Lily Buckland

Art Foundation at Oxford Brookes University

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Exhibition!!!! Here are my final pieces at my end of year price view! A successful night with great talent!

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A short video of changing the contrast and situation for my hijabs, to make the colour brighter and clearer

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After struggling with taking photos of my Hijabs for Contrado, I have taken photos using lights and a tripod. Rather than taking a photo of the whole thing, I have had to take photos in sections and edit them on photoshop. I found this really difficult as I haven't used photoshop since A levels, after playing around with photoshop, I was able to fix the two photos together. This has made the writing clearer and the colour brighter. Unfortunately. The photo wasn't perfect, there is a slight dent in the middle of the image where I have edited the photos together, this will come out on the fabric but I couldn't do anything about it. I have learnt that it was a lot harder than I thought and that I should've planned it better.

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Exhibition set up

After handing in my work for my FMP, we have started to decorate, paint and work on our exhibitions spaces as a team. This has been a great way of seeing how artists set up there work. It has been a team effort in helping everyone get things painted, such as plinths, shelves and walls. For my exhibition space, I will be having three plinths all the same size and painted white. I won't be having any wall space as I don't want the space to be too over powering as I want the hijabs to be the main attention. I will be in the centre of the room, meaning people can walk around my work and see all the different information which I have added.

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FINAL MAJOR PRODUCT PIECES

These are my final finished designs fr my Hijabs, now I am waiting for the printing issue to be cleared and hopefully I can get these printed in time for my exhibition.

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PHOTOGRAPHING WORK

I have really struggled trying to get the right photograph image for the website Contrado as I have needed the right scale, lighting and format. I have spent the last week doing my final designs as I have restarted so many times, this has really effected my time management. I have had to do this independently, rather than using a studio space and using the photography room. I haven't been not working, I have just been too precise on what I want my work to look like. This has really frustrated me as I didn't realise it would be as hard as this. When I phoned the company, they said I should’nt have any problems and unfortunately I have. 

Here I am trying to get the right angle and right eye view to get a straight picture. I have actually had to stick my work down with sellotape onto a glass sheet. This was really difficult as the natural light was really bad and I found it hard myself taking a photo with the right edges and it to be straight. This is an example of thinking everything would go right at this stage. I think my work looks great but the focus and the colour on the website don't work. 

I first tried to use a step ladder to get a photo up high as I didn't have any walls to stick my work on. Then I found the glass and luckily I was able to use that. The A1 sheets were perfectly fine to photograph, however, the 2 A1 sheet together were too thin and long. making the drawings on the image not visable. From here I have emailed contrado asking what the best option is, as well as this, I have emailed my course leader and tutor to see if i can scan my work in anywhere. 

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ARABIC WRITTING 

I have chosen this boarder to be arabic writing in a silver pen, as I am hoping the silver will noticeable and shimmery when on worn, I've find the arabic writing beautiful and I waned this part of muslim culture on the Hijab. The words I used are: 

Home, Beauty, Syrian, Family, Hope, We need you, Home, Danger, Bombs, Pain , Children, War, Save us, Travel, Education and death. 

I find these words very straight to the point and really show the pain which refugees go through. I think this comes across as very pretty and should look great on silk.

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REFLECTION

This is my final hijab design for my ‘How can you help’ hijab

Positives:

1. Packed with information

2. little illustrations to support the words

3. the watercolour stands out

4. happy that I didn't I drew straight onto the page, rather than cutting up images as I have found this time consuming in the past

Negatives:

1. I shouldve used back ground colour as I found the white too harsh

2. I also needed a boarder as my two other designs have them and this would've made them link

3. I feel like it needs more strain touches to it, for example, less illustration and preppy to more strain based culture 

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For my writing I used gauche mixed with water to make the paint not as thick, `i thought this worked well as I found it a good way of saving time, as well, I think the colours look great.

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A time laps of going over my words, inspired by Stanley Donwood

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FINAL HIJAB PRINT TAKE 2

After talking about changing my design in my last post, I have started to bring the final designs together. Here I have carried on with the buildings being an important feature in the design, I found this a good way of creating a structure. I also added a green outline around the buildings to add colour, a guide and a squared structure to link with the drawings which I stuck on. I have spent most of the week working on what to add on this final hijab. I have looked back into my sketchbooks and personal journal to see what key things I have enjoyed doing or feel I need to involve in my work, for example, the drawing of the children, the refugee camp and also, Stanley Donwoods words, I thought the bright colours and words would look great. I was also unsure on what background colour I should have for the hijab as I found with my ‘How can you help” design, I found the white too strong and there should've been a bolder background colour. 

I have also added a poem from Syria speaks (relate to first sketchbook) as I find it a more of a personal touch to the hijab, its a very eye opening poem. 

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GEORGE BUTLER 

After struggling with designing my work similar to Grayson Perry, I started looking at George Butler, a completely different style of work that I have been used too. I found this style a lot quicker and very effective. I have done some drawings which link in with refugees. I really like Butlers style and I hope to try and co operate it in my final hijab. 

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Going over the camp drawing in pen to make it permanent 

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2 CHILDREN HIJAB 

I wanted to create a Hijab which involved items and resources which refugees need to survive, I took a long time trying to work out how to plan this hijab, Ive spent hours sat down planning out what to do. I started off by drawing out “HOW CAN YOU HELP” I wanted this to be the central piece so it should be bold and colourful, so I used blue card to help stand out, I also used a patterned card which reminded me of arabic patterns. I then started drawing little food items onto a A1 sheet, I used water colours (based around the words). I like the effect which the colours give. After drawing these out, I wanted to add shapes which I would then draw into and have information about charities and how people can help. As you can see, this didn't happen. I started to draw all these little items intending to cut them out and stick them on to the shapes which I originally planned. However, as I started to draw, I liked filling up the white space and adding words and information. I started doing this in black and white but I thought that the white background was too strong, I then started adding water colour and information in different coloured pens. Ive spent a long time on drawing this final design and I do really like the end production however, I have struggled with relating to Grayson Perry and using colour was such an important thing to me. But I wanted this hijab to involve lots of information and I have achieved this through using illustrated drawings and small bits of information.

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RE STARTING ADULT HIJAB 

I have started my adult Hijab as I was finding it hard to place everything that I wanted to show. As you can see from the previous posts, I started with building all over the paper in a curved line, this reduced my space of work and limited the design. After taking a long time to decide whether to start again or leave it, I started a new design. I spent hours staring and deciding whether or not to cut it up. In the end I cut up the buildings as i spent a long time working on them.

On my new design I have made a central design, which is the camp with the syrian flag, this is easier to work either side of the design. I wanted the camp to be big as I wanted it to be the main feature. I am still working on what to put on the rest of the Hijab. My recents posts and videos were my first design, I spent a lot of time on them but unforutantley, I didn't like the layout and felt it didn't give a message across about Syrian refugees.

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Final Week

With my final week taking place for FMP, I have been working very hard and finalising my work. I have been really struggling to get all my work on to my hijabs, I have restarted my work over and over again to make sure I have done my best. This has been hard for me as I want to make sure my work is the best to my ability, I have spent a lot of time re doing work, finding new artist, such as George Butler and drawing ideas for the hijabs. I have really struggled on trying to work like Grayson Perry, in the sense scale and depth as well as putting everything on the sheet.  I hope to finish everything by friday. 

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FINAL CHILDREN HIJAB DESIGN 

Here is my final design for my first hijab, it took my a while to plan out (read previous post) but I have finally completed a design. I am happy with what I have achieved as I was very strict on what I wanted to add. When I first did the blue waves as the background, I thought it was too powerful, however, I researched this in my sketchbook and I liked the pattern. Looking at the map now I feel that the maps writing isn't very well presented, I should've used a thicker white pen or white acrylic, making the words and information stand out more. I think the life jackets are a great addition to the work as they are bright and shows that refugees need saftey. I never planned this hijab to be water themed but I thought the map gives a really good representation of the country. Also, I wanted to include Paula Scher, in my work and this map shows hints of her work, due to the white colour and looking out a map. Im looking forward to seeing the design printed onto the fabric and the blue shimmering on the silk.