For a drawing task we was asked to create a 1 metre drawing that was in relation to my Sleuths, Spies and Lies project. My was Tatton Park so in my drawing I put elements of areas and images that I had seen through Tatton Park's Mansion and Gardens.

 After taking my drawing to class, we was given another task which included deconstructing the drawing we had done and then reconstructing it back together using only 2 deconstruct/reconstruct words. My chosen words were: slash and layers. Beginning this task was difficult especially when destroying something I knew too me a long time to make. To get over this worry, I began to slash certain areas of the drawing and rip each part seperate. I clashed areas and put the pattern I created on the back so the lines shown through, I also used the line, triangle shape on a 3-d aspect I created over the top. Putting all the seperate pieces back together was difficult as I never thought it looked better but overall I was happy with the result. Even though it could be improved I looked at this task a purely experimental and treated it this way. Limiting the amount of deconstruct/reconstruct words was a challenge and made the experiment more enjoyable and for me free, even though it was limited.

After reconstructing my drawing, this area of it stood out mainly because of the 3-d element it contains. Constructing this shape and form was fairly easy and involved layering up strips and attaching them together and using hand-stitch I did a running stitch and pulled it together slightly creating a 3-d look, which works really well with the lined pattern.

 Visual: My drawings have mainly been generated by primary photos that I had taken of Tatton Park. If not from this my drawings are generated from samples or ideas that I have. I've always found drawing difficult and I think this is evident in my sketchbook. I think the layout of my sketchbook presents my ideas and it's content well and as someone else written on a post-it note, I present my work clearly and I've thoroughly explained my ideas. 

 Contextual: My broader context of my sketchbook revolves around images from my visit, and how my samples relate to this and the main areas of which Tatton Park will take me. I make references to a few artists that I find relevant and relate to certain aspects of my samples and drawings. Someone wrote that I had a "Brilliant range of research on visits" and that my research was "good/indepth".

 Content: My starting points came from my primary photos and I worked from there. I developed my ideas by going back to Tatton Park and finding out a range of different information that I could develop and exploit. I found it very difficult to try and connect all my work and keep the ideas flowing in a continuous way. After speaking to one of my tutors about how I was unsure whether my project all tied together, she noticed that there were elements throughout all of my sketchbook that related and followed through with each other, which made me feel slightly better about the project on a whole. I think my work is very textual based but does have elements of visual in there. There's definately enough research to work from, I think at the beginning there was too much research it confused me on which way I should go.

 I think I stick to the method of having a photo or a sample and explaining it overall. I could definately improve the way in work, especially visually. I think I need a lot more drawings whether it's from photos or just to generate ideas. Looking at other people's sketchbook's made me slightly worried about mine and whether mine was good enough but then I had to realise that just because it isn't the same as others doesn't make it any less than there's, I just think that my sketchbook could be improved by adding more drawings showing my ideas and more experimental samples.

 Looking at other people's sketchbooks has made me look at drawing in a different light and made me realise how important drawing can be and it can be used for anything. Starting my sketchbook was difficult because of the white page fear but having the sketchbook lesson at the beginning of the course was really helpful as it shown clearly that anything goes when it comes to your sketchbook, each one is different and unique. It is what works best for me.

 Looking at my peers comments made me realise that I present my work clearly through visual and textual processes. Someone also wrote that I "seem very comfortabledrawing beautiful angular and geometric shapes. Could step out your comfort zone and use media thats messy" and I couldn't agree more. I think I stick to fineliners and pencils so that it looks like what I'm drawing but I think I need to get away from this and experiment with playing with media's and not try to be so particular.

 This was a sample that I created by simply lining up the toothpicks and couching a one line stitch down the middle. Having the one line stitch down the middle still gives the sample room fro movement and changes.

 In these pictures it shows the flexibility and movement that this piece can give. Like I said in my sketchbook, I think having flexibility in a sample opens up more oppurtunities in exploiting and experimenting with materials.

 For Hand Processes I was asked to go to poundland and find a material and buy it in bulk. Back at the lesson I was asked to play around with the materail and if it was possible relate it to my project. So I decided to work with the shape of the light swtiches and created this.

 I also had to use a handstitch with the material and decided to use couching as it was a good way of connecting and attaching other materials and fabrics. The use of dark threads on to natural materials really worked well here. I wonder whether lighter threads would have worked aswell?

My Large Drawing

 For a homework drawing task I was asked to create a 1 metre by 1 metre, drawing that relates to my project of Tatton Park. I found it very difficult beginning as it was just such a big piece of plain white paper, so I decided to get out my sketchbook and start with a drawing from a primary photo. As I was asked to just use black and white media I decided to go with drawing steps that led up to a room in a building in Tatton Park. I used a media that i was unfamaliar with and that was pastels and decided to go with it and was happily surprised with the result.

 These were based on some samples that I made, they were made out off string and masking tape turned inside out. As I used string on the samples, I decided to use string on my drawing to. I layed out the string and positioned it in the same way as I seen it and paint over it using black and white paint. I think using string was a good idea as it already held the aspect of line.

 This part of the drawing was created using negative space from a sample I created in hand processes. I created this using handstitch, it was black thread on white fabric and I reversed it on this drawing to coincide with the negative space. The sample looked creepy when it was finished and reminded me off spiders.

 The drawing on the top right hand side was done using a drawing technique I was taught in one of the lessons and this was Blind Drawing. Blind drawing is basically looking at what your drawing and draw it on the paper without looking at what your drawing. I used Blind Drawing when drawing my tracing paper sample.

This is my overall drawing. I added the ink after I finished it as it looked too neat and organised. I think my drawing could of been improved as everything can be, but I like it. Especially because it included a range of media and techniques and explores through all areas of Tatton Park.

Drawing Task

 For this drawing task, the class was told to stand in a line and that we was going to play a game of Chinese whispers and we had to draw our interpretation of what we was told. I was stood in probably the middle of the line and got the instructions to draw to drawings that were 2mm apart and this is what I came up with.

 I wanted my drawings to relate to my Sleuth, Spies and Lies project so I focused on line and structure which is evident in the 2 drawings. I also focused on symmetry as in Tatton Park everything was mainly symmetrical and in one of the bedrooms, they even cut the bed into a square shape just to keep the room perfectly symmetrical.

 After finishing my 2 drawings we was told what the actual beginning chinese whispers was and it turned out it was, "to draw 2 spirals, one that started from the centre and worked it's way out and the other to start from the outside and work it's way in". I really enjoyed this excercise and would definately do it again. I liked how much it can change and could of been changed, I also like the idea that everybody's work was different even though we was mean't to have been told the same thing. After lining back up in the line we was stood I had a look at the drawings and even thought the end of the line was told the same as me, the spirals came back in and looked similiar to the people's work at the beginning of the line.

Layers

 This experiment was all about layering up materials and attaching them together and seeing the outcome. I think the pictures look a lot better than the actual sample because of the lighting and shadowing that the camera gives. I added the cable ties after I layered up the crumpled up pieces of tracing paper, to give it abit of colour and I think it improved the sample.

Experimenting with cable ties

 During tutor I noticed that some people doing Hand Processes have been using unusual materials to create objects and cable ties caught my eye, so i decided to do a few experiments that used these unusual materials. The experiment above was about creating a 3d object that was held together by the cable ties and it succeeded but I think they look tacky, especially with the calico material I used. If I changed the material, would I even like this experiement?

 This experiment was about taking the first experiment and turning it inside out and seeing what that created and whether it looks better than the original. I think from the inside view it does but from the outside it just looks like a plain pice of material that has been moulded into a shape.

This experiment was about adding abit of colour and seeing whether it works better with colour or original black and white. If I was to do this again I would use black cable ties, I think colour distracts the eye off the acual structure and concept of this piece being a container of some sort.

String Experiments

These experiments were created using only string and masking tape. I turned the masking tape inside out and wrapped it around an object and then wrapped the string around it, strong enough to hold the shape but not too strong so that it can't come off the object.

 I created 3 samples all different sizes and shapes. At this stage I didn't want the experiments to fit into the Neo-Classical theme in the Tatton Mansion, I just wanted to create an object or container that could just hold something and these samples delivered this.

 These samples contain; structure, design, shape and flexibility due to the masking tape. I'm fairly impressed with how these samples turned out but I think they could of been made stronger so it's shape would of been held more but i think this is because of the materials I used. I wonder what other materials I could of used that would of held the shape more?

Shuna Rendel's Work

 I've known about Shuna Rendel's work from visiting an exhibition in the Oldham Gallery titled "The 62Group exhibition. At A Tangent". I found her work fascinating and researched more of her work aswell as others from the 62group.

 This piece of Shuna Rendel's work caught my eye and related to being a container of some sort and created a connection with having a 3d object and holding some sort of object inside it. Most of the work looks like it uses natural materials.

This piece stands out more than the others to me, I think it's mainly the presentation and the structure of the actual piece. The materials used look natural and also look flexible. Using flexible materials opens up oppurtunities of experimenting more and creating something unique and structural. I would consider this piece to be for decorative purposes as from what I can see it doesn't have a physical or active purpose.

Sivan Royz's Work

 After hitting a block when making my project relate more to one thing that I saw in Tatton Park, I spoke to my tutor and decided to focus on an artist image that stood out to me and Sivan Royz work did. Looking at these images I created a connection with hiding valuables as shown here and the aspect of valuables been hidden in the mansion and the library cabinets being locked. Back then books were considered very valuable and they kept them safe by locking them away.

 

 Even some objects in the house were stored on beems on the ceiling. What would I consider valuable? Would storing my valuables up high guarantee it's safety? No, but what would guarantee it, would be if they were hidden in something that looked regular. Could this be done, especially with it's specific theme of Neo-Classical?

All of these images have elements in common that make them relate to me but also relevant to what I may want my final piece, maybe to contain. These elements include; shape, texture, line, layers, structure and design. After looking at a collection of Sivan Royz's work, this piece above stands out more than the others due to the materials used and this piece holds the question on whether it can hold something or whether it contains something in the picture? Some of Royz's other pieces show this blatantly whcih makes me question this specific piece.

These were detailed light switches that were positioned around the house, fairly lower to the ground than what we would see now, this is what caught my eye when looking at them.

This was a candle stick holder that was attached to the wall, it stood out to me because they looked extravagent, they were set out on either side of a cabinet-symmetrically.

This drawing was based on some servants bells that were positioned around the house, I noticed there was a lot of these around the house. There was an engraving on each of the servants bells but I wasn't really sure what it was, but it intrigued me why it was there. Does it have some significance that I'm unaware of? Or was it for decoration?

These two drawings were sketches I made from the house. The drawing that involves colour was of curtains that drew my eye because of the thick ropes that held them together.

The drawing of the four different cups was done when looking at the dining room layout, each cup was used for a different drink. There was even a table in the dining room that was specifically used for warming up the port glasses as port in them days was perferrably drank warm. There must of been a lot of time and effort gone into the presentation of the dining room table, the amount that doesn't compare on any scale to mine.