AO1-
Antony Gormley
Born - 30 August 1950
Died - Still alive
Antony is an English sculptor famous for creating such sculptures as the angel of the north. He was the youngest of seven children in his family who from an early age was pushed onto a carer in art by fellow artists. This is how his costly but much loved art sculptures was achieved with backing from fellow artists who saw potential in him as a young adult.
• Subjects, themes and issues
Throughout Gormleys work you can see a constant theme of human body casts, this was his way of working every sculpture to date included parts of humans in some sort of way. He liked the idea of his casts looking as human/lifelike as possible, the way he achieved this was to use human bodies as reference, this is why most of his sculptures and casts can be seen to be human size.
Gormley liked his sculptures to be as human like looking as possible, but also like his sculptures to have human characteristics. To achieve this Gormley placed his sculptures in very strategic positions to enable them to take on human characteristics, one very famous example of this positioning was when Gormley placed two sculptures opposite sides of a sea so they could look at each other all day every day. These sculptures Gormley liked to give the appearance to be looking out at something, this was also achieved with the location of where he placed his sculptures such as on top of buildings so that people knew they were there to look over things.
Therefore Gormleys art work isn’t just about the sculpture it’s about the way the public perceive his work, I think peoples reactions and interpretations of his art was more important to Gormley than the art work itself. By using different sized art work and different locations to place his work I think Gormley has given no clue into the true meaning of his work but left all ideas open to the public.
• Movements, styles
The style of Gormleys work is life sculptures, he likes to include human characteristics to different sculptures he creates enabling the public to perceive his art work in different ways. He follows the typical Brit Art culture and shares trends with fellow artists such as Damien Hirst, who all share and appreciate work in numerous art foundations.
His way of working varies, however one of the most common techniques Gormley uses is forging of metal casts to create the outside of his lifelike sculptures. The best example of this working is in his biggest sculpture called The Angel Of North where he created a huge sculpture out of iron, this was a strategic move as it lowered the cost of the final sculpture and made the life expectancy of the sculpture longer.
Gormley has started to include fibre glass casting in his newest sculptures as it offers more than traditional metal ones do. He uses these fibre glass casts because they are a lot cheaper to make, they weigh a lot less so less problems when designing them. Finally fibre glass casts can last just as long as metal ones and at a fraction of the price they are the perfect substitution for metal sculptures, and fibre glass offers a lot more effects and colours than metal sculptures can achieve.
• Materials and processes
Gormley uses Metal and in his more current work Fibre glass to cast his sculptures with, his most common metal is iron as it is cheap to build with. The fibre glass is a ductile and desirable as the metal sculptures if not more as it can be used to great effect in numerous ways compared to metal sculpting. The way he achieves his human characteristics within his sculptures is by using reference from his own body or from the body of other people.
Angel of North 1950 (Metal casting)
Event Horizon (Fibre glass casting)
Another Place (Metal casting)
Salvador Dali
Born - May 11th 1904
Died - Janurary 23rd 1989
Salvador Dali was a Spanish surrealist artist who worked with many means of media in order to create his art work. His most famous styles of working was Painting, Sculpting and photography, Salvador was a very unique artist who liked to include things in his work that represented himself. Therefore he used themes and objects that were totally over the top and bizarre to enable his art work to be a surrealist and different as possible. Due to this way of working Salvador has become known as one of the best surrealist artists known to date.
• Subjects themes and issues
Salvador likes to include many different and surprising themes throughout his work, one of the best known themes throughout many pieces of Salvador’s work is the symbol of a clock (often melting). The reasoning behind this melting clock symbol was related back the Einstein’s theory that time is relative and not fixed.
The idea of melting the clock however came to Salvador as he sat in his garden one day under the blazing sun and watched cheese melt, this gave him the idea of using melting clocks within his work. The best example recorded of this melting clock within his work was in his painting called “The Persistence Of Memory” where a melting clock can be located upon a tree under the sun.
However Salvador liked to use another main theme throughout his work, this was the use of an elephant often distorted and merged within an image. Not much is known about this theme, the only known explanation to it was from another artists who influence Salvador called Gian Lorenzo Bernini who created a sculpture in Rome of a crying elephant. Some say this elephant within Salvador’s work was a tribute to this artist who Salvador looked up to.
Every piece of work ever completed by Salvador was in the style of surrealism, this means that his work isn’t as simple to gain the meaning behind. Still to date the meaning behind some of his work is unclear. This is one of the main reasons why his work became so well known as it defined the normal art work and created it’s own section that had no meaning behind at all.
Salvador’s most famous art piece “The Persistence Of Memory” was a crucial point in his career as it started of a trend within his work and everything else followed as all would have one of his themes in such as the melting clock. This piece was the first to show Salvador’s thoughts of softness and hardness that can be seen in much of his later pieces.
• Movements and Styles
Salvador was a all round artist who liked to dabble in many areas of art work, mostly painting, sculpting but later on film and photography. His themes of clock, elephants can be seen in all areas of his work and every art piece followed his surrealist style as he liked to include his crazy life style into his work and show that he wasn’t the usual artist.
Salvador’s work was mostly achieved in painting forms, he liked to include the themes of melting clocks, elephants and eggs into every he created as each symbol meant something to him.
• Materials and Processes
Salvador liked to paint this was his preferred and main method of working, almost every early piece of work he created was a paint of some sort, mainly using oil painting. He liked to create oil paintings as he could plan and include every idea he had onto one image and get every theme in he wanted, to achieve this oil painting he will have used oil paints a solvent and a canvas in a well ventilated area to ensure solvents were removed from the air.
The Persistence Of Memory 1931 (oil painting)
The Great Masturbator 1929 (oil painting)
Le Sommeil 1937 (oil painting)
Damien Hirst
Born – 7th June 1965
Died – Still currently alive
Damien is a British artist, collector and entrepreneur, one of the most famous known members of the YBA organisation (Young British Artist) who dominated the art world throughout the early 90’s.
• Subjects, themes and issues
Damien uses a constant theme in all art pieces he does, this theme can be seen in every art piece ever done by him, and this theme is death. Death can be seen in all pieces but the main art work created by him includes the deceased body of a Shark, Cow, and a sheep.
Some of the ways Damien works is by using sculptures, mouldings and painting, spot and spin paintings are a common thing that can be seen in his work, however these paintings are usually not done by him but by his work forces employed by him.
Even though Damien is one of the most well known artists around his work can be seen by many as cruel and inhumane as it involves the use of dead animals, for example in one of his most famous pieces the physical impossibility where he uses a 14ft tiger shark’s body.
• Movement and styles
Damien uses only two styles in his work, paintings and installations, however the installations are what he is most famous for as the spot and spin paintings are not created by him personally.
Damien started to create these immense installations that can be seen today with the help and funding of Charles Saatchi who made a deal with Damien to fund all of his work as he saw the potential in the things that could be created. Charles knew that he could make serious money from funding Damien’s work and flooded Damien with what ever money resources he needed.
Damien first started doing installations for private collectors and art galleries interested in his work. All installations were dead animals placed in glass boxes with a liquid called formaldehyde surrounding the bodies to ensure stability of the animals as it set like jelly and to stop the decaying process.
After going through the process of creating installations Damien sold many for insane levels of money some reaching over 10 million, he started then to hire many to work for him who would become his work force and bring the start to his new art work the spot and spin paintings.
Then Damien decided to surprise the art community further and start indulging into the art style of jewellery. His first jewellery piece was a skull encrusted with hundreds of jewels
• Materials and processes
Damien uses three techniques when creating his art work, firstly he likes to create installations themed by the dead bodies of animals, these animals can be sharks, cows, calves, sheep, pigs, goats and zebras.
The process of installations happens with a special liquid called formaldehyde, this surrounds the body of any dead animal Damien chooses holding it in the position Damien has chosen. This liquid slows down the decaying process to ensure the bodies do not decay to quickly ensuring the life of each art piece, once this liquid has set it is like jelly and holds the body in place.
Secondly not him personally but people hired by him create spin and spot paintings, these are a very simple but effective way to produce art work. Sales in these paintings have gone through the roof and his team of artists continue to mass produce these. They create these on a spinning canvas or a still canvas depending on the end result they want to achieve.
And last Damien’s artwork has taken a turn in a different direction and has started experimenting with the creation of expensive jewellery. Once again this is themed on the subject of death, his most famous jewellery piece “For The Love Of God” is a platinum skull encrusted with over 8,000 diamonds. This is a very peculiar way of working because this art piece will be very expensive to make compared to installations and paintings.
The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living
Banksy painting
For The Love Of God
AO2
I have experimented with different types of 2d media to experiment with different effects and the appeals of using different techniques. One of the most basic techniques I have used is using acrylic paints, this enabled me to recreate a piece of art already created using the exact colours and shades the artist used.
I then used Adobe Photoshop to create images onto a storyboard, by using this I was able to collage images I had located into each of my story board images, saving me time by not having to draw the backgrounds. I used Photoshop to place my character in each scene and used illustrator to create the character in different positions.
AO3
I have started to use 3d media to create some images and sculptures to model what my final character could look like, I used a method of sculpy to model this character. The model was first shaped using wire, this wire was wrapped around a screw in a wooden square to ensure the model would stand up straight. Then the wire was covered in tin foil to bulk out the true shaped of that my character is to look like, after applying the tin foil to bulk the model out I covered it in sculpy. This sculpy is a modelling material that is soft to touch and easy to shape with, but once baked it is rock hard and ensures the character stays the shape you truly desire it to be.
The thing I liked about this technique was that you can get so much detail into a model with very little work, it enabled me to create how I exactly wanted my character to look.
I then used sculpy to create a 3d model that will be a final design in my unit 17, this design was generated from rough sketches I had previously done for my unit. Using sculpy allowed to me to create a nice looking sculpture to my exact liking. Using sculpy allows changed to be made throughout until the baking process, also with using sculpy you can add more precise detail compared to modelling with other materials such as wood, or plastic.
Once it has been baked it looked amazing and because it wasn’t a final piece I didn’t decide to paint it but if I need to I can easily apply acrylic paints to get an even better finish on it.
AO4
I have looked into other artists to recreate their work and how it can help me to create me work, the main area I did this in was unit 17 because I wasn’t to clued up with narrative story telling. I had to look at several artists who created Mayan images and artists who told narrative story’s in different ways such as through cave paintings and tapestry’s.
This Portrait of K'inich Janaab Pakal inspired me to create Mayan faces as it was a perfect face because it included many Mayan features such as the big nose.
From this I created this storyboard of the Mayan creation myth using ideas from this image.
Another artist that inspired me was Damien Hirst, he creates some of the most controversial and innovating 3d art around. His pieces inspired me to create a 3d model my self based on his work. I tried to recreate a similar piece to the one he had created and make a shark in a box, however this was made from metal cardboard and paper.
I do like the Mayan sculpture style portrait, I thin I may even create a full size head like this one of a character I create. This would be made from sculpy and wire, then baked to make it hard, I don’t think I would paint it but if I was to I’d paint it in colours that made it look like a stone effect.
Ao5
Safe practises to follow when working in an artistic environment
Computer safety:
• Ensure the seat is in a suitable position
• Ensure the seat is adjusted to the correct height
• Ensure the time spent at a computer is suitable and not exceeding the advisory time limit
Following these rules should ensure the safety of you whilst at your computer, using a computer for long periods of time will endanger your eyes. You should have regular breaks when using computers for a long time, and use a decent keyboard to ensure repetitive syndromes so not occur. Also having the chair at the correct height and back of the chair straight will ensure you do not encounter back problems later on in life.
Art craft tool safety:
• Ensure scissors are held correctly
• Ensure scissors are not thrown around the room
• Ensure craft knifes are used appropriately
• Ensure craft knifes are used with a cutting matt
• Ensure sharp objects are put away correctly
By following these simple rules you will reduce the change of accidents happening whilst using sharp objects. Knifes and scissors are very dangerous and thousands of accidents happen every year in the UK alone, but just by packing them away, not carrying them in a dangerous manor will ensure that people do not get injured.
Paint usage safety:
• Ensure paint does not come in contact with eyes
• Ensure hands are washed after using paints
• Ensure paint brushes are washed correctly
• Ensure is solvents are used for oil painting you are in a well ventilated area to stop solvent abuse
Ensuring these are followed will make using paints a lot safer, you need to ensure contact with paints are limited and avoid contact with eyes and skin if allergic to certain products within the paint. When using solvents you need to ensure you do so in a well ventilated area because solvent use in an unventilated area can cause lung damage.
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