Lesson Tomorrow

Hi All,

          Both Sophie and I will take your lesson tomorrow to allow us to see as many of you as possible 1:1. Please make sure you have sketchbooks with you. We will meet upstairs in room 861 at 10.25am, see you there.

Ivan

Study Leave & Half term break:   25 May - 22 June 

(3 weeks plus 1 week of half term)

Please note lessons are still running Wednesdays when Sophie will be checking your work and carrying on with practical tasks. 

ATTENDANCE FOR THESE LESSONS IS COMPULSORY:

Wednesday 30 May 10.25-12.40

Half term week

Wednesday 13 June 10.25-12.40

Wednesday 20 June 10.25-12.40

On your return on 22nd June sketchbooks will be marked.   You will be assessed at this time to see if you have enough work to pass this stage to date on this project. 

Forgetting your book is an automatic referral!  Be prepared to discuss and have the following in your sketchbooks. 

LEAFLET RESEARCH TO DO

·         Over this period you will also research 3 contemporary, well designed leaflets.  Photograph or stick in, or print off examples of creative leaflets you can find.  Look in the student union, music shops, fashion shops, etc.  Annotate and answer the following:

• How does information flow from one panel to the next?
• How is colour, text and image unified?  Comment on the layout
• Is there a regular position/scale/ for the text on the page?
• How is the type face integrated or contrasted with the other imagery?
• How is the front and back cover effective?
• How many images are used?
• What messages are clear here and how have they been cleverly put together?

ARTIST RESEARCH TO DO

1.      Look at one artist or designer from each list (see below).  Collect information on each and analyse their work.  Answer the following questions:

2.      How have they composed their imagery?

3.      What media have they used?

4.      What processes and techniques have been included and what do you think about them?

5.      What mood, idea or concept does it reflect?

6.      Do you think the work is successful?  Why?

7.      What style would you say this work reflects?

8.      What makes this work interesting?

9.      Work in the style of at least 3 of these artists/designers and produce a series of images that reflect their work using some of your photos.  At least 6 images.

ARTIST\DESIGNER REFERENCES

1.  Abstract Imagery       Jean Michal Basquiat, John Hoyland,        Howard Hodgkin, Sean Scully,        Franz Kline, De Kooning, Jackson        Pollock 2.   Expressive Drawing       Giacometti, David Hockney,       Frank Auerbach, Jenny Saville,       Egon Schiele, THS, Kelly Roper, Tim      Tomkinson, David Foldvari 3.   Collage        Katy Lemay       Eduardo Recife, Sara Fanelli        Dawn Dupree, Tim Marrs, Alex        Williamson, Kurt Schwitters 4.   Photography.       Bill Brant, Bill Viola, Martin Parr, Cindy Sherman, Corrine Day, Olivero Toscani,  Mario Testino, Nick Maplin, Robert Mapplethorpe

5.  Pop Art      Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake,      Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg,      Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein 6.  Linear Drawing Clare Scully, Keith Haring, Michael           Craig-Martin, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, Neasden Control Centre, 7.  Photomontage      Eduardo Paolozzi, John Heartfield, Raoul Haussmann, Helen Chadwick, David Mach, Terry Gillam 8.  Text      David Carson, Fuel, Vince Frost,          Why Not Associates, Tomarto, Neville Brody, Barbra Kruger, Tom Hingston, Designers Republic

PRACTICAL DRAWING TASKS TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DONE

·         Everything from week 1 and 2 homework sheets.  Please look at this and check you have produced everything for this.  Also the following:

• 1 more photo-shoot 5-10 shots that is in addition to the other 2 photo-shoots that completes any details, close ups or additional objects, people that you feel you need to really make your leaflet get over your message.  Use these photos and past ones to produce :

• 2 sustained graphite images showing strong observational study of an object relating to your chosen each cycle.
• 2 x fine liner/biro
• 2 experimental phrases using mixed media
• 2 x acetate collages  or mixed media working from photo
• 2 x sustained painterly studies
• 2 x sustained coloured pencils
• 2 x food colouring images/bleach
• 2 sets of thumb-nail sketches showing possible ideas for final images.
• All work annotated to date and ready for presentation within sketchbooks.

New Designers

"New Designers is the UK’s most important graduate exhibition. Taking place over two weeks, with nine distinct design zones and two prestigious Awards Evenings, New Designers is an event full of innovation and fresh thinking.  Over 3,500 of the most talented newly graduated designers from across the nation will come together under one roof for the 27th edition of New Designers"


I was really pleased to see Emma-Jane posting about this, I would encourage all of you to attend either Part 1 or Part 2 (depending on what you are thinking of specialising in next year).
It is a unique opportunity to see the best degree show work from a wide range of top Universities and Art Colleges under one roof - and is really helpful in terms of your Higher Education research. It is great value for money when you consider how much it would cost to travel up and down the UK to see all this work otherwise.
If you want to take a day off College to view this show we would be happy for you to do that, I'm sure you can arrange yourself into groups and make your way there (train to Waterloo then tube to Angel Islington and a 5 minute walk). Tickets are £11 for students on the door, or £9.50 if booked online in advance.


Part 1 covers Fashion, Textiles and Design Crafts (Ceramics, Glass, Metals, Jewellery).
Part 2 covers Graphic Design, Illustration and 3D Design (Furniture, Product and Spatial).


More information here:
http://www.newdesigners.com/

Hello its Emma-Jane, I am looking into going on a visit to the New Designers show in London on the 27-30th June, if any of you are interested, we could go as a group possibly? :)  Would be great to do some BTEC bonding ;) Tickets cost £11 if interested!

Sorry for the random post but could help or inspire you with your university/ second year choices!

Life Cycles - Work for Week 2

From your photographs taken so far select dramatic images that show extreme angles and close ups.  Produce the following:

·       3 sustained monoprints

·       3 sustained gold card prints

·       3 images using Spray stencil (bring £1 each next Monday so we can purchase some new Spray Cans)

·       3 images using transfer paste or acrylic paint transfer.

·       3 collages using the Sewing machine – bring your own cotton colours  in .

Produce a range of experiments working with 5 phrases and lyrics using

·       Letterpress

·       Letraset

·       Handwritten

·       Collage

·       Wire (black annealed and jewellery)

·       Complete a storyboard with at least 10 thumbnail sketches and take another photoshoot to supplement your theme. 

·       Produce at least 10 good photographs to supplement your first shoot.  This could be models on location or studio shoots or objects and places to supplement your idea.

·       Look at blog http://www.itsnicethat.com/Choose 3 practitioners you like and work in the style of these.  Produce 6 images  using your current photographs.

·       START TAKING WORK HOME AND CLEARING DRAWERS.  EVERYTHING MUST GO HOME , WE HAVE NO STORAGE SPACE FOR LARGE ITEMS – SO BE WARNED.  YOU MUST KEEP EVERYTHING FOR YOUR COURSE ASSESSMENT OR HAVE GOOD PHOTOGRAPHS SAFE. ALL WORK MUST GO BY FRIDAY 25 MAY.  ANYTHING REMAINING IN YOUR ROOM  WILL BE BINNED.

Lauras Photo-Shoot :) xx

This was my weekend photoshoot..with my boyfriend, modelling.
I want to go into love but look into teenage romance...the pros and cons of it.
This photoshoot represents how teenage romance can lead to something messy and unfortunate.
Hope you like it!
From Geeeeorgggiaaa

Just thought I'd upload my pen drawing of a skull, its nice and joyous!
Emma-Jane :)

LIFE CYCLES 1^st YEAR BTEC WEEK 1 Complete the following by next Monday 10. Produce 12 pages of initial research based on the following:

·       Choose 2 life cycles to brainstorm in depth.  Produce in-depth brainstorms that explore these themes in extremely lateral fashions.  They should be detailed and involve lots of variety and be an exciting range of ideas and thoughts that move in varying directions -more the better.  They don’t need to be pretty but rather an abundance of possibilities.

·       Produce a visual mood board for the 2 life cycles which shows a range of ideas in response to your brainstorm.  This can have found imagery, objects, surfaces, photographs, quick drawings magazines, as well as internet imagery

·       Choose 1 life cycle to concentrate upon for your leaflet  pick out and develop a concept in much more detail.  You should list every detail of one idea and absolutely everything that relates to this. 

·       Bring an object/s in for Ivan’s lesson to do a sustained drawing from Thursday onwards.

·       List 3 lyrics and 3 phrases that go with this idea, research further sayings, poems, slang or appropriate words that might be useful.

·       Produce 15 thumbnail sketches that show ideas for your first photoshoot.  Jot down possibilities and use extreme viewpoints to generate a plan of ideas.

·       Take 15 photographs of your idea using props, models , lighting and location in inventive ways.

·         Print out images in thumbnail and select 5 for working from next week.

From Impressionism to the 21st Century (curator Ivan Bicknell)

Hi, hope you’ve been enjoying the Easter break. You should be putting the final touches to your “From Impressionism to the 21st Century” essays this weekend, so I thought I’d post my exhibition choices and a few of my reasons for selecting them to help you along. There are of course no wrong or right answers to this assignment, what is interesting is the thinking behind the choices you make. This post is not formatted as an essay, it is just to give you an insight into how to justify the selections you make. 

For my 10 Artworks I have decided to go for 5 paintings and 5 other Artworks that cover disciplines such as collage, sculpture, installation and video. Thinking about how the show will work as a whole I have tended towards larger scale Artworks where scale is part of the “wow factor” they have for me. I have attempted to spread my choices across the time period being addressed, but there are gaps, which I guess come down to personal preference. I think I would go with an approximately chronological format to my exhibition, so here are my choices: 

  

Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral Series 1892 – 1894 

OK, this first one is a bit of a cheat, thirty for the price of one! Still I wanted something from the Impressionist period to kick the show off, and I thought if you collected together all Monet’s Rouen Cathedral works it would create an overall impact similar to some of the other works later in the exhibition. Amongst Monet’s works this set of paintings is a personal favourite, I really appreciate the subtle changes in colour and light and the textural brushwork. Having seen several of them together at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris I know they complement each other well when seen as a group. They are by the most significant painter of the Impressionist period and clearly demonstrate the fascination with light and observation that was so typical of this Art movement. The strong Architectural structure of the pieces also helps steer them away from the more sentimental subject matter that the Impressionists sometimes depicted. 

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913 

The first choice from the twentieth century, and one that stands for a dynamic new age. The Arts developed rapidly between 1900 and 1920 with a succession of movements across Europe (Fauvism and Cubism in France, Expressionism in Germany, Constructivism in Russia and Futurism in Italy) and this piece from near the middle of the period represents that dramatic progress well. The Futurists were captivated by the age of the machine that was emerging around them and “Unique Forms” captures the confidence and energy of the time. It is also a piece that has a graceful visual rhythm that appeals to me, and whilst it was a very modern work in its day it also employs traditional sculptural bronze casting technique. 

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain 1917 

The next exhibit only dates from four years later, but it abandons traditional sculptural technique altogether. It is not an aesthetically beautiful piece, but its importance is huge. It was part of Duchamp’s “readymade” series and it was clearly his intention to provoke a reaction when he decided to exhibit a urinal adorned with a joke signature as a serious work of Art. Duchamp was associated with the DaDa movement, a nonsense word the contributing Artists coined as an indication of their desire to break with tradition and frequently ridicule the world they inhabited. The power of this work is apparent in the fact that it can still create fierce debate about its Artistic merit nearly 100 years later. This piece, more than any other, opened the doors for every Artist that followed: Duchamp had torn up the rulebook and given Artists a licence to experiment. 

Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937 

Picasso was a child prodigy who developed into probably the most significant Artist of the twentieth century, so I feel he must be represented in the exhibition. His huge catalogue of work gives a multitude of potential choices, but for me it boiled down to a decision between two: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon - a seminal work of his Cubist period from 1907; or Guernica - his politically charged response to events in the Spanish Civil war. In the end it was the scale of Guernica that swung it for me, this canvas would have guaranteed impact as viewers moved through the gallery. The fragmented composition of broken bodies and the absence of colour are evidence of the anger that Picasso felt about events in his homeland. Passion was always evident in how Picasso approached both life and his Artistic practice and Guernica is perhaps the strongest example of him transferring this onto canvas. 

Rene Magritte, The Empire of Lights 1950 

This is a personal favourite, I just love the magical atmosphere that is created by the simple visual device of combining the street by night and the sky by day. Surrealism is an important twentieth century Art movement and I felt it should be accommodated in the exhibition, but I find many surrealistic works lack compositional rigour and the subject matter is often less than subtle, this image avoids those pitfalls. The link between the emergence of psychology, the science of the mind, and the visual works of the surrealists is a fascinating one. In many surrealistic works the imagery runs riot - perhaps like some of the theories of the pioneers of psychology Freud and Jung, but in the Empire of Lights there is a clarity that I appreciate. The painting dates from fairly late in Magritte’s career and perhaps it is partly due to his maturity that he feels no compulsion to over complicate things. It is a fairly large painting (nearly 2 metres in height) so I feel it would have the necessary scale to hold its own amongst my selections. 

Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm 1950

Energy and passion always appeal to me and Jackson Pollock had these qualities in abundance. There is a graceful power to the mark making, and I particularly enjoy the subtle colours in this piece. Compositionally Pollock’s best works (such as this) have great balance – a kind of ordered chaos. Pollock was of course a revolutionary, departing from the painter’s long held territory of the brush and easel in favour of the floor and a turkey baster! Although it dates from the same year as the Magritte painting I selected, it belongs to a completely different age – the birth of Abstract Expressionism rather than the last throes of Surrealism (a movement whose roots lie in the 1920s). It is also the first non European Artwork in the exhibition and represents the increasing globalisation of developments in the visual Arts after the Second World War. Once more it is painting on an epic scale with the power to captivate an audience. 

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram 1955 

Collage is one of the major innovations of twentieth century Art and Rauschenberg is one of the finest exponents of this approach. His work straddles movements, juxtaposing the modern imagery of Pop Art with the powerful mark making of the Abstract Expressionists. In Monogram (part of his combines series) we are confronted by the powerful presence of the stuffed Angora goat complemented by the subtle colours of the collaged base. The sense of mysterious hidden meanings waiting to be decoded adds to the fascination of this piece. Rauschenberg’s combines also challenge the artificial boundaries between the disciplines of painting and sculpture. The influence that Rauschenberg’s work continues to exert on contemporary practitioners is testament to the ongoing relevance of his work. 

Joan Miro, Blue I, II & III 1961 

I have chosen this triptych of works by the Spanish Artist Joan Miro on largely aesthetic grounds – having seen these paintings I know the wonderfully calming effect of being in their presence. Like the works of Mark Rothko there is a meditative quality in this series, but along with their spiritual air there is also a lightness, a sense of playfulness and humour that Rothko lacks. It is not a remarkably radical work for the time it was created, but like the painting by Magritte it showcases the mature phase of an Artist’s career, a period when the confidence and courage to work outside the prevailing movements of the time often emerges. Once more the scale of this piece is large enough to engulf the viewer in common with the works by Picasso and Pollock. A good painting should be like a favourite song – you look forward to the next chance to experience it, this triptych certainly fills that criteria for me. 

Anthony Gormley, Field for the British Isles 1991 

Installation has grown into one of the most important new media over the last 40 years. When done well, installation works can really provoke the “wow” reaction, Gormley’s collection of 40,000 terracotta figures certainly has this impact. There is something quite humbling about being in the presence of this multitude of clay people each staring at you imploringly with their simple finger push depression eyes. The echo of China’s ancient armies of Terracotta warriors that were unearthed in X’ian is of course intentional. Gormley’s piece was created in collaboration with the local community in St. Helens, and the fact that the collective work has many authors gives each figure a unique identity whilst simultaneously being a tiny component of the overall work. It is the only work in my selection by a British Artist, but represents the prominence that the visual Arts in Britain have attained in the last 20 years with the patronage of the Saatchi brothers, the emergence of the Turner prize and the revolution in London’s gallery scene heralded by the opening of Tate Modern. 

Bill Viola, Five Angels for the Millennium 2001 

Alongside installation, video is another format that Artists have increasingly explored in the last 25 years. Most contemporary Art galleries today have plenty of examples of this genre, both good and bad. One of the most skilful exponents of this medium is the American Bill Viola, whose slow motion pieces have a transcendental quality. Five Angels is a video work that is also an installation, as it comprises five large screens that are viewed simultaneously within a darkened space. In common with other works by Viola this piece refers to both religion (the ascending and falling angels) and personal memories (his near death experience as a child when he fell through ice on a frozen lake). The overall impression is extraordinary, the video format allows Viola to engage more of our senses in experiencing the piece, the haunting sounds of the gurgling, bubbling, splashing water perfectly complement the stunning visuals. It is a powerful note on which to conclude the show.

OK, now the good news ...I don't want to be reading clumsily written and rushed essays, it is important for you, and far more pleasant for me if your essays are fantastic when you hand them in.

So, with this in mind I am extending the deadline to 4.30pm on Thursday to give you an additional couple of days to ensure your assignment is spot on. Remember it is highly likely that you will be taking this piece with you to University interviews next year as evidence of your analytical writing skills , so make it good!