ASS2 - Project 3 - Using Reference

Event buskers Corner  at Wolverhampton Lighthouse

      Last night I went to Buskers Corner, it was based in The Lighthouse, which is well known in Wolverhampton. We went there as I've heard about it from the graphics designer at my work. He told me to go, he was also drawing there.

     I really really enjoyed the night, it was an evening where there was 40 artists with big white boards bigger than AL all around the large room. They had from 6 pm. till 12 am to create art work on there boards and once complete they go up for auction.

Here are some photos below:

Above - The art work on this board was done by a group of artists called Dead Pens Crew. Dan my college from work is in this group and he drawled the dragon illustration on the left. I really liked the illustration in the middle which is a tribal lady. I like the clean lines and it is a good clear drawing that is easy on the eye and simple but effective.

Above - Me and Carmen enjoying ourselves.

   Above - This guys work had to be my favorite of the evening - he style was amazing. I spoke to him and he gets his ideas from landscapes. He sketched what looked liked mountains but put his own spin on them and made monsters out of them. He was really experienced and just sketched as it came so easy to him.

    Above - That bloke Wilson is another artist from Wolverhampton. he did the above piece and we spoke to him about his art. He used Posca pens which are pens that are paint instead of ink. I was really interested to try these out at some point as the colours looked great and you can easily blend colours together. 

     Another artist above did an illustration of Donald Trump. To me it was a politic illustration about a guy who the artist thinks has no brains on running a country. I am not to keen on him either and I think this illustration represents how a lot of people look at Mr Trump.

Above - Another artist had ago but her style was more free not bothered about clean cut lines. She was very different and I liked her badger scene.

    It was a great night I got to network with other artists and get their business cards to follow them on Facebook etc. The guy who runs it does it every month as said next time we could have boards to do our art work on. I am really looking forward to it and will be thinks what I will do on my board.

    Today I brought some Posca pens which were the ones they were using last night at buskers corner. I decided to have a little go with them and did a quick sketch of a goat with wings:

    I used a shiny grey surface and for my first attempt I think it went well. They are good to use and I can see why they use them as they are versatile and are fluid on the surface.

Exercise Using Reference

For this exercise I had to collect as much information I could about the 1950s such as people, costume, advertising, transport, TV and film, and art. Then put it all together and create an illustration to show somebody what it would be like in a house in the 1950s. In my sketchbook you can see what I had collected, I researched on the Internet and n a few magazines to collect my information.

Images of my sketch book:

I like the illustration of the woman above. It remind me of the comics style when I was younger.

Above clothing styles in the 1950s - I found it to be clean cut and bright colours used against dark colours. Women clothing was very feminine and showed off a woman's curves well.

Above - Old photographs so large families in there best clothing and looking happy. advertisement were drawn more instead of using photographs of real people.

Above - Patterns were a big thing then in textiles and there was a lot of flora patterns.

1950s above - Transport was exciting new cards, luxury ways to travel and the famous red busses to transport you around the towns.

Above - Afew interiors of the 1950s that I had found. There rooms were bright they likes colours such as orange, yellows and browns.

Now I have a lot of images I now feel ready to do a quick stetch of a 1950's woman in a room in her home.

I created a lady in a kitchen in my illustration here it is below:

I like my sketch I had made. I really like my lady with her 1950's style hair.

I included an old phone, cooker, saucepans and a fold out table which were all 1950s era. I think I captured the 1950 style well.

Reflections of the 1950s in any areas of contemporary art, design or culture 

In the early 1950s Abstract expressionism was the big artist move of that area in time. Artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning were popular.

Jackson Pollock 

Yellow Islands 1952

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pollock-yellow-islands-t00436

Jackson Pollock -Number 14 1951

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pollock-number-14-t03978

     As you can see above I have picked out some of Pollock's work. Looking at these and understanding where he was going with it now makes more sense. why do you have to paint a subject or object? His method was to express and the enjoyment of ways you splash, dribble and splatter paint on to a canvas. He explained that there is no outside and inside all negative and positive areas are just as important to each other. Where ever paint fell was a rick but that is not a negative, it was meant to be, every drop of paint was important as the next. He worked with his canvas on the floor and wend at any angle he wanted around his canvas to apply paint. He also used knives and other tools to create textures in these paintings too.

Willem de Kooning

     De Kooning led the 1950s art world into the movement of American abstract expressionism. Since 1940 woman have been in de Kooning’s paintings and drawings. They showed there frustrations of the focus of desire, frustration, inner conflict, pleasure of women. The female figure was important for de Kooning’s art career.

   De Kooning’s well-known Woman series, begun in 1950 (after meeting his future wife) and culminating in Woman VI, (below)

Willem de Kooning Woman V 1952-53

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_de_Kooning#/media/File:Kooning_woman_v.jpg

Willem de Kooning Woman III, 1953

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_III

     I can see over all in the 1950s people we expressing them selves and there beliefs in there art. It was a great art movement which allows us today to be free with our own opinions, ideas and expressions. It was a time where people began to enjoy looking at artists expressive ways and to look and think what the artist is trying to convoy.

Film Night - Big eyes Artist - Margaret Keane

     I decided to watch a film called Big Eyes is a 2014 American biographical film directed by Tim Burton it is base in the late 1950 - 1960s about a famous artist called Margaret Keane. It was about her struggles as an artist and how she married a husband who sold her work as his own and manipulated her in to creating more paintings and to sign them with his name. I do not want to tell you how the story ends but it does get better for her at the end, She is alive today and paints in her retirement for pleasure.

   Her art was something I really admired. Her style was drawing children with big eyes. You can clearly look at her paintings and know who painted them. I am one for doodling eyes a lot and I always think that eyes show the souls of my characters and people in the real world.

The film was really good and it was a good time to watch it as I got a sense of the art era back then.

Here are some of her paintings below:

http://keane-eyes.com/

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/300193131388286563/

       Keane's big eyes paintings have influenced toy designs including Little Miss No Name, Blythe and Susie Sad Eyes dolls and the cartoon The Powerpuff Girls:

I really like her style and she will be an artist that I refer back to from time to time. :)

Exercise Exploring Drawing and Painting

     Before I started this project I did a bit of mark making practice in my sketch book and I have a evening of learning how to use watercolour paints. I used oils in my painting 1 course but I feel water colour is great for illustration so I wanted to learn how to used them so that I can try them out with my illustrations. 

For this project, I had to find tools, papers and items to make a scrap book of pages of the same object. I wanted to keep the object simple so I decided on a flower.

Here below is my scrap book I made:

Above - My scrap book I used a dog clip and ribbon to form the book. 

     This image of a flower was done by using tissue paper , card, plastic sheet, oil pastels and glitter.

I cut out petals in triangles and stuck tissue paper on the back so when you hold it to the light colour of the tissue paper come through (see below)

I think this created a good effect and it is different and interesting to look at.

Above - Used sponges and acrylic paint to create my flower.

Above - Used tissue paper, colouring pencils and Prosca paint pens.

Above - I used a butterfly cut out machine. I used feathers for the petals and felt for the stem. I added some bobbly eyes on my flower to make it fun.

Above - I attempted a bit of quilling with paper. I used glue to stick on glitter and beads. I then just splattered orange paint on to it. I t looks quite abstract.

Above - I used making tape crossing over the paper. Then I sketch my flower out with a Biro.

Above - I used dipped ink, string and material to create the flower.

Above - shiny paper, and crep paper for the flower. I then used a black graphics pen and a white Prosca paint pen to finish off the background.

Above -I used a black piece of card and used pastels to create a flower with a glowing neon effect.

Above - Butterfly clip and petal shaped paper to create my flower on pink paper. I then used crayons to put pattern in the back ground.

Above - I used tissue paper, felt, glitter and paint.

Above - Oil pastels on a floral background.

I really enjoyed just having fun with this task. I also had a go at smudging and marks made with a rubber (below)

      This exercise showed me that it is fun to experiment and that you can try lots of ideas and find out what you like and what you do not. You can put some together and create your own style. Doing this every now and then opens your mind up to inspiration and ideas to keep stored for a later date to come back to in not inspired at the time.