Dragon Dictate blog testing

This is a test testing, testing DragonDictate onto the blog


Sent from my iPhone

Week One

It is week 35 at college and we are now about to do our Final Major Project. I am really excited as this means i can pick the subject matter and theme.
Ben went through the units and explained how to write the brief we were given a sample. I have written one before last year. I will work on this with Karen on Friday. Went to the library to look for books related to war artist and found loads. Otta Dix,Gros and many more.

Dave Campbell

Statement of Intent:  Once a tragedy twice a farce

Section 1

I will work towards producing paintings, collage and printing to explore and express in a vivid and imaginative and hopefully original way. I will look at expressing the underlying theme which is the systemic deepening economic crisis and the ensuing conflict.   This will extend my deepening understanding of the subject matter and the artist reasoning for their work. This theme will allow me to focus my creativity and find a medium to explore and express the underlying context of my work.

Section 2

I am going to look at artists such as: Goya, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Manet, Joan Miro and Picasso. They recorded and expressed in their own medium and style the events which were unfolding and on-going in certain periods of historical significance. Now we can look back and see the significant of those events, but at the time we did not see the significance. I will examine the underlying tensions brought about by the economic crisis looking at events that are taking place now and there likely outcomes.  Not looking at the surface of events but I will look beyond this focusing on what is going on underneath. I also wish you link these events with past historical outcomes.

I will visit the Liverpool library, Liverpool Museum, Walker art Gallery, Manchester city art Gallery. These visits will allow me to accumulate and deepen my perspective. I will follow news casts, parliamentary debates, and financial magazines, websites and video clips.

  Section 3

I will begin to explore a range of media pencil, pen and ink, charcoal leading up to painting, printing and collage. I will use a finer media such as pen ink to create detail and clarity which I will take forward into a print form.  I will revisit lino printing, etching, cholograph and other printing methods.   I will experiment with different paints looking at colour from an emotive and emotional perspective as well as mark marking. Collage will play a part of my images using found images as well my own printed images. I will consider computer manipulation using a scanner and photography.

Section 4

I will critically review my work within my sketchbook and I will also keep a reflective blog where I can keep a diary of events and comments of my direction and development. I will take part in a peer’s assessment which will give me the opportunity to share my work and receive feedback to which I can respond. I will then complete an in-depth evaluation to consider the strengths and weakness of my project.  

Week one

Here we are i am so excited the FMP at last. I will be able to do my whole project on my passion which is the economic crisis. The theme will look at past similar problems and i will look at artist that recorded and felt strongly about these problems.I have got to write an Statement of intent this will allow me to put all my ideas downs and give me a form of direction.
I have looked at these issues before and i have a great passion in these areas.

I will look at Otto who had great foresight.

Reflective Diary FMP 2012

Worked on powerpoint presentation started with Goya and worked my way through had lots of problems with the internet ! Here is a painting of the Spanish Royal family.

Comment on blogging

The blog has been a way of expressing myself, my thoughts and my learning process; both good and bad. It has allowed me to record both visually and verbally how I produced my work, and talk about its successes and my less successful attempts.
I have most definitely enjoyed the process of making my reflective diary in this manner.

Project Evaluation

My theme for my final project was conflict I began researching into three different areas of conflict and how they impacted on society. These were economic, war and government policy, in the process of my research I discovered that these themes were interlinked by the economic ups and downs.

I intended to select the most successful theme and produce a final painting which sums up man’s continues struggle to overcome many difficulties that society produces.

In the course of my research I investigated The Bosnian War. The second part of my research I looked at the economic crisis of the past and present and how they generate conflict between government and the people within society. Then my final part of my research looked at conflict resulting from government policy as it attempts to implement austerity measures related to the economic crisis.

Photographs were taken of soldiers, the homeless, College strikes against pension cuts, also a visit to a working museum in the potteries. This gave me valuable insight into the daily lives of people engaged in conflicts of various form. These were all highly relevant and gave me excellent inspiration and visual reference. All the above has been placed in my sketchbook and reflected upon in my reflective blog diary.

As part of my secondary research I looked at Peter Howson because of the graphic nature and honest approach of recording the nature and conflicts of the Bosnian War from the recent past. Which still reverberates today as can be seen with the arrest of the former Bosnian Serb General and his transferred to The Hague War Crime Tribunal, he will stand trail on the charge of genocide.

I also looked at Goya whose prints showed the graphic nature of war and he could be considered as the first true chronicler of realistic Napoleonic war in Spain and Portugal, images which held no religious connotations. I then looked at a range of war artist covering the 1^st and 2^nd World War as well as a photo journalist, Don Mac Cullman, who covers the Vietnam conflict and whose photographs have won many awards for his portrayal of the nature of war and its impact on the people.

The artists that I research influence me on many different levels from their subject matter and their portrayal of events, their backgrounds and links with historical events.

I then looked at the artists work and attempted to make an honest interruption whilst taking into account how they had constructed their paintings and drawings using the formal elements, shape colour, line etc. During this process I began to place my own thoughts and images into the works giving them an individual interruption. An example of which can be seen in the painting by Picasso from the Korea War where I added two ghosts like figures which represented the ghost from the past.

My intention was to work with a whole variety of medias to gain experience and also to fulfill my ideas which I had placed in my brief. I feel I have achieved this by working with the following media: pencil, charcoal, graphite, soft pastel, acrylics, oil paints, inks, mixed media, collage and a variety of paper, canvas, card, board on different scales. I continuously have annotated and evaluated all of this work has helped me to decided how and which media I wished to portray in my final piece which was oil painting on board on a large scale.

The media and techniques I chose were oil because it has a forgiving quality with a creamy finish. The colours have a richness which no other medium can truly imitate. The drying time is a lot longer which gives you time to revaluate your original concept. I took to this media like a duck to water although while I enjoyed this experience my technical abilities are still limited.

Firstly I made my own 4’ by 3’ frame in which I place a plywood board for my painting this was challenging but vital to create the impact that my subject matter lent itself and to produce a professional outcome.

The oils themselves I mixed myself and I found this went fairly well the main thing I learnt was to

• A. Mix enough of the colours you intend to use
• B. When mixing add a little pigment at a time until the desired colour is achieved.
• C. I used a variety of brushes, fingers and rags in some incidences I applied the paint to the board and blended to the desired effect.

Also it has been important to me to stay ahead of the game with my time management and this has paid off as it has allowed me plenty of time to experiment with this new media.

A range of things went well when developing my ideas I was particularly pleased with my line drawings as I do believe they have improved on a technical level. The acrylic paintings went well because I found I was now able to work at the right pace and been able to blend the colours and mix colours. Overall the project has gelled I felt my ideas flowed and I was able to overcome any difficulties in a cohesive fashion. I had natural progression to conclude with a large bold and expressive oil painting, which dealt with my subject matter both in metaphysical and cohesive fashion.

I produced a range of samples in different media which followed the theme and was influenced by artists and my own creative thoughts, which were placed into practice in a number of works I produced. There were a range of strengths and weakness’ which have been annotated in both my sketch book and my blog reflective diary. Some examples are: I particular liked the graphite work because I was able to create textures of different depths and levels. I was disappointed with the composition of the painting called ‘Ghost from the Past’, based on the Picasso Korean War, I included far too much background, which I rectified cropping on the colour photocopier.

My final outcome is made up of oil, paint and silk screen print on a large scale format. The image is a graphic style with figurative silhouettes climbing over a barrier which can be described as both physical and metaphorical and I feel its style is symbolic. I chose this style as it has a ‘no nonsense’ approach and cuts to the chase. I feel the silhouettes could be anyone so the viewer receives the message directly, which was my intension all along. I wanted to use my art to raise the level of consciousness of the viewer to what faces our society today and in the near future of economic crisis.

I felt this was the right time for me to write my own brief and to place into practice all the skills that I have obtained in the course of my studies and marry this together with my own interests in both historical and political economics. I have successfully managed the project to its conclusion. I feel pleasantly surprised at the outcome of my final piece as this is something I could not have produced previously. While it leaves a lot to be desired, never the less there are lessons that I am only to willing to learn from and put into practice to enhance my work. For instance I would like to pursue screen printing further. I am pleased that I have made progress within all areas of this final project.

I hope to learn that the viewer takes something away from my message that is being display. I hope it will engage the youth as well older viewer. This has been a useful experience, the pressure of reaching an exhibition deadline. Displaying the work in a professional manner and coping with the deadlines in place. Overall this was an enjoyable experience.