Book project

Book experiment 1

In this book piece, I wanted to experiment with texture and heartfelt subjects such as war. For the first page, I pasted an image of seemingly enthusiastic soldiers marching into what would soon me their impending doom. Below is some text I ripped out from one of my Catholic prayer books, similar to a quote from the "book of psalms". This rather naive first page surprisingly contrasts with the second page, decimated after the horrific aftermath of war. To represent the carnage, I collaged many images of wounded soldiers, medical drawings, and sprinkles of sand around the page. The page title "Dead Souls" was made up of texts from a news paper and from one of my prayer books. The intention was to show no matter what the reasons are, war is futile.  

Book experiment 2

The techniques used to produce this book piece were very different from what I'm normally use to. I tried experimenting with delicate processes such as cutting, carving, and paper manipulating, similar to the techniques practised by Brian Detmeer. I removed the map of the Vatican on the first page and pasted it on top of an image of a wounded soldier I pulled out from an old war book. While it may be quite a decent piece in it's own right, I doubt I'd want to use these techniques for my final ideas. 

 

Book experiment 3

In this piece, I wanted explore textured surfaces. To do so, I soaked this book underneath a running tap and I began to scratch away the modern looking book cover to make it look more decayed.  I pasted an image of the Virgin Mary on the cover to bring a sense of spirituality to the book. I opened up the inside of the book and, coincidently, the water soaked right through the pages into a shape of an angel. Inspired, I decided to collage religious text over the soaked areas to bring out the angel figure. I added some wings on both sides of the book to extend the figure more. This is definitely one of the more interesting pieces I've produced thus far and may well continue to explore surfaces for my upcoming book art pieces. 

Knife wound book

This is one of the first experiments that leads towards my final theme for this project. I flattened a number of book pages into a square shape and fused them together using latex. Once the latex dried, I created the visceral knife wounds with a craft knife. While the piece works well in it's own right, I feel I could go much further with the surface qualities in order to represent the graphic nature of a knife wound.

Bounded

Perhaps the most eerie book piece I've produced as part of my installation is this piece, entitled "bounded". I got the idea from the first scene of Rough Justice by Stephen Leather were three drug dealers were being brutally interrogated by a group of vigilante police man while being tied up. I tightly rolled up two books and pieced them together using latex. I then wrapped white thread dipped in orange ink around the book to give the implication that the book  has been bounded by ruthless vigilantes. I then pasted some paragraphs from the interrogation scene itself in order for viewers to get a better idea of what this piece represents.

Hard as nails
In this book piece, I pieced two solid books together using latex. The intention was to represent an individual who considers themselves indestructible and,as the title puts it, "hard as nails". Considering that not alot of techniques was required to produce this, this is actually quite remarkable.

Sliced

One of the strongest and perhaps most edgy pieces is this one, entitled "sliced" I used one of my books I already damaged and I began violently cutting into the surfaces with a craft knife. After noticing how far I've cut into the book, I dug my fingers into the wounds and open out the gashes to show the text beneath, making the surface look even more violated. This is definitely one of the more visceral books I've produced and will go towards my final outcome.

Gunned

One of the easiest yet most visually effective book I produced was this one above. I simply soaked one of my spare books under a tap and let the somewhat modern looking book covers dissipate. After waiting for it to dry, I drilled several holes with a power drill to create several holes which represent horrific entry wounds suffered from gunshot blasts. This idea was inspired by the final chapter of the book I was working from entitled "Rough Justice" in which the main antagonist is killed by gunfire by armed police. 

Burned

This book here was one of the most enjoyable and potentially dangerous books too produce. The theme was inspired by a chapter of the book "Rough Justice" in which an arson attack took place. I took the book down into the 3D room and began applying the horrific burn marks using a hot air gun. It was important that I used the hot air gun under an air vent to prevent the fire alarms from going off and at times I had to apply water to the marks to stop them from burning. The process was quite risky, but the outcome was hugely satisfying.

Battered.

Out of all the books I've produced, this one is probably the grittiest and most quirky both in terms of it's theme and the surface qualities. After removing hardbacks from two different books, I began to play around with the shapes by manipulating the different corners of the books into awkward angles, almost as it the book has been brutalized by gangs in a fist fight. These two books are later fused together with latex which also helps to create the gritty surface qualities. I then collaged some text from a chapter of "Rough Justice" in which  drug dealers are violently beaten by vigilant cops. The nature of the book may come across quite controversial to some viewers, but hopefully people will appreciate the intense physical qualities. 

"Rough Justice"

Here is my final outcome for the book project. After producing all my textured book, I began too look around for something to mount them on. I found this discarded cabinet near the college skips and decided to "redecorate" it. Luckily I was given pamission to use dangerous tools such as an axe and an ice pick to hit the cabinet with. I attacked the left hand side with the axe to suggest grisly flesh wounds and the ice pick to suggest entry wounds suffered from gunfire, all of which add to the violent nature of the installation. After I finished applying the wounds, I painted the cabinet with a coat of white paint to make it look more uniformed for when I finally stack my books. As part of a competition, this was voted the most "quirky" which later won me a prize.

Fine Art project: Out of the ordinary

Clock drawing

This is my my first observational drawing of a clock which hangs in the backroom of my household. After quickly drafting out the proportion of the clock, I began to apply strong contrasts of light and dark to bring more deph to the drawing. To suggest that light is coming through on the left hand side, I applied more preasure to my graphite stick to get the dark shadow on the right hand side. To bring back the lighter tones, i worked heavily onto the drawing with the putty rubber. I would later rub my finger over the graphite and blend the lighter tones with the dark areas, bringing me a slightly surrealistic quality to the drawing.

Drawing experiments

On the first day of this project, our first tast was to produce a series of drawings of household objects using a variety of techniques. Some of these techniques may include drawing with your left hand (top right), without taking the pencil off the paper (middle), or with your eyes closed. The right-handed drawing of the pair of goggles is by far the best drawing I managed to produce. The bold, jagged lines are remenisnt the the drawings of Frank Auerbach. I feel by taking part in this project my drawing skills would become more versitile if I were to apply these new drawing techniques to my work.

Screwdriver Etching (Before and After)

This session provided me the opportunity to explore different ways of etching with a variety of tools. I used the screw driver as the prominent object as I was fascinated by it's overall proportion. For my first etching, I began by drawing out the object before working onto the outlines with tools including a craft knife andn extremely sharp pencil. My first etching (left) is rather basic and just represents the screwdriver in its most basic form. To take my etching techniques further, I produced the second piece (right) using tools such as a circular blade, pins, and the end of my scissors. By working heavily both into the screw driver and the background, I feel I've explored the potential of using different tool to enhance my etching techniques.

Ink work 1

To make our drawing techniques more versatile, we were asked to produce a series of ink drawings using a wooden stick as the prominent drawing tool. I was inspired the loose, gestural drawings of the Japanese artist Velasco, who is most renowned for her ink drawings of animals. While drafting out the object I was working from, I tried experimenting with different ways of applying ink onto paper. To suggest shadows, I would apply thinker layers of ink and thin, watery layers for the highlights. I kept my drawing style jagged and scratchy in order to maintain the distinctive visual qualities I'm currently developing. Overall this was a successful session, one while I thoroughly enjoyed and will come back to in future projects.

Textured painting experiment

Textured painting on board 1

Textured painting on board 2

Textured painting on board 3

                                                                  

                                                               

                                                                  A1 Painting Study

Before embarking on my exploration into painting, I researched a number of artists in the hope to find inspiration for my own visual ideas. After researching the heartfelt works of Anselm Kiefer, I realized that texture, dirty backgrounds, and gestural mark-making were the areas of my success. In my first A1 painting, I wanted to exploit these techniques. After creating the ground using spontaneous brush strokes and thin layers of paint, I began painting the objects I was working from. I applied the first layers of paint with a watered down paint brush before building up thick texture with my pallet knife. The object I'm most proud of is the metronome and how the naturalistic browns contrast with the hint of red paint on the left side of the object. This painting, to me, works pretty well in terms of it's colour contrasts, although I think it's perspective could be better.

 

Final Painting on Board

For my final painting, I wanted to bring all the successful aspects of my previous studies and incorporate them into what I believe to be one of the best works I've produced on this course thus far. To begin, I created the highly textured ground using organic materials such as saw dust and sand. Once the PVA glue fused onto the board, I blotted in the background using watered down paints, similar to what John Piper does for his paintings. Soon I began to incorporate gestural mark-making over the background using a range of paint brushes and, my personal favourite, the pallet knife. I only used three objects as I felt sometime "less is more".  The colourful gestures seemed to fuse with the heavily textured background successfully, pushing the painting towards abstraction. To me, this is almost like a tribute to abstract expressionism, hopefully something David Tress would admire.