SCOTLAND

Half term has been and gone! Wow, how fast was that? We went up to my Uncles in the Great Glen (he's in Invergarry, on the road to Skye) and had a fab relaxing few days! I got some pictures of birds for my this project, as well as finding some fab books of Grandads. I love the sketches by John Busby in the RSPB Drawing Birds, they are so cute and he is a terrific drawer. I had a read few and then had a go at doing a few sketches of my own (which will appear later). These are just some photos of the week, which I though others may also enjoy seeing.

I especially like the rose and chair above. The chair is SOOO heavy, it's metal is exactly the style I want for my tearoom (distant distant future). My dream is to have a little Victorian style tearoom, perhaps in the highlands (because they are beautiful and no where is open after 5. Enter Hannah) or the Lake District (again, beautiful scenery). I would sell fairy cakes, gingerbread men, fruit cakes etc, all home made and tea and coffee and cover the walls with artwork (my own or other artists) and outside, in the summer at least, I would have metal tables and chairs, but classic and hard wearing like the ones above. Yes, I have given this plenty of thought! I would also like to be a teacher, or a tour guide, or run art workshops, or work in a gallery or museum, so this is a distant dream, that I will probably pursue later in life. Still, it's nice to dream!

Some beautiful scenery!

I like the contrat between the inpressive scenery behind and the manmade monstrocity of the electricity pylon. They really do litter the landscape, as do phone lines and I sometimes think it is a shame, but on the other hand, there are so many beautiful areas in the highlands, that they make little impact really. If you make enough effort, you can always get away form our influence on the landscape.
Taking the dogs for a walk! They just would not stay still and in the end, these where the best shots I got!

BIRDS AND THREAD

After the emulsion prints, I have begun to work again in my favourite medium- needle and thread! I know that I am an art student and most people think that needles, thread and fabrics are more of a textiles technique and medium but I love them! There are so many different options and ways to work with fabrics; hand stitching, machining, collaging, using image maker, emulsion, to name just a few! And there are so many different ways to work with fabric, making a 3D piece or 2D. I could go on, but I'm getting off the point!

Anyway, I began to experiment with the different technique I could use with fabric and adapted them to my themeI sewed into the plastic padding that come in between layers of pastels and b its and bats like that. It may look good, but it is THE hardest thing to sew into, as soon as the needle and thread goes through, it pulls and you end up back at another hole or rip a big section. I think it's best to stick to tracing paper, laminate and acetate. However, I do like the idea of using monochrome and a silhouette.

More experimenting, this time on the sewing machine and more outlines. Both of these are of the under/ back side of the piece, as I found that these actually look batter than the side I originally intended to use as the tension meant that the thread gathered in place, but I actually really like it and find it very effective. Again, keeping it simple in black and white, I think that using monochrome draws the viewers attention to the actual image, rather than being distracted by colour. Certainly, for my experiments, this is something I could adopt.

Simple, is sometimes best.

LOVE BIRDS

After photographing and working with the ducks, I wanted to look at different types of birds and extend my observational and images to work with. I took photos of brighter birds (see below) as well as garden birds and silhouettes.

As mentioned in previous post, emulsion printing and then painting into these seemed to work best, hence this is what I did to the photos above. The tones are so much softer and the images less vibrant than the ink pieces and the viewer focuses on the image rather than the bright distracting colours. Any thoughts on how to improve? I may look at sewing into the images next.

Most of these pieces aren't finished, I need to work over then in pen to emphasise the darker tones and add depth to the images.

HOLIDAY PHOTOS

Some of these pictures are from this years holiday to France and some are from 2009, I just thought you might like to see what I get up to in the holidays! Plus I was looking through all the photos on my computer and found some crackers that I love. The Langdale Valley- pretty cold but an amazing view!EdinburghThe Wine Caves, in the Loire Valley France. This is Ackerman I think.The LouvreThe Troglodyte Caves France, I love them! They're really nice and cool at midday, plus they feel and sound like something out of lord of the rings!Chenoncou in FranceChateau Chambord, home of Da Vinci's Double Helix Staircase- which is amazing and definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.Paris skylineThis landmark doesn't even need naming- you know it!

Enjoys!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

New Project time! This time it is Birds and Feathers, I have actually been working on this for the last few weeks (hence many of the artist links are bird- related), at the same time as finishing off the Games projects.

I love birds (any wild life really) and would advise anyone to join the RSPB or at least visit one of their reserves, it's very relaxing and great fun! My favourite reserve is at The Mull of Galloway in Scotland (we used to visit it a lot as children) we would stay on a caravan site nearby and then cycle down for a wander round or an ice cream. And that was one day gone. It's a beautiful place to visit.

My first photo shoot for this project was of the ducks which wander across from the field opposite, they go onto out neighbours pond and I was able tempt them close enough with bread and crackers. All these photos were taken with me sat on the step of the front door with my sister throwing bread over my head! Adorable aren't they? I've done a few weeks of observations now, working with these photo's using sellotape, pen, ink and monoprinting.

The picture above, in my opinion is very effective, I emulsion printed a photocopy of one of my photos, then worked over it in inks and watercolours to highlight the subtle shades of the duck. I then used Biro to add depth to the shading and emphasise the darker tones. I think the inks work well, as does the use of pen over emulsion.

Below I monoprinted some of my images, some onto fabric (worked well, as the fabric absorbed the ink) and some onto old letters and paper, which offer a nice contrast to the simple images.

I scanned the monoprints into the computer then printed them out to work over as the monoprint ink is soluble and would run if I worked over them in inks, which is what I wanted to do. I didn't want to ruin or waste these lovely and very cure pieces!These are the worked into pieces, I used mainly brown, yellow, orange and green inks to create the shades, however, the colours are too bright and a little garish. I think I would be better to either water the inks down or use watercolour paints.

Although I like these pieces (they would be good for illustration or a graphics piece) they are not as effective or as strong as the first piece I did, with the emulsion and pen, I will experiment using emulsion printing and the use of softer tones and colours, as the duck pieces above are too bright.

Any thoughts or ideas as to where this project could lead, feel free to comment, all feedback is much appreciated!