In week 7, I decided to work onto cardboard to expand the materials I was working with and to see if I could incorporate more textures into my work as there are lots of textures in different environments and I feel that this is what my work is lacking. I also did more collages using the left over paper from the workshop in week 2 as I really liked the outcome of that collage and it could help me to try out more collage techniques such as ripping instead of cutting and different scales.
Cardboard puzzle painting:
I took cardboard of different sizes that weren’t completely straight and applied a base coat of white onto them. I then started to paint a whole painting onto them so each section fitted together nicely. I took inspiration from the wood paintings that I did in the second workshop as they looked like they fitted together in areas even though they weren’t of the same perspective as each other. I liked the uses of different colours of each wooden board so I did the same for these cardboard paintings but made sure each one flowed into the next by having a small amount of the other colours from surrounding panels onto them. I added lots of detail to certain areas but then made other areas simple as this is an element I really enjoyed in my other work and I wanted to show a connection to help me create a body of work which I have clearly made informed decisions about. I feel the overall pieces are effective individually and work really well as a collection.
This is a photo of the piece as I was over half way done. I didn’t take a photo at the beginning unfortunately, but I feel that this demonstrates my thought process and how I was making sure to do pieces of card board that fitted together in a precise order to ensure they flowed together nicely. I made the top piece purely sky as I felt this would create a nice contrast and bring the piece together. I combined the different colours of the sky on this piece to again show the flow.
I decided to make the end piece mostly black and white to provide a contrast and add an area of simplicity to contrast with the brickwork that was added. Though the bricks aren’t uniform and perfect, I feel that this portrays how materials in environments, particularly man made ones can become worn over time.
This is a zoomed in image of the card board puzzle piece to show the details and the textures of the pieces. Though these took me a quite long time, I did paint them standing up using Ruth’s feedback from my tutorial which allowed some of my brushstrokes to be quite loose and add a sketchy element that I really liked.
I like the blue piece a lot as it is quite eye catching but I also like the bottom piece which is a lot more realistic. The brickwork on this piece took a long time but I feel it paid off and it isn’t too overpowering, more subtle which I like.
I felt this side of the piece were more abstract than the others and I didn’t add a lot of detail which I feel paid off, though maybe adding a bit more detail would help with the flow of things. I feel that I relied too much on black lines which I am going to try and avoid in the future as this could be seen as too overpowering.
The red section is definitely the most sketchy but I feel that this adds another texture which works well overall. I like that the texture of the cardboard shows through the paint as this adds another element that is very effective. I like that I added a bright yellow section and a pastel colour section as the different tones/colour palettes combine nicely so the work is abstract yet still quite realistic. Deciding not to add blue for the sky was an important decision as I am trying to capture the idea that the sky isn’t always blue.
Collages:
I decided to do more collages like the one I made in the first workshop as I feel that this piece was really interesting and allowed me to create layers and uses of line that were effective. I wanted to explore making smaller collages to see the way that scale could affect the process or the final outcome. I also wanted to use different techniques in these collages than I did for the first collage, such as ripping the papers instead of cutting them and using 3d effects possibly to experiment fully.
This is the first collage I did which is approximately A3 sized. I used the same technique as my first collage by cutting the coloured paper but I made it a lot more simple. I like the way the colours and shapes work together to create really interesting pieces.