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.