University Progression

I have now made a decision as to where I would like to study next year and yesterday I submitted my UCAS application. My final choices are; Chester University, Leeds college of Art, Nottingham Trent, Birmingham City and Norwich University of the Arts. I used all five of my choices on my application because I think it is important to have a solid back up. My digital portfolio is almost finished and I will be able to make this available online for people to view.

University Progression

Over the past few months I have been looking at and visiting universities in preparation for applying via UCAS this term.
I have visited the following:
University of Chester
Leeds college of art
Nottingham Trent
Staffordshire university

For each of these I need about 280 UCAS points which is the equivalent of DMM in my level 3 BTEC.
Currently this is my predicted grade based on the projects I have done over my first year. I would be happy to get these, however i would like to try and get a higher grade.

My favourite university so far is Chester, this is because of many reasons; I love the area, Chester is a small city full of character and individual businesses, they are also one of the safest cities in England. The Art and Design area in the university is on its own separate campus- The Kingsway Building.
The advantages of this is that it is very focused upon art and design and the facilities can be shared by various different courses. The facilities were great, they appeared to have plenty of equipment and resources and students seem to have utilised these facilities as you can see from the quality of work.
The building is only a short walk away from the main campus and the city centre which is ideal.

Leeds college of art also has its advantages with it specialising in art related subjects and great facilities throughout. It felt inspiring and quite small which is good because I think a large campus can be quite daunting.
Nottingham Trent was a another university I was looking forward to visit and when I arrived I found the open day incredibly organised including bags with student recipes, accommodation information and various other things about the university. I then went to a talk about their graphic design course where I was given a really helpful sheet that gave me information on what I need to put in my portfolio and the interview process. I think this will be helpful for any university that I apply to. When we went on a tour of the facilities they didn't appear to be quite so good as those I had seen at other universities and the large class sizes I found off putting.
When I went to Staffordshire university, again I found the facilities and resources were good and the staff seemed very passionate about their jobs. The studio was set out nicely and we were able to see some work from students.

I will certainly apply to all of these universities because I think they all bear good prospects for the future.

Personalised Cards

I went to the treacle market in Macclesfield a couple of weeks ago and while i was there i found a company which creates personalised name prints for children using a range of different themes. I took a business card from them and had a look at some of their products. It will soon be the birthday of my counsin's baby and so i was looking for something individual to get him, however instead of spending lots of money on something, i decided to have a go at designing something myself.

It needed to be something appropriate for a young child and so i decided to use a space theme because who wouldn't want to be an astronaut at the age of 1!

I looked at the characters in his name: SAM and thought about how i could incorporate the theme into it. 

I downloaded a good sans-serif font from Dafont and installed this onto my computer and opened it up on illustrator. I coloured the characters in a deep blue colour both fit for the space theme and for a boy and started to shape the A into a rocket, removing the counter and replacing it with a porthole. I also added an antenna to the top of the A and fire to the bottom.

I found the S and the M much harder to add to, however i decided to keep the A as the main character and simply add some hanging stars from the other two letters, i think it looks more symmetrical. 

I have some card blanks at home and so i have been playing around with my printing settings and have managed to do some test prints of the image which i'm pretty impressed with. I think it will make a lovely, personalised card for a birthday.

More sewing.

I am really starting to enjoy using the sewing machine now, I find it easy to thread and I have been looking into making different patterns.
I've found some really lovely places to buy fabric from in Chesterfield and Bakewell. The Fabric shop on Chatsworth Road has some really good value material and a wide range of different patterns and designs. 

I bought a small amount of material from a 'bargain box' just to play around with, but i have since used this to make four different objects on the sewing machine. 

I did have a few problems with the thread becoming stuck in the material and therefore jamming the machine and needle, but after sorting this out i managed to quickly start making again. 

Having not had much experience with a sewing machine before, i am pretty impressed with the results of my first few objects and have bought more material so i can hopefully work on some bigger projects and increase my knowledge of using a sewing machine. I think learning this skill is quite important, not to mention enjoyable!

Sewing!

Recently, I have seen a rise in shops selling fabrics and 'Vintage' styled products like cushions or phone cases. Having been pretty awful at using a sewing machine at school in the past, I had never thought about using one to make my own objects until recently when myself and my mum started buying little squares of fabric in an attempt to make something successfully.  We have two sewing machines at home, however they haven't been used in some years, so we took down both from the loft to see which would be better suited. The older sewing machine which was my grandad and grandmas actually worked better than the newer one. After some difficulty setting up and threading the sewing machine I finally managed to get the hang of it and as it turns out had more success with it than my mum.
I made a couple of small objects while still getting the hang of it, one of which was a scent bag that now hangs on a door in our living room but I also visited a fantastic fabric shop in chesterfield where I bought some scrap fabric for 50p in the hope of doing some more tests with the sewing machine. However, as the material was of a good quality and reasonable size, I thought about what else I could do with it. I had always liked the idea of making myself a case for my nexus tablet and so this is what I set out to do.
I already had the stuffing and the outer fabric but I wanted some for the lining- I found a white new bed sheet at a charity shop for about £2 which means I have plenty of fabric left over to use in later projects.
I layered my fabric, placing the flat stuffing between the two and began sewing from the inside out, once I had fully sewn it up, I snipped the inside corners down so that the outside corners could be pushed out fully and turned it around to the correct way. I was already really impressed with how it had turned out but I wanted to add something to it which would stop my tablet from falling out. I found some lovely ribbon I've had for a few years and a silver button which complimented it well. I hand sewed both of these on and It was done!
I am really impresses with how it has turned out, especially seeing as I haven't really made anything like it before, I will certainly be keeping up using the sewing machine!

Cards

A couple of years ago my media teacher introduced me to a gallery owner in Bakewell who was interested in a photographic calendar i had made for a project. He liked my photography, however he thought it could have a better potential on greetings cards and so i looked around and it took me awhile to make a decision on printing and choosing my photos. 

I contacted an artist who already exhibited in the gallery with his Photography work; Chris Gilbert at Ravenseye Gallery who I sent a few of my photos to. He gave me some advice on my photographs, helped me to choose the best ones and told me how much It would cost for him to print them. 

I firstly printed only a few to see how they sold at the gallery- I found that I only sold a few, however I managed to sell a lot at a festival I had helped to organise for a project I was currently doing. I then printed more cards but unfortunately this year the gallery I worked at and sold my cards at is no longer up and running. I think its such a shame that it can no longer run, but no one seems to be willing to spend their money on art anymore. 

Therefore, I now have my cards back all packaged up ready to be sold but no one to sell them too! I am currently looking around local galleries that may give my work a space, however it is difficult because there are a lot of different photographic cards around and very little room for more. 

If anyone could help me at all with this then I would be most greatful, especially if I would be able to print more cards and fresh designs. 

Mister Hope and The Green Man Gallery

I first met Mister Hope and saw his work at the Spring Gardens shopping centre in Buxton where he was holding a small exhibition. I was instantly drawn to his quirky illustrations which often use popular and well known characters from books and films. I have more recently seen his work in The Green Man Gallery based in Buxton, which is a large gallery space that allows local artists to exhibit their work, they currently have a few permanent artists but also take on guest artists. I love this gallery because it is so spacious and set out on different floors; not only are you free to wander around, you feel relaxed and able to appreciate the artwork. The Gallery is fairly new and was bought to life by a group of local artists who wanted to bring their artwork to the attention of the local people and subsequently were offered the current premises by Vision Buxton.

Mister Hope is one of the permanent artists at The Green Man Gallery and his work clearly stands out.
Taking inspiration from artists such as Quentin Blake and Tim Burton, Mister Hope has developed a unique style of his own- he often exaggerates a certain area of the character which makes the work so captivating and often humorous. He draws out the images and adds colour using watercolours if necessary, however he has recently started to do paintings using acrylics on canvas which has been as equally successful.

I really like this particular image because even though it looks basic and simplistic there is still an element of detail which he has focused on in the hair and you can without a doubt guess who the character is meant to be.

Mister Hope: http://misterhope.com/

The Green Man Gallery: http://thegreenmangallery.com/

Laura Vann Illustration

Laura Vann is an Illustrator and Graphic designer who after completing a masters degree in Visual Communication (Illustration) at the University of Derby, is a freelance designer specialising in children's picture book illustration. 

I really love Laura's illustrations; they are quirky and individual and i think her use of colour is really effective. 

Below are some of her illustrations found on her website here:

http://www.lauravannillustration.com/

Summer Bridging Days- Day 2

Today, we have had two visitors- Anthony Fern and Bew Knox both of which are designers at two different design agencies. Anthony is a previous student from Chesterfield college who studied both art and design and graphics and then left to go to university in (Epsom), he is now based at a large graphic design company around our area which specialises in the leisure industry and so he spends most of his time designing posters, flyers and other promotional material for bars, pubs etc. I think this is both a good thing and bad because although it may give you a good experience of designing for companies, it also doesn't give you a lot of good work for your portfolio which would mean designing outside of work, perhaps freelancing.
Bew seemed more experienced and had worked for longer in the industry than Anthony. I asked him if he thought it was better to be a designer in a big city or somewhere more rural, as coming from quite a rural location, I find the thought of moving into a big city quite daunting. He told me that working in both is great, however, you often find that working in a city at a larger company restricts your creativity in the sense that you are given a brief from a large company and you don't have much freedom to play around with the brand whereas more rural agencies may allow you to spend longer and be more creative with brands and companies. I think I prefer the idea of being able to have that freedom, but also I think it is important that you dont stray too far from the original brief.

Overall, i have really enjoy the past two days and i think they have been helpful as they have given me something to think about over the summer and i can hopefully start developing my portfolio and start thinking about where i'm going to go after my college course is finished. 

Summer Bridging Days- Day 1

Today, i have been thinking about my future and my progression after college, whether i go to university or into a design job.

The Lamp is something i think is very helpful to creative people- it enables you to see what opportunities there are available to you across the whole creative sector, for example if you were focusing on graphic design, there would be nothing to say you couldn't enter a photographic competition. It's about developing yourself as a creative person and increasing your design awareness. The Lamp provides a Facebook page, Twitter account, blog and newsletter, all giving updated information about creative opportunities, competitions, advice and support.

Other webistes i have joined are Behance, Ideas Tap and Linked In which will enable me to develop an online portfolio, look at creative opportunities and create a professional identity. I will hopefully be able to add to my Behance portfolio as i continue on the course into my second year and over the summer.

My Behance Portfolio: http://www.behance.net/hannahjward
Ideas Tap: http://www.ideastap.com/
Creative Choices: http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/
The Lamp: http://supportatthelamp.blogspot.co.uk/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/hannah-ward/77/147/193

Chesterfield College Fashion Show 2013

Yesterday, we went as a class to view this years fashion show in the heart space which had been built up to form a stage. I've never had a particular interest in fashion but I could easily appreciate the hard work and effort gone into making each garment.
I think all of the pieces shown really represented a good interpretation of the brief name or their own negotiated brief. One of my favourite sections of the fashion show was the 'living dolls' where all the garments had been created using paper, I think they designed some very interesting pieces and worked well with the materials.
The show looked professional In both the sense of the environment that had been made and the models themselves.
The only negative issue I could say about the show was that I left with rather a bad headache due to the music being so loud!

Monoprinting

Over the weekend I have done a series of monoprints for my chesterfield projects, mostly based around two photos in particular that I have taken of chesterfield; one of the church windows and the other of a building in the shambles. I chose these two because they have strong, clean lines which would make it easier to use for monoprinting.
I set up my printing area, using a sheet of acetate as my plate and rolling out a black water based ink onto it. I found it quite hard to get the thickness of the ink correct and so some of my images have appeared to be soaked in ink and don't show a clear image. However, after trial and error, I managed to the get the correct consistency and placed a sheet of paper onto the ink to remove any excess before printing.
I used brown paper and card to create my monoprints and a pencil to draw the design onto the paper. I also used the end of a paint brush to rub onto the paper in order to show the dark areas rather than simply the outline.

I am pleased with most of my mono prints, however, some didn't work as well because too much ink was applied which distorted the images slightly. I want to use these monoprints in my project as part of a collage or painted piece. 

Sister Corita

Corita Kent, more commonly known as Sister Corita, born in 1918 became known as an artist during the 60s and 70s with her colourful screen printed images.  As her name may suggest, Corita was a nun and her spirit and passion for hope and peace is portrayed through her work. She worked as a teacher of art in The Immaculate Heart College where she was really focused on her students rather than her own work. She was inspired by the media and advertising and she concentrated on type for a lot of her artistic career- she was able to adapt current typography and incorporate it into her work in order to form a completely new meaning or message. She combined materials such as logos from bags, magazine covers and bread wrappers alongside type to redefine the purpose of the object. She would often include poetry, slogans and catchphrases as her type which, combined with other things, I think allowed her to grasp a wider audience because a slogan is often something which is known by many people. By taking a known piece of text, you are able to relate to the audience and manipulate the way in which something is taken- how it is expressed. I love this about Corita’s work because she has been able to give new meanings and life to contemporary sayings or logos.

The process of silk screen printing, or Serigraphs is where ink is applied using a mesh and an ink blocking stencil which will reveal the image. It is quite a simple process, but can look really effective as it does in Corita’s work. I enjoy the bright colours of her art work because I think it expresses her passion for a bright future and is fitting for the time period, she was a pioneer for pop art.

One of her most her famous pieces was a love stamp she designed in 1985 for the US postal service which shows a rainbow of colours, more than 700 million stamps were sold.

Her style of type is very unusual; each character is individual and it looks as though it has a taken a fair amount of time in order to perfect the process.

You can see links with the work I have been doing with polyfusion, however I could take it a step further and incorporate the type from the bags and think about my composition in order to form an effective image.  

Sources

https://www.corita.org/coritadb/index.php?id=5&option=com_content&task=view

http://www.nowness.com/day/2010/6/5/685/breaking-a-habit--sister-corita

http://www.eusa.org/exhibit/SisterCorita

http://www.zachfeuer.com/artists/sister-corita/

http://lisacongdon.com/blog/2013/02/sister-corita-kents-art-department-rules/

Digital drawings.

The following are some digital drawings i have done of Chesterfield.

This was based around a building in chesterfield using a Graphics tablet and brushes in Photoshop, i added an opacity jitter and size jitter to the brush in order to give the shape some irregularity. 

Another graphics tablet drawing i have done of a gravestone in the churchyard again using Photoshop brushes with an opacity and size jitter. 

This final image was drawn using a tablet on an app called SketchbookX which i found really easy to use because it has a few different brushes, it allows you to change the opacity radius of the brush and you can have separate layers. I did struggle slightly without the use of a stylus but i still enjoyed using my tablet to create drawings as it hadn't been something id thought of before.

Sharrow Vale Market

Sharrow Vale Market is an event which happens a few times a year; a large amount of stalls line Sharrow Vale road in Sheffield with a range of different things on offer, such as art and crafts, handmade gifts, antiques, food and music.
I have been a few times before in previous years and I have always enjoyed it. I find it has a very friendly atmosphere and there is plenty to see and buy.

Alongside the market, various shops down the road open their doors and hold special events for the day. One in particular was called The Vintage Tableware Company which was a small building behind a large antiques centre. It didn't look like there was much inside at first until you went through; there were two rooms opposite each other. One contained The Vintage Tableware Company which has beautiful crockery and other 'vintage' tableware.

In the other room, there were two artists displaying their work, one focused upon lino prints and another concentrating on digital designs of buildings and cityscapes.

Jonathan Wilkinson is one of these artists- on his business card it says 'Jonathan Wilkinson is an artist and designer whose prints and products celebrate the buildings and sciences that define where we live'. His artwork is very modern and often portrays urban cityscapes and buildings. Jonathan grew up in Nottingham, however he studied painting and printmaking at Sheffield Hallam University and so therefore a lot of his prints are based around Sheffield.
I love his use of vectors and flat colours to build up an image; they look just as effective as a photograph or painting. Also, I think creating them as vectors portrays their modern and urban feel.

The other artist was James Green who is a printmaker that specialises in the use of lino printing. He likes to user simple graphics in order to compose his art and I really like his style. I find he uses suitable colours for each piece; they compliment each other really well.
There is no particular theme to his work concerning his subject matter, however I have seen that he often uses animals and buildings. One series of prints he did was based around areas of Sheffield- he finds Sheffield a very Inspiring place in the sense that there is a mixture of old and modern architecture, industrial and urban areas.
I feel quite inspired by James's prints; lino printing is something which I share an interest in and I would like to explore it further.

Storm Thorgerson

Storm Thorgerson, a graphic designer famous for album covers for bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Muse. Unfortunately, this week Thorgerson passed away after suffering from cancer but his work can still be treasured and I'm sure it will be remembered for many years to come.
One of Thorgerson's most famous pieces of album artwork was for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon which features a prism spreading a spectrum of colour across the cover.

Another famous cover he designed for Pink Floyd was one featuring 700 hospital beds which were dragged down to a beach in Devon. Thorgerson liked the photographs rather than illustrations and as this was before the time of Photoshop, it had to become the hard way. The result is a very realistic and believable looking image.

Thorgerson will be missed, however he will still live on in his artwork and continue to inspire.

Storm Thorgerson 1944- 2013

Life drawing 12/3/13

This week we have been life drawing again, this time using a male life model. We did two ten minute and two fifteen minute drawings during which I tried to focus on certain aspects of the model’s body. I used charcoal for three drawings and pencil for my last, more detailed drawing of John’s head, neck and chest.

This is my first 10 minute drawing in my sketchbook. I found it hard to get the proportions right on this and the shoulders seem too wide, however i am still happy with this first attempt.

In comparison to the female model, I found John harder to draw because he is quite square shaped; I find it easier to draw curves. On the other hand, I think John has more visible muscles which allow more tone and detail to be added to the drawing. I didn’t find life drawing as easy this week because I was unable to get the shapes and proportions correct.

This is the second ten minute drawing i did on brown paper using charcoal. I was pleased with the results because i managed to get the proportions slightly better than the previous drawing.

On my first fifteen minute drawing i did i concentrated on just the face, however i found this quite hard because i didnt get the proportion of his face to his hand correct and so the hand looks somewhat distorted and out of place.

My final drawing was done in pencil on brown paper over a time of fifteen minutes. I found that i could apply much more detail with the pencil rather than charcoal and therefore i prefer this drawing to my other three.  

A Brush With Spring

Over the weekend, i visited A Brush with Spring which is a small exhibition of artwork held by Whitepeaks Fine Art at Peak Village. There was a mixture of different styles of work from figurative to very realistic looking wildlife paintings. Some of the artists which exhibited such as Gina Marsh and Louise Jannetta i had seen before after working part time in a gallery last year, however there were artists such as Keith Maiden (a figurative artist) and Eric Wilson (a wildlife artist) who i had never seen before but found equally as inspiring.

Keith Maiden

Eric Wilson

Colin Halliday

Life drawing continued

Today, we have begun to do full body life drawing from a nude model. We used easels and A1 sized pieces of paper; newsprint and brown paper and drew using pencil and charcoal. The first two sections were 15 minute time slots where i used pencil to draw on newsprint paper, i found it challenging to fit the full figure on my page and i wasn't able to get the proportions correct. During the second 15 minute time slot, we were told to use charcoal and used an outstretched arm and a pencil to find the size of the head and how many heads make up the body. I drew on a line at the top, a line at the bottom and a line down the middle to help guide the proportions. I found using the charcoal made the drawing look much more effective as the lines could be freer which is helpful when sketching out shapes. The second drawing was a little more successful, however i found myself running out of space for the feet even though i had put down lines to guide me.

After doing some research into Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man'  i found how important it was to split the page into sections to achieve the correct proportions. Using this, i split the page into 6 and a half sections (the heads) and measured where areas of the figure should lie. I found this very useful as it enabled me to get the head in proportion with the legs and feet which i had previously struggled with.  The next few drawings were done in charcoal over 20 minute, and two 10 minute time periods. I began to overlap drawings as the model turned after 10 minutes;  this would be a helpful skill for concept art designers who would need to create quick, accurate sketches.

For the last three drawings i had 5 minutes for each, after which the model would turn. I found these drawings the hardest because they were so quick, i think it was hard to capture the figure accurately. The proportions were rushed but these were the only drawings where i could fit the feet on.

Life drawing and Finger painting

Today, we have been creating finger painting images using inspiration taken from the work of Jenny Saville. We began by finding images by Saville that we thought were interesting and had a good use of colour; i found an portrait of a man where Saville had used a lot of green and yellow colours to create the skin. I liked this image in particular because the use of colour was both effective and appealing.

We used our life model, John, to begin our images. I began by drawing a central line down the middle and a line to signify the top of John's head, i then sketched in the basic shape of the face and finally some of his facial features. The drawing did not need to be detailed as it would be covered by the paint. I then added a base colour of white covering the area of the face and began to add shades of green and yellow to create a similar skin tone from Jenny Saville's image  This was quite successful, however i found it more effective to use strokes rather then dabbing the paint with my finger. 
I enjoyed finger painting; i think it allows you to be freer with the paint and doesn't give you boundaries to stick within. I found it enjoyable and appealing to mix the colours on the page, adding white to blend the colours better.

Life Drawing continued.

Today we have been doing more life drawing, this time using a male model. We spent 20 minutes on each drawing using different materials such as ink, charcoal and chalk.
The following are images of my drawings.

Jenny Saville.

Jenny Saville, born in 1970, is a modern artist who enjoys working on a large scale, usually basing her works on naked women. After exhibiting in the Saatchi Gallery in London, Saville gained much more publicity for her paintings and has since exhibited worldwide. I like Saville's style; i think she has an interesting approach of representing the human form and her work contains a great amount of depth and texture which makes them much more effective and realistic looking.

Life Drawing

Today, i have done some life drawing. The subject for my drawings was hands and feet. Here are some images showing the work i have done.