Semester II: Summer Musings III Cross Stitch and Broadening Horizons

26/07/2014

Sr 2, Blog entry 3:

Having as studio has allowed me to lead my own projects during the summer break, without fear of interruption. I made the decision to try cross stitch, now that I had the environment to permit a project such as this. My original thought was that cross stitch was rather easy and would be a relaxing pastime, I have never been more wrong.

Due to my misled preconceptions of cross stitch, I decided to start big, by using a huge (around A1 size) cross stitch pattern PDF, and sewing through chiffon onto Aida fabric.

The original image, the cross stitch pattern is based on:

Bust of Female Nude, Pierre - Paul Prud'hon, nude painting, Neoclassicism



The Result:

Due to the fact that I am clearly glutton for punishment, not only did I decide to complicate matters by working on a large scale and through chiffon, I also decided to make life more difficult for myself by fading out areas of the image to make it look less solid.

Whilst working on the pattern, I realised that looking closely at the image in cross stitch made it seem distorted, which I quickly realised was due to each stitch representing a kind of pixel of colour, which would make more sense visually from a distance. Fortunately for this particular pattern, the size of the Aida fabric squares (4mm) was specified, however this is not always the case and as an illustrator, I know that choosing the correct size of Aida fabric square is much like choosing a resolution in dpi (dots per inch), which can lead into question, how many colours and how large the cross stitch pattern is intended to come out.

From this experience I found through troubleshooting on the internet, that there are in fact websites, which allow the user to create their own specific cross stitch patterns using their own imagery. This made me consider how I could convert my own paintings into a cross stitch pattern.

Now that I have created work in stitch, I have found that the end result is both gratifying and tactile. Due to finding this experience so enjoyable, I have decided that for my Concept project I am going to explore how stitch and paint can be combined. I feel that this is relevant to my practice because last semester I spent a large portion of time researching mediums that I could combine with paint, an I feel that I have inadvertently come ascots such an interesting medium. Stitch is a predominant medium in which I chose to work during my fine art National Diploma and Foundation in college, which means I am already aware of how to achieve certain outcomes, and feel that I could definitely learn more. Furthermore I feel that as this semester for my Concept module, I intend to research the human hand in as many different ways as possible, stitch as aforementioned I find to be very tactile, which I feel is fitting to my subject.

Cross stitch pattern purchased from:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/XSquaredCrossStitch?ref=l2-shopheader-name
(Fitzpatrick, 2014)

Semester II: Summer musings II Studio space and building a business

25/06/2014

Sr 2, Blog entry 2:

During the summer break, I have been working on preparing myself for working as a freelance artist after university. For years of my study, I have relied on working in the university building in my own studio space, which drew into question what I would do when I left university, where would I work? I made the decision to spend a large portion of my summer converting a spare room in my house (known beforehand as the residential crap room) into a purpose built studio.

The studio:

My studio now consists of: storage areas for all materials and tools which may be needed; a clean area with printers/ scanners designed for laptop, sewing and printing; a painting/ messy area and a number of could out tables for extra room.

To be able to have a studio to call my own and work within in a way which best suits my need is highly rewarding, and I feel that I have released my need for the university building, making my transition from student to graduate much easier psychologically.

Building my website:

Although, I have this blog and my Facebook page, advertising and aiding my work, my online prescience is not particularly high and I have for a number of years felt that I need a website; however my need to have said website directly meet my needs is a difficult feat, as I am unable to build my own, due to my love hate relationship with technology.

I have entrusted the building of my website to a close family friend, who has agreed to work to my specific designs. I designed the website by looking at many others and drawing together aspects I felt would suit my purpose. I also took the time to create my own font, which is intended to be used for title pages and headings.

My website is designed to also include a shop, much like Lyndon Hayes' website (listed below), which will allow me to sell a range of items as well as showcasing my work.

Lyndon Hayes' website:
http://www.lyndonhayes.co.uk
(Hayes, 2014)


As I intend to create a range of work such as murals, editorial illustration, clothing and fine art pieces, I have designed certain items to be sold in my online shop; however some of these aspects cannot be physically sold in this way, so I have designed an information page which outlines how to contact me for commission based projects such as murals or book illustration. I feel by allocating these areas, I have ensured that my work can be sold in a way that it suitable.

Over this semester, I intend to keep this blog up to date on outside influences, such as the building of my website, as I feel it is important to be aware of how aspects of my business affect my university work.

Heavy duty Illustration Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/HeavyDutyIllustration

Getting noticed:

During the summer, I have also strived to find ways of getting noticed online for my work, and managed to be featured in an online magazine, Design Juices:

http://www.designjuices.co.uk/2014/08/fine-art-illustrator-helen-marie-kelly-aka-heavy-duty-illustration/
(Thompson, 2014)

I found that opportunities such as this allow me to build a larger audience and create interest, I fully intend to enter more competitions and contact more areas which may feature my work.

Semester II: Summer Musings I Murals and Mermaids

22/06/2014

Semester (Sr) 2, Blog entry 1:


Over the long summer break, I have decided to start considering how my journey with the arts will progress when I leave University. Before the end of term, I took on my biggest commission to date for a charity called Me&Dee. Me&Dee is a charity dedicated to making time precious for families with members with terminal conditions, a charity for which I have personally given my time to volunteer due to my deep feeling that this charity provides something that should be both respected and admired. I feel that working for something that as an artist I feel strongly about is very important, and I found that due to my personal feelings I felt more motivated to create the work to the best of my ability: I feel that the passion I held for this particular project has reminded me why I decided to study art in the first place, because I wanted to feel that my work was making a difference and striving towards some good in the world.

The commission came from Maria Hanson, the charity's founder. Maria asked me to do the commission after finding out through Facebook that I am an artist; Maria was not aware prior to seeing my Heavy Duty Illustration Facebook page, that I was striving to work within the arts, and only knew me through my volunteering. This reminded me that networking and social networking are very important when working in the arts, and that opportunities can lie in unexpected places.

The commission was to paint a mural onto a panel 72x177cm in a beach hut in Mablethrope, this clearly would be the largest painting I had ever done, however I did not let the size deter me, as I had been intending to try painting on a larger scale last semester, but worried that it would take too much time. Whilst planning the mural, we found that it would make much more sense for me to find a suitable wood panel the same size and paint the mural in the studio space I was currently building in the extended room in my home. I managed to purchase a wooden panel and have it cut to size at the University studios.

Another issue I encountered early on, was due to the target audience of the mural, this piece of artwork was intended for children, and was to consist of two fairy mermaids in the Me&Dee colours, pink and blue. Anyone who has seen my work before this mural will be aware that my style is anything but child orientated, so this was a huge hurdle for me to overcome. I started by making a small rough painting designed to be used as a maquette:

First rough maquette - Colours too bright

Due to my work only usually dealing with black and white or muted colour, I found that with the first rough painting (above), I overcompensated with bright garish colours, not at all what one would consider peaceful or serene.

Second rough maquette

Second rough maquette

After getting over the initial disorientation of using colour, I created a second rough maquette or design using pastel colours and muted tones, this worked much more successfully.

Wooden board cut to size and initial rough design mapped out
on paper measured to the same size

initial rough pencil design

Once I had to some extent worked out colour, I stuck together and cut down several A1 sheets of cartridge paper to create one long sheet roughly the same size as the wooden board was to be. I them constructed my design into a rough pencil sketch. I decided to do this pencil sketch at a similar size to the actual mural, so I could see how the juxtaposition would work and the space left around main aspects of the piece. Due to the my studio space at home not being suitable at this developmental stage, I used a large table at University to map out my design.

Wooden board in studio space on makeshift table, primed with blue emulsion
and white gesso

Due to my studio space having no furniture at the time, I had to fashion a work space out of half an old desk, a wooden art board supported by a toy box on its side. This although resourceful, made me realise that it was desperate that I had somewhere to work that was fit for purpose (see sr 2 blog entry 2).

I soon realised that the wood would need to be primed and a background colour added, so I made the decision to use a blue emulsion, which I selected to be slightly too dark: I wanted to prime the board further with white gesso, which as I researched in detail last semester, creates a surface which paint can grip to easily, white gesso however would make any background I used it over slightly lighter due to its translucent white appearance when dry.

preparation of work space

preparation of work space

When the board had been primed and left to dry, I carefully traced the outline of the design on separate numbered A3 sheets of tracing paper. I then prepared my work space by attaching the rough sketch to the wall for constant reference, and preparing my paint and palettes. For the mural I had decided to use an unorthodox mixture of acrylic and gouache paints. Both paints while water based are rarely used together, however, form my experimentation last semester, I found that the use of these paints together would achieve a good result.

Once the primer was dry, I transferred the design onto the board using the tracing, which left me with a strong pencil outline to work with.

I used the acrylic paint the fill in basic areas of colour, the acrylic was the thicker of the two paints allowing me to create a base, which I would then build up detail using a mixture of gouache and acrylic. From my time at university, I have learnt, that until a sketch has been filled in with some sort of shade or colour, it is difficult to distinguish clearly what the composition as a whole will look like, this is the main reason I decided to fill in the basic colours for the whole composition first rather than building up a particular area.

The mural overall took 5 weeks to complete, this included working 20 hour days with some days off. I feel that this has been one of my best and most challenging experiences working as an artist  This commission changed all of my preconceptions about my work and what I wanted to achieve, especially due to it being aimed at children, which is something I never thought I’d want to do. If one person sees the image I created and finds comfort in it I have done my job. 

Finally I added the Me&dee logo and my own logo, through the use of emulsion print.

This commission is to be installed in Maplethorpe, so keep posted for the exciting unveiling.

Bibliography

27/14/2014:

Blog Entry 76:

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Moving away from obscurity with a set of final responses

14/04/2014

Blog Entry 75:

Although I am aware that I do not necessarily need to create a set of polished final outcomes, I have decided to create a few more finalised images to show how my project has drawn to a close, using: the mediums I have chosen as my preferred in my samples book, the understanding of form developed more in my Life Drawing and Drawing from Life book and the ideas I have developed in my main sketchbook.

This set of paintings are designed from the influence of hand gestures which suggest the human recognition of what may be considered divine or the lack of.

Set of final images:

Divine Hands II Proffessional Acrylic mixed with Retarder on Wooden Panel

Divine Hands III Watercolour on Cartridge Paper

Divine Hands IV Gouache on Card Board

Hand gestures and the little less obscure

10/04/2014

Blog entry 74:

After realising that I was using the idea of creating an image in response to each paragraph of The Library of Babel (blog entry 71) as a comfort blanket, and I decided to more loosely base my final images on the idea of the divine through a human outlook or feeling, I made a number of subsequent decisions on how to end this project. Due to my finishing my samples book, I made a list of preferred materials I intend to use next semester which is as follows (this may change next semester if I feel I need to use something else sampled):

• Professional Acrylic Paint mixed with Retarder
• Watercolour
• Gouache
• Oil Paint mixed with Liquin

Because I have decided I wanted to specifically use these paints (and potentially others this is not set in stone), I have decided to create a final hand gesture response images using these mediums and potentially mixtures of them.

Before I create a set of final responses, I have explored in my Main Sketchbook composition through photographic found images and drawing:

Divine Hands I Cheap Acrylic on Acrylic Paper

How to hand in and present wet oil paintings

10/04/2014


Blog entry 73:

As aforementioned in earlier blog entries, a prominent problem for me this semester when dealing with and learining about paint, has been drying time and wet oil paints. When coming across this problem, I found that that using specialist mediums mixed with specfic paints affected the speeding up or slowing down drying time. Althoug I found the mediums helpful for work not yet started, the work I had already painted in oil will remain wet until the natural going off process of the oil has taken place which can take years: years which I do not have to hand in my work.

I have had to work to find ways around presenting my wet oil paints without ruining them or other pieces of work through smudging.

Oil Painting I:

The first oil painting I did is the thickest paint, and thus the painting drying the slowest, to present the work without smudging it I have fastened it with stick tags into a deep portfolio box (as shown above).


Oil Painting samples II:

The two sample oil paintings I did on small canvas, have dried to a point, but to ensure that they do not smudge I have presented them in a clear plastic folder.


Oil paintings III and IV have dried mocu more and I have not needed to take precautions to ensure they do not smudge.