Friday 28 September 2012

Wig Making

We tried wig making today based on hair styles from the 17th century. Wigs were worn to show wealth and class as the rich could afford to cut their hair short from the lice that were common and to have big extravagant wigs. The womens wigs often had sponge or padding inside to fill them out and give them volume to then wrap the hair around. The hair was usually white and had ringlet curls going around the head.

Rich men also wore wigs as it showed their wealth and class. The hair looks quite feminine compared to mens hairstyles today with long curled wigs that look back combed.

We made a skull cap as a base for the wig using a carrier bag and masking tape to fit to a manniquin head. From this i curled strips of paper using scissors and taped into position to create a tube effect around the bottom of the head, i wanted to make two rows of curls with a large combed over piece on top.


To create a shape to build on i used wadding on the rest of the head and taped into position then wrapped over strips of paper all meeting at one point around the crown.


I felt the profile of the wig looks effective and similar to the painting i referred to, although from the front as its made from paper you can see the wadding underneath and looks like a crown shape. After making this practice piece it has made me want to do further research into modern wig making and do this for my finished piece in costume. Iwant to look into other syles of wigs from this time and experiment making them modernised.


Christian Lacroix Fall 2007

I looked into paper wig making and found some interesting designs and techniques by Amy Flurry. She was influenced by the mistress of Louis XV of France, Madame De Pompadour, who was famous for the Pompadour hair style.


Wednesday 26 September 2012

Life Drawing

So it poured it down today! We did our life drawing outside this lesson sat over looking the rooftops of construction and it was only raining slightly so everytime i made a mark with my pen the rain would land on my paper and make it bleed out but it had a nice effect. I was getting frustrated drawing buildings as it ment i had to draw quite graphic and straight edge lines which i cant do! So i tried drawing the fence with ivy growing around it which went better but i couldnt draw into great detail.

We moved inside when the rain started coming down and went into 2D to try drawing the skeletons with fabric around. I tried to focus more on using light and heavy mark making to create more depth and also wanted to try cross hatching which i saw in Leonardo Da Vincis painting i researched yesterday as it had good curves and dimension to it.


 
I think my use of depth went better than my last life drawing lesson as i tried to made the back darker going lighter towards the front. The ribcage i feel works quite well however the rest around it make it seem lost so i need to make more precise lines. I tried more with cross hatching which i felt worked well on the skull and bottom of the spine as it creates curves and makes the object seem more 3D.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Lino Printing

In Jackies lesson today we looked at different ways of printing to mix with embroidery. The first one i looked at was printing using lino, for this i needed to carve an image into the lino depending on what relief i wanted. I tried to create a negative image of a rose and to also use the stalks as a way of connecting the image when repeating it.
This i felt worked well as i carved out the darker more shadowed areas, i also tried to vary the depth i carved to try and give it a smoother gradient. The technique was then to roller paint onto a paint pallete as thin as possible to then roll onto my print. From this the prints i made were faded and some areas were missed out as there wasnt a lot of paint. I then tried using a thicker amount of paint this then worked much better creating a bolder more vibrant image, the risk is that if too much paint is used it could fill the blank spaces and the edges will bleed creating a blurred image.
 
I did some research into artists using lino printing and found some bold and interesting pieces that i would like to try within my own work. I feel this technique would work well with illustration or printing my own fabrics.
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Unknown artists.

Barry Flanagan

Chatsworth House-Initial Research

I'm looking forward to seeing Barry Flanagans work in the gardens of Chatsworth House. His sculptures of hares remind me of Tim Burtons sketches of strange warped characters that are similar to a comic child like style. His sculptures are made from broze so I'm interested to see what effect this has to contrast with the subject matter.




There are also a collection of drawings and paintings in the Old Masters Drawing Cabinet such as Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Leda and the Swan'. I like the way he uses curves and hatched lines to make it 3D, from this i would like to try doing my own sketches using his technique.

Leda and the Swan by Leonardo da Vinci

http://www.chatsworth.org/whats-on/events/beyond-limits-sculpture-exhibition-in-the-garden

The Unweavable Object + Underground Forest - Aiko Tezuka



Aiko Tezuka

From textiles i had to research the term 'In Stitches' so firstly researched into embroidery and artists that use them in a different and unusual way. I first came across Aiko's work where he not only encorporates the image on the front of the fabric but also uses the thread left over. This creates an installation piece allowing viewers to walk around the usually 2D art form and get other angles like a behind the scenes of a piece of embroidery.
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I like the way he doesnt particularly use expensive or patterned fabrics to show history or its origins, instead the imagery he uses portrays ancient sculpture, European paintings, Chinese landscape paintings andc Japanese ancient furniture ornaments. He shows a mix of cultures and places in a basic form using bright contrasting colours that look modern and lively.

Unweavable Object




His work uses space well bringing a 2D piece into a 3D form and creates movement within the fabric.
I like how the pattern on the fabric is still intact but has been stretched and blurred as it has been unwoven and pulled apart. From these images i would like to try this effect creating my own fabric or embroidery patterns and then undoing them to see how this effects certains fabrics.

Underground Forest
Spiral Wacoal Art Centre
 



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This piece is 2 metres high and allows the viewers to walk through the threads that have been left loose from the embroidery on top of the fabric. The pattern itself cannot be seen from underneath but on when you stand on the stairs around thepiece that you can see the imagery.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Experimenting with Clay

My first 3D lesson back from the holidays! We looked at the properties of clay and how it performs when changing certain things. The task was to build a sculpture as tall as possible to see how the clay reacts, the first was just solid clay and did not allow me to build it high because of the structure of it. The best and strongest form to build in is a triangular shape as the base spreads the weight and force.


We next tried strengthening the structure using wire inside to build the clay around. This worked better as i could put a thinner layer of clay on allowing me to build it higher. We also tried coiling where we rolled the clay into long thin shapes and coiled them around to build it up. This was a stronger structure but once i got to a certain height it started to squash the shape, also they clay started to dry and cracked.