Progress Tutorial - Ben

Secret 7: Submission Response

I can't actually quite believe it but today I received notification that one of my final designs for The Jam's "Art School" track has been chosen and will feature in the Secret 7 exhibition hosted at the Sonos Studios in London. 

This is the first time I have ever been accepted into anything, and it feels so good to know that I spent time creating a lot of artwork I am really proud of...and that other people like it too. It has also made me reflect on this module so far as a little more successful than i thought - which is great.

This process and actually winning and having work recognised has definitely motivated me to create more artwork like this in the future and opened up the possibility of maybe actually committing to making this my focus / area of practice within the illustration industry.

Combining two of my most favourite things in the whole world

Music & Creativity

I hope to be able to visit the opening day of the exhibition if I find the money to be able too. I cant wait to see this design on a secret 7 sleeve for myself!

OUIL505: Hama Bead Experimentation

Following on from some of my previous research for this project, I finally bit the bullet and decided to give Hama bead art a shot. I am not sure what intrigues me so much about the thought of "fuse beads" as a medium, maybe its the possibility of simplifying down shapes and patterns or the potential for colour theory exploration with such a wide variety of block colour choices - either way I am sure it will be fun!

I initially wasn't sure what colours to buy therefore decided to just buy a big box of 30,000 beads. On first opening the box I realise my mistake straight away-all the beads are of course jumbled up in their vast array of 55 different colours and opacities and each bead is tiny - only 2mm in diameter. Undeterred by the fact that each hama bead piece 




Possible applications for my 3d "hama bead" art:

• key rings
• coasters
• jewellery
• badges
• magnets
• 3d colourful child's picture book (of simplified coral species)

Thoughts
As much fun as this process was and how much I liked the "back to basics" approach of creating artwork - I am unsure where to go with it from here. It is bold, creative, has impact and on the plus side - the "patterns within nature" concept running throughout my project for this OUIL505 module has been addressed and attempted within these pieces. Despite this, I feel the overall aesthetics fall somewhat flat and take away from the beauty that actually is within nature and these intricate organisms I have been studying. The medium seems too unnatural for such a "natural" subject. 
The patterns are extremely simplified down here and although this may work for a different - more "lighthearted" body of work and final resolutions - I am not sure these pieces are in keeping with the seriousness and true nature behind my "coral reef conservation" concept and besides - without spending time un-sorting the 29,500 hama beads i have left  - I will be here forever attempting to create more of these pieces and a larger body of final resolutions in this media.

Sue Von Ohlsen: Beaded Coral Art

Sue Von Ohlsen: Beaded Coral Art

Artist: Sue Von Ohlsen 

Ohlsen is a master beader and skilled knitter. In this work she has created coral like pseudospheres out of hundreds of metallic beads. She uses hues of blue green and violet to create an eye catching effect, and graduated tones give an organic change in colour through the pieces. Ohlson uses a gourd stich with here beading which gives a crochet type effect. Her detailed work represents hundreds of house of hours of labor. This relates to my style of work as I tend to produce high detailed laborious pieces. 

A quote from the artist: 

"I was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1956 and have been doing needlework of all types since I was a child. I am completely self-trained and taught myself beadwork in the 1960's when my Grandma gave me her leftover beads to play with. My work has been in Beadwork Magazine twice (once on the cover!) and I have been in several international juried bead art shows, winning a few awards in the process. I am a certified Master Knitter and I teach knitting classes at a shop I now own called The Knitting Corner in Virginia Beach, VA."

From the sea:

Ohlsens work appears to come from the ocean with its organic shapes and iridescent shimmering colours. The work was produced for a project called "The Crochet coral Reef" which was created to pay homage to the great barrier reef and highlight the issues that cause damage to it such as global warming and pollution.

The Crochet coral Reef: http://crochetcoralreef.org/about/index.php

Images source: http://crochetcoralreef.org/contributors/sue_von_ohlsen.php  

Artist Research: Andy Gilmore

Andy Gilmore
http://www.theghostlystore.com/collections/andy-gilmore

Thoughts

I first came across Andy Gilmore when I was thinking about ways of getting my own illustrations onto various products in certain design circles. Andy's work has featured on a number of electronic casings and vinyl decals for phones, tablets, laptops and watches and I admittedly ended up buying a case for my phone featuring his work (above). Thus began the love affair.

What I like most about Andy's work is his choice and use of colour as well as the geometric, fragmented high amounts of detail. His work takes our current idea of "pattern" and pushes this to its limits, helping I think to create pieces of extremely high quality which guide and absorb our attention and can be admired for hours. At a large scale, I feel the work helps to influence atmosphere, it appears to be aesthetically pleasing, artistically "free" design in looks (colour placement, palette &random pattern)) but within controlled boundaries (digital media, mathematical). The work to me resembles various nature based environments heavily influenced by light and colour, as if viewed through a kaleidoscope or broken mirrors, or that the work itself could be 3D and you need 3D glasses to view the hidden message. As with many pattern designs, this work is universally appealing and used in a very versatile way suggesting how successful it is. Not only device packaging, but Andy's work is used for various digital backgrounds, bought as physical prints, used for installations and projection based work, as well as much much more.

I would love to create work similar to this, with a heavy focus on light, opacity, pattern, detail and most of all colour. Investigating pattern in a similar way to Andy could be the building blocks of work for many modules running right now such as my OUIL501 COP2 psychedelic art 'publication', my OUIL503 Responsive 'Secret 7' brief or OUIL505. With 505 I am really heading towards 'object & environment' as my specialism and can't help but think of BIG ideas. Interactive projection patterns that I have illustrated or large pattern based murals created using masks/stencils and spray paint/airbrush...The use of colour and trying to master it seems completely daunting, however it seems to also be my main enthusiasm currently and something I feel could be really important in my own practise.

Notes/Ideas going forward:

• Layered card/paper/painted wood in subtle variations of colour. Builds up pattern.
• Image which merges into pattern/fragments
• Projection based digital artwork/illustration
• Kaleidoscope experience? How would you create this as an installation/exhibition/wall piece?
• (interaction)
• Stencil based mural/graffiti work using spray paints, paint, air brush
• Screen print? (multiple tones/colour variations could be created using screen print and layered colours
• colour by numbers interactive experience. (audience adds to a colour by numbers pattern piece)
• 3D glasses visual pieces-do these images work with a variation of colours? (not just blue for right eye and red for left etc)