Evaluation

Within Unit X I have been looking into Identity and what that means to me as a person, I have explored many different avenues within this unit and enjoyed where my work has taken me. I have developed and refined my drawing process; experimented with hand embroidery, digital printing and the Risograph machine. The under pinning theme of Identity really drove my interest with portraiture. What about a face captures our attention? What makes that person them?
I did this by studying people close to me, home or in studio. At first I would draw them until I was finished but as this process developed and I refined it I found when I challenged myself I had the best results. With this in mind I created a series of drawing configurations. Time was a tool I used along with, colour, reductionism and repetition. Within my drawings I try and capture more than just a visual representation, I use time as a limitation to my drawings and reductionism in the face. This means my pieces are not fully formed pictures but still translate aspect of the person within them. The aspects that are often most identifying about us often are over looked; they are subtle such as a face shape, or our brow line. Often less is more and we (the audience) fill in the blanks. I have developed a more in depth understanding of what it will be like to be a working artist with in my area of interest. Only recently has the word ‘illustration’ been used to describe my work. I envision my work in gallery spaces as large scale pieces that can be rearranged and made into something new. I like the idea of people interacting with my work as it is flexible and easy to manipulate, along with gallery spaces I am drawn to commercial use for my illustrations.

“The character of a face in a drawing does not depend on its various proportions but rather on the spiritual light that it reflects. It is true that two drawings of the same face can portray the same character, even though the proportions of the face may differ. No two leaves on a fig tree are the same, each has it’s own form. None the less, each one cries out: Fig tree.” - Henri Mattisse

This quote really resonates with me, Mattisse perfectly sums up what I am trying to convey through my work on portraiture and identity. I can draw the same person ten times over with different times restrains and each drawing will look different. They all stem from the same source, no matter how they differ; all hold a quality or essence of the person. 

Most importantly what I found out within my project is that our differences are what separate us and make us who we are, they are our likes dislikes, our individual identities.

Photoshop configurations

Last week and this week I have been working on configuration using photoshop, I scanned all my A5 drawings in and tried to come up with new arrangements. The photoshop aesthetic is completely different to my wall configurations in the fact that I can duplicate and move them around a lot easier. It's a quicker and more efficient process, but I still perfect making my configuration on the wall and getting a feel for the scale. Below are a few of my photoshop configurations and my card configurations to show to contrast between the two. 

Wall of Faces

This week and last week I have developing my A5 card drawings into configurations on my studio wall. By scaling my drawings down I have been able to scale them up and produce bigger pieces. This was very enjoyable for me and i just played around with different configurations for a few days. I couldn't help but think they would be a great installation within a gallery as they are so easy to move around that the pattern can constantly be changed. I envisioned it in a large gallery space when the audience can interact with the piece changing it as they see fit.

Scaling down the faces

This week I decided to scale my drawings down to A5 size as they work large scale and small scale. I selected 6 faces to replicate and make a series of them, in both colour palettes. Once I finished them I realised I could photo copy the coloured faces and turn them into tonal faces which would give off a completely different look, I found it interesting that I had six of the same face but all different due to the way they were filled in and the personality that gave them. I created a series of drawings done in a few different ways. I coloured in their faces, I coloured in the backgrounds then photocopied them to get tonal versions of each.

Drawing process development

This week I worked into a drawing with stitch but it was on card and not fabric. I really liked the outcome and the general aesthetic of bringing the thread back into my drawings. Stitching back into my drawing on paper resulted in a very good piece of work but the process was challenging. The card couldn't hold up against the satin stitch I was using and it was difficult to sew through such thick card.

This idea led me onto get some drawings digitally printed. I have got some of my drawings digitally printed onto Cotton Canvas and Silk. I picked cotton canvas as I wanted to work into the drawings with stitch and I knew it would come out well on a heavy weight fabric. I also chose Silk as I wanted it to have a luxurious aesthetic and I wanted to see how the ink would interact with the fabric and my drawing. I have done one embroidery sample out of the prints, I did it all by hand and its a long and slow process. I did however immensely enjoy making it and will continue to develop other rest of the prints. I used flock and embroidery threads, I kept to my colour palette and tried to recreate my drawing in thread to the best of my ability.

My drawing process

Drawing in thread and glue have been pretty focal for me so far in this project, I use time as a tool when drawing as I set myself time limits, this means I am giving myself limitations which in turns makes for a more interesting piece. Over easter I did a lot of drawings and now I am developing them further. The initial thread and glue drawings were very effective and I really enjoyed that making process but the over all look of a piece was quite messy as the glue would pick up dust etc. By photo copying the drawings I was able to keep the thread line quality as it translated very well but to leave the glue behind.This means I could turn it into a flat image and re-produce my work to experiment and play with. I copied my thread drawings on to card and then decided it was time to bring colour into them and give them a bit of personality. After doing a series of drawings in various colours I decided to go with two colour palettes and base all further colour variations for my drawing in them.
Below is a sample of some of these colour drawings in the selected colour palettes.

Risograph development

This week I have been using the Risograph machine to replicate a select few drawings in different colour inks, on different thickness and colour of paper. I have used to Riso before and really liked the outcome so thought I would seen how my drawings came out. I know from experience that the thicker paper has a nicer quality to it as the ink seeped into it. The faces I chose where put to good use and I had a lot of different arrangements on each piece. They were just line drawings so nice and striking on the page. I book in for later on in the week and made the images smaller and used different colours. This allowed me to layer them on the pervious work I had done, which created interesting outcomes. I even cut into some of the drawings and added gold foiling to try and illuminate certain areas on the darker pages.The original drawings I used are as seen below and a selection of the work that I produced with the Risograph machine.

Easter break

Over this easter period I have been trying to develop my method of drawing. I have kept up with my thread drawings challenging myself with time restraints and would like to implement some colour but for the time being I am just trying to generate a large amount of drawings and next week when I'm back in studio I will go into them for further development. Drawings with different time allowances creates different outcomes each time. This is forcing me to not get hung up on the details and it's interesting to see how each drawing differs, as in each I focus on one area more than another.
The photos below are the series of drawings I have done all of the same person with different time allowances. I think the end result is really promising the whole process took me about six hours as each photo is after an hours work. Although I like to see the progression of the single piece. I would like to challenge the scale of my drawing as at the moment I am limited to the size of my paper.

I have started drawing in a new medium which is Henna, I thought it would be interesting as my tutor suggested me getting rid of the glue with the thread so with Henna I can get a continuos line and there are less components in the process. I have used it for a few drawings but it hasn't really worked out as I would have imagined, I like the colour and the way that the henna soaks into the paper nicely but the issue is that it is hard to draw quickly in it and I like with the glue and thread that I can generate drawings quickly. I'm sure I will find a way around this issue with practise and patience. I like the over all aesthetic of Henna and I think I can definitely continue to use it as a medium to draw in. I am going to try a larger scale perhaps.

New York Trip

This past week I visited NYC with my Textiles course. The week was full of Gallery, Studio and Museum visits, which normally wouldn't be my focus on a trip but I found them all useful in different ways. I think it was very helpful to get out of the studio and see real world applications for my degree, to see what the last four years of my life have been preparing me for.
I would have to say my favourite studio visit was Flavour Paper as they had an amazing space with a great team. I could envision working in a similar environment which is something I hadn't considered before as they are mainly focused on wallpaper printing and production. They had a range of different methods of making wallpapers each new and creative, such as scented wallpaper called scratch and sniff. I learnt that networking and making connections is very valuable to bettering oneself. 
When I was visiting the studio spaces I could see something I liked in each one, if not a specific role in the company the location or team structure. Upon reflection I think that I can now view my own work as something that can grown into many other areas and doesn't have to be restricted to just the one. I really enjoyed my trip I have been before but this trip was completely different to any other time I had been. I really enjoyed myself and am looking forward to trying to get a job in a great company when I graduate.

Evaluation

This project has taken me in many different directions but I feel I have produced some good quality work and I have thoroughly enjoy the process. I am happy that I got to try so many different methods of making in the unit and I will be pleased to further develop these ideas in Unit X. Within the Project I have found new ways of drawing and expressing myself, using material I would have never normally considered, such as thread, hair and glue. I started off this project strongly driven by my experiences in Auschwitz it fuelled my inspiration. I feel like my project developed and moved in a very organic way and it is a strong body of work. I think through out this project I have worked hard to produce work that is creative and relevant. My blog and sketchbook have been very useful tools in the project. I like working out of a sketchbook as it helps me keep track of my thought and ideas. I can see how my work develops and progresses as my idea change and grown. In the future I will have to work on getting out of my sketchbook.

For my deadline I produce a large-scale drawing, in a number of days, I enjoyed creating a drawing on such a large scale and look forward to my next opportunity to make one. I think the main thing I learned from this unit is that in order to develop work that pushes me as a textiles student, I need to step out my comfort zone, whether it be working with a new technique, process or material, I think it’s just being open minded and seeing what the results are. I would never know how much I loved drawing in hair and thread otherwise. I feel like I could have developed my ideas further by using colour and different types of thread, what I did learn is that I very much enjoyed this project and I would happily carry it on through portraiture on a very large scale.

Looking back on my project I wish I could have done more experimentation with scale and glue, I only ever did one small glue sample and I would have enjoyed to do a large scale sample.

My contextual and artist references have helped me a great deal in this project as they have given me vision and inspiration, they helped me develop my ideas and produce more work. I rely on them to inspire me when I am stuck. I have found that the best way for me to work is in the studio, I get in later than the rest but I make up for it after hours, I find it easier to work when the studio is quiet and there is plenty of space to spread out and it’s a good working environment. 

Week 27

Week 27

1^st February  - 5^th February


The last week before the deadline line has been busy, I finished my last thread drawing. I used thicker, and thinner threads to try and and experiment with texture and line weight. I prefer the thicker threads but not the one that I used. Upon reflection on my work I now know which thickness of threads I prefer to work with again some I will not be using again. The thinner the thread the easier to manipulate which allows for more detail.
I have really tired to test out all of my ideas before the deadline. This week I have tried to make a glue drawing where I draw using thread in wet PVA glue and once its dry I cover in in another layer and draw onto of the previous layer until it builds up enough that it’s a free formed glue drawing that I can hang, even though I never did test out my hanging theory. I liked the end result but took me a long time to peel off the acetate and in some areas that glue stretched and distorted the drawing.  I would doing this method again but be careful on what material I drew on as the stretch out a drawing is not ideal. This week I have also started a bigger piece for the vertical gallery. I wanted to experiment with scale of my drawings as its far more of a visual impact. I really enjoyed drawing it and making the drawing at that scale, I’m really happy with how it came out and I will definitely experiment with colour in Unit X, I will hopefully have a series of drawing in size and colour.