Project 3 Stage 3 - 4 & Project 4 Stage 1 - Stage 2, exercise 1

I have finally got around to updating my blog, I will have to get into the habit of doing this more regularly.

Stage 3 recording colour accurately – exercise 3 & 4

I found this image in a magazine and loved the bright colours, I tried not to make it look like the image.  Exercise 4 - Again the image does look very similar, I identified all the colours, and I found the red hardest to mix.

                                                                                             

Stage 4 – Colour moods and themes exercises 1& 2

                                                      

   

                                

I really found these exercises fun. I tried hard to go with my feeling of what colour matched not the stereotype.

My Mood board and colour bag was autumn colours. I chose these colours as I found a photo of my husband walking though the wood at the start of autumn. Even thought the photo was still very green, there were fallen leaves and it felt very autumnal. I selected images from magazines that were autumn colours and I put together a mood board, colour bag and mixed colours to match.
I love these colours, they are so rich, warm and comforting. I would like to do some sketch book work with autumn related colours and images so that I can use them for future projects.

Impressionists

I then found some time to look at the impressionist. I looked at Degas, Seaut and Monet.

Degas as I love the way he uses paint and pastel together. He was very experimental with colour, texture and composition. He wasn’t scared to just stick a piece of paper over part of the work that didn’t work and change it. He used colour beautifully to draw your eye into different parts of the image. His composition of the painting of dancers and the nudes of women bathing and washing are so interesting, some are only partly on the page, using them to frame the subject.

Seaut's later landscapes are very interesting and beautiful. He used pointillism to create his paintings but he also played with the composition too. If he wanted an upbeat, happy picture then he would use curves going up and happy colours.

Monet has always been a big favourite of mine. I travelled to Giverny a number of years ago where I visited his garden and I feel, that he managed to make the paintings even more beautiful than the actual gardens, he captured the atmosphere in his work. The most interesting aspect of Monet's work is his brush strokes and colour, these give the pictures life.

I saw a recent series on BBC 1 about the impressionist that was very interesting and informative.

I did a few small studies of a couple of the images I enjoyed, looking at the colour, and marks that was made. I also did a picture not long ago of a photo that I took at Giverny and tried to give it a Monet feel.

Stage 5 & 6

I did the stitch samples. I found that depending on the amount of colour block of red it pushed the blue to the background. If the colours are next to each other with only small amounts of colour the colour mixed together. If there is a lot of background between the coloured stitch (I used black) it stays true to the colour. Also the black background makes the colour stand out. This reminded me of an artist I looked at while doing a short drawing and painting course, Juan Sanchez Cotan. His still life’s always had a black background. He did this as he was interested in the relationship between the objects and the use of light and shadow. I also think that this helped to make the colours stand out and true so you could get more of the impression of the relationship between objects. I did a study of the painting Quince, cabbage, melon and cucumber, 1602.

Sample

I then did my french knot sample. I chose an image of a decorative metal work that was against a window in a church in France. I chose this image as the background has beautiful pastel coloured background with the metal work other the top. I thought that it was a great contrast. I did not do the whole of the sample as it was taking too long to do and I felt I needed to move on, but I feel that I had done enough to show what needed to be shown.

                                                                                                                         

  

 Review of assignment 2

1. Yes I feel that I could mix and match colours accurately. I found reds and orange a little more difficult to mix.

2. I feel that I could use colour expressively. Although I found some were more difficult than others, and some were very similar. The hardest part was to express the colour that I was feeling not the stereotype.

3. I do look at the colour a bit more now and analysis what the colour is and what shade it is.

4. I did not use gouache paints, I used watercolours and acrylics as the gouache paints that I had did not have all the colours that I wanted to use. I prefer acrylics. I found watercolour paints were good for expressing moods like sad, dull, slow and static. Where Acrylic were more bold, happy and active.

5. I think the exercise in stage 5 was successful. I was a little nervous to start but enjoyed using the French knot stitch and will defiantly use it again in my work. It has a lovely tactile quality.

6. I would like to spend some more time looking at colour.

Research Point – Textile piece

This piece of textile was given to my mum by my Nanny (Dads Mum) before I was born to bring me home from hospital . She passed away not long before I was born so it has great sentimental value. It has only been used by me. Mum has now passed it to me, but I have not used it for any of my children for fear of it being ruined.

It is approximately 35 years old, the bag is white, rectangular in shape (68cm x 37cm) and It has frill/ribbon edging. The fabric is polyester/ man made fibre with polyester filling and I believe It was made on a machine as its symmetrical. The purpose is for the baby to keep warm, I was the last to use the bag and the bag is white so  it can be used by boy or girl.

This piece is very sentimental to me, it is very pretty and I love the pattern of the fabric and the frilly edges. It is very simple in design, the piece does look a little dated now very 70’s.

Project 4 Developing design ideas

Stage 1 introduction and preparation.

I have found doing this exercise that the squares or lines that were on a diagonal gave more movement than when they were straight which gave a more static feel.

Stage 2 - Exercise 1

Here are my drawing exercises using line, block colour and shape. I really enjoyed do these.