Thursday, March 29, 2012

exploring landscape through various mediums

Aswell as my watercolours i have been exploring landscape with oil colours, acrylics and spray paint. even if i am not to use them in my final project i htink that by exploring other mediums i can explore techniques and gain an understanding of the environemnt through art. I think it helps keep my mind creative and constantly thinking of new ways to portray my creativety.

NEW PROJECT TITLE:

WATERCOLOUR LANDSCAPES

during my last chat with joel and lisa i was told that my current project was far to broad and that my illusionary paintings lacked the style and charm seen in my personal watercolours of landscapes. As i recently looked into landscape art for my essay i was already interested in landscapes and enjoyed the fact i could sketch and paint them easily and quickly. this has allowed me to not become restrained by just one idea as i have many sketches on the go. This is a chance to explore and appreciate the british landscape by sketching and painting what i see; letting me show others the beauty of landscape and aso getting to spend time outside myself

i have been a found user of watercolours in the past whether it be in cartoons, landscapes or portraits. here are a couple of examples of previous watercolours i have produced:

marlow river
danis dog
reindeer man

most of my watercolour techniques and skills have been develoed over time through self learning, however recently i came across the painting programme on propeller tv on sky. the porgram followers various artists as the create watercolours and share tips. through the program i learnt of masking fluid. Masking fluid is a great tool for protecting certain areas of my paintings as i work on other parts. it helps create fluidity among colours and allows me more freedom and movement.

(recent masking fluid paintings)


DIGITALLY EDITING MY PAINTINGS

I was randomly playing with the i phone app 'Instogram' and found some really cool effects that dramatically changed the way my paintings are viewed. By blurring certain areas i could create a real life perspective and almost 3D style drawings.

(instagram pics)


i hope to use both digital and actual paintings in my final exibition.

Friday, March 9, 2012

adventures

i have also been exploring woodland areas. which has been extremely beneficial; not only for subject matter to draw, but for inspiration, ideas and amazing natural occurances. i was told in my tutorials that i need to draw more from real life, so i took my sketchbook out with me.

TREES:

black and white

when i was creating the negative images for the darwin illusion i got caught up messing around with the negative faces. originally just a bit of fun, i started to find weird images amongst the faces.

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
for this image i edited his face and mirrored it so make a werid skull. on completeion i realised that both his eyes contain hamsters and his forehead is made from to gargoils with wings, with his bottom mouth suggesting a beatle shell. all accidental, however i think i may edit his forehead to have 2 birds, keeing with the animal association

KULVIN
i have duplicated the profile of my friends face, whilst doing so a freaky deamon face appeared in the middle. looking like a deer head on.

Pattern Illusions

i have always been intruigued by shapes and how their perspectives can be manipulated with the right posiitoning. i like how some pattersn seem to rotate, warp and change perspective when stared at.

i guess there is a mathmatical way to draw patterns like these but i do not know it and just had fun trying to make some myself. i tried a variety of shapes and techniques to create my own patterns.

MATHS PAPER:
the maths squares designs are fun and easy, by just contrasting the squares, however colouring in every line is labourious and it shard to make a full pattern. here are a couple of my tries:


CURVES:
one evenign i was drawing a birds featehrs and thought that the way they are layered could be maniuplated into a pattern. my first i dea was to create a spherical hape out of the scales. when i drew it



from trying to draw my patterns i have realised that due to the regimental nature of the patterns that maybe computer design would be more effective in producing them and use sketching for intial ideas. The computer will give accurate and easy manipulatable shapes and lines.



darwin illusion

INITIAL RESEARCH and INSPIRATION:
i came about this idea on the internet where there was a negative image of a girl who you could not recognise but once you had looked at the image for 30 seconds or so then looked at a white wall you could see the image perfectictly. i went about researching the concept and found a psychologist who had made one of charles darwin and explained his process. i liked how his image was completely different to drawins face and was very illustrative and cartoon like. its initial appeal was in the unique drawing but one stared at it became darwin.

IDEAS and DEVELOPMENT:
like the other images i wanted to myself create a negative image of someones face and illustrate it. for my first try i used Ray Mears' face. i wanted a face that was recongisable and a subject matter i would enjoy. i used the same method shown above. using a light box to give me the intial outline and having fun with the design. here is my first attempt. ............i like the image inside the face but i am unsure wheather there is too much detail which stop the negatory transition once looked at for 30 seconds.

bear grylls
david attenborough
self portrait


OUTCOMES:

owl : landscape

INITIAL CONCEPT and INSPIRATION
this painting is my first illusionary concept, i wanted to create a painting that was interactive with the audience, they have the ability to change the location, environment and context in a easy rotation of the painting. where artists like Rene magritte use perspective to create illusions that can be weird from just one angle i wanted to diversify the viewing dimensions as seen in ..................... painting; where the skull can only be seen from a certain perspective. i wanted to have multiple contexts via multiple angles.

PREP:
My prepatory work for the painting involved going to the coast line around bournemouth and sketching the surrounding area. I feel my painting has benefited from my excursions as i have gained first hand experience of what these places feel and look like. by sketching the ocean and cliffs i gained an understanding of the sharp edges and windswept trees. sketching the sea first hand also helped be release the rigidness of my water drawings beforehand. i saw how the waves moved, crashed and dissapaited and figured out how i could portray their movements through drawing and paint

DEVELOPMENT:
This idea began as a quick sketch in my book, i then made a smaller mock up version using colours i thought would work well and checking out the composition. When creating the larger piece i decided to change the bacground stalemites from human figures into 2 light houses. i felt they related better to the cliffs and water edges they would be close to and it allowed the foregorund stalecmites to stand out more.

REALISATION:
In this painting i hope to protray a variety of potential contexts, locations and figures. You can see the painting through the eyes of someone in a cave (indicated via the stalemites and dark foreground) , enclosing the viewer wihtin the image. The suggested human shape of the stallecmites also helps the viewer relate to the image and feel as through they are looking at someone looking at the scene. (angle A) i have used a more yellowish tone to the foreground as if to indicate sand, linking it with the waves. cliffs enclose the water and a lighthouse standsa alone next to a moon.
(angle B) a slightly closer view of a log in the forground (including more tree browns) in the mid ground lies either a dark lagoon or grass land enclosed by large shrubs.
(angle C) the vertical angle shows a compleltely different concept. An owl stares wide eyed at the viwer clinging on to what once was a stallecmite but has now adopted the representation of a tree branch. the large moon is its belly and the space ship suggesting its beak. the sea, lagoon and mountains now become abstracted trees. the waves now becoming the knots in the tree