30 November 2022
I loved lino cutting! I need more practice, I don’t do enough of it even though I have a small set at home. I get annoyed at too much noise – the lines in the areas I don’t want printed. This is just because I’ve not really done much and am a bit heavy handed in places.
As part of this session we also cut into foam rollers to make repeat patterns. Again this is something I just to enough experimenting with. Great for those long rolls of brown paper for personalised gift wrap.
7 December 2022
I found Michal really inspiring and I loved the reason and ideas behind his projects.
I especially liked that most of what you see is captured in camera with few edits and using a 50mm 1.4 prime lens.
One of the challenges I have decided to set myself is to only use my 2.8 prime lens 50mm and keep a record. This is such a good way to improve my photography technique and refine my knowledge of using the different manual settings on my camera. I love natural light and often struggle getting what I see reproduced in camera.
December 2022
As part of our course we have the opportunity to display and sell a limited edition of screen prints in a pop up shop space in Weston Super Mare. The theme was a visual verb. I chose “to love” and the image I decided to use was the one I had worked on in our photoshop and screenprinting sessions.
I chose the colours gold for the bitmap photo image and moss green for the trace outline. The image had to fit a 10″x8″ frame. I am pleased to say I sold one mounted print and that small gesture has improved my confidence so much, people do like my work enough to put it on their wall.
23rd November 2022
I loved this! I have so many sketchbooks with maybe a handful of unused pages in, and what a great way to collate them all together and make new ones to be used.
As ever, I’m just a little uncoordinated with the sewing. I always seem to start things off back to front. Anyway, I made a simple stitch pamphlet and a Japanese stitch booklet.
The whole idea of making my own sketchbooks, really ties in with my decision to find a more sustainable way of working and producing art.
Two sketchbooks read and waiting to be used.
28th February 2023
21st February 2022
Understanding more about what actually falls under the Creative Industries umbrella and what opportunities are out there for those of us who wish to make a living out of being creative, the supporting industries, also the consideration of ethics and sustainability as a creative practitioner. This module is wordy and research based with visits from guest lecturers.
23rd February 2023
Due to the Portfolio module following on directly from our Negotiated Project, we had to write a review of our work.
My aim was to investigate being a sustainable artist using natural resources and reusing found, or waste materials. I wanted to move away from using mass produced artist materials and see how easy it is to create a piece of art using more sustainable products and methods.
I found some of the processes to be quite therapeutic, however it was very easy to etc myself get bogged down in how broad this subject matter was and a little lost in which direction I wanted to follow. Looking at how to make my own paints from natural pigments was the first hurdle. I really enjoyed this thought process yet quickly realised that the colour palette is very limited and some colours although available in nature and geology aren’t necessarily light fast or easy to source.
I was disappointed that I didn’t take more time in learning some of the techniques with the different paints egg, egg tempra, that would have made my paintings look less naive and have more pop with proper blending of colours and creation for tones and shadows.
However I was very I suited by final piece and will be investigating how to use waste engine oil and introducing colour and texture going forward.
I actually need to have more confidence in my own abilities and trust in the fluid processes a little more. I work a lot better once I do and my paintings sem to just flow from my own imagination and the heart when I do this.
I am determined to be a more sustainable artist ad make my own paints and find materials to work on and with. However, it isn’t going to happen overnight and in this first year I will buy in some of the pigments, and paper from sustainable and ethical sources. Make what I can and recycle what I can.
I think it’s very hard to change the way of working and practices immediately. It takes time to learn, understand, perfect and you also need to be able to experiment and have a lot of throw aways in order to learn. I struggle with allowing myself to experiment and be free. I struggle to make the time.
9th February 2023
This week is the launch of the Portfolio module. The aim isn’t consolidate what we have learnt during our Negotiated Project and expand on our creative practice.
The concluding outcome will be a piece or body of work that encapsulates that practice. With evidence of experimental outcomes, research and a million other things that just thinking about sends my mind into a kind of panicked overdrive.
In a little under 18 weeks I need to get it together, come up with a proposal, project plan and a finished outcome. I will be basing it around a sustainable art practice and that in itself is a challenge.
6th October 2022
I missed this lecture and workshop, which I’m quite disappointed about. This is therefore a very short blog post holding this space.
We had a workshop on this last year in my foundation course and I really want to investigate cyanotypes and cliche verre in more detail.
I missed this lecture due to a hospital appointment. This links to the assemble project in the Creation and Production module.
It’s about understanding the colour wheel and how our decisions as artists will affect the final composition. The rule we use or disregard in a piece of work have a bearing on how we would like our work to be viewed. Its important to understand where you wish the observers eye to be drawn, and does the composition encourage it to follow a certain path or not. What colour’s you use can help highlight certain areas of the image, or set the mood because of the choice of warm or cool colours, or a blend of both.
I decided to use a simple complimentary pallette and tried several way of fitting the shapes together. For me it works best with the yellow triangle in the centre.
Helen Louise Art 