Final Project Evaluation

Group work: I feel as though I myself have worked well within in the group. There have been people who have not pulled their weight the whole way throught the project, and I felt Steph, Claire and I carried the rest of the group on occasions. By the end of the project however everyone did pull together and we managed to create some really exciting work.

Own Project Development: I was a bit slow getting into the project but I think that is because it was 10 weeks long so the sense of panick wasn't there from the begining. Once I had got started I found a topic I was able to stick to easily and carry on into made and drawn material. The crochet, atex and cotton wool samples I created evolved and moved on to a point until I realised we just needed bulk rather than beauty for the final filming and I was taking too much time over each one. The slow hand processes I used reflected the 'slow is beautiful' idea and I felt really connected to that idea for the future through actually doing it.

Contextual research: As a group the artist research was really interesting and pushed the ideas from the beginning, however each person still had very different ideas of where the project was going and the research reflected that and sent us in far too many different directions. Once we had found the Andrew Huang video and been to visit microbiology to collect our own photos, I didn't feel the need to research into the art world any further for inspiration as our work would have started to look like theris and too may more ideas would have arisen which we wouldn't have had time to deal with.

My final samples

                            

 Latex samples. These represent the agar plate and the area on which mould grows. I added paint and cotton wool to these as they were drying to create more texture and to show the idea of organisms growing onto a medium.
 Cotton wool samples. I made a lot of these near the end of the project because I had simply rolled them in water and paint so they were easy and quick to make. This was useful because we needed to bulk up the amount of samples towards the end. I also embroidered into them which I love, but they were time consuming and the camera didn't pick up the detail ayway.

 Crocheted circle samples. These were used to bulk up the amount of samples by the end because they were small and quick to make. These are just a few of them, I made about one hundred in all.

 Crocheted and french knot samples. I loved making these because they were a different technique and showed skill, and aso linked in with the slow in beautiful theme thrugh the slow hand processes used.

 Cotton wool buds and paint. These were good as they tied in the surgical and sterile element of our ideas and the idea of adding paint represented the contaminating of Gavin's lab in Microbiology with our mould growths.

A quick overall image of all the samples I managed to make in the time. I feel as though I made a lot of the samples when others maybe didn't feel it as important to make as many. I  am glad I did though because the overall film really benefitted from a substantial amount of samples to play with.

Latex sample stop motion

Stop motion at the end of the day using latex samples as the focus. It would have been better using more photos and moving the samples less to make it smoother.

Sketchbook work

 Sketchbook page. I  used cotton wool buds to paint with. It created a really interesting texture and the colours mixed really well.

 Adding water and paint to cotton wool. I like how the paint is such a stronger colour on the wispy edges.

 Page out of sketchbook. I made small drawings next to the large one like looking through a microscope. This represents well my vision for all the groups made samples put together. I'm excited to see how they will look.

Drawn stop motion

Drawn stop motions are much easier to make look smoother because you can make the difference between each photo much more subtle.

Sample stop motions

These films are all very basic, and are used with quite large samples so it is quite juttery. I've found using much smaller, or just more samples creates a much smoother video.

Stop motion up the wall

It was tough making a stop motion going up the wall on my own because I had to find ways of attaching to the surface. Also I was moving around a lot, it is definately easier with more than one person.

Stop motion of Mould on Footprints

3rd stop motion made. I have really enjoyed them and I feel like I'm getting the hang of them more now.

Stop motion of Four Samples

Video of samples made into stop motion. Short film just showing how mould grows.

Crochet Samples

 Crochet and french knot samples inspired by the shape and texture of mould.

Sketchbook work

 I have been using a lot of watercolour in my sketchbook work because I love the way the colours can mix together without being a completely even colour.

 Here I dropped water onto the paint after mixing the colours and the effect it makes is a beautiful representation of mould ans growth.

 This was an experiment of one of the moulds found in the petri dishes. Crunching paper creates a really interesting texture.

Using masking tape is a good texture fround to then add colour to. It already has that rough, powdery quality found on so many of the moulds.

1st Stop motion video

                                             Video experiment using samples. Loved doing this!

Seeing the Mould Cultures

So a week on, we have gone back and looked at the mould cultures we collected from different places and photographed them, and seen them under microscopes.

 This one is the most different because it is like a fuzz across the agar instead of a 3D shape and it links in witht the textures I used previously. Also the colour is beautiful.

 These two plates bring in new colous witht the dark green and the peach orange, and mustard yellow. These could be a good contrast and something to set off the powdery blues.

 Using the mould as a filter where you can see Manchester behind. This could be a way of linking the city with the project.

 We can now start using the colours we have from tht mould to inform our colour palettes, thankfully my colours already linked in with the moulds, especially the one above. There so many otherexciting colours we can add though! I love this luid green just oozing out of te top of this culture.

These are going to encourage me to start working more 3D. I don't want to just recreate the mould I can see though, so I am planning on drawing very frrly with the shape, texture and colour as inspiration. I want to create small scale on a big scale, really detailed. We are planning to draw collaboratively from the images on friday but I would like to start some of my own before hand.

I need to star making a colour palette with thread and gouache!

Embroidering onto willow

I now moved the sewing samples onto willow to make the willow more alive. The spreading of the mould across the wood creates moement and looks as though it is grwing out of and trapping the willow structure inside. It is feeding on it. I love the combination of something so natrual wuth a sort of simulated natural embroidery.

I believe more natural materials will be used in the future and I want my work at the moment to reflect that. In the way that China fully encompasses their natural materials such as bamboo, I feel it is important for us to the same, and things like willow will be perfect.

Drawing French Knots

I also wanted to draw the french knot samples before moving on with the making.

I painted in a very similar way to before with the mould, and then added details of the stitches in afterwards with fineliner. I really love working in this way.

Drawing the making

After working very loose and drawing very freely and expressively I decided to control my drawing and produce some pencil drawn detailed images.

These were really fun to do because it was my opportunity to create something realistic and I gave myself time that I would not normally give to draw one piece and really capture the shape and shadows.

These were then loosened up a bit to add colour and movement. I like drawing with pen and then adding colour loosely over the top; mixing the paint on the paper and I would like to do this more, on a larger scale.

Making!

The work in long strips was nice but I wanted to experiment with natural shapes, and the cirlce encompassed the idea of our lives becoming completely combined, and an emphasis in the future on community.

Here I even created the circles entwining together aswell.
Here I wanted to incorporate hand embroidery and a more traditional way of working. Before working onto willow I experimented on fabric in a very tradtional way.

 I loved making this piece, but it did take most of the week. It reflected both the colours I am most interested in and the movement and spreading of disease.

 It would be good to be able to do this quicker in a digital way using photocopying and photoshop. It has the hand made element but doesn't take the level of effort. Some are definatley going to stay very slow though because that is my whole ethos, and I would like to make some of them into recorded, stop motion pieces.

Drawings of mould

Visiting Gavin really inspired me to work more on my project, but I still had none of my own visual research so I carried on using the textures and blue for inspiration to create more abstract drawings that would inspire my making.

The colous I ended up using are far nicer than the ones I had used before. I love how deep they are. They are meant to be, not just a tentative afterthought. Laying down a thick water colour, then adding water after in splats creates a beautiful looking texture and reflects well the idea of a mould and it growing outwards.

Drawings of mould inspired by photo

 From the starting point of that last image of the powdery blue mould, I started drawing the textures and shapes I liked out of it. I found the fluffy and soft aspect interesting, and also this sort of jelly bean shape. The colours were also fun to experiment with, I added a lot more green tones then I could see in the images because they lifted the image.

This image is interesting because I dropped a large quantity of ink onto the paper and then added water and from looking at the photos I have taken of moud the shape fits in really well.

 Here were my forst attempts at adding 3D into the drawings, actually creating a texture out of toilet roll which would also soak up colour amazingly.

This last image shows how I have treid to link the drawings back to my original ones using the spiral element which I feel adds a large part of the movement to the image.

First Mould Drawing From Images

First drawings of microscopic mould found from the internet. At this point we still didn't have our own photos so they had to do to just start making and drawing and getting some ideas of what we want to do next.

This image at the bottom inspired me the most because of the unusual texture, sort of fluffy. Also the colours were so disticnt. This powdery blue which faded into white. The 3D element was also really interesting, and something i would like st start looking at in more detail.