Little lost gem

I found these images of a pewter skull on my phone earlier and had totally forgotten to post about it haha! So here is a Skull made from Pewter, I will also talk about the process of making this skull.

So to make this skull I had to get a small amount of wax and mold it into the shape I wanted, which in this instance was a skull. The amount of detail varied from person to person but I wanted to at least have the teeth and nasal cavity so I marked them in.

Once I was happy with how it looked I had to attach a leg to the bottom of the skull so the wax could stand in the Plaster and the was could run out when melted and the Pewter could be poured in to the cast.

I then had to make the plaster which was done in the following steps:

1. Pour two cups of water into a bowl
2. Add a starter amount of plaster (roughly a cup full)
3. Start mixing the solution, if you need to add more plaster do so until its consistency is that of double cream
4. Once ready pour it into the last
5. Knock the cast to remove air bubbles and leave to set.

Once this was done I had to wait for the wax to be melted from the cast, and once it had I then had to heat the pewter and pour it into the cast which due to the heat began to crack, so concerns were raised as to whether it would be successful.

Once it set I was free to break the cast with a hammer and chisel and the skull was done.

End of term

Okay everyone so, here it is finally the end of term! I didn't really have much of an idea of what to blog so I am going to be posting my latest work!

First up are my sculpture series 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'.

'Conquest' - Foam on Steel

'War' - Foam on Steel

'Famine' - Foam on Steel

'Death' - Foam on Steel covered in Wax

My next Final Piece - Something to think about

Okay, so I have finished the first part of my Traces project and have already undergone the second! Today I thought I would share some of the thoughts and processes behind my next piece.

So first of all I have decided to carry on with the mounted skull I made and blogged (the post was released on 10/10/13 go and check it out if you haven't already!!!) and have decided to create a small series of skulls with the same idea in mind.

Where did this idea come from?

This idea came from the thought that my mounted skull was the best piece I've ever created and that the idea as a whole could  be advanced so much further.

What will it be about?

This piece will again be carrying on with my thoughts of the imminent apocalypse (be it in my life time or in future generations) but I had done some research on the apocalypse such as ways it could happen, where it all began, where the term 'Apocalypse' derives from and the apocalypse in the bible.

What will make this piece different to the last?

Okay, so what will make this piece different and individual is the fact that it has a theme running through it. They will be named after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (a Biblical reference) who are for Horsemen named Conquest (Not to be mistaken for Pestilence, I will explain this later), War, Famine and Death and are to set a divine apocalypse upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment. They ride on White, Red, Black and Pale horses respectively.

How will each skull represent its respective persona?

The skull I have already made I have decided will be Famine. The reason for this being Famine is a widespread scarcity of food but I obviously can't mount it on nothing so I am using the rusted steel to represent Malnutrition, Starvation etc. as the steel that is rusted is obviously unkempt and has started to dissolve and rot like the body of an organism suffering from malnutrition.

I have also created War. When creating War I really wanted the piece to look emotional and so brought up all of the thoughts and ideas that make me angry and hateful and used them to destroy a piece of steel.  I feel that the look of the piece says what war is:

• War is Brutal
• War is Hate
• War is Greed
• War is Spite
• War is the killing of Man for unnecessary gain

I began to make the mount for Conquest yesterday also. Conquest is sometimes known as 'Pestilence' (like in the video game Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare and also Television show Supernatural), 'Strife' (In the video game Darksiders) or 'Victory' which is correct in some translations however his true name is Conquest. So it seems popular culture is trying to manipulate the names of the Horsemen for an easier was to present them. Conquest carries a bow and arrows that are lined with disease so this is where the name 'Pestilence' has come from and trying to find a way to present this on a mount was difficult, I began to think about germs and disease and how I could represent that. I think looked at Amoeba and germs in general under a microscope and thought of ways to recreate that so I decided to mark the steel with a spot-welder to represent bacteria and then later used two different blowtorches to burn the metal and created what looks like germs spreading across the mount.

I have yet to begin work on Death's mount but I want to make it very rigid and sharp and uncontrollable to represent the way death can come and kill you instantly, but I also want a black tar like substance on it that drips off to show it also comes slower and more painfully for others.

So there you have it! This is my thought stream and idea plan for my next final piece for Traces 2! Thanks for reading :)

Until next time!

Combining Traditional Mediums and Digital Media

Hey guys! So here I am again with a new post! However, this is a new (old) post... Let me explain!

So I was going through my blog posts and noticed I have barely experimented with Digital media, so I decided to take some of my favourite pieces and give them a digital element. My friend had been recommending I use the Photoshop 'Blur' tool, so here I have used the 'Blur' tool and recreated some of my images!

Blurred

Original

Blurred

Original

Blurred

Original

Blurred

Original

Vaseline and Graphite Dust Experiments

 So I was going through my pictures and I found this oldies that I did at the start of my project! I can't believe I forgot about these, I find them really interesting and visually stunning!

These are Graphite Dust and Vaseline finger drawings, the idea is to use both of these mediums to create and image and the possibilities of techniques and ways to manipulate them is endless! You could draw a picture of something in Vaseline then pour/sprinkle Graphite Dust on top of the Vaseline, or you could mix them up and draw with it etc. 

For the piece above I smudged Vaseline over my paper then added Graphite Dust mixed with White Spirit and painted it on. Then used my fingers to draw (a rather crude) looking skull. Then wanted to add texture to the piece by smudging and removing some of the area surrounding the skull, I did this with a dry paint brush.

For my next piece I got a blob of Vaseline and drew a circle, I the poured Graphite Dust on top of the Vaseline. I decided with this piece I was going to work the Vaseline/Graphite Dust into the skull, and the overall look is above!

This was the last Experiment I made. For this piece I dribbled White Spirit on to the tracing paper and let it run while I held it up. Then got Vaseline on my finger and drew a skull shape around the running Graphite. Once it had stabilized I held it up to the window to see the full effect and took this picture. The Graphite had stayed where I had poured it but the Spirits had bled around the page which gives it a contrasting look and the skull shape is barely visible giving the piece a more abstract edge to it!

Going Tribal/Childish!

Hey! So this week I had fun using my thumbs and fingers...

I did finger and thumb painting as a way to make marks and create a picture!

To create this I got an ink pen and covered my thumb with ink, and started to create the nose, from here I worked my way out and slowly started to add other marks by adding ink to different parts of my thumb/fingers like the nails and sides. This gave me a different a variety of marks to work with. I then started varying the different amounts of ink I put on and patterns of ink I created rather than just covering the entire thumb with ink.

Carbon Paper can be fun!

So here is a Carbon Paper study, I only did a series of quick sketches and this was my favorite.

This was one of the few works I have done in Carbon Paper because from prior use I found no being able to see what I was drawing annoying but I gave it a chance and experimented with it and this is my favourite outcome:

Experimental Mark Making

Hey! I'm back! So first session back this half-term we were put straight back to work with some experimental mark making tasks. The tasks are as follows:

1. Stick Drawing -  Attach a pencil (6B) to a Bamboo stick, stand back from your easel, and produce an observational study of an object using the stick (the idea was it gives you less control so you had to use marks to create the image)
2. Arms Length Drawing - Produce an observational study of an object at arms distance of your easel using a pencil (6B), this would give us more control than using a bamboo stick
3. Layered Drawing - First we used a 6B pencil on a bamboo stick, then go to arms length and use a 3B to get more detail, then stand half your arm length to add tone with a HB, then as close as I could to add little details with a 3H.

Here are my Results:

Layered Experiment

This experiment as you can see has the most detail. There is a lot more shade and curvature to the lines. It is quite 3D even on the picture, and you can see the constant build up of layers in the piece. Out of my 3 experiments this one is definitely my favourite just because it looks very real, 3D, the toning is well done and has great deal of control which I prefer in my drawings.

Bamboo Stick Experiment

Arms Length Experiment

This is my Bamboo Stick experiment. As you can see the are no straight lines, they are all jagged and rough with very few dark marks. This is because I could put no pressure down because of the length of the stick (it was about 3 foot long). I found this experiment interesting and fun because I had no control over the pencil and was really fighting to get the right marks.

And finally this is my arm length experiment. Because I was stuck at one distance even though it is neater than the Bamboo stick experiment, it still has less details because I had more control, in a sense I which it had more texture because the piece looks empty.

My first work in Oil Paints

 So here is my first serious attempt at working in Oil paints. I had no idea of how the piece would look as I made now pre-drawn lines to guide me so I had to build the images from looking at my images.

This is how my image looked when I thought it was done. I used the idea of Paul Cezzane's 'Pyramid of Skulls' to influence my painting and I feel I captured this well and was happy with the piece as it was, however my lecturer said I should work more of the background in and add more tones and shading to the skull.

So here is my final outcome for the piece. You can see more tone in the background as I added blue to harmonize with the yellows and browns and added some gray around the skull to represent the shade. For my first serious use of oils I am happy with the outcome!

Self Sculpture

So here is a piece I have been wanting to share with you guys for a while! It's a cast of myself in Mod-rock which is currently waiting to be fired so I can paint it and mount it.

Frontal View
(The neck got bent in the Mod-rock casting and the darker shades are where I had to fill in parts where the cast had broken)

View from the back
(Shows the support structure that prevented it from caving in)

I am happy with the overall shape of it and the creases in the clay gave me the idea of stitches and my traces piecing how I am together. So from an accident I gave new ideas I wouldn't have otherwise. I will continue my work with this piece by painting it white then painting black stitches in the clay creases. I will then draw small emblem's on the different blocks to show where I've come from and whta has made me, the person I am.

Forensic Photoshop

Okay so I decided to do some messing around on Photoshop to see what I could come up with! It took me a while to do but here you go, take a look!

I think this looks like a blood splatter under close-inspection at a crime scene, and you are looking through a microscope. This is the effect I was going for with the editing and I feel I achieve this well, considering it started off as a rubbing of a Ram's horn!

Here's how I did it:

So first I went to 'Adjustments' and selected 'Auto-Colour' which then altered the colours of the picture. I then used the 'Burn' tool to darken the picture, I then duplicated the Background so I had a back up of where I was in case I messed up!

I then went to 'Colour Balance' and made the shadows red (+100 on the scale). I then selected the 'Dodge' tool to highlight the red which gave it the fresh blood effect. I then added a new layer through the 'Layer' tab and selected 'New' which then added a new layer to my listing. With this layer I used the 'Elliptical' tool and drew a circle around the shape and selected the inverse which I then used the 'Fill' tool and made it black  to make a shadow around the shape. I then went to 'Filter' and used the 'Gaussian blur' to give it a softer shadow-y feel.

I wanted to make it more realistic however and went to the background and cut a circular shape from around the horn rubbing and filled it with black to give a lens/microscopic feel to it and then my work was done!

It is fun what you can do with a Graphite rubbing of a horn, Photoshop and a dark imagination!

Accidental Artwork!

Okay, I have surprised myself for once! I was on Photoshop and wanted to talk a picture off an upload and I clicked 'Select Inverse' then clicked fill and this is what happened!

I think although this was a complete accident, I really like this! It looks different and appealing to the eye! 

Another edit in Photoshop

Wind and Invert

Okay so, after doing my first 3 edit on Photoshop, I got bored so decided to continue messing around on Photoshop. I ended up creating this! To get this effect I went to 'Brightness/Contrast' and turned the brightness and contrast up, then inverted it through the adjustments tab, then decided to use the 'Stylize' section of the Filters, then this is how it turned out!

Portfolio Prep - Part #2

Okay so here is the next of my favourite pieces!

Untitled Piece

Okay so this is my most recent piece which I just finished and it is the piece I am most proud of. It is a skull made out of a melt-able plastic which I had to bend into the shape using a hot-air gun.

When I first started making this piece I was making a skull to mold half of it to my face as part of a sculpture, for my 'Traces' project, which I am looking at and analysing skulls. But as I started to look at what I'd created I began to think of death and the future of humanity. This then lead to me thinking about how the world will eventually end, be it through war or global warming etc. I realized with this piece that no matter what we do as humans, no matter how much fossil fuels we stop burning, the world is going to end whether or not we like it. So from that I began to think of the carnage that would be left, the wastelands of the traces we as a civilization would leave behind. I then decided to have the skull mounted on to a rusted piece of steel which I had scratched a skull into and smashed with a hammer to leave different types of marks to represent the end of the world.

 To the skull mold it into shape I put the plastic up against an actual skull and heat it, so it would melt and I could mold it to the shape of the skull. I then decided to add burns to the nasal passage and eye sockets to give it a more dark and worn effect. Once I had finished the aesthetics of the skull I began thinking of how I could mount it, so I found some rusted steel and some copper wires and spot-welded the wires to the steel and then used a hot-glue gun to attach the skull to the wires.

This is my favourite piece because not only did it take a lot of time and patience to make but it also has a lot of my heart and thoughts with it, I didn't just want it to look good, I wanted people to look at the piece and think about what it means to them, and the message I wanted to convey.

Portfolio Prep - Part #1

Okay so here goes the start of uploading my best works! For me it was hard choosing my favourites but I have finally chosen them! I will be uploading them in a series of posts!

Untitled Piece

This piece I did as a part of my Course project- 'Traces' (which I have spoken of in prior blog posts) is a rubbing of a Goat skull and Ram horns. To create it, I first got an A3 sheet of cartridge paper and began rubbing the skull, once I was happy that I had covered most of the area of the skull and got as many of the marks in as possible, I got a different horn from the selection (I picked the horn which had the most marks and texture, and also the largest) and then put the paper in the correct position and made sure to get as much texture as I could and once I had done both horns I fixed it so it wouldn't smudge. 

 The idea was given to me by my Lecturer and out of the many different rubbings I did this one stood out the most.  I feel the marks and texture work really well, and it looks dark and atmospheric. It looks like a Rorschach Test which I find interesting. It's one of my favourite pieces because it has a dark beauty, it's creepy and sinister, and the abstract look of the skull really adds to the overall look of the piece. I feel that this piece holds some of my thoughts in it also, I was having a bad day when I did it, and I feel it holds and represents the emotions that I was going through, which were anger, sadness and hate.

Editing on Computers - Photoshop

So for this lesson, we were set the task of using Abode Photoshop to edit one of our own pieces of work using the Curve, Filter, Invert and Hue/Saturation options. Here's what I came up with, and how you can do the same!

Curve

So, here's what I did with the Curve feature. I darkened the lines and lightened some of the tones, and as you can see it has given it a rougher and more textured tone. I got to the Curves feature by going to the 'Image' tab, then clicking 'Adjustments' then 'Curves'. I then just moved the line in to different places until I was happy.

Filter

This is the Filter outcome! It has a lot more depth, and more tone, it reminds me of graffiti also. I went to the 'Filter' tab, then selected 'Emboss' and I turned the slides to full, then changed the angle so the black shape was above the white.

Invert

And finally this is the Invert outcome! This gives it a darker and more atmospheric look in my opinion and prefer it to the original version! To get this effect (Invert of colours) go to the 'Image' tab, then 'Adjustments' and click 'Invert'.

When it came to me doing my 'Hue/Saturate' unfortunately Photoshop would allow me to use the feature as the picture was in black and white already. So if you wish to use that feature, make sure your image has some colour!

My Influences

John Romita Jr.

John Romita Jr. is a Penciller best known  for his works with MARVEL. I found out about- and became interested in his work after reading comic book series 'KICK-ASS' in which Romita Jr. had done the penciling and I just thought it was so untidy yet neat, so simple yet detailed and I have tried to capture that essence in my concept work. However, I will note that with the comic book series KICK-ASS I was also drawn by the overall style of the comics style.

 These are some examples of Romita Jr. pencilling on the KICK-ASS series. They are very detailed yet not having the full details.

Observational Sketch

Observing Skulls

For part of my primary research I decided I should look at skulls and how they are shaped differently for differently for different species. So I went to Exeter Museum to so some observational sketches of any skulls they had. Unfortunately they only had two different skulls which were a Tigers and a Siberian Dogs. I decided to draw them anyway, I did them both in HB Pencil and I did as much detail as I could and were proud of the outcomes.

What I learned from this exercise is that when I draw something from observation, I need to really focus on what I'm doing because it's easy to make mistakes.

Tiger Skull

Siberian Dog Skull

Finally some of my work! - Initial Sketches

Sketch Book Work

So here's my first personal piece of artwork!

At college my first brief was entitled 'Traces'. This we could interpret however we wanted, be it scars, forensics, maps etc. I decided I would work it in a more personal way looking at my traces, such as where I've been educated, where I've lived and my interests and hobbies.This is a quick sketch I did in designing my final piece for my college course. It is a self portrait on my self (it's not great but, it's good enough!) and a skull merged together. So here are a couple of basic and preliminary sketches.

Fine-liner sketch using different techniques

Pencil sketch using different types of techniques

For both sketches I used straight line techniques and continuous line techniques so that the two halves of the image would contrast the different representations of me. I prefer the skull on the fine-liner sketch as it has more tone and looks much darker and Gothic, and I prefer the actual face of the pencil sketch as I like the softer tones and lines. I think when I produce my final piece I will take both of these ideas into account to produce the best of my styles.

My Own Artwork

In the next few days I will be uploading some of my own artwork, designs, and doodles! If you could leave any feedback on them- positive or negative, it would be very help full!

Thanks, Ash

New Media Photography Artist

Ted Grudowski

Ted Grudowski is a 3D Photographer which works just like going to see a movie in a cinema; you need to wear a pair of 3D glasses to view the images in 3D. Although it isn't a picture that stands out on it's own (like 3D Printing) the concept of the style is well thought out. His photography is abstract and I believe to view them in 3D would make viewing them alot more enjoyable.

(Title Unknown) image taken from Grudowski's official page

More at: newmediaphoto.com/‎

Graphic New Media Artist

Henrik Sahlstrom

Henrik Sahlstrom is a graphic Designer/Concept Artist currently working with EA DICE. He designed the concept art for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and has previously worked with Starbreeze developing games like Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Syndicate along with others. He also freelances.

Comparison of the Brothers Concept art and in-game Art

More info at: http://henriksahlstrom.wordpress.com/

Fashion New Media Artist

Alexander McQueen

Alexander Mcqueen is a textiles artist/Fashion Designer. He was one of the first artists to stream a catwalk live on the internet. His fashion show- entitled Plato's Atlantis was working with pop artist Lady Gaga and on the night of the show she tweeted her new single 'Bad Romance' was going to be aired at the end of the show causing thousands of her fans to log on to Showstudio.com who were streaming the show which resulted in the site crashing. However, the live catwalk was ground breaking and hadn't been done before despite the crash. Nick Knight had also created a sci-fi film that provided the backdrop to the show. He also had mounted cameras which were also used as part of the show.

Screen Shot from Plato's Atlantis

More info at:

• http://www.elleuk.com/fashion/news/what-happened-to-mcqueen-s-live-stream#image=1
• http://www.designsoftheyear.com/2010/02/10/alexander-mcqueen-springsummer-2010-catwalk-presentation-plato%E2%80%99s-atlantis-uk/

New Media Fine Artist

G.H. Hovagimyan

G.H. Hovagimyan is an experimental cross media, new media and performance artist who lives and works in New York City. Once piece I found by him is called 'A Soapopera for iMacs' which is composed of 4 Apple iMacs placed in a furnished room like a family in a soap opera. At first I didn't quite know what to think but then I realized it was more of a humorous piece. The computers interact with each other and the people around them. The computers talk about food, sex, politics, cars and shopping and react to key words spoken by either person or other computers. However, words can be misunderstood and conversations can go in odd directions.

More information at:

• http://www.artelectronicmedia.com/artwork/a-soapopera-for-laptops-a-soapopera-for-imacs

A Soapopera for iMacs