Printing Evaluation

In our new project, we were asked to create a sequence of different techniques of screen printing. In the first week of the project, I was showed how to create the printing style called sponge print. The process of making this print style, included two A4 sheets of plain paper, which I created motifs out of, by ripping the paper, and placing it onto the A4 paper, applying acrylic paint using the sponge, to make an imprint of the motif.

After applying the sponge onto the acrylic paint of choice, creating any colour scheme or pattern. What I liked about the style, was how simple and creative it was. Being able to create an artwork, simply and effectively is harder, but to be able to create something that is both simple and artistic, is quite interesting. As loads of people find it hard to create an artwork, as they have the belief that they can’t draw, it makes it extremely difficult for them to construct a creative artwork, especially prints. I was very pleased with all my outcomes, as to each outcome was quite interesting and unique from the others.

On the second week, I created mono prints created by using different inks, on plain paper sheets, and using paper to create the motifs for the print designs, kind of similar to sponge printing, but using different media. It was not difficult to create this printing style. It was not very difficult to create this printmaking style. The only difficulties I had during the process of the printmaking was taking paper from the ink and also creating the shapes I wanted within the paper. Overall this was not one of my best outcomes, and printmaking styles, but some of my outcomes were quite different, so they were quite interesting to look at because of the design.

Moreover, I constructed a lino print, of a bomb with the Logo of the bank of china imprinted on it. The way in which the print was created, was to produce a surface relief printing medium, using the cutting blades of lino to carve my design into the lino. Afterwards, I applied printing ink onto the lino, by putting a small amount, of paint on a transparent pallet, using roller to roll the paint thin and applying it onto the lino. A paper was placed onto the inked surface, rubbing the back gently, to make an imprint of the design.

I was able to generate a variety of outcomes of the lino print design, by changing the colours within the prints, by printing onto coloured and plain papers, as well as newspapers and fabric. This enabled me to create different textures of the prints that I mounted onto A1 paper.

I was very pleased with these outcomes as they came out to a great standard, even though I made a couple mistakes. I still made use of these mistakes and included them within my design to show my improvements throughout my prints. One of the outcomes that I enjoyed was my two final prints working in stencils. It was inspired by the Bauhaus movement and the logo of bank of china which was the requirement of the whole project, to create a final print that could be used by the bank of china for their new logo design and it had to include inspiration from the Bauhaus movement.

My final prints were constructed using printing technique called stencil. I very much enjoyed this technique as it was quite simple for me to construct an outcome using this technique and it made it easy to create my outcomes as it was not complicated to draw out the design. Although there was one complication of the technique, as I had to be careful on what I choose to cut out, as making one small cut would lead to the design falling apart or not make sense when printed.

In my opinion, I believe my prints were successful because, they reached the aim of the assignment brief, by creating an outcome that showed a clear link, to both the Bauhaus movement and bank of china. If I was to given the chance to do this project again, I would incorporate more details within my print design

Drawing project evaluation

When given my project brief, I fully understood what the aim and the outcome of the project insisted of; a variety of different drawings displaying different medias and drawing styles, and to have a finally outcome that shows at least one of these drawings techniques and media. Upon receiving the assignment brief, I was feeling worried and anxious about how the project would go as I found drawing a long process for me, as I always take my time with every drawing and therefore being behind on work and eventually my work load build up; so I was not excited about this project. During the project not much research was needed for this project.

All that was required was to create to have a visual diary that included a variety of different observational drawings that we drew outside of the class. I didn’t experience any difficulties with my visual diary as the work included within my sketch book was of my own choice and could be rushed or precise if wanted to. This gave me relief and hope as I could do any drawing I wanted within my own time, therefore at least having a few completed drawings to add onto my project. I had to fill out my visual diary to help build my drawing skills as the weeks went on. Looking back at my visual diary I see a lot of progression throughout my book. This also helped me with my final piece as it was allowed me to generate ideas and record how my ideas developed.

I was not satisfied with almost all of my outcomes as the majority of my outcomes were not finished as I was using up too much time on one drawing. Also some of the outcomes were not done to a great standard and looked rushed. If I had spent more time and focused on my outcomes and become more pleased with the drawings

I choose my final drawing by looking at a few examples of drawings from Pinterest and was inspired when I came across a drawing where the model who had been drawn had been spilt into sections where one part was a close up of a part of the face. So I did something similar, but however I didn’t zoom into a section of my model; I used two images that expressed two different emotions. One shows my model in an upset/depressed manner while the other is of her gazing and wondering. The reason why I choose these two emotions was because they make up the models persona. I decided to draw the sad and depressed versions of the model as it’s what’s hardly expressed by her as she hides this emotion, so I projected it bigger, while the gazing emotion I made smaller.

The background aspect of this final outcome was to show and express someone close to me and send out a message to them that they don’t hear often about themselves. Almost as if I was trying to show the model her own persona from a different angle.  I also choose to make one of the emotions meaningful towards herself. For example making the gazing emotion smaller and gazing at herself was about her confusion for her goals in life. What she wants and aims to be.

I mainly only used colouring pencils for my final piece. Using only colour’s that expressed the emotion and then colours that went well together, but I also used pencil for a small section of the drawing. I also used different Medias for my other outcomes. For example charcoal and biro pen along with the common hb pencils. None of those equipment’s were of new use to me as I’ve had experience in using them to draw other outcomes in previous works along with in my own free time to practice.

In some of my outcomes I did experience difficulties. For example within one of the drawings our aim was to work without looking directly at our object. So therefore I had to walk to the objects, remember what I saw, and then walk back to my drawing and add it on. Therefore relaying on memory rather than sight. So I experienced difficulties with getting the correct angle and perspective.

Overall I did not enjoy the assignment, as majority of my outcomes I did not finish nor was I pleased with them; although I was pleased with my outcome as although it was rushed, I still liked the outcome as it came out better than I hoped and expressed what I wanted to project.

Chair project evaluation

For this project I was asked to create a model chair design influenced by the style of art deco and art nouveau. At the beginning of the project I struggled to understand the assignment brief as I wasn’t sure on if we had to create a life size chair or a prototype; but eventually I did get to understand the assignment more, and eventually started to like it. Exploring something that was out of my imagination of doing. Although while perusing through the process of creating my designs I had a few struggles and complications. The main issue was with drawing my chair designs in different perspectives such as isometric and orthographic wasn’t the easiest drawing style. Trying to draw the chairs from different angles so the viewer can get a clear understanding of my design; but I did get the hang of drawing within a different viewpoint.

I used the internet as my source for the information required as everything I needed was easily found through typing in the information I was looking for. Although I did look through a few chair books to get some sort of inspiration for my next designs. While using my source I did manage to get a lot of background information about chairs from a variety of different centuries and there improvements along with background information on art deco and art nouveau. While researching I took inspiration from the creative chairs made throughout the decades and started to do sketches from the designs and took little aspects from each individual chair I had looked at.

Making my final outcome was easier than I thought as I made it up as I created the chair, but I did get inspired by one of my chair designs but improved on the chair, only taking the shape of the seat from my original drawing of a design idea for a chair outcome. The outcome of the chair was great and better than I thought. I added aspects to the chair to try make it individual to the others within the class. For example making my chair have movement (spinning) so that whomever sits on the chair can have enjoyment rather than just comfort. I don’t feel as I could have improved upon the chair outcome as the final design was better than I had hoped for even though I had not finished the design fully. I used macette to create the chair along with nail and tissue paper. I used a nail to make the chair spin around and the tissue paper to cover majority of the chair to make the chair look as if it was made of more than one material. While creating the chair I did have trouble in making the chair spin. I did not know how to join both the stand and seat of the chair together for it to be moveable, but eventually getting help from a fellow student, I was able to find a way to join the two and still be able to get the chair to me.

Looking through my book, I feel as if I showed a clear idea of designs for my chair aswell as the required information I needed to include from the art form of art deco and art nouveau. I did show a story throgught my book of my chair ideas until it came to making the chair as the final outcomes was an improvisation of a small section of my art deco chair idea. As when I started to make my chair, I did not include any information to what had lead me to create my final outcome, only ideas.

During the processes of the whole project, I feel like I’ve gained and learned new aspects for myself to use in future life. For example the processes of creating a house hold item/ object and also how to create a miniature chair. Overall I did enjoy the project as it was an ease to do, even though in the beginning I was confused. 

Unit 77 evaluation

Unit 77 evaluation

 For this project my assignment was to create a bunch of art work inspired by a variety of different artists and the art style of Bauhaus and geometric shapes, while working in different styles inspired by a verity of artists. When looking at the brief, I found the assignment quite simple as the outcome was to create a bunch of different outcomes that were both inspired by Bauhaus and arts and craft movement. Although I did have a few difficulties in coming up with outcomes and designs inspired by some arts for example wassily Kandinsky. Although his work was quite simple to create, however I could not find an inspiration for my own outcome and final piece working in his style. The majority of my research came internet as I found it easier to look for the required information I needed to write about my artist. Although I did go on a visit to the Whitechapel gallery to see the works of Malevich and his black and white squares along with other artists included within the gallery. While researching background information about Josef albers and his coloured squares, while looking at his paintings, I became inspired to create some of my outcomes from looking at a few other painting of his. I later went back to improve and create more coloured square outcomes as I still inspired to create a bunch of non-simplistic outcomes near to the end of the project as more art work inspired me. My final outcomes inspired by Kandinsky was inspired where chosen by a variety of different things; for example two scenery’s along with an object and a song for one of the finals and also some of the qualities and details included within some art work of the artists paintings, to make a clear link towards mine and that of the artist. I had struggled in making the two final paintings as working with acrylic paint was not easy for me as I could not contain it or control it once it had been placed onto the painting, so I had a few issues in getting the paint and outcome too look how I wanted. Although some great outcomes came from the mistakes I had made with the painting therefor I was still pleased with the outcomes. Although I could have improved upon my skills to make the painting look much better and also not rushed. Throughout the processes of this assignment I did learn new art movements that I could eventually use within our works and projects. Coming to the end of the project I didn’t get to complete all my work as some pieces of information and writing was not included within my book as I had to try get what I had done already into my book, but overall I still had the most important and useful outcomes and information required in my book. Looking back at the project there is a few improvements I could have made towards the entire project as some of the outcomes were not to a high standard as expected and required; but some things were to great standard for example the outcomes inspired by Josef albers as I made great outcomes.

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky, one of the inventers of modern and abstract art, exploited the strong images, memories and feelings between colour and form to create an artistic experience that engaged the sight, sound, and emotions of the public. He believed that abstraction was the possibility for thoughtful, inspiring expressions and that copying from nature restricted with the process, so he went against it, creating diverse and deformed art inspired by different aspects of things. He was highly inspired to create art that communicated a universal sense of spirituality, modernising a pictorial language that only loosely related to the outside world, but expressed volumes about the artist’s inner experience. His visual vocabulary developed through three stages, starting from his early, representative canvases and their divine symbolism to his energetic operatic compositions, to his late geometric biomorphic flat planes of colour. Kandinsky’s ideas and art work inspired many generations of different artists, from his students at the Bauhaus to the abstract expressionists after World War 2.

composition VII

Commonly known as the highpoint of Kandinsky’s pre- WW1 achievement. This composition of ‘VII’ shows Kandinsky’s rejection of graphic, symbolic representations through a swirling hurricane of colours and shapes. The operatic and loud mixing of forms around the canvas demonstrates Kandinsky’s belief in that painting could induce sounds the way music was in-titled to mind certain colours and forms; even the title of the composition aligned with his interest in the twists and twins of the musical with the visual and highlighted Kandinsky’s non-presentational focus in this work.

As the different colours and symbols spiral around each other, Kandinsky eliminated traditional references to depth and placed the simple different abstracted glyphs in order to communicate deeper themes and emotions common to all cultures and viewers. Anxious by the theme of disaster and improvement throughout the 1910’s, Kandinsky formally tied the whirling composition of the painting to the theme of the cyclical processes of destruction and salvation. Despite the seemingly non-objective nature of the work, Kandinsky maintained several symbolic references in this painting. Among the various forms that built Kandinsky’s visual vocabulary, he painted glyphs of boats with oars, mountains and figures. However, he did not intend for the viewers to read these symbols literally and instead imbued his paintings with multiple references to the last judgment, the deluge, and the Garden of Eden, seemingly all at once.

Painting was, above all; deeply spiritual for Kandinsky.  He wanted to carry out deep spirituality and the depth of human emotion through a universal visual language of abstract forms and colours that transcended cultural and physical boundaries. Kandinsky viewed non-objective, abstract art as the ideal visual mode to express the “inner necessity” of the artist and to convey universal human emotions and ideas. He viewed himself as a fortune-teller whose mission was to share this ideal with the world for the betterment of society. He viewed music as the most transcendent form of non-objective art - musicians could evoke images in listeners’ minds simply with sounds. He strove to produce similarly object-free, spiritually rich painting that referred to sounds and emotions through a unity of sensation. 

ART DECO

Art deco is a global inspiration art form with a wide-ranging style that draws on many sources; it was the firstly embraced design movement by artists and artisans (artistic craftsmen that work alone or in small groups and make furniture, clothes or even food creatively) across the world. The term ‘art deco’ originated from Paris from the 1925 art exposition at le muse des arts decoratifs. The exposition was meant to be a display of nouveau designs from around the world, but U.S. Secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover declared Americans off limits from entering, as he felt no contemporary architecture was “new” enough. The 1925 french art exposition “international des Arts decoratifs” served as the element for designers mixing exotic glamour with clean, masculine lines. It is captivated by much of the style of the roaring twenties and the great depression era. During the styles uprising, it was referred to as ‘Style Moderne’ and ‘Art Moderne’ by strict critics such as Jazz Modern. The term ‘jazz’ was an insulting term in traditional circles.

Bevis Hillier

Art deco was not published until 1968, were British art historian Bevis Hiller published ‘art deco of the 20’s and 30s’ that the name finally stuck; but due to the fashion era of the twenties evolving into a more modernised design in the thirties, some designers continued to have their doubts about identifying a collection that could be accurately labelled Art Deco. Although in 2003, a large exhibition on Art Deco was hosted by Victoria & Albert museum, finally confirming its acceptance as a genuine and distinct style of its time. Designers continue to pay a tribute to the art forum of Art Deco today, through architecture, furniture, furnishings, objects, art, fashion and jewellery. Reinterpreting the movement for the 21^st century. The London Art Deco society celebrates this by featuring Art deco new waves venues. 

One of the inspired artists that interests me from this art form is Tamara de lempicka. Her work was of portraits of writers, entertainers, artists, scientists and industrialists; it consisted mainly of rich and successful people. No one from underclass, since In her childhood she was spoilt by the age of 14 by her grandmother with clothes and travel, after her parents were divorced. This is what bought her, her critical acclaim, social celebrity and considerable wealth.  After her second husband death she went on to live near her daughter to start painting with different materials such as a palette knife, much in vogue at the time.

HISTORY OF PRINTMAKING

Printmaking- is the process making of making a variety of artwork by using the method of printing, normally on paper, but also sometimes on such materials and objects as wood, lino and metal depending on the printing style. Printmaking normally covers the quality and originality of creating the prints, rather than just having a photographic reproduction of a painting.

105 AD – is cited as the year in which papermaking was invented in china.

Woodcut print

1380- Woodcut Printmaking, a relief printing plate made by carving marks in blocks of long grained planks or plywood. Long-grain refers to the grain following the direction of growth. For example, parallel to the tree trunk/ branch the piece of wood was cut from.

engraved print

1420-30- Printed Engraving is a method where metal plates begin to replace the use of carved wooden printing blocks for the reproduction of works of art. A plate of soft metal is used, most often copper, and the design engraved (cut into) into the surface using a tool called a “burin” which is a square tool-steel rod, sharpened diagonally at one end so that the prominent corner becomes an effective controllable cutting edge.

LetterPress print

1440-50- Letterpress Printmaking is a technique of relief printing using a printing press. A worker composes and locks movable type into the bed of the press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type. Which creates an impression on the paper. 

Etching print

1513- Etching is a traditional process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (relief) in the metal. 

lithography print

1796-8 – Lithography originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. Printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or metal plate with a smooth surface. 

Photogravure print

1852- Photogravure is intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with light- sensitive gelation tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a highly quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a photography.