Symbols project

Camera Manual

Week Five

The highlights of the catwalk were Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf; the giant spider-girl and the gold bunny girl with the beautifully crafted cape; giant taxidermy-like animal heads and ridiculous performance pieces.

I wasn't overwhelmed with our piece in the end, I felt like we could have done a lot better. I was pleased with the head-dress, but not with the rest.

Week Four

Area talks - opted for fine art because it's so broad and leaves a lot of room for exploration. I was considering graphics and illustration but that is very limited. I can always change my mind at a later date if fine art doesn't work out for me.

Tuesday the Cardboard Catwalk was introduced, and we spent the first day manipulating cardboard to see how many different things we could do with it. Wednesday we were given the artists we were to base the outfits on and Thursday we began brainstorming ideas and collecting materials.

(Photos to come)

Life Drawing

Week Three

At the beginning of the week we were given a basic drawing activity where we had to draw observationally and as accurately as possible from our computers and continue this technique with work at home. Finding everyday objects to draw from, using a measured drawing technique so the image is accurate and in proportion.

Drawing from a moving image. We were given a series of short clips to draw from and interpret as we wish with any media - from watercolour to charcoal. We were encouraged to not draw observationally and express the mood and motion in the clip in our drawings. I enjoy working in an abstract and conceptual way in this activity - for example I used a mash of bright colours in chalk and ink to represent children in a ball pool and continuous blind line drawing to represent the movement of two people dancing very quickly.

Wednesday was a 3D day. We disassembled an object and drew from it, identifying an interesting part or aspect of it to recreate in a sculpture later in the day.

I chose staples.

Week Two

Monday 4th October

We were given a series of tasks designed to make us think a little bit more about everyday processes and activities and endurance tasks to make us think differently about drawing, things that we normally rush or not think through. For example drinking from a cup, but taking 5 minutes to finish it, maintaining eye contact with someone for several minutes without breaking down into hysteria and drawing a series of horizontal lines as close to each other as possible to fill an A1 page. We experimented with marks in charcoal by applying the most and least possible amount of pressure. We used our own shoe to draw from, an object that we see everyday and the fine details of which we should know quite well. We used two drawing techniques I have used before and enjoy using - continuous line and drawing blind to encourage us to examine the subject matter more and not concentrate too much on getting the drawing accurate.

Tuesday 4th October

We created a catalogue of marks made with the various impliments we made at home, creating as many different effects as possible. Then we drew the impliments using combinations of the marks we came up with.

  

Wednesday 6th October

We were asked as a homework task to bring in as many materials we could find at home that could be used as a stain or pigment. This could be anything from toothpaste to beetroot. I had a limited selection of red pepper, tea and tomato ketchup; most of which looked amazing concentrated in the jar but turned out way too watery and dilute. My most successful pigment was Spirulina, a dark green supplement drink which I diluted in a bottle, however I could’ve got more from it if I brought in the powder form as well, and rubbed it into the paper for a tinted black colour. If I had more time and money to collect materials I would’ve brought beetroot and other brightly coloured fresh fruit and vegetables as well as earthy materials like soil, mud and grass, but I was limited to what I could steal from my housemate’s cupboards.

We spent the afternoon painting with the alternative materials, drawing from the photos we took of our computers, in zoomed sections in large and small scale. I enjoyed getting my hands dirty and splashing the materials onto the page, although the majority of my pigments weren’t very vibrant. I ended up borrowing mud, dirt and toothpaste from friends.

Thursday 7th October

We were introduced to the journal. An archive for research, i.e. newspaper and magazine cuttings, lecture notes, artist research, photocopies from books, project handouts. We have one per term and will become more specific and defined as we approach the final major project.