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Evaluation!!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/166zAdASbCrnaU9iU0cs2_h-CZZpauMp1r1OpEMkSXaE/edit?usp=sharing 

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Follow for this projects’ online portfolio...

https://sites.google.com/d/1fmLX1vMqjoT0BYqafcAY3HZ98ZesgXAB/p/1kUmSd_uEfNJ5raZ3DLBf2VNWI5heQqXi/edit?authuser=1 

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Follow for my weekly reflections...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zyoiN9aJl60wZd-bXxRbqdrzs32kFB8HQwY4YPcQZD4/edit?usp=sharing 

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This is my other finished final outcome. This one, like the other one is made completely from a sheet of A3 lino. This one is inspired by my idea of dystopia being like an underworld or hell, the dragon is actually one of the dragons I have been researching. This outcome has had it its challenges however as when I first started doing the tree I left a lot of it black, also the part where the dragon is is meant to be Icicles but they were actually really confusing to cut out as I only did the outlines not the actual design. So I found it quite difficult to figure it out. I started with the tree and the dragon so I decided to print it to see if I liked it so far, I wasn’t actually happy with how it turned out because it just didn’t go with the other one as a pair as I was hoping and I even thought about starting over. But I persevered with it and just cut a lot more white in the tree so that the whole design became a lot lighter whist still looking more sinister than the utopian one. All the icicles are inspired by my dystopian inspired photographs of the ice tree. This worked reasonably well but after asking people if they knew what they were they said that they couldn’t. However, I wasn’t really bothered as it gave the background texture. The reason I choose to do these icicles is because when I think of an underworld I think of it being really cold in contrast to utopia / paradise. Cerberus is there to symbolise the Greek mythology side of my work and so is the Goddess. The Goddesses don’t symbolise certain Greek goddesses but they do symbolise my research on them and how they are ‘rulers’ of my work. Overall, I feel that this outcome as well as the other one have worked really well and they both have symbolism in them which was one of my aims. This one also shows my dystopian concept really well and I am really happy with how the prints have turned out.

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KAT FLINT 

She primarily works in linocut but also produces illustrations in pen and ink using digital means when it suits the subject. Her inspiration comes from fantastical creatures, nursery rhymes and classic tales. This again links in with one of my aims of taking inspiration from books and keeping that root of fantasy throughout my work. I love the detail in her work and how she has really clean cut linocut prints, meaning she hasn’t left any texture from her cut outs. The attention to detail is actually very inspiring and it shows that linocuts don’t have to be textured and they still look really good without it. I also really like the way that shes played with the contrast in the one above ^^ 

[freyar0se]

 Cerberus, in Greek mythology, the monstrous watchdog of the underworld. He was usually said to have three heads, though the poet Hesiod said he had 50. Heads of snakes grew from his back, and he had a serpent’s tail. He devoured anyone who tried to escape the kingdom of Hades, the lord of the underworld, and he refused entrance to living humans, though the mythic hero Orpheus gained passage by charming him with music. One of the labours of the warrior Heracles was to bring Cerberus up to the land of the living; after succeeding, he returned the creature to Hades. https://freyar0se.tumblr.com/post/642550062991491072/these-are-some-photos-that-i-took-of-my-dogs-in

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Elizabeth Armstrong is is a felt maker and mixed media artist from Melbourne Australia. Her work inspired me because of all the beautiful colours and patterns throughout her work. Her work is all inspired by nature and that is something that I’ve been looking at during my my project because of my idea of nature being the centre of utopia and paradise. I also really like the texture within her work and how she's stitched into elements of it, adding more detail and creating more movement in it. I’ve always loved patchwork designs because when I was younger I used to have a patchwork curtain, so I think that looking at her work gave me a sense of nostalgia. 

Things I will take from her work - I love the bright and vibrant colours and they really link in with my ideas so that is definitely something I want to consider when doing my own felting, stitching into the felt afterwards, adding other felt on top of the background and maybe even some 3D needle felts. 

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Pinterest board showing my creative process...

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/fclayton2509/utopia-dystopia/ 

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Here, I have taken some closeups of my favourite aspects of the coloured prints. I actually really like these photos as it lets you really see the details and the colourful marbling underneath.

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PRINTING ON MARBLING To add more colour to my work and to relate back to my idea I decided to do some of the prints on top of some marbling that I completed. I feel this was mostly successful as it gives the prints quite a lot of depth and texture to them but it does bring down the contrast a bit too much and you can’t see the detail as well as I’d hoped. I also printed with slightly too much ink so some of the detailing was lost in the faces. I might try and experiment on slightly lighter coloured surfaces as they might work slightly better with the black ink. The idea of using bright colours is to do with utopia and paradise and nature being full of colour and life These prints also relate back to my artist Mark Herald as he does the same thing of using Lino cuts and printing them over ink or coloured surfaces.

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This is one of my final prints that ended up working really well in the end. I really like how the black and white really contrasts and you can really see the design clearly. I ended up having some of the design more textured instead of just having the outline which was my plan to start with, for example the tree was going to have lots of black lines going through it but after doing that and printing it I decided that I wanted to have it less controlled so that it broke the design up a bit. I think this ended up working really well as the face and part of Pegasus’ body has the same effect so it all ties together. The bird that I feel were most successful is Pegasus and the flowers, I really like the detail in the horses’ face and how he almost has a cheeky expression on his face. The reason I put roses in this design is because they relate to my idea of the Goddesses but not only that but they have a really strong religious significance, and have a strong message in Greek mythology ( see my research on roses and religions ). I really like the way that the roses turned out, especially the one just above Pegasus. For that one I used a really thin tool and dug out the highlights to make it look as 3D as possible. I think this was really successful and I like the fact that quite at lot of it’s black because it contrasts to the horse because he is just outlined. After doing that on the rose I decided to do that on the other flowers as I really liked the technique and it gives the flowers more texture instead of just being flat. The whole point of this Linocut was inspired by my idea of using the Greek Goddesses Athena and Artemis. The face is showing her amongst the nature (being paradise) and blending in with it. I chose to do a side profile because I felt it would just work better and blend in with the design more and I was right as the whole piece as a composition ended up working really well. At first I was going to cut out all of the face and just have the outlines like Pegasus but I did an experimental print and decided to leave some texture (see post about experiments for more details on my trial and error). I decided to have the peacock black with the white detailing just purely because I wanted to change it up a bit and not have it all the same, however if I were to do it again I would definitely cut out more as I feel that works better overall. 
Overall, I’m really happy with how this Lino has turned out and there are only details about it I would change if I did it again for example the peacock and maybe to have more detail in the tree. 
(See my post on how I did the Lino for more details) The artists that inspired this Lino were Mark Herald, William Moris and Daniel Hostego.

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These photos all show the process of finishing off my linocut and adding in the side portrait of the girl. This relates back to my concept because she is symbolising my two chosen Greek goddesses to focus on - Athena and Artemis. The nature side and the animals relate straight back to Artemis as she was said to be the goddess of the hunt and of animals and nature. The peacock being chosen because of its religious significance and pegasus (follow link for why) ... https://freyar0se.tumblr.com/post/650548381810343936/starting-my-first-final-outcome 

At first I was going to do a portrait of a girl that had her hair flowing down but because I cut out more of the background where the rose is I had to compromise and make it look like it all joined together to keep the flow and tie all the elements together. I wanted this because I wanted the composition to join everything together and not just look like loads of different designs thrown onto one piece of work. I feel I was really successful in achieving this as even though I didn’t mean to the goddess’s neck actually flows down and makes it appear that its part of her body which I ended up really liking and was very happy with. I also tied it all together by outlining everything and doing the fluid lines throughout the whole thing. another problem I came across doing this linocut was knowing which bits to cut out and have an outline or to have the detailing in white. This came with lots of trial and error and just going with what I thought would look good in the moment. 

For example, when I first started the tree I didn’t actually have the majority cut out like I do now but when I printed it to see what it looked like I didn’t like the fact that it was completely blacked out and I felt like it brought the whole lightness of the rest of it down. 

I left the bit in the middle black because I really liked the contrast that it gave the rest of the designs and I felt that because the whole thing was so busy anyway so I need a bit of black to balance it out slightly. 

(look at the post of my prints for more analysis) 

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Daniel Hosego  

‘In the past religion was an incontestable truth, science merely a tool for proving that truth and art a vessel for celebrating it. Today science has superseded religion as the ‘truth’ of our society, but science comes with none of religion’s moral values. If people don’t believe in God why should they live by his ethical code? If not his code, where should we derive our perception of value from?’

Daniel’s work draws from the idea of religion and has explores the sense of ‘value’ of an artist in the world we live in today. What initially drew me to his work was the fact that I can tell that he has taken a lot of his inspiration from greek mythology and has done some stunning drawings and mixed media prints in response to that. They all appear to be telling different stories within the chaos of his work. I feel the attention to detail really makes his artworks stand out as you can tell just from looking at them that he's taken care to portray a story. One of my favourite pieces of work of his is definitely the one of pegasus. Not only because of my love of horses but because of the intense details and the colour. This has really inspired me to use pegasus within my work and maybe have him in my utopian work as I feel he really symbolises heaven and Olympus. I also love the composition of the city underneath the two horses and the clouds behind it. The other thing that I really like about his work is the fact that he’s used lots of patterns and symbols from the greek scriptures and intertwined that into his work. I will definitely take from his work the intense detail and the busy composition as I feel, even if it is made a lot more simple, similar ones would look really good as linocuts. 

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Starting my first final outcome...

This is my first initial sketch to put onto my lino so that I could use it to follow when I was carving and doing the actual linocutting. I decided to only do part of the design and transfer each section as I was going along so that the pencil didn’t smudge and incase I suddenly changed my mind about something in the design. The reason I did this particular design and how it relates back to my project is because it is inspired by my idea of greek mythology. Pegasus has made an appearance in this design because he for me is one of my favorite  beasts in greek mythology. I feel he really symbolises the idea of heaven and paradise, not only because of his angelic wings but because of the fact that he was the offspring of the god Poseidon and the gorgon Medusa. He was born from Medusa's blood after she was beheaded by Perseus, arising from her head or from the blood that had seeped into the earth. This story has always facinated me and I believe that pegasus is a staple for hope, something so good coming from something evil aka medusa. 

This is the start of my linocut and as shown in this picture I have used tracing paper to transfer my sketch onto my lino. This worked really well and I could see the lines really well to follow it. I decided to have the outline of each of the feathers in the end so that I could show any backgrounds that I will be printing on through. 

This is the finished pegasus and I feel that this worked really well. On his body I was able to add lots of texture by using a thinner linocut tool and scratching it quickly in the direction of his muscles and his face to give him texture and to make him look slightly more 3D rather than just an outline of him. I like the way that this turned out and its definetly a tecnique that I’ll be using in other parts of my linocuts. 

After some careful consideration I decided to outline him to show the lines and to make him stand out a lot clearer against the background when I print it. Trying to figure out what which bits to cut out and which bits to leave was actually a challenge that I wasn’t really expecting. When I first started this I couldn’t decide whether to just have the outline in black or whether to have it in white, this doesn’t sound very complicated but when I was thinking about the next stages of my design, ie, the roses and the flowers I had to make sure that they complimented each other and even if some bits where black with white details and some of it completely cut out. This lino ended up being a type of lino that I wasn’t used too and it was easier to cut but that meant it was harder to get the finer detailing that I’m used to achieving in my linocuts.