AS Coursework "Alice In Wonderland"

My AS level art coursework was based around the theme of "Alice In Wonderland". I began by creating a composition inspired by the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, this led on to two observational pieces, one sketchbook A4 piece using a variety of media including pencil, graphite and pen. The second larger piece was created using watercolours. In both pictures I was particularly interested in capturing the reflections in the teapot, as I felt it echoed the distortion of normality within the story of "Alice In Wonderland".

AS Coursework "Alice In Wonderland" - Observational Research

In order to conduct further research into the theme of "Alice In Wonderland", and to inspire ideas and imagery for my project, I chose to do another observational painting focusing on key aspects of the original story. I collected a variety of types of mushrooms and created a composition which I hoped would highlight the fluctuation of size of the protagonist, which is a key theme within the story. I did this by enlarging a number of the mushrooms making them seem abnormally large in comparison with the others. I believe that the use of acrylics on brown parcel paper worked well as it gave the piece textural feel. 

AS Coursework "Alice In Wonderland" - Development Pieces

These are two of the development pieces that I produced in order to inspire ideas and imagery for my final piece. In both of these pieces I was exploring the abnormality of "Alice In Wonderland" as it was a theme that I wanted to include in my Final Piece. The first I created by beginning with a small area of print work, which was a form of media that I had been experimenting with. From this I worked out of the print section using acrylics to create a composition of imagery relating to the "Alice In Wonderland" theme, which included the playing cards, the Mad Hatter's hat and the March Hare's pocket watch. This then led me onto my second development piece. I had been looking at the artists Maggie Taylor, who has created photo realistic paintings of scenes within "Alice In Wonderland", this inspired the me to create my own distorted, abnormal version of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party scene, which featured imagery from the Tea Party being poured from a peculiarly large teapot and then disappearing down the rabbit hole. I  also incorporating the distorted reflection from my earlier observational painting, to further the abnormality. I found the perspective in the piece quite difficult but I am pleased with the results. I created this using acrylics on canvas which I thought worked well as it created an almost cartoon like, animated style of painting.

AS Coursework "Alice In Wonderland" - Final Piece

This is my Final Piece for my AS level Coursework. Throughout the project I had been exploring the abnormality of "Alice In Wonderland", this had led me to the artist Jenny Saville who paints images of typically un-aesthetically pleasing figures as well as people with deformities and irregular body features. Inspired by her work I wanted to encapsulate the idea of deformities and abnormalities within my Final Piece through the study of the female form. However, I wanted to subvert the stereotypical idea of female beauty by creating a deformed figure, but one  whose deformity is of  something traditionally seen as beautiful. Using the imagery from my development pieces and research I created this composition, featuring an "Alice" character with the deformity of flowers protruding from her body. I chose to include flowers as they are commonly used objects to symbolise beauty, and they are an image that is frequently referred to within the story of "Alice In Wonderland" and were also included in my development piece. I created this piece using watercolours as I wanted to create a soft, graceful feel to the painting. 

AS Exam Piece

For my AS level Exam Piece I began with the theme of 'Backyard'. My thought process for this piece was initially from memories I had in the backyard of family and friends. I began by exploring images and old family photographs taken in the backyard and examining the people involved. This eventually led to the emotions that we can see in photographs through facial expressions, and also the idea of hidden emotions which we can conceal from a picture. I researched how emotions can be portrayed within art and began to look at german expressionist artists who use different colour schemes to show different emotions. I decided then to create a piece that showed different emotions, happiness, sadness and anger, through examples of facial reactions, using colour to emphasise their particular emotion, inspired by german expressionism. I had also been exploring artists who did not particularly portray emotion within their work, but use their own emotions to help create it. This led me to the urban artist Banksy. I decided to use his technique of spray painting in my exam to create the basic shape of my figures, which were based on drawings of family and friends displaying a certain emotion. I then created stencils by cutting out the sections which I wanted to appear black on my piece. I also used emotive words to emphasise the emotions of the subjects, as this is a feature Banksy uses within his work frequently in order to portray a message. 

A2 Coursework 'Is It Art?'

For my A2 level art Coursework entitled "Is It Art?" I conducted an individual investigation aiming to decipher what defines 'art'. I created a title page for this project which incorporated imagery from a number of artists that I explored in the project. These artists create work using different media, including sculpture, architecture, pottery and painting, and are all from different time periods and different cultures.  My first response into my investigation was a piece in which  I wanted to challenge the idea of the functionality of art. This is because many people would argue that art should only have a primary function, to be 'art', and as such 'craft' should not be treated as equal. Inspired by the artists Grayson Perry, I decided to create a vase which is traditionally labelled as 'craft', due to is having an ulterior function as a vessel. Through this I then explored the idea of an object loosing its functionality, by cutting holes and windows into it, thus making it no longer functional as a vase. I created this piece by creating a vase shape from wire, then building up layers of newspaper until I achieved a sturdy shape. The images on the surface were inspired by a previous exploration into societal factors altering what is considered 'art', I chose to incorporate images and incidents that are relevant to the shaping of the society that I have grown up in, including McDonalds, the government coalition, the X-Factor and 9/11. Hidden beneath these images are a number of photographs of me as I age and change.

A2 Coursework 'Is It Art?' - Second Response

I created this piece in response to the notion that our views on 'art' are distorted by the views of a mass society, for instance an artist's work may be rejected because it features a subject that is morally unacceptable in society, such as Marcel Duchamp's Fountain. From the idea of our views being distorted by the opinions of others I began to explore ways that our sight can literally be distorted, through binoculars, magnifying glasses, mirrors, reflective objects and glasses. I decided to do a piece that incorporated glasses as a large proportion of the population rely on glasses to see. This piece was inspired by the artist Lisa Milroy who creates paintings which feature rows of a certain object such as shoes. I incorporated ideas that came from researching Lisa Milroy's work by painting many types and styles of glasses to echo the idea that we are all different yet can sometimes all see the same view. To incorporate the idea of our sight being distorted I then painted in distorted images from reflections that I has studied into the lenses of the glasses. 

A2 Coursework 'Is It Art?' - Final Piece

This is the Final Piece for my personal investigation "Is It Art?". Here I had been exploring the theme of beauty and ugliness within 'art'. From the results of a questionnaire I distributed amongst my peers, family and tutors, many people stated that "art has to be beautiful" which is a notion that I personally disagree with. I decided to explore and compare typically "beautiful" art such as landscapes by Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh, and compare it with my surroundings which, combine urbanisation, houses, wastelands, derelict buildings and nearby countryside.  This inspired me to create a landscape piece which featured two landscapes, one that is beautiful and one that is ugly. During this I briefly returned to the work of Jenny Saville; how ugly art can be appreciated for its hidden beauty. I wanted to incorporate a sensation of tearing through the ugly to reveal the hidden beauty. The idea to mix these landscapes together I hoped would enable me to highlight the contrast between them yet challenge the idea that 'art' is beautiful through incorporating them into one combined piece. I chose the beautiful landscape to be a typically rural, countryside view, this would then contrast with the ugly landscape which would be an urban, city scape. The rural landscape I did in the style of Monet, through the use of bright, vibrant colour, using oil pastels. Whereas the urban landscape, inspired by the urban artist Banksy, was created using minimal colour through spray painting. 

Current A2 Exam Project - Snapshot

Here are several examples of my sketchbook pages for my A2 level Exam titled "Snapshot".  I have been exploring the idea of photography capturing a snapshot of time, including a brief moment in time such as water dripping from a tap, as well as a moment of time in your life such as your childhood. I began by doing a quick brainstorm of ideas relating to the theme which led me to the notion of a snapshot capturing something in action, for this I have taken photographs to explore the various ways in which a moment of time is captured; including a dripping tap and a moving car. I have also collected a few old photographs that feature my mum a various stages in her life, from these photos I conducted some pencil studies to document these snapshots of my mums life.

Current A2 Exam Project - Snapshot

These are pages from my sketchbook with ideas, paintings and drawings,  exploring movement captured within a snapshot.  I used photographs of my dog running to try and capture his movement within a drawing. I also did a quick observational painting using watercolours of my youngest brother jumping on a trampoline, the watercolours allowed me to smear and streak the image to create a blurriness which I believe imitates his movement well.

Exploring Movement Within Snapshots - Nicholas Archer

This is some of the artist research I have done for my exam "Snapshot". Continuing with the idea of exploring how to capture movement, I conducted some research on the artist Nicholas Archer, who's work has a photo like quality as if he has just taken the image using a camera.  The subjects of his work frequently appear blurred to show the movement within the image. To document his work I created a small book, made from cardboard and held together with string, inside featuring examples of his work and my analysis of his technique. Inspired by the work that he has done I created an A2 piece in soft pastel from a photograph taken on a family holiday. I chose to do this image as there is a lot of movement within the picture and I wanted to capture the splashing water, again I feel the choice of medium is effective in blurring the image and giving the impression of movement.

Exploring Movement Within Snapshots - Christine Comyn

This is my work based on research on the artist Christine Comyn. This artist uses streaks of colour to show action and movement within her work. The first piece is a copy of one of Christine Comyn's work. I then used photographs of my friend dancing and leaping in mid air to create several Christine Comyn inspired pieces, experimenting with a variety of media, water colours, inks and pastels, to see which medium is the best for showing movement. 

Life Drawings

These are several examples of  Life Drawings that I did during an extra-curricular  art class in Salford. They have been executed using a range of media, including pencil, charcoal and chalk pastel. I took on this class as I wanted to challenge myself by doing something different and new, whilst also enabling me to improve my drawing skills. The pencil drawing of a hand is my mothers hand.

AS Media Coursework

These are pieces that I produced for my Media coursework which was exploring the different types of media texts. After analysing examples from each media platform; print, moving image, e-media and radio, we were asked to create a piece from a media platform based around a subject of our choice. For this I chose to create a fashion page based on the style of More! magazine. The models used are friends.

A2 Media Production Pieces

Here are posters which I designed as part of my A2 level Media coursework. These are the result of an individual investigation titled "Has the director Tim Burton created his own genre within cinema?" For this we were also asked to create our own media text that linked with the investigation. I chose to create a film poster campaign, advertising a new film that is being released by 'Tim Burton'. The research I conducted for this study revealed that Tim Burton is famously known for his twisted, sinister styling of film. Using this knowledge and after closely analysing a number of his existing posters I created a Tim Burton version of Cinderella, inspired by the Brother's Grimm tale. I am interested in the use of all varieties of media to create art and I particularly enjoyed using graphics programmes to create these images.