Moving On...

I have now finished my A Levels and am moving on to University at Oxford Brookes to study Architecture. I still plan to keep drawing in the same style in my free time. I am pleased to say that I was successful in Achieving full marks in Art at A level.

Here are two final pieces which never got uploaded from the AoAR project.

Joe

Everything, AOAR and Measurement of Time.

Here is a long awaited post of work from this year, unfortunately I lost track of the blog during exams for other irrelevant subjects like Maths. This was my space in the exhibition at school and features all of my A2 work from the last year.

Measurement Of Time 1

A new project has begun which is sadly my last school drawing project ever, after only posting one entire project on my blog - AOAR. Maybe relating this new project to time will give me a sense of perspective as I head to university at the end of the summer. I hope to produce a very meaningful and interesting collection of work during the next project which will be concluded with a 15 hour art exam, fun.

Assembly Rooms Exhibition 2010!

Posted before my school had chance! I have uploaded a few images of my work in the assembly rooms along with a few others I liked and thought should be featured. Work from nearly every student in sixth form was submitted into the exhibition where it will stay over the next month.

The 3 pieces on the right are my work, the far right being AOAR final piece 1 and the higher one AOAR final piece 2 accompanied by my EPQ final piece. They were joined by two of Alex Harris's pieces of work which were both of an exceptional standard and also the drawing at bottom left was drawn by Claire Simpson who is in the year below.

Me with all of my drawings =], the next project awaits!

Aspects of American Realism Planning

A small charcoal piece of planning of a NYC backstreet, this was used to produce the background for my second final piece.

A black and white planning drawn in fineliner, this is again another NYC city image from David Beckerman. The corner of this was used as an extra building to make the street wider for my second final piece. The big 5 on the top left window is visible if you look closely.

Although I have already drawn this image I have illustrated it using fine liner and digitally filled in the black areas to create a solid black and white version which is also very interesting. unfortunately this was not featured in my final piece however it did inspire my photography of the car.

Aspects of American Realism Final Piece 1 progress

Very nearly finished now! Could even be complete later today so this is a slightly pointless post. I am excited about my school exhibition at the assembly rooms where both AOAR final pieces and my truck will be displayed.

Aspects of American Realism Final Piece 2

This is the second final piece of my realism project, after going off on a black and white tangent of various artists mainly inspired by Frank Miller I decided that my second final piece should also be black and white.

(The 3 images below are digital stages of development and were not drawn unlike the finished piece above)

I wanted to produce a typical 50's mobster image, unfortunately such a scene would be very hard to recreate and photograph.Instead I had to produce my scene digitaly, first I took a photograph of a 50's American car on which the image would be based.

After adjusting the photograph I then had to insert the character, I chose to use the illustration by Frank Miller I had previously studied as it fitted nicely into position in the car with a few small tweaks.

I then used the work of black and white NYC photographers to create a background scene, as I has adjusted all of these images to solid black on white they were fairly straight forward to piece together and create a finalized image from which my finished piece of work would be produced from.

Soon as I had this printed off it was down to producing a final piece, I made it identical in size to my first final piece (33 x 18 1/4 inches). I then had to choose my materials, I wanted to work on paper as it is a smooth surface and means I don't have to paint the white areas. I used fineliners to outline all of the shapes as it is far more controlled than a paintbrush in the hands of myself meaning that I could get precise edges leaving fine lines of white where necessary. Having lined the image out I had left myself with a giant paint by numbers, with only one number, black. I tried a few different paints before hand and found that Gouache paints were best suited as they matched the fine liner and produced a perfect smooth black finish as if printed.

Aspects of American Realism Final Piece 1 progress

Aspects of American Realism Black and White 1

I have chosen to explore Black and White images along with a single colour for the remainder of my project, this was as I felt my Speedy Park was so successful and I wanted to try something a bit different before I begin my next project. This piece of work is an Artist Connection with Frank Miller the writer and illustrator of the Sin City comics. This is the cover of 'That Yellow Bastard'. First I drew out the image using fine liner and then inked in the black areas so I could have accurate detail and cover the page quickly.

I then photographed the hard copy (above) and used photoshop to adjust the image digitaly. I made the contrast very high to make the image solid black and white and then extended the black area around the drawing. I then added the text from the original illustration, my outcome for piece this will be a printed copy of this digital image as that is how the original would have been viewed.

Aspects of American Realism Final Piece 1 progress

Another a piece has been nibbled away at to the right of the grille and below the hood, I may do another small piece tomorrow night. Although these additions each day looks small they are about A4 in area as can be seen by the photo I am working from in the corner. After a discussion with my tutors today I may do more black and white pen work like my Speedy Park piece, possibly images from Sin City or from my own photographs. I now have 6 weeks to finish this project which will include another big piece of work.

Aspects of American Realism Final Piece 1 progress

Another small piece added today, I spent nearly an hour on the tiny slither and sharpened up the edges ready for the next chunk tomorrow. The picture is quickly building up now and starting to look like a good composition.

Aspects of American Realism 9

This is the fourth small drawing and it is a small part of my final piece. It is A4 in HB pencil's which have been smoothed out. The car these photo's were taken from is a Ford V8 Pilot which is surprisingly not American. It was the last V8 car built by Ford for the English market and that was in the early 60's.

Aspects of American Realism Final Piece 1 progress

This is my first final piece which is just a bit thinner than A1, it is about half finished at the moment.