Artist blog- sprayed darkness

The start of my project really just experimenting with techniques and processes. I was unclear as to what kind of project I wanted to do because I really wanted to set the bar high and be more open to trying new things. so I began just sketching ideas and used various materials like ballpoint pens, pencils, watercolour paint and fine liners.

The image above shows a small amount of idea generation in my studio, I wanted to really think of a direction that would really impress and take me out of my comfort zone and to ignore my usual frame of mind when I draw like a perfectionist.

I also began to look at some artists for inspiration and learn new methods and styles to apply to my project. one artist in particular helped shape my project and to explore a different tone and concept altogether. I fully intend to continue to explore and keep an open mind in the upcoming weeks.

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14th October 2017

I am beginning to develop an idea revolving around faces and dark and light tones like a noir style that explores this bold style. I have begun using a material that I have always detested and that it is charcoal. I always liked to control what I draw and keep things neat and tight with my pencil drawings and by using something more free and hard to control like charcoal. I believe personally this is my first step in a new direction and I have begun to appreciate charcoal as a material and really enjoy incorporating the tool in my processes.

I used charcoal mostly through this period of sketching and decided to use characters from all kinds of media like celebrities and comic characters and kind of trying to bring these components into fine art in my own style. I look at it as a form of pop art in a way because of the popular characters I use in my work.

I am enjoying exploring in this period and see where this project takes me as an artist because charcoal is just a stepping stone in the endless possibilities to try and involve in my project.

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28th of October

This has been a crucial period in my project development I am still enjoying the use of charcoal and experimenting with techniques of such a loose material. I was also beginning to experiment with scale and have learned that bigger is better and I felt because I work on small scale preferably A4 and A3 size, that i had overcame another barrier in my exploration.

I decided to continue working with characters from different media like film and literature as well as graphic novels which is a peaked personal interest that i wanted to involve in my work to help focus my motivation on this project. the pieces that I have shown on this blog are highlights of my experiments and particular accomplishments with charcoal.

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3rd of November

This is a critical peak in my practice I decided to work on A1 scale because the experiments were really becoming exceptional with the style I developed so a bigger scale felt appropriate. I have continued using charcoal as my form of media because it has become a great asset to use in presenting my work and ideas in a new way. this material helps express my passion for using new media to develop a more skilled palette.

I have decided to use characters like the Punisher and Iron fist which are characters that appeal to me because of my hobbies and interests so in perspective what I draw is a piece of my identity scattered among all the pieces i have done like filling in a jigsaw piece with each drawing representing me by using the pop art concept and the form/topic I choose to sketch.

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10th November

This is the final entry for using charcoal as a media i have enjoyed thoroughly using it but I want to consider my project as a form of evolution I want my work to evolve and become better with every new media i use and every step i take in this new direction.

I am considering using spray paint because it is a very new material that is absolutely alien to me. I am excited to try a new media and really expand on my palette and hit the criteria that in my last assessments have held me back because of the anchor I had that kept to me to using pencil.

I have become a more adaptive and open minded artist in just this small period of time. I have high spirits about this project and its potential, I have used charcoal to its lengths and if I had an option to use it again I would try different ways to apply it and using different surfaces for different outcomes and effects.

I think personally so far my project is very dark considering the materials and I like this dark concept of it because it is a topic i suit because i like its presence and the aura it has to everyone because everyone perceives it differently. I wish to continue with this noir exploration and see what spray paint can reflect on this topic in its own way. whether good or bad it is not an important matter becuase it is exploring, it is a media I feel drawn to

END OF CHARCOAL EXPERIMENT.

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17 November

I am using spray paint as my choice of media now and I have began to experiment using stencils and black paint. The process is longer and more difficult to develop because I am unaccustomed to using a media like spray paint, but a really thorough process nonetheless. the most time consuming part is carving out the stencil and placing perfectly on surfaces to get the results I want.

My first attempt of this new media was a success and I feel it is continuing this dark tone of my project and also carrying the pop art concept I feel my work is showing as well my mind on paper. I am currently using black because I like the boldness my results show and the stencils are really effective with giving the likeness of the characters I choose to apply to my project. This is a new direction again so some results I cant control which makes the experience all the more exciting.

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24th November

I have continued with spray painting because of the great pieces I have created so far in this new method in my ongoing project. I developed several A3 pieces with paint which were Marv from frank millers sin city and john wick as well as Daniel Craig as James bond which all had turned out great and reflect heavily on Bansky concerning style and colour. I think as a have only just used this technique in as little as two weeks I think I have really created strong pieces for my project despite them being first attempts.

These pieces were great examples of my work going ion the right direction but also a confidence redefined to continue to try new media to express myself because of how good some of the outcomes are. I used a carving knife and blue tack to hold my stencils in place and then apply the spray paint and leave to dry for five minutes. It is more time consuming than using charcoal but the results are worth it, I am going to work bigger preferably A1 or maybe a different surface like wood or cardboard as a key piece to finalise my development with spray paint.

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1st December

I have developed further pieces using my new technique and I am improving with creating stencils at a faster rate and really starting to perfect my technique with spray paints. The pieces are being done on A3 size paper because it is a good size to start with and I wanting to do a few more pieces on that scale before I go bigger I want a substantial amount to show how I have progressed with this material.

I have decided to use a different approach to my stencils I applied red to my Rorschach stencil and it gave an interesting effect to the black bold stencil and I thin applying small touches of red spray made the piece more bold and intriguing. I think it is also opening more ideas on how to use my spray paints effectively like overlapping or transferring or repeatedly use the stencil in a grid or overlap, I have many ideas that I want to apply further in my experimental stage.

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8th December

I have developed my final A3 designs and have finalised that part of my project and will move on to a bigger scale for some final pieces of my spray paint experiments and I have enjoyed using them as my chosen media and I think after I have finished using spray paint I will for my next project use a broader palette and use them coherently and focus on multiple surfaces rather than paper.

This was a critical piece and it was a different scale also, it was A1 so designed three separate A3 stencils and combined together in an interesting composition that shows a dark layout of the three pieces that are connected within the same concept. I was an avid admirer of the legendary dark knight film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian bale, the late Heath ledger and Gary Oldman.

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15th December

The final entry for my project concerning spray paints, I have clearly displayed I am capable of using new and exciting forms of media and stay faithful to the use of the a certain material. I think I have developed a more enthusiastic frame of mind with trying new materials. I liked the piece of work I created I feel like they are very successful and appealing as a whole and it was a challenge that I have overcame so I am excited for the next form of media I choose to use for my next project.

ARTISTS I USED IN MY WORK

Jock

jock is a renowned movie and graphic novel legend that has designed movie culture posters for box office smashes like 28 days later, pans labyrinth and guardians of the galaxy. his work has also been featured In classic graphic novels like batman the black mirror, wytches and judge dredd. jock to me personally is a huge inspiration because of his commitment to his own style and how unique his style and use of media is compared to other comic artists in his field of work.

His work was a huge influence on my project both charcoal and spray paints because of how dark my work was and how his style helped guide and shape me into try new media all the time and practice using new things to improve my use of media and a further understanding of dark and light tones and applying that to my work.

Bansky

Banskys influence is very clearly present in my work particularly my spray paint section of my project. although his work is deep and more about poloitical views and truths of society and promoting liberty and messages to the people despite mine being more popular culture and also identity to me as an artist. Bansky is arguably the most famous and talented street artist, his work is stencil based and heavily writing on the wall sort of criteria and is a real man of the people by promoting peace and important messages to the public to show either his personal support or perhaps because messages are more noticed.

Bansky was heavily involved in my work and I felt in a way I was paying homage despite the difference in the style and message in my work and obviously the fact my work was not sprayed in the actual streets. I used black paint just like Bansky applies in his work, so I liked the similarities and differences equally even though I was not trying to do stencils like Bansky I just did my own style and experimented with the outcomes.

Christian Boltanski

Boltanski is a French sculptor and his work is mainly installations containing grids and manipulated distorted vintage photographs with uses of lights. His art is fascinating because of the setting the work has and the way it is presented that make the contents of the installations become bolder but also against reality like a door into another place when I see his work its like a twisted time capsule.

Everything with his work speaks to me age like the rusted blocks and the old tainted photographs, even the lighting look like a relic from the past as if it is mocking the present with past. his work is inspiring and is influential to my stencils because my work looks all connected like the grids Boltanski uses in his work just not as ambitious and effective so there is a lot to learn from his installations and possibly an artist I can use further in my project.

Gilbert and George

The work of these two extraordinary artists is appealing and inspiring because of the style and bold harmonious colours. The compositions is like tightly wrapped stamp of broad graphic but yet beautiful imagery. The duo are not afraid to show debauchery in there work but it is Britannia at its finest its like a bold statement of England and the concepts give off a punk era vibe with classical bold primary colours to express there passion in not the creative arts but Britain's patriotism or mocking in some ways that to me is both unclear and yet obvious.

Joyce pensato

The work of pensato is rough and dark, I get a gothic perspective of the classic cartoon characters she uses in her work. she is an inspiration because of the way she collects these legendary characters and remakes them in her image and style. the use of colour is non-existent because she keeps a dark maintain on all her pieces which makes them all the more disturbing and grotesque despite the innocent and parody persona these characters represent to the likes of children. Her motives are unclear its like she is transforming these figures of purity and innocence into macabre and sinister characters like placing them in parallel reality.

Gallery visit

The Baltic

Until, Until, Until by Edgar Arceneaux

This installation was a very moving piece because of its raw power and emotion. the piece is based on Broadway legend ben Vereen who did an act for the president Ronald Reagan inauguration. the play starts as Vereen dancing and entertaining and then the second half he removes his makeup which he applied because it hid the colour of his skin. he begins to address the wrongs of racism and the constant mistreatment and disgusting system that had punished his people because of their skin colour.

I personally felt a deep sadness for this piece because it really was the retelling of a tragic period of time where people were being controlled and treat with enormous hatred and disrespect. The piece was well made and really interesting because there was certain hints towards that iconic event in ben Vereens life. The artist Edgar used an actor to create an replay of the scene , he also installed the original broadcast.

Starless midnight

This exhibition was a collection of works by various students and artists in their own interpretations and expressions of the civil rights acts that martin Luther king stood for with hundreds of thousands by his side brother and sisters hand in hand to unite against the white tyranny that his people had endured and suffered since before slavery. This exhibition is a direct link to Edgars piece as it coincides with this powerful concept and topic that has become a meaningful pursuit for many artists.

I think this exhibition is fantastic and very powerful because the message is as hopeful and as pure as it was during the 60's. The effort and passion is so clear on the work I've seen because of how motivating the liberty of a race is, especially expressing it in ways words fail to say. The variety was well versed there was an impressive amount of sculptures and instalments of video, which was a great asset and form of media to use to get across the message that was so deep and so sincere to its concept.

Shaun project space critical.

Firstly, I would provide photographs unfortunately the photos were erased and not backed up. however, the work of Tamas with his mannequin sculpture was interesting because of the trainers with a Jackson Pollock drip painting style he applied to them. Tamas referred to the trainers as the main icon of the piece and that the mannequin was not a as important as the shoes. Tamas said he had designed shoes before and gets commissioned.

I like Tamas sculpture quite a lot actually I felt the trainers looked great especially the neatness of the paintwork and I also liked the mannequin being very plain because I felt the mannequin itself was a great craft and sometimes simplicity is more effective and in this case it was because it promoted the source of the piece.

Davika had talked about the large transfer on cloth that she applied using photographic transfer techniques which gave an authentic and faded appearance of her images which also distorted using digital effects. Davika was very impressive because of how spontaneous and unique the piece was in the project space. Davika clearly demonstrated a keen interest in photography and that she is very talented in the distortion and manipulation of images with great ease.

charlotte had created these bizarre and beautiful abstract pieces using the manipulation of paints and also expressed interest with using acetate in her work. the pieces were like an enormous oil spillage of colours there's to many to comprehend which made her work all the more interesting because the imagery was unknown. she worked on various forms of media and shown how resourceful she and she actually said most of the pieces were accidental and that she kept them because of how good they appeared despite them being effortless.