Transformations

The new unit focuses on drawing and photography under the term Transformations. This can mean process-wise or to do with the subjects we explore, so I am not going to worry about fitting the term into my work just yet and see where my experiments and work take me. I would like to carry on the theme of homes and identity, looking at the objects people hold dear to them and why. What objects make our homes feel like ours, excluding or including furniture? I would like to talk to a range of people about their prize possessions and objects, producing illustrations, drawings, photographs and manipulated photographs before moving on to more 3D work, hopefully resulting in glass or ceramic houses with photographs and drawings wrapped around them. I would like to experiment with fabric, acetate and printmaking but gradually move into more 3D work, something I feel my portfolio is lacking in. I am excited for this project and happy to have worked out parts of my theme before immersing myself in the work, something which has held me back and prevented me from finishing units in the past.
So far in class, we have started life drawing sessions every Monday morning, produced lichtfaktor photography (light paintings), experimented with still life drawing objects wrapped in plastic and manipulated photographs with fire, scratching, bleach and collage. I find it extremely helpful to do work within the class organised by my tutor as it gives me a chance to build some techniques and establish ideas.

One of my sheets from life drawing (will update with more). 1x 20 minute pose and 2x 15 minute poses. I am extremely pleased with these studies and will be practising over the coming weeks in preparation for more sessions.

We recently produced a number of Lichtfaktor photographs using a variety of different light sources. Through a long exposure we were able to use phone lights, torches, strings of fairy lights, coloured screens and headlamps to create intricate and energetic photographs. Our confidence grew as we experimented more and ended up producing crazy impressionist-style images with lines dancing across every inch of the frame. It would be interesting to produce images like this for my studies of objects and their purposes.

The object I chose to study was an old film camera. I wrapped it in placates quite tightly because the forms of the camera were something I didn't want to lose. When I accepted the fact I wasn't able to draw the objects extremely accurately I chose to go down a much more experimental route, using ink, oil pastel, pens and pencil. The childish style is something I studied in my last unit and this translated into this work, with vibrant colours and inaccurate lines and shapes. Until I chose to draw a blue line around the plastic form, the shapes did look vaguely plastic-like however the blue line ruined that and turned the image into a very map-like design. The camera is related the my theme as I want to look at objects.

When manipulating photographs, I chose to use old photographs that had gone wrong, end of roll images and duplicates from the many disposable and film camera film roles I've had developed. A lot of images just had block colour, some had images which had gone wrong or been double exposed by accident and some were duplicates that I'd received. I used bleach, burning, collaging and scratching to produce these images which I think have worked very well. I especially like the images which have had shapes cut out and swapped with other images. For me, they speak of memories and could possibly be linked to Gerhard Richter's overpainted photographs were by painting over the image he obscures the memory from a family holiday for example. The bleach also worked well, though it was not a destructive as I thought it would be and I had to work it in for a long time before seeing results. The burning worked well, especially in the image of the peaceful landscape. I burned the centre leaving a huge dark, smoking hole in this peaceful, tranquil image.

After collaging with some other images, I chose to use some images which were pure colour to draw on and slice up so I could experiment with compositions and switching sections around. I think these work well and are very graphic. With the first one I brought in a drawing of a chair to bring it back to my subject matter before obscuring that drawing to the point of total abstraction. The colours and layouts are aesthetically pleasing and I will be exploring this technique in the future.

I will continue to experiment with a variety of different processes and document them as best I can. I want to eventually narrow down techniques and bring them in to a developed body of work consisting of photography, manipulated photography, experimental contemporary drawing, combinations of drawing and photography and sculptural work.

Nelle