The World I Live In Evaluation (1000 words)

The World I Live In Evaluation (1000 Words) 

I feel that I managed my time well with my sketchbook, it was a project that I was unfamiliar with but I enjoyed, nonetheless. My time keeping was going well and I feel that after attending summer school, learning what I needed to include in my sketchbook to make it a strong one, but once the summer classes were over, my time plans became less organised as I now had a lot more ideas and very little time to incorporate them all into my sketchbook to the standard that I felt would give me the best grade that I could achieve.         

My main focus throughout this project was nature and the colour blue. My personal and favourite place to be is my own bedroom which is decorated in many variations of blue that also includes floral designs; rose fairy lights, floral/woodland wallpaper and decorative blue and white roses on my windowsill. It was easy for me to select these features as my theme, as I enjoy involving them in my art as well as this theme having personal value to me. 

I drew the vast majority of my sketchbook from observation and primary research, as I needed to find inspiration from the world around me and I wanted it to be as personal as was appropriate for this project. I did however undertake quite a bit of secondary research for the later part of this project-Artist Research Sheets, Mood Boards etc.  

I developed my research by incorporating my primary into my secondary (blue, nature, tattoos, floral designs, tree branches, silhouettes, portraits, watercolour etc.) For example; I used watercolour frequently through my sketchbook, especially with portraits, so I decided to use Marion Bolognesi as inspiration for an Artist Research sheet- A water colour portrait artist who frequently uses blue paints. Bolognesi also in the majority of her works only paints the faces from the nose upwards, no clear facial shape- only eyes, eyebrows, noses and accessories such as glasses. I also have created this pattern for myself in my own work, subconsciously most likely because I lack the confidence in specific areas of portraits- such as the mouth, nose and a symmetrical looking life like facial shape.

I used experimentation mainly throughout my design development period and throughout the completion of my sketchbook. I created varied designs, methods of blending the paint, patterns in white gel pen and blending different colour combinations with my design developments, and did the same while using mixed media, experimenting with the size and shapes of pages and positioning and layering in my sketchbook.  

I didn't have many issues with problem solving, this project except for how to layout my sketchbook. However, this was no longer an issue when I attended summer school and got the help I needed from Kat's sketchbook examples and help sheet.  

If I had not decided to stick primarily to Fine Art, I would have liked to do some more experimentation with textiles (I have a few sheets of paper made from scratch). Some blue/teal tie-dye pieces of material that I could have then screen printed some floral designs onto in white instead of a canvas and white gel pen.  

I decided on my final design very easily, as I planned from the start of the project to focus on the blue hues and nature aspects of my life because they have always been my comforts in my personal life and hold a lot of value to me. I enjoy working on canvases and seeing as I had frequently used watercolour throughout my work, I decided to use gouache and acrylics on my canvas, to create the smooth, visible brushstroke effect. I didn’t want my final piece to look completely polished, I enjoyed the messy aspect of my sketchbook and wished that I had used more acrylic/gouache throughout it so that I could have used my choice of media as a direct link to an aspect of the very beginning of my project, to show a clearer link through the development of my ideas and how close my initial inspirations relate to my final outcome. However, I did have a very clear link to nature throughout, the first pages of my sketchbook feature the same style of trees that I have now included on my final canvas.  

I used quite a few processes throughout this project; collage, print making, ceramics, paper making, tracing, sewing, crosshatching, continuous line drawing etc. Some are new, others I was familiar with which made this project a challenge at times but I am more confident after experimenting with them.  

 I feel that my sketchbook was a strong point of my project, I was unsure about the turnout when I first began it, but after the summer school sessions I became confident in it and applied myself a lot more, now knowing what I had to include to make it a strong sketchbook. Some pages, I experimented and did not get the outcome that I expected, so next time I will practise on a separate piece of paper to test the practicality of my chosen method and if the idea in my head will allow me to complete my work to the standard that I want.  

I feel satisfied with my project work, I am proud of my Marion Bolognesi Artist Research sheet in particular because a previous weakness of mine was creating realistic images of eyes, especially with watercolour and I like the outcome of that sheet, the colour scheme and works featured and I also now feel that creating realistic art works of eyes is a weakness of mine.  

I would like to improve my time management, I got too confident and gave myself more work than I should have and ended up putting too much pressure on myself to create extra work, which backfired because I ended up lacking in my blog entries and written work because of focusing on what I could add to my sketchbook next or creating more than one mood board when a few sketchbook collage pages would have been acceptable.

Mood Boards

For my first set of mood boards, I decided to use my sketchbook and collage 3-4 pages by filling them with secondary research that creates a very clear image of my interests and how they have been included in my work; for example I have featured Colleen Atwood's costume designs and sketches below because I have chosen her as one of my 3 artists to feature on my Artist Research sheets.

I also chose some stills from Studio Ghibli films, because I felt that they were very relevant to my style of work, colour schemes, use of nature, Japanese features etc as well as also being mentioned in my personal statement as a main inspiration for the vast majority of my art work throughout the years.

 I also chose to use my musical inspirations because the music that I listen to heavily influences my work, it changes the style that I draw in, the speed, the emotion, the harshness, the messiness, the colour scheme, it very often decides on what the piece will be for me, in the moment. I find it a very useful tool to have, as I often find it difficult to express emotions or messages through my pieces, in a quiet room or even in a room filled with people or distractions, very often all I need or find important for my work to express what I want is music, not everything needs to be visual to be necessary.

I then decided to create a more creative mood board including annotation and hand drawn and original pieces to represent my love of Fukari's art style and floral tattoo designs. I wanted to showcase different textures too, so I collaged painted paper for one section then used a mix of all the coloured paint I had used on the sheet already to layer on thickly to use as a background for the rest of the sheet.

Ceramic Workshop

For the first task, we were asked to knead the clay so that there were no air bubbles and we could begin to sculpt our own individual representation of how we see ourselves, using clay.

We drew an outline in the clay with a shaping tool and then used finger spacing to make sure that our silhouettes would be as in proportion and accurate as we could get.
Once we had cut the shapes out neatly using various shaping tools, we started to etch designs into them- clothing, hair, facial features/expressions, accessories etc, then positoning them in a way that represents something about us; how we present ourselves, how people may percieve us, our body language, how we were positioned at the time, how we carry ourselves.

When we had finished these pieces early, we were asked to use the rest of our time to create something that relates to our project- 'The World I Live In', I had already decided to build up on my self portrait piece instead of creating another image, deciding to paint and add more features to my ceramic self piece.


However, I then changed my mind because I thought that it would be more interesting to leave it blank because I am always changing and will look completely different to how I do now in maybe a few months or even weeks depending on the choices I make and who I might become. I also wanted to leave it as a blank canvas because I wanted to create the theme of evolution with my project, having made a lot of links to nature and how that evolves visually.

If I had had more time in the lesson, I would have created a second piece on myself, creating a figure with more resemblance to myself to contrast the more abstract representation.