The Place in Question

Hermione Finch 2781

Location studies Unit 12 (Fine Art) a. recording of experiences or information to develop intentions

What approaches did you use to examine and record your location? Representing the space; details; light etc. How did you decide and which worked the best? Why?

b use of materials, processes and technology or a combination of materials, processes and technology to develop ideas

What did you learn through your initial enquiries? Experiments and techniques, use of an experimental process to generate new ideas, suitability of some rather than others?

The first step I took recording my location was to record and photograph it, as I wanted to have a good reference, so I could continue developing my work when I wasn’t at college. I made a short film using some of the footage and images that I collected, which is on my blog.

I also did a number of observational drawings of my location focusing on different elements it had to offer. At first I focused mainly on this one wall/building face which featured a bench, bin and pole. I found this section of the courtyard interesting as there was a variety of textures as well as great compositional features such as the paving stones ( acting as leading lines) which gave me a challenge of using perspective in some of my drawings, which I enjoyed. For these studies I used ink, pencil, charcoal and graphite. I found using these materials I wasn’t able to have as much detail as I wanted, however I was still happy with the results.

I then began to look at my location more broadly and started exploring the area. This is when I did a larger collection of studies, looking at the more natural elements of the courtyard aswll as combining both together. This is when I broadened my use of materials and began using water colour, acrylic paints and fine liners. I found that using these material I was able to capture a lot more detail, especially with my floral plant studies. This was also the stage where colour became are large part of my work, which in the later stages of my work I come back and refer to as inspiration.

These studies of my Location became a great foundation for my project as I gathered a large amount of information about my location. However after finishing this stage I was still left fairly uninspired and unsure of the direction I would go. However I still view this stage of my work as essential as later on in the project I returned to this work.

SketchUp and MovieMultimedia

b) Developing multimedia ideasby combining the use oftechnology processes.

I found using SketchUp fairly difficult to begin with but after some practise I managed to create a model. As my location included so many objects and was so large I found it difficult to decide what part/parts of it to feature. I did originally plan to make the whole wall/building face including the pole bin and bench, like my Maquette model, however I ending up just making the bench.

After I finished making the model, I played around with the software and found some interesting features, including shadows, changing the direction of light and viewpoints. Due to the benches shape I was able to create very interesting shadows. This was the stage when I became inspired and began the process of abstraction and gathering information from my SkecthUp piece by playing around with the software and collecting a huge variety of shadows.

My SketchUp began my main source of inspiration. I printed out many different angles of shadows of the model and used that in experimentation practises.

A short video of my SkecthUp Model can be found of my tumblr blog.

My Maquette model, which was the original design for my SketchUp model.

developmental /experimentation work -

Experimentation as been an large part of the development of this project. It has helped me gather ideas and progressed my work. This whole style and way of working is very different from the previous work I have done, so I have tried different ways of working to gain ideas. The source of my ideas came from my SketchUp piece, so I printed out a variety of angles/shadows and began to combine and remove shapes. This also lead me to play round with negative space. This whole stage of work really fuelled and became the backbone of this project and pushed my work forward.

Using historical and contemporary researchUnit 9Contextual References

a research into historical and contemporary work, showing understanding of the contexts which influenced the work .

What have you learned about the influences on other’s work?

B recording and presenting information explaining the use of visual language in others’ work. Where have you analysed examples? What did you learn?

c use of contextual references in own work How have you used references? What impact did they have on your ideas?

Illustrate (photo’s from sketchbook) and fully explain one example for each criteria. Explain how you have covered the criteria.

Unit 13 (Design)

a) Resolve the needs of the brief to develop intentionsHow did you develop the final brief? What client / end user is it for? Why?

What constraints and requirements did you consider?

What research did you undertake into your chosen area of creative enquiry?

b) Develop a range of ideas in response to the brief. How did you develop your ideas for the final outcome? What techniques did you use to generate ideas? What influenced you in doing this?

Developing your personal brief After making my 3D models I knew

that I wanted my final piece to be a sculpture. This lead me to look at sculpture based gallery's such as Pagolin gallery London. Until I remember I had previously visited Cass sculpture Park. I already had the idea of my sculpture being placed in an outside environment, linking back to the beginning and source of the project (courtyard) an outside space. So I thought Cass would be the perfect place as the majority of the sculptures are outside the building in the surrounding park. The Park features a large variety of sculptures linking to many different styles and eras, leaving me with a lot of artistic freedom and very little requirements for my piece to fit in with the Clients collection.

Here are some examples of Sculpture the Park has on display. Some pieces work with and other contrast the surrounding natural environment , showing the diversity of the sculptures.

Unit 11 Develop & Produce Own Ideas

a) Create and develop ideas in response to the brief.How did you interpret your brief? What different approaches to the same theme did you explore? What decisions did you make to refine your ideas?

b) Plan and produce finaloutcome using specialist working methods and processes.How did you decide on the final outcome? Why was this the best approach? How did you choose the techniques you’ve used? Did they work effectively?

Developing your personal brief • When I first looked at the brief I was fairly

uninspired but as I developed my work and experimented with different ideas I found myself interpreting and working in a very unfamiliar style. I never would have thought I would have been working in such an abstract way at the beginning of the project, however I am very happy with the way it has developed and come together.

• The main pieces of work I have done for final piece would be my 3D models. I did intend on developing another sculpture design. However I found myself getting stuck with the design structurally and preferred my previous work. I tried using different shapes that I had developed using the shadows I made while photographing my 3D models. I struggled most designing a final piece that would structurally be stable as a lot of my design where very flat and would fail to work in a 3D form.

• This was went I reflected on my previous 3D Model work and decided to do a large scale version instead. One thing that inspired me to do this was the visit to the ‘Cass Sculpture Park ‘last year. I remember seeing a small scale model of one of the main large sculptures at the park in a talk. Which made me think to myself, I already have 5 small models, why not make a large scale for my final piece. Not only did this solve my design problem , as I knew the pieces where structurally stable, but I would also help link my work together. I chose to make the smallest of my 3D models for my final piece, as it would be the simplest to recreate and wouldn’t be over complicated to measure and have the same scale.To see the making and final images of my 3D

Models – see blog and sketchbook

Applying Professional; practice in your work

Unit 10Professional Practicea investigate and analyse professional practice Where have you looked at the working methods and approaches of others in this project?

b apply and develop professional practice in own work How did you adopt an approach from researching the above? c investigate and apply health and safety and legal requirements.What health & safety risks have you avoided? How?

d appropriate standards of professional working approach How did you refine and present your work to a professional standard?

• a)

• b)

• c)

• d)

Illustrate (photo’s from sketchbook) and fully explain one example for each criteria. Explain how you have covered the criteria.

Unit 8Personal, Portfolio Development & Progression

a personal presentation and communication skills

b portfolio presentation techniques How have you presented your work?

Did you make particular use of photography or presentation boards?

How have you considered clarity of information in your sketchbooks and boards?

c identifying and pursuing progression goals What evidence do you have of research into progression? Photos of open days, website research? What have you learned so far?

• B)

• C)

Evaluation I feel that this project has been very successful. I have ran into some troubles with ideas and inspiration at the beginning of the project but as my ideas developed using SketchUp, I became much more confident in my work. I am especially proud that I was able to work well in a form of art I was very unfamiliar with at the beginning of the project, and I feel more confident broadening my artistic work and stretching out into wider styles. Other problems I ran into near the end of the project such as designing my final sculpture, I feel I overcame well, however I would have liked to of experiment and attempted for designs, before going back and doing a previous 3D model.