Fine Art Pathway- Organic
Karl Blossfeldt
I looked at Blossfeldt work for the fact he created detailed and accurate drawings of natural forms. He creates his drawings to perfectly match the object he is trying to portray. For this project, I am working with this same idea in mind, trying to accurately create the textures of the natural forms I am drawing.
My Response
Visiting the RAM
Progressing my work – Trying something new
I want to explore doing something abstract and mixed media as it’s something I have never done before. I like the idea of further exploring one of the activities I did for skills week: drawing with stitch.
Laura Edgar
Embroidering for the first time
Inspired by both my mood boards and research into Laura Edgars work, I decided to embroider into paper, practicing different techniques, as seen in Edgars work. I have only tried embroidery one time before but never into paper so I wanted to get some practice at the technique.
As you can see my first attempt didn’t work very well as I tried to cover too large of an are at once, and ended up ripping the paper as a result.
Here’s the piece I was able to create in the given time, I am proud of what I was able to make, I found it quite challenging getting used to embroidering, let alone embroidering into paper so the fact I was able to create something that fits my idea is something I am quite proud of. If given more time and resources however I would have liked to have been able to fill out the entire picture, covering the entire surface area with the thread. Some of my stitches are quite clumsy so I think if I was given more time I would have been able to make a more polished piece. Despite all that however, I still like the piece I have created and it gives me the connotations of how they wrap trees at Christmas time, called yarn bombing.
I tried to create a digital version of what i would have wanted the finished project to look like if i had more time in order to achieve it.
Evaluation
For the Fine Art pathway I took a completely different approach, choosing to focus on mediums and techniques that I have very little confidence in using such as embroidery and tonal shading. Due to the fact, i had already chosen which Pathway i had wanted to specialise in, i took this opportunity to try a technique i had enjoyed learning in skills week. Whilst i did look at the artists: Karl Blossfeldt and Laura Edgar, creating mood boards for the embroidery techniques i wanted to use, served the biggest influence on what i was able to create. This research acted as a way of showing me different stitches that I would have been able to use in my own work. This research allowed me to plan the ways in which i wanted to cover the surface of my photograph. I am very pleased with what i was able to achieve in the time I had, however I would have liked to have been able to finish the piece, embroidering the whole picture rather than smaller sections of just the trees and shadows. For Pathway 2, I took the opportunity to use a medium and technique that I have never had the opportunity to use before, as well as the chance to further utilise a skill I began to learn in skills week. The material I used for Pathway 2 was embroidery thread in various colours, threaded through card rather than material. I think for this project, I was over ambitious with what I would have been able to achieve in the time I had for the project. As it was a skill I didn’t have much practice in using, it was a very slow process and I had to take extra safety precautions with using a sewing needle as I hadn’t before and I kept stabbing myself in the fingers with it. Pathway 2 had even more broad options, with no guidelines or rules to follow when working on the project. This approach allowed me to explore a brand-new avenue, however the lack of direction did cause me to have a slow start as I wasn’t sure exactly what the brief was asking of me. I think after both pathways I have realised that I much prefer a material-based approach, because by working through my ideas through drawings and practicing allows me to develop my ideas to the best of their ability.
I haven’t really noticed the impact of any rules and constraints, I still feel as though I have been able to be as intuitive as I usually am, especially with the broad briefs, for pathway 1, it was my own imagination that allowed me to come up with the subject of my narrative, the base story gave me the inspiration, however there was no limitations as to what the narrative could be about. Pathway 2 had even more broad options, with no guidelines or rules to follow when working on the project. This approach allowed me to explore a brand-new avenue, however the lack of direction did cause me to have a slow start as I wasn’t sure exactly what the brief was asking of me. I think after both pathways I have realised that I much prefer a material-based approach, because by working through my ideas through drawings and practicing allows me to develop my ideas to the best of their ability