Exam evaluation

After completing my final AS Art exam, I feel that I am ready to talk about it.  My early studio sessions consisted of me not putting my full attention towards my work and just "slacking" within the subject of art. This led me to being behind in my coursework, especially my blog, which I have come to adore. However, once I had started to try, I found Art an extremely beneficial subject and I feel that although the first few lessons did not go well, they showed me how much I would have to work throughout this subject. I found using a blog throughout my exam process has really helped me to analyse my work and conclude where I wanted to go next. For example, I decided to change my exam question from "magnification" to "indistinct". I feel that my blog really helped me to make this decision efficiently, I was able to look back at my previous posts about my sketchbook and really think over what I wanted to do. I learnt from my coursework that I desperately needed more drawings within my work. Therefore, I decided to create a sketchbook full of drawings within my exam journey. I believe that this helped me to develop both my drawing skills and confidence in myself when drawings. As I became more confident my drawings developed, the marks became more free, making the overall drawings refined and more effective. Although my final coursework piece was created by using photos, I wanted to start using photography straight away within my exam journey because I feel that it backed my work up completely. In addition to that it gave me new ideas for what I wanted to take photos off and made me think whether or not I wanted to use photography within my final exam piece. My intentions from the start of the exam unit was in fact to use a strong influence of photography within my work, I didn't quite know how as I had so many ideas buzzing around my head so I had to get them in order. I knew straight away that there was a selection of different artists I wanted to look at and I feel that this really helped me to explore new and different ideas. I feel that creating a sketchbook full of drawings gave me a lot more leeway to choose artists as I didn't worry whether the work was completely drawing based or not because I felt I had the confidence to create studies from it.  

During my exam process, I decided to develop my understanding by visiting three different museums, the Tate Modern, The National Gallery and Somerset House. Throughout each museum I saw completely contrasting works, varying from beautiful, technical sculptures, to historical portraits. I feel that the Tate Modern influenced me the most, it contained a huge amount of expressive pieces and surrealism. I found both photography and expressive pieces side by side and this really inspired me. In addition to that, I found a new photographer, Henry Wessel, which really changed the way I looked at photographs with colour and without. I feel that looking at the photographs without colour really changes they way you think about them, I feel that it brings a darkness to the photos, which I strangely liked. The National Portrait Gallery offered me the chance to looked at "traditional", historical and royal work. This led me to looking at the work of Monet, an artist whose paintings of landscapes really interested me. The way he slightly blurred his paintings so you had to look closely at what interested you really caught my attention. The final gallery I visited was Somerset House where I was able to look at the work of Guy Bourdin, a fashion photographer whose work gave me inspiration to start to look at taking photos of people and covering up different parts of their body and how this affect what people thought of them and the photos. I feel that seeing art work in real life is completely different to what you expect to see. I expected to be standing opposite a wall, behind a barrier of glass box, looking at a piece of work that I couldn't really get close too. Galleries are nothing like this, you obviously can't touch the work but you are able look as closely as you want too. You can look at the work for as long as you want too, you may not always get this experience due to technology letting you down. I feel that galleries change the way you look at work, you may have two completely contrasting pieces of work next to each other and you are introduced to a style of artwork you may have never considered before. For example, sculptures have never been something that have really interested me, however when visiting the Tate Modern, I found myself indulging in in a variety of sculptures. Before visiting a gallery, I would have never really considered sculptures and I think that it why it is so important to view art work first hand.

The main artist that fundamentally changed and inspired my work was Gerhard Richter. I think his work will continue to inspire me every time I look at it. I believe that the variety of work he can produce leaves me in such amazement and that was what I was first really interested in by his work. I found Gerhard Richter's work in the library when searching for a book on a artist that really interested me. The first paintings of his I saw was"9.1.89", of a person or small child with paint expertly yet freely placed on top of the photograph, which covers up the face of the subject. This really interested me because I felt it fit so well within the topic of indistinct because I felt that not being able to see the subjects face completely changed the way I look at the photo. Richter's use of colour influenced me extremely throughout my exam process. The way he uses a similar colour then adds another completely contrasting colour which flicks throughout the streaks of paint creating an beautifully interesting tonal value. I couldn't say that my other artist Bruce Conner was discarded along the journey but I believe that he influenced me differently to Richter's work. I find Conners work a lot harder to study because the back story to most of his work is so in depth. Neither the less, I adore his work. I was introduced to Conners work by my teacher, and I knew that I would want to study his work. I find his use of found objects to create his work extremely interesting, they add so much more to the piece, like individual stories being added just bring more to each piece. Overall, I am extremely pleased with both of my artists, although I did only have two, I feel that they have inspired me enough and supported me enough to carry me through my exam process.

My theme for this process was "indistinct", a theme that originally interested me at the start of the process but I didn't choose until about two weeks into the process of my exam. I feel that the theme of "indistinct" really hit home. As I developed my work throughout the process, I develop looking at how society judges people without be able to see there face. I feel that this concept really interested me because as a teenager within society I feel judged a lot by things such a fashion, looks, body image and intelligence. Therefore I felt that I had a larger basis of ideas to work from. The main problem I faced during this journey was convincing people to let me take the photos, however once I had stated to them that you wouldn't be able to see their face their responded changed completely. People often asked to see the picture after and mainly complained about how they looked but felt reasonably comfortable because there face would be covered. I found this really interesting and it became an really important aspect for me to present within my work.

 I feel that I have really incorporated the use of material within this exam process therefore I believe that this is the newest way of working. Bruce Conner gave me the most inspiration for venturing out into using different materials than I previously had. For example, I decided to use different pieces of leather which I then decided to sew together to create an almost thick sheet of paper. I then looked at hanging it within my book on two separate pages. I felt that using different materials and techniques such as sewing has changed my perception of my work. I felt that it mades my work stand out more, the people became more real on the pages. This was really important to  me. 

I feel that all of the above has led to the creation of my final piece. I feel the my artists that I have chosen have really helped me to discover and conjure up ideas that really feel personal too me. I definitely feel that my final piece means something to me and I feel that it mean something to other people too. Everyone one has some sort of insecurity therefore I feel that my final piece really explores the way you judge people and how not being able to see there facial features really makes them become indistinct. My final piece  To improve my final piece, I would have defiantly liked to have create some more pictures. As I think about it now, I feel I would explore different ways of presenting my final piece if I had to chance to do my exam piece again. Whilst I really love the book because of the beautiful black and white toned pages, I feel that leading up to the exam I could have given myself some varied ways of presenting my final piece therefore I wouldn't feel as trapped to one particular piece which I believe did hold me down partly. To conclude, I am really happy with how my final piece turned out, although I did have trouble with the colour tones throughout my final piece, I feel that it really represents what I want it too. 

Below are some pictures of my final piece- 

Exam preparation books

I found the prefect book. After searching, I found the faultless book to hold my pictures, the pages, black and white with tiny sections of writing within it. Although this book is on gardening, I feel it will look great with white emulsion paint thinly covering the top of the writing. Since I had my photos and my book, I felt ready for my exam. However, I needed way more experiments with different mediums and materials I enjoyed. Therefore, I decided to find another book that I would to carry out my experiments in. This work really well, I know have lots of interesting ideas to cover my photos with, that also relates really well to my artist. I would have blogged about every page within my experimentation book, however I felt that it would have been pointless. Firstly because it would have dragged out my blog making it unbearable to read and secondly I feel that the experiments speak for themselves.  

Storing my final outcome

Since I knew exactly what I wanted to do for my final outcome, I needed to think about ways around presenting my photos. I liked my sketchbook pages because they were big and plain, however I felt that they had no real meaning to them. After discussing this with my teacher, I was shown this post card book. I knew automatically that I wanted to present my photos within a book. It adds to the idea of indistinct, with the photos covering up pages and words of the book, it simply made my work more indistinct.  

Final outcome ideas

After doing a lot of thinking and planning about what I would like to do for my final piece, I came to a conclusion. I want to take photos of people, relaxed and looking into the camera. I then want to manipulate these photos with different mediums such a paint, charcoal and others textures that I find interesting. After printing the photos in colour, I decided to change them to black and white. There was two reasons for this change. After visiting the Tate Modern and discovering Henry Wessel's work in which I adored the black and white colours of his pictures, I knew I defiantly wanted to use the tone of Wessel's pictures. Secondly, when I printed the photos in colour and began to work over them with paint and other mediums, it just did not work. The colour was too distracting to look at therefore you weren't focusing on the materials or mediums used. In addition to that looking at the picture as a whole just presented too much, there was simply too much going on. I decided to take two types of photos, firstly I would take a full body picture of someone standing still, looking at the camera. I would then a second picture of them without them knowing, I decided to take the picture very close to their face because the shock factor caused people to move away quickly which create movement within the background of the photo. My idea from this comes from the idea of our facial features making us distinct, so to take them away from us simply makes us indistinct. I wanted close up and full body pictures of people because as a society we judge people by there facial features, so to just be able to see a body or a background really starts to makes you think of what the actual person looks like, and how seeing there face would change your perceptions of them. To conclude, I am happy with my final outcome idea, I feel that it really represents something close to my heart. 

Painting over photographs

I continued with using photographs within my work. I used white emulsion paint to create different marks onto the photographs. I feel that the colour of the photographs really mix well with the white paint covering them up. In addition to that I feel that the marks made within the piece also add a lot of emphasis to the photos. I feel that creating these pieces have defiantly drawn me to the conclusion of taking photographs and covering different parts of them to make them indistinct for my final outcome. I feel that covering photographs up in certain ways really interests me and allows me to use the influence of Richter and Conner within my work. 

Photographs

I really enjoyed using photography within my work. In addition to that I enjoyed using the string and paint. So I decided to experiment with them both. I started by creating a small study of the paint and string, trying to re-create the previous study. However this did not go to plan therefore I had to try again. I feel that this time it went a lot better, so I was ready to create it using a photograph underneath. However I don't think that it turned out well, the paint has completely ruined the photograph and when I decided to scrap back the paint to create marks, it just stripped the photo down to the page. I decided to try one more time using a actual photo, by that I mean one that has not been printed using paper. I feel that this has improved the paint and string, however I still wasn't able to show the photograph. 

Pen and charcoal

I wanted to continuing with drawing different parts from the photograph. I decided to use newspaper as the background because I knew it had worked well before with pen and charcoal. I gave myself five minutes and began to observe the picture, creating studies using different mediums. I dislike the black smudge I had created within the middle of the page, I had accidentally created it by looking closely at a small texture created on the bone of the animal. To conclude, I am happy with the drawings I have created.