The Figure

‘The Figure’ Project evaluation.

This project was called ‘The Figure’ it was mainly about self-portraits and life drawing, looking at the figure of a human and trying measure up all of the bones below the skin to map out the skin detail and looking at different ways of experimenting and presenting ‘The Figure’ using textiles, printmaking, photography, life drawing, 3D sculpture and fine art. I also did some of my own research with different artists that art so traditional but just as talented, from Jennifer Collier, Francoise Nielly, Angie Hoffmeister, Alexander Calder, Vivica Williams, Christopher Huet, James Hoisel,  Shirley Trevena and David Del Favero. Some of my work will be present on my blog: http://bethanycobbart.blogspot.co.uk/ and some in my book most if not all my graphics is presented on my blog because it’s easier.

This project taught a lot on the drawing side of art, such as line quality and proportion, plotting lines and really looking at things and not just taking one glance and drawing from thought. It enhanced my skills and made me open my mind and think how to use processes and a wide range of materials, trailed and provided from my teachers, but I also went off and used my own anichitive.

Graphics.

In Graphics we had to make a book cover from a photo we had taken on the mac for our very own book cover, we had to ‘jazz it up’ or ‘pimp it out’ by using Photoshop to make it more interesting to the human eye and just to get good practise with the macs and Photoshop. I called mine ‘Mischief in the Mac Room’ and used a self-portrait photo taken on the mac. I added different colours on to it making a boring pictur4e colourful and meaning something to me and describing a little about me, I always believe that colour is such a wide part of an art people take it forganted of how it makes a picture come alive. I also have a bubbly and colourful personality and hope my book cover reflects that aaswel as my serious self. I kept some of the real photo in by fading some of the colour to expose some of the background; I also used the magic wand tool to select certain areas of the photo and just used a block colour and the fill tool. You can make the magic wand less active, like if you lower the number it will pick up less area, so I used that for the face and raised the number for the background. I chose white writing to make the letters stand out and not to blend in with the array of different colours.

3D.

For the project: ‘The Figure’ we had to sculpt a wire head from our sketches of self-portraits.

Let’s say I found this one ‘challenging’ of my patience…. It quite tedious to mould wire in the form of a head because it’s not like a sketch..you can’t just change something without the whole length of wire changing too and I’m a little bit of a neat freak and like things ‘Just So’ and want it to look like it should. It just wasn’t working for me really.

I started for just a blank canvas…just by moulding it with my hands but that didn’t work out as all my proportions were wrong and out of place but I liked the effect I used, I twisted wire around each other to give it some volume and texture but it was not meant to be… as it took up most of my time and was a little too fiddly… I would definitely do that technique if I was given more time as I just love the look of it.

Then I photocopied my face to get the shape of my nose and a little of my eyes, must admit it did help. A lot. And I also used my actual head as a judgement, wrapping the wire around my head (top to bottom and side to side), you do look like the cheese has slipped off your cracker but it does help get some of your measurements in very little time.

Using a spot welder to weld the wire together was scary at first but it only the jump and the sparks you get when you spot weld it together. As I’ve said patience is a virtue and that I just don’t have so when spot-welding you have to hold it in place but you can’t get too close to it, so I decided to hold then with plyers but if the wire is the slightest bit chunky then it would just keep falling from the plyers….so annoying, so usually teamed up with someone and held theirs when they were doing it and they held mine. The spot welder was very good in that it was quick and usually did the job.

I like the final outcome of my wire head…not sure if its..identical to me but close enough, I like the ears on it but like I said before, if I had more time I would of done my lovely wrap around technique and build up some texture.

Fine Art.

In fine art we experimented with different materials such as wax and tea bags, oil pastel and turps, charcoal, conti-crane, acrylic painting and just sketches, we had to do a self-portrait and ladies? Who likes staring at themselves in a mirror for three hours straight drawing what features they think are not perfect? Just mark that enjoys that… I really struggled with this, we used a ruler method just lining up with your thumb and making sure it and the right height ad distance apart, but I got there in the end. All the processes I experimented with and enjoyed the outcomes of a few of them, the acrylic one, the wax and tea bag one, the sketch and the charcoal and conti-crane.

Art History

In art history we looked at the artist Vincent Van Gogh, we watched a really good documentary on him and it really got me thinking….all good artists are absolute nutters! He was so amazingly talented but had a troubled sole which led to him being placed into a mental hospital. It was fascinating to see how he put a picture together and the method in his madness, he used the world as his colour pallet using colours the normal eye couldn’t see, enhancing the natural beauty in is paintings, so of his paintings even had a message in them to tell people of the torture he suffered. I normally don’t like art history but this was really interesting to learn about and think we should go into detail about artists instead of just looking at the work, you can’t see what’s behind it without the story.

Textiles.

In textiles we have been leaning how to felt. It’s called ‘wet felting’. It’s quite easy to do but it just requires time and patience. We used dyed sheep wool, thin strands of it, layered it up, wrapped it around with bubble wrap and a towel and rolled it for about 50 times then swapped it from landscape to portrait about four times.  And a really cool thing to do is once tough, but still set from rolling it, wrap it around a coin or an object and tie it and leave it to dry like that; it makes an igu effect from the shape of the object. Once we had made out felt we could embellish them with just a thick needle and a sponge, you could use any cotton material or your own felt, get a piece of wool and stab at it with the sponge underneath, the fibre from the cotton attached to the material and came though the other side, and if you stabbed at it enough times I would be strong enough to attract a whole dress together and stay.  I loved learning about these processes and found, once shown were really easy and fun to do. I loved the wet felting and wrapping things into it to make cool shapes and effects, the embellishing could get a little boring sometimes, but was a good skill to learn and I have done a few lovely samples from that process.

Print Making

In print making our new skill was dry-point print making, this was scratching into a piece of acrylic and printing with printing ink and a roller. I like the detail you could get in this material and how it can make quite and antique effect when printing, I used lots of different, materials to print on from just wet paper to leather, and it’s just whatever I could find really. I like the amount you could do in just a short space of time and how the print change on every print, every material to show some variation and effects. My favourite one has to be….   …this one. I have no idea what the material was called it was in a roll looked like a bandage but when I wet it, it went all soggy and bitty. Looks so antique and just the best print.

Photography

In photography we learnt who to use film cameras! Learning how to use the dark room, and developing your own film. I loved learning about this process and the look that the film cameras gave, I could even use the roll of film in my artwork showing the raw photos. I like the depth you can see in the photos and the plain black and white for this project of the figure I think they look really deep and make you just concentrate on the protagonist in the picture. The task was to create a short picture film with six frames.  Most of my photos didn’t even come out on the raw film when developed because of the exposure in the camera, I didn’t even give a thought to that when taking my photos  an because of that missed out on some really good photos, so I went out and took some more but because of the bad timing no one was available to do my original plan so I just took some detailed but not very interesting photos around college…just so I could say that I know how to use the camera and develop the film, I would definitely sort that out if more time was available. The photos that I salvaged from my old ruined batch were actually pretty cool…as in a little blurred and dark but you could make out the mysterious figure, I just thought they looked pretty cool and matched my project quite well.

This is my template for all of my prints.
(supposed to be a 'themed' self portrait of me.... haven't figured out the theme yet..

This print was on some tacky yellow leather I found..came out quite
 well though, the line quality is brilliant in it.

This one...not so well, love the tie die cotton...but not so much the print
as it came out quite faint.

Again...i love love love the cute cotton bed sheet cut-off but
not how the prints come out...shame.

Ok...i have no idea what this matiral was....it was like some white
meshy stuff on a roll? Looked a little like bandage but when i wet
it, it went all sloppy and bitty, anyway i love how it came out.
MY FAVE.

This is just a plain print out of just wet white paper.
I like how its framed itsefd and the shadows in it from
accidental ink spillage.

This was some scratty edge piece of velvet, I don't
really like the colour now i look at and the prints a little rubbish .

AW I wanted this to work so bad... just like part of an old hay
sack or something and I thought it would look so edgy and sheek but
turns out hay sack is no good for printing on.

LOVE THIS ONE. It just goes together, my face has ike a tribal vibe to it
and this material reflects that perfectly and the lines and so clear.

My tester page... think it came out quite well, clear and dark lines.

This is part of a dress design sheet. Very flimsy but I love the colour of it.
One thing i love about this print is the background...I have no idea how those
spacey lines got there but it makes it seem somewhere instead of just floating around
on a sheet of paper.

Quick 5 min sketch of Aaya.
She was very hard to draw from moving so much.
And...I don't know i just really struggle with her cheeks and
chin a lot.

Quick 5 min sketch of Beth.
I really like this one, it could be how i've drawn her
but I like how ive drawn her hair...nose, because
I always struggle with noses.

Quick 5 min sketch of Matt.
Hmmm..I think i could say this is a style of
drawing because I've done his nose, eyes and mouth
the same but not as a...fine art kind of way? Like
not exactly what he looks like.

Quick 5 min sketch of Yves.
Oh dear is all I can say.. not impressed.
Yves does not look like this at all and I just don't like
how I've drawn it. Think it looks to childlike.

Wax and teabag collage.

First you empty the the teabag of tea.
(use square ones).

Fill the teabags with memrobillia or things to relate to your  project. i used tanned colours and my own real hair extensions for my hair.

Then seal the teabags with a glue stick to make sure everything stays in place, the spread hot melted wax all over it and cover with newspaper and iron until clear.

Experiments.

Sketch of a self portrait.

Ink and conti-crane.

Oil, white and black contra-crane with a little charcoal.

Acrylics.

Acrylics.

Oil pastel and turps.

Water colour pencils with water colours paint stroke as the background.

Francoise Nielly.

Francoise Nielly has an amzaing and bright colour pallet. Her colour look almost highlighted colours she uses in her oil and knife paintings. She uses the human face a lot and cast the light and shadows with colour and vibrancy. She has done barack Obama to designing a car for citreon, her work shines with life and a party feel.  She leaves  brush strokes and bold lines all over the place feel of expression  and confidence. She has no fault in shaping her colours around the features of the face amking sure they stand out with the colour and not get faded out. She is great at portraying the mood of the individual she is painting with expressions and colour. With one ive chosen to analyse I see a woman with a tired but sexy look on her face, almost posed. Then the red through her hair and loucisious lips because red being a colour of love and lust, to create a sense of sexy to this painting.

I love her work and think she has a fabulous colour pallet, with her courangeous brush knife marks and conceptual artwork.

Alexander Calder.

Alex was an American sculptor who mostly looked and created mobiles, but while in Paris he made some 3D heads made out of wire. His heads are childlike and fun, with not much detail in them, but you can still see who they are and related to. I love the simplicity i them, how theres not a lot going on but they look so well made. The heads just stand on their own not attached to anything which i find best because the theres no distraction from the work and you can just concentrate on the heads.

Ive just been given my brief for 3d work. i have to make a wire head and hopefully mine will be just as full of like and childlike cheekiness as these heads from Alexanders work. I plan to make mine in the same style, simple and fun.

Artist research.

Just found a really cool caricature artist called Christopher Huet. He likes the comical side of the human head and escalates it too an impressive size form, almost too much for the person to carry as seen in some of these pictures. He calls himself a manipulation master! Basically a Photo shop freak but brilliant at it! These are just funny to see and always put a smile on the audiences faces I think, definitely mine anyway! Just the way he's cleverly placed them as if it was gravity that was the artist. There is one for an everyday situation that will most likely, always will relate to an audience and plant a thought in there head 'imagine that', making the viewer put themselves in that situation and image, I think everyone does when they see a tricky situation.

Shirley Trevena.

Shirley is an English artist based in London with a background of local government as her (used to be) job title, but after receiving a present from a friend of a lovely box of water colours she discovered her inner artist. After resigning her job she is now a full time artist.

Her work is mainly water colour, mixed media, ink and mono-printing, she says on her website that she does mainly still life but has delved into a study of the figure and others. It also says on her blog that she has a love hate relationship with art, and that shed do anything but paint, starting her creative side up is like starting an old Allegro car, but once she gets started she can’t stop, like a vomit of creations and explosions of colour.

Her work astonishes me, like a firework display in watercolour, blasts of red and green. She captures, light, tone and texture like her eyes are a set of telescopes, capturing every detail but not forgetting the colour and beauty that others can’t see. She makes colours dance around the page with each other; she has a pallet as if she’s been painting for centuries with her impeccable paintings.

On a mega artist scout this week!

Just found a really good Photo shop artist called James Hoisel. His work can be cartoon to taking form from the human skin and what art is know as tattooing.

I love his 3D tattoos and his cartoon works, think they are done to an impeccable standard. It all looks so natural and like its not been messed and touched,  seems effortless and not fake, or Photo shoped at all.

He also does some weird surreal kind-of stuff as well with random things like pigs ten foot tall with a safe strapped to his back. Then he also does famous faces and characters from films in a cartoon, caricature type works which are fabulous.

My finished book cover design.

I chose to leave my writing to the side to show the whole book cover as i put a lot of time and effort creating the finished picture and i didn't want it to shy away behind the writing. I chose the white writing because of all the colour Ive previously used on the the cover, i didn't think it wouldn't stand out from the background picture. i like the simplicity in the writing but the complexity within the book cover itself, the colour, textures and contrast of animated and normal. 

I think that the colour has worked really well with the white writing. I like the colour variety on it and how there are different textures with it, some block colour and some with kind of a crayon effect, where it doesn't quite colour in fully? 

The things that are wrong........maybe i should of put a blurb on the back? But i thought it would be too much and wouldn't look as good, i was really against putting anything the the book to cover the picture but  think if i made that bit with the green and pink all one colour then i would of made my writing more clear and would have looked more professional. I just think that now you cannot really see what it is or what the books about.

Experimenting with photo shop tools and effects.

So. I've been photo shopping! Been working with my self portrait photo took on the mac, I'm liking it, its great how many effects and cool things you can add to your image, you can layer it, integrate other photos and colours, brill. Id say buy it if it wasn't an actual bomb to pay! Just saying photo shop, think of some student discount!

This is the photo I've worked from that  took on the mac. 

This is just an experiment with the magic wand tool and going crazy with the blue, I used the picture below and just added blue with a large quantity of the magic wand tool. Its a bit dark for me, but i quite like it .

I like this one....it reflects a little of my bubbly and colourful personality but now that i look at it, it looks a little user-developed and could do with finishing...

My fave...... just looks finished, edgy and proper pop arty. impressed with how this turned out, i used the image above, added a copy of the picture onto another layer and added an overlay with a 

With this one i got a picture of old paper from google, screen shot it because macs are awkward so i got it on a separate layer and put the opacity to a low level  to make my face clear but still showing the old paper. 

Artist research.

Soooooo I've scouted out yet another cool artist, my next project is called 'the figure' its portraits really and we've just started self portraits, a woman worst nightmare is staring herself in the face and having to draw all her faults but BRING IT ON.

So, I found this artist who has the flamboyant pallet of Picasso but has the actually normal forms of the face, most I've seen is woman with a brilliant, bright, variety of colours and courageous brush  strokes, it pours vigorous energy in and knocks you off your feet like a rush of fresh air. When I've tried to do something like this once, but all the features of my face hid before the the colours and just got lost with all the paint I piled on, its hard, but he seems to have done it effortless like it just comes natural to him, I love it.