and Narrative

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Evaluation

A4 Portrait- when I found the doily I collected from Amsterdam last year, I realised it fitted in with my project as I was learning to paper cut, during a workshop influenced from Rob Ryan.  I felt everything fitted into place and it became much easier straight away. Before this I had loads of ideas of how I could compare modern day culture to the pre-tense period of the 17th century. However I couldn’t decide on which one to go with. Struggling to take it forward I wasn’t sure of how to fit the portrait with the dollies but I knew I wanted to use it, because I felt influenced to use them due to the fashion design of the dresses which I then researched into called the ‘Tabbard design’. It was fascinating to research the portrait and the story behind but it was the costumes and the fans that particularly interested me. Also because I knew young children was going to see my work I dedicated my project to young girls my target audience,  using the title ‘A portrait of a lady’ for my theme as inspired from the paintings that I first chosen at Birmingham art gallery and London because of  the costumes, linen and fan designs.

For the final piece of my portrait I wanted to create something quirky and different that worked within my designs from the dollies I handmade some and others store bought, I decided to use them as my final piece showing each of the designs different and unique representing three different things. The first design was traditional hand painted of the ‘Tabbard design’ (in my own style). The second fan was to show another ‘Tabbard design’ from using the same colours as in the first painting I chose from Birmingham Art gallery using the collection period of paint dedicated to the 17th century (names of paints: white glove, grey lace and ballet shoes). I found amazing colour charts that were useful for my design ideas and colour book by picking out the exact shade of colour I wanted for example: the background of the painting and the woman cheeks contrasting the two. Thirdly I wanted to show the innocent side and fun of a young lady using light pastel colours, media: Pro markers and paint. I also adored the names of the paint such as “Candy floss” for light pink and for a pastel purple “Magical”. I don’t enjoy the digital side of my projects as I never know what to do or how to get started. I like to make my drawings in colour and look professional but really struggle. I use the technical prints for textures and colours but I need to learn more about this side so I can use it better. I would definitely need to learn more about photo-shop for doing a project like this again. 

Six Word Narrative - Box- I felt much pressured for time doing this part of the project. There was so much more I wanted to do and explore but just didn’t have the time. After I had finished the box I saw my project really expand I would like to have had more time and would have used the ideas for my box. However, I’m really pleased with how it turned out and so proud to see it hanging in the gallery. This part of the project helped me expand my skills, especially arts and crafts- making fans, experimenting with colours, patterns, creating my own designs and working into 3D. I also adapted my skills in writing as I wrote a short paragraph about what kind of story I wanted for my box and portrait to achieve from this I thought of a tea party using the dollies as signs and decoration for each of the key words I had chosen:  Innocent, wealthy, Status, Space, Portrait including a colourful side to the past tense of the 17th century for influenced I looked at Marie Antoinette.

Post Cards and Zine- I found the post cards to be interesting as I was just contemplating a lot of how they would look and how I wanted to present them. I ended up going with the idea of using them as cards. I really liked the idea of presenting my final piece relating to my short narrative of a lady going to ball (the idea I had for the zine) which was of a lady inspired from ‘Marie Antoinette’ from the costumes designs and the scenes “All eyes on me”.  I used the card design as invitations almost like the ones you would get before going to the ball, although I did find time being difficult by doing this but at the same time enjoyable developing my designs into advertising. The workshop was very useful and exciting to be making a zine learning how to use different techniques and designs for them. When learning the origami technique I saw my work evolve even more. I will continue to use these techniques for my next project to make my own sketchbook. Blog- I find it difficult to dedicate my time to the blog. I find that there is something else always to do and I prefer the practical side of the work. I have worked hard at the blog and keeping it up to date as I learned previously it is a lot to catch up with if I don’t.

Time Management- Overall I think I have managed this quite well as there was so much to do for this project and I enjoyed working with the dollies seeing my work evolve and my sketchbooks grow. There are parts of the project I would have like to have had more time for, especially the box as I was quite nervous about this.

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VIS4016 Practice in Action Lectures

George Hart “What are we doing it for?”

Lecture 1

For this lecture I found it to be stimulating as you can see how artist express themselves through the pre-tense and now which is what I’m hoping to convey in my work. I felt a resemblance to one of the works by Jean Francois artist/architect  ‘The Gleaners’ Millet completed in 1857′ this is because I noticed how it connected with one of the paintings I had chosen “Manon Balletti, 1757” a young woman who was called “Marie- Madeleine,called Manon and became his wife a few years later Casanova declared his love for her.

The famous painting portrays three poor women gleaning - the conditions of farm workers in the 1890s made gleaning essential a field of stray grain wheat after the harvest.

This painting represented the working class labour of the French Society and is featured in a sympathetic way and was given the lowest ranks of rural society, this was received poorly by the French upper classes and landowners connected this working class with the increasing movement of Socialism- is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control. I found this to be interesting as I’m influenced by this time era of the 17th century. I would like to investigate more about the French during this period of time.

Phil Thomson “Visual Noise”

Richard Schofield “More than nothing: an investigation into silence”

(Image from google)

Lecture 2

I found this lecture of selective silence to be empowering as art can have a range of ways to be loud and communicative throughout styles of work too.  One of the artist who I feel achieved this is Cornelia Parker as I remember going to her exhibition last year “Dark Matters”  in Manchester Whitworth Art Gallery as she manipulated and deconstructed a warzone into a new dimension using found objects and personally that was one of the greatest experiences I have witnessed of an installation.

It was abstract and beautifully composed yet deconstructed, depicting an explosion of objects and shadows reflecting against the walls and floor filling the space it made the room seem full. It also felt surreal to be there like I was in another world that stopped time. I think the piece was an oxymoron as it reflected a lot about war and explosions yet the objects were deconstructed and reconstructed into something positive as the light created shadows it made the objects seems as if they were floating in mid-air as they were attached with transparent string from the ceiling. Although there was no sound   you could hear the silence. 

(Image from google)

Anneka French “Text & Image – Theory and Practice”

Lecture 3

This lecture inspired me to think about typography as the Anneka French talked about the exhibition of Fionna Banner work “The Nam” I realised that type was going to be important also for my box and zine. I find Fiona Banners work to be bold and colourful yet simple. I think this is effective and that’s how I want to design my lettering to be. With the words I have chosen I think I can accomplish this by using the same techniques as this artist for example the way she works in 3D with the bean baf as a full stop. The use of punctuation is clever and devious similarly I was thinking as an Idea to work into 3D with fans and creating one that symbolises a word for one side of my box, and zine. I’ve experimented with a few ideas already, however I want to take my work up to the next level by developing my fans into something more creative in arts and craft.

Lecture 4

Ally Standing ‘”Psychogeography [in Birmingham]”

Ally Standing “The Future that Was: the beginning, development, and the end of modernism in visual culture’”

PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY in Birmingham

- Creative exploration in the city - Social media digital exploration - Urban - Psychogeography in the smartphone age

John Lewis Window display Manchester Trafford Centre #Photography

From the window display that was shown of King kong in Selfridges I had a similar view upon in the Trafford Centre in Manchester to give me more ideas on my fan. It just caught my attention and I realised within this lecture it taught me how things change but can stay the same.  Also that art is within any surroundings, environment and cities Manchester and Birmingham are interesting for me to compare as they’re both similar but different in a range of ways. I think for my project I could use the display as an idea for my project on how I could present my zine or box.   

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Final Drawings for ZINE

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Marnie Antoinette

Inspired and influenced by the dress design also the film!

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ZINE Workshop

At the zine workshop I created four different zines including saddle stitching, Japanese stab-binding and two folded out from just paper and a bone stick

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Final Design Box

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Print Designs with Doilies experimentation

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A4 Portrait Final Outcome

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Experimenting with fans using patterns and dollies

Target Audience: 

I decorated this doily colourfully, pastel, bright and cartoony. I did this because I wanted  to engage with my target audience to inspire them and to cause awareness of how it use to be like for a young lady during the 17th century compared to mordern day society. The doilies I created represent young women who have had strict, traditional  family background where most use to be married at a young age and take on big responsibilities (for a child)  because of their status whether it’s being a poor/wealthy. However this doilie represents a childs/young girls innocence and purity, the emotion of happiness and playful quality . 

Making the fan!

I wanted to create a fan of my own using paper, and dollies. The dollies reminded me of the lace and the costumes of  the dresses in the paintings at the galleries.I then started to collected wooden sticks from a cafe shop and learned how to make a fan by watching a lot of you tube tutorials that influenced me how.  I really felt my design coming together along with the paper dollies. I feel like this has made me become more into 3D and arts and craft. It was an enjoyable experiment and worked out well, I’m planning on using this as part of my box design signifying the word “Status”.  

youtube links I researched :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpHamHpvWI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE3j6gspjIk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak6JV_qzyjE

Here I began experimenting my work digitally with my printer and using my own personal diary onto the doilies which I found also worked well and thought about making a diary for the zine of how I perceive the character of a “young lady” back in the 17th century.

Textures and Patterns 

I experimented different techniques using ‘Matt Slate Grey’ emulsion paint and ‘Matt Dove Grey’ on dollies to create different textures and patterns adding water to make a fading/shading affect. I felt this worked really well and would like to continue more with different media such as: promarkers, acrylic, pencils and maybe spray paint throughout my colour book. 

watercolour emulsion paint.

Handcut heart and doilies using needle and craft knife designed influence original copy of doily from Amsterdam cafe 2015.

Developed a moodboard kinda showing different shades and silver foil from a chocolate wrapper.

I scanned and  edited these pictures on photoshop from my sketchbook so you can fully see the tiny details and texture.

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The Language of hand fans

From creating so many designs and being completely obsessed with the idea of fans for this project I researched more into on the language of fans as my fascination grew more and more. This website I found wonders and a new meaning to what a fan could be seen and with different actions that can portray many emotions and symoblic meanings. Here are a few examples I want to try to include maybe for the zine. (Screenshot from http://www.angelpig.net/victorian/fanlanguage.html).

I find these different gestures to be outspoken and traditional this sparks my imagination of a storyboard for the zine I’ll be working on. I would like to relate this to my narrative and convey the fan in a symbolic way throughout my sketches.

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Box Design Ideas (Planning) SIX WORD NARRATIVE

This is my design idea for the box I did a quick sketch of how I wanted each side to be for my final outcome I also began looking at typography artist for my box.

I developed a narrative of a tea party I came up with by using the dollies to represent this idea, also thinking of ways to combine and communicate my drawings and typography onto the dollies creating a visual impact on my perspective of the ‘young lady’ character I see throughout the paintings of “A portrait of a lady” while carefully selecting the right colours of paints for my target audience appealing to young girls and the general public of BMAG. 

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Drawings & Research

Studio of Peter Paul Rubens

Portrait of the Infanta Isabella, about 1615

“Isabella Cara Eugenia (1566-1633) was the daughter of Philip II of Spain. A portrait of her husband Albert, Archduke of Austria, forms a ‘pendant’ to this work. After Albert’s death in 1621 Isabella was appointed governor of the Netherlands, Rubens, who was her court painter, became then a close adviser to Isabella.”

LNG

Jean- Marc Nattier (1685- 1766)

Manon Balletti, 1757

“Marie- Madeleine, called Manon (1740-1776), was the daughter of the well-known actress Sylvia Balletti. Casanova was declaring his love for Manon when this portrait was painted. Three years later she married the architect Jacques- Francois Blondel who was 35 years her senior.”

Oil on Canvas

LNG

George Romney (1734- 1802)

‘Portrait of a lady’ around 1765

oil on canvas

BMAG

Marcus Geeraerts the younger (1561- 1635)

Portrait of a Lady, 1618

“meticulously detailed costumes and stylised facial features typical of court  portraiture during the reign of king James I. These conventions contrast with the animated portraits painted by Anothony Van Dyck in England just a few years later.”

Here I found four paintings that captivated me in different ways but the key features were the:

Costume designs (extravagant, detailed, traditional, and lace)

Fans (feathers, texture, elegant, mysterious, materials)

Jewellery (expensive, wealth, marriage, precious, sentimental)

Ruffs (wealth, status, huge, lacy, intricate, fashioin) 

Ladies (powerful, feminsim?, wealthy, sophisticated, young)

This made me think of what I could do for my Six word Narrartive by adding my thoughts and perspective when first viewing the paintings at the galleries

LNG

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Colours

 Today I travelled to Homebase as I wanted to get specific colours that I wanted to test and experiment with for my colour book and dollies. I have found a few that linked within my project, I found a whole collection of emulsion paint dedicated to the 17th century with names such as: white glove, grace lace and ballet shoes, worked perfect for the theme I was going for.

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Rob Ryan/Typography

Experimentation using type with ink and bamboo

TITLE: ‘Portrait of a lady‘ paper cutting designs. Rob Ryan influence me to cut using a similar style which made me think of different ways to explore my designs and type from this, I started to think of using dollies which you’ll see above. I still kept the designs from what I was inspired by within the dress of the painting using the repetitive design.

my design shown through a light box

Rob Ryan

he is famously known for his paper cutouts and narrative style. I find his work to be creative and captivating  as you can see the tiny detail very well from far away, which is one of the reasons why his work influences me. The type I also think is engaging as it’s clear and easy to read yet has a cartoony affect. I remember seeing his work in Manchester Art Gallery a few years ago he’s been a big influence ever since, as the scale of his work is a lot bigger than you’d imagine it to be and it opens my imaginative/visual world to be on a bigger scale and urges me to create “BIG” scale art and have “BIG” ideas.

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London National Gallery

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London National Galery 2016

After the talk with David Shllinglaw I was inspired to visit London Scream Gallery where his work is displayed. However, it was shut so instead visited the National Gallery and explored the gallery the whole day taking photographs and admiring many great influential artist of the past such as Vincent Van Gogh and Rembrandt. It was exceptional to see their work in real life than on the internet also viewing I found more portraits of powerful wealthy women with beautiful embroided dresses and ruffs holding expensive fans. I found this to be an exciting experience for my project and motivating while I drew at the gallery. Here I taken photographs of London Paintings and Landscape.

‘Portrait of the Infanta  Isabella, about 1615′

“Isabella Cara Eugenia (1566-1633) was the daughter of Philip II of Spain. A portrait of her husband Albert, Archduke of Austria, forms a ‘pendant’ to this work. After Albert’s death in 1621 Isabella was appointed governor of the Netherlands, Rubens, who was her court painter, became then a close adviser to Isabella.” BMGA

oil on canvas  

Rembrandt (1606-1669) Sasika Van Ulyenburgh in Arcadian Costume, 1635

Oil on Canvas

“Rembrandt made this portrait of his wife in the year after their marriage. Sasika was the daughter of a wealthy mayor from the northern Netherlands. The artist shows her in the guise of a shepheardess or flora, the roman goddess of spring. This reflects the contemporary fashion in the arts of the rustic themes. Sasika died when she was just 30 years old in 1642.”

The paintings above are stimulating with the contrasting colours of the dark background and  the pale white faces against the ruffs, catches my attention straight away. I find that both of these paintings have a fascinating narrative behind them and also the intiquet detail with so much effort I find perfection on the patterns and movement for example the hands of Isabella has a soft glow you can imagine them move gracefully as she’s holding or showing? the fan. Although in Rembrandt's painting Savia’s face seems gentle yet you can see her facial features clearly with the lines/dark shadows. I also notice how Isabella is looking towards the veiwer and how Savia is looking down. This creates an impact and makes me wonder what she was thinking during that time.

Comparing these two women is also more engaging to me because of the fashion and how different they both are although they’re both wealthy and lived near the same time era.

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David Shillinglaw

Today I had the opportunity to meet David Shillinglaw, I felt really inspired on seeing his works, his passion and how he became successful in the Art world of today. One of his work projects captivated me from drawing his personal diary everyday for a year. This reminded back at the time of high school, where I had doodled about my life at the back of my exercise books. I felt like we had similar interest in drawing our everyday lives and creating them into art.

Here is one I did recently of myself during the day Shillinglaw spoke about his work, from the morning til evening as it shows a personal experience of what happened that day, and what I wanted to remember from it. This made me think back to my current project that I’m working on, of creating a diary/journal using images and type for the life of the lady that lived almost 400 years ago and how different it would look and be as an Idea.

I’m hoping to convey comparing  it with my modern day dairy. I’d also add colour for the audience which will be for young children as they will see my work publically displayed in Birmingham Art Gallery inspiring them as they view.

After the talk with David Shillinglaw I produced a mouse out of an old broken computer mouse with my group we made a new world using found materials. I enjoyed this workshop because it’s fun giving objects a purpose that no longer have function.