a layer of blue followed by some purple, after I gave it a very smooth effect. I then later sponged some silvery white to create this almost cloud in the center. I thought that It would be good If I involved a candle in with the page too as it would act really well with the background, It reminds me off the light that candles reflect on walls in the corner of the room. I used large amounts of paint to make the candle as 3D as possible. Closely followed by Escher's see through globe.

  

This was a drawing I done later on Unfortunately I decided to miss out the Escher's reflection so I shaded some of the transparent sphere. 

Blek Le Rat

During a lesson with Tweeney I could hear Lauren talking to some others who were sat on the table with us and they were talking about where Banksy originally came from and Lauren said that people have rumored that Banksy had copied Blek Le Rat the french graffiti artist. This got me intrigued into what sort of work Blek Le Rat made. I had copied his stencil art like the running rat and decided to get a piece of paper and write his information on it before burning the edges to create this very crisp old effect. I then later stuck this piece down underneath the running rat. The page wasn't what I'd hoped for, but maybe I could improve it to make it more to my satisfaction.  

My Final Piece Pencil Sharpener/Rubber

The Final project was all about creating your special object using special styles. We had to make our final pieces as 3D as possible, So I chose to do an example piece of what to come in my sketchbook where I'd painted the sharpener using colors along with sharpening's on top. The outcome was great. However Tweeney said that their was room for improvement in terms of making it 3D.

For the Final Piece I had made this smaller version of this one I did in my book I had only a certain amount of time to complete it. I drew a picture template of the sharpener on my piece of paper, I used some bin liner for the plastic bit of the sharpener as it was shiny like the sharpeners plastic and there was a lot of it so it never ran out. For the sharpeners case I had used some polystyrene for the rubber as they were white like the rubber itself. I had used some blue shiny paper for the sharpeners case. I had to layered it with glue to make sure it all stuck down. I felt like overall It wasn't what I'd hoped for in terms of 3D and an exact model of my real sharpener. 

It was a rainy day outside and I was up in my room looking through my sketch book seeing what I could change, and I saw a page that I thought could be improved. The next page I had made a pen drawing of a cigarette and the drawing had bled through the page and onto the next two pages. So without a moment to lose I grabbed my paint brush and began painting the two pages. 

For this page I had used a coat of dark green paint mixed with some lighter green to create an almost dark against light sort of green. After hair drying it I got a sponge and dipped it in some lime green paint and began sponging the paint onto the paper. I felt like the lime green paint faded into the dark green really well. After I painted 2 Pencil sharpener rubbers onto the page, one on the top and one on the bottom to fit with the dialogue I had written. I then rewrote what I'd wrote before onto this new page.

Now for this page.. It was a slightly different case. I decided to chose orange and black as my two main colors, as I thought they best suited the smoking accusation. The Orange reminded me of the fire patterns on the end of a cigarette and the black reminded me of the ash left over from a cigarette.   

We had to come up with some things that were round that we see in everyday life so they would fit in the circles on the sheet of paper, and after we would then stick them on the boards at the back of the studio. 

In this session we were looking at Gilbert And George because Tweeney had shown us a presented based on their work in both film and photography. She also mentioned that they were twins. 

Gilbert And George.

We were looking at 2 Pared artists who would make big prints of themselves doing different poses to fit their purpose of the print they had made. 

Here's some examples...

Our favorite Items project for this we had to come up with mini colleges of our item and make them look different to each other. Lucy our teacher gave us 5 bits of card each, when it came round to designing our object we all had some great ideas. I came up with one that was like blue paper for the edges and the corners of my pencil sharpener rubber along with some string to make the M on the "Maped" stand out. 

The drawing underneath is of my Pencil sharpener/ rubber design. 

On the next bit of card I was wondering what material I could use So as I was rummaging through the box of supplies that Lucy had given us. I came across a bright yellow roll of shiny sheets. I noticed some other colors so I chose each of them at random so I could see what colors worked best with each other. I never really intended whether the colors I had chosen were going to match my original pencil sharpener rubber design. This was going to be a Pop Art styled Pencil Sharpener Rubber. 

I then went over in Fine Liner for the details

For this project we were taught by Tweeney and it was part of homework for our favorite items project. We were given a certain deadline to complete this homework and during that time we would be able to design what ever we liked but make it human like so for example I chose to base mine off Dyson so I chose to do a head with some eyes on with an X covering the boy's mouth closely followed by the Dyson's cyclone for the head piece. It was all about making something you see in everyday life and converting it to make it so it would be more human like. Inventing cool designs we could use from things we see around us, I chose to base mine off Dyson vacuum. So as I was drawing I was wondering how I could change it so it would be most Dyson/human like as possible, and I decided to use the Dyson's cyclone for the top part of my drawing I chose the cyclone because it's the most recognizable part of the vacuum itself and It makes things seem tall. Next time I would make a more full drawing of what I intended, using more body parts of the Dyson.