REFINING MY EXPERIMENTS

When researching into Kurt Jackson I became inspired by the materials he adds to his work which are primarily evidence of the belongings left from the place that he had discovered, I was very intrigued by the way that the range of environmental materials added to his work were painted over with a thick, wet medium so the viewer is unknown actually seeing the material itself. The way that the texture is created gives the viewer an enhancement to what the texture of the actual object he is painting felt like, for example, if Kurt were to paint a landscape of a beach he would use sand and apply it underneath the paint, he would then use a wet medium to work on top of the canvas.

Looking at these experiments now where I was beginning to create scenarios based around old, vintage photos being applied to an out of space , afterlife story, I was more focused on seeing the outcome of distortion in comparison to adding texture. I decided that I would experiment with seeing how the effect of an image of a planet would appear differently, would it look more surreal? 

 Firstly I chose to add this experiment because it was hard and not soft due to adding emulsion on top previously, so when I were to apply paint over the top the different layers would still appear in a more 3D composition in comparison to if I had used just one layer of melted plastic over the top. Also, when I researched into Hubble and planets which actually show visual research of what the texture on a planet looks like, I believed that after melting plastic the texture created a very similar shape to the images I had researched. In relation to Kurt's work, I am more so following the way he applies the materials he finds onto his work in comparison to the meaning of picking up materials found at the location, as it is very very unlikely that I will be able to go into space.

Although the separate composition of the plastic has been naturally manipulated into a circular shape I wanted to experiment with not re shaping the way it looks by cutting the circular shape out, and instead sticking it on top of the photographic image of a planet.

After sticking it on top of the image I decided to use acrylic paints in such a dark toned blue colour because I wanted to see the effect of exaggerating the naturalistic colour you would see in the images of planets, After painting on top with a very small brush I found that the inner, deeper layers in the texture of the plastic had not been touched by the paint, so I decided to use a black acrylic to begin forming the shadows of the composition whilst refining the number of layers that increase the 3D outlook. At this stage I was liking how the texture had really improved the way I looked at the collage but due to the shape of the texture being so circular, I found It harder to fill the gaps where the texture needed to be.  

I added just a thinner layer of melted plastic as I knew that I would be able to cut out its original shape to manipulate it to the shape of the image underneath, Although the texture of the acrylic was onot as built as the one to the left, you were still able to see the lines where the folds had occurred.

After I had painted over the second half of the material with the same acrylic colour I did apply black in the places where the shadows needed to be refined in order for the texture to be exaggerated, However, what I did not find effective about this experiment is the shape of the first composition added because it does not blend in with the rest of the texture and instead creates a different meaning.

Due to having no white acrylic paint I used a dry medium called oil pastels in the colour create to contrast with the shadows I added with the black acrylic paint, I knew that the oil pastel would pick up the raw and defined small prints of texture but I wanted to actually show the lines that had bee made o from the folds of the plastic when it was in the process of being melted. Overall I actually believe that I added too much of the dry medium to my work so I need to do another experiment which:

1. Can cut out the plastic material so I am able to manipulate it to the part of the collage I want to add texture to.
2. I should do an exeirment which inhabits a small detail of texture from the plastic being painted over with wet mediums usch as oil paints and I do not add a dry medium on top. 

For this experiment i wanted to see the effect  of actually covering the dried melted plastic with black acrylic to see if the colours behind the PVA remain to be seen as they are such pigmented colours. To begin, I used cardboard as a surface background as i wanted to use a thicker, more stable surface when adding such mediums like layers of PVA. I mixed blue and red ink with PVA but added the two wet mediums separately so i was able to mix them together as they thickened within the PVA. My reasonionig for using these colours in particular as part of the experiment was because they are very surreal colours that are almost like enhanced in pigmentation, however, I did not think that when they mix with the PVA they would turn into a more pastel colour.

The image that had given me inspiration to re create visualised imagery of
space by the colours that had been used.

The photo was what gave me inspiration to experiment with the colours that I did because the surreal collage entails aspects of the surrealist colours you would typically see of photo shopped images of space, Also, the two colours contrast with one another because of how rich they are in terms of saturation, This is why i used ink as the colours are very pigmented in comparison to using other thin mediums like watercolour. 

Example of the corrugated cardboard texture

After mixing PVA and the ink I added a few layers of stretched, thin plastic over the top to thicken and crisp the mediums so that when i were to dry them, I wanted to see if the PVA would seep through the plastic as it cracks and melting into a smaller composition; Also, i wanted to see if the patterns from the cardboard would allow the PVA and ink to sink into so that you are able to see the surface much more clearly. If you look in the centre of the composition you can see the lines where the PVA has sank into the corrugated paper as it fills the deeper ridges. I then added a wash of emulsion over the plastic after it had dried so i could sustain the holes where the plastic had melted and allowed access for the PVA, the PVA was still wet at the time so I thought that by using emulsion it would Thicken the texture as it builds from the layers of folded plastic.

                                            HOW DID I REFINE THE EXPERIMENT?
After wanting to highlight the holes, shapes and lines that had been built from the texture after it had melted i wanted to use acrylic to my work, this is the reason being that after researching into an artist called Kurt Jackson who covers materials that he adds to his work with paints, exaggerating the shape and lines of the material rather than seeing what it actually is whilst blending in with the composition. This is when i began to add black acrylic paints as i used a small brush so I am able to detail the acrylic into the smaller holes that have layers below, shadowing the layers.

A close up of the texture that has been picked up as i use a larger brush to sweep the paint along the smoother,less built up parts of the texture so i am still able to see the pastel colours behind.

I add more layers of black acrylic to the texture that has more folded material.

I love how abstract and distinct the black is in contrast to the colours behind and how the black added to the composition creates such a contrast between such a sharp tone in comparison to the background. I think the next thing I could do now is begin adding images into the piece so it looks more like a story based composition instead of an abstract piece incorporating texture and line.

Close up

example of the texture that is similar
 to what I have created.

A close up of the texture defined by the black acrylic, some tones seem sharper than others so the darker the tone, the deeper the texture. I actually think that this experiment looks like a close up of the outside appearance of a planet because the shape that has been defined by the black acrylic has created a circle, similar to the shapes that are engraved within planet such as the moon.

The progress of working into the dried emulsion upon the plastic, I found that when doing this the black began to cover the colours beneath the PVA and the texture, I was not sure whether the colours were going to be hidden too much by the black as I wanted the main focus to be a positive contrast of the black paint with the pigmented, surreal colours.

As I began to use a larger brush to pick up the texture from the inner centre point of the composition I realised that the ink colours were becoming more and more enclosed, however, I liked how this composition focused more in detail into the tones of texture of the lines that are uncontrollably being highlighted.  

The final outcome, to improve i would add an image into the PVA and ink so that when the PVA dries the image is stuck in the actual medium rather than layering it on top and so this way I am able to do the same technique of melting plastic and defining the lines with acrylic or another wet, yet thick medium.

For this experiment before I refined my work I was solely focused on ways to create texture by the use of melting materials, however, I did not know how to take this technique further until I researched into Kurt Jackson. Kurt Jackson is the artist who adds materials to his work and then paints over them with wet mediums. As you can see I have used cardboard as the primary surface whilst mixing blue ink to PVA to ground the first layer of texture. I have then began to melt 2 layers of stretched plastic on top so that the plastic would melt into the PVA to create holes similar to the previous experiment above. I then added more and more layers of plastic to the composition because I liked that when I dried it, it would build upon itself. I then added emulsion on top because I noticed that from the previous experiment it had filled the smaller gaps where there was little texture, similarly, it would also define the smaller details into the PVA.

 My aim was to see if the acrylic would