University Campus Suffolk

Post before this one, the last two images would not upload and im not too sure why at the moment, will post them up as soon as i can.

This post will be discussing a doll which I have brought. I brought two of these china dolls with the intention of creating a cast of them in different poses. After getting these dolls shown in the images attached I was dissapointed to find out that only the arms legs andhead where solid, with the body just being made out of padded material. I would have to add clay on top of these bodies so that I would be able to create a mould and make others in the future without damaging the mould. Also I have found out that the heads are made with a big gaping hole in the top which the hair attached too. I had to get rid of the hair and cover this whole up as you can see inside the hollow head. I have decided to only cast one doll while having the other one still clean and tidy, This way I can create different sculptures while at the same time having one neat which I can use for photographing.

Giving a break from creating prints of scientist type men experimenting on people I had decided to create something a bit different. I wanted to create something that was more 3d rather than just a flat image. I had an idea to create either one clock which had been fragmented into seven different parts, but still placed together with gaps and one clock handle will spin around as the hour hand. The clock fragments will be silhouettes of images that will illustrate each of the seven events that occur in a sequence. These fragments will be placed in order of sequence and the clock handle will only be over one fragment at a time, spinning around the order in the order stated in the bible. Another idea of how to arrange this was to have seven separate clock fragments, which would be placed next to each other on a wall. I chose against this idea as the first order of the clocks as one piece as it is easier to understand if all the fragments were ordered together as opposed to separated pieces.

The first couple of images are two designs that I had created, one that is of a hand and arm catching fire as the sun burns it. Also the second design is of a fish skeleton that symbolises the part of the narrative that states how the fish and animals in the sea die when the sea turns into blood. I initially gathered some metal to cut these designs out of, drew the designs on this metal and attempted to cut it out with a saw. This was a very slow process and the metal was thin which meant that it would not stand off the wall very far, it may as well be a flat image like previously created. To get around this problem and speed up the creating process I have decided to use wood to cut the clocks out of. By using the wood I can get a deeper clock and also be able to sand out detail in the middle of the silhouette to create a more detailed image.

The next two images are images of the wooden designs cut out. These two have been cut out within a day and have been sanded around the outside. With the fire image I have sanded a bit of detail and lines in the arm, which I hoped, would stand out in the next stage of creating the clock. After creating these two, I had decided to burn the wood, as it will fit the theme of the apocalyptic type world and also fit with the scorching of the sun. I used a heat gun to try and burn the wood, however it had only coloured the wood and did not have the desired effect that I wanted. Instead I used a blowtorch that was easier and faster to create a better finish. I have not decided if I am going to put something over the wood to make it have a shine or keep the burnt wood from sticking to anyone who touches it. I have also burnt the fish clock but haven’t yet sanded any lines into the clock. After I have done this I need to design the other five and create them, if I don’t get distracted like usual I think this can be done within a week. I have also researched into the clock handle, and I will need to create my own with a small stepper motor, a power source and a controller which can be used to make the motor spin only once per day.

Another review of work earlier on this year.

This piece was another layered spraypaint image which had been inspired by the works of Snik. I was going to make this piece about the angel who let the sun scorch people and set them alight. I had taken an image of a girl, photoshopped the image and merged it with a pattern of a flame. This final image which was created is seen here as the first picture. I had turned the image into black and white, getting three different shades which I was going to use to attempt and recreate this image as a stencilled spray print. This was an experiment to try and test what could or couldnt be done with the skills I currently posses with spraying layers.

So I cut the three layers out, and sprayed them. I couldnt find paper at the time so decided to spray it onto a piece of acrylic, something which I have learnt not to use again, in the future I will stick to wood or canvas, materials where to paint will stay on better and not scratch off so easily.

By the end of spraying, I was left with the final outcome of what is seen here as the second picture. I was not impressed with what was created, and was dissapointed in how it turned out. there was no detail at all that I can see in the picture, with only a rough outline being visable so it can still be seen what I was trying to create. I think in the future I will stick to layers which arent so much block patches of colour, but more finer lines that will give finer detail.

Yet again I have had the problem of aligning eachlayer perfectly, with gaps where no paint had touched, and gaps where it had overlapped. This is something which I must learn to correct in the future otherwise I will never be happy with the outcome. so out of this i have learnt:

Dont spray onto acrylic as it will scratch off with the paint I am using.

Thinner lines, more detail can be achieved that way – less block colours.

Start with a better image, in hindsight I could have seen that there wasnt much detail in the figure and that it would come out as wavey patches.

Next time, more planning is needed before creating a print, I shoudn’t just hope itll all turn out alright in the end!

After looking at Sniks work in more detail, researching how he makes his work from layered stencils, I decided to attempt my own stencils onto canvas. In the past I had created a paper stencil and stencils for silkscreens with just one colour. These were easy enough to create but they had no depth in the image, I wanted to create a layered stencil, pushing what I had previously created before by using three layers instead of one.

Before I had started the stencil I had created a background for the image, this was ripped up pages of the bible collaged together creating a text background with words which are seen to be holy. This worked as its own piece, without the need of a stencil print ontop, however I had already been set on making a print ontop of it so I decided to carry on with it nether the less. The figure in this print is a hooded figure with a long jacket on which covers the person leaving no skin on show, with the exception of the hand. I decided to use a hooded figure as it could have a resemblance to death and the grim reaper, also commonly associated as a dark hooded figure. I thought this would tie in with the apocalyptic theme which will be going on within my work. Death would play a big part in work that i create as everyone affected will either be delt alot of pain to or will die.

The size of this piece is about 3 or 4 ft high and is one of the larger canvas’s I have worked on over the last few years. I had created paper stencils, and learned from this that using freezer paper is meant to be better as you can reuse the stencil again and not break it when you peel it off after. I had cut the stencils out and with the first stencil added a little water to stick the stencil down to the canvas. This was not a good idea as it had merged with the collaged background, something which I will remember in the future. However after spraying all three layers, the end result was something which I have mixed feelings about. At a distance I like the work, as it can be made out as the image I wanted to get acrosss, however where the stencils had overlapped a new brighter shade of blue has appeard, with lines at different places across the image.

I am still undecided on whether or not to make the colours more bold and fill them in more in a more graffiti block colour style rather than having it opaque with the text being able to be seen throug the image itself. I think in the future I will change this canvas and make the colours darker, for example the black will not be slightly seethrough and just a flat black colour, as at the moment you can see different patches of black throughout which to me it offputting in the work.

Although I have seen many different problems with this piece, making it and observing it after, I like the style of it with the use of layered stencils and spraypaints. I have grown to like this canvas more than in the beginning. it reminds me of what I was once told, if you dont like the picture to start with, you can only see the good points in it, and if you love it to start with, you will only be able to find bad points in the future. I see the relevance of that saying now. I would like to continue to push myself with the use of layered stencils, whether it be screenprinting or spraypaint.

At the start of my second year, a trip to London ended up in a group of us going on a ‘First Thursday’ in London. in one of the galleries. I saw works from what is now my favourite artist, Snik.

The work that I had seen in the gallery and the three that I can still picture even now was a piano with a print on it called Dark Music Piano. I wasn’t interested in the front of the piano as to me it just had the appearance of ‘Tags’ associated with graffiti; however it was the reverse of the piano which had fascinated me the most. The second image down on this post is the reverse of the piano, a stencil which was of a hooded figure playing the piano, it was not the content of the piece that amazed me, but it was when I read that this piece was made up of 9 different layers. The 9 layers used had made the print almost look photographic, and I was amazed by the skill and time that it had obviously taken to create something this detailed.

The second piece that I was amazed with was a 9 colour stencil titled Yesterdays Breeze. This is where it became most obvious to me that the pieces were made from stencils due to how there were many different versions of this work, all with different colours for the hair, while the rest of the image was the same every time. I was amazed with how well the figure had been stencilled out, the amount of detail which had been portrayed in the stencils which I have found out now are all cut by hand. This level of skill is something which I aspire to one day be able to do myself.

The Third Piece of art is known as Kingfisher this is a print that has been made yet again from many layered stencils. The image itself didn’t strike me as anything special, as you see images of birds all the time, however I could stand there for a long time just appreciating the amount of effort it would have taken to produce 9 stencils which create such a detailed image such as this. The process and the detail from it had amazed me with this artist, he has used the style of ‘Graffiti’ artists but through a very controlled and time consuming process he has created an image which from a distance looks photographic and life like, where at a short distance you can enjoy seeing the many different colours and layers which have been put into making the image. Also what he prints onto, showing that you can print on paper, wood, even pianos and still have a great image afterwards is something which has inspired me to experiment more with what I create. When I look at this artists work it inspires me to create art, to want to make layered stencils and layered prints and slowly see an image come together while knowing there was a lot of effort put into the image. This style of work is something which I love, something which I would want to explore deeper in the future.