PATCHWORK DAD
Using the lasso tool on Photoshop with a portrait of my dad, I remade up his face with elements from drawings I had done in Fashion and Textiles in the first term of my foundation. I enlarged then isolated the patterns which were made up from squiggles and tape and cut out elements for different sections of my dads patchwork portrait.
I liked the idea that all these elements when separated would not be like a jigsaw where they could easily be matched up to make the face, as the cutouts from the drawing were layered onto of each other, the out line of each feature being the most important element.
I like the final image as the patterns are so different yet sit together well, and layering them add another element and further texture.
Continuing with the patchwork idea, I did a few versions using my brothers portrait. I like the 'PATCHWORK BRO- Face' the best, as I feel the patchwork sections from the pen drawing of the face as above, from my fashion and textiles drawings worked well. With the lines moving in all different directions and having a white background help to give the face character.
I also applied one cut out for the face with out layering it 'PATCHWORK BRO- Scribble' This didn't work so well as it is out of focus due to being enlarged so much and lacks depth as there is no layering.
I quite like 'PATCHWORK BRO- Peel' as this shows the layers of the pen sections being stripped away, as if uncovering what is underneath.
I also played around with yellow crosses as eye, (inspiration from Kaws) and even tried a black face, so that it blended in with the background. PATCHWORK DAD is still my favourite, as I like the combination of patterns, and the yellow tape glasses work well.
I will definitely work on some more.
After photographing the dried out cut flowers, I found the image of the pink rose particularly beautiful and thought I should do an illustration of it with illustrator. It did take a long time and I was careful not to make all the petals pink as I wanted to lift the image and ensured that when I found colours with in the original that I used as many variations as possible.
The illustrated pink rose above is not the final version as I removed the green oasis that the rose was standing in for the photograph from the bottom of the image.
In the first term of CSM I photographed cut flowers that had dried out and should have been thrown away some time ago. However, I found them to be quite beautiful and using a black backdrop photographed them individually. I liked the way they all seemed to have personalities and how they they feel like they are trying to communicate with you, as if they have taken on a character and are expressing themselves in someway. I think this is far more apparent in these flowers, than in any freshly cut flowers.
I have 3 sessions of photographing my mums cut flowers and have asked her to leave them in the vase instead of throwing them away.
One of my favourites was a pink rose. The petals had dried out, but the rose itself had not drooped.
I also did some further experiments but this time using Photoshop. I showed the rose in different exposures, made it into a wallpaper by duplicating it and removed the stem to have the rose floating. I fee that the illustration is by far the strongest image.
This is a photograph my dad took at his cafe & bar. He is a keen cyclist and this image encompasses this with the cycling memorabilia on the wall and the cyclists sitting around the long tables having their breakfast.
The initial photograph had so much going on in the image that it made it fun to work with. The linear composition from the line of the tables and chairs, the heads of the cyclists and the track from the lights held the image together along with a flatness that was the outcome of having outlined objects with little to no detail.
For this photograph I decided to work with Photoshop. For the outlined details I selected a colour that added interest and contrast to the surrounding colours. I changed many of the colours from the original image to give balance to the piece of work. Block colours on the art work and imagery on the walls add information however the detail has been removed so they become abstract.
Even though a lot of the detail has been removed it is still possible to see communication between the cyclist, you can see they are enjoying themselves and are in deep conversation, which is percieved through gesture rather than facial expression. Also without the shadows and spotlights you can still comprehend the depth within the image.
SKETCHBOOK
Weaving with paper
After going to the Annie Albers exhibition, I added to my sketch book some woven images. I cut one photograph alternatively length ways and width ways. When I wove this picture the image disappeared but the final piece still worked well.
For the second weaving I used two colour portraits of my brother. One I cut length ways the other width ways. This picture again was distorted, but if I had have taken more care with my cutting and weaving tightly this image would have held together as the original. However I liked my version as I preferred the distortion.
Black and White portraits
I continued with my brothers portrait this time in black and white. I wanted to change the portrait without distorting it, but by taking away some of the image. This I hoped would make the viewer look deeper into the face to discover what is missing, and while doing this they are taking in more of the detail of what is actually there. Hopefully they will gain more information from having less to see.
The first portrait I stuck cut white strips of paper across the face randomly.
The second portrait I cut out circles and put them back on the image and on the surrounding sheet around the image.
For the third portrait I cut out larger circles and for this image I used the circles and put them around the page, but disregarded the rest of the photograph.
I liked the idea of blowing up the these photographs to the full size of a room. For the first portrait instead of strips of paper I could either paint across the image and continue with the paint onto the walls or I could cut out strips from the photograph itself. The other portraits I could cut out the circles as in the A4 portraits and stick the cut circles onto the wall.