*yawn*

Being awake all night really takes a punch to your system. So I think a blog post from my phone is the only way I'm going to get my development and experimentation for this alloa project posted.
Least till I get on my laptop and give it an edit.
Basically I've been recording textures through hand drawing with my finer technical pens, of believe it or not, the burned out skip at the back of Tje.college. My reason being that I do feel the building needs some grubby and texture. Well the skip was flooded with texture from all the bubbled and charred layers of paint. I must have seen greens, yellows, reds and blues all bubble and blister to its surface. In its vandalism came a wonderful idea. The bare white expanse of walls gave it the sterile feel, and the sight of textures through grotty colours seemed to me, perfect to add to this work.

I've also done loads of experiments with cotton. Inking it up to print like you would a lino cut. The range of textures is great in tones and experimenting with it to be used as a monotype is great fun and rather satisfying being able to build a whole image by rolling or drawing on the back of the small square of fabric.

Printing sheets of glass also gives some great textures. And of course the reason to me using glass and cotton is a nod towards alloas history of weaving and glass making.
Also I feel that printing has a certain quality that you can never get by any other process.

I also mentioned previously my interest in the large variety of bricks that built alloa and shows all the history. Using charcoal I recorded the texture of brickworks using frottage. Charcoal to relate to the coal and silver mines of the town.

Oh and before I forget. I've always loved pin and thread drawings and I did have and idea of using this process. Even more so after discovering Debbi Smyth and her massive large scale pinworks. I adore them and so should you :p
And another little thing. I tried out a little vacum formed paper in recording lace fabrics. However I doubt these two ideas will go any further than here as the project has moved on to a more understandable visual piece.

Next blog update on my ideas for final development hopefully soon :p

Frustrating isn't it...

When your working away at your job and your brain buzzes about your college project and every food item I make with its own unique textures makes you want to draw it.
It's sad and true ha ha.
It makes me think about documenting every thing in my daily experience, like some crazy draw your day project. Because I somedays have to experience different places no doubt my emotions and personalities differ from place to place.
These are all thoughts I have as I sit in work on my 45 minute break at half 3am.
Makes me think a lot towards my ideas towards contextual studies I suppose.
Anyways breaks over time to make some big macs for the drive through crowd

Research of the Alloa Project :p

Yes I'm later than I last promised but Ive had stuff on my mind and other stuff to do :p But here we go one crazy as smeg blog post on all the research of this project...

So lets dive in shall we :p

I promise not to bombard you with every single speck of research. But I have to post my major highlights.
Starting off has to be Daniel Zeller whos high detailed pen drawings always capture my attention and heart. The scale he works at is a main reason I have an obsession for "Micro Artists" with high detailed finework on a large scale of production. I often reference Daniel Zeller and most probably have done so in a previous blog post.
Moving on we have to take note of one important book I love to have a nose at.
Illustration Now! 
Volume 2.
By Julius Wiedemann
TASCHEN publication
ISBN: 978-3-8365-2138-3

Whenever I dare contemplate an idea of illustration work I always have a look in this book. Its a personal favourite.

Within this book, several key artists/illustrators/designers even caught my eye not just for their style but the content of their work. I always need to remember that Illustration is not a solid practise of drawing. You can paint an illustration, sculpt an illustration even photograph or video one.  The design of an Illusrtration is to expand on a story or a point. Something I learned from a fantastic artist and illustrator Pam Smy at an Artists Talk at the Park Gallery and Falkirk Campus.

I love the lines and details its so clean the element of photoshopping images into the drawing. Its fun, quirky, informal and comforting.

I can visualise this working in the Alloa Campus. A collage of imagery constructing a "feel" of alloa could be very effective. Could combine the river Forth, Alloa Tower, the campus and many of the other features.

If I had a style of illustration with people and characters I wish it were like this. I had an idea of creating an illustration for each specialism or subject the campus provided. It would be a series located in the areas of study. There could be a beautician with her tools, an electrician with their overals. The ideas were flowing but I cant create characters to save myself so this idea was abandoned.

Simplicity with pattern to detail of pen. Just a flash of colour in the shiny clean campus could be so fantastic.

And then I checked out one of my favourite artists from a previous project. Susan Stockwell is a fantastic Mapping Artist I highly recommend. This piece above is the River Thames in London, reconstructed with the road maps of london giving a bold and interesting sight. This piece was used to introduce an exhibition "Whos Map is it?" New Mapping by Artists.

 Next some favourite artists from
Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing
by Emma Dexter
Phaidon publication
ISBN: 0714845450

This artist use's his history in creating art. He grew up in Quanzhou during a time of Taiwan and China's conflicts which left an impression on the artist. This results in his choice of Medium being Gunpowder on Rice Paper to create these amazing images

The two images here are works created by Dominic McGill. The use of typography in his work is brilliant but its the scale of his work that really grabs my attention. The Alloa campus has large spaces of wall and good open areas with big walls I honestly think the campus can handle a massive wall piece in certain areas. Just to break up the constant white and lines

Thew Ritchie created a massive wallpiece which i would love to see in the Alloa Campus.

I have no issues in showing off a fantastic artist especially for research. My fellow classmate Fiona Jenkins created this work for the project of "Emperors New Clothes" Its so gorgeous I had to add this there is a reason to my addition in which Alloas History of Glass Manufacture is a very interesting thing. And Fionas work with glass and in this case printing it to get its wonderful detail and texture is exactly what im interested in.

So ofcourse Ive researched the history of Alloa and oh my freaky its nothing I would have actually thought of being in a place like Alloa. Its Coal and Silver mines remind me of dirty charcoal drawings and shiny metallic works like Marco Maggi. The stunning Views of the Ochil Hills. The history of the textile industry with the weaving of cotton. The glassmaking and even the importance of the River Forth with the Alloa docks being the only way to export and import goods from the area. All these little elements are what construct Alloas History. Its a hard working grubby scuffed knuckles, hands and knees town. With stunning buildings of such history like Alloa Tower, the Glass Cone, the old swing bridge, Town buildings to even the current campus the range in textures of bricks and mortar are what make this town very interesting and wonderful even. But the hard working history of Alloa is suddenly given this freaky shiny glitter speck of an educational building. Its too clean. It needs to get grubby and grimey. It needs history it needs age. Its so sanded and rounded off smooth and new it needs texture the god dam buildings crying out for some freaking lumpy wallpaper for god sake!

This is my realisation. The history is what built and made this town. The new campus needs texture, life and age. It needs something to break up the flush white walls and with its massive expanse of space on these walls I feel I could apply a massive drawing to one of the areas. It wouldnt detract from the building, it may create a focal point inside because the building does seem aimless and wandering.
I know where I want this work to develop but the next task is to collect and experiment with all my ideas of textures and all the little historic elements of alloa and bring them together in a massive visually textural work.

As an expansive image I am contemplating using the Ochil Hills. Because although the building has been highlighted as a brilliant place to view them. What I felt is that the students never really face the hills. They have to go up these little gangways to view the large windows. They have their backs to the views. Even the outside entrance to the building is off angle from the best views. You have to walk away from the building to see them best. Its very wierd. On a clear day it would be stunning but this is scotland. And with the latest miserable dark weather  were having. The "Stunning Views" are invisable.
I think it would be interesting to bring the views into the building properly. The hills change with every second of light shifting the greens become grey the browns become blue. Its a living view and its a shame the building isnt dead centering its position onto the "stunning view" it acclaimed to have. I also think students can forget their location they become alienated in any environment. Something beautiful, textural, recognisable. And something not so freaky abstract could be a good potential.

I suppose the more I think my idea through I see this more as a piece designed for the Alloa Campus. These are not Conceptual abstract understanding Contemporary Fine Artists. They are students who are interested in computing, salon therapys, construction and engineering. I dont think the majority would appreciate something conceptual. I think they may like a "pretty" picture they can recognise with an interesting element the arty folks can see and explain about. Its sad to think this way. But it is not a campus for Creative Industries. And this idea has to be considered when making a piece for the Alloa Campus and its students.

Contextual studies

Well my beast of a books arrived, as suggested by David Sweeney. £3 odds from eBay second hand awesomeness.

"When Rabbit Howls"
By the troops for Truddi Chase
ISBN 0-283-99628-5

Gone is my hope of a quick 200 page paperback I suppose :p

I am working... Honest

It's been full swing with this project and I will admit my attention to blogging has slid.
And it might get worse as December comes along and panic sets in ha ha.
I've set aside some time today to get this blog up and running again so expect an update on all my research and another on where this projects going and developing :p

Till then enjoy the cute picture of my awesome dog Maddie hee hee

buzzzzzzzzz

New brief is driving me crazy. But I finally think im on the right track with it.

The new Alloa Campus

Rhona and Carol on the Main Staircase. Having them in  the photo gives a good idea of scale.

2nd floor main reception. Very interested in the expance of white from the main staircase.

2nd floor balcony looking over the library study area and through the massive glass windows.

The campus has several "Breakout Zones" which I find very interesting as this could be a potential site. The plain walls and bland black text. This could have so much potential!

One of the many seating areas. Another potential site.

Amongst the vast expance of bare white walls are the occasional blip of artwork. This is a series of Collagraph prints made by a local artist.

Stunning views of the Ochil Hills.

Ochil Hills

One flaw me and a few other of the troop noticed. Was how much of a nightmare this driveway up to the college parking spaces would be if the snow and ice hit...

Bike Lockers... just as angular and modern as the rest of the building.

So far... This is the only art room.

And the view... is well... Not that inspiring.

Outdoor smoking area with undergrown plants and more sterile white walls.

All and all my verdict to the building is that its a massive shiny sterile area. Understandable because its still brand new. The upsides is that its an inspiring structure with tonnes of natural light, odd angles and modern ideas such as breakout zones and plenty of areas for social chatting and tutorials.

I still feel that the building is this extreamly shiny speck in the middle of hills and a rural area. But its a great location within sight of the train station and a local asda for cheap food and such.

Understandably this building isnt about a creative industries. Its courses are of beauty and hair, electronics, science and standard access courses. But the important element of this building is that it is the 4th Campus to the Forth Valley College. With Stirling, Falkirk, Raploch and Alloa I cant help but think about the idea of jigsaw pieces constructing the whole picture.
Ive already made a solid decision that no matter what i create there has to be a jigsaw piece involved in it. I have a few ideas but this weeks challenge is to develop and evolve them. Tomorrow I have a mid module tutorial with Dee so once Im finished this Im off to type up my form.

As far as Contextual Studies goes... I may aswell be bashing my head off a brick wall. All I can think about is Micro Artists, Daniel Zeller, Obsessive Drawing, and the idea of when does Passion become Obsession. But right now its still in mind map form and getting it out into a solid statement is like trying to catch a fly with chopsticks.