freedom evaluation

I began with a spider diagram of all the possible ideas I could have done one freedom, then I did a smaller spider diagram at the chosen aspects I wanted to look at as a whole on freedom which were, movement- such as dance, and wind. Mind- letting go, trapped, prison of false thoughts, happy. Travel –gypsy, landscapes, stars, soul, mind, caravans. Nature- trees, leafs, birds, animals, air, rain, reflection, sky, life, balloons and strength. Music- Bob Marley lost in beat. Wind- hair blowing things moving. Art- seeing things differently, expression. Etc. from looking at all these different aspects I have always loved the idea of being free to travel but from a Romani point of view. So I chose this as my main idea, I did most of my research on the internet but I also went out and took photos of trees with mud paths to represent one of the images similar to an artist I like, and also to symbol nature and travel. I asked my granddad about gypsies and caravans because I have always been fascinated with them and he told me about his friend who had one.

Throughout my 63 pages I tried to use a range of media, but my main media is painting especially watercolour and oil paints. I like using these most because the colours blend well and you get a natural finish they are also quick and easy to use. The artist I used is Leonid Afremov, I chose him because his work is bright and colourful and I enjoy his technique of dotting and stroking paint on although I do this with a paint brush he uses a pallet knife.

I planned my final piece in my sketchbook, I did 3 paintings, two where fully secondary research but the third was primary and secondary which is the one I used for my canvas.  I used one of my photos of the trees with the mud paths for my primary research, and for my secondary I used a gypsy caravan I found on Pinterest. For my artist research I added blobs of colour into the trees to liven it up a little.

I have learnt how to stretch a canvas; the canvas I stretched for my final piece was 122x85, I chose this size because thought I would challenge myself and work on a large scale, also I thought that it would look better bigger, I don’t like working on a large scale because I find it harder to get all proportion right and knowing where to put things.

Overall I didn’t really enjoy this project; I felt it was rushed, unorganised and I didn’t like the size of our sketchbook because there wasn’t enough room to be creative.

I don’t think I have managed my time management well as i still haven’t finished for deadline, I don’t know what I would do differently as there isn’t more time I could have worked. I would need to do more research.

I have evaluated my work on my blog and analysed everything. 

magna carta

Magna Carta

 Magna Carta was agreed by king john of England near Windsor on the 15^th of June 1215. It was first drafted by the archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between king john and the group of rebel barons. The chapters promised the protection of the church rights also the protection of the barons themselves from illegal imprisonment. The charter was annulled by the pope innocent II, leading to the first baron’s war. After johns death the regency government of his young son, henry the 3^rd reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content. At the end of the war 1217 it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth, where the document acquired the name magna carta, to distinguish it from the smaller charter of the forest which was issued the same time. Short of funds henry reissued the charter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes.  Edward I, repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as a part of England statue law.

artist research( Leonid Afremov)

For my artist research I have found an artist who isn’t that well know, I came across one of his paintings on the internet and I really liked it, so I searched the artist and that’s how I found Leonid Afremov. I really love his painting as they are filled with bright colour and joy, even if it is raining in some paintings it is still a happy joyful painting. Leonid is an optimist and you can see it in all of his paintings. Is talents achieved their heights when he moved to Israel in 1990 and the sun was filled with lots of colour, which made Leonid’s paintings bright and joyous. I really like how he uses oil paint and a palette knife to just smooth on the paint and then even it out and also he just blobs the paint on for a patchy effective look. It took him 10 years to learn how to master the palette knife as it is a hard thing to master. Before I watched any videos of Leonid and his actual technique with the palette knife I have developed my own style of painting from looking at his painting and trying to recreate them, only instead of a palette knife I use a paint brush, it’s a similar technique where I brush colour on side to side and for the patchy buts I just dab the canvas/ paper with my paint brush and get the same effect. I just love how effective his paintings are and how all the colours contrast and catch your eye. A good painting makes you feel happy.

Leonid’s talent for art was noticed from a young age so his parents encouraged him to develop his talent.  He had a hard time starting out as he didn’t have the freedom to paint what he wanted however in 2004 his friends told him about eBay and he started to sell his own work on there and had instant success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjjrPWHKEZ0

holocaust

we had a talk about the holocaust to learn about what happened and how unfair and trapped they were. they didn't have any freedom at all because they were discriminated against everything, their religion, race, gender, age, health, hair colour ect. we had to do an activity where we rolled news print on the table and had to draw our thoughts and things about the holocaust as a group, for my part I thought id take an abstract approach so i could just draw what i feel that they would feel, I tried to capture the fear and the skinny, skeleton, bony look as they were starved. I put more big eyes around it to represent them being watched and having no freedom. we had to use mixed media so I used pencil, this represents the simplicity and the dullness.                      

propaganda (civic)

we went to the church to have a look around at where our work will be exhibited and also to have a talk on the magna carta to understand more about it and where it came from, after that we went to the civic to look at the propaganda artwork. I found them inspiring because you can tell what they are about and you can see the message clearly without having to read anything, I like the bright colours of some but also the simplicity of others for example the water and oil one I thing the switch of writing is effective and shows the message clearly. this is important in propaganda.  

mind map

we got given our project title 'Freedom' so we mind maped all the different aspects of freedom we could think of to get our ideas flowing when we came to do our sketchbooks. our sketch books are 63 pages and is 10cm by 10cm this is to represent the magna carta. some of my ideas were freedom of the mind ect.

vintage evaluation

I chose to research the 6o’s era, I mainly wanted to explore the cartoon TV/ Disney in the 60’s but I also explored other elements of the 60s such as fashion, toys, music, food, important events, art etc.

For my research I used the internet to find out about what artists were in the 60s and also to find out about important dates, as well as the internet I enjoyed talking to my parents and grandparents about the 60’s as it’s fascinating to hear what it was like to live in them times. I liked to use Pinterest to find images related to my era. Towards the end of the project I found I enjoyed researching what cartoons, TV shows, Disney films were around in the 60s, you can tell this as I have developed pages related to certain cartoons/films.  I think that music was a big cultural influence in the way that people act and dress for example the Beatles had a massive impact, also the hippie movement is an influence in helping people to see life differently and more positively it also impacted the fashion as well. The main art movement was pop art, but I am not a big fan of pop art or Andy worhal so I decided it would be best to find other artist, another movement I found was minimal art, the two artist I researched in this category were Elsworth Kelly and Carl Andre, I find this art interesting in a way in which it questions the fact is it really art? I like the idea of simplicity but some of the artwork is too simple for example carl Andre’s space sculpture, is just a black stripe on the floor so that the audience can connect with the art and the art can share the same space as us, I believe this to be much too simple I believe that art should have more meaning to it and more effort put in. Elsworth Kelly’s painting are better than a simple stripe, he uses bold solid colours to create smooth surfaces. The other artists I have researched are Robert Indiana, Joe Tilson and Gene brown, out of them all I think that gene brown was my favourite and the most fun to do because I love the bright colours he uses in his paintings it really livens them up and makes you feel happy.  The main media I have worked with is acrylic and watercolour paints because I am most comfortable with a paint brush, I have used other medias and attempted to be creative in my work by adding cardboard cut outs and fabrics to pages, I also used actual make up on one page but it’s not that noticeable, I made tags and envelopes for my annotation to make it more interactive also I made something’s slide. I cut into pages and cut out paper to stick in, I used coloured pencils and markers, my biggest mistake was using fake blood for my horror page because I soon realised that it doesn’t dry, I tried to fix it by putting PVA glue over the top but it didn’t work for all of it and most of the page is stuck to the previous page, luckily I took a picture before the page got stuck. I seem to do nothing but work at home and I’m still catching up at the end, personally I don’t see what more I can do than work at home and come in on independent study days, so I think my time management is good I just need to work faster I believe this is something that will progress with practice and time.  I have put all my time and effort into this project, looking at other peoples I feel as though mine could be more creative and interactive but I am happy with my paintings. If I was to do this again I would try to think of my interactive way with the pages and I would try and use a wider range of medias as I think I have played it safe and stuck with what I know instead of experimenting. I would also go more in depth about important events.