Evaluation- Personal Project

 When I first received the assignment brief on a personal project I was very happy as I was able to choose a project rather than being given one.   After careful consideration about what I wanted to do I felt that the project should centre around London as I live here. What fascinates me about London is the variety of buildings both historic and modern in close proximity to each other.  Tourists and Londoners alike appreciate the grandeur of London's architecture and this is what I decided my brief should be.

I started my research by walking around London and taking photographs of what I thought were interesting and distinctive buildings.  I began walking in St Pauls taking photos of the cathedral and then went to backstreets of Oxford Circus, Bond Street, Piccadilly, Hyde Park and the City. When taking my photos I tried to get shots containing perspective and originality rather than straight forward angles.

My first painting was of St Pauls where I used watercolour paint rather than acrylic paint as it would be too thick and I think that I got the best effect that I would with watercolour especially for shading areas.  What I liked about St Pauls was the depth and perspective of the area that I took a photo of. The next picture I painted was of a restaurant which was a natural green colour with hanging flower baskets which brightened it up even more. I thought the building looked idyllic and peaceful and decided that it would be good to paint.  From St Pauls Cathedral and the restaurant I continued drawing more buildings which I thought had character. My first drawing, found on page 4, is of a row of houses in a crescent showing all the numbers next to one other. I liked this as it is not the norm. This was quite difficult getting the proportions correct but I happily managed it. On pages six and seven I have done more perspective drawings which I painted using watercolour. I think that the watercolour looks good as the paint isn’t too heavy on the page and the media fits perfectly.  On page six I have attempted to create an awareness of the height of the building by showing linear lines grasping attention. The other drawing is a very simple perspective one of shops on Bond Street.

After the drawings I decided to test out different media. These can be found on pages 8 and 9 .The first picture at the top left of the page is done with ink on water. I loved the effect and felt that I should experiment more with this technique. At the bottom of the page, I painted the same scene using ink from a bottle with a twig as a brush. However, there is not a lot of difference to be seen between that and an ordinary pen drawing so I saw no point in developing it further. On page 9, I have used the Gucci building (page28) from one of the photographs that I have taken. The top drawing is of pen overlaid with pencil but there is insufficient depth. I then tried an ink version and abstracted the essence of the structure. I used grease proof paper to see the effect on a different medium. This did look better than on regular paper and I think that the texture of the ink and smoothness of the paper worked well together. The greaseproof paper gives a sepia effect which I really like. In the third experiment of the page I developed the process by broadening the front of the building which improved the perspective.

  I thought that I should look at famous works of art of London. I therefore looked at Monet’s Houses of Parliament which I really admire because of the different trials in colour and atmosphere that he created as well as how parliament looks like a silhouetted against the background. Using the idea from my trial of ink on water, I made a transcript and tried to imitate his effects using orange, blue and black ink on a watery base. I think they look successful, and I love how the water disperses on the page.

I looked at the artist Piet Mondrian who used abstract art initially for a tree and soon developed the tree to look like many squares with black, yellow, red and blue colours as the focus in the end development. I tried this effect of breaking down my picture of St Paul’s cathedral using poster paint, taking out the details such as the pillars and the windows and changing them into squiggles and simple shapes. The picture does look abstract although I thought that it looked rather messy and don’t like the outcome too much. I next analysed Monet, Cezanne and James McNeill Whistler as they have all have done paintings in London and I thought it was worthwhile researching them to see their work and what techniques they used. I noticed that all three of them have in common with impressionism and thought that it was important to research it. Although I really appreciate their work, I do not feel that I do my best work in this style.

From pages 24 to 35 I have a mood board showing primary and secondary sources of pictures that I have found in magazines and have taken photographs of. The photographs that I have taken show the architecture around London and landmarks that make London different, such as their grandeur which archways, limestone, tall windows with turret shapes above them, brickwork and Elizabethan style as well as many more. I stumbled across an artist named Joseph Pennell and I really liked his style of where he uses charcoal to get a fabulous effect. I really liked this and when on my travels taking picture, I went to Greenwich to see the painted hall as it has a beautiful interior. Using his technique of light and dark with charcoal I made a copy of the interior of the dome. I feel this was very successful and I was able to achieve a strong contrast.   

I started planning out an idea of what my final piece would look like. Using my photographs, I cut out the parts that I wanted and made a collage of a street with Buckingham palace as the centre.  I decided that it was all very well having my own photographs but I wanted something that I had designed myself. I came up with a design that I would call a new landmark for Britain. I used imaginative patterns that oozed personality as well as showing character I named it ‘the patterned eye’ because I included eyes in it. This would resemble London being safely watched as I want my building to feel safe. My teachers guided me in the right direction by showing me artists that have worked with pattern; these are Chris Offili and Gustav Klimt. Chris Ofili uses a free flowing style which I really admired as my ‘patterned eye’ included this effect, although, it got me thinking about how maybe my work for my final piece should have a free style. Gustav Klimt also uses flowing spirals with an art nouveau effect which I really like.

I began drawing out trials of my final piece. I considered where I should put ‘the patterned eye’ and then thought ‘where better to put it than the centre of Buckingham Palace where hundreds of people visit daily. The eyes could symbolise the Queen watching over her country. I started drawing the palace with ‘the patterned eye’ in the centre. I changed the palace and made it hexagonal with roads coming from each end, giving perspective, which is similar to my Gucci building that I have developed. I wanted to combine the historic and modern London in my final piece and have included some very traditional features such as the arches, and the style of windows adjacent to modern brickwork and glass structures. 

I made a number of photocopies of the drawing so that I can experiment on what media was best, what colours worked and using different backgrounds for the sky with magazines. The pencil drawing copy that I used for the photocopy was used again but this time, I wanted to see what it would look like without ‘the patterned eye’ and to just have Buckingham palace with the perspective streets. I think this did look nice but I thought that there was no point in development as ‘the patterned eye’ makes the picture more attractive. For one of the trials for ‘the patterned eye’, I used watercolour which looked good and then added an attractive sky by cutting out triangles of a sky from a magazine and placing them around the sky area though, making sure for the triangles not to cover the whole sky but most of it so to seem effective.  Another copy that I did using a black pen was emphasising the patterns on the page and making the pattern from ‘the patterned eye’ spread freely through the image on the whole page. I also emphasised some of the windows to make them fly. I really loved this trial and think that it is worth my while developing it to see what other media I could use with it.

I began my final piece and wanted it to be on an A2 board. It was larger than my drawings, which were A3 size, and I wanted to get the right proportions so, I had my copy enlarged on two pieces of paper making an A2 size. I then traced the paper and again onto the board and the proportions came out perfectly that I could see the outline well enough to complete on the board. Once my pencil drawings of my buildings were on the board, I began painting and wanted to use expressive colours that stood out but would not clash. For the background colour of the sky I used a dark blue near the top which became slightly lighter through the page. This was effective as it gave the impression of clouds. For the road, I used pink which stands out in contrast to the blue. I used a darker pink for the pavement and for ‘the patterned eye’ I used a range from red to purple. The patterns in the sky, which I now think looks plant like, are cream and pink. I also used cream for the front of the palace and used red and blue dabs to make a stained glass window effect. I really like my final piece and think that it looks quirky yet beautiful with the colours used and the original sky.