Manchester Ucas trip

On Monday the 23rd of November was the UCAS trip to Manchester, the trip was about looking at all the different universities this convention had invited in for students to come in and look at and speak to about what courses they had to offer and how they could help you reach your goals and strengthen your skills. The convention was set out like a comic book layout with each university having a stall and representatives giving out gift bags and talking to students, trying to draw them in to have a look at what they had to offer. 

I am still not sure about what my plans for the future are so i decided to look around all the art and design universities and colleges, looking at what courses they had to offer, how many students had gone on to further study or obtained a job after completing the course... Information that would help me make the best decision for me. I spoke to universities such as, the cardiff school of architecture as i am still not quite sure about architecture and whether i would like to proceed into that type of industry and so they told me about all the different levels of courses they had to offer, what would be happening in each year as in what i would be learning and how it would develop over the course. I was then shown some of the work from preveous students from the first and second years of the course, showing me the development in what they had learnt and how they had used the knowledge they had gained from the years of learning. 

I also looked at the art and design courses from sheffield hallam and what i could go on to do there if i chose to go there. I also looked into other courses such as games design and other design courses looking at what the courses involved and where they would take me.

I then attended a fine art workshop which was quite interesting, looking at how to produce a great portfolio of work to take on to interviews, looking at how to lay out and present my work to make it look at its best as well as what some universities offered on thier fine art courses and what we would learn and where it would lead us to, what further education we could go onto or what jobs we could gain from the courses after we had completed them. 

I am still not sure about where or what i want to progress on to after my course but my first option is to go on to the university campus Barnsley and carry on to study and develop my skills in art and design for another year and then see where i want to go from that point but my path is not clear to me at the moment so i am not really sure where i would like to go or what i would like to do. The Manchester event was helpfull in what courses offered what and where i may like to go after my year at UCB should i get a place but to be honest I do not know where my future will go.

World i live in critique

The subject matter of the world i live in and how i interpret Barnsley, my local town as a sort of prison has been selected as a matter of personal interest as i like to take pictures of my local area and sketch out the town but also as a social concern as the town through my eyes is run down and has no opertunities for young people to go anywhere with thier ambitions which is why i show barnsley hrough the crack in the wall as there is a small glimps of hope in a way to get out and do better things. I have interprited the subject of the world i live in with exagerating the fact of how bad barnsley is and how it is all doom and gloom with dark and cold colours and showing how there is little hope in a small town. With my model there are hidden meanings behind it like i have said before hand that the town is a small run down place with not much to do or hope for at this moment in time so the hole in the wall is a symbol of breaking out of the small town, to have a chance of something more in life, linking it to banksys pieces on the palistine wall, where children are breaking out and that there is something better out there. 

In my model my work has been aranged in an orderly fashion with the layers of the wall and the controlled distance between each section as well as the piece not being too busy so i would class it as looking quite simple but the workmanship that has gone into the making of the piece was not so easy. For a colour scheme i have chosen quite dull colours to portray the misery and cold feelings of the piece but a little bit of bright colour in the image i have taken to show there is a small glimps of hope through the crack in the wall, although another way of looking at the piece is that the image of barnsley is a alse interpritation that draws you in to only leave you disapointed with the town at the moment. The piece in my opinion is harmonious as it flows and looks quite well made and not all over the place. The one colour that is dominant is the mass of black on the outer side and inside the modl walls showing the gloomy mood i am trying to portray with the piece. 

With the making of the piece there were many processes, techniques, tools and materials that were used. With the processes there was marking out the shape of each wooden layer of the wall and then cutting out the shapes on the jigsaw, making the procise cuts and making sure the shape flowed like i had planned it to do. Then with the piece being A4 size (300x220mm) i had to procisly measure out the length and width of each panel and cut them to the exact measurements using the band saw. Then to etch in the brick work mark i had to use different style of carving knives with different shapes, by using and testing each one i narrowed it down to which i would be using to then mark out my wooden panel. Next i had to measure out where on my panels i would be routing out the grooves in which my 3 panels would be sitting, along with how deep the cut would be and how wide it would be to make sure my panels would sit in the grooves and not fall out. To then finish my model i would sand it down and use the routeronce more to take off all the edges that were not needed to make the sides of the model all equal, then i would piant each panel and then glue it all together making sure all the sides were procise and glued together evenly. With this work i started out with and idea of just a free standing 3D piece with just 2 panels sitting in grooves on a panel of wood. In preperation of this piece i researched joining the pieces of wood together and which technique would be the best way, i also researched into the meanings behind the banksy pieces and joseph cornell style boxes and what they meant to each artist and how i could link that in with my work, on how i felt and wanted people to portray my finished piece which i would produce at the end of the project.

At first glance on my finished piece it gives off the impression that the artist would want you to be drawn to the site you could see through the crack in the wall, to see the bright and colourful image through the dark and gloomy layers of the brick wall. The piece conveys the feeling that there is a light at the end of the tunel, that you just have to look hard and work hard to get to where you want to be, and to not want to be stuck in a place where there is little opertunity to become successfull. When producing this piece i felt that i wanted to go on and explore more than just being stuck in barnsley, but seen as though i couldnt i saw Barnsley as a sort of prison, with no way to get out, like there were walls blocking my ways of getting out. The piece makes you think and makes you wonder what the artist wanted for the outcome, what they as an artist wants people to see and how to portray the piece. 

Finished final piece

Here is the development of my final piece. Here i have shown how i have painted each screen making them as realistic as possible, the brick work i painted brown and then went over in black reaching through all the creases then used blue role to dab the screen to make it more dirty and real looking. With each side of the outer box i have painted black to give it a more depressing look and give the box more meaning through the depressing colours showing that barnsley is through my eyes, a gloomy place to live that i want to break out of through the crack in the wall.

The world i live in - project evaluation

The world I live in project was based on the world around me, thinking about friends, family favourite places to go and what matter the most to me. With this I was then to research into artists that had done art around the world they lived in and link it to my work by using them as inspiration to then create a final piece in my chosen area which is 3D.
Thinking about this project I haven't used my time as wisely as I could have done as I was on holiday and could have taken my work with me but chosen not to, but in saying this all my work is to a good standard and has all been handed in on time. If I were to do this project again I would manage my time wisely, making sure I produced a higher quality sketchbook in the time I was given by using different techniques and medias to give me a higher quality sketchbook to hand in.
With this project my main focus was the landscape aspect of the project, linking in my key interest in architecture and street views I then chose to go deeper into cityscapes and decided to concentrate on aspects of society like the conditions of my local streets and what the world I live in is like, mainly concentrating on the town centre of Barnsley.
With my primary research I looked into the basic world around me which was local streets, family and friends and places that mean a lot to me such as st ives bay in Cornwall using observational drawing and drawing from photos that I had taken myself. For secondary research I looked into aspects of Barnsley like graffiti and local architecture such as Cannon hall and Wentworth castle, again using drawing, painting and collage in some aspects too. Then I decided to link my work to artists who look into and create graffiti and cityscapes such as Banksy and Stephen Wiltshire looking at the media and techniques they use and how they draw in their audience, like Banksy who creates his pieces with spray paint and does this anonymously. Stephen Wiltshire creates his master pieces such as his metre upon metre long cityscapes which he draws from memory after his short helicopter rides over the city's he wishes to draw. The 3D artist I looked at and researched was Stephen Cornell, I linked his work into my own by basing my work loosely around one of his boxes and using my world around me as the base of the idea just like Cornell had done in his work with travel and the objects he had collected throughout his life time.
From my research I took the aspects of Wiltshire's cityscapes and decided to design a building that would be like a spark of light in Barnsley and replace what was a site of boarded up walls and scaffolding. My second design was influenced by Banksy's piece on the Palestine wall and creating a piece showing a crack in a wall in Barnsley creating the impression that I feel Barnsley is a sort of prison that some people want to break out of, to go on to better places and do more in the world that they cannot do from a small run down town such as Barnsley. This idea, along with the style of Joseph Cornell, lead on to my final design which was a sort of exploded 3D piece inside a box showing the different aspects and layers of the broken wall and a camera image of Barnsley taken by myself. I chose this as my final design as I liked it more than the building design as the building was more simple and not as interesting as the Banksy inspired piece and was more interested in the making process of the piece I would go through and all the new things I would learn in the process of making this piece.
For my final piece for this project I experimented with different aspects of cutting wood with different machines such as the band saw and jigsaw for cutting out my shapes in the wood. I decided to use the pillar drill and the jigsaw to cut out my shapes in the wood as they were more precise and easier to use in getting the job done. I also had to decide on what joining techniques would be the best in making my piece more structurally stable, in the end I decided to use a lap joint rather than a mitre joint as it gave my piece more stability and it would be able to hols weight if anything was placed on top of it as the force would be equally dispensed over the box and not all on the top of the box/outer shell. Another piece of machinery I used was the router which I used to make the groove in which my pieces of wood which displayed the aspects of the wall would sit, for this I experimented with different depths in which the wood would have to sit to stand without falling, along with the thickness of the route which we would have to cut for the wood to sit in as it would have to be precise as if it was too thick the wood would fall out or if it was too thin the wood wouldn't be able to fit into the route in which I had cut.
If I had no time constraints on this project I would have created a larger piece instead of a 300x220mm piece I would have created one twice the size, I would have tried out more techniques on the machinery and created more than 3 pieces of the wall and maybe added another 2. I would also have created my own drawing or painting of a cityscape from an area of Barnsley to use as the back ground inspired by Wiltshire instead of just a photo, another piece I would add is a plastic viewing widow to shield the piece from damage and create a kind of effect where the piece resembles a window looking in to the crack in the wall into the prison like view of Barnsley and added in a cracked paving stone effect on the floor of the piece with thin scrap wood in a Mosaic fashion.
Within the project, my research went well in using different Medias and using my time well to an extent. The making and designing of my final piece went well too as I learnt new skills and techniques in the 3D workshop like lap joining and routing, I have managed my time well along with finishing the piece in painting it and adding finishing touches. I think my artist research and aspects of design could have been more detailed but apart from this the project went well. Over all I think I managed my time well with being on holiday for 2-3 weeks and completing my research and planning, along with my final piece but I think I could have gone into more detail in aspects of the project if I had done some research on holiday and thought about the project in more detail, my out come from the project could have been better.
I do think I have used my blog effectively, recording and documenting my research and processes in which I've gone through over the course of the project but I could have added one or 2 videos explaining what I was doing in the 3D workshop about how I created my final piece and what stages I went through to get my outcome. Over all I am satisfied with the amount of work I've done through this project, my strengths would be the designing and 3D element of the project and using my local area as inspiration as to me it gives me sparks of inspiration every time I walk around the area, seeing different aspects every day. I think I could have gone into more detail in research both primary and secondary and my mood board, my final piece could have been more eye catching as well if I had gone into more detail in the designing faze to bring out a possible distinction worthy project. With this project I did handle the amount of work and organisation well as I handed in the majority of my work in on time and to a good standard as well.
If I were to do this project all over again I think I would develop my final piece a little more and I would gather my research better and go into more detail than I have done with my work along with finishing a little earlier than I have done but apart from this I would keep everything as it is as I believe it is to a great standard of work and craftsmanship in which I have produced.

Final piece - 3D workshop

Here is the development of how i have made my final piece and what processes i have have used. From starting out with just planks of MDF and drawing out the shapes in which i cut out using the jig  saw. I have also shown which tools i have used to etch into the wood to give me the brick work effect i needed for my brick wall. Another process i have shown is where i used the router to give me the grooves in the wood i needed to hold my layers of wall up.

Further design development

Here i have tried different styles of brick work with the hole in the brick wall idea inspired by Banksy and tried out 4 different styles. In my opinion out of all 4 styles i like the second idea the best (right hand top corner) as it looks more urban and town like as you would see it in the housing more round my local area and it looks like it is missing a few bricks and is showing concrete too. I think i shall be using the second idea for my final piece and begin to make some models before making my final piece.

Design development

Here is my design development sheet, for this sheet i have taken my banksy inspired idea and looked into it more. 

I have gone round my local town and taken photo's down side streets and crowded areas, then using my cracked / broken wall idea i have stuck it over the picture and tried different techniques with the background and brick work to make it look realistic but a little cartoon like. 

On the sheet i have also looked at different styles of brick work and a different style of hole in the wall to fit more of a picture or drawing inside it along with a more realistic looking brick work and background.

Joseph cornell box

in our second week of workshops, in 3D we were making a Joseph Cornell box, a joseph Cornell box was created by joseph Cornell who was an artist who would gather objects and put them inside the boxes he had created using wood for the box, maps and other images as backgrounds and cut outs of birds with images stuck on o the cut outs. In my joseph Cornell box we had to link it to the world we live in so I have used an image from the bottom of my street, printed it multiple times and cut the image out using different horizon lines making it look like the different sections stand out and look like they have depth.

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3D work shop

in our 3D workshop we went over all the technical parts, for example looking and going over how to use all the machinery like the pillar drill which is used for drilling holes into the wood, band saw which is used for cutting wood and cutting shapes out of the wood, wood planer to sand down the wood. Learning the names and safety precautions and what to do in case of an incident

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Drawing techniques

here are my drawing technique sheets where I have drawn a sort of still life using the cross hatching technique. to show light and darkness I used different thickness with lines and with my second sheet I used the shading technique where I used the shadow to draw instead of the outline. I have also done some timed sketches varying from 30 secondsto 3 minute's.

Artist design sheets

 here I have my artist design sheets where I have researched banksy, L.S.lowry, David hockney and Harry.e Allen. for each I have drawn or painted a critical study for the 3 pieces in which I have chosen to study for each artist. for example I have chosen L.S Lowry because of his cityscapes which links to my love for taking pictures of my local area and around Barnsley.

Design sheets

These two sheets are my design sheets, one i have designed a building to be built in a blank space in the town centre, this is linked to my interest in architecture and my work in the 3D workshop.

The next sheet i have designed a banksy inspired piece where the piece expresses the idea of this world is yours and the one you live in but it can be better by going down a different path, i have also shown how i would make it into a model to link it to my 3D workshop.

Civic visit to knitting exhibit

Here are some images from my civic visit to the knit wear exhibit where we were asked to create a 30x30cm square for the exhibit, made of black material like card, wool, film ribbon ect.

Cooper art gallery visit

These pics are from when i went to visit the cooper art gallery and see the exhibition on celebrities that came from Yorkshire and how Yorkshire made them.