Category: Year 3

Cow cluster:

This is my final cow cluster (one cluster of three) which includes 17 individual small scale paintings with the largest being an A4 size. I feel that the colours of the pieces flow well together and yet contrast in the right places to keep the viewers focused and engaged with the artworks. Initially when mounting the works with sawtooth hangers and pins, they had a slight tilt forward which I felt was distracting from the art itself. I therefore decided to add some Velcro to secure the boards to the wall more and prevent this tilting forward which made my work look a lot more professional. I love the shape that I have managed to create as it gives an illusion of a cow silhouette with the triangular pieces on the left resembling a head and the triangular piece on the right resembling a tail.

These are zoomed in images of my final cow cluster which show the intricate details that bring the individual paintings together. I am really happy with the way that colour flows from one painting to another yet manages to keep the individuality through areas of contrast. Although a lot of people saw the barbed wire enclosures as a way for me to emphasise on my theme, the cows I took studies of and photographs of were actually in barbed wire enclosures which worked in my favour as it goes well with my theme, although unintentionally.

Chicken cluster:

This is my final chicken cluster (two of three) which features 16 individual small scale paintings of chicken. Again, I feel that the colours work well together yet contrast in areas to keep the viewers eyes entertained and allow them to come to terms with how the paintings are related. I love the inclusion of lino prints in this cluster as they stand out. The different editions of the same image, both in size and colour, create different effects which I feel will resonate with people for different reasons. I tried to include paintings of the chickens looking at the viewers from different sides/angles to explore bringing different chickens experiencing the same mistreatment and showing the severity of the situation. The arrangements of the paintings in this cluster created the silhouette of a geometrical egg which I find really interesting as it relates to the cluster as chickens lay eggs.

These are some zoomed in images of the chicken cluster which I took to highlight the individual details including patterns and mark making which really bring the works together. The colours used link together in different areas of the paintings with the most popular colours used being yellow, purple and blue which I feel work together really nicely.

Sheep cluster:

This is my final sheep cluster (three of three) which features 17 individual small scale paintings of sheep. A common colour in this cluster is purple which links a lot of the paintings together and yet contrasts in areas too, making it very eye catching. I wish I would have added another small painting to the top row but I didn’t have enough time. However, with the small scale painting being added to the left side, I created the illusion of a silhouette of a sheep due to the arrangement of pieces which I find really interesting as it relates to the cluster itself.

These are some zoomed in images of the sheep cluster which highlight the intricate details which I hope viewers will acknowledge when they inspect my work by getting quite close to it. I love that areas are quite bright anf yet other areas are quite cool as a contrast is created which brings the individual works together.

• cluster of cows – triangular boards on the borders
• cluster of goats
• cluster of chickens
• cluster of sheep
• attaching them up with saw tooth hangers and nails

Materials needed for hanging:

• saw tooth hangers and nails
• spirit level
• hammer
• pencil
• measuring tape/ruler

My designated space:

The blue section at the bottom of the image is my designated space cor the degree show in room 9.55. I have quite a large space which I feel will fit my work nicely. However to separate my work into different clusters in an arrangement which works well with the lighting in the room, I feel that three clusters will be more effective than four due to spacing out. Therefore I felt it would be good to review my four clusters and eliminate the one from the final show which wasn’t as developed as the rest.

Arranging clusters of cows, chickens, goats and sheep:

cows:

chickens:

goats:

sheep:

I put all of the clusters I had onto my wall and photographed them so that I could evaluate which one was the weakest in comparison to the rest. After thoughtful contemplation, I decided that the goats weren’t up to the same standard as the rest of the clusters as a lot of the pieces were unfinished and needed more intricate details added to fit in with the rest of the clusters. For this reason, I have selected the cow cluster, the chicken cluster and the sheep cluster for my final presentation of work. I decided to create a plan of the space below taking into consideration lighting.

This is my plan for the show I which I want the cow and sheep cluster to be lit with the main lights and the central chicken cluster being lit using spot lights which I felt worked really well to draw attention to the centre and allow people to work their way from one cluster to another.

Experimenting with different layouts:

Cow cluster:

I decided to explore a plan for mounting my work for my assessment/degree show to allow me to be fully prepared and get it up without any issues. I was trying to create a silhouette kind of image of a cow to relate it to the subject matter further. I feel that I was getting quite close to my desired effect but I will alter this accordingly as the mounting of my work develops further.

I took some zoomed in/close up photos of the plan for mounting to allow me to make sense of the correlation between each piece in terms of colour and imagery. I especially like that the cows face both left and right as well as central yet maintain eye contact with the viewer regardless of their positioning as this allows all of the individual paintings to have communication with the viewers as well as collaboratively.

Chicken cluster:

I also did an experimental mounting of my chicken cluster to give myself an idea of how to mount it approaching my deadline so as to avoid too much stress down the line. The mounting wasn’t perfect as I was using masking tape as a short term measure to see how the pieces worked together. I found an arrangement which I really liked and it reminded me of an egg shape which I felt was very relevant to this cluster in particular and could show that I am trying to convey the mistreatment if animals in using them for their produce.

These are some close up images and further images that were zoomed in to show how the pieces worked together yet created contrast to attract the eyes of the viewer. Although the arrangement isn’t perfect as it a rough plan, I am really pleased with this arrangement and feel that I won’t have to make many alterations when it comes to my degree show as I am super happy.

Sheep cluster:

This is my experimentation of the sheep cluster for my degree show with an intention of creating a sheep silhouette in terms of the wool of a sheep. I am pleasantly surprised as I feel the layout of this cluster differs a lot from the chicken and cow clusters in terms of arrangements yet the colours and paintings are balanced to create a nice harmony. Again, the arrangement isn’t perfect but it has given me a good idea which reassures me for the degree show.

These are some close up pictures I took to show the correlation between each piece and to focus in the intricate details which I hope viewers will be able to notice when they get close to my work ad I would like them go interact with my paintings relatively similarly to how they interact with farm animals at a farm – getting up close and personal.

I used a spirit level, ruler and my artworks to measure out where each one should be. I made sure that the central point of the central pieces of each cluster were 57 inches from the floor and worked around them. The pieces had a measurement of one cm between them. I used nails and a hammer as well as saw tooth hangers on the back of my paintings to secure them to the wall. The paintings were leaning forwards and so I decided to use velcro to secure them into place. Since my works are rather small and lights, I feel that velcro should be sufficient enough to secure the works in place.

Here is an image of the lino prints which I have been working on by painting over them in areas to change the colours and adding details such as pattern and texture. I still need to add enclosures to the cows and chickens to make them fit in with the other works and fit with my theme of animals in enclosures. I am enjoying experimenting with these and creating different effects. I will select the most effective ones to be used in my final show.

These are the paintings which I have started to apply block colours to as a base which I can work on more as I build up layers. I am trying to make the sizes of board I use vary to emphasise on a confined space and allow the audience to move closer to inspect the art, having to get up close and personal to see the more intricate details and make them uncomfortable through the gaze of the animals.

Working onto cow lino prints:

Chicken print manipulations:

• Exploring different layouts
• Confined layout yet different shapes on the edges almost breaking away
• Trying to group pieces together that have similar colours or would it be best to do the opposite? contrasting colours next to each other
• Need to make the barbed wire more obvious, just looks like bars
• need to add enclosures to other pieces

Chicken Linocut 2:

Chicken Linoprints:

Cow linocut 2:

Cow linoprints:

As all of the prints I have done so far are black and white, I felt that I needed to work over some of them to incorporate colour to see how they fit in with my other work and since my project involves a lot of colour this was very important. I will be doing some coloured prints once my ink arrives but until then I felt like I should keep my project moving rather than coming to a stand still. As the inks I have used are water based, I couldn’t paint over the prints as this would have caused the paints to combine and create very muddy colours which I do not want. After some consideration I came to the conclusion to try coloured pencils over the top of the prints which worked really well, particularly over the black ink areas. Pastel pencils seemed to work the best and so I decided to go through all of the prints adding colour to them. I kept some of the original prints black and white as a reflection to show my progress and because I feel that the black and white prints are very effective on their own, they just don’t fit in too well with my project as they are.

These are the sheep print manipulations I did using pencils. I was experimenting with different colour combinations and seeing what works the best. I didn’t worry too much about staying in the lines of the original print as the border will be cut off as soon as they are complete. I feel that the prints on the top left and middle left row are the most effective in terms of colour combination (green, oink and yellow & light green, dark green and blue). I feel that this is because they have a big area of contrast while the other colour combinations have colours that are similar tones or similar shades in terms of warmth of coldness. This has really helped me to identify key colour combinations to consider as my project progresses as well as colour combinations that don’t work well.

These are my chicken print manipulations in which I explored different colour combinations. Again, I didn’t feel the need ti stay within the lines as these will be cut down later on. Although I feel that all of the designs are effective, I feel that the colour combinations on the top row are the most effective due to the right tones of each colour being used. There are some positives in the bottom row and I would like to see where I can take the brown shade one. This design made it easy to apply the blocks of colour and rhe pencils add texture/pattern in areas which is interesting. I wonder if I would be able to work over the pieces with another medium but it depends if the pencils I used were too waxy as I used a range of pencils including watercolour pencils, pastel pencils and oil based pencils. I may try this out to see if I can develop them further.

These are the cow manipulations I did. There is a much bigger quantity of these prints as I generated a lot of these prints at the start due to me wanting to experiment with them. I like that I did some prints involving the simplified version of this print, although I with I had done more of them so I could experiment more, I could always photocopy them if it comes to it and then work over them. In my opinion the simple version involving the red on the middle fourth row ( red, orange, yellow, blues and pinks) is the most successful out of the two as I feel that the tones of this all work together nicely yet contrast with the bright yellow and orange. For the more detailed prints, the orange and blue/green and red pieces work really well (first and middle pieces on the third row) as they are simple yet complementary colours so they balance each other out yet attract your eyes. I am happy with the outcome of a lot of these manipulations but some were difficult to work on due to the ink of the print being really thick (first and third on the first row) and so I feel that I should work onto these some more with different mediums to see the outcomes I can achieve.