A new Direction

I haven't posted in a while due to Halloween and all, but now i'm back :).Last week I was talking to my tutors at the progress review and they suggested to move away from colour and focus more on "Observations from Domestic Space". The reason that topic was advised was because I took photos, which they liked, during the first few weeks of the course.The photos are close-ups of different objects around my house. I was told to go back to them and work on them in more detail, looking at their colour and textures and to see if they are organic or man-made.

 These are two photos I took just to show what I do :) the top one is organic and the one under it is man-made, but they are still very similar in a way :)

 So that's what I'm at now :) bye for now.

Paper Weaving

Last tuesday I went to a 3D workshop, and as I have mentioned before I learned how to finger knit and do paper weaving. Paper weaving is done with paper straws. :) Just like finger knitting it's very simple but looks great. I tired it using different numbers of straws as it changes the way it will look. I used 4,5,6,7,and 8 straws. Those are a few pictures of the things you could do with paper weaving using different amount of straws.


This one used 5 straws

 This one uses 8 straws

 This one uses 7 straws

 This one has 4 straws

 This one has 6 straws

 In order from left to right:
7 straws, 4 straws and 6 straws

 This one uses 5 straws and is coloured using acrylics

 :) and that's all of them together

Ceramics Demonstration

On thursday I went to the first years ceramic building to see a bit of the ceramics demonstration. There, Marcus O'Mahony, demonstrated some of his works. He is part of many different ceramic groups which are not only located in ireland. O'Mahony's studio is in County Waterford where his work is mainly done on the wheel. It was an interesting demonstration as I don't know much about ceramics. He mentions that ceramics is about the materials, the making and the firing and not just the making, which is why he himself loves pottery. I learned that the clay used in pottery making can be very important. Marcus O'Mahony gets inspired by looking at other objects and architecture, but mostly pottery. I learned that there are many different types of clay such as the very textured clay that O'mahony likes to use which looks redish but after being fired turns black. Very hot temperatures when firing can even turn the redish clay into a metallic looking one. The reason for that is that the clay is naturally high in iron content but the salt draws the iron out. Another thing I learned at the demonstration was making one pottery piece out of two pieces and then putting them together on the wheel. The top part is made first on the wheel and then the lower part. They are measured out to make sure they will fit on top of each other. From being at the demonstration even for just around one hour I have learned many new things which I never knew about. It was worth it going to O'Mahony's ceramics demonstration. 

http://www.marcusomahony.com/

Finger Knitting

Last tuesday  I went to an 3D workshop in my college :) . There I learned how to do finger knitting and paper weaving (which I will post about another time). :) I didn't even know that such a thing as finger knitting even existed. It is such an easy thing to do and also a lot fun. These are some images about the threads I knitted.

In this picture I did finger knitting using three fingers.

 This is a close up of the finger knitting one where i used three fingers.

In this picture I used four fingers to knit.

 This is a close up of it.

 With this I was just messing around with coloured thread. I used four fingers there.

.

:) here is a close up of it

Because I now am able to finger knit I will try dipping some into dye next time and I might experiment a bit with different materials. :)

More Pictures :)

These are more pictures in which I mess around with watercolour :).

 This time I let the watercolour run down the page a bit, which is something I have never done before.

 These pictures are in my sketchbook :)

Painting Cardboard

:) Hello again, today i was painting cardboard, but not any cardboard. This one was especially used in boxes to protect ceramics objects and make sure they wont break. I found the way the cardboard looked very interesting as it's texture is very unique. :) I used metalic acrylic paints to make it look more unusuall. You wouldn't notice it was cardboard after it was painted. :)

 I forgot to take a picture of the cardboard before it was painted so i just took a picture of the back of it :)

 This is a picture of the cardboard with using these four metalic acrylic paints :)

I have no idea how Imanaged to get my hands covered in so much paint after :P

This is the finished painted cardboard piece :)

This is a close-up of the finished piece :)

My work

I haven't been posting any pictures lately because I first had to buy batteries for my camera. Anyway, this weekend I have been trying out felting but it didn't work as well as last time. I did learn from my mistakes though and I wont do them again :) I still have a lot to learn and things to improve on.

These are two pictures which are in my sketchbook in which i am messing around with watercolours :)

I did this one today :)

This one is from during this week :)

National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland 2012

On friday Patrick Horan and me, went to look at the "National Self-Portrait Collection of Irealand 2012". This exibition has been taking place in the University of Limerick since 1983 and has been founded by the National institude for Higher Education. The purpose of this event is to form a collection of self-portraits made by irish artists. There we also saw one of Michael Canning's works which is one of the first year tutors in LSAD. But, there weren't only self-portaits displayed but also varietes of landscape and still life paintings. I found it especially interesting to see the differen't styles the artists had in their paintings and the differen't materials artists used to create their finished art piece. Overall I thought it was an experience which was worth seeing.

 

 

I posted this picture because I just find it so amazing. It is interesting the way optical illusions work.

 

 

 

Concentrate on the four dots in the middle of the picture for about 30 seconds. Then close your eyes, or look up toward the ceiling. Within seconds you will see an image. Continue looking at the image…What Do You See??

Today due to talks I didn't get much work done. But, I did do work in my sketchbook and I also finished painting my little clay man.

 

 

 During this week I have been working on my sketchbook a lot and did some felting. :)

messing with watercolours in my sketchbook

An example of things in my sketchbook looking at fabrics, colour charts and pictures I took of close-ups of objeccts with textures

 For the first time ever i tried felting :P it wasn't too bad lol.

This week I mostly  worked on my sketchbook and did further reasearch with the artists I picked. Hopefully, this weekend, I will try to do felting and work more on my sketchbook. At the moment i am looking up colour studies and theories.

 

 

Michael Shapcott is a painter I reasearched who is known for his portraits. This is one of the videos that Michael Shapcott has in which he shows the way he paints a painting. I find his work very interesting and uniqe. He uses random colours in places I would have never thought of and makes them look great. I also added some other paintings he created.