Katy Aston: Textile design.

Katy Aston came to give us a talk about her degree and textile work. She brought in lots of samples of her work, and my favourites were the wood and suede pieces, because they are very interactive and tactile, and can be bent into lots of different shapes. Her designs are quite geometric, using lots of squares, diamonds and semi-circles in her patterns. I like the limited colours pallettes in her projects, because I think they aren't too over-complicated to go with the patterns.

Thorsten Brinkmann inspired photographs

Thorsten Brinkmann takes photographs of figures, covered up with fabric,  clothing and objects. The portraits are slightly surreal, as the bodies are covered up, and the faces are never showing.
   We made similar photographs by dressing and covering each other with cloth and hats, and also used objects. The pose of the figure was very important because it was the only way of showing emotion and feelings, because you couldn't see their facial expression. When I was modelling it felt very strange because I was trapped in the cloth, but at the same time it felt quite safe, because nobody else knew what you were thinking so it was easier to become a different character.

The third picture along was the one that I dressed, I decided to use black and white because it was very striking, and I liked the idea of the stripes going across the body.

One of my favourites is the first one on the middle row, because of how the fabric is clingy, so the buttons on her jacket, and her hands stick out and make a very interesting texture. I also really like the second one on the bottom row, because even though the top of the body is completely covered, the arms and feet show it is a figure. I also like the garden shears in her hand, because it makes it seem as though she is going to work, and doing something, as opposed to many of the figures that look as though they wouldn't be able to do anything.
I am dressed in a purple robe, bottom left, and I think because I am kneeling, the fabric drapes nicely and falls well on the floor.

Black and white photography.

Inspired by Corinne Day's 'The Face' we approached portrait photography in a slightly different way, so that the subject was not posing, but answering questions while being photographed. This was to try to make the model to forget they were being photographed, to get more natural, expressive faces. We were using 35mm film cameras, and we used the darkroom to develop the photos ourselves. I enjoyed learning the process of how the film negatives are made into prints.
  I printed nine different photographs of Alex, and arranged them in a similar way to 'The Face' but I think the black background with white in between makes them look more separate, and not so much a whole artwork. I like the contrast in these photos, especially her stripy top, and her face stands out really well from the black background.


I then took the background off by cropping them on the computer, and I think this closeness makes it look more like an artwork, rather than a series of photos.

I really enjoyed working in the photography studio and darkroom, and doing the whole process from start to finish, taking the photos and developing them into an end product.

long exposure photography

These photos used a similar method to the light painting, using a long exposure, but instead of torches, we used a series of flashes to capture the pictures. To get the movement, we all swapped places and moved around, so each time the flash went off, The camera captured everybody in a different position.

 In these two (above), we used both flashes and torches, so both the torch light and all the people would come out in the photograph. The top one of my favourites, because Paige stayed still for more than one flash, so is fairly solid, which contrasts to the busy background, where everything is difficult to make out. We then worked in pairs, to experiment with different ways of creating interesting long exposure photographs.

Light painting

Light painting is a method that uses long exposure photography and torches to create an image.

 We used torches to draw around people, then scribble around them , to create silhouettes. I enjoyed this, but it was difficult to get  the whole silhouette, because if the torch was not pointing at the camera, it did not record the light, so doing the lower parts we had to crouch down.

To make this picture, I used a torch to draw Alex. I like the final image, because of the movement and continuous line, but it was a very strange thing to do, because you cant see what you have drawn until you look on the camera. I think it looks like there are two people in the picture.

We worked in pairs, one modelling and one drawing, then swapped over. I think all of the different styles of figure are very interesting, and when I put them all together it was very obvious that different torches had been used, to create the different coloured drawings.

Life drawing: Sculpture

This week, instead of drawing, we used clay to make the figure. We started  with basic shapes, and then used clay tools and our hands to refine this into a more realistic figure. I enjoyed this, but in the time we had, I found I couldn't get all the smaller details in. I think I captured the proportions quite well, and I enjoyed how easy  it was to change parts by adding and taking away little pieces of clay.


































Making the head sculpture was my favourite part, because of how much detail I could put in, but I also enjoyed the process of building up the head, starting with a newspaper base, then building up the basic head shape with clay. Each four minutes, we all moved positions, so as to get an all round view of the head. I struggled for a while to get the profile right, but I think my end result turned out well and is very realistic.

Photography Research.

Looking at different photographers work, I realised how many different styles of photography there are, and how carefully composed they are.

Loretta Lux:
     Lux is one of my favourite portrait photographers, because of the eerie expressions on the children's faces. Her portraits are very haunting and surreal. In this photo, 'Portrait of Antonia' I like the muted colours, because the neutral background makes the blue look very bright in comparison.







Imogen Cunningham:
     I like how abstract the shapes are in this photograph, although at the same time very realistic and detailed. The flowers really stand out from the black background, and the texture of the flowers is very subtle.























Sandy Skoglund:
Skoglund interested me because of how intricate her photo sets are, and how much work must have gone into the background to take just one photo. This one caught my eye because of the pattern that covers almost all of the people and items, but there are also parts that show through, like the suit, and parts left completely uncovered like the arms and legs of the women. The colours are not very varied, so you have to look closely to see all the details.