Larissa Loy

London Art student Instagram - @larissaloy_art

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Painting Boys from Tinder - Speed-Painting

Here is a watercolour speed paint. I am doing a series of portraits for my upcoming exhibition. To see more of my art check out the links below: Instagram: h...

Here is a quick speed-paint video of a new piece for the series I’m doing for my final project at University

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26/04/2019

When thinking of an exhibition piece I decided that I wanted to have a series of smaller work since my work is usually at a higher standard when it is small which is why I make my work small but have a lot of work to make up for that.

I have decided to work in A5 size and am using watercolour. I am experimenting still on which paper will work best. I think I am going to use a mixture of canvas paper and watercolour paper since I don't have enough of either material to make the number of paintings I want to do on their own.

I want to create between 25-40 paintings which are up to a high standard to display. The amount depends on what would look good on the wall at the exhibition. Last time I created a series of work for an exhibition (on my foundation) I had to not put up some of the pieces I made because I made too many.

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Today I made and uploaded my first time lapse video of me drawing. I filmed, edited it, created the music and uploaded it all today and I am really happy with how it turned out.

The drew from a photo I took in Frogner Park in Oslo, Norway. The park contains hundreds of statues of men, women and children in various positions.

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21/02/2019

I am still learning more, reading and looking at artwork that explores the themes of sexual dysfunction, vaginismus and sexual health - viewed in both in biology and culture. May facts that I have learnt I definitely want to implement in my work to try to translate my messages to the viewer further.

To try to combat this brief, while keeping this in mind, I have decided to explore the idea of penetration through the item of a toothbrush (and the act of brushing teeth). It came to this when I videoed myself brushing my teeth, and letting the fluid fall about. Another video of me rubbing my eye in a very unappealing way.

I drew from these videos in pencil and fineliner which are materials I am really enjoying making with at the moment.

I came to this after pondering over themes and subject matters including water bottles (and measuring heat), vibrators (and measuring vibrations). I decided against these ideas and just started taking panorama photographs, an idea I had previously discussed with Miraj and began drawing from these photographs. I also started to take these videos at the same time and just began exploring both avenues.

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Note 9 - 17/02/2019

Recently I have been given a brief from my class to create a response to an object or room around me using the idea of measurement. It is ideal that the way to explore measurement should be innovative and unusual in a sense. I have been trying to explore this in a number of different ways so far, from recording with drawing what my other hand is touching (which did not translate very well on the page) to video and panoramic photography.

Although my deadline is very fast approaching, this brief may be the hardest I have been set. This being because it is been both so vague but specific at the same time. I have been trying to explore various different avenues but I believe I am arriving at some kind of resolve with the video and photography and working from them to create compelling art.

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Note 8 - 04/02/2019

Artist research through reading.

For a few years now I have thought that if I had not of wanted to become an artist I would have wanted to become a sexologist. Now, continuing on from the female form subject matter that I keep exploring through my work I can not help but think that I could combine the two. Dr Emily Morse from the podcast ‘Sex with Emily’ was the first person who I found who explored the notions of sex freely as a sexologist and her messages I have found extremely helpful. I always apply the lessons I have learnt from her when trying to create art surrounding the human form.

I am currently reading ‘Come as you are’ by Emily Nagoski and am hoping that the book will not only inform my more on the issues within sexology but also give me inspiration on how to portray sexual issues through the visual arts.

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On writing essays

When studying Fine Art essay writing is not something that initially springs to mind, and is not something that is asked often. However, when it is mandatory it can feel like life is falling down around you because you’ve only written one essay in the past year. Yikes.

Having said this I am currently writing my essay for Unit One of my course and am really enjoying using the academic side of my brain which seems to have been asleep for so long. I am learning a lot more than I thought I would, and honestly a lot more about art that I have during the rest of my time at university so far. Although I am procrastinating while writing this essay, even by writing this post, I am very happy to be doing it.

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Evaluation Report

Over the past four months, I have experimented a lot with new media. I began the term by continuing one of my projects from my Foundation year based on life drawing and the female form. I started to develop this project by attending the weekly life drawing classes at Wilson Road then with the line drawings I made there I then experimented with them on Photoshop. I layered the line drawings with loose paintings to create a final image. While I think some of the images I created through this process were successful, a lot of them weren’t. The ones that did not work were the ones which did not necessarily need Photoshop to be created. For example, ones where I had coloured the line drawing using the colours from the painting on the software, rather than the more successful images where I had layered them (where the use of Photoshop is obvious).

Later in the term, I was inducted into the ceramic workshop area. I bought a 12.5kg bag of terracotta clay and started to make female models based on the drawings I had done. I had discussed this idea in my first one to one tutorial, which has been my most inspiring talk yet.  While most of the models came out of the kiln and in the condition I imagined them to be, since I had never used clay before everything choice I made during the making of them was an experimental one. After making a few of these models I began to create a few larger and rounder models. This did not go as well as my previous pieces since I had made it not thinking about the process of baking in the kiln. I had made the to section hollow but had sealed without an opening. This meant if I had baked it, it would have exploded.

Another thing that did not go to plan, with my clay models was that when I glazed my model with a red glazed it came out of the kiln as a pale pink. I learnt that this was because often red glazed do not show up as bold on red based clays as others might.

Towards the end of the term, I started a new project based on new experiences and moments. While I am still trying to make this project more focused I am enjoying having two projects to explore different subject matters. As apart of this project, I have started to keep a sketchbook in which I will do one sketch every day of something I have seen or thought about a lot, almost like a diary. One downside to this is that not every sketch will be up to the standard I would like, but I think that will be a good aspect of it in the end. I see this particular sketchbook as being an artwork in its self, rather than a sketchbook filled with individual pieces of art.

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Workflow 5

A lot of the time when drawing other subject matters such as buildings or portraits (although I like drawing those things) I often find myself wanting to draw something with more movement. Drawing dancers, in particular, ballerinas, has been something I have enjoyed since I did a whole project of drawing them in my Foundation year.

To be candid, I had been watching a lot of the television show 'Dance Moms', and was (and am) very inspired by the choreography and performances the dancers would put on during the show. I am particularly interested in the ballet routines.

I think drawing dancers gives an immediate advantage when trying to capture movement in a drawing since their movement is so precise and choreographed to be aesthetically pleasing already.  

An exhibition which introduced the idea of translating movement into visual arts was the exhibition, 'In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy' by Elizabeth Price. I saw this exhibition at The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester but have since learnt it was also exhibited at the Hayward Gallery in Southbank. While I saw this exhibition in 2016 it has always stuck with me as one of the most memorable and inspiring exhibitions I have ever attended.

The exhibition guided the visitor on a journey through different movements including sleep, work, mourning and dance. In these sections were complications of different artist's work. To pieces that expressed the idea of portraying the theme of movement were Paul Neagu's 'Going Tornado' and a video called 'Serpentine dance' by the Lumiere brothers.

Paul Neagu

https://youtu.be/iCJ7glJLRyE

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Workflow 4

This is a sample of a piece I have created that consists of over 30+ illustrations of the female figure which are to be presented as one overall piece. The media of the pieces are either acrylic paint, fineliner or both.

The idea of this piece stemmed from my interest in life drawing. In my early life drawing classes, we were challenged to capture the figure in as little time at 30 seconds. With this challenge, I began to develop techniques to capture the figure on the page as quickly as I possibly could. I started to copy shadows or patches of light as an outline, rather than shading the areas when using a pencil or pen.

This technique quickly became my preferred method of capturing the information of light and dark on the page when doing life drawing studies, and maybe shading the certain areas after the fact.

I created this piece by collecting primary photographs since I did not have a model I decided to take a photo of myself. From this, I studied the different tones, where the lights and shadows were. I started my indicating the lights with the palest pink then transitioned from light to dark. After the painting was finished and dried I drew on top with a fineliner

Artist research

Raluca Vulcan is an artist who greatly inspired me when I first started life drawing. I am particularly interested in how Vulcan manages to create depth and add interest with his mark making and different types of brushstrokes. The way Vulcan adds blocks of colour, without blending them, in a varied colour palette is really of interest to me.

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Workflow 3

I decided that alongside my nude project I want to start one which documents my time since starting university. This will be almost like a personal art journal documenting places I have been to, in London and otherwise, people I see and other things which catch my eye.

I was inspired to start this new project because over the weekend (22nd - 24th Nov) my cousin visited me in London. During this time we both acted and were a tourist around the city, me being her guide but being just as enthusiastic to explore. We both took an abundance of photographs of almost everything we saw, even though I had gone through some of these places so many times before they again felt new and fresh to me.

I feel like I do not want to let go of that feeling and want to take more notice of the places around me which, to me, are still new and exciting even though they are now around me almost every day. This helps me pick out the subtleties and nuances of the places.

I have begun to draw from these photographs I took and I am enjoying reflecting on the experiences had in them and translating them into another form.

Doing this reminds me of documentary photographers work, and particularly the exhibition curated by photographer Martin Parr: Strange and Familiar. Strange and Familiar was presented at both the Barbican and the Manchester Art Gallery (where I saw the exhibition). The exhibition presented photographs from documental photographs of Britain, however, all of the photographer chosen were foreign so they captured things about the country which British people would not notice.

Collecting images from my new life in London and working from them rather reminds me of the exhibition curated by photographer Martin Parr: Strange and Familiar. Strange and Familiar was presented at both the Barbican and the Manchester Art Gallery (where I saw the exhibition). The exhibition presented photographs from documental photographs of Britain, however, all of the photographer chosen were foreign so they captured things about the country which British people would not notice.

Since the photographers themselves were not British, nor did they live in Britain for a long period of time, they would capture pieces of British culture which a person that lived in Britain would find ordinary and almost mundane.

While the experience from moving from the North to London is not as extreme, collecting images of new and exciting places, which most Londoners would find boring, reminds me of that.

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Workflow 2

I decided to move on to ceramics to go alongside my drawings and paintings of nudes after discussing it with a tutor after my first one to one session. When deciding to move my nude projects to ceramics I decided that instead of moving completely away from my previous work I would instead take reference from my previous drawings. I decided to take my drawings where I would draw from a live model and use them to create the models. However, with the style that I was drawing in the image, I had to create from was distorted, then if I had used a live model or a photograph. I liked this distortion of the figure and decided to push it further each time I began to create a piece. I also decided to include stylistic aspects of my drawing, such as the lines I use to indicate shadow and light areas and drew lines to indicate this in the ceramic pieces too.

I decided to move to ceramics on this project to not only further the project but also my skill base. While making the ceramics I learnt how to manipulate clay, the process of firing, how to glaze ceramics and also how different glazes react to different clays.

Artist Research - Phoebe Scott

Phoebe Scott is an artist who also focuses on the female form and uses ceramics as her main media. Scott's ceramics could often be considered crude and unsettling, which seems to be Scott's intention in a lot of the cases with pieces being named, 'Sliced' and 'Pressed'.

For myself, looking at Scott's work is rather unsettling and made me question why I did not feel that way when I looked at my own work. Some people had pointed out to me that they had felt that way when they looked at them but the majority had said they enjoyed looking at them.

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Workflow 1

Contextualised Work 1

I decided that alongside doing the nude project I also wanted to record and document my new life in London. With this, I decided to draw from photographs I have been taking since September. 'Strangers 1' is a piece I have done which started as a quick sketch in my new sketchbook of a visitor to the Hotel Elephant exhibition. It was the first portrait I had done in a long while with a new technique of drawing I had not tried before - drawing with a 001/002 fine liner then going in over it with a 'graphic', thicker pen.

I decided that I wanted to elevate this drawing so I scanned it into Photoshop and experimented with using a different colour to change it from a rough scan of a sketch. I decided to use this colour pink as the opposing colour because I had just used it on another piece of work I had done earlier that day and I wanted there to be a cohesive quality between them.

Artist Research Cristina Troufa is an artist whose art I have followed for a few years now. Troufa's main body of work is of women in a variety of positions. She is a painter who chooses to leaves portions of her canvas blank and absent of painting revealing the colour underneath. I believe that Troufa's work has affected my own work and it comes across particularly in this piece of mine. In photoshop I selected space around the portrait in order for that space to be white, contrasting the pink of the lines of the portrait and the background. While this is not a direct copy of Troufa's style it is reminiscent of it.  

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Note 7 - 03/12/2018

I decided that along side my nude project I want to start one which documents my time since starting university. This will be almost like a personal art journal documenting places I have been to, in London and otherwise, people I see and other things which catch my eye.

I was inspired to start this new project because over the weekend (22nd - 24th Nov) my cousin visited me in London. During this time we both acted and were tourist around the city, me being her guide but being just as enthusiastic to explore. We both took an abundance of photographs of almost everything we saw, even though I had gone through some of these places so many times before they again felt new and fresh to me.

I feel like I do not want to let go of that feeling and want to take more notice of the places around me which, to me, are still new and exciting even though they are now around me almost everyday. This helps me pick out the subtleties and nuances of the places.

I have began to draw from these photographs I took and I am enjoying reflecting on the experiences had in them and translating them into another form.

Doing this reminds me of documentary photographers work, and particularly the exhibition curated by photographer Martin Parr: Strange and Familiar. Strange and Familiar was presented at both the Barbican and the Manchester Art Gallery (where I saw the exhibition). The exhibition presented photographs from documental photographs of Britain, however, all of the photographer chosen were foreign so they captured things about the country which British people would not notice.

I will expand on this idea at a later time...

[larissaloy-art]

Note 6 - 03/12/2018

I have taken a little break on writing about my practice to reflect on my work over the past few months and how it resulted in my exhibition at Hotel Elephant. I think the short break I have had away from university (this weekend) has given me time to digest the past few months since moving to London. 

When I started the course in October I never thought I could have produced the kind of work I did just one and a half months into the course. I am very proud of myself for producing work in a media that I had never even considered trying before the course and feeling so confident in it as to exhibition it.

Each piece I’d submitted were successful within their own right, even the two that I had felt had gone wrong during the making. However, through not going to plan I learnt more about the media and will use this knowledge to inform my practice. For example, one of the sculptural pieces I made was suppose to come out bright red after being glazed, however it came out a washed out pink. While glazing this piece the consistency of the mixture of the glaze was extremely separated and it took a very long time to mix together, which I believed to be the main problem. Another issue turned out to be that because I had used Red Terracotta clay to make the items in the beginning it usually takes a white clay to pick up the vibrancy of the red glaze, whereas the red terracotta washes it out. 

Overall, the exhibition we held was a roaring success and I enjoyed it a lot. I will have more reflections on the exhibition itself soon.

Here is an image of a few of the sculptures glazed and ready to be fired in the kiln.

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Note 5 - 15/11/2018

‘Today was a good day for both my artist practice but it also gave me a kick to remind me what I am doing at university. 

I got my two sculptures back from the kiln today after glazing. One of the colours definitely works better than the other but both, in my opinion, look really cool. I am extremely happy that I decided to explore this avenue. I also put four more sculpture in to be biscuit baked and I pray that I can get them baked, glazed and re-baked before I have to put up my work the exhibition next Thursday.  

I also attended two lectures today as apart of the ‘careers and employable week’ at my university. The talks I attended were ‘How to make the art market work for you’, and ‘How to build a brand’. Both of these lectures were enjoyable and interesting but the first one definitely applied to me more than the other. 

The ‘How to build a brand’ talk did not really apply to me as much because the speaker spoke about how to create a tradition, commercial type of brand building. Whereas, I assumed it would be how to brand oneself as an artist. However, a lot of the skills used in the talk can be transferable in that way. 

The ‘How to make the art market work to you’ talk was much more tailored to me and gave me a lot of inspiration to get creative and to explore the art world more than I have been. The speaker consisted of a host (of who’s name I unfortunately didn’t write down), a digital marketer, Samuel Olsson, an artist, Laura Melissa Williams, and an artist/curator/gallery founder, Benjamin Murphy. Their insights and in conversation style of lecture gave me a lot of ideas and helpful information. Murphy also reminded me that a while ago I was really interested in curation and how, over the past few years that has developed into an art form in of itself (take Martin Parr’s ‘Strange and Familiar’ and Elizabeth Price’s ‘In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy’). 

While I have more thoughts on the lectures I am going to stop this stream of consciousness here. But today was a good day and has given me a lot of creative energy. 

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Note 4 - 14/11/2018

Since this is my first experience with creating 3D models from clay, I am learning not only about the how to manipulate the clay but also the process of how to get from raw clay to a final finished piece. 

After getting my first two models biscuit baked, I learnt how to glaze the pieces. I used two different glazes on each model. A glossy white glaze on one and an indigo stoneware glaze on the other. 

I am currently waiting to see the end results after it comes out of the kiln. And I have four more models currently ready to be biscuit baked.