During the summer I don’t believe I managed my time very
well as I mainly added to it every so often and unfortunately toward the end of
the summer I rushed to get it done as best as I could. If I had the opportunity
to redo this project I would look over the brief carefully broaden my ideas for
the world I live in and manage my time more effectively. The contents of my
sketchbook was mainly focused on the things people and places closest to me, at
first when starting this project I wanted to draw and paint portraits of family
members and pets as well as include as much media as I could. Over this project
I have looked into primary and secondary research I also included some
observational drawings mainly in my sketchbook. My primary research was key to
my project I have used my own images to further develop my work eventually
focusing on my pets as a final design. On my design sheets I used an image of
my pet dog and painted/ drew her with as
much media as possible. I incorporated the style of Lucien Freud into my piece I
really liked the look of it being painted this way and so I continued to use it
all throughout my design development sheets and eventually my final piece. For my
samples I looked at mainly paint including gouache and acrylic I also attempted
a cross stitch piece as well, I painted on to mdf board and on one canvas to
test the gouache on and I preferred working on to the mdf with the gouache as It
applied more smoothly.
On the design development I tried using pencil acrylic paint
watercolour and pen I had looked at an artist that worked in cross hatching and
I thought it would be good to link it back to that. My main issue was time as I
was unable to finish the cross stitch that was a part of my samples but as I didn’t
take anything from it I don’t think it would’ve affected my final piece though I
wish I could’ve been able to finish. The problem I think mainly was that my
threads for the cross stitch would get knotted and I think I lost a lot of time
attempting to unravel them.
If I had more time I would have experimented more with oil
paint as I haven’t yet managed to work with that media on a project so far and I
would like to learn some new techniques with it, also I would have liked to
include more colour in my project so that I could have linked that back to the Freda
Kahlo painting I critiqued. For my final design I decided to paint my dog coco
unfortunately in 2014 during my exam period she became ill and we had to have
her put down, it was quite emotional when we lost her and I thought that If I did
a painting of her it would link into the world I live in because she was alive
for twelve years and that was a large portion of my life not only was she quite
important to me she was always very photogenic and I like this photo of her
very much.
Over this project the main issue has been time but I am
happy with a lot of things like my artist research I think my paintings of the
originals were quite good and I enjoyed replicating them so they were almost
identical to the original. I also believe that my design development sheets
went well too, I think I managed to use more media in this project and it has
helped me gain painting skills and has drawn me away from using the same basic
media I always have used for my artwork. The only thing that hasn’t really
worked out well is the cross stitch but that was mainly because of poor time
management. If given the opportunity to have another try I would look more on
the broader aspect of the world I live in perhaps looking into the Syrian crisis
or perhaps draw portraits of the leaders of the world or look into charities
and symbolism, I might have looked at religion or how social media is affecting
the world I live in and what it is doing to the next generation as well as the
older generation.
During this project I haven’t managed my time well enough and
have suffered because of that, I was unable to complete my cross stitch which I
am disheartened by after days of trying to get it completed, hopefully in the
future I will have the opportunity to finish it and be happy about it
eventually. My sketchbook has also suffered because of my poor time management
skills having rushed myself toward the end I felt I could’ve done much better
than what I did, it was also incredibly difficult trying to think about what to
put into it. As well as poor time management I neglected my blog quite a lot I have
added some things but I haven’t put everything I should have put on there.
Overall I think this is my favourite project so far I enjoyed
creating the samples although after a while of doing the same image over and
over and over it got a bit boring though I do like my final piece albeit the
background is a little too colourful for the foreground. I like the noble
stance the subject appears to have and it gives seeps silence, when you look at
the painting it makes you feel quite at peace and has a calm to it that I believe
is because of the eyes the dark yellow colour of the eyes make it as though she’s
looking into you. In my sketchbook there is a portrait of my grandma done in
oil pastel which I am extremely proud of because it was my first time using
that media on a portrait.
For my design sheets for the sensory room I decided it would
be better to do something simple and dark like most sensory rooms are designed.
For my first design I thought an underwater design would be quite good added
with the lights it would create a nice effect and some sensory rooms use fish tanks
in them as they help create a calming environment and are good for decoration
as well. For the design with a racetrack on it I thought it would give them something
to focus on, as a more interactive aspect of the design. I had intended to have
the tarmac painted with magnetic paint because you can buy little cars with
magnets on the bottom of them so they would be able to play, but the only magnetic
paint I could find was for wood and metal and the reviews said that it didn’t really
work that well anyway, but it still functions the design is still useful in
that way it just won’t let anything stick to it. The last idea I had was the
galaxy design I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but after I got the stars on
it blended nicely and it should feel nice and safe and I also think it would
make it feel more womblike.
For the library wall I initially just put a lot of
illustrations on to it until my last design which was my favourite I came up
with the idea of using the yellow brick road on it and branching out on to the
ceiling, unfortunately I couldn’t find any floor paint in that colour and I didn’t
really have the measurements for the floor either. On the same design I planned
on using radiator paint but couldn’t find any of the colours I wanted only
white, off white and black. 
