For the last 16 weeks at college we have been doing our
final major projects, there has been many ups and downs, a lot of stressful moments but also many moments where I have been
proud of my work and what I have produced.
We were able to write our own
theme and brief and base it on whatever we liked, at first tis seemed like a
big ask as it was so broad but after I had come up with a theme, I was eager to
get started. My theme was mood and emotion, it intrigues me how mood and
emotion is involved in everybody’s life, every minutes of every day, I wanted
to see how different things can provoke different emotions, for example music,
the weather and most importantly colour. I wanted to link my theme of mood and
emotion with colour theory, as I thought it was an ideal lie with me doing an art and design course and as I am wanting
to do interior design as a career I also thought this would be great to
research into.
So at the beginning of this
project I did around two weeks’ worth of research, for my secondary research, I
mostly got it from the internet, I found artists that I like and ideas
that could research into, for example
the weather and music. I made a list of all the websites I used and put these
in my bibliography.
I looked at quite a lot of artists
during this project, but the artists who I would say influenced me the most
were Mark Rothko and Picasso. Mark Rothko is an artist who works with both
colour and mood and emotion, so this was a perfect artist for me, he drew landscapes
in their primary forms of horizontal stripes, and he painted the pictures in
different shades of colours, depending what mood he was in.
Picasso is obviously an infamous
artist, but I didn’t study into all of his works, researched into a particular
period. His blue period, this was because at this point in his life he was
depressed at the death of one of his friends, and this effected his work by
making his paintings very dull, all with a shade of blue in them, also the
people In the paintings were more often than not depressed. I used Picasso as I
thought he was a great example to show how different moods and emotions can
affect your art work.
I would say I did a lot of primary
research. My main source of primary research came from a questionnaire that I
created to give to people. It was three simple questions, what colour reminds
you of which mood (happy, sad and angry) and what object/ picture reminds you
of this mood. From the results I got I developed them onto my visual sheets and
tuned them into patterns for my final pieces.
I also went to Darton College for
a day and took photos of the dancers, this is because I wanted to show how
different things can portray mood and emotion, I took quick sketches of the
dancers too which can also class as observational drawing.
Another thing I did as primary
research was giving my classmates ten minutes to listen to different genres of
music to see how it made them feel. I then asked them to draw patterns and
pictures of how the music made them feel.
I would say I did well with my
primary research as I got a lot of varied ways to collect research.
I did around 30 samples on this
project, which although this doesn’t seem that much I believe I did a very
varied selection, as not one of my samples were the same. I used many different
processes including puffbinder, devore and pigment prints. I even extended a least half of my sample by
sewing into them, and quilting them. It took me around two weeks to do all my
samples.
I have made three different
screens to go on my samples and final pieces. One of them was of some music
notes; this was because I studied how music can change your emotion.
My second screen was of flowers;
this was because a lot of people said that flowers made them feel happy from my
primary research, and so throughout the project I have developed this into a
pattern.
My third screen was of some
feathers; this also came from m primary research and I developed it throughout
my project.
For my final piece I created
three, 1 metre square hangings. Each one represents a different mood although
they all have very similar prints on them. I took me around three days to
create them. The moods they represent are happy, sad and angry.
Sad
My sad final piece if on azeta
(devrore cotton). I have printed my feather design onto this piece with devore
paste. I then dip dyed it with Green MX2B. after this I then printed my
feathers again over my devore in grey pigment print.
Happy
This final piece is printed on
cotton. I have tie dyed my fabric. On this piece I have printed my flower
design in blue and red. Over the top I then printed y feather design in
puffbinder. I have also sewn extra details into my flowers in different
coloured thread.
Angry
This piece is also on cotton. For the background of this piece I have
scribbled on it with fabric pens as you would if you were angry. On this piece
I have printed half of it with music notes and half of it with feathers. To add
effect I have also shredded parts of my final piece to make it look more
‘angry’.
Throughout this project I haven’t
really had any major changes for this project. The only real change that I can
think of is that in an ideal world I would have loved to have different screen
prints for each final piece, but unfortunately, due to my time management, I wasn’t
able to do this, and ended up putting the same screen prints on all three
different pieces.
My time management hasn’t been
very good for this project, I have never missed any days of college and always
done work whilst been at college but I would say I haven’t done enough work whilst
I have been at home until probably too late and made it a rush for myself to
get this project finished. If I was to do this project again my time management
would definitely be one of the things I would change.
I would say my final piece went
very well, I am very proud of my outcome as I believe you can see the amount of
work and effort I have out into it.
One thing that I am not very happy
with is my journal, I feel I could have spent more time on it, making it more
detailed.
Overall I have really enjoyed this
project, I would say I have learnt a lot in the process too, which is great. I would
definitely do this project again, changing some things along the way, most
importantly my time management. I hope that all my outcomes reflect all the
effort and work I have put into it.
