This is the next experiment I did using a different photograph from the same day as the last photograph. I noticed the wind was bowing my mum’s hair vertically in this photograph and decided the cut the picture up in vertical rectangles, I then decided to move them slightly further to the left/right to try and emphasise the wind in the photograph and to physically create the movement of the wind. The image is distorted as it flows from left to right and the movement appears very dramatic. I liked the effect that was created on the image by moving the individual pieces slightly, however it would probably have been easier to cut on a larger scale so that I could get evenly cut strips of the photograph. When looking for artists I discovered that this style was similar to the artist Claire Pestaille so I decided to look at her as one of my main artists.

I did a charcoal drawing from this photograph and then I decided I wanted to do something interesting with the photograph itself. I then had the idea of cutting out a circle and then cutting it into smaller and smaller circles and to slightly rotate each one. I did this and found I really liked doing this creative process and wanted to continue it so I moved away from my figurative drawing to continue experimenting in this style. I felt as though this experiment would perhaps have been better on a larger scale and if there was not as much of a white space between each circle.

This is a black and white photocopy of the piece. I did this so I could see what it would look like if I just focused on the tone. I feel as though I like it in black and white but I also like the coloured version. Both pieces have different qualities to them, it appears that the black and white composition stands out more however I also like the subtlety of the movement in the coloured piece. The white gaps stand out more in this piece because there is more contrast with the white underneath and the darker tones in the image.

This is the charcoal drawing I did of the photograph on the previous slide. I used compressed charcoal and white chalk to create the contrast between the tones of the hair and the shading of the face. Whilst I liked the drawing, I wasn’t entirely happy with it the way it was and didn’t want to just leave it as a drawing so I decided to cut it up in the same style as I did previously with the actual photograph.

Here is the finished piece of the charcoal drawing combined with the paper-cutting. I thought that this composition was really successful as the ‘illusion’ in the drawing is very subtle as opposed to being very chaotic which I think worked really well.

My Short Film

I did this film as a little experiment in relation to my theme of figures for my personal investigation. I decided to find footage taken of me and my friends having fun together and then combine them together to make a film. I used this song because I felt that it really matched the emotions of joy and happiness in the footage taken so it fit really well.

   

Genre Study

Originally for my Personal Investigation there were two key genres that I wanted to look at; Expressionism and Post-Impressionism. I had chose these because I preferred these styles of art to more realistic artwork for my chosen theme of ‘Figures’, I felt that you are freer to express yourself with the marks and colours that you choose to use which I enjoy doing. Also I was not used to doing figures so I wanted to give myself more room to experiment and not focus on perfect and very detailed people. My direction for my Personal Investigation changed when I decided to do an experiment with paper cutting and collage using one of my photographs I had been drawing from. I realised I really enjoyed this and I wanted to explore it further as it seemed different and more exciting than just doing paintings and drawings therefor now for my Personal Investigation I am going to focus on two key genres; Paper-cutting and Collage.

I am going to focus mainly on collage because I will be looking at how I cut things out and stick them back down. As I initially got the idea and inspiration to change my direction to collage and paper cutting from the initial piece using my photograph from the summer holiday I want to continue this theme and carry on using my summer holiday photographs for my collages making it more personal to me.

Paper-cutting is the art of cutting paper designs. Collage is a technique of an art production, primarily used in the visual arts, where the artwork is made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. A collage may sometimes include magazine and newspaper clippings, ribbons, paint, bits of coloured or handmade papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back to hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20^th century as an art form of novelty. The term collage was invented by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20^th century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.

The artists I am interested in looking at now for my Personal Investigation are David Hockney, Claire Pestaille and Annegret Soltau. They are all collage artists and relate to my theme of figures for my Personal Investigation as they all have people as the main subject of their work. I chose David Hockney because he has done quite a few pieces with water in them which link well to my holiday photos of the swimming pool. I was unable to see David Hockney’s work in a gallery because most of his work is privately owned or in galleries in other countries, however in February there is going to be a special David Hockney exhibition at the Tate Modern gallery in London so I will be going to that to see his work up close and personal. It will be interesting to see how he actually did his compositions in person rather than just looking at pictures on the internet.

My plan for my personal investigation is to do lots of experiments using the different collage techniques inspired by my artists and any ideas I come up with myself so I can figure out which ones work best and link well with my theme of figures. I can then develop the more successful pieces further until I come up with something that could be my final outcome for my Personal Investigation.