Final Pieces:
For my Decades project, I had to create 4 separate final pieces of the same format that saw both my digital skills and traditional artistic skills combined to produce final imagery showing my theme over the 40 year period. This resulted in one product per decade. My aim was to make a product that was suitable for all audiences and allowed my imagery to be informative from the research I collected about my theme of social unrest and to communicate how unrest affected youth subculture. Alongside this, I wanted my final pieces to still remain decorative in order to be displayed in a public place relating to youth subculture (such as a cafe or clothing shop).
During my final piece development, I became inspired by the idea of rebellion and ways to laterally present fighting back as an expression. I focused upon my research of the youth subcultures I chose to base the project around and the unrest they went through, as a result I found that shoes were not only an expression of identity but also historic in the rebellious nature youth showed going against society (in the form of riots, fights and strikes).
I chose to use Dr Martens as a symbol of the violent triangle that formed between culture and society due to unrest; after researching into different types of shoes throughout the youth subcultures I found that Dr Martens were the most present piece of clothing within each subculture and equally involved as part of the teenage ethic and amongst the unrest.
During my final piece development, I became inspired by the idea of rebellion and ways to laterally present fighting back as an expression. I focused upon my research of the youth subcultures I chose to base the project around and the unrest they went through, as a result I found that shoes were not only an expression of identity but also historic in the rebellious nature youth showed going against society (in the form of riots, fights and strikes).
I chose to use Dr Martens as a symbol of the violent triangle that formed between culture and society due to unrest; after researching into different types of shoes throughout the youth subcultures I found that Dr Martens were the most present piece of clothing within each subculture and equally involved as part of the teenage ethic and amongst the unrest.
Original Design Testing:
![Picture](/uploads/6/0/6/2/60627651/1446738399.png)
I began to experiment in ceramics after the use of fabric shoes during the development towards my final outcomes. To do this, I used clay to sculpt a life scale Dr Marten boot out of slabs to get a 3D model. I found that making my own shoes was more personal and fulfilling than painting directly onto a shoe. I went on to fire the clay to eliminate health and safety risks involving clay and to make it less vulnerable to break.
Although making the 3D boot worked as a canvas better than the fabric shoe; this is due to the fabric moving and soaking in the paint so the colours run and faded quickly whilst being hard to paint on, compared to the fired clay that allowed paint and the cello tape to stay on.
I found that the clay allowed me to experiment with techniques I planned to use on my final piece imagery; I found that image transfer using paint did not work as effectively directly onto the clay and as a result of this I went onto use cello tape, which allowed the image produced digitally to be shown on the clay. I also painted directly onto the shoe to show my artist influence by concluding my research using lateral and literal image to show unrest.
I feel I was mostly inspired by the stencilling techniques of Banksy, the way Stefan Sagmeister uses text to show darker meaning in his work and the way that Jean Michel Basquiat uses symbolism in his work to communicate an opinion on social issues during my testing. I showed this by using the technique of stencils on my work to show the iconic figures and the use of lyrics and quotes to illustrate the unrest in the imagery laterally; I also used symbolism in the form of shape, colour and objects to show how unrest has caused youth to rebel against society. overall, I felt that the influence of these artists allowed me to produce a dark narrative in my imagery which was my aim in order to show the atmosphere of unrest effectively.
Although making the 3D boot worked as a canvas better than the fabric shoe; this is due to the fabric moving and soaking in the paint so the colours run and faded quickly whilst being hard to paint on, compared to the fired clay that allowed paint and the cello tape to stay on.
I found that the clay allowed me to experiment with techniques I planned to use on my final piece imagery; I found that image transfer using paint did not work as effectively directly onto the clay and as a result of this I went onto use cello tape, which allowed the image produced digitally to be shown on the clay. I also painted directly onto the shoe to show my artist influence by concluding my research using lateral and literal image to show unrest.
I feel I was mostly inspired by the stencilling techniques of Banksy, the way Stefan Sagmeister uses text to show darker meaning in his work and the way that Jean Michel Basquiat uses symbolism in his work to communicate an opinion on social issues during my testing. I showed this by using the technique of stencils on my work to show the iconic figures and the use of lyrics and quotes to illustrate the unrest in the imagery laterally; I also used symbolism in the form of shape, colour and objects to show how unrest has caused youth to rebel against society. overall, I felt that the influence of these artists allowed me to produce a dark narrative in my imagery which was my aim in order to show the atmosphere of unrest effectively.
Development towards my final outcomes:
Although the idea of having a 3D piece was strong, the reality of keeping it in one piece proved difficult due to the weight of the clay resulting in parts snapping off. Due to travelling and keeping the four pieces safe I felt that this method was too high risk of the products breaking due to the materials fragile properties.
To resolve this, I went on to try using clay in a flat format; I did this by using plaster to cast a mould of a life size Dr Marten side in order to make a press mould. The mould enabled me to press slabs of clay directly to get the shape of the shoe. This method was more effective on reflection in comparison to previous attempts as it allowed me to produce the shape numerous times within a short time span. Overall, I feel that this process was the most effective as it allowed me to still work 3D with clay, giving dimension and a good base for my imagery whilst allowing me to keep to deadline. |
Final Imagery on the Products:
In order to get my digital imagery onto the clay shoes, I used image transfer combined with paint. This proved effective because the imagery stayed on the shoe and was clear to the eye using cello tape. I used paint to highlight parts of the image that became unclear and show emotions in my work through the use of colours and marks as i tired to communicate frustration and violence undertaken in my work. I feel this made my imagery deeper because it had a cold atmosphere surrounding the shoes, communicating that there was aggression and sadness in the imagery.
I used both literal and lateral ideas in my imagery including the use of cultural and political icons to present society and culture which i was inspired to do after looking into Peter Blake's collages based on cultural aspects of life where he combined iconic musicians, models, cartoons and logos together to tell a narrative about a certain era or country. I was influenced by Martin O'Neill's use of direction in his imagery; I positioned the images in a way that showed the hierarchy of class/society to show the difference in culture and society in order to produce unrest in the image. I found this technique helpful in creating narrative imagery as it drew attention to different elements of the image at different times, joining a narrative together about unrest in the image to the audience. I found that i was influenced by Stefan Sagmeister's use of text in his imagery to create an unnerving feeling in his subject; to show the distress unrest caused amongst youth groups in my imagery I used lyrics and quotes from iconic musicians and political icons from the decade in order to show unrest laterally. As a result of this, I feel that my imagery became more balanced and narrative.
I found that my imagery took on a dark edge/Gothic appearance under the influence of Banksy, Sagmeister and Basquiat; although this was unintentional in my design ideas, I found that because of the message I was trying to communicate contained a dark meaning it effected my style of work, which on reflection fits into the atmosphere of unrest. I was inspired by Banksy's use of stencilling and adapted my hand rendered stencil pieces in Photoshop to create images that were originally stencil based but I was able to manipulate layers to subtly show other elements of images that showed unrest in order to show my message clearly using lateral methods. I feel I connected with Banksy's work in this project because of the messages focusing upon how society affects culture negatively. To show this in my own work, I used language techniques such as sarcasm, metaphors and similes to produce sadistic dark humour within the imagery to show the unrest triangle.
I found that I was also influenced by the illustrator Louis Jover within my own illustrations by the use of newspapers and lettering to show how youth culture was presented by the media and how the social issues caused unrest as a canvas for my imagery and narrative. I found that I was able to develop my illustrations laterally in Photoshop from this inspiration of working within the lines of text; on reflection making my imagery louder as a result of this technique creating a more honest and personal image as the drawings took on their own voice.
I used both literal and lateral ideas in my imagery including the use of cultural and political icons to present society and culture which i was inspired to do after looking into Peter Blake's collages based on cultural aspects of life where he combined iconic musicians, models, cartoons and logos together to tell a narrative about a certain era or country. I was influenced by Martin O'Neill's use of direction in his imagery; I positioned the images in a way that showed the hierarchy of class/society to show the difference in culture and society in order to produce unrest in the image. I found this technique helpful in creating narrative imagery as it drew attention to different elements of the image at different times, joining a narrative together about unrest in the image to the audience. I found that i was influenced by Stefan Sagmeister's use of text in his imagery to create an unnerving feeling in his subject; to show the distress unrest caused amongst youth groups in my imagery I used lyrics and quotes from iconic musicians and political icons from the decade in order to show unrest laterally. As a result of this, I feel that my imagery became more balanced and narrative.
I found that my imagery took on a dark edge/Gothic appearance under the influence of Banksy, Sagmeister and Basquiat; although this was unintentional in my design ideas, I found that because of the message I was trying to communicate contained a dark meaning it effected my style of work, which on reflection fits into the atmosphere of unrest. I was inspired by Banksy's use of stencilling and adapted my hand rendered stencil pieces in Photoshop to create images that were originally stencil based but I was able to manipulate layers to subtly show other elements of images that showed unrest in order to show my message clearly using lateral methods. I feel I connected with Banksy's work in this project because of the messages focusing upon how society affects culture negatively. To show this in my own work, I used language techniques such as sarcasm, metaphors and similes to produce sadistic dark humour within the imagery to show the unrest triangle.
I found that I was also influenced by the illustrator Louis Jover within my own illustrations by the use of newspapers and lettering to show how youth culture was presented by the media and how the social issues caused unrest as a canvas for my imagery and narrative. I found that I was able to develop my illustrations laterally in Photoshop from this inspiration of working within the lines of text; on reflection making my imagery louder as a result of this technique creating a more honest and personal image as the drawings took on their own voice.
On Reflection:
overall, I am pleased with the way the techniques gained from artist research and experimentation turned out onto my final design and that my images are lateral as it allows the audience to question my work. I feel that I could have further developed my imagery to show unrest in a literal manner as I feel that unrest became lost amongst the image in the final stages of development.
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