Diary of a Student Artist and Other Tales

Jan

Another day spent making another collage. I can’t believe that they’re soooo time consuming. I thought I’d get my 5 done this weekend, but after yesterday I knew that was impossible. I thought at least I’d get 2 done today, but no, I spent the whole day doing just the one. I’m not even sure that I enjoy making them. I love using bits and pieces for my mixed media paintings, but to try and create a whole image from torn or cut up pieces of paper, I’m not so sure. It just doesn’t feel that creative to me. I know it is, but I just don’t get the same feeling as I do from painting. I wonder why that is.

The basic premise of this exercise was to create a composition utilising line in a variety of widths, angles and curvatures to create a non-objective work. I was to choose a maximum of 2 geometric shapes, thereby limiting possibility and focusing on design potential.

I actually quite like how it turned out and think I’ve achieved my objective. I hardly used any paint at all, preferring to let the collage speak for itself. I’m not sure it’s me, but there are many things I can take from it. I utilised a background that divides up the space behind the object, which is something I haven’t really done before. I also learned that collage needs much more time than I’d anticipated and a lot of patience!

Category: Abstract, Mixed Media, Visual Arts Tags: collage, creative composition 10 Comments

Jan

Creative Composition: Collage I

Heather

As you’ll already know, I have to hand in all of my assignments for all of my projects next week instead of two weeks later. This means I’m more than a little stressed just now. Thankfully, I don’t have massive amounts to do. I have 5 pieces for Creative Composition to complete; one for Analytical Drawing and four on canvas for my Personal Project. I was hoping to complete all of my Composition pieces for Monday, but I think that’s highly unlikely now.

The reason? Well, there are different briefs for each compositional piece, but they must all be collage. Now, I’ve never done collage before – not a whole piece. I’ve added bit of collage to a painting, but that’s as far as it has got. The first assignment was to create a collage utilising disassociation. This means I had to create an image in a non-representational collage with focal point. Texture and colour determined the intensity/direction/focus. As a study in value this collage would be created in black and white. Well, for some reason, I took it into my head to create a weave from paper and glue it down onto the page. The paper is A3, so that’s a lot of weave!

I cut up newspaper into small strips of about 5mm in width and covered the whole page. This has taken me the best part of 6 hours to do! I have no idea what possessed me to do such a thing. I cut up further pieces and overlaid it diagonally on the object on the right side, and larger pieces elsewhere. I think it looks okay. It should look great after all the effort I put in!

On another note, after much cajoling and prodding by my tutors and classmates, I decided that I am going to apply to university! I have to write a personal statement for UCAS, and my tutor is writing a reference for me, both of which have to be handed in by this Friday. So, I’m really nervous. It’s all becoming extremely real! I’m applying to Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. I would like to apply to Glasgow School of Art, but I can’t move for family reasons. However, Gray’s has an excellent reputation and some of my friends will be going there, so it will probably be much better for me, in that I don’t have to make new friends and adjust to being back home (Glasgow is 14 miles from my hometown and I’ve been away for 14 years) whilst trying to contend with study. All-in-all it’s probably for the best, but I would have loved being back home amongst my own people, close to the mountains, and in a proper city with tonnes of shops and culture. Oh well, maybe another time.

Category: Abstract, Visual Arts Tags: analytical drawing, collage, creative composition, glasgow school of art, gray's school of art 4 Comments

Jan

Further studies in analytical drawing and creative compostion

Heather

I had to recreate an abstract image using an analogous colour scheme for Creative Composition. I like the colours, but I’m really not satisfied with the painting. I’m on a deadline of handing in all my projects next week instead of two weeks later, so I’m feeling a bit stressed and I’m having to rush my work, which is really to my own detriment. I still have 6 more paintings to do for this subject, and they are all collage paintings. I’ve never created a whole painting from collage, and I think I’m going to find it much more difficult than just painting. I’m going to be majorly stressed over the coming week, so if I have a moan, please bear with me as I also have to hand in all my work for all of my subjects. I’m going to be exhausted!

I’m much happier with this painting though. I would not normally use purple, yellow and blue together, but once I had the object on the paper, I found that I really liked it. I definitely want to experiment more with it. This painting is for Analytical Drawing and I have one more painting to complete for this subject. Yay!

Category: Abstract, Painting, Visual Arts Tags: analytical drawing, creative compostion 6 Comments

Jan

The Virtual Paintout

Heather

There is a blog I found through another site, which is called The Virtual Paintout. Basically, each month the artist selects a view from Street View in Google Maps and paint from the photograph of the view. The brief is that you paint a specific place. So for this month, the artist must paint from a street in Corsica. I thought this would be quite fun and decided to give it a try. Now, I’ve never painted a street or landscape so it was going to be a challenge for me. I quickly knocked up the front view of a house. I know, it’s not a very good painting, but it’s a first attempt and was done in very little time. It’s done in my little journal, meaning the space is tiny. I was also very tired when I painted it, but I was desperate to give it a try, so here it is:

I also wanted to show you Head-E Lamarr. Who, you ask? Head-E is my sculpted head. I thought it was quite a funny title to give her and it works for me because Head-E alludes to something computerish, whilst also referencing a very famous actress of the golden era of films. The brief for this was to design a piece based on the word ‘Dismantle’. I was going to go all steampunk on her, thinking cogs and machinery, but then I had a brainwave! I had bits of RAM lying around and I had already moulded wires into the plaster and made them stick out of her eye. So I thought, what about a cyborg? A broken cyborg. A bio-mechanical being. So, I carved a piece into her head so that I can stick the RAM in, which represents her brain. I also carved part of an exposed brain, showing the duality of man meets machine. I then added an LED light to her eye, then carved out parts of her jaw to expose bone and muscle tissue. She is a work in progress and I will be adding more to her.

There is a stick on the RAM that says ‘Void if removed’. I love that! It says so much, so I decided to leave it on.

Category: Painting, Sculpture, Visual Arts Tags: corsica, cyborg, google maps, google street view, sculpture, the virtual paintout 8 Comments

Jan

Contextual Studies Part II

Heather

Here are a few images I created for Contextual Studies. This piece is a recreation of Picasso’s ‘Woman in an Armchair’ and Dali’s ‘Masochistic Instrument’. This is very different in style for me but I really like how it turned out. I painted the background with various streaks of paint then laid down the line on top. The female form within the window is from ‘Masochistic Instrument’, whilst the surrounding lines are from ‘Woman in an Armchair’. Painted in acrylic.

This next piece is a recreation of Picasso’s ‘Woman in a Red Armchair’ and ‘The Studio’ and Dali’s ‘Architectonic Angelus of Millet’ and ‘Face of War’. As you can see the bottom of the landscape is very dark. This is the ‘Face of War’ part. I wanted this to be within the soil and therefore, within the darkness, since the original painting is about the Spanish Civil War. I wanted to show vibrant colour on the left side since this is supposed to be Picasso in the process of painting. In the original piece ‘The Studio’, Picasso is painting a woman, but I chose to represent him in a red armchair, painting the aggressor on the right side, which is taken from ‘Architectonic Angelus of Millet’. Painted in acrylic.

This piece is based on Picasso’s Seated Bather and Dali’s Venus and a Sailor. These elements are very small parts of each painting and I wanted to represent them in some form of seascape. Painted in acrylic with collage pieces and tissue paper.

This final piece is taken from Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ and ‘Seated Bather’, and Dali’s ‘Venus and a Sailor’. I wanted to recreate the frenzied colour of ‘Weeping Woman’ but have again portrayed the various elements in a sort of landscape. This was painted on calico with oil pastels, glue, acrylics, quink and bleach.

On a final note, I have added Google Friend Connect to my page, making it easy for people to join the site. It means I can also see who joins, and I can visit their blogs should they wish to join.

Category: Abstract, Mixed Media, Painting, Project, Visual Arts Tags: architectonic angelus of millet, dali, face of war, masochistic instrument, Picasso, seated bather, the studio, venus and a sailor, woman in a red armchair 8 Comments

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