FINAL EVALUATION

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