art – Page 2 – A DEAD LETTER

Local DMU Volunteering – Session 3 (recycling sculptor)

29 January 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

volunteering

I helped set up at 9:30am, this included bring in loads of bags of rubbish and dumping them in the middle of the room. once all children were seated and had their books the teachers started to show them the example sheets. the sheets for this week was different artist examples for the children to look at and help them understand how they could use the rubbish to make a sculpture. this was a very hands on session for both the children and us as we had to help them alot with the process of making the sculptors.

For this activity they had the rubbish, scissors and tape to us.

There was 5 groups making different animals.

Sea turtles
elephant (my group)
shark
show leopard
tiger

I decided to go sit with the elephants, this was a group of 4-5 girls. Before we started to make the elephant they had 15 mins to draw their own design in their sketchbook and then they all came together and had a A1 sheet to combine their ideas before they would start. Once the design was finalized and the children had given them selves a task each. Starting was a little slow but as they started talking they got more inventive and we started to make a river for the elephant to drink out of and grass around it.

i really enjoyed watching and helping the children with this task and they all worked together to create something and when there was a problem like it wouldn’t stand its self up, they would work together to find a way to make it stand this involved using a pot under its feet and then to fill it with blue objects to make it look like water. Below is a photo of the elephant.

Soon after this photo was taken the elephant sadly died due to a child’s foot apparently not liking it so it was kicked over swiftly. After all the mess way made the children helped us put all the rubbish back in to bags and then they went home. This was such a fun experience and really showed me how even thought they had some what limited materials they really did well and made structures with the materials, this helped me understand that you don’t have to make something so literal for the outcome to be what you want it to.

𝙳𝙼𝚄 Local Volunteering – Session 2 (colour wheel)

22 January 20227 March 2022Dead Roses

Volunteering

The classes start at 10am but the volunteers turn up at 9:30am to help set up, this time all it involves was putting chairs and table. When the children (30 children) turned up we helped give them name tags and their own sketchbook, so they can see all their work together. Once they where sat down the teacher started to explain what words we use to explain different aspects of colour and what the children would be doing that day.

The sheets below are the handouts for that day, we explained what the words mean on the sheet to the left. These sheets really helped the children as they got an example of the colour wheel they had to make.

The first task the children had to completer was to fill their own colour wheel with paint, for this we gave them a paint pallet with yellow, red and blue in and told them they have to make the colours and fill in each colour. This gave the a great experience of what primary colours ( primary colours are a set of colours that can be mixed to make all other colours) they would have to mix to make the ones they need for the colour wheel.

The other sheet we explained to the children is how colour can be used to express feelings, with the main two being how you can make a painting sad or happy. this lead to paint being thrown at the paper but in colour themes of how they where feeling at the time, once they had time to explore both of them sheets the next task was to draw themselves.

When drawing themselves they were given a sheet about proportions and showing how to draw a generic face. this was the hardest bit for them as they had to draw it and think about how they could do it as close as they could to reality, their parents helped them and it led to some very different outcomes. A lot of the older children did amazing with this part and stunted a lot of us on how well they managed to proportion the head. (one even doing a full body). Once they had done some drawing, some of the children decided to start doing backgrounds and this took form in beaches and living rooms with TVs.

This is not the original sheet they used, just an example I found on the internet

Research Into Society – Contextual study

28 November 20213 May 2022Dead Roses

subject research

Statistics And Facts About Tattoos

I started by researching statistics of how many people have tattoos but also what type of people have them, within this image it shows that ‘tattoos seems to be more popular with people who attained higher levels of education’ I found this really interesting and against the normal stigma around tattoos.

There has always been a sense that if you have tattoos you are in a gang or the mafia, therefore I did not find it that shocking that Italy has the highest percentage. This does not mean that stigma is true, from this stigma seeing someone who has a lot of tattoo threatening. So we tend to stay away from them.

38 Tattoo Statistics: 2020/2021 Industry, Trends & Demographics | CompareCamp.com

How Fast Do Human Judge Each Other

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-many-seconds-to-a-first-impression

Within the website there was two psychologists called Janine Willis and Alexander who carried out some studies that determined it takes a human a 10th of a second to judge another. This is mainly from a persons face and not only the first impression but your opinion might not change from that first 10th of a second even when you know them more.

Do Tattoo Stop People Getting Jobs

The BBC new report talks about if tattoos still effect people getting a job, they speak both about people having better opportunities due to their tattoos and also how over the last 5 years (this would have been from 2014-2019) people have lost their jobs due to body art. Their is no law stating that a boss can not fire someone on the grounds of body art, but it is seen as not a viable reason to dismiss someone. Over the last few years body art has become more popular and accepted but it is still seen as a non-professional look.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48620528

How People Live Fully Covered In Tattoo

I watched video and it was really interesting as it shows how being tattooed can effect different parts of someone’s life. From love life to starting a new business, they follow them to see how people react to them but also how they have to be brave and push through the judgement.
Within this video people talk about how they feel about one of the men, how they call him scary and one even stated he should not knock on people’s door after it get dark as he will terrify them. This shows how without even knowing him they would actively stay away from him, just due to appearance.

Where You Are Not Allowed Tattoos

Though all this research it has shown that society is slowly changing to become more acceptable to change ( I know this was heavily tattoos based) but it is still far from accepting, this is not only the same for tattoos this is throughout many different groups who are all trying to be themselves.

As this website says japan is a country where it is not really acceptable to have tattoos, this is surprising due to Japanese style bring so popular. Another one that was a shock was USA, I did not think they had a problem with tattoos due to the amount of Americans that get tattoos. On the same website here is one more facts I found interesting so thought it would add them.

Is It Safe To Have A Tattoo In Turkey? – CowBoy Tattoo

What Does A Tattoo Apprenticeship Involve

14 November 20213 May 2022Dead Roses

contextual and professional Studies

A tattoo apprenticeship is a excellent way to learn and start tattooing, But equally it can be a tough experience, therefore it very important to know what you will be involved in and where to find a establishment work in.

𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩

Tattoo Apprenticeship: Everything You Should Know

While conducting researching about tattooing apprenticeships, I found a useful website that details the work that an apprentice will experience. The website informs you of what skill you will develop, equally it informs you of alternative ways to learn tattooing (e.g tattoo schools).

Within a tattoo apprenticeship I will learn:

Hygiene (both of after care and during the tattoo).
Techniques of tattooing.
Needle usage.
How to make and use stencils.
How to continue into my own career (e.g booking clients and receiving payments).
Also experience.

A tattoo apprenticeships last around 2 years, started by watching and developing an understanding for set up and hygiene. During the apprenticeship you will tattoo on both real and synthetic skin under supervision by the experienced tattoo artist.

UK Official Tattoo Academy

Additionally I have also researched the UK Official Tattoo Academy. The academy is a tattoo school that teaches a two weeks course, this course is very intense and develops the artist’s understanding of tattooing quickly. It Costs around £2998 to join but eventually it will cost more due to travel or living expenses, as the academy is located in London. They do have a accommodation for £34 a night, so in total for a living space it would cost around £408 for two week and a weekend.

Tattoo Course

Tattoo School VS Apprenticeship

tattoo school

tattoo apprenticeship

–

Has a set curriculum and school time is not flexible.	An apprenticeship is more flexibility and does not have a set curriculum
Due to a class setting there will be near to no time one-on-one.	As an apprenticeship is personal there a greater chance for one-on-one development.
You will graduate with a degree for tattooing.	You get a qualification and possibly a career if you get in the shop.
You are studying along side and building relationships with more developing tattoo artist, But not building a client base during your degree.	You meet less tattoo artists but you build a client base and work off the shops clients.meet less tattoo artists.
You have set limit to learn and gain the skills needed to pass, as it is a school the teachers will have gone through training to teach.	you have as much time as you need but the teacher might not be a good teachers so you have to find a good apprenticeship.
To Join you need a diploma or a collage qualification of art.	you have to have a good portfolio and a good promise of development for an artist to think it’s good to use their time on you.
Getting in to a school is Easier, due to you just needing a qualifications.	Known for being hard to get into.

Although she is in another country there for there could be differences, i watched this video as it was helpful within a professional sense to hear about other people stories within how they got an apprenticeship, but also their advice as someone who has been through it.

Professionally I will need to be able to develop all different styles within tattooing to be able to have a divers client base, therefor I need to build a good portfolio to show the tattooist to be able to get an apprenticeship. This video was really helpful in order to see a practicing artist portfolio so I can see what they would be looking for within mine.

As I have conducted this research I have made a conclusion on what I would like to pursue in the future for my career, as a preference I would head for a apprenticeship due to its personal connection and flow of a client base. Within 2023 I will be applying for apprenticeships within my home town to start an apprenticeship in summer 2023.

𝘛𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘖𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳

14 November 202114 November 2021Dead Roses

Contextual and professional studies

I have done some research online and also a little in person on opportunities of tattooing apprenticeships within Leicester. 3 weeks ago I was talking to a person who works at Devils own tattoo shop, about getting an apprenticeship, She mentioned they are looking for an apprenticeship in January and I should hand in my CV. I would love to do this and start my career but this would mean having to move into the city, possibly just for summer or even longer. I would also not have time to do both the apprenticeship and university. Therefore won’t be taking this opportunity.

𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦…

When looking online –

found a facebook posted 4 weeks ago looking for a tattoo apprenticeship below is the post and the link.

I sent them a message to find out more about apprenticeships

I will update this post if I get a reply from them. I am going to do more research on tattoo apprenticeships and how to get a job within the industry (this will be on another post).

when looking online I was really surprised and confused, there was loads of places looking for an apprentice. This would also be a good place to get one due to the shop being in a city there would be a lot of traffic coming in and out of the store. But I was confused as I find looking online for places hard to get around because of going through all the websites and applications forms.

therefore like the first shop (devils own) I was talking about I found it a lot better going into the shop to look both at the atmosphere and also just understanding what they are looking for.

as I live in the country side I have to travel to the closes town to get a tattoo and this town is very small, there are only two tattoo shops. one of these I have been getting my tattoos done there for 2 years now, I have also spoken to them many times about apprenticeship and my plan is to send in my CV and some work in 2023 July to hopefully see if they will take me as an apprentice (due to this being the first summer after university so I’ll have plenty of time).

𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯

to also boots my search on possibly jobs and offers I made a linked in account so that I can look for jobs but also will be notified when an offer is put up. I have joked about 5 different job websites that send me emails about new job offers. I’m looking at both tattooing jobs but also some jobs I can do along side the apprenticeship as while learning I won’t be making a decent amount of money to support myself. I also think some apprenticeships I will have to pay to be taught.

𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝗉𝖾𝗇 – 𝗅𝖾𝗂𝖼𝖾𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖺𝗋𝗍 𝗆𝗎𝗌𝖾𝗎𝗆 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗀𝖺𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗋𝗒

6 November 20213 May 2022Dead Roses

Contextual and professional studies

When the gallery first opened in 1849 there was 10,000 different objects given from the Leicester Literal and Philosophical Society. Within the museum and gallery there are a massive range of artworks, animals fossils and many other things to see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_Museum_%26_Art_Gallery

Through out the year the museum host many events for example:

Family days
meet the artist
black history events
open 32
And so much more

Open 32 is an event and exhibition that encourages artist of all levels to hand in their art works you just have to apply using their website to get your art into the judging stage of the application. They have an adult and junior section to apply to, then you have to fill out some questions about yourself and give them the title and information about your art pieces. Each person can put 3 pieces of art.

This is my application form, and all the imformation, i had to give them.( and all the information i wrote about above)

Below are the prices depending if your a student or not. The only thing you need is prof of study when you hand in.

Once I had filled out the form I sent it off and then waited for it to go through a judging process, i just had to wait till November to find out if any of my 3 pieces got in to the galley.

On the 4th of November I received an email saying that 2/3 of my art works have been chosen to go into the gallery.I needed to get them framed and ready to be delivered to the gallery between the 27-29th of November 2021. Below is the email

I backed my art pieces on to mount board using adhesive spray, making them presentable, but also stronger. I then needed to buy mirror clips and get the art work framed. I started to look around for places to find cheap frames and found a store that would custom frame both peace’s for £25. It took a couple of days to frame, after my art works was ready to be handed in on the 27th November 2021.

These are the pieces I am handing in, when handing them in all I did was sign them in. Due to circumstances I was not able to attend the opening or the artist meet up within the gallery.

I went to visit the works after a while, it was amazing to see works from ages of 6+. This was a very beneficial experience as a professional artist, as I now know what to expect when applying for a galley. Also contextually due to seeing how the gallery had presented each work and used different artists works to complement each others. While my work was in this gallery I visited the gallery itself and looked around the whole thing to see all the other works within it.

𝗧𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘂𝗺 & 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘆

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery – Leicester Museums

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
53 New Walk
Leicester
LE1 7EA

Telephone: +44 (0)116 225 4900

natural inspiration from walks

5 November 20219 January 2022Dead Roses

artist research

While exploring etchings I started to look into insperation on how I can develop my etchings and I remembered the chapman brothers, but also a massive inspiration is the world around us. I have some photos of places i went that inspired me but also about the chapman brothers.

Nature inspires alot of my work as drawings but as this year I have been exploring and descoving/ studing nature more. I started to think about and learn much more about colours and how nature uses them. Below are some photos I took while out n nature that inspired or intrested me.

These are some of the places I went and thing I saw that inspired me, all of the colours are there for a reason weather it to draw things in, to send a warning or to camouflage. When looking at this side of colour it helped me to understand on how I can use colour within my art. By this I mean how I can draw a persons eye through my works or to one section of the work before another.
The mushroom shown in the photo is a brightly coloured rare mushroom in the waxcap family ( scarlet waxcap). They are rare due to how they will only grow in grass lands that haven’t been touched by pesticides and chemicals, the bright colour makes the mushroom stand out from the grass and bring a persons eye straight to it. For art this would help people to be drawn to a section of the artwork before another this could be useful for a body off work being presented or a massive piece with a deeper meaning.

the Foxthe fox fits into the nature but also seems like it’s a random colour of orange, this shows how you can use colour more freely and have some that stand out really strong in an image it doesn’t always have to fit in, it’s more abstract.

white flowers flowers are bright and colourful and stand out to help bees find them to be pollinated, therefore the bright colours make them stand out and attract people towards them in order to help themselves. This could be used in art in a way that I’d you have a bright colour scattered around a piece of art the persons eye will scan across the whole pierce of art and make the art look more of a whole piece with the same colour linking different elements.
Trees in the Woodall thought the trees are a different colour to the ground around them, they still are harder to see. This shows how you have to take a longer look than normal to be able to see them. This could be used in art as a way of making people look deeper into the art and also making something seen but not as straight away.
Grass on the tree this shows how different things in nature can stand out and contrast against each other, this could be used well in art to make one thing stand out more than the other.

moss on tree the moss hides the tree really well but you can still see it, using this technique shows how something can be so in your face but still hidden.

Etching

30 October 20216 January 2022Dead Roses

Etching is the prossess of using acid to engrave a design into a piece of metal, then this metal is inked and printed. As this is a taught lesson at first ill be preparing the plate and drawing a random design.

I found this video on YouTube, this not only shows the process of etching but also of other techniques like dry-point and engraving. The video also shows different materials you can use within the studio we will use different materials to the ones used in this video but the outcome will be the same.

while preparing the plate we used a paste the technician made to clean the plate from grease (this took a couple of goes). Then we dried the plate using a heating plate and added hard wax onto the plate then let it cool down. Once the plate was ready we drew onto it using a needle.

This was the design I made on the plate and once this was done I taped up the back with pastel tape and made a handle so I could get the plate out the acid easier. This plate stayed in the acid for around 5-6 mins with a feather being rubbed over the surface as bubbles appeared. Due to the acid being used by other students and me wanting to tried more things with etching I decided to prepare a bigger plate.

This was the outcome to the first etching I made. I really like the outcome and it gave me a really good test on how detailed I can get before for acid starts to bite into the metal. Once I had done this I started to look into etching and how I could develop my ideas, I am going to make another post about the chapman brothers and their works with another artists etching and their development on it.

Another technique I used to create my print was the cleaning process, by the I mean I cleaned the plate from 90% of the surface ink but with the last 10% l only cleaned off highlights (e.g the highlights on the flowers) I decided to play around with adding highlights is to add depth and texture. I feel this really helped to develop the print from just a line drawing, also I feel I need to add colours to help this piece and help with showing the context more.

Artist CV

29 October 202129 April 2022Dead Roses

Contextual and professional Studies

Name:******* *****

Address:*************

Contact details:**********

Very brief description about your current practice ie specialism & studying FA at DMU

With in my studies I am exploring how society looks and treats other people, but also playing with the concept of the other side. The other side meaning how individuals feel about society. As a collective we don’t see how we pull people back and ideal the “perfect person”, yet there are people who don’t want to be this “perfect person” so they do what they want, this action of being who they want to be then creates the argument of are they the perfect person for being free and who they are or are they just too different that its bad? and who gets to decide this?. Therefor I am exploring how people like me, who want to be different and have art on my body but also fight with body image issues and just trying to be the best me I can, feel when society tells us we have to be a “perfect person” and hold all the creative individuals back.

Education and Awards (start from DMU go back to FAD/ND/A Levels)

Fine Art BA (Hons) Year 1

UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma in art and design (distinction)

UAL Level 3 Diploma in Art And Design (merit)

Exhibitions one person/group (start from most recent)

2 piece of my work Exhibited in the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery on the 4th December -21st January

Online exhibition with another student. ( in progress)

A group of students and I fundraised, planned and curated a gallery within Two Queens Gallery in Leicester for the second years in De Montfort University from 4th-8th march 2022

Exhibited work in the second year gallery .Two within the VJ patel building in De Montfort University 28th April-9th may 2022

Publications:

Any articles, magazines, these could be online

Commissions:

Collections (Sales):

don’t list individual sales, just mention they are in:

UK private/public collections

Europe private/public collections

etc

Volunteering with 𝙳𝙼𝚄 Local to help teach children art from 9;30-11;30 on Saturday for 10 weeks.

Made a printing edition with the class and it was given to some lecturers.

𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩

20 October 202130 December 2021Dead Roses

After making my original collagraph I decided to try and experiment more within this technique. As a start I wanted to see if I could create a reversed effect, for this is used a roller to roll ink onto the plate and then printed it. I’m glade I tried this because It changed the result dramatically.

After doing this I wanted to take my experimenting further, my next development is to go from under A5 to A1. I also want to try a more relief style collagraph, for this I thought of making this plate in a more 3D style.

For this I decided to try and use string to so it will have a low relief. This will also cause the paper to have a risen 3D print on the back, this could be a fascinating idea to develop.

I order to do this I used a A1 mount board and drew out the design I wished for. I used wool and PVA glue to slowly place it down. Once dried I painted the whole thing with shellac so it holds better but is also water proof.

when inking the plate up, at first, I wanted it to be clean and just lines but as I was in the process of inking I decided to be a little more loose and started to let the ink so where the roller would touch when just rolling over it. This left a blocky college look that I have been convinced to love.

This was the final look of just printing the collagraph and I really like it, the next thing I want to try is adding colour but I’m not exactly sure how I want to do that right now. All I know is I don’t want to do it with just ink and a roller. As I feel there is a much more interesting and effective way of adding colour.

next I will be trying etching and my plan is to do a black an white experiment etching and then try and add colour to both the etching and the collagraph, as I feel it might help me to be more loose if I can bounce between the two and use them to help the other. I also have plans to try out making a background before printing the collagraph but I’m not sure how I want the back ground so I need to do some experimenting on this.