unit 77 evaluation

Art practices evaluation

At the start of the project I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what the brief was about or what it was for as I thought there was a going to be a big final piece, however I then found out that there would be several final pieces and that be influenced by different artists and to educate us about the fine art practices. Still even now I don’t quite get the reason behind it other than to educate us on areas such as colour, but also in Suprematist movement and Bauhaus, from people such as joseph Albers and kasimir Malevich. When I first received the assignment brief I thought it would be boring as when we started doing things about the squares I thought it would be basically the same thing over and over again however it became more interesting the further I got into the project as it showed that there is a lot more people who used the it several different ways in which different artist explore shape and use or those shape.

When working on this project the place in which I sourced my information and my research was the internet where I looked up artist such as Keith Coventry, who used maps as inspiration for his work. Kasimir Malevich, pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the avant-garde Suprematist movement and creator of the black square.  Joseph Albers, teacher at the Bauhaus school and famous for his experiments and teachings of colour. And Mondrian original founder of the de stijl movement. I also used teachers and books to find out information about the artist works.

When researching this artist I took this research through notes, sketches and experimentations on both Photoshop to help us build towards our final pieces. Helping us make decisions about colour and other components.in my pieces I had inspiration from several artists for example in my map project I had a couple of influences for example my main influences being Malevich and Keith Coventry firstly I was influenced by Keith Coventry as he based his pieces of art of maps for example estate maps. Because of this I decide to base my piece on a map of the United Kingdom as it is also a map, I then colour coded it (by doing this it makes the piece more interesting and complicated) by the life expectancy from birth across the UK. Mondrian was also an influence as I added lines protruding from the squares like Mondrian did when doing his tree, also I used Mondrians technique when abstracting his work in stages, like he does with his de stijl, I would say I have tried to include Mondrian’s de stijl feel however I have createdthis by included instead of the black lines creating a kind of negative feel.  All of these ideas helped my piece become more complex and gave me ideas expanding in creativity. However before creating this outcome I created a Coventry inspired test piece using coloured card. for this piece we had to find a map and create Coventry style piece based his work and the method he uses to create his pieces of work. The map I chose to work off is the map of the white chapel gallery where we went to see the adventures of the black square. when creating this piece I use cut out pieces of card to represent different rooms however I also missed out rooms so it wasn’t too obvious that I got it from a map. I also chose a variety of colour such as green, blue, red, orange and white.

Overall I was satisfied with my final designs as I felt they all included strong influences from the artists I had researched, either by including pieces taken from their work such as I took certain shapes and curves from Kandinsky’s work  to help me represent music and objects. Or uses method that certain artists use to get a more considered outcome, for example I used Piet Mondrian’s abstracting technique where he abstracted it step by step. All of my pieces also include human mistake just like all the artists I had researched and infact all the artists in in the show “adventures of a black square” on a lot of my pieces I feel like the brush strokes show too much there for if I had more time I would work more on the actual painting of my final pieces as artists such as Coventry and albers don’t have obvious brush strokes showing in their work.

I feel that when working in my sketch book I ordered my work well and in order that we learnt about them helping me understand how one thing led from another. I also learnt a lot from the project not only in abstracting but also in breaking down objects when I see them also helping me in fine arts as I am now able to figure wheat shapes make certain objects essentially working backwards. I also have become a lot more aware in colour as joseph Albers has taught me about how certain colors react together and if the work together or not, it has also taught me how colour can make something stand out more and even give it a 3D effect

I enjoyed this project as I feel it ties in strongly with all the other projects were doing, with its relation to Bauhaus and also strongly to fine 

print making evaluation

Print making evaluation

At the start of the evaluation I completely understood what we were meant to do as we were given a brief and commissioned to create a series of designs created through different techniques that I have acquired through the project, for the bank of china as they are moving to London for them to display. When I first received the assignment brief I was excited because I had worked in print making before as I was commissioned to create a series of stencils to display all across Deptford therefore I was used to a lot of the printmaking processes. I also knew I would also have an understanding of the materials that I would be using and ways in which I would be able to get the best prints possible.

Like all projects I collected a reasonable amount of information and research from the internet researching artists like Banksy but also gaining images and ideas and researching things such as Chinese culture and the bank of china its self. We also had to research things like the history of print making and how it had evolved as the reason we are doing print making is because it originated in china, where they stared off with block prints. Another way I also collected information was by actually testing and playing with the prints for example with the stencils you can stop the stencil from bleeding over it u try to keep the sponge as dry as possible and always dab the sponge to get rid of the access paint when actually printing it, however if using a spray can u are able to reduce the bleeding by holding the can further away from the stencil but also u have to tape up o just cover up the sides of the stencil just in case u get over spray. I also had to experiment with colour as a lot of colours are dominant so had to put them over the top as if u put them under the colour on top would not be able to cover the colour as it would show leaving a nasty tint. By learning from the process of learning from my mistakes to create a final print in which I would add to my portfolio. A lot of my notes took the form of writing as a lot of it was just research on my blog.

A lot of the research I took on china and there culture inspired my final piece as I made a lino print of a girl who was a model as in china beauty used to be a big aspect of a women’s life with a famous Chinese saying “There are no ugly women in the world, only lazy women in the world.” Showing that beauty in china is ideal for success in life as it shows that u care. I used this as one of my main influences as it is such a big thing in china and I also just liked the effect the print had as the women is staring directly at whoever is looking at the work evolving who ever looks at it, just like how the bank involves everyone. Also my researched from unit 77 also inspired my design as my research inspired my designs back ground as I had researched Bauhaus in both projects, therefore I had based the background on the Bauhaus influence, I had created the back ground by creating a series of lines by cutting out rectangles of different sizes, by over lapping certain rectangles and then placing them on a screen-print and then printing them  I was able to create a series of squares which gave it a de stijl type feeling, I then over lapped it with another one when I did the same thing in a different pattern covering up some of the white but leaving some free. By doing this it leaves a cool effect which slightly confuses the eyes.

Overall I was satisfied with my designs as I feel I used a good amounts of print making techniques to make my print effective in my final piece I also decided to work into the facial features of the girl piece with a fountain pen in which I dipped into an ink pot by doing this it gave the girl a lot more detail especially in the eyes and the shade under the neck giving the girls I slight 3d effect. This also gives a different variation. I also managed to include the bank of china logo giving the print an obvious reference to the bank. I did this by finally adding a stencil of the logo at the end, by doing this it overlaps the other things on the print showing that the bank of china is the main priority of the print.

If I had more time on the designs I would have created more of the designs but with different variations, I would also work a lot harder on getting a better print with no smudges or marks where I have used to much paint when screen printing. One of the great things about this projects was learning all the new techniques of print making which included lino prints, collographes and screen-printing. At first all my designs where everywhere however after a few hours I managed to mount all my outcomes onto A1 sheets turning it into a portfolio, this came in useful as it was a lot easy to find certain work that I wanted to either develop or work into. Over all I really enjoyed this project and my consider taking it into next year. What I enjoyed about this project was that there was a lot of freedom as we could use anything and there was so many aspects that related to china, the bank of china or Bauhaus or even linking them together and there was also a lot less writing as I am not as strong in that side of art, 

chair project evaluation

Chair project evaluation

when I first received the brief I was slightly confused about what I had to do as I wasn’t sure why we were doing it or who for (as that is what we usually do) however I then realised that it was in general deciding whether it would be made in a series or just one on its own. My first thoughts when receiving the assignment brief was that I felt like I wasn’t going to enjoy the project however it turns out that I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, as I enjoyed the orthographic drawing and the thought of making my chairs as ergonomic as possible however I didn’t enjoy the building of the chair as much as sometimes I struggled to find the correct measurements, also I sometimes struggled to make the chair strong and sturdy.

I managed to take research in many different forms, one of the forms that I managed to take research in was through research on the internet where I researched things such as artists like Frank Ghery and Gerrit Rietveld, who created the red and blue chair and the wiggle chair. I also took research in the form of sketching and drawing through the drawings of Frank Ghery and Gerrit Rietveld chairs with measurements with different forms of perspective such as orthographic and isometric techniques. I also used these techniques to record and plan ideas of my own chairs and write about them. Another way I took research was physically as I physically measured my body parts and then compared them to the chairs that I have created. I also used the measurements from me and also other people to create an average of the certain lengths of people’s body parts, by doing this it gives me an idea of how long I want the parts of the chair to be.

My main influences are from the research I took of Art Deco and the trends within the movement such as the influence from the discovery of Tutankhamun, and the images in which they found an untouched burial ground, it was also greatly inspired bout speed and technology and geometric shapes. Another influenced I researched was Art Nouveau which was one of the only movements which wasn’t a reaction from another movement. The Art Nouveau was plainly influenced by nature and the natural flows of nature.

Overall I feel I was satisfied with my designs as I feel that my influences strongly show in my designs I also feel that I have found the correct measurements and have gone through the correct developments the create the outcome, I also feel I have come up with enough designs to create developments in my chairs and I could also take the best parts of my chairs to create the best chair I can make. 

When choosing my final design I chose the one that was most practice (as in real life it would be a lot cheaper to make)  I also chose the one I feel would be most ergonomic and original, however I came across problems like whether the chair would be able to cope with the wait of the person so I had to consider the materials that would be light however strong whether it would be woods or metals. I also needed to add a counter weight to make sure my chair doesn’t topple over when weight is applied.

To create my final macette I used card board layered to create a frame of the chair (like the frank ghery chair,) I then covered the frame of the chair with paper machete to cover up the corrugated card. In real life the char would have a strong wooden frame then the backrest and seat would have a foam cushioning the whole way round with a cotton case, by upholstering it like this it makes the chair a lot more ergonomic the chair would also have melted plastic strings spread through the oval shape whole in the middle of the back rest and seat, this would just be for design as it would represent the veins in which run through the leaves which my chair was inspired on, this chair could either be made one after another however I would have to take away the strings as it would take too long in the manufacturing process, however overall the chair would be cheap to make but also is very simple but I prefer the simple look, this also give the chair a bit of an art deco feel, just with an Art nouveau influence. All the techniques I had already used already from the sculpture project so I felt comfortable when creating the chair.

When creating my final macette I made the mistake of accidently changing the size of my cut out of the layers so it slowly go smaller, to fix this I had to layer up card on the side which got smaller to level it out and then when adding the paper machete it covered up the layered card.

If I had more time I would create a series of developments of the chair and crate macettes with different jobs such as work chairs, sofas and general relaxation chairs.

I think the one of the most sucsessful aspects of my assignment was the design ideas and how I planned it out and layed out the designs with the materials. For my final chair design I was also highly influenced by plants themselves I got the idea for the shape from a sprouting plant giving the chair leaf like quality’s and the curvature of the one leg that supports the seat and back rest.