Thursday 30th April 2015

Today, didn't go quite as planned, but I did get a lot of new things sorted, which I feel will help enrich and develop my project further. My new aim now is to develop a set of work in order to create some samples next week. Although I know I need to create samples, I also understand that it is important for me not to rush the process and to let it develop at its own pace. I will get my work done, but feel that by creating a wealth of work, I will do better.

I have today, developed a small research file, focused on the industrial beach project. This will and does at the moment contain a variety of research linked to artists and inspirational ideas and I think is an important part of the project, which will more link my work closely to the learning outcomes of the project. Research is an important part of the development of ideas and will clearly organise my thoughts and the development of a clear project. My research will aim to focus on more textural embellished, stitched work as this is the course i want my project to take.

Together this will make my mini project more fuller, more considered.

In relation to this, I have created another pinterest board, for this project as a clear way of display some on my inspiration...

https://uk.pinterest.com/nathanmison9/ba8-industrial-beach/ 

Tuesday 28th April 2015

Oh no, I am flailing again!!

Today has been another slightly rubbish day in terms of completing uni work!! My aim for this week, is by Thursday, is now to get out my sewing machine and begin some proper sampling complete. I have been able to complete some drawing, but I think the sooner i get onto some sampling, the sooner I can move away from the boring-ness of drawing drawing drawing, the better! I like a bit of variety in my work.

Monday 27th April 2015

Today, I did have most of the day to carry on with my drawings, which are really starting to bug me at the moment. I cannot wait to move on and experiment a little more, even just with colour and texture, rather than just paint and pen. I carried on with my painted sketchbook which explores the natural colour schemes from my beach focused images, experimenting with scale and composition, focusing more on getting the right colour first though. The focus of this is that I will have a collection sketchbooks, which will create a more informed project.

I did get a little bored of this, so I moved onto to my second project, exploring decorative architecture, focusing this time on sketching, before taking them into further development in more sketchbooks, similar to the industrial beach project.

Sunday 26th April 2015

Planning for the week ahead ;)

W/C 27/04/15	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
09:00	UNI WORK	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard	UNI WORK	Hardwick school	Work - Lifeguard	OFF
10:00	UNI WORK	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard	UNI WORK	Hardwick school	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard
11:00	UNI WORK	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard	UNI WORK	Hardwick school	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard
12:00	UNI WORK	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard	OFF	Hardwick school	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard
13:00	UNI WORK	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard	OFF	Hardwick school	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard
14:00	UNI WORK	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard	OFF	Hardwick school	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard
15:00	UNI WORK	GYM	UNI WORK	OFF	Hardwick school	Work - Lifeguard	Work - Lifeguard
16:00	UNI WORK	GYM	UNI WORK	OFF	Swimming	Work - Lifeguard	OFF
17:00	Eat	GYM	UNI WORK	OFF	Swimming	Work - Lifeguard	OFF
18:00	Work - Lifeguard	Eat	UNI WORK	Eat	Eat	Work - Lifeguard	Plan for next week
19:00	Work - Lifeguard	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Work - Lifeguard	Plan for next week
20:00	Work - Lifeguard	UNI WORK	Planning	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	EAT	Blogging
21:00	Work - Lifeguard	Blogging	Blogging	Blogging	Blogging	Blogging	Research

Wednesday 22nd April 2105

Following our group crit session yesterday, although i realise i still have a way go go and just over a month left, i decided to take peoples  advice from the crit and set about sorting everything out. In my head this will make everything clearer and hopefully help me to to be able to explain my work better. I have three clear sections to this project, so it makes sense to organise them into three sections, i have begun putting each part into a different plastic box clearly showing the different parts of the project. 
I have also labelled the sketchbooks i have completed so far so that there is a clear sequence and the journey and development of work and ideas is obvious. 

Personally i now feel a lot more organised and i actually have alot more work than i first imagined, and i feel a lot more comfortable about explaining my work, not to mention how much easier it is to carry three boxes into uni instead of millions of bags!!!

Tuesday 21st April 2015

After yesterdays session being cancelled, i managed to get quite a bit of work done yesterday.
Having said that i was still really nervous about going in today for our group crit with our head of textiles. As i have only just begun creating these mini projects, i have not got too much work to show, but i went in thinking that even if everything goes wrong today i have just over a month to really sort it all out.

The crit was set up differently to normally and for me personally worked a lot better. Instead of being led by the tutor, he made us all give feedback on each others work. We all presented our work so far and each wrote some feedback on some paper, which we handed out half way through the session. We then went away and made a few notes on how we going to take on board the feedback and take our project forward. 

I don't know if it was because we didn't want to upset each other, but most of the feedback was positive and i was ecstatic with mine! Not even our tutor, who is sometimes quite critical and anything really negative to say! Also i comparison to others peoples work, which i know i shouldn't do, my drawing and the amount of it that i have done so far is good. I do have a few pointers to improve, but they are more ideas that i am taking on board rather than negative points which give me lots of work!! Feeling happy! 

Friday 17th April 2015

Today, I took a day out of my normal work, and took some time to help out at a local primary school, which I try to complete weekly. The aim of this is to give myself some time out but to also to help prepare myself for next when I hope I shall be going into primary school teaching. 

In the morning I assisted in helping the children to write some descriptive facts on characters from the story Owl Babies. There was a variety of different activities based upon ability, but the children I was working with were given three subheadings; behaviour, appearance and other, looking to write three sentences under each heading to describe the Owl chicks in the story. I enjoyed this task as I had my own group of children to oversea and felt like I was really helping the children. 

After playtime, I was set a task to get each child in the class to create their own paper pot out of newspaper and a kitchen roll tube. The children rolled a piece of paper round the tube, after having first folded it in half, before folding down one of the ends and twisting it off the tube. I enjoy these kind of activities as they are more hands on, and are a good way of getting the children to recycle and make a vast number very cheaply. 

Thursday 16th April 2015

To keep up the momentum of the week so far, I have now moved onto my third sketchbook! In this sketchbook, I aim to complete more detailed, observational drawings focusing on getting the colour scheme as accurate as possible. At the start of each set of drawings, I will aim to complete a colour palette of the colours from the original image, using them throughout the next drawings and sketches. This is a further development of the previous sketchbook, taking a more considered approach to colour and experimenting a little more with scale and drawing materials, working in an A4 sketchbook.

 These drawings will take longer, but I hope to have got the majority of it finished by the end of this week. 

I did however, give in a little and take a bit of time out today to go for a nice walk in the sun to clear my head a refocus my intentions, making sure that I have planned enough time to get everything finished. I just stayed focused as I am really enjoying my work at the moment as I have a clear plan. I don't want to let it slip!

Monday 13th April 2015

This morning was the start of my first week back after Easter and my chance to properly get back to work in preparation for hand in in 49 days time!

In the morning we had a briefing based upon our hand in and all the dealines that happen between now and then and post hand in...

8th May - exhibition proposal hand in.

22nd May - feedback on exhibition proposal.

29th May - ba8 hand in at 4pm.

1/2nd June - assessment presentations.

8th June - hang show.

12th June - finish hanging show.

1/3rd July - exhibition.

The key to this is PLANNING!!!!

49 days is not a lot of time and during the presentation I was getting a little concerned about the amount of work that I have actually completed so far, and because of the change in focus of the project, to make sure that I still focus on textiles production. As a result of this I haven't got too much work done, everything is a little chaotic, but one of the tutors said that he thinks that you could complete the whole 3 years worth of work into the rest of the time we have left, I just need to do lots and lots work, making sure everything is focused and related. I need to move away from the lesson planning and focus on the creation of textile related work, especially over the next couple of weeks, to boost my work content. 

Not long after the end of the briefing, I had an individual tutorial. The tutor I had could see that I was a little down heartened after the Easter break and that I didn't have much motivation, so she helped me formulate a plan to get the most out of the time I have left. She was a visiting tutor, but she helps to mark our projects so she knows what they look for when they are marking and I left the tutorial with a clear plan of where I was heading and how it would relate to the learning outcomes. This will make my work a lot more focused and help me make the most of the time I have left. 

The plan focuses on the creation of lots of sketchbooks in a short amount of time, starting with primary research, sketching, drawing, designing and sampling. Repeating this process to show a continued development in ideas over a short amount of time. I aim to get two mini projects done in this form by the end of the project.

After the tutorial today I feel a lot more focused on what I am doing and where I am heading, starting with the creation of a collection of images in a sketchbook, which will inform my drawing, giving me more to play with. I managed to finish one of these sketchbooks today, so I can start sketching tomorrow, with just pen, pencil and charcoal onto preprinted pages to experiment with colour. 

Sunday 12th April 2015

Basic ideas and planning for next week. Daily plans will be created each day with more details and more work :P

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
06:30	Jogging	Jogging	Jogging	Jogging	Jogging	Sleep	Sleep
07:00	Breakfast/organise	Breakfast/organise	Breakfast/organise	Breakfast/organise	Breakfast/organise	Sleep	Sleep
07:30	Organise	Organise	Organise	Organise	Organise	Sleep	Sleep
08:00	Drive to uni	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Tidying	UNI WORK	UNI WORK
08:30	Drive to uni	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Tidying	UNI WORK	UNI WORK
09:00	Drive to uni	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Hardwick	Organise	UNI WORK
09:30	Briefing	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Hardwick	Work	Organise
10:00	Briefing	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
10:30	Briefing	Poppy walk	Poppy Walk	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
11:00	Shopping	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
11:30	Shopping	UNI WORK	UNI WORK	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
12:00	Individual Tutorial	Lunch	UNI WORK	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
12:30	Individual Tutorial	Lunch	Lunch	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
13:00	Shopping	UNI WORK	Lunch	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
13:30	Shopping	Gym	UNI WORK	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
14:00	Shopping	Gym	UNI WORK	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
14:30	Shopping	Gym	UNI WORK	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
15:00	UNI WORK	Gym	Work	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
15:30	UNI WORK	Work	Work	Out with Sophie?	Hardwick	Work	Work
16:00	Drive home	Work	Work	Out with Sophie?	Swimming	Work	Work
16:30	Drive home	Work	Work	Out with Sophie?	Swimming	Work	Work
17:00	Drive home	Work	Work	Tea	Swimming	Work	Work
17:30	Tea	Work	Work	Tea	Swimming	Work	Work
18:00	Tea	Work	Work	UNI WORK	Swimming	Work	Work
18:30	Blogging	Work	Work	UNI WORK	Cinema??	Work	Cinema??
19:00	UNI WORK	Work	Work	Organising	Cinema??	Work	Cinema??
19:30	UNI WORK	Work	Work	Staff Training	Cinema??	Tea	Cinema??
20:00	UNI WORK	Work	Work	Staff Training	Cinema??	Tea	Cinema??
20:30	UNI WORK	Work	Work	Staff Training	Cinema??	Tea	Cinema??
21:00	UNI WORK	Work	Work	Staff Training	Cinema??	UNI WORK	Cinema??
21:30	Blogging	Work	Work	Staff Training	Cinema??	UNI WORK	Cinema??
22:00	Organising	Work	Work	Planning	Planning	Planning	Planning
22:30		Work	Work

Friday 10th April 2015

Today, I finally managed to sit down and get on with my drawing. I am, once I get into it, really enjoying this section of the project as it offers a bit more variety in what I am doing. As pre planned, I have split up my sketchbook into three main section, architecture, mapping and religion, based around Christianity and the town of Amersfoort all linked closely to Mondrian, as the focus of this mini project of work.

Before moving onto the mapping, I needed to sit down and think about how I can take my drawings into fabric and more textile techniques. This is something I struggle with, so I think that I am going to play to my strengths, exploring pattern through material manipulation and stitch in order to create a beautiful piece of design which I can bring together to create, a Mondrian cloth, which serves as an inspiration purpose for the lesson plans and also shows everything I have learn and looked at in the project myself. My aim is to get the drawings complete before moving into material, that way I will have a wealth of design and motifs to work with, focused around colour and line.

Wednesday 8th April 2015

Back to work again :)
Time to back to the lesson planning after all of that organising at the start of the week!

After my notes from yesterday, I started typing out my lesson plan for the idea of an adult based workshop plan, aimed at teaching patchwork techniques using Mondrian as inspiration. This is the first adult workshop plan that I have created, so it did take a little more time, but I am determined to complete the bulk of it over the next couple of days, Particularly on Friday, when I have a free morning to complete lots of work :D

I also returned back to twitter and Pinterest, to continue to bulk up my on-line presence and display some inspirational images as well as more updated information and ideas on my work...

https://uk.pinterest.com/nathanmison9/ba8-visual-research/

https://twitter.com/nathantextiles


I hope to have more work to post onto my other blog, as part of that lesson plan soon. the paperwork involved takes a lot of work! :P

I must make sure I continue with my physical work in response to Mondrian too, in order to keep everything going all together. My main AIM is to complete as much of this work as I can in preparation for my individual tutorial on Monday :)

Monday 6th April 2015

First day, back on track!!!

Most of my efforts today were spent on just going through and sorting out all the bits and piece which are going on at the moment so I can get myself re-organised. It did take most of the day, but was very important, a vital job which had now made me feel a lot happier about where I now stand and where I am heading. I can now step it up a gear, as I have one full week till my next individual tutorial and I want to go with one fully complete set/mini project of work, and some more planned.

When I did sit down to start doing some work, I thought it would be a good idea to collate some of my research together, in a mini critical study style fact file on Mondrian and the way he works, how that has inspired my own work and what I like about it...

Piet Mondrian

Brief Biography

Piet Mondrian is a Dutch painter, well-known as one of the founders of the De Stijl, movement. Born in the Netherlands, Mondrian was trained there and even though he was born born 24 years after Van Gogh, art still still hadn’t changed, reflected in Mondrian’s early style with a landscape imagery and clear, glowing colours. (PietMondrian.org, 2011).

In the first part of the 20th century, Mondrian’s style developed, moving towards a pointillist/cubist style. He moved to Paris and was inspired by the work of Picasso and Braque.(PietMondrian.org, 2011).

Before World War One, Mondrian returned to the Netherlands, where an abstract style was further developed, exploring his faith and religion. As world war One ended, Mondrian returned to Paris, where with Theo Van Doesburg, developed the De Stijl movement. Developed in the early 20th Century, the De Stijl movement is based around the abstract art form, which explores the reduction of large scale work into popular, more accessible cultural/art forms. Mondrian’s style of work reflected this and became very abstract, exploring line and colour. (PietMondrian.org, 2011).

After a disagreement with Mondrian decided to leave the De Stijl movement, Mondrian focused on the Abstraction of line creation. Mondrian moved to London at the break out of World War Two and had his first solo exhibition, just before his death in New York in 1942. Piet Mondrian died in 1944. (PietMondrian.org, 2011).

Personal Response

Mondrian has a very distinct style, focused on lines,geometrics and bold primary colours. This make him stand out against other artists. A test of this is the influence of his work in the design world and how is has stood the test of time. Even now, Mondrian’s geometric patterns are used in popular culture and his work is still relevant.

Personally, I love the geometric pattern in Mondrian’s work and the ideas behind each of the pieces. For me its really interesting that each piece comes with a different story and different set of imagery, but connects to the last and the next through colour scheme. This highlights to me the importance of the use of colour scheme in my own work, that everything has to work in tandem if they are to come together as a collection.

Through different parts of Mondrian’s life I have created and mini project of work which explores different imagery in response to Mondrian’s style. I have really enjoyed playing with bright, bold colours and beginning to explore with the creation of geometric stylised patterns, not focused on the creation of strict lines and stripes,.

Research referencing...

PietMondrian.org, (2011) PietMondrian.org, http://www.piet-mondrian.org/, 06-04-2015

Tate, (2015) The Tate, http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/de-stijl, 06-04-2015