A mostly anatomy post 1

This summary is the culmination of the past three weeks, as with year 2 I chose an unfortunate time to move house (at least this time it's not on hand in day!), recent events have kind of forced me to change my dwelling as this current house has been affecting my ability to work, and my mental state hasn't been great here. As such all the stress from finding a place to now moving has really affected my ability to start working. Not trying to make excuses but it is what it is.

For the past three weeks I have been attending the newly put on anatomy classes and lectures with new tutor Ron Spriggs who I have to say is an amazingly patient and knowledgeable tutor, we are building a model comprised of wax, it's been a challenge as the wax isn't the easiest material to use, I have used wax before but this was a very different type of wax that goes cold very quickly so you have to be on the ball with it (and have very warm hands!)

Here is my progress so far:

It's been great to be actually doing something in uni apart from life drawing, I feel like I'm learning a lot from these sessions and makes me feel like how it was back during the easy years of Year 1. The biggest challenge here was overcoming my squeamishness (I still get a little scared of pictures of muscles oh dear!) This series of lectures and workshops will really help me understand the body and how to draw it, I normally don't really think about this sort of thing when I draw but now I have a better understanding of what the body looks like I feel my drawing will improve and will vastly change how well I draw my final images for this project.

As far as Project work goes I haven't really done a lot with it, again the stress of moving has really drained me of ideas and the only topic in my brain is moving. Hopefully with the actual moving date coming up my motivation will return. For now I will look back on my previous work and documents for BA3a and get some ideas on where to go next, I have emailed my tutor Nigel and await for some more ideas and feedback.

Creating a website.

For the final task of year 3 we were instructed to create an online portfolio to get ourselves out there and show our work to the world. I already had an online portfolio via carbonmade but I wanted to create a website anyway. I had heard about wix through a few people at uni, currently it is just a free one but as time goes by I will definitely be upgrading when money allows.

Online I've always gone with the title Hazel's Hive, because of my hivelike mind and I consider my online space as a honeycomb for my art to live in (don't ask) I'm really enjoying the amount of customisation with this site. I will change the design in the future running with the theme of honeycombs but for now it gets my work online.

I connected the website up with this blog, and my linkedIn page, as I work more on it I will add a personal art facebook page and a personal twitter page, I've not gotten into twitter yet better late than never!

http://hazelshive.wix.com/hazelpageart

https://meshlabeviin.carbonmade.com/

Starting BA3b (not BA8)

Well it's been awhile since my last post. BA3a was a massive challenge for me with many ups and downs so I'll keep my recap of this brief ... I was very happy with the results from my dissertation, my mark for that was 70% this was a real achievement for me as I'd never really done much as far as my essays go, so I was happy about that. My results overall for this project was 56% this was a step up from the 50% I got last time so I was relieved about that but I couldn't help feeling I'd failed with the amount of effort I had put into the work. I understand and appreciate where I messed up though and the feedback was very helpful so I will be able to put that towards this project and hopefully my grade will increase as I put this into practise.

We now begin our next phase of this project. The next unit of work is called "UNIT BA3b: Resolution and Innovation" basically, we've done all the research now we just have to expand on that and create the work.

Self Evaluation.

Today is hand in day and marks the end of BA3a ... sad times! Any research that is missing from this blog is now inside of the Research and Design documents I will submit as this research will be clearer and in order.

Now for my own self evaluation of how I handled this project and the tasks.

Self-Evaluation.

I was very happy with my project work. I love the nature of my project and for the first time at university and am really happy with how the project is going, being able to be true to myself after my failure in Year 2 really fills me with so much promise as I take this work into the next stage. I also discovered that I could overcome my own phobias, having to expose myself to the things that scared me the most made me feel braver, I have a feeling this bravery will carry through into my designs. Being able to let myself go has done wonders for my skills and how I react to having to do work.

As always, I let time get the better of me, start of term went very slow, the lack of guidance and lessons this term has made me slow up in terms of work production. I also underestimated how fast time had gone even though it felt like it was going slowly. By the time I realised this it was almost too late, though this is something I will take through with me to BA3b. I will be stronger with myself and not allow myself to be distracted by frivolous activities.

I really let myself down with the tasks, I started out with a lot of interest in them, but as the weeks went on I didn't consider them as important as my main project, even though I still feel like they aren't and I felt that I was not allowing myself to fully engage with the main project (as there were all these little tasks breaking into my thought process). Though I did end up loving the pieces I created, especially the Treehouse and the Insect.

For the first time with any project I really felt I had improved with my essay writing, and for once, I finished my essay long before anything else, I found having a project that ran alongside the essay was one of the reasons I felt more interested in it, and also I was writing about a topic that really interested me which also helped.

If there would be anything I would have changed about this project, I would have gone to more life drawing sessions as, due to timetabling, our group missed a fair few, I myself only getting to one of them. Next term I will actively attend more sessions and will explore more into colour on black. I would also look to sticking to my timetable more. Having the timetable was very handy but as normal I leave it in a folder on my computer and generally forget about it. Next term I will probably have a copy stuck on a wall by my computer to always have it visible.

Overall I feel this has been a good learning curve. For me this was one of the hardest projects, juggling this project with side tasks for the first time, alongside bouts of insomnia and newfound anxiety attacks defiantly made it a difficult time. But I feel stronger having come out the other end with a strong project to carry through to BA3b.

A few initial doodles.

It's been a while since I've posted. Things are starting to get a little hectic, though I have finished up and completed my dissertation, which is a massive chunk off my mind. Now the writing is out of the way I feel I can fully concentrate on my artwork, I still feel in a bit of an art block but slowly doing little sketches is helping immensely

Also this marks the first project where I done my essay ahead of time and didn't leave it till last minute, but also where I felt more confident in my writing ability than my drawing ... weird! Anyway, here are a few drawings I done following the silhouettes, I feel I jumped the gun with a few of them as some of the silhouettes I found very inspiring!

Pear of Anguish is my favourite of the three and I find her so inspiring, so accidentally I let my feelings get in the way and drew her the most, I need to get her more pointy I think, I was sent this image of a teapot from Alice Madness and it really looks how I want the Pear to look, quick metal and sharp! wouldn't want tea from that! Given that the idea behind her is a French prostitute I want her to look sultry but that she could beat you up as well. Also I need her to have an expression of pain, shes been tortured with the Pear in the mouth and genitals so this would come across with the way she walked and held her face.

Next is the rat torture, I really went a bit Silent Hill with this one and I think it works really well, using the rat bucket in the costume is so creepy! I still need to work out how she will look and stand with a hollowed out stomach, maybe she'd need some metal supports to hold herself up? I want her to look plague ridden and gross so using the tryphophobia has work nicely here, just need to work out how the small bites and pock marks will look in a larger image, will they get hidden in the detail?

and last, the iron maiden, only one image here, I just can't get connected to the character, maybe its the fact I won't see much of her ...that would just be ironic. This is the character I need to work on the most.

100 Silhouettes

Now I have my phobias and my devices settled I can begin my creative process after like a month of
not being able to do the simplest thing art wise.

I normally don't keep things in mind when doing my silhouettes but this time I kept the devices in mind to help me visualise the characters outfits. I aimed for 60, but I ended up with 100. Out of these I will get choose my favourites that I feel represent the characters the best.

Whilst doing these I found a really interesting brush and I ended up using that the most. Now comes the hard part .... Choosing a favourite! We all know how good I am with choices!

Humanised phobias.

I started looking to artists who had used phobias in their work to understand how I can add them to my humanised versions of the torture devices, I came across these pieces by artist John Plato Vassocopoulo

1931’s Phobia was created with the assistance of noted psychoanalyst Henry Stack Sullivan, after a friend of the illustrator had a nervous breakdown. The first lines of the book began with “I must began by apologizing. I am not a psychiatrist”. Yet, despite the unconventional depictions of man’s fear, the limited edition publication became a turning point in John Vassos career. He never published another book of illustrations, but his further years, spent doing works of graphic, industrial design and occasional artpieces, had a conceptual basis on that series of 24 plates. 

The author of  Codex 99, the blog that originally published the following images, describe Vassos’s depiction of Mechanophobia (fear of machinery) in this way: “The illustration – part art nouveau, part art deco and part German expressionism – shows not only a terror of machines but captures more generally the growing unease with the urbanism and industrialization of the early 20th century (a recurrent theme in much of Vassos’ work)".

The illustrations were printed using the Knudson lithographic process, patented in 1915 by the Danish Hugo Knudson and a direct fore- runner of the modern halftone.

Mechanophobia (fear of machinery)

 

Acrophobia – fear of high places

Claustrophobia – fear of enclosed spaces

Astrophobia – fear of storms

Zoophobia – fear of animals

Potamophobia – fear of running water

Climacophobia – fear of falling down stairs

Batophobia – fear of falling objects

Dromophobia – fear of crossing the street

Monophobia – fear of being alone

Phagophobia – fear of swallowing

Syphilophobia – fear of syphilis

Pantophobia – fear of everything

Aichmophobia - fear of Sharp and Pointed Objects

I found these rather chilling, the greyscale adds to the mood and each piece depicts each phobia really well. In particular the claustrophobia image, the feeling of tightness is obvious. Aichmophobia is also really well done. The bodies being pierced with the scissors and the fencing combined with the lack of facial expression is really creepy.