Task 1 - Mark Making

In this task I am going to showcase the different mark making techniques I have created.

Pencil

Using  two different types of pencils (HB and 6B sized pencils) I created three different types of mark making skills to get used to using the techniques for upcoming projects. I also used two different pencils so I could compare the marks that were created and see how I could utilise both sizes of pencils in the future.

As you can see below the top half I used for HB and the bottom half I used with the 6B, the HB pencil made has a sharper shade and looks like a more detailed pencil to use especially for smaller marking. The pencil also felt lighter as I shaded or cross hatched. As for the 6B pencil is visually more scruffy, the graphite spreads out and covers more area making for small details hard to draw. It also feels more heavy and gives a darker shade then the HB pencil making it more useful for open scenes with a dark visual.

Pen

I used the same methods as I had done with the pen but used a different material to create my markings, this time I decided to use a fine line pen, the markings for cross hatching are quite thin and allow for a more detailed look to them. They can also range greatly from looking faint to bold depending on the pressure and amount of marking you use with the pen. Stippling was a lot cleaner then the pencil as the the tip wouldn't break off with tiny pieces of graphite that make the dots less round, instead I got cleaner dots. The majority of them are faint as the amount of pressure applied doesn't change the shade of the dots. Finally, for the shading I used my pen to scribble on the page and then used a paint brush and water to spread the ink out, this gave it a misty visual and showed a clean pattern of dark to light.

Toothpick and black ink

For the final methods I used a toothpick and black ink, this method was gave the most detail as the tip of the toothpick was sharp and didn't erode away. As you can see it give sharp, dark lines for cross hatching that look quite scratchy. The shading of the lines could only look different depending on how much ink and lines you placed in the close vicinity of a certain area. The dots were also more detailed and could change size from each press of the pick, this is due to the fact that every press would lose ink making the next press lighter in size allowing for an even shade to happen. Finally, I experimented to see how smooth the toothpick could move along paper and found that it made a calm wavy effect.

Out of all the methods and materials we used I found the toothpick and black ink to be my favourite tools to use as they make the designs look more detailed and professional in my opinion. You can also experiment a lot more due to the way the ink rubs away from the toothpick as it is a continuous source to use.

Title

The next task we tried involved experimenting with many different type of materials and methods, as you can see below are two A3 sheets of paper with 12 different designs placed onto them. This exercise was to see what designs could be created so I could reference them for future projects and combine them together to create pieces of art.

To create this first design I used tissue paper and glued it onto the A3 sheet, once stuck down I scrunched the paper up using my fingers and waited for the glue to dry. Once dried I got some red acrylic paint and mixed it with water so it was quite diluted and spread it onto the paper, it left me with this design. To me the design resembles different visuals, one material it reminds me of is a cave found in the desert with a red outlining, the other material is human based and reminds me of veins with red blood cells.

This second design used a white oil pastel and two acrylic paints, to start the design I drew lines using the white oil pastel. I then got two paints and spread them over the left side of the page, once enough paint had been placed I wet my paint brush and started to spread the paint over the oil pastel so that the colours could blend and the oil pastel wouldn't become engulfed by too much paint.

For this design I decided to use a sponge, some glue, a brush and acrylic paint. Firstly, I got the sponge and dipped it in glue which I dotted over the paper, once finished and dried in most places I proceeded to spread diluted acrylic paint over the glue which ended up with this design outcome.

For this design I decided to use acrylic paint and tissue, I scrunched up the tissue and dabbed it in the orange paint, I then dabbed the paper onto the A3 sheet and got a dried blood looking design, I then decided to see how well the colours would look if I dabbed green paint over the orange paint to see what I could create, the colours merged but not too much as the paint dried quite fast using this method. This was the design outcome.

For this design I decided to use acrylic paint and sponge, I dabbed the sponge in red and yellow paint and painted either side with the colours, next I started to paint over each colour and tried combing the colours on the page, In the end it gave me a sandy aesthetic visual.

For this method I used a paint roller and acrylic paint, I started the design by combing blue and yellow to get a dark green visual, I covered the roller in the paint and began rolling it onto the A3 sheet. Finally, I got some polluted paint water and tried to brush over the paint to see what design could come from doing so. I came out with this design.

For this design I used glue, a sponge, a brush and acrylic paint. I began by making this sickly brown colour from mixing paint, I then spread it over the page and whilst it was wet used the sponge (dabbed in glue) and dabbed it over the paint. The design I was left with was a shiny material with stippled like dots left over the paint.

For this method I used a glue stick and acrylic paint. Firstly, I made a golden yellow colour, then I proceeded to use a glue stick to spread the paint down the A3 sheet of paper. From this I can see a wooden fence type of material that has been created, I can also see a play-doh or plastic type material that has formed out of this design.

For this design I used bubble wrap and acrylic paint. Firstly, I made three different shade of blue using white paint, blue paint and black paint (there was already some green and yellow paint with the blue paint as well.) I then covered the bubble wrap in each paint starting from lightest and dabbed each one onto the sheet going from left to right, in the end I came out with a watery type effect I could use for later projects.

For this design I used a brush, acrylic paint and tissue paper. Firstly, I created yellow paint, then I used a paint brush to spread the paint onto the A3 sheet of paper. Before letting it dry I got some tissue paper and dragged it over my paint rubbing the paint away in certain areas. This left me with a sandpaper type material.

For this design I used a brush, paint and water. Firstly, I used a wet paint brush to spread water over the page of the sheet, I then dipped my brush in different colours where I would stipple them about over the water. I finally got a damp brush and spread the paint together in certain areas of the sheet, this was the design outcome.

For this design I used a brush, acrylic paint, water and tissue paper. I started by mixing colours to created a light blue, my next step was to place the tissue paper over the sheet (not to glue it down but have it as a top layer) and spread watered down paint over the top of the tissue. This would allow the paint to seep through the paper and onto the page. This was the design outcome.

Title

For this exercise I had to use the method of rubbing water onto the page and placing a layer of oil paint over the top. The first method had me using the primary colours to fully paint over the water leaving no faint marks. The second method was to wet the paper again but this time wet a top line of paint and then use a damp brush to spread the paint down so it gave a faded effect. The final method we used was a blending method, I wet the paper again but did the full column instead of just an increment. I placed the paint in each area but blended the colours together to get a faded effect of one colour to the next.

For this exercise I had to use the cross hatching technique but using brown and green oil colours on an A4 sheet of paper.

Oil pastels and chalk

This is an experimental piece of paper with oil pastels, I wanted to see what kind of techniques and designs I could come up with using oil pastels and water colours.

These are more refined techniques that are supposed to reflect what I can do with oil pastels but on a much larger scale.

These are experimental drawings of me using chalk to see what techniques I could come up with.

This is showing a much larger scale and refined techniques to show what I can do with chalk.

Task 2 - Environments

Exterior and interior designs

An add on from the last exercises on task 1 was to create exterior and an interior design. This first sheet shows the exterior designs which stem from the blending exercise. As you can see the first design gives a beach environment with an evening type sunset, I used some of the cross hatching design to place broken, run down fence pickets on the beach. As for the right design I created a sand dune as the beach during the day time. As you can see the foreground shows a more dirty and grassy environment that leads onto the beach and eventually ends with the ocean.

This design shows the interior of a house, I used the cross hatching paper as the walls of the house and used the red from the blended exercise to create a floor. I then used a pencil to add a more detailed design with the walls being made of wood and the floor being made of carpet.

Task 3 - Combining Media & Media Materials

Title

For this exercise I had to collect pictures of an exterior or interior design either from a video game or real life. I chose to use the former and got my inspiration for an underwater scene from the video game Rayman origins. As you can see each picture showcases a different design I can use or implement into my own art project.

Below is a plan of the exterior environment I will attempt to create. It has a drawing of the setting I want with annotations of what the objects and creatures are and underneath features the different methods I could use to achieve the visual design I have drawn.

Main project

This is my project in the making, due to technical issues I lost the footage of my previous pictures but was able to salvage these two which show how I progressed though the project.

To get upto the stage below I had to use the previous techniques I had learned from my previous task and experiment a little to get to the stage that I thought made the picture look as good as it could get. To get to this point I had to use this equipment:

• Paint brush
• Acrylic paint
• Tissue paper
• Cartridge paper
• Ear buds
• Water
• Sponge
• Scissors
• Glue/glue stick
• Toothpick

My first step I created a turquoise type colour to try and match the bright colours on the inspirational environments, I then got some tissue paper and placed it over the normal sheet of paper where I painted wet acrylic paint over the top of the tissue paper so it would seep through and create a watery type effect.

Next I set about making the rocks at the top so I created a darker colour blue so they looked like they were submerged underwater, then I proceeded to paint onto a sheet of cartridge paper and waited for it to dry. Using a sponge I got some black acrylic paint and dotted it on top of the rocks so it has an eroded effect. I painted a black strip over the top of the rocks to show an underwater type cave.

Next I wanted to create a murky seaweed that would be hanging from the rocks above and so first tried a scratching technique by using the edge of a paintbrush and scratching into the paint, however, it didn't look correct or give the effect I wanted so I got some more tissue paper, a sheet of paper and glue and stuck the tissue paper down onto the sheet and proceeded to scrunch it up. As I wanted the seaweed to give a flowing type of effect I didn't wait for it to fully dry and instead proceeded to paint the tissue paper a murky green and ripped the pieces from the paper. Since they were still wet from the glue I could tear the paper apart and generated a seaweed effect so stuck them down underneath the rocks.

Next I got an ear bud and white acrylic paint and began to create the anemone's at the bottom of the page, I would dot the paint onto the page in a stipling type of technique, once happy I waited for them to dry and used a paint and paintbrush to make the more longer and bigger anemone's. Finally I used the ear buds to dot yellow paint onto the page to show an underwater light source, once they dried I got water and spread it out so the paint from the yellow and blue would combine.

For my last technique I used another sheet of cartridge paper and painted it blue and cut out multiple shapes with a round surface for the rocks at the bottom. 

After that I got feedback from my teacher and peers who stated the image looked too flat with the anemone's compared to the rocks and so I created seaweed and different coloured anemone's to add to the 3D effect it gave. I also used the ear buds to make the bigger anemone's look more detailed instead of how they looked previously.

Finished product

To finish off the product I got a toothpick and some black paint and painted around the rock's edges so that it gave a shadow of sorts, it was too add a more 3D effect which I believe it does. I also think it makes the rocks and entire picture stand out more.

Task 4 - Evaluation

Task 1

Task 1 was more of an experimental task, to get use to using different equipment and techniques I had to experiment with different materials and arts. I had a lot of fun on this task as it allowed me to be creative and free with the experimenting I could do, I also learned a few techniques from my teacher and myself which I can use and have used for future projects. My favourite part of it was using paint and materials such as bubble wrap to create a pattern as it made art I thought looked of good quality and could use again.

Task 2

Task 2 was probably my least favourite task, I had to use some paintings I had made to make two exterior and interior designs. The part I didn't like was the limitedness we had to the materials and creation of the work, because of the colours we had to use it made it so there was not many designs you could make which left me feeling less creative. I also started to try and over complicate the designs and it left me with less quality work than what I could have if I hadn't.

Task 3

Task 3 is the work I am most proud of, using the techniques we had learned from the first task we had to create an image using inspiration from a chosen environment (whether that be from a video game or real life.) I had a lot of fun making my art piece as I enjoyed experimenting with paint and other materials again, I am very proud of the outcome of this project and would not try to add or change anything to the project.

Overall

Overall I am quite proud and happy with the work I am doing in class and the art I am creating, it has been a fun experience thus far and I am looking forward to creating more projects in the future especially when it comes to using paint and everyday materials I can find.