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 Mock Diarama: As a further development and experiment with layering and depth I created a diorama, a landscape or scene within a box. I wanted a three layer forest scene and so I started by drawing each opening on a separate piece of cardboard, each one getting progressively bigger so that you could see the one behind it. I then used a craft knife to cut the opening out, I found using a craft knife so much easier than using scissors and I was able to get a much smoother line. I then cut out a variety of trees for each layer and stuck them on with Pitt stick glue. Another thing I noticed when using the craft knife was that the cardboard held up quite well and didn't fall apart which is what happened to some of the smaller pieces when using scissors. I then painted each layer with pains grey acrylic, progressively getting slightly lighter for every layer in the foreground, and painted the trees white. I then cut smaller pieces to act as the knots and bumps in the bark, one thing I f...
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 Natural UV Cyanotypes: I decided to try out some more Cyanotypes, but this time I wanted to expose them to natural light instead of the UV light bed. Looking back to my other attempts I also left the mixture to dry on the paper for at least a day before exposing them to see if this made a difference to how much mixture would come out when washing them. For my first attempt I put some leaves and branches that I had Collected from my research visit from Wollaston Hall on top of the paper and weighed it down with some stones from my garden to prevent the paper from moving. I left it out for a couple of hours and when washing the Cyanotype some sections washed out slightly more than others but the images stayed quite intact which was a huge improvement compared to the last time. Unfortunately, it seems as though light has managed to get underneath the leaves due to them not being flat on the paper causing the final image to be faded and blurry.  I really like how the blue tone is...
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Cardboard forest: I have been looking at layering in terms of mostly painting, and so I wanted to develop and explore this further by using a more physical material like cardboard. I had been looking at children's books and artwork like 'The Gruffalo' and I found that I enjoyed this type of art style. I liked the cartoon elements to it and the way that it wasn't trying to be hyper realistic.  Using this as inspiration I painted the base with black acrylic, used scissors to cut out winding tree forms which I then painted white and added smaller triangle and eye shape pieces of cardboard on top to represent the peeling bark which I also painted black. I used regular pritt stick glue to stick each element on top of each other. One things I found difficult during this process was that because I used scissors it was difficult to the the smooth curve that I wanted and the result was far more jagged and uneven than I would have liked. Next time I will use a craft knife or scal...
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Cyanotypes: I decided to create some cyanotypes using the photographs that I had taken during some of my research trips. To do this I chose three images and used photoshop to invert the colours, changed them to black and white and then used curves to adjust the contrast and shadows within the images.  Instead of using pre made cyanotype mixture I bought the chemicals and the photography technician mixed them for me, I then used this mixture on 3 A3 sheets on paper. For these three images I used a uv lighted to expose them and then washed them out underneath a cold tap. One things that seemed to go wrong was that when washing the the images were washing away as well which isn't supposed to happen. I wonder if the issue was the paper that I was using, water colour paper. But when I tried mixed media paper instead it seemed to make no different. What I ended up doing was just estimating the best point to stop washing to try and make sure that I had a somewhat intact image.  The f...
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Impasto painting: I wanted to try out some different painting styles and work a little bit more with texture and so I decided to create an impasto painting of a sunrise. I began by using orange and yellow acrylic paint as a mixed tone base and then mixing different shades and tones of orange, yellow and red to layer on top onto a piece of cardboard. to do this I used a pallet knife which I found difficult at the beginning because I wasn't sure how much paint to put on or how to apply it properly. To remedy this I watched a few quick YouTube tutorials on application and technique to gain a better understanding of this. During this process one issue I noticed rather quickly was the sheer amount of paint that I was using, personally, this was unsustainable for me as I only have. limited supply and cannot afford to keep buying more too often. Because of this I had to stop painting about a third of the way through and so there is a section on the left hand side that only had the orange ...
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 Acrylic painting and charcoal: Forest and depth After my charcoal robin sketch I wanted to have one more go at using this medium. I wanted to explore depth a bit more and I was quite interested in how forests looked during the night and how the perspective and sense of depth is different from during the day, I used my darkest shade of brown charcoal to do this as I didn't have any black at the time and decided on sketching birch trees as I find them the easiest for me to draw and they also have a natural contrast to them with white and dark tones within the bark. I sketched two larger trees in the foreground and then four thinner and smaller trees in the background. As this was just a rough sketch I do think that the final outcome seems messier than my other charcoal piece and the lines, although smooth in some areas are are more jerky and uneven. Which I think creates this feeling of imperfection and hurriedness within the image. I also think that the jerky motions of the charcoa...
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  Acrylic pouring: I tried acrylic pouring for the first time, I asked my course mate to show me how to do this process and learned that by mixing one part acrylic paint and two parts PVA glue,  then adding water I am able to create a very runny and liquid acrylic pouring mixture. I also added silicone oil to the mixture to add more texture to the final work. For my first attempt I use a combination of Ultramarine and Cobalt blue, Purple and Teal. I then layered each colour into a paper cup and flipped it upside down onto a piece of water colour paper, I moved the paper around and even used a hairdryer to manipulate the paint around the paper before it got too dry. I really enjoyed this process, it was messy but fun and felt unorthodox and free compared to the more traditional processes such as painting and drawing.  I think that the outcome for this first image is good, however, one thing that I would change are the colours that I used. Even though, once dry the colours ...
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