Inspired by… – ACE – Clay

Analyse

 Materials

• Clay
• Water
• Tracing paper
• Pencil

 Processes

• Tracing
• Sculpting
• Carving
• Rolling
• Measuring

 Making the clay tile required quite a bit of planning – we did want to pick a design that was pretty similar to that of Halima Cassel’s own design. Eve gave us an image that was similar looking and we had to use tracing paper to select a part we wanted to remake onto our own tile. 

After we selected a part we wanted, we had to roll out our clay to make the shape of the tile. When we got the right shape and all sides were even, we got our traced outline of our design, placed it on our clay piece and began to indent our design so we know what to inlay. 

When we traced the design our design so we have the basic outline, I used a small carving tool to deepen the outline, making the clay tile now appear 3D. But I didn’t want to use carve the outline – I wanted to remove some parts of the clay tile 

Contextualise

It links to the current project we are doing as it is “Inspired by…” a South Asian artist. We replicated how she creates her clay tiles along with making small pots – though not inspired by Halima Cassell, it still links as we are experimenting with the use of clay.

The intention I had when making the tile block was to be inspired by the way Halima Cassell creates her 3D sculptures, making my own variation of her work with my own little twist.

What gave me inspiration from her work was the way she layered some parts of the tile to give it more of that 3D affect as only selected parts were raised from the starting surface.

Achieve Assessment Criteria –

1.2 Apply understanding of MTP to support our practices

1.3 Techniques and skills

Evaluate

The clay tile I created was a success – to me, that is. I enjoyed the way I decided to remove some clay from selected parts and then decided to add clay to make the tile look that more 3D.

However, what I could’ve done to improve the overall aesthetic of the clay tile is maybe add more intricate shapes to the tile – this being maybe curving some part of the raised section to give it a unique view than just layering clay and leaving it flat.

At the beginning I was going to just carve the traced shape and leave it as that – just a standard slab of clay with a pattern. But Eve said I should append sections that matched with the image we got our inspiration from. 

 

 

 

Inspired by… – ACE – Wire Sculpture

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Materials

• Chicken wire
• PVA glue
• Tissue paper

Processes

• Planning
• Designing
• Sculpting
• Molding 
• Drawing

Before we started to create our model, we had to design it and plan on how we would create our piece. I drew several versions of a design I had in mind – they were all based on the artist Suresh Dutt, who is well know for creating glass sculptures. After we chose a design we wanted to take further we had to make the wire frame. This part was pretty difficult as the shape I wanted was quite hard to replicate, so Eve helped me. 

When our actual frame was created we got strips of tissue paper and lathered them in PVA glue to ensure they will latch onto the frame and not fall off. 

Contextualise

This links to my current unit as we are getting “Inspired by…” A range of different artists – mostly them of South Asia. It also introduced us to the 3D formal elements.

The intention I had when making this work was to create a piece of work in the style of Suresh Dutt, but instead of using glass – which is too expensive and we lack the skills to mold glass – we decided to use chicken wire and tissue paper to replicate the transparent look glass has.

When I was designing my work, I heavily based it off Suresh Dutt’s “Double Skin Stripe” as I loved the placement of the gaps he decided to place within his glass sculptures. Originally I was also going to copy the colour he used for “Double Skin Stripe” (orange/yellow) but it didn’t quite match to the colours documented on my moodboard – so I opted for brown and blue

Achieve Assessment Criteria –

1.2 Apply understanding of MTP to support our practices

1.3 Techniques and skills

1.4 Evaluate the use of MTP

Evaluate
 

I do not like my final sculpture as it was not creating in the way I envisioned. When creating it, I didn’t have time to make the moon and the sun (the main part of my sculpture) so it didn’t really represent what I was meant too. I didn’t even finish it, either, giving it a messy look that I am not very happy with. 

My intention has definitely changed from what I was going to do at the start – Eve actually giving me the idea to better represent my idea of doing day and night.

I do enjoy the colour palette I decided to use for this sculpture – it being based on my moldboard which was mostly brown with some limited shade of colour. This palette luckily suits my theme of day and night (which is why I chose those colours originally) 

I was lacking in experience using the wire, having to problem solve several times to try and find a way to bend the wire into an efficient shape. At the end, Eve helped me to create a cylinder with an additional wave on top, but it took a long time to come to this conclusion. 

 

Inspired by… – ACE – Plasticine Experiment

Analyse

Materials

• Plasticine
• Board

Processes

• Blending
• Smudging
• Scraping
• Molding
• Drawing

Using plasticine wasn’t my favourite type of method to use as I am more of a painting person, but when I practiced enough I eventually got the hang of it. 

When creating the small ‘painting’ using plasticine, it was quite easy to smudge the plasticine against the faux canvas, creatin

Contextualise

This links to the project as we are experimenting with a different technique and developing our creative skills.

The intention I had with testing with Plasticine is to recreate paintings/sculptures from South Asian artists – both the artist and sculptor being Suresh Dutt and Tyeb Mehta.

Dutt’s and Mehta’s work was definitely the biggest influences in how my work would look as my Plasticine sculptures were based off my own renditions of Dutt’s work. For the Plasticine ‘painting’ was based off Mehta’s “Horse” oil painting; they both look very similar due to their complementary colours of orange/brown and vivid blue/white.

Achieve Assessment Criteria –

1.2 Apply understanding of MTP to support our practices

1.3 Techniques and skills

1.4  Evaluate MTP 

Evaluate

I think my use of plasticine was quite effcient when it came to creating the faux painting. However, when making the actual sculptures, they were way too simplistic and didn’t hold as much artistic freedom to let us play around by mixing shades and blending. 

If I were to do this plasticine piece again, I would of practiced blending to make better tones and shades; how much white will I need to add to blue to get it to the shade I want? Will I only need a little bit of black and mix it with the blue to create navy blue? I struggle trying to make different shades of the same colour with paints and plasticine. 

 What I could do, as my own separate experiment, is add different type of mediums into the plasticine to see what texture will be created. As plasticine is very similar to paint – a more solidified version of paint – adding sand and glue to the plasticine may get the same results and give it a more interesting texture. 

Inspired By… – ACE – Kantha Embroidery

Analyse

 Materials

• Sowing thread (different shades of brown)
• Cloth
• Yellow soft pastel
• Needle

Processes

• Designing
• Drawing
• Sowing

The sowing technique was based on a famous technique located within South Asia called Kantha and is very simplistic style to use.

The yellow pastel was used to mark where our sketch was going to be – I decided to use a South Asian idol that was located on my moodboard as my inspiration to replicate this technique. We used yellow pastel because it is vibrant and visible to see on the cloth and when we are done with the sowing we can easily brush off.

The different tones of browns were interesting to use for my piece as I decided to get inspiration from my moodboard, which mostly contained brown. Even though it will not be as vibrant as my peers’ work, it is still aesthetically pleasing.

Contextualise

This links to my current unit as we are getting “Inspired by…” A range of different artists – mostly them of South Asia.

Helped us gain new experience with a technique we haven’t used in class yet – it may be something we want to use in the future for our FMP or for something personal.

As we researched this technique beforehand we could get an idea of what this work was supposed to be like. Unlike the intricately designed artwork you can see where they have formed beautiful flowers, I went for a much harder option and tried to make a South Asian idol using only thread

Achieve Assessment Criteria –

1.2 Apply understanding of MTP to support our practices

1.3 Techniques and skills

1.4 Evaluate MTP 

Evaluate

Looking at my piece of work, I can neither say it was successful or a fail. Being someone who is a perfectionist, when I look at my artwork I always see the faults; there a many missing spaces within this specific piece of work, I could of used a different shade of brown to fill them in. However, I have to force myself to look past the negative and try and see some positive: you can see the shape I am forming – similar looking to that of an elephant.

Originally, when I was sowing, I was going to do a simple outline and then do some design in the middle, but then I realised that would not link with the technique. Eve gave me some suggestions on what I could do to make this look better and I took her advice

The spaces between the sowed lines are quite evenly apart, though some are quite spacious than others; if I could I would start again and make the spaces a bit smaller to make the work look neater

If I were to do this piece of work again I would of used a much brighter colours – the mixture of brown tones seems boring and uninteresting, unlike if I used orange and blue which are both complementary but very vibrant and run.

I would experiment with this by maybe making the thread a bit smaller, just to see what different that would make against the cloth.

Inspired By… – ACE – Butik Art Piece

Materials

• Hot wax
• Material (cloth)
• Brusho
• Water

Processes

• Drawing
• Design planning
• Painting
• Drying
• Tracing
• Blending

Before we created out butik piece we had to pick a design we wanted. Eve told us to select a model from our first unit – be it when we did Our defacing of a magazine model, or when we had to draw our peers in the style of a well-known artist. 

When we selected our design, we have to elongate the features of our chosen design to match that of Francis Souza’s own style. 

When our design is drawn on our piece of cloth, we used hot wax to trace the outline – a method mostly used by Indonesia artists and has been around for centuries. It was very interesting to use, though I struggled at the start, I definitely got the hang of it with some practice. 

The wax now dried, we used a type of crystal paint called ‘Brusho’ – you only need to add water to bring it to life. I decided to go for warm colours within the face; cold colours on the outside as a contrast. When the colours combined together – with enough water – they swirled together to create a unique pattern. I decided to only do this on the face as it was the main focal-point – there was no need to use this commonly throughout my piece. 

Contextualise
This links to the project we are doing as we are getting “Inspired by…” South Asians artists, the butik being inspired by the famous artist Francis Newton Souza. When we went to the Whitmore gallery, his work was part of a exhibition.

The intention I had with making this work was to replicate his work and make it our own; what we did differently was use a different art style which required us to use brusho and cloth.

What gave inspiration to my work was using a piece of work from the first unit in which we defaced a model and changed their whole look. To make it look very similar to Souza’s work was to elongate her features.

Achieve Assessment Criteria

1.2 Apply understanding or MTP to support own practices

1.3 Techniques and Skills

1.4 Evaluate MTP

Evaluation

What I think went will on my butik was my colour choice I decided to select. Using a mixture of warm and cold colours really brings forward the character I decided to use for this piece. The way the blue is complementary against the orange, ehich was made by the yellow and red was striking and extremely eye-catching

At the beginning, before I even started this, I was simply going to use one set colour palette; warm colours. I wanted to make it look vibrant and bright instead of dull and gives you an unpleasant feeling. However, by asking Eve what I should do, she gave me a tip of maybe painting the woman’s face in the warm colours (orange, red and yellow) and then make the background really contrasting with cold colours (purple, blue and green) 

If I were to do this again, I would make sure to practice more with the wax stick until I became more competent as I made several mistakes during the process. 

If I were to take this forward, I will play around with using different paints to see how different it will be compared; would water-paint hold as much pigment as brusho? Would the oil-paint be easier to use? It is all about testing and finding the better method for you. 

Inspired by… – Secondary Research – Byzantine Art

Inspired by… – ACE – Spray-Paint

Analyse:

Materials

• Non-toxic spray paints
• White card
• A3 piece of cloth

Processes/techniques

• Drawing
• Stencil cutting
• Design planning
• Spray-painting

Before we created our stencil, we got inspiration from Barbara Brown’s ‘Heal Fabrics’ work which shows illusion and pattern throughout. I decided to go for a simple combination (circles and stripes) and began drawing my design onto a strong piece of card. 

After my design is drawn I began to use a crafting knife to cut out the sections I wanted to be hallow. This was quite difficult as it required me to use the knife on the circles. 

When our stencil was cut it, came down to using the spray paint to print out stencil onto a A3 piece of cloth. The colours I selected were quite dull (the only ones available) so I didn’t really get a choice of how it will look. 

Contextualise

The project is to do with being ‘Inspired by…’ A range of different artists

This particular process helped me experiment with different techniques I have never used before, etc spray painting a stencil to create patterns

The intention we had with making this is specific piece of work is similar to that of the lino-printing artist: it was to promote the use of using different techniques to create a piece of work inspired by an artist – this spray painting stencil piece of work was inspired by renown artist Barbara Brown, known for creating the ‘Healing’ wallpaper.

My work was inspired by Barbara Brown’s simple use of line and shape in her work – without the optical illusion.

Achieve Assessment Criteria

1.2 Apply understanding or MTP to support own practices

1.3 Techniques and Skill

1.4 Evaluate MTP

Evaluation

Though in my opinion my spray-paint was not up to a high-quality standard, some aspects struck out. The pattern I decided to select was basely loosed on both on two pieces of Barbara Brown’s work – it was simple yet the pattern was still interesting to look at, especially with the different mixtures of colours: vibrant and very eye-catching.

What I could of done to make my work look more eye-catching was to use much brighter colours. However, that was not an option due to there being limited colours available for us. I would of used bright vivid colours for one tile and then use dark, gloomy tones for the next and create a contrasting piece of art 

If I were able to do this again I would of made a better looking stencil and not something that looks so simplistic and unimaginative

If I were to take this further I might of used a range of different materials, for example; felt tips, sharpies, pencil crayon, glitter glue…etc. I would want to also change the layout of the stencil – maybe tilt it to the side and then overlap it to give it an interesting shape. 

 

Inspired By… – Artist Research – Halima Cassell

Japanese Inspired Work VII by Halima Cassell 
This model was definitely eye-catching when I saw it: the form and structure is unique; thicker at the bottom and then becoming thinner when it reaches the top, the pattern that is ingraved into this clay sculpture doesn’t give me a Japanese feel (as the name might suggest) but it did remind me of a Labyrinth or a puzzle with the way it looks. It looks very clean cut – no excess piece of clay hanging from the sculpture, the lines are definitely sharp and precisely made. Halima has definitely planned this out before creating this fantastical piece. 

Japanese Inspired Work IV by Halima Cassell

Like the first scupltute, what caught my eye was the design. I could see the relation this structure has to Japan – the design on the exterior of the small clay pot reminds me of Katsushika Hokusai’s world famous painting “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”. As an additional detail, I like the contrast of the brown on the rim of the sculpture while the rest on the exterior is white.