Final Outcome

After the last post, I went and created another shoot just trying to better the composition and I also took in a few more new acetate sheets with new textures and marks on them. I think the shoot went fairly well as I achieved the outcomes that I wanted. Below is a picture of my final outcome:



In order to shoot these outcomes, I got my subject to pull a neutral, more natural facial expression. This is because I wanted the photos to be subtle when compared to some of the staged, more expressive facial expressions in my first photos in the project.

My main influence for this piece was a butterfly. I find that most people would relate to a butterfly because everyone wants to be free. Especially at my age, 17, it is hard to live a free, no worry life due to pressures that school and jobs provide. I can relate to this as I find it hard to spend time with friends and family without worrying about anything. I used the colour blue as a colour palette as I thought that it had specific connotations of fragility and calmness which I think best relates to a butterfly. Meanwhile, I also used specific materials that I best thought would fit the idea of a butterfly;  cotton wool, cling film and bubble wrap. I used these as they are quite delicate and soft when compared to the newspaper and foil that I experimented with in my sketchbook.

I took inspiration from Agnus Cecile's work to her free marks as she is a very free to do what she wants in her work leading to expressive marks. Rather than using expressive mark making a lot, I was free with the type of materials I used and how I shot in the studio. Additionally, I took Flora Borsi's colour schemes into consideration and used the same colour throughout the triptych to show some common ground in the whole composition; this could also further imply how animals and humans are together as one and are similar to each other. I also took inspiration from Low due to some of the expressive marks that he uses, which is reinforced by the chaotic marks in the middle piece.

I was inspired by the research I did at the start of my project to create triptychs and the layout that is needed to create one. I think that the viewers will enjoy looking at my piece because of this layout.

Progress from first initial outcome to this:

My main inspiration for the first piece was the butterfly and this related well to Santana Borboletta's LP album cover. I was highly influenced by the blue butterfly in this piece and I think that this came through pretty well. However I wanted the audience to have to think about the piece a bit more and what I could have been trying to say, which is why I had made the decision to remove the butterfly in the hopes of the viewers coming to this conclusion.
Additionally, rather than editing the photo digitally and combining the marks with the photo through Photoshop, I decided that the outcome may be more subtle if I were to combine these in one photo. I think that this worked well and it is much more subtle than the first piece that I had created.
Also, I think that the low saturated colours in outcome 1 created a sinister vibe, which is something that I did not want, considering the animal I chose to represent was known to be free and delicate. This is why I decided to keep the saturation the same so that there is juxtaposition between the colder colours and warmer colours to find the perfect harmony.
I had not experimented with materials at that point when creating outcome one, which is why I have been able to refine and develop in outcome 2. The combination of materials works much better than without the materials as it leads to a more interesting textured piece.

Mat Collishaw Research and Analysis

Mat Collishaw is an artist who strives to combine nature with a dark twist on life. In his “Insecticide” body of work, he shows nature destroyed and juxtaposes the idea of life and death in an imaginative way.

Mat Collishaw

“Insecticide 24”

2008

Photograph

182 x 182cm

His technique for this photo was to crush certain aspects of nature, in this case dead butterflies and layer and compose them in a way that gives depth and matches his deep thoughts about the matter of life and death. Although this is a print of his work, the layering of the wings and bodies of the butterflies increases the form and shows destruction of life in multiple ways.

The different textures and patterns adds contrast to the piece and helps show all the different forms of destruction of beauty in the world. The contrasting colours of the blue and yellow indicates the idea of juxtaposition and matches his concept all together. For instance, where yellow meets blue, where warm meets cold, where life meets death. I believe that the fact that he has placed his work onto a pitch-black background shows how all life is actually surrounded by darkness, however I am more focussed on life rather than death in my work, which is why I would use an opposing colour to black, such as white.

As far as composition can be discussed, I think that he centralised his work in the frame to present the idea of nature and life being the epicentre of death and destruction and how devastation will eventually consume all life and nature.

Towards the beginning of my personal investigation, I placed my hybrid animal photos onto texturized boards and I really think that I could create similar experiments with natural materials, like the board with the owl hybrid. This will link to my current work as I am focussing on a butterfly and human; I will be able to use my current experiments as inspiration to maybe create backgrounds that would suit the photos for my final outcome. 

Overall, I really like Collishaw’s work, in particular this piece, as he manages to portray nature in a unique way that hasn’t been shown before. However, he focuses on death more than life, whereas for me I would most likely want to illustrate life more than death. Due to the difficulty of finding and using dead insects for my work, I think that it may be useful to use other natural sources of materials. For example: leaves, grass, bark etc.

Photography Shoot with marks and textures that I have been experimenting with.

I went into the photography studio to shoot for my final outcome and it went relatively successful however there are a couple of things that could be improved.

This photo was taken by lighting the background through the use of a blue gel and then shining a second light at the subject through the acetate sheet. 

The acetate sheet had marks on it that most reminded me of a butterfly and its nature; I used cotton wool as I thought that the soft texture best resembled the nature of a butterfly. I used clingfilm as I thought this best complimented the cotton wool. The colour blue was used in these marks as I think that blue is more of a delicate colour than red, for example. I also used PVA glue to set the materials onto the acetate in a way that that creates a contrast between textures; some of the cotton wool would be rough, whilst the rest would be soft. This worked quite well.

In the beginning, when shooting I did not particularly like how the subject's face has been blurred out, however after looking over the photos I really like it. I like how it creates depth and shows layering. This kind of distorts reality in a sense as layers are created. 

However, I think that I need to add more layers to the photos by placing multiple sheets of acetate in front of and behind the subject. This will engage the audience more as they will begin to question how the artwork was created.