Final Evaluation
Final evaluation
I chose natural vs unnatural because I enjoy learning about nature, especially in the ocean. I also really like creepy unnatural creatures from stories, horror games or urban myths. In addition to this, I have kenophobia – the fear of voids and open spaces, and this is relevant as the ocean is massive and empty though also full of unexplored and undiscovered things which I am fascinated by and has sparked people’s imaginations and fears for hundreds of years.
The three main artists who inspired me in this project are Damien Hirst, Adam Riches and Ernst Haeckel. Damien Hirst inspired me with his series ‘Treasures From The Wreck Of The Unbelievable’ and how he’s taken normal things but put them underwater allowing corals to grow, making them into living art. Adam, whose art style involves scribbled human drawings, has influenced my work by me imitating his style and coming up with creatures whilst doing so. Ernst, a marine biologist and artist, made me consider doing my versions of his scientific anatomical sea creature drawings.
One piece of wider world research that I did was about different fears relating to the ocean. The fears which I based my research on were Thalassophobia and Submechanophobia, and these link to my theme because Submechanophobia is the fear of man-made objects in the ocean, and Thalassophobia is the fear of the ocean as a whole. I wanted to explore this as fears are unnatural reactions to natural things, and I wanted to recreate this in my work as if they were real.
I have experimented with and used several materials in my pieces. For my book I used both biro drawings and lino printing presented in a digital book format, In doing this I learnt how to lino print as I haven’t done that before. Influenced by Adam Riches I experimented and developed my skills in biro drawing in a way I would not have thought of. For my sculpture, I used both clay and metal to create it. I was inspired by Damien Hirst in how he weathered his art in the ocean to appear as if it had been there for many years, I replicated this by conducting my experiments with metal, deforming and marking them with various tools before subjecting them to saltwater to age it. I then used this to create a boat for my diorama.
Finally, I used both air dry and oven-bake clay to create various parts of my sculpture. The air-dry clay was used in the rocks as these wouldn’t need too much detail and used the oven-bake clay to make my creatures and get some small details.
The piece that has taught me the most were my lino prints. For these, I had to learn how to lino print as well as consider my creatures design but transform it in a way that would get a lot of the details across but not too much to overdo it. Therefore some of my creatures have some differences between the biro and lino designs.
My initial idea was to create a pair of dioramas in fish tanks to represent a natural thing in an unnatural place and an unnatural thing in a natural place. During a workshop at college about mimicking Adam Riches style but still linking it to my theme, I found a way to draw creepy human fusions with sea creatures. This greatly inspired the rest of my project as I went on to create the linos and full-body images of my creatures. I still wanted to create some type of diorama as well, so I scaled it down to just the boat wreck but with my creatures visualised in 3d.
If I were to display my work anywhere and anytime, I would like it to be somewhere surrounded by water like at an aquarium, I would like to make the audience feel like they are at the bottom of the ocean surrounded by darkness and these creatures.
To sum up my final piece in ten words; Unknown, depths, unnatural, fear, distorted reality, twisted, silent, growing.
If I were to give my final outcomes a soundtrack I would chose the song Prayer by Hayley Westenra. I chose this song because its haunting and made for a game called endless ocean. I spent 16 hours a week working on my project outside of college. Most of my experimenting with materials has been done at home, and I also went into college on some of my days off to get more work done. At home I work in my room at my desk or occasionally in my conservatory. Some of my experimenting with metal was done in the garden.
At the start of this project, I didn’t know how to lino print and I wouldn’t have known about how metal rusts and even how I would use it in a project. My final piece differed from my initial ideas because I was influenced on the way by various artists and techniques which I discovered as I progressed through the course. Using both lino printing and biro drawing instead of strictly sticking with a diorama I have given my initial ideas more life than it would have had if It were just a fish tank. I also feel that creating my pieces in both 2d and 3d has enhanced my original ideas by being more interactive as my first designs looked too static and lifeless, which is the opposite to the sea. I also think that my final piece forces the viewer to explore the pieces for themselves just like the ocean, and this creates an experience. My final pieces also link into the fears people may have about the ocean and fearing the unknown and what unearthly creatures that may reside there.
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This is my final book design
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These are some more Artists who I have researched as they helped to inspire my final designs.
This week I have printed my lino prints and researched a few artists who have inspired my work. Especially Jaimie Hewlett as the way he draws faces has subconsciously influenced how I draw faces (the nose mouth and head shapes mainly). I have also started to draw out some of my biro drawings, and I hope to finish these next week. I will post the final lino images later on with the biro ones.
Next week I will try to finish off all of my biro drawings, and maybe visit a pet shop to get some primary research on tanks and the fish themselves.
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Once I had assembled and hot glued everything down apart from the boat, I started to paint the creatures and rocks. I also added some sea grass made of foam around the base of the wire that is holding the gulper eel up. once I had finished painting I then glued in the boat with hot glue. Once I was pleased with how it looked I created a mixture of PVA glue, decoupage glue, a bit of water, and some couscous. The reason I used couscous was because it has a grainy consistency similar to gravel or sand, perfect for a seabed.
In these two weeks of Easter I have made most of my sculpture, all that is left to do is to touch up some areas of paint as I’m not too happy with how they turned out and paint the couscous. I also prepared some more creature linos for printing next week. Overall, I am really happy with the progress I have made, and I think I am on track to finishing everything in time.
Next week I am going to print the rest of my linos and start working on my book which I will be making mainly on publisher.
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This is development of my lino prints, which I edited digitally on Fire Alpaca.
This week I have done a lot of experimenting with lino printing and thinking about where to take my final pieces and I think I’ve decided that I am going to create a book with various human fish hybrid lino prints and biro drawings in a sort of fact book, as well as a 3d clay and metal sculpture of a rusty boat and some creatures surrounding it.
In the next couple weeks, I am going to start creating my sculpture of a boat and creatures as the metal pieces have rusted nicely so I can start it. I am going to still aim to create the boat similarly to my original concept art, however I think I am going to make the rocks smaller, so I don’t run out of clay.
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