Foundation

Summer Project
Before beginning Foundation Art, we were set a summer project. This entailed producing fifteen drawings of playing card size depicting a ‘journey’. The journey could be interpreted in any way you liked. I chose to portray the journey of one man into madness, using a combination of pencil, ink, coloured pencil and watercolour as additions to the main medium – collage.

I find I’m always drawn to collage, and I like the surreal use of collage by Dali and Steadman, but I tend to get quite irritated with the fiddly-ness of it, and trying to find a suitable image to work with. However, I am usually quite pleased with the end result.

Life Drawing
We got the opportunity to attend life drawing workshops as part of the Fine Art rotation in Foundation. We sketched and drew using chalk, charcoal, ink and bamboo pens.

In some of my drawings, the woman is not well proportioned; I think I was over compensating by elongating the legs as I usually end up shortening them. I was quite pleased with the ink and water drawings, I would like to do more life drawing. Perhaps with the model in more dynamic and interesting poses.

: Chalk and charcoal on sugar paper.

: Chalk and charcoal.

: Charcoal.

: Chalk and charcoal.

: Ink and water.

: Ink and water.

: Ink and water.

Christmas Project
The Christmas project was simply a drawing project. We had to produce about twenty drawings (if I remember rightly) over the Christmas period of whatever you liked. I chose portraits using different mediums, as I rather enjoyed drawing people.

Ephemeral
After specialising in our chosen areas after Christmas (mine being Fine Art) we were set a project with the theme of ‘Ephemeral’. Again, we could interpret this in any way we wanted so long as it linked to the ephemeral. I chose to study the degradation of fruit and veg over a two week period, recording the changes in oil paint, ink drawings, watercolour, etc.

: Coloured pencil on black sugar paper.

: Chalk pastels on black sugar paper.

: Oil paint.

: Oil paint.

: Oil paint.

: Oil paint.

: 0.1 pen.

: 0.1 pen.

Place
Again, this was another project which we could interpret as we liked. I chose to portray ‘out of placde’, as in ‘things being where they don’t belong’.

I didn’t fully finish my set of paintings in this project. There were meant to be three landscape paintings in total; Barry with a postbox on the beach, my garden with a phone box, and a snow laden footpath with a fire extinguisher.

Despite not finishing, I was very pleased with my oil painting of Barry beach. I have never painted a lot of seascapes, but I really enjoyed painting the sea and the sky. I should investigate and experiment with more seascapes.

: Ystrad Mynach cycle track, oils.

: My garden, oils.

: Barry beach, oils.

Various
A various collection of odds and ends paintings and drawings from Foundation. Some being small projects, some sketchbook work.

: Responding to music, etching and other print.

: Screen print.

: Screen print.

: Oil paints.

: Oil paints and wax.

: Ink pen and watercolour.

: Paper and charcoal, cut outs.

: Dye and wax on fabric.

: Dye and wax on fabric

: 0.1 pen.

: 0.1 pen.`

: 2B pencil.

Final Major Project
For our final project of Foundation, we had to pick the theme ourselves and explore it however we liked. I decided to give myself the title ‘Pond Life’ and study the pond in my parents’ garden; looking at the pond itself, the critters that live in the pond, and the animals that use the pond as a breeding or water source.

I decided to create a big background (approximately 4ft square) which would be the pond itself; the view split into above and below water. The animals and critters I depicted using etching, as I hadn’t done a lot of etching and quite enjoyed the small bits I had tried.

I began with drawings and paintings of ponds and the creatures using it, moving on to line drawing and stippling which would be easily transferable into etchings.

: Pencil and watercolour.

: 0.1 pen.

: 0.1 pen.

: Ink, pen and watercolour.

: Ink, pen and watercolour.

: Ink and pen.

: Ink and pen.

: Ink and pen.

: 0.1 pen and watercolour.

: Coloured ink and pen.

: Ink and pen.

: 0.1 pen.

: 0.1 pen.

: Ink and pen.

: 0.1 pen, stippling.

: 0.1 pen, stippling.

After this, I started printing the etchings I had completed in a variety of different ways and with added extras on some, such as gold paint, tissue paper, different coloured inks etc. I also began painting the creatures on actual stones from my parents’ garden. It was interesting painting on a rough surface such as stone, a method I would definitely use again.

: UV exposure.

: UV exposure.

: Fully wiped away ink.

: Extra ink.

: Green ink.

: Yellow/green ink.

: Wiped away ink.

: Brown hues, ink.

: Print on parcel paper.

: Wiped away ink.

: Watercolour over etching.

: Wiped away ink.

: Watercolour over etching.

: On craft/tissue paper, with gold ink.

: On craft/tissue paper, with gold ink.

: On craft/tissue paper, with gold ink.

: On craft/tissue paper.

: Various inks.

: Wiped away ink.

: Light print, watercolour.

: Oils on stone.

: Oils on stone.

: Oils on stone.

: Oils on stone.

: Oils and ink on stone.

Whilst printing and painting the stones, I had been gradually working on the big background section of my final piece. I had a bit of a set back with this project, in that somebody accidentally spilled a melted wax pot all down the painting background which I then had to scrape off before I was able to continue with the piece. Once the majority of the background had been painted, I was able to combine all the different elements together into my final piece.