Semester II: Cross stitch and embroidery research

02/10/2014

Sr 2, Blog entry 6:

As I have decided to explore how stitch can aid my practice, I need to understand how it has been used before and how I intend to use stitch to give the impression of tactile nature and expose visually the concept of the sense feel. As embroidery is considered by many a crag that is done by hand, I want to touch upon this link in my work in order to strengthen the connection between the human hand and stitch.


Karen Nicol:

Nicol creates a tactile feel though the use of stitch, which is extenuated through the subject matter of animals with fur (in these examples). In a few of these images paint has been used along side stitch to create contrast, for example (title) the monkey's face in paint creates a different texture between the exposed skin and the fur, which is in stitch.

Areas of the embroidery is delicate in order to gain accuracy of intricate areas, whereas other areas are more textural through the use of large areas of thread of fabric.


Cacye Zavaglia:

Zavaglia uses stitch in a similar way to paint, by using a large verity of different colours to create complex shading. In areas such as the flesh, the colour ranges from simplistic and primary to specific peaches and browns, this creates depth in the work. 

Images such as (title) are very textural, however retain their depth and suggestiveness of the human face through depth of colour.

These images make me consider how I can use aspects such as texture and colour to create contrast or depth in my own work.

Semester II: How to Visually Represent the Human Hand, a representation throughout history

01/10/2014

Sr 2, Blog entry 5:

Due to my need to grasp a firm idea of what it is I am trying to say about the Human Hand in my work, for both the purpose of my Concept and Dissertation modules, which are designed to run hand in hand so to speak, I have decided to conduct a visual survey of how the human hand has been represented throughout history. I need to find out exactly what was important about the human hand to different artists and eras in order to understand how the hand in art is and has been perceived and portrayed.

Leonardo Da Vinci, John The Baptist, (1513 - 1516)
Oil on Panel, Louvre, Paris

Returning to my research from last semester found that the gesture of pointing upward is found in many of Da Vinci's works, I found that this hand gesture could possibly depict the experience of the divine. The pose of the characters left hand however is just as interesting as that of the right as it is seemingly covering his modesty, an act which is often associated with women in art, could this hand posture suggest femininity?

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, (1486) tempera on canvas, Uffizi, Florence

Praxiteles, Capitoline Venus or Aphrodite of Knidos,
(4th Century B.C.) Marble Sculpture

Earlier than John the Baptist, the use of the hands to cover the female modesty is seen in Birth of Venus and earlier still, in the Capitoline Venus the hands are used as a "sheath" (Clarke, 1956: 5) to conceal their bodies. All of these images have one particular thing in common, which could lead to this covering posture of the hands: The characters in each visual are viewed as divine entities. Venus is a goddess and John the Baptist is a christian icon. Could the covering of their bodies actually suggest that we as mere mortals are not worthy to look upon divine bodies?

Leonardo Da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, (1483 - 1490) Oil on Wood,
  Czartroyski Museum,  Cracow

The pose of the female subject's hand in this image is interesting due to its capability to portray femininity in a rather different way, although she is not covering herself like Venus, this subject's hand pose is of an etherial nature. Although Da Vinci was clearly skilled at painting the body with accuracy, so it can be assumed that this hand has been painted in such a way that it purposely looks like it could not hold the weight of the animal (presumably a ferret). The idea of the hand portraying femininity by not fully clutching or grasping anything yet still being able to manipulate the environment around a character is see again in Ray's photography (below).

Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp as Rrose S'elavy, (1923) Photography

Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp as Rrose S'elavy, (1923) Photography

Jones states that the hand gestures are feminine (jones, 1993: 21 – 31), this suggests that the hand in art can in fact portray such a complex notion as femininity. 

There is one issue which should be addressed to do with the perception of femininity, which is a constant throughout all of these visuals: All of the above were created by men, this might suggest that if the hand positions do in fact suggest femininity it is a male perception of such.

Throughout this blog I intend to look at other images of the hand to find out more about what it can represent.

Semester II: Handing over to a new semester

20/09/2014

Sr 2, Blog entry 4:

At the end of last semester I felt rather discouraged, however during the summer break, I was able to work on my own projects, and consider my shortcomings of last semester. I realised over time that although I worked hard, my project was not as focussed or effective as I originally thought.

issues and resolutions, from last semester to this semester:


Last semester, I decided that I work best when breaking my project down into manageable areas. I had a main Sketchbook, which acted as a space where I could create visual media and develop ideas, I had a samples book which allowed me to understand the materials (mainly paint) that I intended to use and explore the properties of each medium. This semester I realise that grouping idea development and and creating visual work felt too much and posed issues. Although I am still determined to break my project down into said manageable areas, this semester I have a more clear view of which areas should be separate, yet feed in to one another. To overcome this problem this semester, I have made the decision to have initial idea development in my Research book, which is designed to consider what it is I want to convey through my imagery of the human hand. My Main Sketchbook focuses on materials and their properties when creating visual work and questions how I intend to present my work.

Last semester I found that due to the new freedom I was experiencing, that I was unable to manage successfully to pinpoint how exactly I intend to present finalised work when considering context. Although I am an illustrator, I find that my work boarders between illustration and fine art as a painter. I found that last semester I was creating paintings without really considering the purpose they would serve. This semester I have decided to use my Main Sketchbook to consider my field in the art world. Currently I am grappling with wanting to create work for fine art purpose, to be exhibited and creating work for illustrative purpose, this is something I intend to focus closely upon in order to be at a better standpoint to undertake my Realisation project.

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.

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27/14/2014:

Blog Entry 76:

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