EXPANDABLE FOAM

Thinking about more interesting materials I could use, I came up with expandable foam. Bein the outcast in my class and instead of bringing another bag full of fabric I decided to bring a bag full of cans of expandable foam. Although since Glasgow art burnt down, art schools don't approve on using expandable foam inside the buildings. I had to spray the foam outside. I'm not going to lie it is the most annoying thing to work with, it sticks to everything and is super flammable. Me being me, not caring about the whole health and safety system decided not to cry over the fact I have to work outside but just get on with it.

 As my first experiment I decided to loose the stuffing but keep the tights. I sprayed the foam in the tights, a few cigarettes later the shape wasn't interesting enough and to be honest I didn't really enjoy what I was seeing. I started to doubt my idea.

I have decided to just loose the tights.

I then experimented painting over the foam with acrylic paint to see if the color was easy to change.

It turns out that to get the interesting shapes using expandable foam I will have to just spray straight onto the body or mannequin. Otherwise the shapes will not be as interesting and effective.

DRAWINGS FROM FAT

Here are some observational drawings I have done, during experimentation with shapes on the mannequin using balloons and stuffed tights. 

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I really like those drawings, the shapes are all really interesting and different each time, I have used charcoal, pastels and marker pens. When it came to drawing heads I decided that I was going to draw them in the style of the make up that the guy at Electrowerkz had, since this idea started off with him. For the hands I went in with block heavy shapes, not to distract too much from the bain shapes. After doing those drawings I have decided that the shapes I'm using in my manipulation are not as interesting, unexpected and random as in my drawings, I have decided to sleep on it and come up with some different techniques and materials.

FABRIC MANIPULATION AND FAT

Since I decided that being overweight is something that I could seek personal inspiration from, I decided that FAT is going to be the main route I'm going to take forward. Finding and image in Vice has pushed me to take close up shots of my own body to use as my primary research.

 Using a piece of fabric and tying it around my belly has inspired me to use tights. Tights represent the skin very well. I decided I'am going to stuff them and try to remake fat rolls using just those materials. I have then used a stretchy thin jersey to mould around the shapes. I have decided that although this looks very interesting, it looks a little bit too realistic for my asthetic and decided I will use something that would represent a child to create more shapes, I decided to use baloons as well as stuffed tights.

Here I have experimented by creating different shapes and deforming the body. The balloons worked very well and have given me a lot more interesting shapes to draw from. After pinning on the constructions I have done some mixed media drawings.

CLUB KIDS AND MASKS

Being in the library has been hard, no relevant books, no relevant nothing. I finally came across a book full of photos of London club kids. '' New Club Kids'' by Oggy Yoranov. The book is filled with photos of people in crazy outfits and make up. No writing which seemed just like the kind of book I needed to find visual inspiration from.

Here are some of my personal favourites. I looked closer and closer at the images and decided to do some bling drawings of the faces. I really like the linear plain drawings.

 

I have realized that the drawings would make an interesting surface pattern. I drew all of the faces really close together using one line. I did this because I was focusing on a specific group of people, all different yet the same, supporting each other, that's why I decided to draw them using one line. However, surface pattern is not something I want to explore further in this brief.

I have then found an image of a confused child, the red t-shirt contrasting with everything around the boy has inspired me to look at red fabrics. The image has made me evaluate my childhood and all the things children/teens would peer pressure each other into. I have then moved on and created a collage, almost a story. One of the girls isn't feeling very well, she has a white powder all around her nose. Her friend, is jumping on her head, this is my reflection of peer pressure, she is jumping on her head because she is trying to persuade her that she is fine and she needs to carry on sniffing drugs with her.

I have then started looking at materials and fabrics, using some of them on my face to see how they would work as masks. I used a thin scuba and tied it tightly on my face, I loved how that looked. There is something very interesting in the way my face became deformed and my features changed, there is also something interesting about the unisex and sexual feeling about this. While my friend was experimenting with cling foil we tied it around my face and the result was actually quite interesting, there was something very exciting about not being able to breathe between the layers, after each layer I would have to poke a hole for my mouth, that process was actually more interesting than the result itself.