A level art evaluation

  The task was clear, I had to develop the given theme, in this case 'Classical Art and Architecture' by using multiple techniques, media and artist's research until having completed a final piece. Originally, I was quite pleased with the theme, Classical Architecture isn't something I've looked into before but it was something I'd read plenty about when I was a child. I went directly into the architecture area of the theme, seeing as it is what I plan on studying at university. 

  My research was gathered by visiting museums and galleries, the internet and books. This research was displayed in my sketchbook via photographs, mainly, and drawings of these photographs.

  In one of my visits to the British Museum I discovered that, originally, Classical buildings were covered in a variety of brilliance, vibrance and colour. I found this extremely beautiful and seeing as I usually use black and white pens and only washed out hints of colour. Before, I'd never been too fond of colour as I always thought I had very little management and understanding of colour, when I'd use them the colours would hardly match, making the whole piece aesthetically unpleasant; I saw this project as an opportunity to improve this and I think I achieved a greater management. 

  I used a variety of media and techniqes, that I hadn't used (at all or on rare occasions); this includes: mono prints, lino prints, stencil prints (which I used for my exam piece), watercolours, watercolour pencil, gouache, oil bar, oil pastels, oil paints and acrylics. The oil pastels were my favorite to use, I thought them very easy to use. I'd used watercolours before but since my idea was to explore new media, I used them at a minimum, though the watercolour pencils gave a very pigmented hand-drawn effect. I ended up using a great variety of media for my final pieces. In my exam I made a lot of lino prints, enough to mount onto 9 A1 sheets of paper, I really like how they turned out and I'm submitting them as part of my final piece. Also, near the beginning of unit 2 I tried stencil prints, which was a lot of fun! I was surprised at the outcome, I'm really pleased them; I was focusing on classical columns and I wanted to give them an old, rusty effect so I used brown-yellows, deep reds and oranges and the occasional blues, greens and purples to add a bolt of colour. I made a painting too, this was mixed media on canvas; gouache, acrylics and a little bit of oil paints, it's not my best painting, but I like how I used the colours and lighting on the buildings. Like I mentioned before, I've never been to sure on using colour, especially not painting techniques so I used:

• 'Watercolour Challenge - Techniques inPractice' (published by Channel4 Books)

• 'The Acrylic Artist's Guide to Exceptional Colour' -Lexi Sundell (published by Search Press) 

I found this book fantastic! It has simple guides to using colour and acrylics, the techniques (tonal value, the colour wheel and palettes, comparison of colour schemes, luminosity, temperature, etc) and artist's research displayed helped me a lot when using colour and acrylics on this project. 

• 'Quick and Cleaver Acrylics' -Michael Sanders (published by David and Charles Books)

  Not only did I experiment with materials, but also the effect of these materials on certain textures and backgrounds; rough and soft paint textures, different papers: stained paper was the best on to work with, I took A5 sheets of cartridge paper and stained one with coffee, this gave a really 'vintage paper' effect but it wasn't really pigmented, I stained another paper with red tea, this gave the paper a shiny sepia tone, a very pigmented one, I loved the effect.

  Overall, I'm pleased with my developmental work, though I know I could have challenged myself more and done more experiments, finished off more of the tasks, and done more artist's research, as there's hardly any of that. I found that everything, the mounted workshop sheets and the final pieces express exactly what I wanted them to, Neo-classical buildings with colour, not necesarily  the same colour or decoration that would have been seen during the original classical period, but any manifestation of colour, any expression that would differ to the plain Neo-classical buildings seen throughout Europe. 

Clay session

  For our unit 2 project, the teacher had one of our classmates lay down on a table in the center of the room and with one big block of clay we were to recreate the figure; we had 15 minutes in every side of the perspective, so that we'd get a better view and not rely on our imagination for the other side of the figure.

  The whole idea of the session was to work on our perspective, proportions and practice using clay, a lot of us had't used it before. I found it a lot simpler that I thought it would be and I'm pretty proud of the perspective and the proportions. I used a variety of clay tools and more or less anything I could find that I though may help to smooth out the surface, help me dig into the curves of the back, neck, legs and bust.

  The general surface of the piece needs a lot of polishing and cleaning up, there's also a great lack of detail and it could do with a lot of finishing off but taking into consideration the fact that I'd never really done anything with clay before, I'm very happy with it; I learnt a great amount.

FAILE

FAILE is an North American artistic Collaboration between Patrick Miller (1976, Minneapolis)and Patrick McNeil (1975, Edmonton). Based in Brooklyn, New York, FAILE started in 1999. Their work consists on mixed media; stenciling, wheatplasting in what looks like an experimental fragment collage. The images they use to create their collages fuse key and ignored parts of culture throughout history, including religion, politics and monarchy, architecture, comics, TV shows key moments in media and films etc..

Like what I said about the religious context, here we see the head of the Hindu God Ganesha.

There are various versions of this same print. But I do prefer this version due to the colour composition, it's a very pale piece the pastel colours look very warm and soft, it actually reminds me of an early morning on a summer day because of the dim gold in the background and the head piece and jewellery on Ganesha.

The head of Ganesha appears very feminine, which isn't a surprise when it come to FAILE seeing as the majority of centre pieces of their work are females from comics or other cartoons. As is the majority of FAILE's work the background and some of the main part are torn pieces of adverts, flyers and comic strips.

David Downton

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As a Fashion illustrator, David Downton's priority isn't the model's face but, instead, what she's wearing none the less, Downton always seems to capture her elegance and expression without taking the spotlight from the dress by using basic black and white for the face and body and a vibrant colour for the attire. His illustrations grasp hey moments in fashion and haute couture in history.

Downton's fame has given him comissions from various magazines, posters and celebrities, these including; Vogue, Top Shop, Harrods, Chanel, Dior, Tiffany & Co., the Victoria and Albert museum, Rachel Weiz, Dita von Teese and Cate Blanchette to name a few... 

In his full coloured illustrations (shown above), what catches the viewers eye is the bright colour of the dress, also the same colour of the background. The simplicity, the unfinished looks and almost abstract lines attract a young range of viewers. The unfinished look gives it an air of tired elegance and femininity with an almost easy-to-do style of art, but the detail in the tones of the face say otherwise making his portraits powerful, capturing the emotion and facial expression in it's full glory whilst still keeping the viewer interested in the dress.

This makes the overall design captivating and graceful. What I love about Downton's work is that he knows where to put the rough brush marks and where to keep the light, delicate tones to maintain femininity and grace. The dark and light tomes on the face bring the paintings to a more realistic level, but he keeps it an illustration with his mark makings and colour (or lack of) in hair and dress, whilst still making it detailed.

The colour impact in his work is eye-catching, not only in his fashion illustrations, but also in his portraits where the maximum colour appears in the lip colour and eyes almost staring back at the viewer with a powerful glance. These factors make the painting, bold, vivid and intense.

It goes without saying that Downton's portraits are as equally expressive as his fashion illustrations, capturing their facial expressions with crude acrylic marks and soft ink details. I particularly like his portraits, they're simple yet powerful. His technique is modern, quick and jaunty.

'I first met Dita in Beverly Hills in 2004 and I realised that when you are drawing her, you follow her lead; she has imagined this fabulously glamorous, other-worldly creature and has made the world see things her way. She is a flesh and blood illusion. This drawing was from a sitting in Paris, for my magazine Pourquoi Pas?' -David Downton for Vogue Magazine

'I did a series of drawings of the sublime Cate Blanchett for the cover of Vogue Australia's 50th anniversary issue. It was a highlight of my career, no question. The sitting took place at the Dorchester, we had expert hair, make-up and styling, and it was treated as seriously as any other cover shoot. I saw it as a blow for drawing in a world saturated by photography.' -David Downton for vogue Magazine

Links of use:
http://www.vogue.co.uk/person/david-downton
http://www.daviddownton.com
http://www.illustrationdivision.com/downton
http://justine-picardie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/david-downton-and-his-masters-of.html
http://theharlow.net/david-downton-a-master-of-fashion-illustration/
http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/15th-anniversary/david-downton/rachel-weisz-2004

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http://www

Jamie Reid

Jamie Reid (1947) is a British living and working anarchist punk artist most famous for his work with the sex pistols and, recently, with the feminist group Pussy Riot.

Jamie Reid's God save the Queen has 'God save the Queen, Sex Pistols' replacing the image of her eyes and mouth ripped out, the vital parts to the face's pride it's perhap

s his most controversial work. As a part of the anarchist movement having defaced the queen, this image becomes a political statement in late 70's England. He covers her eyes in a way saying that he doesn't want the queen in our politics, down the monarchy and the government, he rips off the mouth insinuating that he wants the monarchy to shut up, that they shouldn't have a say for what's right for the public. I do like the image as it's a bold statement of what someone believes in. He was a part of a movement, he wanted to show it and wasn't afraid to do so. It shows that he wasn't afraid of the consequences, as long as his message got out.

I also like his 'Free Pussy Riot' image, it shows that even years after the beginning of the anarchist punk movement, he still cares and shows what he believes in with bold political statements such as this one; Vladimir Putin's face in, the Pussy Riot's mark, a balaclava covering his face except his eyes and mouth (contrary to the Queen's in 'God save the Queen') but this time, Reid has made Putin wear make-up in order to show the feminism that Pussy Riot stands up for in Russia.

Bauhaus

The literal translation is “house of construction”. Founded in 1919 in Weimar by the, Berlin born, architect Walter Gropius (1883-1969). Bauhaus was a movement based on the school dedicated to simplistic art. As a movement the architecture, graphics, photography and fine art were very simple, bold and geometric. From a design point of view, the idea was to create a 'universal aesthetic', an international style that would be suitable for any country notwithstanding their cultural traditions or religion. To manufacture objects and buildings with basic designs that would be easy and effective to mass produce. These objects should be function over aesthetics and fulfil the demands of society.

As a school, it was the most influential design educational institution of the 20^th century. They approached to teaching with art's involvement with technology and society. To this day Bauhaus has had a huge artistic impact in USA and Europe as one of the leading figures of modernism.

Gropius' idea was to unite art with crafts therefor having the students learn wall painting, cabinetmaking, typography, weaving, pottery and metalworking, but was later more important the design and mass production, although there was still focus on fine art.

 The school was very well known for it's staff, included artists were; Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers, Paul Klee, Itten, architects; Mies van der Rohe & Gropius and designer Marcel Breuer. People who shaped the beginning of what today we call 'modern art'.  

     

Marcel Breuer

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Walter Gropius

Due to the socio-political controversy of Bauhaus, they was forced to move from Weimar to Dessau in 1925 where they struck with new interiors, buildings and furniture committed to functionalism with modern patterns and material, these abstract forms could be found in the typographic advertising of Herbert Bayer. 

The school's controversy only grew with time and lost the city's support, forcing them to move to Berlin. By 1993, when the Nazi government closed the school entirely, Bauhaus was internationally recognised, particularly in the United States. Gropius and Annie & Josef Albers went to teach at Harvard and Yale, respectively, where the continued to influence America with the Bauhaus philosophy, Moholy-Nagy emigrated to USA, also, and founded the Chicago Institute of Design.

Evaluation – Cityscape

The task was to design a cityscape and create it using with a black sticky-back plastic. The task seemed simple enough, I thought it would be a great idea for my portfolio, seeing as I'd like to study architecture. The difficult part was finding buildings that maintained the same perspective and depth.

I made only one design for my final piece as I was very pleased with it. The most two more noticeable buildings I used were designed by one of my favourite architects, Santiago Calatrava. The Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Spain (1987-1992) and HSB The Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden (2001-2005) (also the tallest skyscraper in the Nordic countries with 190m). The remaining buildings were taken from a magazine drawing.

Cutting out the pieces required a lot of patience. It was frustrating trying to find out the correct pressure to cut with, if I wasn't careful I would cut through the sheet instead of the first black layer, this happened multiple times & was fixed by taping the cut parts from behind. The small window pieces were also difficult as they were small and fiddly. The material was tricky to use as if it was not cut through completely it would rip when it was pulled, making it look rough and badly done, this was the biggest problem for the positive side of the final piece.

Although I was, in general, pleased, I do feel that I could have added more detail & paid more attention to the aesthetics of the final outcome, it could have been neater. I did think I made an improvement by cutting off the bottom half making it look like a panoramic point of view, like how you'd see central London from Primerose hill. I personally think it made it slightly more unique.

Evaluation – Snowboard

The task was to create a snowboard design on a foam board with acrylic paint. The task at first seemed simple, finding swatch like samples from magazines but creating an innovative, eye-catching design wasn't as easy as I thought it might be. Having said this, it didn't take me long to draw out 2 final designs taking my likings into consideration.

From an old Mandala drawing, I'd done a year ago for a philosophy assignment, I took the snowboard design inspiration. I've always been curious about nature and so far I've included nature in most of my finale pieces, where acceptable, thinking about how consistency in theme could affect my grade, for the better, and how much I liked the original Mandala piece I decided I would try and make it work. Since the Mandala was superficially more spacious than the drawings look better laid out, so on the snowboard I had to cut down and keep the essential parts of the Mandala, my favourite parts; the sky with the blacked out buildings which transforms into the sea with the jellyfish on the other side. The building and the sea show a great contrast of the nature in which we live in. Seeing as it's a snowboard, I thought nature would be a great idea.

I did think about adding text, having researched online for inspiration I saw that most snowboards had text in very beautiful typefaces, as snowboarding is an extreme sport, the typefaces were mostly rough and very street, like graffiti. Because of this, I didn't do it. I wanted a simple yet eye-catching design. I did think of adding text with a lower opacity, giving it a translucent look, over the jelly fish, but thinking over that, I didn't want it to look too tacky.

Although, I thought my design was good, I could have put more effort into it. I like the shape I gave the over all board, but I could have sanded it out more, covering the pores properly, making it smoother or at least painted over it better. In general I thought my design good, but I don't think I showed enough evidence in my book as to how I properly got my final outcomes. I did photocopy on side of the final design to do a coloured experiment, as is required, but I had the coloured idea in my mind and I thought it pointless to redo on paper if I was already going to do it on the snowboard. 

Gerrit Rietveld

Rietveld began his life as a furniture maker focused on practicality of his products and ways to mass produce them.

Once he became an architect his focus was the deigning of houses that could be build in a production line almost like furniture, houses designed to be practical to live in and practical to be built.

Rietveld concentrated his skills as an architect in trying to find solutions to housing problems, his designs were modern for his time experimenting with different materials trying to create standard models of buildings.

His approach to design appeared to always be trying to use his talent to solve problems to increase the practicality of products used for daily living, Rietveld did not seem to be seeking fame, his fame seemed to be a product of his effort to help people.

Rietveld was an innovator, who took risk and experimented not only with form but also with new materials which although are now common in architectural projects such as prefabricated concrete slabs, these materials were at the cutting edge of development and building techniques at the time.

His work was characterised for being practical before being artistic.

FRANK GEHRY

Is a living Canadian-American, modern architect based in Los Angeles, who tries to blend modern art with architecture. His buildings are usually easily identifies and have become a cult, his name being recognised internationally. Gehry's work enters a style called 'Deconstructivism', where form is more important than function and efficiency.

Gehry claims that many of his works have been inspired by the form of fish, something that he started sketching almost by accident, his work in some ways, perhaps, look like a cruder version of Gaudi's style of work, incorporating the shapes of waves and where art takes prevalence to practicality.

 Gehry seems to favour the use of metal and glass to make his buildings seem modern and futuristic, to stand out of their conservative surroundings. His work has been criticised for being too commercial rather than following his own artistic motives. Having said that, Gehry has won a great deal of recognition and awards internationally, including; The National Model of Arts, The American Pritzker Architecture Prize and The Academy of Achievements Golden Plate Award.

Van Gogh

Subject matter

This painting shows a field or a garden of flowers, iris'. Van Gogh painted this whilst he was living in the Saint Paul-de-Mausole asylum in France.

He was influenced by the japanese wood-blok style Ukiyo-e, as were many of the post-impressionist artists at the time.

Technique

This, oil on canvas, piece is done with very hard, rough brush marks, as was most of his later work, with the shapes of the grass, leaves and flowers outlined, very similar to the Ukiyo-e Japanese wood-block prints, a movement that marked the impressionists. These markings give the painting a thick, relief texture.

The painting is a mix of mainly cool colours, the impact of the blue irises, and a transition into a more warmer feel, the brown-green soil and the marigolds in the background, also the mint coloured leaves that’s just between a bright yellow and a cool blue. This combination gives the piece as a whole a cool summer ambiance.

Vincent uses a very detailed show of folding, as clothes would drape on a figure, these flower’s petals droop on their age.

The perspective is as if he were the same height of the irises, or drawing them from a low point of view. There’s a show of depth in this piece as the less-detailed marigolds fade into the background.

Artist's Career

Van Gogh started painting peasants and landscapes in dark, earthy tones whilst the Impressionist movement was beginning to rise with bright and vivid colours, making his work more difficult to sell.  It was his younger brother Théo that told him to continue his work with brighter colours. 
In his brief career he sold only one of his paintings. His most valid and praised works are said to have been done during the last 3 years of his life. 

Links with own work

Van Gogh has a particular way of painting. Like most of the impressionists, the brush marks are very thick & rough. Although most of my work is light, I try to maintain a bright colour theme & I choose mainly landscapes & portraits as I find them more challenging and fun. Also, I out-line most of the basic shapes in my pieces, mainly with a fine liner or a thick marker depending on the object contrary to Van Gogh's as he out-lines his main objects with a darker shade of the filling colours.  I find the Impressionist movement, in general, an inspiration for most of my experimental and leisure works as I find the technique & style of their paintings to be so free, yet carefully placed.

Quotations

"[It] strikes the eye from afar. The Irises are a beautiful study full of air and life."- Theo Van Gogh

KARA WALKER

“One of my earliest memories involves sitting on my dad’s lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching him draw. I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that, too,’ and I pretty much decided then and there at age 2½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad.” —Kara Walker

Kara Walker (42) is a living, Californian African American contemporary artist, who uses paper cutting & silhouettes to express gender, violence, sexual, race and identity themes in an ironic, humorous and sometimes grotesque manner.

Through, she communicates the racism, sexual objectification, torture and violence of the 19^th century slavery.

She uses a narrative panorama of each of her cut outs of black paper on the white gallery background to create a story line, a tall tale by images.

The illusion of depth is added to her pieces by placing images, of a background, higher up on the wall.

Her use of silhouettes is an ironic way to express this specific theme as you can't really see what's going on up front, as the stories of these incidents are now forgotten, she makes us remember by not showing us directly, but, instead, letting us use out imagination, adding colour and life to where she only presents a figure. 

The black, white & the occasional grey Walker uses to present her pieces gives the whole show a feel of antiquity. Her exhibitions are made even more valuable and rare, as Walker destroys her open wall pieces once the exhibition closes.

On pages 3 & four of my sketch book I did a copy of this piece, doing it in both the black against white & vice-versa for a full negative-positive view. This chosen piece demonstrates, to me, a lack of a will to live, the young girl must have been through an obvious amount of abuse. In the smoke you can also observe a female face and a town, this could mean that she's burning everyone along with herself.

LINKS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipd7ZjFcoo8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6t-S_DFxCI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMBvNpEj7WM&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8uJ6tQRxvo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doD_wxmRepw (review on her work)

Walker's influences 

art 21 blog article

365 artists blog article