Olivia Grain
19.10.2016
The Natural World
Evaluation.
For our first project of the year, my class and I were given
the topic ‘The natural world’ and were set the task to create a full sketchbook
based around primary research throughout the summer. Before I started creating
my sketchbook, I first came up with a mind map of ideas of what I wanted to
include within my sketchbook.
This included
Wildlife, Earth, Culture and different artists that I wanted to research such
as Julie Rhodes who researches wild animals. I then went to visit a variety of
places to collect my primary research such as The Liverpool world museum, which
I visited with college, The Deep and The Yorkshire Wildlife Park. All the
images that I have taken from these trips, I have recreated using many
different Medias including, pencil, graphite, oil pastes, acrylic paints, inks
and pen. Most of my sketch book focuses more towards Wildlife and nature but
also includes things on evolution and other topics.
After completing my primary
research, I then went onto looking at different artists, who I found really
interesting and linked to my sketchbook by researching artists who looked at
animals and wildlife. I First created a design sheet on Julie Rhodes, whose
inspiration comes from hours spent watching Wildlife. I recreated one of her
pieces of work, which was a pencil drawing of a leopard. I used the same media
as the artist, so that it would create the same effect. Using a 6B pencil, I was
able to create different shades, without using more than one pencil, which
worked really well as I have applied more pressure to create more definition
around some of the shapes.
The second person that
I researched was Spanish artist Oriol Angrill Jorda, who merges different
things together, such as people and animals to look like a double exposure
drawing. I also recreated this in the same media as the artist to create the
same effect. Using a 4B pencil, I recreated the wolf and woman, once again,
using more pressure to create dark tones. I then used water coloured paints to
create the landscape and flowers, which turned out really well, however I wasn’t
very confident in the beginning using this media as I haven’t used it very
often in previous projects.
I also created a
mood board based around space, from a book that I research called the universe
and beyond by Terence Dickinson, however it doesn’t really fit with my final
design or anything, as I decided that I didn’t want to include it in my
samples. Once I had taken my primary research ideas to create my artist
research sheets, I went onto creating my design sheets.
For my first sheet, I
took certain parts of my primary research that I wanted to include in my final
design and recreated them on a bigger scale. I decided that I wanted to include
some sort of landscape in my design like Oriol Angrill Jorda, so I recreated a waterfall
that I had photographed when I went to visit The Yorkshire Wildlife Park,
however I decided to make the colour a brighter blue, so that it looked more
eye catching and added white ink over the top of it to show how the water separated
and fell. After this I recreated a rose that I had drawn from observation over
the summer, however I also changed the colour of this so that it looked more
defined using coloured pencils. I used lighter and darker shades of the same
colour to help it look more 3D, by making outlines darker and petals lighter. I
also decided that I wanted my main feature to be an animal, therefore I recreated
a lion that I have photographed within my sketchbook, using acrylic paints, which
I don’t like as I feel it didn’t turn out neat enough, this is something that I
wanted to change on my next design sheet.
When it came to my
second design sheet I wanted it to link to both of the artists that I researched,
that’s why I used a Wild animal as my main feature to link to Julie Rhodes. I
then decided to use the same type of layout as Oriol Angrill Jorda and merged
my two other drawings into the lion. I used darker tones within my rose so that
it looked more detailed and merged the water into the mane of the lion, which I
think looks really effective. To create this I used water coloured paints and
white ink; using the water colour paint as a base colour, I used a darker shade
of blue to add the smaller details into the waterfall and then used the white
ink to create the splash effect at the bottom where it would hit the surface of
the water.
After creating my
final design I began experimenting using different printing techniques within
my specialist workshop, where I have monoprinted, lino printed, created
observational drawings and a collograph. This is an example of a monoprint that
I have created, which is a method of rolling out ink, placing a piece of paper
over it and then etching a design/ drawing into it with a pencil. I decided to draw a rose, which I really liked
however, I tried printing onto the same piece twice, which I feel ruined it as
it isn’t as clear of a print now.
This is an example of
one of my collograph prints that I have created, which involves having to cut
out multiple layers of an image and then gluing them onto a piece of card. Once
it was all glued down, I then covered it in white emulsion, to help preserve
the design so that it can be used multiple times. I don’t really like this
design as it was meant to be a flower that I have drawn within my sketchbook,
however you can’t really tell.
I also created some observational drawings within my
specialist subject, which I really like. I created these 2 drawings using
different coloured inks and biro pens; my favourite drawing out of these is the
feather drawing as I really like the colours including in it and how it looks
quite free flowing after drawing it out I then used a black biro just to help
add some more definition to some sections of the drawing. The shell that I have
created is an enlarged drawing, which I also really like. I first drew out the
outlines of the drawing in black biro, and then added coloured inks to some of
the corners; which I then dragged inwards using a brush and water so that some
of the ink would run.
When I began using my final design to create samples, I first
created an etching print, which I really like. However, before I could start
printing I first had to resize my design down to A4 as there wasn’t any acetate
available for the original design. I had to etch onto acetate using an etching
tool, and then use a piece of cloth to apply oil paint to the print. The print didn’t
work properly the first couple of tries, as I couldn’t find the correct
pressure on the printing press, however I eventually found the right pressure
and the print came out perfectly.
I then decided to create a lino print, which also worked
really well. I first traced my design onto the lino and had to carve away any
parts that I wanted to print white. Once I had done this, I had to cut the
background and rose away, so that it would print the different
colours a lot neater. Unfortunately, some of the prints haven’t worked as well
as others, as I haven’t applied the ink thick enough to the lino, therefore it
looks patchy. Because of this, I reprinted the design and applied the ink
thicker and the prints worked a lot better. I preferred etching, however my
prints came out a lot better when using the lino print.
Overall, I am very pleased with how my project has
turned out, as not only have a created over 40 pages of primary research, but I
have researched different artists, recreated their work and I have also created
blogs and a self-assessment stating how and why I have created my pieces of
work. I feel I could have used my time management a little better as I found myself
rushing a little towards the end of the project, which may have affected the quality
of my work in some places. My research turned out really well over the summer,
however I didn’t finish everything therefore I have a couple of
