Stage Two Work
Art in Society - Statement of Intent Negotiated Learning Plan
i)What interests or drives you?
Following on from a small project I did in stage one, which I drew strangers on a metro journey, I have decided to follow the theme of strangers. Looking at their body language, characteristics, speech and interactions as my main focus, from this idea I will create a range of art pieces.
ii)What materials will be best? What media/areas/possible exhibition sites/participatory project opportunities you intend to explore and research?
I will work with a range of materials including: video, sound, canvas, wire, PVC, acrylic paint and
more. From my art and society project I will also look at possible exhibition areas to show my work.
iii)How will you measure your success?
To measure the success of my work, I will take feedback from my peers in study time as well as from Crit workshops, where my work will be put on display for others to critique. From this I will be able to see how successful my work is and also what I can do to make my work more effective.
Secondary Sketches
To get my project off to a start I decided to do some detailed pencil sketches. To do so, I first started taking photos of strangers which caught my attention in public. This could be because of their body language, interactions, there features or even due to what they say or are wearing.
I decided to draw four of my favourite photos which I had taken. The first drawing is of a lady which pasted me at the train station, who grabbed my attention due to her ambitious pattern choice and facial features. The second is of a gentleman which sat opposite me on the Metro, who had fell asleep and I thought that the coat he was wearing would be an interesting texture to draw. For the third drawing I decided to draw a old man who sat beside me in a coffee shop who had fallen asleep and I was very interested in his body language. As for the final drawing I picked a member of staff at the train station who made me laugh due to something he said over the radio.
I am usually not a confident drawer when it comes to drawing figures, but taking this idea as my first task of this project has helped me develop my drawing skills as well as taking more time to focus on a singular drawing. These sketches aren't perfect as they are a little distorted and out of proportion but i like how the came out and also how they like to some artists i have researched.
Whose Shoes?
'Whose Shoes?' is a small project within STRANGERS of shoe drawings, where each drawing is drew with a white fine liner pen on black paper. This adds a beautiful contrast of colours as well as an interesting look to each drawing. By using white on black i have created a very minimal sketch that focuses mainly on the shoes shape as well as the patterns and texture. 'Whose Shoes?' are all placed into a little book combined with another small series of drawings.
I found multiple photographs of strangers shoes through different sources and used them as my main focus. Shoes do not show the exact person but can give the viewers a sense of what type of person wears them. For example; the walking boot could show the viewers a person who is adventurous and likes the out doors.
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Blind, Continuous Line People
Within the small book, along side 'Whose Shoes?', are some small, quick drawings of people I have seen in public. These drawings are drawn with white fine liner on black paper in the same way the shoes are drawn.
Each drawing was created in one continuous line while not watching where the pen is moving on the paper. To create the shapes of the figures on the paper, i used my eyes as my hands guide, by following each shape of the figure with my eyes and moving my hand in that same direction.
The drawings are distorted showing hints of the persons features, giving each person a different identity.
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DON'T LOOK @ME!
'DON'T LOOK @ ME!' is a two piece painting project within STRANGERs which focuses on the identity of of strangers within public.
I wanted to create some paintings which had a photographic feel to them due to the way they were painted, and to do so I focused on two photographs that i had taken previously. To paint these portraits I used acrylic paints and hand mixed them into the specific shades that I needed, and worked with a range of paintbrush sizes to add all of the fine details and textures.
When thinking about identity, I wanted to hide the face of the person being painted. This is when i decided to start experimenting with ideas.
I tried a range of different ideas to find out which suited the message i was trying to give. First I used photoshop to blur and edit the faces in different ways, which in the end didn't give the aesthetic I was looking for. Then i decided to play around with cutting and sticking things to a copy of my painting. I tried using the patterns taken from the paintings and new designs, as well as adding continuous lines into the face.
That's when I decided to paint in a post-it note on the face with a quote, to make people think. i decided to paint the post-it note on instead of just sticking one on because I also wanted people to interact with the piece. To want to take the note of to see whats beneath.
The reason why i decided to hide the identity of the stranger was because when you see someone in public you don't know, you don't always know their story- who they are? Where they live? Do they have a family? Are they married? Why are they where they are? so by hiding the face of the person in this paintings allows the viewers to not know the person in the painting and to ask themselves these questions.
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The Strange and Distorted
While playing around with photoshop for my 'DON'T LOOK @ ME!' piece, I decided to see what i can do to photographs I had taken of strangers to make their identity look different or disappear.
First I played around with the spot healing tool and decided to take away all the features within the face. For example; the eyes, the mouth, the nose and all the wrinkles and creases. In doing so, the person photographed became a face of just skin, which looked like something from a horror movie. This quick and easy idea became quite effective overall and looked very realistic. Which is why I decided to make them look like Polaroid images so they could be printed on to Polaroid paper, to look as if i have taken photographs of people who look like that.
Besides that idea, I also played around with some other tools on the programme and made the strangers look distorted. Giving them features such as large ears, tiny heads and hands the size of their face.
These experiments turned out quite well and works along side the ideas behind my project.
People of the Street
'People of the Street' is a small three piece series within STRANGERS which focuses of the strangers I have seen in public. These three pieces started of with me drawing the strangers I have seen in a charicture style. When drawing each stranger i drew them sat one on top of the other to create a tower/sculptural look to the drawing. Each drawing was drew using POSCA pens, which are an acrylic paint marker.
To brighten up the drawings I decided to paint the backgrounds in a bright block colour. By doing so this brought the whole piece together and made the strangers within the artwork stand out.
I am pleased with the outcome of these three pieces as they are different to the rest of my work and are very affective and have their own character to them.
Continuous Portraits
Using some small board canvases I decided to do some quick continuous line drawings. First I painted the three canvases in a bright block colour before drawing the people on them.
To draw the people onto the canvas I used my POSCA acrylic paint markers, which showed up really well on top of the bright colours. When drawing the strangers I used the same technique as I used in my small sketches in my black paged book - drawing the figures without looking at the canvas.
These small canvases were quite effective as a quick task that I have decided to create some more on a larger scale.
Large Continuous Portraits
Following on from my small continuous line drawings I decided to create some more but on a larger scale. First I started by just creating a black continuous line on paper then transforming it into a rainbow, by creating it again by separating the paper into seven sections.
To develop these on i decided to start adding coloured backgrounds and metallic pens. These made the continuous lines stand out and add a more effective look to the work. As well as adding coloured backgrounds I also decided to try overlaying the continuous lines. First i decided to overlay the same stranger over the top of each drawing by enlarging and shrinking the size of the image. This idea was inspired by Gary Humes' Water drawings. Then from this I decided to overlay different strangers over one another, to create something different.
From this work I am planning on creating a long continuous line drawing which fill both the wall and the floor space as well as doing some screen prints of my drawings.
Continuous prints
Following on from my large continuous line drawings, I decided I wanted to head down to the printing room and create some open screen prints. While screen printing I played around with some simple block colours and some gradient colour schemes. The reason behind creating these screen prints was also because I had made a large canvas and wanted some ideas of how I could paint it.
From these prints I chose the best outcomes and created some continuous lines based on photographs of strangers I had previously taken. When drawing each person, I also created an overlay of multiple continuous lines, playing around with positioning of the person, scale and form.
These prints turned out well and have helped me develop my ideas further, concentrating more on the individual lines.
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Sewing Project
As an experiment I wanted to see what my photographs and line drawings would look like if they were sewn on fabric. Using some sewing rings and some coloured fabric, I chose my subject and using a simple stitch I started to sew in my subject. The final outcomes of this idea are simple but i think due to the medium and the round canvas adds an interesting effect to my work process.
Canvas piece
Following on from my screen print drawings and my sewing project, I started on my canvas by painting the whole thing in the same colours as the fabric in which I used for the sewing project. I decided to use this colour scheme as when sewing the black thread I thought that the colours worked really well together.
As for the drawing I decided to go with the gentleman that I have been using in my large continuous line drawings. I made this decision due to the patterns/textures in his coat as well as he was the most memorable stranger I encountered.
When painting the black line on the canvas I chose a small brush so i could create a neat continuous line. Where each small line ended I made sure i kept them consistent by adding a point, which also created a more gentle touch to the lines.
My original idea was to overlay multiple continuous lines like I had previously done. However once I had painted the first continuous line painting, I really liked the effect it was giving so decided against applying any more layers over the top.
Methodology Summary
At the start of my project I started to focus on figures, trying to push myself with new skills and stepping away from my abstract/geometric ways. Using a piece based on stranger was my main focus point and the project evolved into looking at their body language, interactions and features.
I started to look into creating continuous line drawings in various ways, which I found was something I was interested. However I did try other ideas (which didn't work) and I also lost my way. Not knowing what I was interested in and where to carry my project.
Talking to different people I found that I was mainly interested in the line, color, shape and texture. As well as that I was interested in looking at the lines and texture seen in society, whether this be in peoples face and clothes or the environment.
From this I decided to continue to look at figures but not draw them in a literal way. Instead I would take small lines natural made and use them as a starting point to my future work.
Currently I am creating pieces of work using this process and I have found my own style which has a symbolic look but using the figure in an abstract view.
I would like to continue creating work using this technique in the future, developing as I look further into different artists.