Shape + texture - evaluation/potential for further experimentation

Experimenting with brusho and a plastic card has really made me want to explore texture more. I shied away from it a bit before, thinking it wasn't really for me, and preferred block colour, but this has really opened my eyes to the possibilities within texture. These textures are kind of gritty and grainy, but full of depth and it makes the image more exciting.

It reminds me of one of my favourite artists, Boneface.

Although he uses a lot of block colour in his work too, he does incorporate texture, similar to the textures I experimented with.

Again, the animators of BoJack Horseman subtly incorporate teture into an otherwise very graphic and clean art style:

The watercolour texture on BoJack's skin and the texture in the building offer just a little bit more depth and make the image a bit more interesting.

Shape + texture - self-portrait

For this task I started out making test textures with brushos. I'd not used brushos since A-Level but I really like them as they're similar to inks, but I know you can make cool textures with the powder.

I first flicked the black brusho powder at some paper with a wash of water on it. I like that the black powder spreads to reveal it's actually made up of a lot of different colours that blend when the brusho is used like ink. With this method as well, you get different variations in texture depending on how much water was on that area of the paper, which can be interesting.

I did the same with the red, but a bigger clump of powder, and blew some water out towards the edges to create what looks a bit like a bloodspot.

I also tried some old running out pens, dry brush and different washes.

I liked the turquoise brusho the most though, so I decided to experiment more with that. I tried finger painting with different amounts of water and powder, which got some nice results.

My favourite texture however was using a card to crush and spread the powder around the paper with different amounts of water. These textures were all really grainy and gritty, as the card picked up different amounts of powder and water. It also created many separate lines with each individual grain of powder, which I loved - reminds me of primary school when you get as many pens in your hand as you can and draw with them all at once.

I started experimenting with these textures for features of my face. I used the flicking powder method for the base of my face as freckles, then some dry card and crushing for eyelashes, wet dragging brusho powder for the hair, and finger painting for the pupils of my eyes.

And the final image:

Although I really enjoyed playing around with the textures, I'm still not that interested in shape and collage with it, but I do think I'll try and incorporate some more textures into digital work with line.

Nice Outfit - shape!

My final 3 images using shape! I picked clothes from my wardrobe and made up characters. I had fun branching out of my comfort zone and thinking about images in terms of shape rather than line. I also started using colour a lot more, which definitely came through in my roughs!

The first one I like the most, as I think the block colour of the gouache works really well, as well as the negative space in the white area of the shirt. I added a bit of texture in the hair and a bit of line in the face and jeans, but I did mostly try to think about it in terms of shape.

The next one was collage, so I was forced to think a lot more about shape instead of line. I really don't like how fiddly collage is, and I feel I could have achieved this image with other media. However, if I had used other media that I was comfortable with, I think I might have gone back to old habits of using line!

The last image is probably the least shape based. I also tried to include some texture and went for a sort of lo-fi look, which is fairly different than what I normally do. I actually had more fun in the rough stages and decided I really liked the look of my rough for this image and wanted to incorporate the textures of messy pen and brush stroke!

Some of the roughs:

I'm growing more confident in using shape and texture as well as improving my use of line within my work. I definitely want to try to use shape more in other briefs, but maybe not collage!

OUIL405 Brief 2 - Collected paraphernelia

I collected some leaflets/maps/timetables from the station and the museum, and I also bought some cute illustrated postcards based on vintage posters. I've also added my train tickets from the day to my ticket pile (now 152 strong) that I've been building up for 5 years. I might be able to use these for my project, a collage?

OUIL405 Brief 2 - More photos

Just some pictures of other things I found visually interesting from my day.

OUIL405 Brief 2 - FACTS at York Railway Museum

General facts:

• A locomotive and a train aren't the same thing - locomotive refers to the vehicle that provides the power to move carriages and train refers to the locomotive with carriages attached

Channel Tunnel

I live pretty close to the channel tunnel in Kent, so I might conduct a day trip there over Christmas to do some research with my little brother (who's obsessed with trains). I'm pretty sure my brother has a documentary about it somewhere too which I'll have to rewatch. Some super cool facts I found out about it:

• ·         Runs for 31.4 miles beneath the English channel
• ·         Includes the longest section of underwater tunnel in the world
• ·         Constructed by 13,000 workers over 6 years
• ·         Recognised as one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers
• ·         Opened in 1994 (2 years before I was born)
• ·         Carries 48,000 people (!!!) between England and France every day
• ·         4.3 million cubic metres of earth and rock was displaced, which was then deposited at Shakespeare cliff near Dover, increasing the size of the UK by 90 acres

'The Tale of Two Coaches'

Coach No. 2
Narrow Gauge Lynton & Barnstaple railway in north Devon closed in 1935 and coaches were sold off at auction. Railway enthusiast Mr Copleston bought Coach No 2 to use as a summerhouse/smoking room in the garden of the Rectory in Clannaborough, Devon. It was built in 1897 as a 'saloon brake composite' carriage containing first and third class accommodation and a guard's department. The 20 mile journey to move the coach took 3 days and cost more than Mr Copleston paid at auction for the carriage. It was moved to York in 1982.

The Duchess of Hamilton

• ·         One of the most powerful steam locomotives to run on Britain's railways
• ·         One of 38 Princess Coronation class locomotives
• ·         The fireman had to feed at least 1 ton of coal into its firebox every hour! An average of 6 tons was shifted on an average journey (no wonder we're running out of coal - bloody hell)
• ·         Withdrawn from service in 1964
• ·         You could walk under this locomotive - I got some cool machinery pictures of the underside - so intricate!

The Flying Scotsman

• ·         Fastest express service between London and Edinburgh
• ·         From June 1862 the 10.00 express passenger services departed from London Kings Cross and Edinburgh Waverly. This weekday service still runs today
• ·         Locomotive 4472 was named after the Flying Scotsman service but it is actually one of many locomotives that has pulled the famous express
• ·         Steam locomotives on the non-stop service consumed 13,000 gallons (59,100 litres) of water - equivalent to 312,000 mugs of tea (the most British comparison ever)
• ·         In 1948 there were 286 signal boxes controlling trains on this route - in 2002 nine boxes did the same job

·          

Japanese Maglev trains

• ·         They float! Or 'magnetically levitate'

Mallard

I went in the cab of the locomotive and talked to the woman in there about how it worked - she showed me what a fireman would have done and what all the valves and switches etc did. A fireman would have shovelled coal into the firebox about 8 times an hour. They also had water troughs alongside tracks that you could scoop up water from as the train went past to refill the tank. Water would squirt out of the pipe at each level to let you know how full the tank was.

The Turntable

• ·         722 men and boys worked on it
• ·         Up to 160 trains were moved on it per week
• ·         I took a video of the guy giving a talk about the turntable and the demonstration of it turning (but Blogger won't let me upload it because it's bigger than 100MB)