Before I start with this week's tasks, I wanted to include this YouTube channel here for future reference. This is a great channel, it teaches you how to draw like other artists. This will be great for developing new techniques and learning from different styles. 

clicking on the image will take you to YouTube (like magic!) 

For my first Watercolour artist, I decided to look at the work of Peter Blake. I like the simplicity of his portraits, they're not too detailed, some are drawn better than others, he only seems to put great detail in one eye, and then draw the other one in a more simplistic form...It's all part of the charm I'd say. 

I found imitating his style rather difficult. Watercolours have always been a difficult one for me, I enjoy them and they can be relaxing, but when having to create work in the style of another artist, it was slightly challenging. I'm not overly happy with what I've produced so far, I feel like I could do better, but I also feel like I've made a decent start, and I can now continue to work from here in order to improve. I'll admit I've found this week rather difficult, and I've not really managed well with my time management... This is something I need to improve on ASAP!!! 

For my first acrylic artist, I chose Ivon Hitchens. Abstract work isn't always my favourite, however I thought I'd challenge myself and go waaay out of my comfort zone, and try some abstract stuff. As always, here's a Pinterest board with a series of images I too inspiration from in trying to imitate the style as best as I could 

(This video has some pretty dramatic music...)

hpI found it pretty difficult imitating Hitchens' style, I had to stop myself from going into too much detail with the paint as that's what I'm used to doing. I think I've made a good start, however I do think the images produced could be more abstract, I'm closer to this in the second image as opposed to the first one. I'm starting to get the feel for his style though, I just need to be more confident with the paint and. 'go for it' and not be afraid to make mistakes. 

Don't worry, I won't be making a George Michael mask.

This week we were tasked with making masks. During one of our lectures with Dwayne, we were given an hour to make a mask out of any materials we could salvage. I went through the recycling bins, and through my art supplies drawer and created this monstrosity: 

I must say that I do struggle when it comes to creating things like this. Most of the time I find them too fiddly and it never turns out the way I want it to. However, I did have fun making it, and it was a challenge to have to come up with an idea and present it all within an hour. 

During the week I started to create another mask. This time, less fiddly, hopefully a little less clumsy...still a work in progress, but I wanted to try different materials and also have a 3D(ish?) aspect to it. Here it is in its stages throughout the creation process... I'm not quite sure what it is, or why I've made it like this, but this is what my head came up with: 

Upon further research, I would like to create something more ambitious, I just need to accumulate more materials. Here's what I've been looking at, and the stuff that will shape my final mask.

This week we were tasked with making dog and cat sculptures using 'unlikely' or 'unusual' materials. I'll be honest, I wasn't too thrilled when I heard that this is what we'd be doing as I'm really not very good at producing 3D work, I can find it frustrating as things usually don't tend to turn out how I initially envisioned them turning out! However, once I got over that initial dread, I found out it wasn't too bad and I actually had a bit of fun creating the sculptures *gasp* 

Before starting I had a brief look at some examples and possible inspiration for this project. As awful as this sounds, I didn't want to go too in depth with the research for this project as I feel I'd copy too much from whatever I'd have found. I just wanted to start creating without having to think too much about what was going on. 

I absolutely love dogs, I once cried when I saw one on a night out...I like cats too, but dogs more.

My toilet roll cat...looks more like a fox really.

A headless dog... I was going to make the head after I'd cooked dinner, however for some reason, I kinda like it without the head.

And a body-less cat, I could put the cat's head, on the dog's body...but that'd be taking things too far.

I used a lot of foil, masking tape and recycled cardboard for this project. I found that shaping things was much easier with these materials, then covering them in masking tape made sure that everything was held together. 

Very wholesome content 

Oops, I put all my research in the other module...I got confused, but for this week the two are similar so please click HERE to see my ramblings and work.