Large Scale Pieces

'Fading'

The first large-scale piece, I did in sixth form was inspired by Sunga Park who is a watercolour artist and uses biro for details and a theme of dissolving/disappearing which is an unusual but interesting method. Using Park's technique, the fading out of the old building and bringing in the new one, I enjoyed doing that large-scale piece. On reflection, I should have explored more watercolour skills and had different ideas on how to present the artwork, for example making the piece more patchy rather than structured. What I like about this artwork is that I was using my preferred skills and able to show what I can create by using this technique. Now looking back after developing this artwork I think this piece is one of my better pieces, however I can see that it is too basic, but the detailing on the art piece is exquisite.

'Two Halves'

Progressing on from this, I did some research on artists who use bold, unrealistic colours to focus on the 'modern' theme of my project. My favoured artist for this is Georgie Stewart. I also found an artist Phil Dean who creates art pieces on brown paper using biro for drawing. My ideas from this were to use both of these artist techniques to display the work connecting to the title "Taking Ancient to the Future". I split two images of houses in half to put each half together. One was taken of an old house and one of a modern house. Using the artists' skill, I applied Dean's style to the old house and Stewart's to the modern house. I enjoyed experimenting with colour and used bold colours for the 'new' building to show how clean, bold and modern it is. I found though that the unrealistic colours were too busy for the look I wanted to achieve, I have however continued to use watercolour in my pieces and learnt that not everything has to be blended. It was interesting the result of exploring artwork on brown paper as it looks like an old photograph was taken. I did not particularly like this large-scale piece as it looks too separated; like two pieces of artwork that do not combine well.

'Transparent'

For my next large-scale piece, I created artwork of my house using a layering technique which was an idea that came to me to experiment with. The idea came from a ski trip I went on as our hotel was a museum full of art. The owner/artist explained how he layers each colour one by one which brought me to the idea of exploring this layering technique. While I was there, I took some pictures of the buildings around me to have more of an understanding of the culture in different in countries. What I like about this artwork is that I managed to include the layering technique which I was impressed with. The problem with this artwork is that it has no real attraction or draw for the audience as it is too basic; I should have taken this to a more complex level to make it more pleasing.

'Layering'

Developing from a previous large-scale piece, I found Kyle Henderson who is a biro artist and creates artwork of buildings using a mark-making technique. Biro is my favourite medium to use as I like the definition it gives to my pieces – either sketchy or more defined. I used the mark-making technique as it is different to shading and it taught me that I can create different tones in many ways. This large-scale piece was different and unique; I went off path and made the artwork more personal and connected by involving the farmland and the barn using techniques in previous artwork byway of watercolour, biro and layering. Also, I explored new skills and techniques by involving digital artwork. This large-scale piece was the first personal meaningful creation which made the piece more inspiring. The negative about this artwork is that it is too messy for the eye as there is a lot of layering, but the positive about this is you don't know where to look at or where to start; it is an investment piece.

My final two large-scale pieces were inspired by my preferred artists, Sunga Park and Kyle Henderson as despite my exploration, these were the two styles I wanted to include at the end, and although they are quite similar to each other, there is definite progression. Their styles are the basis of these final two pieces.

'Zoom Out'

The development from the previous artwork was moving away from layering, focusing on the styles I wanted to use and more on the meaning and how I was going to represent all this using my skills and technique. This artwork was developed further by understanding more of what my parents' dream ideas for their house. I included the image of the barn to show the old including using brio skills on top to present the new of the modern house. I saw this artist Amelie Von Wulffen whose artwork shows what she imagined an image would look like if the picture was zoomed out further. This inspired me to use that technique for my large-scale piece as I went pass just the image of the barn including the driveway, trees and sky using watercolour paint and biro. I thought this piece was a real success considering it was out of my comfort zone. What I regret about this was not exploring the different types of paper best for the use of biro, as I chose normal paper for this piece which disadvantaged my biro skills. Frustratingly, I didn't get to finish this piece as it was too big and too challenging to complete within the time frame. I learnt that the type of biro technique I used was too time consuming and also it didn't show the right details of the trees as it wasn't the right tone.

'Explosion'

My latest piece is my best creation out of all my large-scale pieces, as it hit all the targets of what I needed and more importantly, wanted, to achieve. What was most similar to my last piece was the picture of the barn and the background of the trees using watercolour paint and biro. This artwork was the most meaningful as I included more artists techniques, and this time the technique of explosion by Cornelia Parker. This technique involved cutting up parts of the barn picture and placing them on top of the image of the barn to make it look explosive. For the modern image, I took inspiration from the artist Beomisk Won. His techniques take parts of different buildings and puts together a unique, unrealistic, satisfying artwork piece. Using Wen's technique, I brought back my digital skills and put together parts of modern houses taken from the show Grand Designs, which were very modern and most definitely inline with my parents' ideas. Lastly, I was introduced to print screen to advance my digital work by turning it into a screen print to place on top of the artwork, thus becoming the main focus. Overall, I personally love this large-scale piece. I wish I had practiced more with screen print beforehand to realise more where to lay it to make it the perfect size and fit for the piece. However, the piece is personal and draws in immediate attention as the audience does not always know where to look, yet all the time looking at something different.