Black History Month

George Washington Carver (1864-1945)
Carver is mostly known for his work with agriculture, a botanist and inventor. Created the design for the Jessop wagon and conducted experiments to find out the multiple uses for peanuts. Such uses include shampoo to paint, Carver spent most of childhood analysing the different kinds of plants that grew around the Carver house, which helped shape his passion for botanical science at a later date. Known in his neighbourhood as the 'plant doctor' he spent most of his time pursuing education and expanding his knowledge on plants. Most notably in 1886 he settled on a farm where he would carry out his most important experiments. Carver became a legend, becoming a role model to a generation of African American scientists after him.

These designs are possible final outcomes for my visual response to Carvers work. The first panel shows a Jessop wheel and a combination of the peanut botanical plants wrapped around it to become symbols of his great work. The curve of the wheel mimics the organic forms from the plants which softens the rigidity of the spokes. In the second panel, I decided to focus on the sweet potato plant, which is another vegetable Carver worked closely with, focusing on a more central composition , with a large object in the middle, the small roots on either side balances it out. The third panel was inspired by one of Carvers floral paintings, where his compositions of the flowers seemed to be layering over each other. The forth panel is a much more traditional botanical representation of the illustrations Carver would have worked with, the composition is very structured and clear.


The final outcome featured the botanical representation of the golden rod plant, which Carver used to extract rubber material. I chose to create a more scientific visual response to pay homage to the man who was known as the 'plant doctor', the presentation appears much more methodical and less chaotic. Representing several key characteristics of the golden rod plant, showing various components and growing stages.

Big Draw

We began with 2D ink portraits of the person in front of us, I experimented with a sponge and used the shadows to create the face. Using dry ink smudging techniques , the facial features were formed. What worked well with this was working with the shadows and the ink to make an abstract image of someone.

















From there we moved onto watercolours. Taking a minimalistic approach, I looked into the basic outline of the person across from me. Playing with the material it created a watery effect, it seems to have blended well with the other work.











Moving from 2D paintings, our task was to create three dimensional objects and find a way for it to interact with the previous art works on the page. The item was meant to represent yourself in some form, I chose a paper crane because of my love for wildlife.














Flattening the 3D object back into a 2D presentation, like a dimensional cycle, the crane was placed amongst the other works. With the ink smudging effect repeated onto the crane, allowed my object to interact with the other works better as it blends with the background.


















For the second half of the session we were asked to build tower like structures with the materials at hand. Due to the short time frame the best solution my group came with were house of cards, this gave us more time to decorate the outside. The image shows us experimenting with felt and sponges as additional decoration, to give the building more character.















The 'house of cards' from a side angle, also the development of a possible character for the next task.




















We added an extra eye and a moustache to give it a humorous look, this was for a short stop animation we had to make. Also planned to incorporate the house from the previous task to become the setting for the story.

A three eyed female sponge companion was made to compliment its my counterpart for the gif video.

For our final task we had to create a portrait form of ourselves, I made a mask smiling because that's how I usually present myself. Overall yesterdays tasks allowed me to work outside my comfort zone and experiment with various materials to create random works of art.

3DD

On Mondays session we looked at the theme birthday gifts and created a group installation piece consisting of the birthday gifts we received years before.

I chose colourful pencils and to write my birthday list within a heart because I wanted there to be some kind of order, visually. The words on the outer rim of the heart represent items or things that I would have liked to have had for my birthday. The juxtaposition of the things I wanted with the things I got is shown through the lack of colour.

The next part was to use a scalpel and cut away at the white areas around the shape, to give it more flimsy qualities.

This is what my final outcome looked like when it stood on its own. By itself it doesn't create much of a lasting impact however combined with the other works would tie in everyone's styles together.

Against a colourful background and use of screen work, the bright colours bring out the text on the screen. We began to hang our works and noted the shadows that were left behind on the screens.

Here are some of the other works, it almost looks like a tangle of everyone's own pasts represented in different styles and designs.














Beneath the works 'shadow' like objects would lay below the hangings. These were additional items that would represent things people received for their birthdays. I chose a flower and heart for my final shadow object because they represent happy memories for me.

















                                                                                 
Our challenge on Tuesday was to create a durable structure using pasta sticks and a hot glue gun. Whilst being to hold 3 plastic balls. I found that this session tested on my ability to work with new materials such as pasta and hot glue to make something supportive.

I began with sticking a couple together in hopes it would strengthen it. The glue melted the pasta to the point it began to bend, the more I added and layered the messier it became and the harder it was to use.

I tried to overlap the melted sticks together to make something useful out of the trials. The materialistic qualities of the glue made the pasta very wispy and hard to glue anything over.

This is another trial error as I saw over glueing would definitely prove harder to create any kind of solid structure.

I decided to use thinner pasta sticks and less glue to overlap in order to create a net like structure. It ended up looking like the star of David.

The trick to holding the balls together was the glueing process, I needed have patience and hold the pasta long enough for the glue to harden, this process was accelerated by blowing air over it.

From a side angle, the balls create defined shadows in the background. To improve this shot I would have used an extra flash light to make the balls stand out.













Against the other structures, everyone's pasta buildings came out differently. This shows visually there are other ways to tackle the same task. There were people who created trays and others who built towers to keep from the balls touching.

Using paper as a web, the idea was for the object that was going to be dropped over our work, to test the structures durability.  The plan was the paper was going to lessen the impact of the drop and save the pasta structure.

A shadow was created from the paper hangings above.
















Wednesdays session was a short introduction to 3D machines, I was impressed by the variety of mediums that you could work with. From plastic , cotton to plaster.

Fridays session consisted of bridge building, we worked in a group to create a solid structure for a toy car to be able to travel over. The main materials used were bamboo, cardboard and masking tape.

Looking at the main features from famous bridges like the millennium bridge, we tried to replicate similar characteristics to make our one durable.

Such as the long bamboo sticks acted as weight support, on the millennium bridge the long wire metal sticks support the weight of thousands of people that could walk over.

The curved cardboard shape with masking tape to secure it allowed for multiple layers to be added. The outer flaps added as extra security for object to walk across (the toy car to drive across) without fear of falling (this is an extra feature to consider as well as how strong it is.)

A challenging part of the activity was listening to everyone's ideas and working together within a specific time frame to complete the set task.

What worked well was the variety of ideas people gave within the group, we had to work quickly and go with the best design idea as there was not enough time to physically create 3D plans of them all.

From a side view the bridge's inner workings can be seen. Like the millennium bridge a strong foundation has allowed for the cardboard to sit comfortably above.

Graphic Design

We learnt that in Graphics you will explore areas of design as well as typography. A form of visual communication, through simple to complex images, the role of a graphic designer is to inform and inspire the viewer to want to buy the product they're trying to promote. This can be shown with 3D graphics, language images and typography. Looking at designers like Jonathan Barnbook , you can see through his minimalistic designs that he is taking into consideration his target audience,  to help create a stronger impact on his work. Other designers we covered on Mondays session were Saul Bass, Carolyn Davidson, Kelli Anderson and Alan Fletcher amongst other names, all artists used either typography or images to create a visual language with their work.

My group was presented with the theme Education, through a mind map key issues began to arise, the education gap being one of the biggest. The students who are most disadvantaged need to have better quality teaching in order to close the gap and strengthen society. Another was the lack of sex education being taught in schools, in particular religious ones, the act of avoiding uncomfortable conversations and leaving children ignorant only hinders the younger generation. Creating an open dialogue and confronting such issues we believed would help with problems with the education system.

From there I drew up a few ways we could visually communicate these issues. Focusing on the idea of investing in children's education as they are our future, I used natural objects that represent growth such as trees, brains and fire. In particular the symbolism of fire used to show inspiration and as its an active element, it works quite well with trying to put across the idea of quick action.

These two beside each other helped create the kind of message I wanted to put across about education. The image on the left shows a (mandragora) in legends this plant was commonly thought to be sleeping and the root would take form of a human, showing their desires to be something more. I thought this would be powerful imagery to use for the take on equal education and trying to close the education gap. The design and writing is quite simple and all one colour to emphasize the idea of equality in learning. To reinforce this further the words  'LACK OF EDUCATION LACK OF POWER' was meant to compliment the logo on the left but it is strong enough to also stand as its own design.

The next set of design work was to confront the issues with sex education. The colour scheme I stuck with follows the basic girl boy stereotype with the representing a link between the two for those who are in between. Having the next stage to be three dimensional representation the question mark seems to be the most practical. This was something to also consider when working, as a 2D design, visually the three figures below seem to be more interesting with the layout and colours combined. However the question mark is more clearer in shape and has less components therefore in 3D the design would come across better.

 Our group chose the question mark because we felt that sex education needs to be discussed. The word that seems to be so hushed we wanted to go overboard and cover the question mark with the word sex.

For our first location we chose the bathroom , the door provided additional imagery of girl/boy which helped amplify our 3D design. Working in a team to complete this task proved helpful when everyone was on board and we all had our own individual tasks which gave us more time to look for locations in the end.












For our second location, we took photos inside the bathroom. At Ravensbourne university the toilets are unisex which is a feature we wanted to point out. This kind of progressive attitude is something I didn't see in my previous schools. The mirror was another element that we incorporated into our overall message, It became almost an installation piece as we wanted others to get involved and think about sex education, the mirror would show the reflection of the person questioning which tied in to the idea of reflecting back on your own personal experiences with sex education at school.

 On Tuesday we began with a series of drawing exercises. One of which was to draw with your left hand, I found that the lines were much more chaotic and gave room for more spontaneous forms as I didn't have as much control . It interesting to see the difference between my usual clean lines and these more frantic ones.

The colour used has made it hard to capture on camera, however this was another task that stood out to me. We had to use our hands to be able to create a likeliness of our own faces, this I found particularly challenging as I had to rely on the information my hand was giving me which wasn't something I had done before. From this exercise I can see how much more life like objects can become as the artist is experiencing the subject with other senses other than eyesight.

Developing on from yesterdays sex education topic, looking into gender identity was another theme we thought to explore. Our task was to find a way to represent this only through images. I found from previous sketches that these stick figures would work best to portray an emotion or atmosphere. The key idea was to create a feeling of being trapped or confusion. This can be shown through the pink and blue pulling the figure in different directions.

This was our groups final idea, we made some last minute changes in the design. To show how confused the individual was ,the female symbol is in blue and the male symbol is in pink, swapping the 'gender colours' to show how the figure is feeling. The stick figure was left androgynous as this kind of inner conflict can affect both men and women, showing how powerless the person feels they are left suspended in mid air.  

 Wednesdays session had us working on software's such as Photoshop. Using the tools on the programme I was able to insert an image of myself onto a photograph of a desert. I found the day quite challenging as it was hard to keep up with pace of the instructor as we used a multiple of different software's which were all new to me.


The logo I designed for my profile was kept very organic and curved in shape, making the pupil blue was to reference my own eye colour and make the work a little more personal. Under time constraints I was unable to write alot about what I liked and disliked, however the afternoon gave me more of an awareness of the kind of processes graphic designers do on programmes.

Fridays task consisted of creating protest posters of things we were passionate about. To show this we had to create portraits of ourselves alongside a quote which we identified with. A sample of the possible outcomes are shown on the left, there was an ongoing theme of nature and patterns within nature that I identify with. In particular curves found in organic forms, I kept to 3 colours maximum so that it wouldn't look too chaotic.

For the quote I looked into sayings that I could relate with below were possible quotes that would compliment my final idea.

-Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the words without the words and never stops at all- Emily Dickinson

-Now I am here, what thou wilt do with me, none of my books will show; I read and sigh, and I wish I were a tree- George Herbert

-Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of man of the imagination, nature is imagination itself- William Blake

I decided to keep it simple and use pencil in the final idea as I prefer pencil over other mediums which gave it a more personal touch. Also adding colour to the poster would take away from the forms so I kept it monochromatic. I chose to use seaweed as the image to represent myself because I love all forms of nature and I wanted to capture the movement of the plant. In addition the quote by William Blake was finally chosen because I felt like that quote resonated the most with me, as I find inspiration by the nature around me but can also understand how to another a tree is just a green thing in the way.

Fashion and Textiles

On Monday through various drawing exercises we observed the female figure. From the session I learnt a lot about the way in which I observe objects and my ability to work under timed conditions.

Using light colour pastels, a gradual build up of colour created an echoed blended effect. The figure is seen in a composed thinking position, the soft tones combined with her eased posture creates a relaxed atmosphere. The black outlines show continuous line, used to establish the form.

From the thin newsprint material, a black copy was made on the back of the sheet. The use of smudged charcoal and ink created a darker atmosphere, this is further emphasized with the figure being reversed as if its parallel to its colour counterpart on the other side. I liked how impressionable the paper material was, which led to the piece being made.

When we only had 3 minutes to sketch the model, I focused intensely on capturing the outlines of the woman's hand. Using charcoal as my base with layering's of oil pastels, I found that the pastel worked well with the charcoals smudgy nature. With only a limited amount of time I had to work quite quickly, this is shown through the rapid strokes from the oil pastels. The combination of these two mediums when overlapped made a more solid, darker substance which helped create more depth to the image. I like how the hand seems to be emerging from the background, the parts left untouched helps emphasize this further making it more three dimensional. 

From the quick sketches I saw myself recording only the key elements of the figure. Continuing with this idea, I attempted to make a full figure version. To create texture, ripped pieces of brown paper were added, this centralised the model , placing her in focus. I limited the time I had to sketch her, this was to make sure I wouldn't over work the image and to capture the essence of the models form. Keeping it quite geometrical in shape, with the dark charcoal on the torso and lower half those parts appear harsh and dominate the image. In comparison the woman's face was left light and and shown wearing a serene facial expression, these two elements juxtapose with each other to create an active image. 

 With John William Waterhouse's The Naiad painting as a starting point, on Tuesdays session we made a three dimensional fashion piece. The process of going from a painting that inspired me to a paper fashion piece in one day was new to me. These short workshops have pushed me to experiment more with my work and with the time constraints added, it have taught me to work with what I have in order to complete a project on time. 

 Made in 1893, 'The Naiad' was one of many mythological paintings created by William Waterhouse. I chose this image to work from because I was inspired by Waterhouse's' ability to fabricate a secluded world full of vines and trees. This produced a secretive atmosphere between the two figures, this is something I was aiming to replicate in my own work. The way in which Waterhouse uses nature as a primary source to create a mood within his paintings is something that stood out to me the most.

Focusing on the entwined roots in the background of Waterhouse's painting, the 3D model was inspired by the chaotic formation of the trees. Masking tape was used to connect all the pieces together, in addition I chose this material because the brown colour was reminiscent of bark. 

From there photo copies were created, these can be seen in my sketchbook. We photocopied an object therefore the lid was left open, which created dark images that looked like they were emerging from the background. This made a much more dramatic effect due to the lack of colour, the masking tape brought out the shiny qualities of the forms. I began to photo copy the photocopies just to see how far the photo would change. The highlighted sections became a blurred white while the background became a grainy grey that seemed to blend with the darker parts of the object. Experimenting like this allowed me to interpret my paper object in different ways which helped 

inform my final product. 

 For the final piece I worked with a partner, her designs were more geometric and reassembled metallic like objects. This was interesting to work with as I had initially planned a less man made approach with my dress. In the end I found the pipe like shapes complimented the brown organic forms printed on the skirt and upper parts of the dress. What I think worked well was the scattered pieces of brown, which alluded to the bark like masking tape at the beginning, in relation with the rest of the dress. The combination of ideas wouldn't have been possible without working together.












The back piece is really what I found tied the metallic like objects with the more natural forms. Appearing as if grown spiral vines, the repetitive pattern curves across the back of the mannequin. As a dress the curved spirals would compliment the figures natural curves. Brown flowers adorn the top and bottom sections to add to the idea that they could have grown from the vine structure, they break up the monochromatic colours of the black and white. The final outcome was very abstract in appearance, however the amount of linear and geometric shapes seem to be balanced with the amount of organic forms. In the end there remains some kind of structure and order created.








We studied fashion photography on Wednesday, from editorial to street fashion we learnt the history of photography. When going outside to take photos ourselves we had to take into consideration lighting, the use of zooming in or out, shutter speed and effects such as blurring out the background to highlight the foreground. I attempted to capture a variety of themes from landscape to people, trying to take a photo of that person in that moment of time. A surprising thing we looked into was dealing with rejection in photography, especially with street photos. People had varied reactions when I asked for permission to take their photo, there was a difference when the person was aware their photo was being taken, this took away from the in the spontaneity I was trying to show through my photography.

There was a short shutter speed when taking the photo, so that I was able to capture the movement of the swaying reeds and the ongoing current. The lighting was kept neutral as it was not meant to be the most dominant factor in the shot.

Looking at the use of lighting in photography, the intensity of the sun even behind the clouds created an almost white patch in the centre. However the over exposure added to the dark trees below and the thin cable lines are emphasized.

Attempting to capture the mundane activities in daily life, the bright yellow shirt stood out to me, using a lower aperture setting the people in the background are less in focus which allows for the viewer to see the lady in the foreground more. 

When asking for permission to take photos of strangers, many agreed. However their body language changed and became less natural and more rigid, in the instance of this lady she became shyer and is physically hiding from the camera. The power of the camera in depicting the image has a different response to different people. 

Sometimes when taking a picture, the photographer could be fortunate enough to capture a spontaneous moment in time. The man in the foreground is wearing the same shade yellow as the woman in the background, while the gentlemen behind him is wearing the same pattern as the man to his right. This locks the three in a sort of visual pyramid left for the viewer to see, however the people in the middle section ,over crowd the photo and could be photo shopped out.

On Thursday we made collages using black and white fashion models. This task was challenging as I had to think quick in order to create a 'fashion piece'. I liked the chaotic randomness of my final three pieces, the theme was an Asian influence (the red symbolizes Japan) mixed with a natural subtle green to neutralize the strong warm tones from the red. Even though its the same woman, the evolution of my thought process can be seen through these three collages.

Using an old Japanese newspaper, I fashioned a top and skirt. The red became a focal point of the outfit,the one wing green cape was added to compliment and soften the look overall. Her harsh expression alongside the red would have been too aggressive, where as the green brings in a feminine element bringing the eye down to her skirt.

I used more geometric shapes for this piece. Playing with the idea of the green appearing more dominant and the red becoming a highlight (red becomes the feminine touch). The wing design from the last example has now become a skirt and instead of Japanese text, I incorporated a Japanese head who appears to be blushing. The face adds a touch of humour to the overall outfit. The linear shapes are balanced by the circle in the centre, the lines also direct the viewers eye to the middle section. (this is the focus point)








                                                         
By the third collage piece, the outfit got more chaotic and bolder in design choices. The wing design has evolved into a dead bird motif, while the head dress consists of leaves and faces that express sad facial expressions. the skirt points upwards to lead the viewers eye towards the bird which has become the focus point of the piece.

We were asked to create a mood board for Fridays fashion product, the overall feel I was exploring was natural forms with Japanese influences. I liked the texture the masking tape created, on top of this a shiny nail polish created a green sheen which went well with the fluorescent pinks and greens. The final fashion product was a hair pin. This was made from origami flowers with silver tape, all of which was layered with green nail polish. In the sketchbook it details it further.

A series of photos were taken to exhibit the final product. We chose a location filled with foliage to amplify the natural colours and shapes from the hair pins. Also playing with the idea of femininity from the collages earlier, a green and pink was picked as the colour scheme. I decided to switch the red to pink as the added silver with the red would have looked too aggressive, having a hot pink still dominated over the green flower but appeared much more softer. The model is wearing black to replicate the woman in the collage, I found that the neutral black shade complimented the bright colours of the final product.

Taking into account setting and source of lighting when taking a photo (learnt from fashion photography earlier in the week) the green/yellow flower is shown but still blending into the background. The lighting brings the viewers eyes down to the figure while the figure looks up, this balances both components in the photo.(the light is also softly illuminating her face which adds to the idea of femininity being shown).

(This is the final product created) the splashes of colour displayed in my mood board, the idea was transferred back onto my final product, which can be seen on the flower petals. Looking back on the building process, various gluing techniques were attempted as the base tape was not compatible with normal pritt stick. In the end a glue gun was used, this allowed for better control and cleaner lines to be made.