A2 Exam - Planned Final Piece

 

 

This was my final piece that was based on found objects. I was given a German Newspaper whilst walking through the centre of the live where I live and found that it would be an interesting concept to explore. After taking many photographs of the newspaper, I found it interesting how many of the texts that were parallel to each other differed in colour and size. The contrast of text and vibrant colours enticed me. Even though I found the newspaper interesting, I thought that it would be more visually exciting if there was another found objects within the image. I then took a photograph of an old, ripped boot and photo-shopped the best areas of the boot into the picture of the newspaper. The area of the boot I chose was purely due to the rips, folds and textures within the boot. I thought that it added more dimension to the image itself. For the image, I used acrylic paint because I thought that it would allow the vibrancy of the colours to be more prominent. 

A2 Exam Coursework - Current Project

My current project was inspired by a plastic bag with a newspaper print that I was given during a walk to my local German Town. I was excited by the levels of contrast throughout the bag/newspaper. The mixture of sizes of text and images, I believe, is eye-catching and fascinating. I will be painting this using acrylic paint and throughout the journey of the painting, will decide if I was to add more materials.
 

A2 Exam Coursework - Mark Powell

I came across the artist Mark Powell while researching artists for my exam question 'Found Objects'. Mark Powell often focuses on the older generations and takes part in creating portraits using pen and ink: often drawing these faces on old and used postcards/envelopes. I took this idea and created my own through taking a picture of a relative and using a biro on an old and used envelope to mimic Mark Powel’s Interesting idea. I found the use of older people more interesting because of all the creases and wrinkles on their face, it made the image look so much more fascinating and exciting.

A2 Exam Coursework - Brian Sayers (Sketchbook)

I chose the theme of ‘Found Objects’ for my exam question. Whilst looking at artists that I believe linked to this, I came across Brian Sayers, the artist that I had done a workshop with in year 12. Within this sketchbook piece I took a painting of Brian Sayers and continued it across the page in the style of his painting. I enjoyed how he uses everyday found objects and creates such an intriguing painting.

A2 Coursework - Etching

Because I enjoyed the prospect of including portraits into my work, I decided to include an etching into my collection. From my previous piece, I enjoyed the idea of the person having food in their hands and close to their face because it meant that the one image included not only food, but the expression if the face, the creases and wrinkles in the hand and all of the textures within the food. I thought all of this added to the dimension of the image and this is what persuaded me to do an etching instead of just a painting.

A2 Coursework - Portrait/Pizza (Unfinished) 96 X 55cm

In order to add to the collection that I was forming of realist acrylic paintings of food, I took a picture of a family friend as she was eating. I thought that this was similar to what I did with the table top of the pizza, but this now includes a face. I saw this as stepping out of my comfort zone because I had never done a portrait before in such a realist style. I enjoyed painting this because it allowed me to experiment with facial tones but also vibrant colours of the pizza itself.

A2 Coursework - Pizza Painting 62 X 85cm

Still inspired by the work of Vic Vicini, I took a picture of a table top at a restaurant that included many different objects and within many of those objects including many different textures and surfaces. I then Photo-shopped the photograph that I had taken to highlight and contrast areas in order to make the photo more visually exciting, it also added to the style of Vic Vicini. I then decided to paint this photograph in acrylic paint to ensure that I developed my skills.

A2 Coursework - Biro

I thought I would venture out from acrylic paint just to make a quick sketch of a packet of crisps in front of me. I did this using a biro pen and acrylic paint to highlight certain areas of the packet. I enjoyed using biro as I got so used to acrylic and it allowed me to have a break from painting. I find using biro very enjoyable because it does not allow for mistakes, meaning that you have to incorporate that mistake into your work, which I believe gives the piece more character.

A2 Coursework - Janet Fish Apples

After painting the strawberries in the style of Vic Vicini, I came to the conclusion that I enjoyed using acrylic paint when painting a realist style image. Because of this, I decided to paint an image that I had taken in the style of Janet Fish. In many of Janet Fish’s work she included the reflection of cellophane on fruit. Intrigued by this idea, I then took a picture based on this and painted it using acrylic paint. This then developed and improved how I worked with acrylic paint and my realist approach to paintings.

A2 Coursework - Vic Vicini Strawberries

On the top left is a Vic Vicini Image that I found visually enjoyable because of the high levels of contrast and vibrant colour. I then took a picture of a bowl of strawberries and Photo-shopped the image to accentuate the contrast and vibrancy so I could create a similar style to Vic Vicini, but within my own work. After finalising the contrast of the picture, I then decided to paint this using acrylic paint in a realist way so yet again, my work was in the style of Vic Vicini.

A2 Coursework - Cracked Egg Series, Vic Vicini Style

I was inspired by the Vic Vicini cracked egg painting, so I decided to take a series of photos based on the process of cracking an egg. I then used these photos to produce a series of biro pen work underneath. This was because I enjoyed using pen in the previous work of the cracked egg by Vic Vicini.

A2 Coursework - Vic Vicini

 

 For my A2 coursework, I chose the theme of Food. I enjoyed the work of Vic Vicini and how realistic and colourful his work is. The image in the top left hand corner is the original Vic Vicini image of a cracked egg and I thought that I would do a series but with different materials. The first, I did using biro pen, the second is coloured pencil and the third is acrylic paint. I used different materials so I could identify whether it made a different to the image and also to see which materials I enjoyed working with.

AS Exam Coursework - Pencil Elephant

To add to my growing theme of rhinos and elephants, I simply used a picture that I had taken and drew it using pencil.

AS Exam Coursework - Rhino and Elephant Collage 64 X 115cm

Within this piece, I took two large photographs that I had taken of a rhino and an elephant and recognised the similarities and differences on the eyes, the creases and the textures. I then sliced both photographs horizontally and placed them together and combined certain areas to make an overall different animal. I then used acrylic paint, chalk and charcoal to combine areas of different pattern and carry on some of the patters from the rhino onto the elephant and visa versa.

AS Exam Coursework - Acrylic Elephant 47 X 111cm

As I previously said, I found the creases and surfaces of rhinos and elephants fascinating. Because of this fascination, I decided to crop a photograph that I had taken, and simply paint it using acrylic paint. I late used chalk and charcoal to contour and highlight certain areas to make the painting more realistic. This is because I found that just using acrylic paint limited me to making the painting look realistic as it made the painting look relatively flat.

AS Exam Coursework - Rhino Etching

Based on the photograph that I had taken of the Rhino's creases and surfaces, I created an etching to see how the textures would translate through the process of etching. After etching the image, I used different coloured inks in order to make the etchings more visually interesting by contouring and highlighting.

AS Coursework - Rhino

 

For my AS Exam I chose the question of "Animals". I was intrigued by the folds and textures of Rhinos so I cropped a photograph that I had taken so I could focus on the areas of interest. I used this photograph on Photoshop and changed the saturation and contrast so that the textures could be more obvious. I then drew this photograph in biro pen because I thought that it may help to create the unusual areas that I found so thought-provoking.

AS Berlin Coursework

For the first part of our Art course we had the chance to choose our coursework. During the beginning of our year 12 Art course we had the opportunity to go to Berlin and because of this, I based my coursework on Berlin. I had taken many images of reflective buildings and sliced them and combined them with added materials to create this mixed media piece of work. It was the reflective light quality that I really aimed to capture. Introducing colourful elements aimed to distract the eye towards contrasting structural elements of the buildings.

Brian Sayers- AS Coursework

During my AS Art course, our sixth form invited the artist Brian Sayers to come and involve us in an Art workshop involving still life techniques and alternative perspectives. Many objects were towered over one another on a table in the middle of the classroom and we were told to chose many of the objects and create a piece based on the objects we had chosen. We were encouraged to create areas with detail and also combine this detail with ripped up areas of sketchy work.