End of Project one: Ups and Downs

So I have finally finished the first project on my UAL course (almost). My hand in date is tomorrow and I have to write an evaluation to finish it all off. I think it would be appropriate to talk about my whole experience of these few weeks, not just my work.

I've really been feeling like I've been thrown in the deep end so far and it's been a pretty uncomfortable experience. I had a few days off in the first week due to illness and that put me a bit behind with my work.  I came in every day and stayed for all the self study periods to catch up and I managed complete almost all of the criteria for this project, though I do feel like I'm still lacking a bit compared to others. 

Most of the people I've talked to have been doing art for two or three years. I, on the other hand, have hurtled in from a theatrical makeup background and didn't even take GCSE art. Just to add to this feeling of inadequacy, I wasn't really making any friends up until the last week. There was a point where I was honestly thinking this course wasn't right for me and I wouldn't see it through; I was feeling so lonely and behind and eventually everything just piled up and I had a rather embarrassing tearful episode with my tutor. We did talk it out and I felt a hell of a lot better afterwards, knowing that I wasn't going to fail and as long as I had worked hard, it wasn't necessarily bad that I didn't have as much work as some other students.

With regards to my work, I am a little disappointed in the amount but proud of what I have achieved. Looking around, I saw a lot of people filling up all their walls with so much work; colour, black and white, sketches, fabrics, paints, all sorts! I, having very little experience with a lot of the mediums people were using, spent more time just playing around with them than making work I could put on my wall. Over the course of the project, I played around with shibori (a Japanese tie-dye), ink, oil pastels and even coffee! 

I have a prediction that I may not get amazing grades in this course like I did in my previous one, but I really think I'm going to take a lot more out of it knowledge wise. For me, that would be a good outcome.

Week 2: So Ill!

Well, I have fallen tremendously behind after being ill all week. The good new is after sleeping for pretty much the whole week, I am feeling better (though still tired as always) and ready to catch up.


Today, I focused mainly on experimenting with various mediums to get different effects and see what I enjoyed. Because I've studied theatrical makeup, a lot of art materials are very new to me. I tried ink, charcoal,oil pastels and poster paint. Out of all of them, I preferred the ink because it was just so much more versatile and you could create so many different effects using different tools. I ended up using the ink to create my A1 piece.

This is what my piece turned out like. I think the reason I'm not fully proud of this is because I used black ink; I used blue ink when I was practicing. The blue had a lot more depth and range of tones, whereas the black just washes to a grey and looks very flat. I do like how eerie the black makes the work look.

I didn't end up finishing the building because it ended up looking too neat in contrast to the messiness of the rest of it. After leaving, I had an idea to use  folded card to make the marks instead of a brush, so I'll finish it off tomorrow. I also don't think this is detailed enough for my final piece so I'm not really sure what to do.

This is the smaller, charcoal drawing I did of the same scene. I like that this is quite messy  but also detailed.


































I'm still a little confused as to what medium to use for my final piece as I don't think I've got the detail in my current piece to be able to recreate smaller pieces. I guess I've just gotta get a move on and think of something, pronto!

A Day Out At Knightstone- 8/9/15

Following the launch of our first project, entitled 'Land and Water', we spent a day out on the sea front up at Knightstone. Throughout the day we drew different parts of the landscape.

(Left)
A small pebble beach between Marine Lake and Birnbeck. One of the drawings I did on this was was of the pathway seen here, disappearing into the water.

(Right)
A very gloomy looking Brean Down.

(Left)
A rock pool. I did want to draw a rock pool as I think they are a nice combination of land and water that isn't a full on landscape. I didn't have a chance because there was nowhere for me to sit and draw (everywhere was wet and uneven). I may try and draw this from the picture at a later date.


 I'm not a massive fan of drawing landscapes so even though I know I need to practise to improve, I like thinking of other land/water examples. I also find it a lot harder having to draw in black and white, which was what we were asked to do at first. I think once I can start adding colour in, my work will improve.

(Left)
Boats at the end of the beach.

(Right)
Path at the pebble beach, leading out into the water.

(Left)
Marine Lake Bridge.


















I am not exactly proud of this work, but I believe it's important to document my work throughout this course to document my development.