Similarities and Differences:Final Piece

 

My final piece, I now realise was rather disjointed to all of my previous work. I stuck with my developing theme of windows, and found one of this design in Cambridge, on one of the Churches as you walk into town from the train station. I did not include any references, really from what I had developed previously, and that probably was what put me down to an A rather than an A*.

 

The piece it self is showing the similarities and differences of various media and techniques - coloured pencil, watercolour, acrylics and oil paints. The window design itself was far more complicated, so I simplified it. Even so, it still found me crawling all over the floor with an improvised compass comprising of a piece of string, a drawing pin and a pencil.

 

On reflection, there are some other ideas which probably would have been better, but this has an almost abstract quality, and I'm quite proud of it. It hangs on my wall above my bed.

 

This is one of the pencil sketches I did originally of the window. This page was later filled with various artist research and secondary developments, in order to make it look like I'd thought about it more than just panicked and did the first thing that came into my mind.

 

Oh and it's enormous. It's a metre square.



Final Piece - Surfaces

My Final Piece idea was actually given to me by my best friend. The concept was to paint a Greek pot, but instead of it conveying a traditional mythological story, I would depict one of our favourites.

This relates to surfaces as, on a first glance it could be perceived as just another ancient  pot, but beneath it, there is that link to present day.

Tada!

This was my design idea. From this, I realised just how much I needed to work on the form and proportions of the pot. I've tried here to link as many sections of my studies and experiments as I could, from the History, to the silhouettes, the storytelling and the Greeks.

This is the double page spread that drawing belonged to, exploring the various different options of finishing for the foot and the lip.

Here, returning to my love of maths, I mapped out all of the precise details and proportions to ratios and measurements so that the image would fit the canvas that I had bought. I planned colours and the symmetry, all so that I could get the curvature and details correct.

This was essentially my 'final draft'. A quick experiment to see where I was going on,and what more I could do to improve it before starting on my canvas.

And here it is! It's only an A2 canvas, which is actually quite small now that I think about it. I spent hours layering for the orange mid section (which is less red in real life) on its own! I used acrylic paint, with a watercolour background, and overall it's quite stylistic.

At the time I remember being very proud of it, but now that I have grown as an artist, I'm not as pleased as I was. I see all of the mistakes, things that I could have done a lot better. It's a very personal piece, and wouldn't be to certain people's taste, and in a way, possibly childish.

But those are just my thoughts. What do you think?

Artist Research: Ancient Greeks

Following on from my earlier studies on a Greek rock, I decided to take a closer look at the various forms of art the Ancient Greeks had, particularly focusing on the pottery....

This is my information page. I compare the different techniques used for making the decorations, either red figure (left),or red figure (right). All the difference is made depending on what sort of clay is used, and in what order it is applied.

I also did a quick artist study  to replicate the technique and image. I, though, instead of using clay, used a pen and a piece of paper. Which, for a sketchbook, is probably the most preferable of the options.

I then took a look at the Greek Alphabet. I chose the letter sigma ∑, as it is also used in maths. I have this strange ability to like Maths and art. It's a toss up between which I like more. Those and physics.... but anyway. Cardboard printing makes a very interesting pattern, and an effective print. However, I get frustrated over its simplicity. Beyond the excitement of cutting out the image with a craft knife,printing is relatively boring.

This is a second information page, this time specifically focusing on the pots, their shapes, and forms of decorations, looking at colour combinations and average proportions.

This would later directly influence my final piece.