Research- photography. (narrative images)

 sandy skoglund- An American photographer originally from Quincy Massachusetts, she creates unusual scenes fresh from the imagination, often telling a story..

Her style of photography is definitely unusual, I like how she has kept everything down to two colours- simple, effective and imaginative. They show the story through the image which is what narrative photography is all about and I love how she's given it a cartoon like quality like a comic book.

 This image is unusual more than anything, full of colour, shapes and people frozen in time; It's the type of thing you'd see in a fantasy film or something- I Really like it and think it's a beautiful piece of photography- edited or not! She has explored the boundaries between life and lifelike by creating this artificial landscape she is clearly very talented and dedicated as to go as far as creating grass out of pipe cleaners, tree's out of wool fibres and othere various materials... I love her imagination and it comes out in this vibrant piece of creative photography.

 I really like this image you can clearly see there's a story behind it and it keeps you guessing what it could be which I really like- Its colour/black and white mixture is really effective- It's a good mix and makes the people stand out more. It reminds me of comic book images..

 CINDY SHERMAN
Cindy sherman is a photographer, model, director and actor- clearly very talented- most of her photography is that of herself- also, movie stills and pictures that tells a story of some sort...

I really like this photo, with the townscape background, the emotion in here face and her scarf blowing in the wind it's all very nice imagery but there doesn't seem to be any story behind it like she claims...

DUANE MICHALS

is a photographer who creates beautiful series' of images that tell a story or recreate stories within one image, most of it was controversial for it's time and involves alot of nude men and women...

I really like this series of images, it's a simple idea but visually it's very effective- showing the distortion of a beautiful face in several various ways which I think could be some kind of message...

Paper art research for project

In our current 3D project we are working on creating townscapes or buildings inspired by what we have seen and the research we have done and recreating or creating similar images in paper/ card/ wire etc.. here are some of the artists and their work that have inspired me with their creativity and ability to create detailed, beautiful sculptures/ pieces of art using different kinds of media such as paper or card etc.

Firstly, Brian Dettmer, an artist who originally focused on his painting until he started using pages from books and newspapers and layering them up to create art; this was when he discovered his love for creating art with books and started creating art like this:

 He has gone into great lengths to create the detailed layers in this piece, the corners are sharp and equal- and the whole structure seems very geometrically correct and reminds me of a tower on a castle or the tall beautiful hotels in venice- I love how every layer seems to play a part and ,if painted well, could pass as an actual building from a short distance as it possesses all the structural qualities. I would love to create something this detailed, unfortunately I lack Dettmer's unique abilities...

This piece of work reminds me of an ancient Roman ruin, he has layered it in such a way as it appears to have columns and I love the rounded shape he has given it. I love the detail he has put into it, it is small, detailed and very intricate and has a quality about it that is very fantasy- like. As though it has come out of someone's dream- just by looking at his work you can see how imaginative he is. He has a brilliant talent for geometric shapes, layers and detail.

Secondly, there is another artist called Mary Burton Durell who has a technique that I find quite interesting; she creates biomorphic abtractions made from tracing paper and wheat paste to create amazing sculptures that are like nothing I have ever seen made- especially out of paper! Her work is organic, unique and looks as though it is inspired by underwater plants such as coral and even though I can't use what she has created in my piece I can use her technique to create parts of it such as windows, walls etc as it's easy to paint over and dries hard and sturdy. Here is an example of a piece of her art:

As you can see it's clearly unusual, the colours are natural, simple and clear... She's kept her designs minimal in design but even so the finished piece emits creativity and originality.

Also, There is a cardboard artist called Jonathon Ro-Schofield who is one of my favourites and can link to some of the small designs I have done in preparation for my 3d project... he was born in the UK in the sixties and is qualified in all parts of art and very well aquainted with cardboard art - this is the area he specialises in although he has done numerous paintings... here are some examples of his work...

His work is detailed and appears lifelike- clearly he has a great talent when it comes to cardboard, His work is very unique- he adds tone with different shades of cardboard and his work is very inspiring- this piece has given me some ideas about my 3d project.. I really like all the detail around the bottom of the tower all the cracks and crevises really come together and the small detail aroud the windows is beautiful...

 Her is a close up image fo the bottom of the model... clearly he measures everything as everything seems to be perfectly correct in terms of size shape and symmetry- it is also very geometrically correct.. the detail is beautiful and lifelike and that's the main reason that I like this piece....

Unlike his other pieces this piece isn't very detailed at all- he has used large pieces of material, large shapes and simple structure to create this piece of art he has called "chryslar" whch is a model of the building in New York City... Although the shapes he has added are very dynamic, precisely measured and eye catching this structure isn't very detailed and that's why I don't really like it. On the other hand, the use of a range of other materials is very interesting and I like the idea of the shiny material he has used on the curved parts to create definition and maybe I could use that on my structure? It reminds me of a building you would find in a comic book... I like the idea but not the lack of detail otherwise this is a great piece of cardboard art.

The figure Research (print)

Orlando Sanchez is a figurative artist from Austin, Texas who makes a living creating his art and selling them online and in galleries and also runs life art classes in his studio..

This piece of artwork is called 'Kate taking it off'- it is 15 x 22 and a half inches, it's painted with acrylic on cancon paper and sealed with varnish... He is clearly very talented and I love how he's made a simple image of a half naked figure interesting by changing the colour of the skin, adding all the dynamic colours and shapes around it and this has made it very modern... I don't really like what he has changed about it- as in the colour and the shapes, although it is very dynamic and unusual I think it would have been better if he'd used skin tones and maybe made it a bit more elegant perhaps...

I really like the image below, it's very scenic and peaceful and he's really captured the essence of beauty in it as well, the skin tones are perfect and you can see the moonlight reflecting off parts of the body.. there's a very magical atmosphere in this piece and clearly he's a very talented artist. Everything seems soft and delicate which really creates the illusion of floating on the water which I think is incredible and the dashes of red splashed about breaks up the blues and bring some heat into the image which I think makes it seem more intimate than if he'd have kept everything in cold blues like the image above. It is called 'Sadie's underwater dream' it is 24 inches by 40 inches created using nupastel and oils on Neenah crest white paper sealed with polyurethane.

Xia Taptara

Xia Taptara is a former concept/ 3d character artist who creates beautiful and detailed art on ipads, computers using many various drawing/painting software to create his art. He has his own website where he teaches people how to skilfully create art using digital software over the internet by going through a step by step guide through all the tools and techniques in great detail... Here is one of my favourite of his pieces... 

He created this on an app called "Ipad sketch club"... The tones of the skin are perfectly soft and the brushwork is messy but it works. Her facial expression is clear and natural which must be difficult to portray on an ipad? He's captured the soft floaty texture of the scarf and the lighting is perfect... Apart from the background being abit dull I can't fault this image at all. I think it's lovely.. He hasn't really done anymore firgure paintings that I like as he does mainly portraits; this image has no name and hasn't stated any size.

Ewa Kienko Gawlik  is from Poland and is a self representing artist who creates beautiful pieces of art focused on the female figure but has also done males, she uses all sorts of materials such as pencil, acrylic, pastels, graphite, watercolour and more and she sells them on a website especially for self representing artists... Here are a few examples of her work:

I think this piece above is absolutely perfect- a beautiful abstract piece of art that is full of light, a wide range of colour and tone. She accents the curves of the body with light created with intense colour and shocking white and the light is so perfect it looks as though someone is shining a torch on the painting. I love the fact that you can see the texture so clearly in the background; it's rough and messy and is smoothed on the parts of the body that are supposed to be closer towards the viewer which is effective because they look more 3d; she has created perfect perspective which is hard to do. Created in 2012 she has used acrylic paint and varnish on canvas, the image is only 20 cm by 20 cm and has no name.

I love this drawing.. it's beautiful. I love the fact that the lighting and shading is so faint and soft and there are no harsh tones or lines, it makes the image look natural and innocent. I like drawings that are perfect like an exact copy (maybe a bit boring to most but I think they're amazing) and that's why I like this one so much; it's simple and exact. Although, It would look lovely with a splash of colour maybe... that's the only thing I would change. It was drawn with pencil, graphite on white paper and size: 30 by 40cm.

She also draws a lot of ballerina's in various poses which I think are quite charming... They seem to be drawn quite quickly or she's at least spent less time on them than she has on the other drawings and paintings she's done but they seem to have been frozen in time- maybe she's drawn them during a performance? They have an adorable, graceful quality and I think they're lovely.

My favourite is the second image though, It's more detailed than the other one- she has clearly put a lot of consideration into the light, I like the way it has completely covered her face as she looks directly into it- it makes her look angelic. She has applied a squiggly quality to the skirt and has used both white and dark lines on it, she has shaded is beautifully (or smudged it) and I can tell just by looking at it just how that skirt will feel. I like the way her limbs are lit brightly where the light hits them is creates a strict grace amongst them as though she has been captured in time in this image and I think that is an excellent talent to have especially since these drawings seem to be drawn more quickly. 

John Vitrue- Artist Research

Information on the artist....

1947 Born in Accrington, Lancashire
1965-69 Studied at Slade School of Fine Art
1971 Moved to Green Haworth, a small village on the edge of the Pennine moorland where he created many pieces of art all centred around this location.
1978-1980 around this time is when he started work as a postman for several years abandoning painting and found a new way of creating art on an acid-free board using a dense network of lines drawn with pen and ink.

1980 Began setting his drawings in large grid formations
1991 Began working directly from nature on large un-stretched canvases
1996 Began working on stretched canvas from drawings

He also has many collections of his work in a number of different galleries including the Tate Gallery, London's British Museum, Walker art centre, Art Society, Yale centre for british art and many more...

Here are some examples of his work:

 His paintings are usually large townscape images of London, dark ominous skylines and smoky skies-his style is like modern Gothic with an abstract flair.. I really like the deep black toned areas he's applied in this painting it makes you really concentrate on what it actually is- its hard to make out what is buildings and what is the river but its still a brilliant image.

Abstract acrylic painting

I can't really paint that well but we've been doing acrylic painting in class, Using an arrangement of random objects grouped together in the centre of the room we chose sections of the arrangement to draw/ paint/ sketch etc... I found it particularly hard drawing from a distance, without much close detail and painting in an abstract style as it's not really my preference but I got on with it and here are the results....

 This is the first one I did. I have reflected colours wherever I could see them and kept the shapes relatively easy on the eye and simple but at the same time I think the colours I have used mixed with all the square/rectangular shapes make it look really effective and modern. I put quite a lot of small detail on the horse skull with small brushes and when it dried I added pencil and pen to selected areas as a final touch which has given it a scratchy quality when you see it face to face which I really like. I like the shading I've applied but I could have done with having darker areas to make it a bit more 3d but other than that I wouldn't really change anything.

I like this image, It's detailed and abstract which sometimes go against eachother but I think has worked quite well in this piece...There are alot of complimentary colours in this painting that I think are quite effective and also, everything has a floaty quality, like everything is levitating which I think is interesting and the brush work is messy but that works well.. 

This is an abstract painting of a girl in the style of Helenka- an artist I have mentioned previously in my research. Although the head is abit over sized I'm proud of the colour and technique I have used in the darker side of the face and the hand and background. The white jumps out of all the dark dingy colours and it makes the whole painting very interesting.

Life drawing in college

Life drawing
(d. Yet to add lesson one and picture of point and line drawing)

Adding shading (Lesson 2)
This is my drawing of our nude life model, Wendy. We've done this before but we weren't allowed to add tone it was simply point and line which I find hard to do because it means staying away from shading. I like this image- It's not the best one I've ever done in my life but It's accurate, measured and quite detailed. I didn't have time to finish which is why she has no face, hands or feet but I'm happy with how it has turned out. The head shape was difficult to do because of the hair, angle and lighting but It looks good considering it's a bit misshapen. I think I've done quite well..

 Adding Conte crayon- Lesson 3
This is my first attempt at using conte crayon to my life drawing, I have continued using the same technique of measuring and creating a sight size drawing; but instead only using conte crayon. I did all the necessary construction lines and correct measuring but I still managed to go wrong when it got to the lower leg and foot which I struggled quite considerably with as the conte crayon isn't a very accurate tool to draw with. I did a faint outline of the body first, eventually adding darker lines until I had a full body shape, then I added some shading with the black conte crayon I did this very faintly because there was a lot of light hitting wendy from where I was sitting. I enjoyed using the crayon, even though it was inaccurate it was easier to erase, darker lines look more effective and it runs smoother across the page. Smaller detail was harder to do which is why I struggled with the feet and small ripples in the body which was quite annoying, I think I could have done better with this piece if I had more time but I'm happy with the way it looks even though some parts are disproportionate. Also, I enjoyed adding the white conte crayon it makes the image look more effective, makes the light more prominent on the body and accents wendy's curves on her shoulders, legs and breasts which ultimately adds to the 3d effect that I was after. I haven't added facial features or hair because the conte crayon was too hard to add any real detail with- but I think the fact there are none of them features gives this image abit more character although I would like to have finished it but overall I like this image.

Willow Chalk (Lesson 4)
I really like this image, in this piece I used black willow chalk which was really hard to use because it is so brittle, it crumbles easily and it's extremely inaccurate. I measured her as always, put in the correct lines(which were really easy to erase) and drew the faint outline of the body before adding shading. I didn't like using willow chalk, it was too fiddly and inaccurate, had to be constantly sharpened if I wanted pefect lines and was too easy to rub off the page. On the other hand, even though a lot of effort went into this, it has paid off because everything is measured correctly and looks proportioned properly. (Well I think so anyway) I've added more defined dark lines in certain places to make up for the fact that I wasn't really able to add proper tonal detail because the chalk kept rubbing away as I went on... But I think that it has reflected the tones that I saw on her body very well and I would definitely use willow chalk again for that reason. I like the result that the chalk has left me with and I'm happy to leave it as it is.