Final exhibition

During this week and last week (2nd - 12th June 2014) I have been putting up my exhibition in the life drawing room. Now that I have finished putting it all up I am very pleased with the outcome, however It wasn't that easy to put up and deciding what to put up and where to put it was very difficult.
At first I had planned to put up my two bigger pieces, side by side, however this did not work out as planned and the two pieces didn't really work together and they just didn't look right as they were so different. I then thought about putting up the large acrylic self portrait and three of the smaller A3 watercolours, but they didn't look quite right either and the large piece was so over powering.
In the end I had to play around with the order and placing of all my work a lot as every time that I changed it, it still didn't look right, however in the end I decided on an order and that I wanted to put the acrylic paintings together, and after I was given extra space, I decided that I would also put up some of the other watercolour paintings as well, but on the other wall so that the techniques didn't clash.
I used bulldog clips to hang all my work from and just used screws to attach them on to the wall and boards, was difficult to screw in the screws, especially in to the boards as they move and are quite unstable, and the fact that we had to screw them in so high and had to use the steps, which ment we had to stay quite close to the boards.
Overall I am extremely pleased with how my show looks, as I feel that the way the work is grouped together makes the work look really effective and each piece really complements the other pieces next to it.

Thursday May 22nd 2014

This morning I have been adding the pen to my A0 watercolour painting and it is starting to look really effective and I am getting more and more happy with it the more that I do.

I think that the pen makes it look so much better and a lot more interesting, however it does take awhile.

For this piece I decided that I wanted to use more than one thickness of pen, as with all the other watercolours that I have done I have just used one size of pen, and I thought that it would be more effective if I used a variety of pens, and already I think it is starting to look better. I think that this work especially well as it is a much bigger piece, and I could have done think with the smaller ones as they are too small the the pen would have over powered the whole image. 

This afternoon I finished the whole thing and I think that it is the most effective watercolour painting that I have done, as I think that the image and the colours worked really well for this technique.

I think that the most difficult thing about this piece is the fact that when I was adding the pen I had to be extremely close, and after a while this started to give me a head ache so I had to stop every so often, which ment that it took a little bit long to do. However the actual painting part of this piece was really quick, only taking me about a day and half or just over to paint. 

Overall I am happy with the outcome of the two paintings and think that they look rally effective and as good if not better than I expected them to look.    

Wednesday May 21st 2014

Monday to Wednesday:
Over the past few days I have been painting the portrait of the old woman, using watercolour and ink. I have now finish the actual painting part of the piece, and I think that it is starting to look really good and that I could probably leave it the way that it is, however I do feel that it will look a lot better when I have added the pen, as I think that it will look more defined and accurate.

Watercolour and ink on paper A0.

Sunday May 18th 2014

Today I started to draw out the out line for my second A0 final painting that is going to be in watercolour and ink. Now that I have done the other painting it was much quicker to cut the paper and measure out the grid, however I did go a little wrong so this painting is 2cm narrower that my other painting, as I ripped the edge of the paper and had to cut it off. It was also a lot quicker to draw out the image as I had an idea of how to draw on such a large scale and where to move back to, to look at it. I will start to paint it tomorrow.

This is the photograph I am going to paint.

Saturday May 17th 2014

Today I finally finished My A0 acrylic self portrait, I am really pleased with the way that it looks now that it is finally finished. It did take a little long that I thought that it would at the start, as it took nearly two day just to draw it out, but I do feel that it is one of my best paintings and that I when I actually started painting it, it didn't take too long. I think that that part that I found most difficult was the nose, as it was actually quite hard to get right, without making it look like I had a pigs nose, it took a bit of time but I think I got it pretty good and quite accurate. The part that took the most amount of time was probably the hair, as there is a lot of it and it is a lot of different shades of brown, and I had to add in all the fine wispy hairs in with a really small brush.
Overall I am really pleased with this piece and at first I thought that I would be overwhelmed by the size, but it wasn't actually that bad after all and I think I go quite a good likeness to the photograph.  

Acrylic on paper A0.

Friday May 16th 2014

This morning I added the fine liner pen to the life drawing that I did yesterday, I feel that this had really brought the piece to life and made it look more striking and unusual. I added the pen around the different colours like I have done on all of my watercolour paintings to make them look a bit different, however I did add the pen all over this painting as I haven't done a large one like this before, and I am glad that I did as I think it works really well as the black pen is a nice contrast to the paler, muted colours of the watercolour.

I also continued painting on the A0 self portrait, which I should hopefully finish tomorrow and then I should be able to start my final A0 watercolour painting on Sunday.

Thursday May 15th 2014

Today was the last life drawing session, so I decided that I want to create a really big A0 life drawing in watercolour that links with the rest of my project and the paintings that I am doing at the moment. I had to stick my paper up on the wall as it was too big to go on an easel, this ment that I was at quite a strange angle to the model but as I was focusing on the face it wasn't too bad. However as the paper is so large and I had to stand quite close, as the room is small and there are a lot of people in the class, it was difficult to get the proportions as accurate compare with the A1 sized paper, and I had to go to the other side of the room to get a good look at what I was actually painting.
I do think that this life drawing work really well even in the short amount of time that I had to complete in. However looking back I think it was good that I only had a short amount of time as I think that it made me work a lot quicker and made my work a little more free and spontaneous as I didn't really have time to think about what I was doing, I think that it also made this painting a little bit different to my other life drawings as it was a bit of a different painting style which had a different effect and look. I think that the scale made it more interesting and engaging.    

Monday May 12th 2014

Monday - Wednesday:
I have been continuing to paint my final A0 self portrait for the last few days and I think that it is really coming along and starting to look really good. However it is taking a while as it is so big and when I started I didn't realise just how big it actually was compared with the rest of my paintings that are A1, and when I started the A1 pieces I thought that they were big, but they look very small in comparison.
I feel that I have got a lot quick at painting now, especially as when I started this painting I was painting it on the floor which was quite difficult, however I am now painting it on the wall which is so much easier and means that I can step back and look at it from a distance and actually see how it is coming together.
I think that the most difficult part has been not getting to precious about the painting and just going with what I think, as it hard to go over parts that are wrong without think that I am going to ruin the whole thing.

  

Sunday May 11th 2014

During yesterday and this morning I have been cutting the paper to size, gridding it out and drawing out my image. This has taken quite a while as the paper is so big and much larger than I am use to, it took a lot long than I expected to cut the paper and gridding it out took especial long, however I do think that this was because I don't think that I cut the paper particularly straight, so as I was measuring out the grid all of the line started to go a little awry. However in the end I managed to make to grid work. I then started to draw out the image, this was difficult but not as hard as I thought it might be, as the grid really helped, However I did have to move back a lot further than I am use to as the paper is so much bigger than I have ever worked on before.
This afternoon I started doing a little bit of the painting but I will have to carry on tomorrow, I think that this will probably take the whole week to paint.
So far I think that it is looking good and I an happy with how it is starting to look.

Friday May 9th 2014

Today I decided what I am doing for the first of my A0 paintings and I am going to start by doing the acrylic self portrait, as I think that this will take longer than the watercolour and ink study.
This is the photograph that I am going to use and I will starting drawing it out tomorrow.

This is the image I have decided to paint for the exhibition.

Thursday May 8th 2014

This afternoon I did life drawing, and I decided that I would create another watercolour and ink painting as the last one that I did when so well and I wanted to experiment further with the way that the ink and paint runs down the page when the paper is on the easel.
I experiment using skin tones like browns and reds, but I also add some green and blue tones, inspired by the paintings of Jenny Saville.
I am happy with the way that this life drawing study turned out however I was stud in the same place I was last week so the two studies from this week and last week look very similar, so next week I will try to move and stand in a different place, so that I can paint from a different angle so all my paintings don't look the same.
Next week I plan to create a study that is on a much larger scale (1x1.5m) the same size as I plan to do my final two paintings for the exhibition.

Wednesday May 7th 2014

Today  I planned what I want to create to go into the exhibition, and I have decided that I want to do two pieces that are much bigger in scale that any of my other pieces. I plan to paint a Larger that A0 (1x1.5m) self-portrait in acrylic paint and I also plan to do a watercolour and ink painting of an old woman of the same scale. Also if there is room I will put up some of the small A3 watercolour studies that I created a few weeks ago.  

Tuesday May 6th 2014

Yesterday I started to paint the A1 portrait of my dad that I started on Saturday, and today I continued working on it. So far I think it is going really well and I think I have mastered the watercolour and ink technique and I think that this is one of my most effective pieces to date.
This afternoon I have started to add the fine liner pen over the top of this portrait, however I think that this will take a while as it is A1 and there are quite a lot of different colours that I will have to draw around.
So I asked some of the other people in my class what they thought of the painting, as part of a quick peer review, I explained what my ideas and intentions were and they said that they liked the painting and the techniques I was using, and thought that it was a bit different and unusual compared with my other work and other peoples work in the class. However they did suggest that I shouldn't add pen all over as it may look over worked and that they liked the way that some of it was just paint and some of it had pen added. I agreed with what they had to say and did what they suggested and didn't add pen all over, and now I am very happy with how it has turned out and agree that it would have looked too over worked.

Watercolour, ink and tea on paper.

Saturday May 3rd 2014

So today I planned out my final A1 experimental study, the last one before I start doing my pieces for my exhibition. For this study I plan to do a final watercolour study as preparation and practice for one of my final pieces. this study will be a combination of all the different watercolour studies that I have done, incorporating ink, tea, watercolour paint and fine liner pen, and combining ideas from my first watercolour A1 studies, my smaller A3 studies and the watercolour and ink studies that I created in life drawing, creating natural and artificial runs in the paint and the ink.
For this study I plan to paint my dad as I haven't really painted anyone his age, and my project is about age so it will give my a good and varied range of ages through out all of my paintings.
This afternoon I started to draw the out line of the image out and I will start painting it on Monday.

This is the image I am going to paint in watercolour and ink (A1).

 

Thursday May 1st 2014

This afternoon I did life drawing, I decided that I would still focus mainly on the portrait/ face, however I decided to paint this one in watercolour and not in acrylic paint, as in my project I have started to look at watercolour artists and I have started some studies in watercolour and ink already, and because the rest of my life drawings are of the face, in acrylic paint and they are all starting to look a little bit similar.

I am really happy with how this life drawing turned out and I think that it looks really effective as it is quite a strong contrast compared with my other paintings and life drawings.
Even thought I used the same materials that I used to create my other watercolour studies, I think that this piece still looks quite different to them, because when I created my other studies I was painting them on flat surface and using a straw to move the ink around and make the paint run, but in life drawing I was painting on an easel, so the paint naturally ran down the page. This gave quite a different effect compared with the others and really worked with the way I had composed it on the page and I particularly like the way that the image fades out towards the left hand side.

I then used a black fine liner pen to add in the detail and to draw around some of the defining colours. I think this worked really well and makes the image more interesting and unusual, and is quite reminiscent of the lines on a map.

Overall I think that this study worked really well, however the proportions a are a little off especially the chin which is much to large and I wasn't really sure how to paint the ear to make it fit with the rest of the painting, but other than that I think it worked effectively and was a good experiment. i plan to develop this further in other life drawing sessions.

Watercolour, ink and pen on paper.

Tuesday April 29th 2014

Yesterday I pretty much just did sketchbook work and started to think about what I was going to put up for my exhibition.

Today we did a sketchbook  workshop where we look at different size, style and shaped sketchbooks, including home made a bought sketchbooks. this didn't particularly help me with project, however I think it will help for future sketchbooks and sketchbook ideas. I am thinking about making my own book to put the posts from this blog in to make it into a physical journal.

This afternoon I also did some work in my sketchbook, feel that I maybe a little behind with some of the written part however I do feel that I have almost caught now and I am happy with the way that my sketchbook is coming along, and I do think that I am getting a lot better at the written side, especially my artist research as in the past this is the area where I have struggled most.

Easter 2014

Easter holidays:
This Easter I planned to get quite a lot of work done, I planned to do a few A1 painted portraits, paint on at least one of my A1 boards and get my sketch book completely up to date.

The first thing I did was this painting of and old women that I took a photograph of, I really liked the photo and thought that it would make a really good A1 portrait. One of the artists that I am looking at is Jonathan Yeo, and this painting was inspired by his very detailed but seemingly unfinished style.
I am pleased with how this painting turned out and think that it is one of my best, this woman was quite old which made her face more interesting to paint, as she had a lot of wrinkles and discolouration to her skin and eyes. What I found most difficult about this painting was probably her glasses and around her eyes, her glasses were hard as they were made out of a clear plastic which had a pattern on, and it was difficult to make them look transparent and 3D and not invisible. Around the eyes was particularly difficult as she had quite red looking eyes, but I didn't want to make the look over exaggerated, and it was very difficult to get them to look the right colour.

This image is not completely finished as I still need to add in the outline of her body and clothes.

During the holidays I also completed this painting of the back of my Mum's head, I painted this as I was inspired by Gerhard Richter's 'Betty', I had previously done a portrait of the back of someone's head in life drawing, but wanted to spend more time on making it more accurate. I painted this on board as I wanted to try something different to paper, however I found this difficult to do as it is very different to paper and the paint reacts in a different way. This took my longer than the ones I have previously done on paper as I had to change my painting style slightly, and use a lot more paint to cover the board so you could not see the background.

I am happy with how it looks now that it is finished, I think that it is an effective piece as you can only see the back of the head and not really any of the face. 

Acrylic on board.

I also tried these alternative ways of painting, using watercolour, ink and tea, and a fine liner pen to add the detail such as the wrinkles.

I am pleaded with the way that they turned out and they are a good contrast to the acrylic paintings i have done so far in the project. This is also a much quicker technique compare with the way that I paint with acrylic, and creates a much more subtle portrait.

To create these images I added quite a lot of water to the materials that I was using which made the colours a bit lighter, but it also meant that it was easier to spread and move around and meant that I could use a straw to make the colours run. 

A1 watercolour, ink and tea painting on paper.

A1 watercolour, ink and tea painting on paper.

I worked into a few of these studies to make them a little bit more interesting. First I scanned them into the computer and edited them on Photoshop to make the colours a bit darker and more defined, I then printed them out onto good quality paper so that I could work back into them easier. I then used a fine ink pen to outline all of the different colour variations and to add in some darker and shaded areas over the top. 

I am happy with the outcome and think that it adds more depth and interest to the images compared with the originals, and the out lines define and sharpen the initial detail.

  

A3 worked into study, using pen.

A3 original watercolour, ink and tea study.

 A3 worked into study using pen.

A3 worked into study, using pen.

Thursday April 10th 2014

This afternoon I did life drawing, I wanted to link this in with my current project so I decided that I would paint the back of his head, as I was looking at Gerhard Richter's 'Betty' this morning and wanted to create something similar/inspired by him. This was because I didn't want to be doing the same thing over and over and decided that this would be an interesting image and it would also still be a portrait.

I am happy with the out come, as I think that it looks effective. I think that this is because I used much bigger brushes and bigger brush strokes when I was painting, I think that this adds more texture than the way that I would normally paint. I think that the proportions are pretty accurate, apart for the ear, which I think is a little too far back and it is also just slightly too small, compare with the rest of his head. But other than that I am pleased with the out come for the amount of time we had, as we only had one session to get it finished, and I think that the bigger brush strokes helped me get it finished as it was a quicker way of working.

Acrylic on paper (A1). 

Tuesday April 8th 2014

Today I did some printing from my collograph, and they actually came out pretty well and the ink really picked up all of the different textures from the different materials that I used. However I wanted to print them in black but I only had blue so I will have to do some more prints in black and may some using multiple colours if I have time.

Monday April 7th 2014

This morning we had tutorial, were we focused on developing our evaluation and reflection in our journals.

Reflective practice:

• Critique
• Successes and areas for improvement
• Processes and techniques 
• Discussion
• Development 
• Evaluation
• Progression 
• Evidence/photographs
• Peer review

We were split into pairs and we each had to read and review the other persons reflective journal. I  feel that this was a big help as it is good to see what other people think of your work, but they can also tell you if  what you have written makes sense and if they understand what you have done and what you are planing to do next. I was also nice to read the someone else's reflection to see how they word things and if this is the same or better than the way that you do it, and it also gave me ideas of the types of things I could put next.
I was in a pair with Chris and he told me that my reflection so far was good, but I needed to make it a little more in depth, by further explaining the processes and techniques I have done, and by going into more detail about my strengths and weaknesses, and what I did to improve my work.

This afternoon I did some mono prints to go into my sketchbook. I created them using black ink and drawing from some of the photographs that I had taken. I am pleased with how the turned out and think that they look effective as they were quite quick, small studies.

Quick mono prints. 

Saturday April 5th 2014

Today I create a collograph board that I will used to create collograph prints, I used one of the photographs that I took at Newark to create the image I am going to print. I used a piece of mount board that was just slightly bigger than A4 and glue my photograph on it, as a sort of guide that I could follow to create an accurate image.
I used a variety of different material to create different surfaces that the ink would pick up to create the image, such as:

• Card board for his jacket, eyes and nose
• Some old socks for his scarf
• String for his jumper and wrinkles
• Sand paper for his beard 
• Fabric for his hat
• And glue to create his glasses

I am pleased with the out come, however I don't know how much it is going to work or if all the textures will be picked up by the ink and how good they will print, but I am pretty sure I will get some of it to work, and if it doesn't print well I can always work back into the print and add more or less texture to the actual printing board.

Collograph

 

Friday April 4th 2014

Today I finished my painting of Margaret that I had started on Wednesday. I created this from the photographs that I took and painted an A1 portrait of her on her own. I did this because I had previously started one of her and George together but I didn't finish it as I didn't really like how it was turning out, and I thought it would be better to paint them separately.
I am pleased with how this painting turned out and I think that I got a pretty accurate likeness, this is also the oldest person I have ever painted and at first found the wrinkles difficult to paint as it was hard to get the paint the right colour to make them look realistic. However in the end the worked out well and I much prefer this painting to the one that I had started before.
I feel that the more that I paint the better I am getting at making it look like the person I am painting, and that I am getting more confident and developing my own painting style, if I have time I would like to use a different type of paint, maybe watercolour or oil, to try and create a different effect and experiment with some different painting and drawing techniques.

Acrylic on paper.

Thursday April 3rd 2014

Today in life drawing I finished the two week painting I had started last week. I focused on just doing the portrait so that it would link directly to the rest of my work and to my project. I decided to do it A1 as we had two weeks to complete it and to use paint as I had used paint to create some of my other work for this project and that it would be quicker than using pen or pencil, and so I could get it completely finished.
I am happy with the way that it has turned out, even though it is slightly different to my other paintings as I have used looser brush strokes and it is not as neat, but I do think that I looks effective and is a good contrast to my other work. I really like the texture the bigger brush strokes have created and I was inspired by one of the artists, (Ian Cumberland) to let the paint run towards the bottom of the page, and I feel that it makes the painting a little bit more interesting/unusual.

Tuesday April 1st 2014

This morning I had a one to one where we discussed that my visual work was strong but that the written part of my project still needed work and making more detailed and in depth. And that I should continue doing more painting of portraits and less work involving the skull and skeleton.

This afternoon I did some printing from the plate that I finished yesterday, I only got two prints done today as there were a few other people printing as well. I am quite happy with how the prints came out, but they were not as good as the prints that I have done from my first plate, as I think that this time my paper was a little too wet and I may not have had quite enough ink on the plate. However they are pretty good and I can develop them and experiment with them further by working into them with paint and collage to add some colour so they aren't just black and white. If I have enough time I would like to do some more prints from this plate to see if I can get some even better prints.

Not enough ink.

Monday March 31st 2014

Today I final finished my printing plate of my sister and the skull and I am really happy with the way that it looks, however I will not know until I have printed it how good it actually is, but I do feel that I have a good variation of shallow and deep marks, and thick and thin lines, so the main thing I will have to think about to get a good overall print will be applying the right amount of ink.

Printing plate for intaglio printing. 

Saturday March 29th 2014

Today I decided that I wanted to create another printing plate, so that I could do some more intaglio printing and develop my prints on further.  I wanted to incorporate the skull into one of my prints so I decided that I would take a photograph of my sister and Photoshop part of the skull into the image. However this was a little more difficult to do than I had first expected as the skull was a lot longer than my sisters head so I had to crop some of the skull out so that it fit and line up with her eyes, nose and mouth. In the end I feel that it worked out well, and there is an interesting contrast between the to images that works well, and would look good as a print. I edited the final image into black and white so that it would be easier to engrave into the plastic and make the lights and darks easier to see. I will start the engraving tomorrow.

 

Thursday March 27th 2014

Today I continued my artist research in my sketch book. The artists I am looking at are:

• Jonathan Yeo
• Ian Cumberland
• David Hockney 
• David Caldwell
• Dean Marsh
• Jenny Saville
• Chuck Close

I really like all of these artists and feel that they influence my work and relate to my project as their work is mainly based and focused around people and portraits, and I have seen Jonathan Yeo, Ian Cumberland and Chuck Close's work in the flesh at different exhibitions and art galleries. And I just like there styles and techniques.

Portraits by Ian Cumberland.

Wednesday March 26th 2014

Today is a day when I am not in college so I decided that I would start an A1 painting from the photographs that I took of George and Margaret. I decided that I wanted to do one of them both together sitting down, but just there portrait and not the whole body. I printed off a photograph and gridded it and the A1 paper and drew it out in pencil. However when I started painting it I didn't really like the way that it was turning out and that I didn't really like it. I just felt that having them both together on the page didn't work as well as I wanted it to and that there faces were to small for me to be able to paint and be able to see how old they actually were easily, and that it would be better to have them on their own but bigger so I could paint their wrinkles in accurately and so you could actually see that they were quite old.  

Tuesday March 25th 2014

This morning we were split into groups to do a peer review, I found this very helpful as it is good to see how other people see your work and what they suggest you do to improve and develop your project. I also like looking at other peoples work to see what they have done and the techniques that they have use. I also like look at the artists they have used and see if I could use them in my project or if they relate to what I am doing, also even just see artists I had never seen or heard of before, and seeing how they have influenced the other persons project.
During my peer review I was told that my visuals were very strong and the techniques that I have used are very broad and interesting and work with the project that I am doing and my style of working. The group suggested that I continue doing more painting as they work really well and are my strongest pieces.
They also suggested that I takes some more photographs of a range of different people and have some in different positions and not just facing the camera straight on, and continue to create more prints and printing plates and experiment/develop them further.
I was told that I needed to work on my annotation and artist research, as some of it was missing, but what I have done as good but needs to be more in depth and more detailed and they suggested the types of things that is should write.
Overall I totally agree with everything that was said and I have taken on board all there suggestions, and I have already started to develop my written work. I have also taken some inspiration from the way that they work and the techniques they have used and I have got some more ideas for other visuals I could do.

This afternoon I did some more intaglio printing in the print room, a continuation from what I did yesterday.

Monday 24th March 2014

Today I finally got my intaglio prints, from the collage that I had created a few weeks ago, done. I am quite pleased with the out comes, although some of them did work better than others. However I did find it quite difficult to get the right amount of ink, without having to much, but rubbing too much ink off was my biggest problem. However when I worked out what the right amount was my prints came out really well. And I got a few really good print, some of the others printed well but they came out a bit dirty around the edges. The reasons why some didn't work so well was because there was too much or too little ink, or the paper was to wet so the ink spread a little, but I learnt from my mistakes and I will work into the prints that aren't so good, with pen and collage.

I worked back into this with my original photo collage and a fine liner pen.  

This was my first print and the paper was way to dry and there was not nearly enough ink.

Today I also caught up with the evaluations in my journal and added to some of the annotation I had done in my sketch book.

Saturday March 22nd 2014

Today I finished my A1 painting of my friend Polly that I had drawn out on Wednesday, I had done some painting on it on Thursday but I didn't get it finished until today. I am very pleased with the out come as
I think that it has a good likeness to the photograph that I took and to her in real life. I also think that it is the best painting that I have done so far. I think that this is because I have become more confident using the paint (as I had not done much painting before) and found a technique that I like.
I feel that my painting style works well on paper but in the future, for another painting during this project, I would like to paint on something else maybe board and perhaps even on a large scale too.

Acrylic on paper

Wednesday March 19th 2014

This afternoon I went and took some photographs of my mums friends George and Margaret, as the theme for my project is age and they are quite old. They agreed that I could take some photographs of them. So I took a few different photos of them standing and sitting, full body and just portraits, which I plan on painting A1 scale in acrylic paint. I think that the photographs turned out well and I have at least one that I can paint from.
These images are a nice contrast to the ones I took of the baby.

Today I also drew out Polly for the next painting I am going to do and I will paint it tomorrow.

Tuesday March 18th 2014

Today I was going to do some intaglio printing from the printing plate that I created last week, based on my photograph collage. However my plate was too thick so the roller wouldn't go over it without breaking it, and the technician wasn't in so I will have to do it next week, when I can get the roller lifted.
I didn't waste the day, I continued to add more detail to the plate, to add more of a variation in darks and lights when printed. I did this by engraving deeper in some areas and lighter in some places, so that the ink goes in deeper and more ink will be transferred, when I print. Hopefully this will make my print even better and more detailed.      

Monday March 17th 2014

Today I experimented with drawing techniques using different sized and shaped pieces of paper (1cm x 1cm squared x10, 10cm x 10cm square x10 and circles x5). These were mainly quite quick timed studies, ranging from 30 seconds t 5 minutes.
For the first 10 (1cm) squared they were very quick studies.

1. Colour - For the colour study I used water colour paint to create a sort of abstract image of a finger, from one of the photographs. You can't really tell that it is a finger and not just a blob of paint, but I quite like it as the composition is good and sort of interesting and the orange colour makes it stand out.   
2. Composition - For the composition study I worked from one of my photographs of the skeleton. I decided that I would keep it quite abstract, as they are very small to work on. I used a fine liner pen and drew the collar bone. I think that this study is interesting and again you can't really tell what it is.
3. Tone - For the tonal study I used  pencil to create the shadow and shading and to contrast with my second pen study. I again drew part of the hand from my photographs.
4. Perspective - I found it quite difficult to find something to draw from my work and photographs, with perspective, so I chose to draw in between the ribs, I used fine liner pen and sharpie to create the darker shadows.  
5. My own idea - For my own idea I decided to use a fine liner pen to create a study of a very zoomed in part if a hand from my photographs.
6. Abstract - For the abstract study I used Pro-markers to create a series of lines based on some of my collage work. 
7. Line - For the line study I also based this on my collage work.
8. Controversy - For the controversial study I decided to draw a finger with all the veins exposed, using a fine liner and blue and red Pro-markers.    
9. & 10. Concept & own idea - For these two studies I decided to do the same idea using the eye and drawing over the top using Pro-markers to make to eye look aged and old.

For the circle studies I used Pro-markers, fine liner, ink, watercolour paint and sharpies. The techniques I used random placement, abstract, composition and my own idea. I think that they turned out well, and I really liked working on the circle shapes, as it was different to working on a square or rectangle like I normally would, although I had to think a lot more about the composition as it is an unusual shape to work on, but I think they worked well and my images maybe even worked better on the circles compared to the squares. 

On the 10x10 squares I created studies based on my photographs and the smaller studies that I had done so far, so they look very similar but I tried to develop them on more as we had more time.