FMP

So it's been a while since my last post and I have completed my FMPM and basically finished my course!

I thought I would give you a quick run-down of my FMP.

So it started out as a theme of Gothic Horror Stories like The Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula and Frankenstein. However generating ideas for this theme became a struggle trying to do something original and fresh and eventually I changed the subject due to one artists inspiration.

Enter H.R. Giger.

I loved his erotic, shocking pieces but also his conceptual work on the Alien Xenomorph from the Alien film franchise. I wants to shock people again, to have people question themselves and their choices.

Slowly from the alien idea I moved back into skulls and mortality of the human condition. How everyone will die, and you can't stop it, just hide it away or accept it.

And so here is the final piece.

The piece is a wooden carving/painting. It was created from carving out the image of a skull on to heavy duty wood, which was then painted with oil paints (some mixed with turps) and then coated in black wax. I then went over again with the paint and let it set.

Interview Day!

So today I have the interview for my Foundation Studies in Art and Design application.

In preparation for it I will be going to a exhibition and just taking mental notes of some of the work I see there, re-reading the course overview, having questions ready to be answered.

Wish me luck!!!

Differences between file types

Here is a small introduction to the different file extension, what a file extension is, how to recognise different file extension, the differences between them!

Here is a small list of various extensions:

• PSD
• JPG
• Tiff
• PNG
• Gif

A file extension is a way of labelling the names of files so you and your computer can know what they contain and what type of program created the file and what program to use to open it.

PSD: A .psd extension is a layered image file used in Adobe Photoshop. It stands for Photoshop Document and it is the primary document save file in the program. It allows users to interact with the images layers after it has been saved. If it is saved as a different document however it cannot be converted back to a .psd for the user to work with the individual layers.

JPG: A .jpg extension is a standardised image compression mechanism which allows the user to save a large image to about 5% of the images actual memory size but at the price of loosing some clarity/information. It works well with photographs, naturalistic artwork and similiar material but not as well on lettering, simple cartoons or black-and-white line drawing. However all file extensions for images loose some information, a .jpg retains a considerable amount more than a .gif but doesn't support motion (however an .mpeg would).

Tiff: The .tiff extenssion is a bitmap graphic file format, it was developed in 1987. It is an old format that makes it possible to store large file types losing quality despite the platforms or peripherals used. It also allows images to be stored in black and white, true colours as well as indexed images, using a 'palette'.

PNG: The png. extension was created by a group of people after the .gif format was patented making people have to pay a license fee for its use. It is superior to the .gif as it supports millions of colours and better file compression. It doesn't support animation but an .mng extension does.

GIF: The .gif extension was created in 1987 by request of Compuserve who wanted a platform independant image format that was able for transfer across slow connection. It is an 8 bit format which means it can only hold 256 colours due to the format. There are two standards labelled 87a and 89a (after the year each was created). The 89a format allows for greater interlacing, to define one colour to be transparent and the ability to store multiple images in one file to created a basic form of animation. 

New Brief intro and my ideas!

Hey guys I know it's been a while since I did anything regarding a brief but here is the outline of my brief!

This brief is all about doing our own thing, deciding a theme and taking it in which ever direction we feel, so I chose Collections, this already made me think 'Museums' which I could then related to bones/skeletons which I could loop back to my last project. But I wanted to evolve, to play a new ball game!

So I thought more about skeletons in museums and thought about excavation/Archaeology. So this is currently the direction of my project!

Here are some quick experiments I have done of excavation, I took Plaster-of-Paris and poured it on some dirt, once it set I pulled it out and the dirt/rocks/twigs etc was stuck to the bottom, I quickly made a skull and tried out a few small experiments! They are below, let me know what you think and have fun!

Mock Interview - How I felt it went

So today I had to do a Mock Interview as part of my course but also for preparation of my actual interview.

So here is how I felt it went!

• I turned up 5 minutes early which is a good start, and shows I am good at time-keeping and am punctual.
• When my interviewer came to greet me, I smiled, was social and polite which shows I'm happy and enthusiastic.
• When I was led into the interviewing room, I was polite, waited for my interviewer to offer me a seat and sat up straight and kept eye contact.
• At first I was a bit stutter-y but I quickly realized and turn my confidence on and was fine with answering questions without feeling stuck on my answer.
• She asked me about wanting to do a Tattoo Apprenticeship and I answered her honestly saying I did but right now I don't have the time to do it but I have found a Tattoo Studio willing to let me get work experience and planned to take the offer up in the Summer.
• She then asked me about influential artists and so I answered her with an artist I enjoy his work which was London landscapes done in Black Shellac and Resin which is painted quite loosely and left to drip and run down the canvas which gives it a dark, creepy, 'Jack the Ripper/1800's' atomosphere to the piece.
• She asked me to show her my 'Strongest' piece so I picked my 'Famine' skull from my Four Horse series, I explained to her what it was made of, how I got the idea, how I felt making it, the technique and tried to cover all aspects of the piece.
• She then asked me what one piece would I do better on if I had the chance, so I told her about my sculpture and how I would like to have mounted it differently looking back at the project.
• She finally asked if I had any questions so I asked what she did after standard education and she mentioned University so I asked if it was worth it in the modern age and with our current economic climate and she said definitely as you develop your techniques, meet like-minded people, get contacts etc.

My dress-code could probably have been better but due to personal reasons I have been unable to get access to my wardrobe (it sucks!) so I turned up in a leather jacket, leather jeans and cowboy boots however I look at it as showing who I really am.

So after all of it I feel I did pretty well and I will get feedback soon!

What is a PDF file, and what does it do?

Hey so my task in class was to find out what a PDF file was so I decided to go to the Adobe site and take a look and here is just a brief overview from what I read on the site :)

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a standard in electrical document exchange. When you convert documents, graphics, forms, and webpages to a PDF file, they look how they would if printed but PDF has clickable links and buttons, forms fields, videos and audio, as well as logic to help automate routine business processes.

Hey everyone!

So I have finally got an online portfolio going on Carbonmade! Heaad on over there and check it out, let me know what I could do better!

Link: http://ashleyhollingsworth.carbonmade.com/