FMP - Unit 13 - Project Evaluation

For my FMP (Final Major Project) I decided on the theme ‘Animals in their Habitats’ as my initial choice because I wanted to find a way to link animals and nature. However, as I progressed a little further on into the project and started to gather research, I realised I was only focusing on animals and their facial expressions, bodies, movement etc. Animal Portrait are my profession and what I enjoy doing the most – it is here that I developed my theme from ‘Animals in their Habitats’ to ‘Animal Portraits’. I could still include their Habitats and living environment in this but it’s more focused on features and expression. The mind maps in my sketchbook show this project development and ideas towards it. Animals are personally, what I usually choose to draw when I have the choice. I enjoy this theme very much and am very skilled at it. Animals are a passion for me, I have 2 pets at home and have had pets all my life so this is a personal topic to pick which I can relate to.

I managed my time daily by using time management sheets which are kept in my research file. I made these by creating a 7 by 8 table on a word document and labelled it with week days across the top of the grid and what I need to note down – on the left hand side; ‘targets for the session’, ‘how long do I have’, ‘what might stop me achieving this’, ‘what I achieved this session’ and ‘what I need for next time’. I printed off 16 copies (for the 16 weeks I have on the project). If I were to create this again I would make these topics a lot simpler (one or two words e.g. ‘Session Targets’ instead of a sentence like ‘targets for the session’ etc.) and make the boxes larger in order to fit in more daily annotation. I did my sketchbook work at home and sheet work at college to keep me organised and cause less stress about deciding what to work on in each session (this is written on the bottom of my fifth time management sheet, which is the week where I decided to do it in this way). I also wrote notes in my phone daily whenever I made plans and targets; I wrote in a note book and on sticky notes in class time about what I achieved and what I need to do. Visual evidence is included on my Blog (which is helped manage my time as I updated it weekly on the work I have created etc.).

My Blog was very useful – I uploaded all of my work as soon as any was complete. This allowed me to look at any work I have done if I had forgotten it while at home or in college (if I needed to annotate it or use any research etc.) It also abled me to use it like a journal and keep an up-to-date log on my FMP. I made about 35 Blog posts for this project.

I spent the first few weeks of the project undertaking research which is what I used to create my art and ideas from and is the most crucial part of a project. For my Primary research, I took photographs of mine and friend’s pets, animals at Wentworth castle and I visited ‘Cannon Hall Farm’ to take pictures of most of the animals. I split up my primary research from my secondary, by using two sketchbooks - one for each section. My A3 sketchbook was used for my primary research, sketches, experimentation and observational drawings; and an A4 black sketchbook for secondary research, drawings/sketches, a bit of experimentation and some artist research. The rest of my artist research went on A2 sheets of paper. I created 3 artist sheets altogether, these including some critical studies of the artist’s work. I got my Secondary research from Pinterest, Artist websites (other various websites), Books (that I own) and magazines (I bought online – as are hard to find in shops) which are included on my Blog and Bibliography. Most of my secondary images went on A2 mood boards (I created 10 of these) – I split them up into different types of animals (different type for each mood board) to make it creative, show the different animal species and make it easy to choose a type of animal. I had a lot of images left over after creating my planned mood boards. I used most of these to make more basic mood boards with less studies on them so that this research wouldn’t go to waste. I picked certain images from the mood boards that I was the most interested in developing, and drew some critical studies on each mood board. I annotated all of my sheet work in great detail on the back of each sheet using a pen and lined paper. Other ways that I developed my research are through my mind maps (3 in my A3 sketchbook, 1 on an A2 sheet of paper) and a questionnaire that I created on a word document which I handed out to my art class. The questionnaire helped me decide on some of my artists and what animals to draw e.g. cats and dogs were the most favorited pet and also most species of animal owned. From these, I made quick tally charts in my notebook, which I then developed into bar graphs on another word document. This simplified the information and it was from here where its answers were made clear to me.

I researched nine artists, they include: John Banovich, Leonid Afremov, Kerby Rosanes, John James Audubon, Ian Jackson, Agi Chapman, Peter Clark, Trevor Boyer and Mark Hearld. For my three A2 artist sheets, I focused on John Banovich (Realist), Peter Clark (Collage & 3D model artist) and Mark Hearld (lino printer). These three linked the most to my work. My work is mainly realism like Banovich’s, I did quite a few animal lino prints (links to Hearld); I created a few collages in my sketchbooks (Similar to Clark).

I developed my design sheets from my mood boards and artist sheets (and other artists). My first design sheet is of a butterfly and a beetle on some white flowers. I took these images from my first mood board ‘Wildlife of Britain’. I thought they would look good together and the outcome was successful. Although I hadn’t researched Vincent Van Gogh for this project, the style of this sheet came out similar to his style. It was supposed to be a realistic piece, however – it was difficult for me to get it that style at the time and was becoming too time consuming, so I stuck with inspiration from Van Gogh. This problem solving worked out quite well. Leonid Afremov was a big influence of my second design sheet which is a gouache painting of my dog Penny in his style. I painted ‘Penny’ from an image in my Primary sketchbook that I took with my cannon camera (I used this and my Samsung S5 phone to take my photographs). I used the ‘Impasto’ technique, which would have worked out perfectly if I had used acrylic paint instead of gouache. I have been experimenting with this media as I used it for the first time ever this year so I didn’t know this would happen. After the painting dried it started to crack all over – mainly in the areas where the paint was laid on thickly. To fix this, I mixed medium PVA glue with a little bit of water and brushed a thick coating evenly over the whole painting. This dried clear, sealed the painting and left a glossy, tactile finish which I love.

There were certain constraints that we had for this project as usual. We had sixteen weeks only to complete all work in the project to the standard we were aiming for (which seems like a lot, but in the last few weeks it started to go by very quick and I realised I had been working slow in some areas). The workshops (such as printing and making certain things like paper etc.) weren’t always available on the day so panning ahead was usually the case but this was difficult when you don’t know when you’re going to be needing them. Also, in sole lessons on Wednesdays and on weekends, teachers cannot be available – we had to work on our own which could be a problem for some, but I worked well during this time and didn’t need much help most of the time anyway as I was organised and knew what my goals were.

If I had no time constraints, I would have produced more detailed drawings on mood boards and certain areas (such as the large cat in the middle of mood board no. 6 – I wasn’t too happy with the proportions). I would do a wider range of drawings, complete my sketchbooks and have time to do more design development from my design sheets. I would have created a more tactile sketchbook and used a wider range of medias in more creative ways such as cutting u pages to make other shapes, using fabric and other materials as backgrounds, including textiles and sewing in my work etc. Another thing I would do with more time is use all of my primary research (Cannon hall farm images to draw from in sketchbook) and draw other animals (e.g. farm animals) to have more variety of species and animals types, rather just pets – which is all I had time for with the way I spaced out my work. I would have created more detailed mind maps with explanations about each thing on them instead of just a few words for each branch of the map.

I was able to easily decide on my final piece of my pets ‘Penny’ and ‘Binx’ because I drew them a lot in my sketchbook and ‘Penny’ is on my second design sheet. They are very personal subjects which mean something to me - this makes my final piece more special. Also, I have drawn them in the past and in previous projects so I’ve had practise and I know their features well. I did my final piece on an A2 canvas in acrylic paint. It is in the style of ‘Leonid Afremov’. I really love his work, it is colourful, very unique and includes many vibrant colours which make it very emotive. It took me about 8 hours to paint. I used all flat brushes in three different sizes (3/4 – Largest, 3/8 - Medium and 1/4 – Smallest). I drew the outline in a HB graphite pencil. I then painted the background black using the largest brush (to block it in before the colours – makes them stand out and is what Afremov does), then I added the colours in the background. I used the medium brush to get the main colours and shapes onto Penny and Binx. I then completed the piece by added the rest of the detail with the smallest brush. I included this process on my Blog, along with visuals (images I took of it for almost every step).

I have used many media, techniques and processes in my sketchbooks, on mood boards and on design sheets. The media I have used includes: painting with acrylic paints, watercolour paints, gouache paint, biro pen, fine-liner pen, felt tip pens, colouring pencils, graphite pencils, charcoal pencils, chalk pastels. I have used various techniques such as crosshatching, impasto, collage, pointillism, puff binding, lino printing and paper making.

I created a tech file folder for my samples and experimentation that I made in the workshops. I did puff binding samples, paper making and carved 2 lino pieces (1 A5 and 1 a little smaller than A4) which I then did quite a few lino prints with. Some of the lino samples went on my Mark Hearld Artist sheet; other puff binding and paper making samples went in my sketchbooks. One of my paper making samples went wrong and the edges were thick and curled up like a pizza instead of flat. It looked like a pond so I painted a fish (from my second moo board) onto it with acrylic paint and made the edges look like rocks. I stuck this into my secondary sketchbook and annotated around it (biro pen on masking tape so that the annotation is visible on the black paper.

I am extremely satisfied with the quality of my work and sketchbook. I am very happy with my blog and annotation of my work as well. My strong points have been using acrylic paint, collaging, colour pencils, crosshatching with biro pen and graphite pencil, realism, shading, blending and detailed work.

If I were to do this all again, I would work in one sketchbook which would fill up my book instead of splitting up research (Primary and Secondary) into two books. I tend to work very slow but have learned to work a lot fast this year and do quick yet detailed sketches. Also instead of doing so many mood boards, after doing 5 of them, I would then focus on my design sheets, development and final piece before doing extra work to balance it all out and make sure I complete everything equally.

Overall, I am very happy with the work I have done but I am disappointed that I have not completed all that I wanted to do because of the time limit. I found it difficult to work quick enough to fill my sketchbooks and do more than two design sheets. Nevertheless, I completed my final piece in time to a great standard which I am very glad about.