Ciara McLoughlin

LSAD

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Movement Project Statement

Starting this project I found myself looking at the 4 elements and how movement effected each of them. I enjoyed looking at the flow of water, the flicker of fire, the texture of earth, and the invisibility of air within my primary research.  

During one of my workshops within Graphic Design after discussing my project, It was decided to focus more on a particular element instead of spreading to thin over 4 elements. I focused on Earth as my main element as I enjoyed the textures that could be found within it and how with the textures it could show movement or growth through this. 

After this I became stuck and did not know where to progress. After talking with Sylvia we went back over my tumblr and ideas to see what we could go back to. This led to my ideas of the old billboards which had movement with them but also has a sense of an optical illusion. I began researching back into this and experimenting with colours and movement on my iPad. 

After experimenting on my iPad I wanted to pull through my digital pieces to a physical piece. To create this I researched into Acrylic Pour Painting to create different effects. Each piece I have created has led to knew ideas within it but also learning more of how to change or perfect the next piece. These pieces are created though movement and also show and portray movement in the end product.

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Sketchbook

Above is a video of my sketchbook work over the course of this movement project.

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Annette Messager - Artist Research

Annette is an artist who portrays a theme through her art. She mainly focuses on things for example the representation and construction of gender. To create a piece she takes multiple images in different types of compositions to portray her focus. The pieces are more on the abstract side of art.

I respect what she is trying to obtain in her pieces and it is a very expressive method. For me this is not the type of pieces I would automatically be drawn to. For me after looking into her and viewing some of her pieces the most important thing I took from this to bring to my own project was the importance of composition. The reason I found this important is that even though overall she would not be my cup of tea of an artist, I still was to the overall asethetic and look of the piece.

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M.C Esher - Artist Research

Maurtis Cornelieus Esher was well known for his prints that achieve bizarre optical illusions. As an artist this type of imagery and detail is something I am very drawn to. I enjoy the little details that take that extra time to see when looking at a piece and appreciate the thought the artist would have had to go through to complete that.

In this Movement project I started with something as simple as an element but have over the course of my journey have found myself reverting back to viewing a 2D image that gives movement within itself, such as an optical illusion which M.C Esher is very good at completing in great detail.

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Acrylic Pour Painting

After using my iPad to create different effects with colours it got me thinking of ways to physically do this. The main method that came to mind was acrylic paint pouring. I have been interested in this for a long time but have never tryed it out myself so this gave the perfect opportunity to do so.

With these pieces it correlates back to the project of movement as to create the different effects a certain movement needs to be used, whether it is tilting the canvas around or using air (Breath or hairdryer) to push paint in different directions. Also when looking at the finished pieces there is this optical illusion that there is movement within the piece itself.

Before I began doing this project I needed to do some research along with gathering materials. For majority of research i used a book by Tanja Jung called “Acrylic Paint Pouring, 16 Fluid Painting Projects & Creative Techniques”. Within the book it gave DIY pouring medium recipes and the mixing ratios. For my pouring medium I mixed half water half PVA glue then added the paint, this took some trial and error to get the right texture. It also gave different techniques of pouring on the paint for different effects such as the flip cup method, dirty pour method or the one I focused more on the Puddle pour. 

The first piece I created was the blue and orange piece above. I used the tilting technique to spread the colours but found that this took a lot of trial and error as I found I added to much of one colour to then adding to much of another. At the end I was not really to happy with it as it was not what I wanted or even the colour density was off. 

On my next try I decided to spread a layer of white over the canvas before I started as one of my main problems previously was it was hard to spread the colours in a nice way without a layer below. This helped a lot once I started pouring the two colours on top, it flowed a lot better. I also used the technique of blowing the paint around the canvas which gave the desired look. I was much happier with these pieces, which I may try again on different size canvases in the future.

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Experimenting - Lines, Colours, and Effects

With the use of my iPad and the software (Procreate) I used multiple lines, effects and colours to create the above. Even though none of the above images have any actual movement in the pieces, they all give the sense of movement due to the flow of the colour and line work within them.

This caused me to think of the popular trend of acrylic pouring paint. This would be a more physical and unpredictable of creating pieces simialr to the above. Also to create an acrylic pour paint piece movement of the actual canvas is required. This is something I may investigate further and try out to see what can be created.

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Optical Illusion - Use of lines and shading

In the two examples above I used Procreate on my iPad to create. It was with the use of lines and shading to make the images seem like there was depth and more to the image than just simple lines. I enjoyed creating these and watching the illusion come together as each line and piece of shading was formed.

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Painting Workshop.

In this workshop we looked at movement within our projects. Over the last few weeks I have focused more on earth and trees in particular. So on glassine paper I folded it in half so the image overlapped each other. On the first layer is the outline of the tree and its branches, while the layer underneath is multiple colours to give the effect of fullness to the tree.

While talking with Sylvia about my movement project I found I was a bit stumped on where to go and what to do next. We looked over the last few weeks of my work and found the piece that I have the most interest in was based on the billboards. I enjoy how their is an optical illusion sense to them. This brought about the thought of the movement within an optical illusion. Even though there is no actual movement within most optical illusions they give the sense of movement or depth with their use of lines and shading.

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Jessica Walsh

Jessica is an American designer. She has her own company called &Walsh. She combines digital and handcrafted images together to create her pieces. I enjoy both digital and live images so seeing her pieces give me inspiration that through practice and hard work that the pieces can be as flawless and blended together as well as her pieces.

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A separate angle of the piece blowing up.

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This is my inflatable piece as we applied the air to it on its own.

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Inflatables Workshop - Sculpture

This was my first experience in the sculpture workshop this year and I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It allowed us all to work on different ideas and bring them to life in a 3D method.

For my project I am focusing on the elements and the movement within them. Over the last couple of weeks I have started to focus more on the element Earth. So when going into this workshop I had the idea of creating something that had an organic type of shape.

My idea started with the idea of the movement of branches. So I cut up my plastic into different sections that differed in shape and size, not one piece was the same. I did not use a measure to cut the plastic as to allow as much organic shape to occur.

To connect all the pieces I used the heat gun mostly and then also some sellotape to connect parts that were difficult to secure or that became visible after air was applied. 

After I connected all the pieces I used the pump to see if there was any holes and I patched up any areas that were causing issue. 

In the end the piece did not turn out like I expected but at the same time I did not hate how it turned out. I found that each time it was blown up it gave off a different shape and effect, below I have placed to images of when it was blown up. The first almost looks like a person with their arms crossed above their head, while the other has a more hand or tree look to it.

After we all had our pieces finished we attached them to a large tube like piece so that air could be blown into all of our pieces at the same time. This did not work as well as we had hoped. There did not seem to be enough air pressure in the machine to give enough boost to all the pieces at the same time.

Overall it worked better than expected and in a more unusual way than I was prepared for.

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Above is the movement that came with the billboard example I created in my notebook for experimentation purposes to see how it would work. I am happy how it turned out I did not think it would work as well as it did. I expected more issue getting the image to be visible correctly. I purposely used images with text so that I could ensure that it could be aligned correctly and also that it would be visible enough to read.

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Movement Project - Experimenting

For this I took 2 different images from a magazine and cut them up into different sections. I then took some paper and cut into sections that i then folded over itself. From there I stuck on the different images to the sections of paper and overlayed on a page in  my notebook. This allowed me to give the impression of a billboard example as they had 2 images but once it was switched you could only view one at a time.

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Movement Project - Idea Building

While I was brainstorming ideas for my project I found myself thinking of each element in 2 ways. One being harmful or disastrous and the Second being calming and helpful. I found myself wanting to portray both sides of the element. 

At first I was struggling to see how to portray this within one piece as I did not want a different piece for each. I then remembered the old billboards that I would see when in Dublin that would change from one image to another.  This was before the all went digital and a slideshow could be used instead it was a mechanical change. One image was on one side of a board and another on the flip side, so each time the boards were changed you got to see a different advertisement. 

There were also ones that did not have a mechanical change but had it that with the angle to boards were aimed at and the way you looked at them from certain angles would show you a different image. I completed an example of this above with the paper, by folding it into sections. Once looked at from one angle the image is a brown colour, and the other angle the background is a blue colour.

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After the workshop with Sharon I began taking different photos of different colours and textures that related back to Earth. As she had spoke about during the workshop was to not take the meaning in its most literal form to allow the different scenes around me to give me inspiration from its most simple form. 

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Graphic Design - Mood board Workshop

We started off looking at our concept and putting down different ideas we had at that moment. For my concept I have been looking into the 4 elements and the movement within each. After talking with Sharon she advised me to focus more on one or two, and to find a connection further on them. After thinking about it I decided to link it to my own star sign. 

My star sign is Capricorn which is an Earth sign, so for this mood board I focus on Earth. Main ideas and things I wanted to bring into it was the colours and textures that represent earth. 

Once I had a focus I took another piece of advise from Sharon to take more of an open eyed look around me to think about the concept and see if anything catches my eye.