Critical Review

My chosen place for this project was The Cloud 23 Bar in the Hilton as I thought its unique attraction of high tea and cocktails would be a really interesting element to investigate. Before being allowed to visit the bar to take photographs and ask questions, I began to look at china and ceramic teapots and teacups to give me an initial body of research related to my theme.  At first my drawings were very black and white and linear as I was particularly focusing on shape and I had not looked at colour in a lot of detail. I chose to do Print as my first workshop as this is something I would really like to develop throughout my study, and although I feel that I produced successful prints, I would say that the link between my colour pallet and my project could have been much stronger. This is something I focused on within my more recent drawings and for my weave workshop.

My sketchbook starts off very literal, looking at objects and putting them down on paper exactly as I see them whereas later it becomes more experimental and personal to my way of working. I like to combine different media and techniques which is something that I feel gives my work individuality. I began to think about what materials I could work with in relation to the high tea theme so I experimented with doilies and tea stained paper. This was picked up on during the sketchbook exhibition as one of my drawings had been created by painting through a doily which acted as a stencil. I felt that it hadn’t worked as successfully as I had hoped but someone suggested the idea of creating a similar study on a larger scale which would allow the marks to be smaller in comparison with the size of the drawing and perhaps allow it to have a stronger suggestion of what it was.

“Methods are very original. I like the idea of experimenting with paper, painting over it and   celebrating the pattern.”

There have been times that I have been stuck for ideas and contextual research, which people suggested in their feedback, would have been a way to overcome this hurdle and perhaps one of the next steps for my project. I feel that the drawing classes have already given me skills that are going to benefit my way of working. I found the blind drawing task really helped me worry less about what I was putting down on paper and focus much more on what I was looking at. The outcome was surprising and something I really liked so I have begun to incorporate this into my independent drawing for my project which has given my work another direction.

I found being able to look at other peoples work and their artistic approach really inspiring and I feel that it has given me ideas on how to make it a much stronger body of work.