FURTHER DRAWINGS - MICHAEL LANDY

During my resarch i bought a book named 'the drawings book' in here i came across an artist named Michael Landy, his etched pencil on paper drawings in paticular. I find the use of shape and tone in his drawings really interesting. This made me look to my drawings and think about using pencil and more tone.

Michael Landy

 

Using Tone imitating shapes in drawings by Michael Landy.

 

I now intend to create/develop a series of small tonal drawings - using shapes and forms from my research.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

After many drawing studies on 'plant cells' I began to broaden the subject of 'plant data' and develop my research further by looking at the data of plants in one specific area. With this in mind I visited a nearby park.

Map of park.

At the park I began to collect data/research from the area circled in red, hear i found a large amount of chopped down trees with just the stumps left. but I found that the growth coming through from the stump was really interesting. I began to take photographs and various drawings.

Growth from inside a tree

tree parts

mushroom growth

mushroom growth on a stump

DATA DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

 

When researching 'DATA' I began to think about 'DNA' and types of DNA. I soon came across a book named 'plant life by Roland Ennos & Elizabeth Sheffield, which had diagrams & pictures of 'Plant DNA'. I found these diagrams interesting as they reminded me of black fine liner drawings - I saw this as an opportunity to develop the shapes and forms further through my own drawings.

pages from 'plant life'

I develop various drawings from these pages using mix media including Indian ink, water colour, charcoal, graphite, pencil, Biro & mascara.

I first started to work with Indian ink & stick, i found the stick to be effective as it gave a variety of marks - a sense of uneven surface which worked well with the drawings in the book. 

The drawings below are both taken from cell drawings in the book.

I then developed my drawing further using an old mascara.

 

I liked the quality of line that the mascara produced and think that it captured the texture in the photographs in the book 'plant life'. I also think that the water colour worked well and gave it some shading.

Over the Christmas period i have created various studies from the book 'plant life' in a range of media. i know intend to take my own photograph of plant cells etc. and develop a colour palette. 

Examples of drawings.

oil pastels - black, greys & whites (grey scale) gave interesting tones.

working on newspaper, coffee stained background a study in Indian ink and white acrylic paint.

Evaluation Of Origins Unit

I think that in this project I have made strong connections between my research (drawing etc.) and my final samples. I have studied the shapes and forms in my research and tried to translate them through knit and weave. I have translated the colours (tones and shades) and have also tried to keep the textures in my drawings, but through varied yarns. The research aspect of this project has also been strongly developed through this project with drawings, photographs and artist inspiration.

I created a range of drawings, including collages, in this particular drawing below I began looking at bark and the textures and shapes within it – I did a series of these drawings which I found to be successful in that it gave me inspiration on how to translate the shapes and textures through yarns and into knit and weave.

In this project I think that my drawings have developed more – I made a series of detailed drawings using a range of media, but I think that in future projects that I would like to push myself further and use a range of scale – push the boundaries and work out of my sketchbook. the possibilities of scale are endless.

 

In this project I have learnt that I have a ‘knack’ for the knitting machines and once the techniques were learnt I found it very easy to push these techniques further – mixing techniques, yarns, colours and translating my research into the knit samples. I enjoyed knit mor than weave as I found weave quite restricting.

 In this project, I have been greatly influenced through my contextualising practice research, throughout this project I have been thinking of ‘what is making?’ and is what I am doing making? Is the development process making? These questions have helped me push my work further.

This project I think that I have managed my time well in that I have met all my deadlines – with all work finished at what I believe to be a excellent standard, although I do think I could have put more time in to push my work further. I think that I used my workshop time very well as I was in the workshop – booked on a machine nearly every day.

 

Knit

 

When starting knit I was anxious. I had never used a knitting machine before and did not know what to expect.

On learning how to use the domestic knitting machines, I was excited to start to translate my ideas and research into the knit. I first decided that the colours on my Weave did not translate the colours on my mood board very well, therefore I began to search for yarns that I thought would suit my colour scheme and what would make my knit sample come alive.

 

The first process was to learn all the knit techniques, I learnt, plain knit, cast on/off, ladders, lace holes, partial knit, hook up and how to use the punch cards.

after reflecting on these techniques I have decided to use the plain knit, partial knit and hook up techniques as I feel they best reflect the shapes and forms in my research.

 

I can now begin to mix my chosen techniques and colours together.

 

 

 

In this sample I have used the partial knit and hook-up effects, using the browns and green as a base I added whispers of bright colours (to the right proportions on my yarn wrap), I think the techniques create a interesting textured surface and the bright colours lift the dark colours up. On reflection I would add more hook-ups and slightly more bright colours.

 

 

This sample is made of the hook-up and partial knit techniques. i have used a large variation of thick and fine yarns. Looking at this sample know, i feel that it needs more bright colours, maybe some pink? and the lighter green, as if the yellow wasn't there, the sample would look dull and have a muddy effect.

 

 

 

Yarn Bombing

 

After an introduction to knit, I became very interested in yarn bombing. Yarn bombing is a type of 'knitting grafitti'. People who are the yarn bombers knit around public objects - from a bus to a tree! I am particularly interested in the yarn bombing around trees and nature.

 

Below are examples of a typical yarn bombing on a tree.

 

 

 

 

I  find tree bombing particularly interesting to me as my knit will have a strong connection with trees/bark and it makes me wonder what possibilities there could be with yarn bombing, could it be a types of reflective textured knit wrapped round the tree? how would my knit look against the bark of a tree?

 

 

Weave

When starting weave I was eager to pour all of my drawings and research so far into it. I had to consider my choice of yarns, the colour of my yarns,what I would introduce through my weft, and what patterns I would use.

The first step was creating my warp, I used fine cottons in 4 different colours, repeated to create a 'stripey' warp. this idea sprouted from tree 'finelner' drawings, as the use of varied fineline's were a nice underlying effect.

For the weft, i varied yarns, from very fine cottons to thick wools, this gave a changing/varying effect which i could see in my research (drawings/photographs).

I started to work with the colours on my warp, but looking back I find that the colours do not work, for instance, the purple is to bold/strong next to the other colours.



At the start of my weave I experimented with varying the yarns to see what effect it would give, I found that the yarn and pattern changed to often, as you can't see the detailed pattern I used.

 I then started to look at different weave patterns that I could relate to. I came across the 'crater' pattern (as seen above) and found that the shapes and forms within the pattern were alike those in my drawings, with this in mind, I made the pattern using a green shetland wool. although this worked I felt a need to develop it further along, maybe vary the colours? vary yarns? I then proceeded to make the weave below.

 
Using the crater pattern I tried to blend colours together, to create a tonal effect, I feel it created its own drawing within the weave.

 

Although this is just a 'plain weave' I feel that it was of the most interesting pieces of weave that I have woven. as my warp is so detailed and interesting, with a thick brown woollen yarn I wove through, giving it a textured surface.

 

 

I feel that i have translated all my ideas, inspirations and research into my weave and will continue to do so throughout the rest of this unit (knit).