Summery discoveries/experiments

Summery discoveries

Things I want to achieve this summer (to do list:)

• Wire faces (development from my continuous line drawings and inspired by Transformart exhibition)
• Sewing a face and further embroidery (inspired by the eyes and noses I have begun sewing and inspired by a combination of facial drawing and beginning to explore/ understand contours)
• Drawings for tiles (do more continuous line drawings/start thinking about my ceramics)
• Meri analogue and digital drawing on portrait (inspired by Alina Zamanova and my continuous line drawing development)
• Create my Zine of different music genres (personal interest and partially inspired by 'Drawing from the city' book but also '101 Artists you should listen to' by Ricardo Cavolo)
• Commission for my neighbours clay therapy book (need to experiment with different textures as she said portraying the texture of the clay at different areas was the most important part)
• Collage another member of Bean Train Gang as our fiddle player has changed (cant really be arsed with this... not sure I can create something the same as I did 3 months ago..)
• Arrange and album cover for my band Badmash (using my piece of graffiti and practice from Album cover task)
• Further developed drawing of figures

Aims for next year:

• Have an induction in the ceramics department (make tiles)
• Find a glass/ceramics workshop day out of university so I can have some teaching in how to make things
• Go on one of Lucy MacLeod's fashion illustration workshops in Edinburgh (she gives 2 weeks notice to apply and there are 15 places and I have been busy the times before)
• Take life drawing classes next year so that I can learn form better as this will help my illustration in all kinds of ways
• Print off zines and postcards for thought-bubble and set up an Etsy and instagram account
• Finally finish the Bean Train Gang business cards!

I bought this book 'drawings from the city' illustrated by Tejubehan from Colours May Vary in town. I went there really hoping not to buy anything but this just really caught my eye. The front cover was very captivating in that it was just orange with black line drawings on top. I have found towards the end of first year that drawing on coloured paper is something that I really enjoy.
This page bellow was the final straw and after seeing the way this lady had drawn the houses I had to keep this. This is very similar to the continuous line drawings which I started to develop of buildings however these are much denser!

I also really liked the people. The way that they are out of proportion and perspective but they add to the image and are still purposeful. I think it is also very striking that everything is built up from different patterns creating textures and constructing the composition effectively.

This is a T-shirt I bought from Venus Loon (Grigory Grebennikov). I have been following them on instagram for a while (he creates psychedelic poster art and when he sold some of these t-shirts I would not drink my coffee till I had purchased it. I love that it is not on a solid white t-shirt, that it is using coloured stock, also of contrasting colours (deep red and mustard yellow). I it interesting how it is constrained into a rectangle but also uses negative space and is broken up by a circle. Like the book above, a lot of the image is made up through lots of detailed lines which create a pattern/texture. They really have a sense of space and how to create something complex whilst it can still be simple. I am also in a phaze where I am listening to Shocking Blue and Janis Joplin and I understand how apt the motifs (scenes) and figures are to this genre of music/way of life.

I am inspired by these 2 pieces of illustration; their use of line, coloured stock and figures.

From this I began doodling. This isn't something that I do, I never draw from the imagination/let the pen wonder on a page but I am very agitated (trying to quit smoking) and it happened. Character design was something that I had to persevere with during the GIF project we studied this year however it is interesting that I am now choosing to draw characters and that I am developing a recognisable visual language for these doodles.

 I think these are subconsciously closely linked to/inspired by the book and the t-shirt. It follows the 1970's hippie scene of the t-shirt due to the motifs of flowers, patterns, clothing and body language. Furthermore it uses similiarily out of proportion figures with unforgiving faces on a solidly coloured piece of paper (stock) with the blank areas built up heavily with pattern and texture.

I have really liked Alina Zamanova for a while and have one of her prints at home. I really like how colourful her figures are and the lifework used but also that they aren't beautiful girls. I liked this piece in particular because this girl has orange hair (like me). Really like the block coloured lines that she uses and the strong contrast of thin white lines for definition. Furthermore the complimentary colour of blue is used around the opposite side of the face. I like that there is a block black background to make it stand out. I also find the eyes amazing! The harsh black outlines and strong blocks of colours. There is also a contrast of the freckles building up the surface with a pattern rather than line.

I really wish that I could create something like this!

This is a card I found in Dean Clough gallery in Halifax by Mark Hearld. I love this mans work. I particularly liked this image. It has a lot of texture created in it through using dry brushes but also block shapes from the cut out paper. Even this paper has texture added to it as well. I really feel that this image portrays the feel of being at the beach... the cool breeze coming from the sea, the deep and shallow parts of the water, the seaweed under your toes and the birds swooping around.

A result of not smoking for a few weeks... Sewing is something which takes a long time. I wanted to explore the different ways of creating line through stitch. These were spontaneous faces (if stitching for 2 hours can be spontaneous). I thought sewing could be a good progression from continuous line drawings because it is coming out of one piece of string, however it is possible to hide the line on the back on the fabric.

I saw this on Instagram and thought it was something that I should pay attention to. It combines what I learnt in Germany about tone creating contours and uses the method of sewing which I begin exploring this summer.

This was something I created at my Arty Crafts summer school job. We spent all day helping the kids draw t-shirt designs and then cutting them out so that the bit they wanted was going to be red and the bit they didn't the Tshirt colour. This was difficult for some kids because they couldn't visualise the design being shapes rather than line work but we got there. At the end we were allow to print our own Tshirt if we were speedy. They only had bizzare colours for the adult t-shirts and inspired by me Venus Loon mustard T i thought I would go with yellow and red... works well with the smiley sun design. I thought this was another time I could try and develop my continuous line drawing faces in a different medium. Unfortunately by the time we were printing the silk screen had run 35 T-shirts through it and was getting pretty mucky so it wasn't a clean print. The eye has a little red tear and I had to fill a mark in with a paint brush. This was harder than expected and has dried with a darker red mark because it wasn't a thin and even spread, like with a print.

Whilst at work my friend sent me this artist saying how similar it was to the faces I was developing, specifically my sewing. He is called Harif Guzman and uses a range of different media, including graffiti and using these face to fill interior walls...all quite urban though.

Here he inspired me to work on a black stock rather than white and invert the colours. It creates a very striking effect. I felt inspired to have a play around with what I could do on my new friend Photoshop. 
I think this image is striking, it is like cat eyes which glare at you in the dark. They were all created by a continous line.

This tested my knowledge of layers and locking layers and inverting colours and getting rid of backgrounds. I liked the idea of introducing cirlces to the image to soften the lines but also represent faces. I thought it would look really cool to have parts of the faces black and parts white... as if they were standing in front of a projector or something. However I didn't feel that the circles were in the right places to be effective.

I then explored this further but changing the sizes of the circles and chosing just a few faces to circle. This then creates a sense of depth and picks out a few faces to study the expressions of-as if a torch was being shined at them. We have decided to use this image as they next release cover for my bands songs... the bass player says it is "angsty" enough to fit our music...

This was created by switching a layer off. I thought that this looks quite effective... as if you are looking at something through a hole punched piece of paper and they are hiding. It is interesting because they are continuous line drawings but broken up... a bit like scratching off an etch to reveal an image.

I then thought I could added some more faces behind to create a chaotic and denser pattern. To make the image more sophisticated I could make the background faces thinner. I think that these faces are more poignant. These faces were destructive and created through the eraser tool so I only had one chance with them.

This is a very grand building I saw in Berlin and wanted to continuos line it.

I was thinking about how I could transfer a sketch into a design, perhaps something which I could turn into a card or something commercial. I thought inverting the lines to white with a block colour background could be quite striking.

Furthermore I thought I could experiment with colour... turning it into a happy house. I like this because it was really fun to colour in and it looks crazy but I think it could have been done less randomly if it was going to be more effective.

I wasn't feeling very good and decided that to let out the bizarre energy I was going to finger paint. I didn't have a plan as to what I was painting at all. 

I started off with blue circles which developed into heads coming out of the corner. When painting with your finger the paint doesn't spread the same as with a paintbrush but creates some interesting dry or super thick textures. I then started combining other tones into faces and necks which ended up being light on the right and dark on the left. I also wanted to add specks of yellow because it brings them to life and is a complimentary colour. 

From this it looked like an eruption from water with a spray so I decided to create water the demons could come out of. This ended up being a whirl pool just from the directions I painted. I am quite impressed with the outcome of this as the light and dark really creates a bumpy, wave like, ripply surface (not carefully planned but the light and dark seems effective). 

I then felt like the image was very sparse and needed a background so I attacked the light side of the heads with a mustard yellow to add some contrasting warmth to image. I didn't have a plan with this other than outlining the faces to bring them forward and make them stand out. The direction of my strokes turned into the demons looking like they are on fire and being pulled in one direction with movement from how expressive the strokes are. This is ironic because they are in cold colours and of water so they cant be aflame... furthermore the dark red makes the flames look very hot and deadly. 

I added the facial details at the end with expressions which seemed to be scared and unhappy rather than aggressive and attacking. 

There was still a lot of empty space which I decided to fill up with a dirty hadn't print from all the remanence of my paint pallet. This was fun! This made the image terrifying. It gives me the impression that they are in pain, trying to escape, trapped. Like they are putting their hands against a glass wall.

When I finally stood back from finishing this painting I felt amazing, I had got rid of all of the bad energy and emotions...a bit like art therapy. This was until I looked at what I had created and was shocked that my subconscious lead me to make this... There wasn't planning or decisions in this, it was thoroughly expressive and spontaneous and it is very striking and scary.