Project three: Acrobats

Expressive print of flaming juggler

This is one of the first collograph prints I produced during this workshop.I worked with one of my flaming juggler images and tried capturing the movement within the image. I began by drafting out the proportion of the figure, followed by very expressive outlines which help to bring quite a theatrical element to the drawing. If I were to improve this somehow, I would use less tone in the background as it seems to flatten the figure slightly.

Mono print of flaming juggler

To produce this, I applied large amounts of printing ink onto a plastic sheet of paper. I then started to work onto by drawing my theatrical juggler with a range of tools including an old toothbrush, fine liner, and an old rag. Unfortunately because the ink didn't transfer to the paper properly the visuals came out quite weak. If I used thicker amounts of ink, this would work turn out much stronger. 

Hellenistic sculpture drawing

This drawing of one of the famous Hellenistic sculptures was a lot of fun to produce. I'm quite pleased with how I managed to get the proportions of the figures right and to maintain the god-like pose of the main focus in the centre (Laeoon)

Textured collage print

While my textured figure had a fair amount of ink on it, I thought I'd seize the opportunity and produce a quick but effective print of the uni-cyclist. After printing the figure, I then decided to draw some arms where the sleeves end, creating quite an interesting contrast between single lines and intense texture.

Collage print 2

This is probably the most successful print I've produced in this workshop. I placed my textured uni-cyclist onto printing paper ,which I then fed through a roller in order to transfer the ink onto the printing paper. I feel the grungy backgrounds blend brilliantly with the well defined uni-cyclist in the centre. Printing is defiantly an area worth revisiting.

Charcoal drawing of combined acrobat performance

In the project brief were were encouraged to create our own circus act. I combined three different circus acts including juggling, uni-cycling, and hooping and produced a somewhat far fetched, yet very stylized circus act.  Charcoal was the most appropriate drawing material to use as it allows me to manipulate the visuals if I wanted to correct a mistake. Also it allows me to exaggerate the performance, creating an act that looks impossible but very exiting at the same time. By looking at this, I feel this could well go towards my final 3D outcome. 

Textiles ink t-shirt

This t-shirt was made with a variety of materials and techniques. This included incorporating psychedelic ink splatters, expressive painting techniques (as demonstrated on the centre figure) and splatters of wax. What I find most successful about this t-shirt is that it doesn't look like it's been overworked. The psychedelic visuals seem to resemble the expressive visuals demonstrated my the works of Edvard Munch.

Unicycle macket

To produce this 3D piece, I folded layers of news paper to create the main body. After attaching the limbs, I then cut out some stylized shoulder blades to give the sculpture a lively persona. To finish, I attached the figure to a uni-cycle which I made separately. As a 3D macket, this was pretty successful. I think by working on a smaller scale it made it easier to get the proportions to look balanced.

Henry Moore sculpture drawing

Here is a drawing of one of my favourite sculptures by Henry Moore titled "Warrior without shield". The surrealistic forms of this sculpture brings quite an edge atmosphere to it, representing the damage that war has left on its soldiers. 

Second acrobat print

To produce this print of a hoopist, I used similar approaches as my previous print, only this time I was careful not to work too heavily into the background. By drawing layers of outlines and defining the tones on the figure, I feel visually this much more effective.Once again I think I may have overdone the background slightly,  but I think this way of drawing has potential and could up to to future projects.

Final maquette 

For our last task, we were asked to get ourselves into groups of six. We all agreed that the best idea would be to make our own maquettes and join them together to create our own circus act. I decided to use my trapeze uni-cyclist drawing as my main inspiration and also because it would look quite dramatic. Of course I had to simplify it in order to make it possible to produce. While I was working on the main structure of the figure, I sent some of my colegues away to design the different objects needed to complete the figure. E.g. a uni-cycle, and a cape to make the figure look more theatrical. I feel the end result turned out much better than anticipated. The fact that we were able to combine our sculptures together to make one very exiting circus act was very satisfying indeed.