Sunday 31 October 2010

New Tat Designs

Just been designing designs recently. I want to make a latex tattoo book. A spin on the books found in all tattoo stores. I've also seen something of Eva Hesse's that is kind of the effect I want my book to look like.
I'm thinking rugged aesthetic, again to link in with the tattoo's I will be drawing inside.

Eva Hesse, From book 'Studio work' - Latex, cheesecloth, cloth-covered wire, rubber

'Smoking Skull' and 'Rock n Roll' Tats are faves out of these images. I like the originality of the Kiss tattoo design and it may look better in colour.

Art Foundation Year

Not going to write too much about my foundation year other than... it was amazing :)
Loved every second of it. Here's a little taster of what I did...

Animal heart, Ice, Wool Installation

Time Piece's

Plaster cast animal foot prints

Ink insect prints on paper and Aluminium etchings


Mixed media Wasp images

Collographs                                                   Mixed Media, 'Memory' pieces

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Tats Are Beautiful

That's why I like drawing them. Here are a few really quick sketchy designs I'm working on. From my sketchbook so funny, unprofessional scans, also some are drawn on greaseproof paper. Again, experimeting with different transparent, flesh like surfaces to draw on. Some are more finished than others and there are still afew that I want to yet put up...





Helen

Finished 27.10.10. This wasn’t meant to look like Helen (the old Helen with longer purple hair) but kind of does J

Unsure if I like the tattoo art. I was going for a different spin on the gypsy head. With more attention to detail on the shading then maybe this would be more successful. However, good experiment with material. The support is PVA glue layered to make a skin effect with acrylic design.

Not entirely sure if I like this piece. It was very hard to paint on the PVA. I had to do a lot of coats to keep the paint from showing up any brush strokes. I do like the effect with the PVA glue though. It crinkled when it dried so looks like sagging skin J ....beautiful.

Shaun the Sheep

From the experiments with acrylic on latex, I decided to cast a skull in the same material. It took me three days but was a very successful three days as I am very pleased with the final result J. Photos show the whole process.

I didn't really want the skull to be seen as a ram skull. I got the skull cheap off of ebay and wanted horns in the cast, which is why I got a ram. I put my own stamp on the design by filling in certain areas with plasticine and keeping areas of the skull with a lot of detail clean.
I plastered the whole skull in nine pieces. Drilled two holes (one for filling with latex, one for emptying) and layered three coats of latex into the cast.

The final latex cast is obviously very floppy. It has kept its shape however which is one element I was slightly worried about. Also unsure wether I should cut the rugged seems off or wether this adds an interesting effect. Waiting for a tutorial to discuss these issues with my tutor.
Trying to think of different ways in which to display the skull, that will support its aesthetics in the most interesting way. Maybe hung from the wall to display the floppy, skin like qualities?

I would like to try out other skulls in the same process. See how they all look together, for example a bird skull and incorporating my own design even further onto the skull. They may also make for unusual tattoo designs. As it was such a long process, I don’t want to ruin it so I am waiting until I have designed some really good tattoos to put onto the skull in acrylic.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Latex Tats

These are the most recent additions to my studio space.
Latex ‘skin’ with acrylic tattoos.
Just an experiment but I think a very successful experiment. Want to do a much larger scale latex/tattoo design, maybe to fill a huge wall space.
Tomorrow I’m casting a ram’s skull. Again I think I’ll do it in Latex, with the same idea of tattooing with different tattoo designs in acrylic.

Bride of Chucky...

This is the art work that scares my lovely friend Helen every time she comes into the studio… J
Tattoos on a doll. Inspiration from Dr Lakra. The pen hasn’t worked very well so some of the tattoo designs aren’t that great. Planning to paint this when I get around to it. Also adding more designs so that the whole baby is covered.

Martin...


Painting with acrylic on scrap wood.
Unfinished. Still to add an ‘Oxford University’ coat of arms on the side of his cheek, to give reference to that part of his past.
I have also been researching the types/ages of people who have tattoos and although the man in the picture would never have a tattoo on his cheek, it’s not something that is too unusual.
I feel that tattoos to many people are seen as rebellious and are mostly covered up for ‘important’ occasions such as interviews. I wanted the piece to look rugged, to match the aura of the painting. I plan to display the painting screwed to the wall with large, industrial screws.



Finished these today (27.10.10) ... Not sure I am entirely happy with how the tattoo turned out. Would rather it be a little lighter maybe. May alter this if I have enough studio time. The Tattoo is an Oxford University tattoo, distorted to give a wrapped effect around the cheek.

Sketches

These sketches show tattoos on people with images that best show their personalities/interests.



I want the sketches to question whether or not the images/tattoos should be on these people.
I feel that some of the logos/tats etc don't best fit to the contours of the body in places, however can be developed for later paintings.




Also produced some collage photographs, sketching tattoos onto friends and family. I chose mainly their interests to decorate their skin, such as football, music etc.

Sunday 17 October 2010

A New Year Begins...



Start of year 2 and I have begun by basing my work around something that I find interesting. I love tattoos and I love art by tattoo artists. I therefore wanted to create something new and exciting based on tattoo art.

I started by looking at many tattoo art books and different friends ink. Picking out my favourite imagery and sketching my own new ideas and thoughts to develop.


Here are two paintings, painted in acrylic on canvas. I have chosen to work from two images that I particularly liked. I wanted the painting to show the personality of the individual in both the tattoo that they were wearing and the way in which they are positioned. The tats I did in colour to stand out from the body and the figure I chose to paint in black and white, to act as a kind of after thought to my audience. I like the rough edges of the paint. They link in well with the persona of what a tattoo might mean, in a generalised opinion.


I am working on a lot of different routes from these paintings. Looking at what makes a tattoo, why people have tattoos, meanings of different imagery etc.  I’m in the process of tattooing family and friend’s photographs using pencil, with images that I feel represent their personalities and interests. I am also finishing an acrylic painting of this, of which I shall show on a later blog. I want the painting to look figurative, using a different style of painting and a different style of support.

Frieze 2010

I was asked by my lecturer to pick a favourite art work from the Frieze Art Fair when I visited this year, however it’s been hard to pick a favourite. I wanted to choose someone who I hadn’t come across before, someone who stood out and really stuck in my mind. I just wasn’t impressed enough by the new ‘talent’.
I did enjoy looking around David Shrigley’s work though.  I thought he was funny, colourful and was probably the only person whose work I thoroughly enjoyed.
I’ve always been impressed by the works of Marc Quinn. I didn’t particularly think that he had his best work in the show however but I wasn’t disappointed by him. I loved his human sized, bronze sculpture ‘a moment of clarity’.

Georg Baselitz showed a few pieces that caught my eye. I loved his striking compositions. I’d love to be this type of artist, turning something grotesque, into something that initially looks beautiful.


All in all I was disappointed by the 2010 Frieze. I headed to the P3 show ‘Sunday’ afterwards and was way more impressed by what I saw there. Also compared to last year, when I was writing down hundreds of new artists for me to look at, this year I’m not sure that I learned any new names… looking forward to see what Frieze 2011 has to offer.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Year 1- The Spaces in Between

This piece of art work was based around the theme “the spaces in between”. A title inspired from Cent. Magazine of which I regularly read and enjoy.

I did a range of works based around this theme, however this photo is of the work in which I showed at the exhibition.

Looking for inspiration from Richard Wentworth and Doris Salcedo, I took photographs of found objects taken/used differently from their original contexts. For example, tape around a lamp post or a cap on a garden fork. Similar to Richard Wentworths “make do and mend” series.
I wanted these photographs to look spontaneous and un-staged. To get the required effect I used a Zenit film camera to take the photos. I wanted the photos to look grainy but have great detail.

On the plinth in front of the photographs is a plaster cast of a set of teeth. I wanted my audience to wonder if this piece should be there. To interrupt the space and support the photos.


Year 1- Experimental Drawing Project

I thought I'd start my blog with an overview of last year's main projects.
This is a photo of the final composition for the experimental drawing assignment.



I began experimenting with a variety of medium for example, cardboard, tile, plaster, light, as well as experimenting with a variety of ways in which to make marks. I felt that drawing on the blocks to make a 3D image looked most effective and was also something that I hadn’t come across.
To give the installation maximum dimension I decided to place the wood upon a mirrored surface.

I have always been interested in developing the way in which I portray portraiture to the viewer. I wanted to achieve a composition that captured the figure in its most natural state, un-staged and totally relaxed. I was looking at artists such as Dryden Goodwin, Ghada Amer, Alistair McClymont and Luc Tuymans.