30 January 2017

Starting a New Art Project-Part 1

Hello everyone! This year I started my GCSE Art course and I've been loving getting creative! So, this week I decided to share with you my experience of starting a brand new art project. I'm one of those people who love nosy-ing at people's GCSE sketchbooks so I hope you're one of those people too! I think I'll do a few posts about my art project so make sure you come back to read the rest! This first post is about my own photos (AKA primary sources).

To start our project we were given a list of topics such as: stretched, personal collection, public transport, details, assembled, architecture and wrap. We could interpret these any way we would like to personalise our project. I knew straight away that I wanted to do 'personal collection' because my room is practically overflowing with stationery I've collected ha-ha! So my sub-theme was stationery and craft supplies. From this point we were given a list of tasks to do and since I only started this 1-2 weeks ago I've only made a start on the first few.

Here's where I get back to where I started...photography! Over the weekend I used my spare time to take photos for my project! I gathered up all of my prettiest stationery and prepared a few backgrounds then just got started!
                                                   


 Left:
I used a Johanna Basford colouring book page as the background for this because I wanted to create a soft look to the photo. Also, I continued this soft look in the editing stage by turning the temperature up to make it look cosy. I also used an effect that darkened the edges and brightened the centre which \I thought added to the cosy feel. By the way, I used PicMonkey to edit all of these photos and just used my smartphone's camera. Also, it took me AGES to link those papercliups together in the shape of 'hello' ha-ha!

Right:
This one fits more into the crafting supplies section of my project because I used sequins. I spelled out 'love' with sticky notes. I liked how this tied in with the upcoming Valentines Day celebrations.

Left: 
I decided to use hessian fabric as my background for this one to create added interest with some texture. It should be interesting to come up with a way to recreate that background in my sketchbook! I used my moleskine dotted notebook and some mini pencils for this because I thought these items were really cute! The purse is there because that's where I store the pencils and I think it will be good to get a break from drawing stationery. By the way this purse is from Japan.

Right:
This one doesn't have such an interesting layout as the others but I wanted to focus on the sequins. I chose to take photos of sequins because I think that it will be interesting to look at the colours on them and then try to recreate them with different mediums.


Left:
This one took me a very long time to arrange ha-ha! I started this early in the morning on Sunday so that it would be done by 12 o'clock when the lighting was just right! For some reason I love incorporating circles into my art projects, they just seem to look neat but not too harsh. Do you understand what I mean? Anyway, I like this layout.#

Right:
Well...this one didn't exactly go to plan. It was meant to look a little bit like the one on the left but less organised. I started by putting the ones that were in the middle (red) at the bottom of a toilet paper tube and then put the next layer above it and so on. Then when all of the buttons were in, I lifted up the tube and let the buttons spread out. As you can see, it's messier than I was hoping for! Anyway, I think that the contrast between the photos will be an interesting part of my project.

Left:
I took this photo in a slightly different way to the previous photos. All the others are flatlays (taken from above) but this one was taken in front of the items against a background. I like that this one has a mixture of plain white paper and hessian as the background because it ahs a nice balance of textures. I chose some really cute pieces of stationery here. In editing, I darkened the edges to bring attention to the items.

Right:
For this photo I chose the wooden table as the background because I wanted something warmer than plain white paper but I wanted to choose something different than hessian.I like that I chose the eiffel tower scissors with the eiffel tower writing paper because they work well together! I love this writing set by the way, it's so gorgeous! It's from Paperchase (but the sharpie, scissors and stamps aren't).

So that's all for this post! I hope that you've been inspired by my photos, I'll be taking a few more for the project but these are the ones that I wanted to share with you! I don't know how often I'll update you on my new art project but it may not be every time I post since sometimes I'll feel like posting something else.

Over to you...
Are you currently doing a GCSE art project or have you done in the past? Let me know in the comments. Also, what do you think about my photos?

9 comments:

  1. Found this so interesting to read. Especially love the effect of using the buttons xx
    bethmay75.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Thank you very much Beth! I quite like that photo too. xx

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  2. I wish my artistic skills were as good as yours. This is lovely art work. Have you ever thought about entering your work into art competitions in school or locally?

    #sweetreats xx www.bakingboutiquebirds.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Thank you so much! I'm sure that you could be good at art if you practised often-you seem to me like someone who can be creative when I look at your blog. I have entered a fashion design competition before which I won, but I haven't entered many art contest. That's a good idea though, it would be quite fun! :D

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  3. Ahh Megan I've loved seeing your progress for this art project on Instagram! I think "personal collection" would have been the one I would have gone for too! xD Not to mention, you have such a creative eye for photography and always seem to capture exactly what you have in mind!

    In the first one (left), I would have never thought to use a colouring page background - that's a briliant idea! I really like how you've created that kind of relaxing, comforting tone with the golden theme. The paperclips and Eiffel Tower scissors go so well together and it's interesting how you wrote "hello" in paperclips! xD (Actually when I saw this on Instagram I assumed you'd placed them together rather than joined them together - that must've been hard!)
    As you said, the other one (right) goes so well with the Valentine's day themes! I love how you've drawn attention to the "love" in sticky notes with red sequins!
    Omigosh, I have a notebook like the one in the third picture! xD As for that one, the theme looks super cute and funky! It has to be one of my favourites! :D I love the purse btw, it looks so pretty! <3
    I recognise the one with the playful display of colourful sequins as the picture celebrating 100 posts on Instagram! It's so party-ish! C:
    Oh my, I adore the one where you arranged the buttons into a rainbow pattern! It definitely looks like it took you a long time and kind of reminds me of Aboriginal art if you know what I mean? :D I see what you mean about incorporating circles into your art. They're kind of soft, easy-to-draw-attention-to delicate shapes if that makes sense. xD
    The one after that is such a contrast, as if the shape has been disturbed - I feel like these two would go perfectly together in your art project and I love the technique you used!
    I was especially attracted to the one of your cute stationary because it looks so kawaii! It looks like the kind of picture you'd find advertising a cute Japanese stationary shop! Speaking of which, where did you purchase those products from? ^^ I think it's something about the way you separated the front-facing background with the bottom surface that seems to divide both colours and make the overall picture look effective. C: Another one of my favourites! <3
    The last one is super eye-catching because it kind of sets that mood of writing letters to friends and family! The Eiffel Tower scissors with the floral paper set go so well together as you said! Gosh I really like that writing set btw, I think it's something I'd like to get from Paperchase!

    This is such a beautiful compilation of pictures for your art project and I can't wait to see more of what you come up with for it! :D

    As for me, I'm not actually taking an art GCSE because I simply don't have the chance unfortunately... I wish I could though! My friend irl is in the middle of hers however and she's come up with some really cool and unique paintings for it! :D

    Best of luck with your art project! You're doing so well! <3

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    1. Thank you so much for another amazing comment! You really motivate me with your positive comments-it's like having a personal motivator teehee!

      When I read the part of your comment when you assumed I just placed the paperclips in a shape I had a facepalm moment. I was laughing at myself so much because I realised that would have been so much easier! Oh well, nothing I can do about it now hehe!

      Thank you, I thought it would be good to take that love themed photo since it would be good for my Instagram. That way it had a double purpose! xD

      Really? That's cool! I love how small the notebook is and how soft it is! I'm looking forward to using it as my bullet journal.

      Thank you! I thought that was a fun photo so it would fit the celebration theme! I just wish I had actually done it as the 100th post rather than the 101st post! :D

      Thank you so much! I think I understand what you mean. Do you mean because it's colourful? I'm glad you understand what I mean about the circles! :)

      I agree, I think they'd be good opposite each other on two pages in my sketchbook. I might incorporate that idea into the development stage of the project.

      I love the kawaii stationery too! The panda sharpener was a gift but I think it was from Tesco (I'm not sure though). The shaped erasers were also a gift but I think they were from a shop called Blott (however I know that you can buy Iwako erasers from Paperchase too). I asked for the eiffel tower scissors for Christmas and they were bought from online. I'm not sure where from but if you look up rose gold eiffel tower scissors, you'll find a few.

      I love the vintage Paris themed writing set too! I hope that they still sell it in Paperchase so you can get one if you want, but I'm not sure if they still do or not.

      Thank you so much! I'm glad you've enjoyed it! That's such a shame, you'd be amazing at art GCSE. It's unusual that they don't offer an art GCSE at your school.

      Thanks again! :)

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    2. Thank you so much for another amazing comment! You really motivate me with your positive comments-it's like having a personal motivator teehee!

      When I read the part of your comment when you assumed I just placed the paperclips in a shape I had a facepalm moment. I was laughing at myself so much because I realised that would have been so much easier! Oh well, nothing I can do about it now hehe!

      Thank you, I thought it would be good to take that love themed photo since it would be good for my Instagram. That way it had a double purpose! xD

      Really? That's cool! I love how small the notebook is and how soft it is! I'm looking forward to using it as my bullet journal.

      Thank you! I thought that was a fun photo so it would fit the celebration theme! I just wish I had actually done it as the 100th post rather than the 101st post! :D

      Thank you so much! I think I understand what you mean. Do you mean because it's colourful? I'm glad you understand what I mean about the circles! :)

      I agree, I think they'd be good opposite each other on two pages in my sketchbook. I might incorporate that idea into the development stage of the project.

      I love the kawaii stationery too! The panda sharpener was a gift but I think it was from Tesco (I'm not sure though). The shaped erasers were also a gift but I think they were from a shop called Blott (however I know that you can buy Iwako erasers from Paperchase too). I asked for the eiffel tower scissors for Christmas and they were bought from online. I'm not sure where from but if you look up rose gold eiffel tower scissors, you'll find a few.

      I love the vintage Paris themed writing set too! I hope that they still sell it in Paperchase so you can get one if you want, but I'm not sure if they still do or not.

      Thank you so much! I'm glad you've enjoyed it! That's such a shame, you'd be amazing at art GCSE. It's unusual that they don't offer an art GCSE at your school.

      Thanks again! :)

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  4. I really like your blog so I pur it on my list of recommended blogs!
    anaeldaydreamer.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Thank you! I'm glad that you're enjoying my posts. :D

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