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Using nothing but goldleaf and water, I created an illusion of a star during the WMT which we were given a short amount of time of 30 minutes. The goldleaf was perfect to use as it shines and gives it a metallic look. Though I had ran out of the gold version of goldleaf, the silver imitation goldleaf worked even better.

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Using a needle and a printed photograph,  I created a interpretation of Freind's work, the end result being reminiscent of stars. She uses the technique 'Dare Alla Luce' where small pins are used puncture holes through the photograph.

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I wanted to create a photograph with meaning behind it, therefore this piece is a reflection of my life with some exaggeration in the picture. The photograph shows two figures slumped and I wanted to create waves with the mini circular discs wedged in the little spaces of the object. The lighting is significant using the colour blue to connote a sense of melancholy and depression. This is due to my personal struggles with depression and just waking up and feeling like the world has been sucked of all its enjoyment. I wanted this piece to represent heartbreak, similar to what had occurred in my life early this year. I fell into a dark headspace due to having my heart broken and completely losing myself with depersonalisation and derealisation affecting my personal life everyday. I was completely lost and my life had been turned completely upside down, I was not happy and that made me feel even worse. I wanted to be happy so bad, but no matter how hard i tried i would fall back into the same loop of sadness and negativity. I struggled a-lot mentally this year and I wanted to show that briefly in very few of my pieces as its a theme i want to expand on in the near future. I feel like it deserves its own little spotlight and where I get to really talk about my life through opening up more in my artwork. The photograph features a couple who struggle with depression and i wanted to represent that through their slumped body language and blue lighting. I created this piece with my classmate, Aliza, where we both contributed equally to the final outcome.

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Using a vinyl, i created an acrylic pouring piece with bright acrylics. To begin, I painted the vinyl white first in order to avoid the black of the vinyl seeping through the colour and making it less vibrant. I then mixed the colours with acrylic pouring medium and poured all the colours in one big cup. I then placed the vinyl facing down on the cup and flipped both objects upside down letting the acrylic flow out on the disc. I then manoeuvred the vinyl letting gravity do all the work and once I was satisfied with the patterns created I let it dry. I chose to work with a vinyl due to its circular shape but also my love for music. I am moved by songs hence using vinyls throughout my project showcasing my connection with music.

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The end result reminded me of different planets within the universe which is a theme i touched upon at the beginning of my project.

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Listening to cruel world I painted with my eyes closed and tried to represent the production and vocals of the song through aggressive, messy brushstrokes. Where then instrumentals got heavier, so did the brushstrokes and where the song was softer and quieter, the brushstrokes were smaller and less visible.

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Taking inspiration from the piece 'The art of the circle' by Dina, I created a piece using acrylics due to their high pigmentation and vibrancy and made the piece personal to me. I wanted this piece to reflect my personality. The bright colours reflect my bubbly, optimistic personality as well as my generosity and where I am in my life as of now. However, the piece is fragmented which I did intentionally to represent how I am still finding myself and I'm getting to the place I wanna be. I would say I'm in a good place in my life right now, which is represented through the colours, they are bright, appealing and vibrant, however, I'm not where I want to be.

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Using a fine liner, I drew many circles without lifting my pen of the paper as a speed drawing task. It reminded me of the wire I used when creating my 3D piece.

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Using a stencil derived from the internet, I wanted to combine my personal interest with this theme, those being vinyl's and music as well as Lana Del Rey who has been a predominant subject within my theme. Using an x-acto knife, I cut the stencil out and stuck it onto the vinyl using cellotape. Once the stencil was secure on the vinyl, I used a sponge to apply the acrylic paint, though the application was too dark making it barely noticeable, and the stencil started ripping apart, therefore I had to paint the image and throw away what was left of the stencil. I used a brighter colour in order to see the painted piece and to make it stand out using paint brushes. Once I was happy with the painting, I set it to dry.

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I wanted to write a poem about circles, and to me it reminded me of innocence and youth. I talk about ageing in my poem and how the world becomes harder as you grow. Its kind of a dark topic in my opinion, I've watched my parents work and become burnt out just to make a living. But its also how I've grown up and my innocence has left me, I reflect on my youth and how much easier things were. I also reference the song, 'Ring around the rosies', linking back to my theme of circles. It links with the theme as I remember dancing in a circle and singing nursery rhymes and I wanted to convey a sense of playfulness and innocence also juxtaposed with sadness and the reality of a cruel world.

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Using acrylics I painted what i think the song Cruel World would sound like visually. The end result left a sound wave painted in acrylics. Where the instrumentals and vocals were heavier and more emotional, I painted larger lines to visually represent the grungy vibe of the song. Using my record player, I put the album, Ultraviolence, on the turntable and painted with my eyes closed. The album opens with the track, Cruel World which I referenced in my previous posts. I listened closely to the melodies and instrumentals to really feel the vibe of the song. Later, I wanted to add more to the painted sound wave, therefore I used a toothbrush and watered down the acrylics to allow me to dip into the paint and flick paint onto the page. To me, this helps emphasise elements of the song where the instrumentals were heavier to convey a strong message. I used more flicks where the production of the song was louder and more stronger to visually represent the heaviness of the song. The end result left a spray paint effect.

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Using oils, I created an oil portrait of my favourite poet and singer, Lana Del Rey. The reason why I am choosing to base my project off her and her lyricism is because it resonates with me and I love the hypnotic songs she creates. Painting her in the shape of a circle is significant as it is reminiscent of her track, 'Cruel World', where she screams the lyrics "You're young, you're wild, you're free, you dance in circle around me, you're fucking crazy." Furthermore, I have yet to experiment with oils within this project, therefore I wanted to use oils to develop my techniques and skills. I really wanted to strive for realism within this piece and make the painting seem as real as possible, therefore a-lot of challenges were faced when finding the right tones and colours for different features of the face. I found myself deviating from the reference and making the skin tone darker than the original photograph, therefore i had to revisit different features of the face such as the lips, the skin tone and the neck. To really bring this piece to life, I had to pay close attention to detail. Using a very small brush, I had to create small strands of hair to emphasise the realism and also create highlights in the hair in order to avoid the hair looking flat and 2D like. Furthermore, highlights were used for the eyes, lips and nose . To conclude, I am very satisfied with the final outcome of this painting, I believe I was able to capture as much detail as possible and develop my techniques to the next level. I learnt a lot whilst painting this piece such as creating highlights, making the eye whites a blue/grey colour instead of only white, and also to be patient whilst creating a piece. I would always find myself rushing pieces and making sure it was complete which effected the quality of the art piece, whereas with this painting, I made sure I took a break when I needed one, and didn't rush any aspect of the painting. Taking inspiration from Browns painting 'The last of England' I used white around the portrait and a circular portrait to show significance and importance in my personal life. Its really magical what albums and artists can do for you, for me personally, they have opened my eyes, changed my perspective and spoken to me through deep lyrics and heavy vocal stylings. Lana Del Rey has done all of these for me, her aesthetics and music have impacted my life and the person I am today drastically.

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In order to generate more ideas, I developed a visual mind map using coloured pencils and photographs I had took around Birmingham which related to the theme circles. I also created the musical notes of the song 'Circle of life' tying together my interests with music and the project 'Circles'.

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Thierry Despont (aged 73), is an artist, who also specialises in architecture and is also a designer. He was born and raised in France. He devotes half his time illustrating and painting and bases his artwork on mysterious, beautiful planets. The art piece showcased is titled "The Earth", which is an acrylic and resin on wood panel art piece. I am drawn to this artists due to the colours and beautiful patterns created.

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Dina Walkley - visual artist.

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The Last of England - Ford Madox Brown (RESEARCH)

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The Last of England - Ford Madox Brown (RESEARCH)

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Browns beautiful art piece is an oil-on panel which showcases two emigrants leaving England to start a new life. Both and husband and wife, the two married couple are fleeing with their baby which was inspired by the departure of Browns friend, Thomas Woolner, due to emigration in England being at its peak back then with over 350,000 people fleeing in the 1840s and early 1850s. The painting is based on Brown and his wife due to Brown having ideas of emigrating and the theme of emigration resonated with him. The painting features people of the middle-class as a result of their materialistic clothing which is a reflection of Browns social status. To achieve naturalistic details, Brown painted en plein air (painting outdoors) to capture cold effects on the human skin and the accurate colouration on the hands on the man behind the couple being a purple-ish colour. The circular painting is reminiscent of the Renaissance tondos of Raphael and Michelangelo.

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Ben Heine - Lady Gaga portrait (RESEARCH)

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Ben Heine - Lady Gaga portrait (RESEARCH)

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Ben Heine is a Belgian musician and a visual illustrator born in 1983. his series 'Digital circlism' is a technique he developed in 2010 which combines pointillism and pop art and make portraits of celebrities using the shape, circles. Heine uses digital tools creating circles on a black background with each circle differentiating from the other by having its own colour and tone. This is just one of his many series, as Ben Heine has shown versatility through his other projects such as, 'Pencil vs Camera', 'Flesh and Acrylic' and more. Heine's biggest influences are American Pop art, Social surrealism, German expressionism, and Belgian surrealism.

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RESEARCH - "The Circle of Life: A Search for an Attitude to Pain, Disease, Old Age, and Death, Kenneth Walker

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RESEARCH - "The Circle of Life: A Search for an Attitude to Pain, Disease, Old Age, and Death, Kenneth Walker

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"The need for a philosophy of pain and suffering. The circle of life on the earth. The misuse of fear. Pain. The problems of old age. Rejuvenation. Death and dying. The hereafter. The circle of recurrence. Doctors and doctoring. Surgery. Psycho-therapy. The two worlds." Kenneth Walkers book, 'The circle of life' perfectly describes the reality of life and death. It links with todays modern issues with covid and the pandemic. Unfortunately, we are losing lives as a result of this daunting, horrific pandemic, therefore this links with modern issues.

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RESEARCH - "Circles(1841) Ralph Waldo Emerson"

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RESEARCH - "Circles(1841) Ralph Waldo Emerson"

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"The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. St.Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and it's circumference nowhere. We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms."

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Using the photos I had took, I created a collage to generate ideas and to also showcase the photos I had gathered. The collage ended up being very colourful which was not my initial plan from the start, however this was the final outcome resulting to myself wanting to work with colour

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Using the left over paper I used to cut out a circle I decided to create a acrylic pouring piece on the page behind of my sketchbook to keep the pages full and colourful. This piece is a contrast of my other acrylic pouring piece as the colours are much lighter whereas my other piece was a lot dark. Doing so allowed me to develop my acrylic pouring techniques by utilising gravity and being able to create more patterns with paint. Furthermore, this piece is also reminiscent of planets such as Mercury, Jupiter etc.

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Using a fine lining pen, I created a pattern to spark ideas and to experiment with black pens. Using a piece of cardboard, I began drawing circular shapes and ovals to fill the page and create pattern on the board. My inspiration behind this piece is Helen Wells who creates patterns like mine and uses Watercolour to create a pastel finish.

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Oil colour and circular portrait (process) 1

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Oil colour and circular portrait (process) 1

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LANA DEL REY - OIL PAINTING PROCESS

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Developing my acrylic pouring techniques, I created a larger scale piece on one of my sketchbook pages covering the whole page in paint leaving the end result to have an ocean like finish. To achieve this, I followed the previous process and techniques to achieve this effect.

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Whilst being at home and also walking around Birmingham, I managed to gather many photographs which relate the to theme. Doing so helped to kickstart ideas for the direction of my project. I noticed I was drawn to a lot of colour therefore I will try to experiment with a lot of colour with my work such as using acrylics, oils and colouring pencils. Furthermore, I would also like to encompass vinyl's into this project as music is very meaningful to me and has helped me through the toughest times. Artists such as Lana Del Rey, Tyler the Creator, The Smiths, hold a special place in my heart.

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Using wood, string and wire, I created a 3D piece which was meant to be linked with my pattern work with the line work and black circles. Though, I was not happy with the outcome, I found myself struggling to work with 3D materials and was not overly impressed with the outcome.

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In order to generate more ideas for this project,  a collaborative mind map was used to help come up with potential sub-themes and things that link with the theme, 'Circles'.

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To kickstart my project, I gathered a variety of photographs which include the shape of a circle. Doing so opened my eyes to the variety of different shapes which surround us in everyday life, even things as simple as a food bowl.

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The album Norman F**king Rockwell is a very sentimental album to me. It was there for me when I was feeling lost but also when I felt my happiest. I like to associate music with where I am in my life as of now, therefore this album brings back many good memories but also some melancholic ones. This ties in with the theme as a vinyl is a circular phonograph disc record which is a sound storage medium using grooves to create sound. The colour is very appealing, its bright and jumps out directly to you perhaps foreshadowing the pop element of the album such as tracks like Doin Time, F**k it I Love You or Venice B*tch.

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Because you're young, you're wild, you're free
You're dancing circles around me
You're fucking crazy
Oh oh, you're crazy for me

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I converted the song, Cruel World, into sound waves. Doing so will allow me to work with sound within my piece by painting the sound waves onto my pieces or perhaps creating a circular spiral with the continuous sound wave of the song.

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My group and I experimented with coloured, transparent paper to add colour to our light and photos. We achieved this by covering our mini torches with the paper and following the same process of the previous light pieces below.

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Visiting an art gallery within my journey around Birmingham helped to open my eyes to the different ways I can work in this project. After analysing different pieces, I realised that i wanted to work with colour throughout this project due to myself being drawn towards pieces which included a lot of colour and paint.

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Using the app, 'Light Painting', I was able to draw using light and create circular drawings with torches. To achieve this, I used the wheel of a bike and attached a light torch to the side of it. We then begun spinning the wheel whilst record the process with the app in order to create the circular light. Challenged rose when the end result of the photograph was too bright and did not achieve the outcome I would have been satisfied with. Therefore, I had to alter the ISO and saturation by decreasing them both in order to capture the light more effectively.

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Attempt to walk in a circle around Birmingham

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Attempt to walk in a circle around Birmingham

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Whilst walking around Birmingham, my group and I attempted to walking around in a circle whilst gathering materials and photographs, however, due to Birmingham being so busy with construction and being busy with many people, we were not able to create a circle.

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These are rubbings I made using graphite sticks whilst I was walking around Birmingham. I took rubbings of as many objects i could find which would create texture on the page such as leaves, coins, stone walls and table engravings.

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Using a plate, I drew around the object with a pencil in order to create a perfect circle and cut it out using a Stanley knife. Once the circle was cut out, I started preparing the acrylics by adding acrylic pouring medium and mixing the colours until the consistency was fluid and liquified. I then began to pour each colour into a larger cup and put the cut out circle on top of the cup and flipped it over. Letting gravity do its work, I manoeuvred the paint around the shape to coat the entire shape and to also create intricate patterns. The end result reminded me of space and galaxy's as a result of the dark colours and the interesting patterns created as a result of me manoeuvring the shape around.