Paper cutting

This lesson we used knives to cut around photographs that we have taken ourselves. We taped the photographs to the paper to secure them, then followed the outline with the knife which then cut the paper underneath as well leaving a photograph cut out, a photograph stencil as well as a paper cut out and stencil. As well as using this technique we also did it where you could create a stencil without the middle section falling out, we did this by creating tabs now and again through out and then going round with a second line which leaves a thin open section in order to create a the stencil.

For my stencils I used photographs that I had taken of my friend and of some plants in my garden.
The reason I chose these specific pictures is because I feel they created an effective stencil and mainly the garden pictures created a stencil that looked good over different back grounds. Although the pictures of my friend were more figurative which therefore made it easier to see what it actually was so I this that one was more successful.

Mono-printing and poly-printing

During these two lessons we first of all starting on doing mono-printing which consisted of using 2 separate rollers, one clean, one dirty and a laminated piece of paper (acting as a glass screen). We rolled the printing ink on to the laminated paper or painted on to create a picture, we then pressed paper on and rolled the clean roller on so that it printed the picture - this was additive.

As well as this we also did subtractive printing which meant you completely roll the laminated paper then using some sort of object whether it be a cotton bud, a stick, a wet paper towel or another tool of some kind, to take away some areas of in in order to create a picture or just to practice mark making - I found this much more successful than additive printing.

In the second lesson of printing we did poly-printing which consisted of using a small cut out of polystyrene and like before 2 rollers, one clean, one dirty. what was different with this was we actually engraved the polystyrene then rolled it with ink and printed it on to paper and it left white areas where the marks had been made in the template. I much preferred this activity because I feel like it was much more successful as well as the fact that it was much easier to create figurative art.

 

My Gerhard Richter work - lesson 2



During this lesson I moved on to incorporate my artists work into what I like which is fashion so I found several pictures of the sort of photographs I'd be using as a template and taking myself.

 After this I then stuck to using collage and emulsion to create an effect like my artist and made this piece which I thought was quite successful. The one thing I would change about this piece is the fact that I used pencil to draw the figure outline which is why I upgraded to using an actual photograph that I had taken along with the fact that it had better reference to my artists work.

 After this I began to make my own photographs and use them in the same way, which I also found successful. After this I chose to stick to a limited palette by covering the entire dress in a simple floral white and black pattern and then afterwards using a very vibrant yellow material to highlight small areas in order to add more depth and detail.

My Gerhard Richter work - lesson 1

I first started adding his work in to mine by taking some of his most famous pieces. In replace of his photograph background I used college of  series of magazine and newspapers, this experiment not only contrasted with my artists work but also tested out the use of colour because before this I had stuck to mainly pencil and graphite drawings. In order to create the look of oil paint that Gerhard used, I used emulsion paint instead and applies it in different ways with different materials like old sponges, knifes, paintbrushes and my fingertips, I also didn't just apply it, I stripped some away after using wet paper towels and rags. Here is my piece of work on the left and Gerhard's on the right.

Also during this lesson I displayed a massive amount of the research I had collected on my artist as well doing some more tests on different mediums, patterns and mark making. For example I copied some shapes from one of Gerhard's most famous pieces and used coloured chalk to test if it worked well. Even though I don't feel like it was successful I am still glad I did it because doing experiments is very important to find out what works best. This is an example of it.

Here is also the research that I conducted from my artist along with several photographs of my favourite pieces of Gerhard's work.

I took these pictures because I liked the contrast in the pictures and how they represented the season of autumn due to the bright orange and light brown tones. I also like how in the first picture the statue stands out with the stones on the back of the waterfall.