Life Drawing With Dave

Just a quick post from Daves lesson in life drawing, he made us focus more on the angles and proportions showing us ways to mark them out precisely using measuring then adding in the details. This lesson really helped me with my proportions as i always struggle at the beginning of a session to get into it. He also showed us techniques with foreshortening, i reallllly hated working with foreshortening it always seemed to ruin my drawing and give the model odd proportions and angles. But after this lesson ive definitely got more confidence with it, Dave made the model face me for most of the session so i had to deal with it and it helped a lot.

 

Fixing the Body Casts

From last weeks lesson we were planning on making casts of everyone in the class and then position them along the corridors of Oscroft, we played around with where to put them and where they look best. I think they look quite daunting and scary lining the hallways and standing at the top as though they are watching you. The colour of them kind of blends into the walls like ghostly figures dissapearing through walls, i think it works really well and i dont really want to change them or clean them up too much. Some people were suggesting we make face casts to place above the bodies but i think this would take away their anonymaty and give them more of a living presence which would make them less effective i think.

 

After this we just needed to fix the casts that had loose parts, some of the areas with less scrim on were weak and needed more work on them to strengthen them and

 

 

PRISM Art Event

Last night i went along to the PRISM Art Event in Sheffield with Emma, i wasnt really sure what to expect as ive never been to an art event outside of college before which is quite bad! I really want to start going to more events just to get a better knowledge of whats out there and gain more experience on my own. It took us a while to find find the building it was in and even when we were in it we were still a bit unsure what was happening, the installations were all in one area but in smaller rooms on the side that were open it was just a nice relaxed atmosphere it didnt seem like a gallery where you are  quiet and keep moving along everyone just kind of looked around however they wanted and had a drink and a chat. There was a band on but we had to leave early to catch the last train which i was gutted about i really wanted to see them!

These are some of the pictures and videos i took, the descriptions of the artists are taken from a leaflet handed out at the event.

 The first part of the video is Vicky Haywards, Mediate.

Jenny Dunseath, Name it then i'll know what it is

'Dunseath lives in London and is a lecturer in Fine Art at Norwich University College of the Arts. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Art and continues to make and show work internationally. Exhibitions include Twin Town and Phyllida Barlow, London, Site Construction at Outpost, and Wandering Stars, Korea.'

I wasnt too sure about this one it reminded me of the opening credits to Skins and i felt i had seen it before, but i did like the colours and contrast of colour and shapes with concrete and buildings which i didnt manage to catch on the video. I noticed that a lot of people were sitting around this one and watching it on a loop for a while like it was a TV, the colours and shapes seem to catch and keep peoples attention and almost makes it relaxing to watch.

Vicky Hayward, Mediate

'Vicky Hayward is a multi disciplinary artist currently studying her third year BA Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. While her work ranges from painting and sculpture to film and installation it is linked in its exploration of rhythm, atmosphere and materiality.'

This was one of my favourites, i liked how the projection wasnt made as big as the other and that it was tucked away in the corner as though it was keeping to itself making others come up to it and watch. The simple idea reminded me of sitting inside watching it snowing or raining outside and finding it comforting to be insde and warm, like looking out of a window.

 Paul Barlow, Untitled

'Fluorescent signs warning us to be cautious, high visibility clothing, road signs and markings telling you to stay in lane and which way to go work their way into Paul Barlows practice. Barlow is drawn to the high intensity of these colours, those we encounter everyday that are just outside our peripheral vision in order to alert and catch our attention.'

This piece worked well with how the roof had been pulled down to expose all the wooden beams and construction of the building contrasted with the sharp modern colours and lines used in the installations. Also the difference between new and old weathered beams and planks of wood worked well and made the piece stand out. I didnt like that you could see all the brush strokes where the pieces had been painted id of preferred it to be matte.





James Price, Metronome

'James is a multi disciplinary artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally in a variety of art forms including live art, video and animation. His recent projects have focused on themes such as boredum, spare time and journeys.'

It took us a while to actually discover the room this one was in as we thought there was nothing in it looking through the window. It was in its own seperate room i suppose to trap in the sound and to surround the people inside the room. It was quite scary and im glad i wasnt stood in there on my own i think i would of gone a bit mad in a dark room and the sound of a metronome playing on a loop really loudly. Also the video that was playing kept shuddering and not moving smoothly as though it was an animation which made it even stranger. It was a simple idea but it had a dark impact which worked well.

http://www.prismsheffield.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/prismsheffield



My Advert Edit

For this graphics project we had to find a piece of advertising or anything that we could think of that we could edit and manipulate to show a hidden truth about it such as brands, politics, banks etc. I really struggled with this project at first i couldnt think of anything interesting or different to do and couldnt think of anything good to write over the image...the first couple of lessons on it i spent just doing research trying to get ideas and reading up on the news if there were anything i could talk about that i found interesting. I didnt want to get into anything too heavy like politics because i dont really know enough about it to back it up... so i researched strange and funny adverts to give me some ideas and these are some of the ones i found :)

 I then started looking into drinking adverts as i think they probably decieve and lie the most, showing adverts of beautiful women looking classy and not being sick on themselves...so i got the idea to show what people are really buying into.

I googled random pictures of drunk people which was pretty funny and wanted to take logos and slogans from real adverts to place over them. These are a few i found that i thought were a bit more appropriate as they had no nakedness...i found out that drunk people are very bendy.

So these are some of my edited designs, i just took the logos, slogans and website links from real adverts, i picked WKD as its the classiest drink, and arranged them over different images to try make them look like realistic adverts from far but close up you see the image. 

The text i got from other images isnt cut very precisely and the quality of the images i used werent very good. But from one of the other WKD TV adverts the end freeze frame the image behind is blurred which is kind of appropriate for drunk people, with the text over the top. Over all i think they worked quite well apart from the quality of the text and i could of made them more convincing and added an extra less obvious element.

More Body Casting!

It was a lot more difficult to cast someone than i thought it would be. Trying to keep the scrim in place and keep it from sliding down the model was difficult. Also having to work quickly before it dried. In the end we had to made another bucket of plaster to then go over areas we missed while the cast had already set a bit.

 

From last weeks casts we decided as a group we should cast everyone in different poses and place them against a wall in a line as we thought it would give off a good effect, the fact the casts have no heads and are white makes them look quite ghost like and scary.

Updated Costume Design

This costume lesson i tried to refine my sketches and ideas for my jumper to try to create a final design to work from. I mainly got my ideas from this picture i took in the ballgown exhibit in The V&A. I want to use similar techniques on the sleeves using lace layered over other material.          

My idea was to put the lace at the tops of the sleeves so i would cut the sleeves off entirely from the jumper and make new ones.

These were my second designs to get a better image of it as a jumper. I think i want to leave the jumper quite loose and baggy to make it more modern rather than the tight corsets worn of the time. I then want to cut the sleeves off and create new 3/4 length ones using a light see through pale material That are tight at the top baggy around the elbow and tight at the bottom. The i would like to put lace from the shoulder seam down to about ahlfway to the elbow but with lace that has a cut out shape rather than a straight edge just to exagerate the tight top half of the sleeve. I may try to embroider or free stitch a floral pattern in a V shape which was commonly used on corsets of the time to match with the lace on the sleevs.

This is my jumper so far, all i have done is cut out the neckline but once i sewed the seam to neaten it it made the edge go wavy but i think this made a nice effect. I then pleated a netted material in strips and sewed it around the neckline. i have also sewn elastic into the waist so the top stays quite loose and baggy but fitted at the waist. 

Costume Sketches from the Ballgown Exhibit

 After our visit to The V&A, in our costume lessons i worked from sketches and tried to copy certains styles and cuts from the designs to then make more modern. From this costume i liked how the sleeves were constructed and the shapes they made. However for my design from the 1700s the sleeves were tighter at the top and looser towards the bottom so i moved the puffed part of the sleeve towards the bottom.

 My first focus was to look at the sleeves of the costumes. from the 1700s they were usually tight at the top then looser towards the bottom but the tight at the wrist this then gave it volume and allowed it to go baggy.

I liked the idea of using lace on the edges like on the tops and bottoms od sleeves. This would allow me to make it tight at the top and bottom making it baggier at the elbows creating volume. I laso had the idea to layer the sleeve under the top making it a vest but padding it out so the top stands out from the sleeves to make it look more modern.

 These were more sketches i made for sleeve designs changing the shapes and cuts of them. Lots of the sleeves had lace and were usually to the elbow with ruffled or pleated light material. One of my designs i worked from the basic shapes of 1700th sytle sleeves but tried to make them mroe modern and relatable to today. Instead of smoothly graduating from tight to baggy i made the lines straight which i would use wire to strengthen the bottom of the sleev and keep its shape.

The V&A Visit

I really enjoyed our trip to London on Wednesday especially the Hollywood Costume exhibit where we werent allowed to take pictures but i wish i couldve! It was amazing to see the costumes up close that ive seen from films ive watched since i was small. The costumes seem to have a lot more detail close up than on camera and seeing the wear in them like the red shoes from Wizard of Oz was interesting.

The ballgown exhibit was helpful to look at for our costume sessions as some of the costumes showed good representations of the clothing they would wear during the time A Rakes Progress was based. I took a lot of photos so i can use them as refernces in my next costume design lesson.