Friday, 31 October 2014
Friday, 24 October 2014
Artists that use low tech media research
Tristan Manco's new
book from Thames & Hudson showcases the work of 38 truly innovative and
inspirational artists who use low-cost, low-tech media and often totally
original techniques to produce work that defies categorization and pushes the
boundaries of art itself.
The ingeniously
crafted and thought-provoking results range across a broad spectrum, from
intimate paper collages to large public sculptures constructed from discarded
wood. Anyone fascinated by the extraordinary creativity currently emerging at
the raw edge of contemporary art will find this book compelling reading.
On this
website you will find information about my work in design, illustration and art
direction, books published by Thames and Hudson, contributions to various
publications, and lecturing on design and the arts.
My main
career focus is as designer, illustrator and art director for clients past and
present including Real World, Womad, BBC, Habitat, EMI Records, Swatch,
Cheltenham Festivals, Soil Association, Modern Art Oxford and the Arnolfini
Gallery. High profile projects include the iconic Blur Think Tank
album. I also work with international contemporary artists in an art direction
role for clients including Pictures On Walls and Choque Cultural.
In 2002
my first book, Stencil Graffiti was published by Thames and
Hudson worldwide. This was followed byStreet Logos (2004), Graffiti Brasil (2005), Street Sketchbook (2007), Street Sketchbook: Journeys (2010) andRaw + Material + Art (2012). My most recent book Big Art / Small Art was recently published in September
2014. I also often contribute to arts and design publications
such as Juxtapoz and Creative Review.
For
several years I have lectured on the arts for institutions such as Tate Modern,
the ICA and the Arnolfini, and on design at universities and colleges including
the RCA.
shows images of the book that I think will be interesting to have a look
at.
· WHAT
MADE ME?
INTERACTIVE PUBLIC INSTALLATION
·
WHAT MADE ME was designed by Dorota
Grabkowska and Kuba Kolec for the Birmingham Made Me Design
Expo (15-22 June 2012) at the Mailbox, Birmingham. Commissioned by
the Idea Birmingham and Birmingham City University, the installation was
created to provide an interactive experience for visiting members of the
public.
The project was based around a concept of information visualisation in a form of a large scale, complex data map, generated by visitors themselves.
The aim of the project was to explore what shapes the people of Birmingham by asking them these five simple questions:
What made you Think?
What made you Create?
What made you Angry?
What made you Happy?
What made you Change?
Each question was assigned to a different colour and could be answered by connecting relevant words together with a coloured thread. Almost a hundred words were displayed alphabetically in a grid, giving the participants a wide choice of possible answers.
Through this visual language, the participants were able to share their feelings, influences, thoughts and inspirations, which made them who they are today.
Over the course of the week, a multi-layered visual data map has been created, concluding the Birmingham Made Me Design Expo.
The project has won the Most Original Exhibit Award at the Birmingham Made Me Design Awards 2012.
The Social Playground by Aberrant Architecture
Called The Social Playground, the exhibition at Liverpool’s Foundation
for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) was based around the British tradition
of racing eggs down hills at Easter. Each structure incorporated informational
displays about various FACT programmes for the community.
Chakaia Booker
Artist’s Medium:
tires.
This woman from New York makes some amazing sculptures out
of rubber tires and also makes some tire sculptures that are wearable and she
is known for wearing them to art shows.
Choi Jung Hyun
Artist’s Medium:
computer pieces.
A Korean artist residing in New Zealand, he has made an
interesting sculpture out of computer keyboards and mice.
Dr. Margaret Benyon
Artist’s Medium:
holography.
A British woman living in Australia, she has spent several
years making numerous incredible holographic images.
David Mach
Artist’s Medium:
coat hangers.
This British artist makes sculptures out of a variety of
common objects such as car tires, bricks and coat hangers.
Jennifer Maestre
Artist’s Medium:
colored pencils.
This American artist uses the more traditional medium in a
new way as she makes sculptures out of colored pencils.
Julian Beever
Artist’s Medium:
chalk.
This British artist is known as the Pavement Picasso and
makes amazing works of art on sidewalks with chalk.
Guido Daniele
Artist’s Medium:
human hands.
This Italian artist takes bodypainting to a new level with
the paintings he does on human hands.
Nathan Sawaya
Artist’s Medium:
Lego.
This American artist has been featured on The Colbert
Report. He is known for some amazing sculptures done with Lego blocks.
George Vlosich III
Artist’s Medium:
Etch-A-Sketch.
This American artist specializes in lifelike portraits of
top athletes and celebrities, the skill he displays working in such a fragile
media is remarkable.
Maurizio Savini
Artist’s Medium:
bubble gum.
Ever wondered what an artist can create out of bubblegum?
Check out some of the works created by this Italian artist.
This post is
dedicated to the idea that creativity can flow out of any of us. Everywhere you
look these days, you see people turning something quite ordinary into something
unbelievably extraordinary. Like Yuken Teruya who delicately carves commercial
paper bags and transforms them into magnificent miniature trees or Maurizio
Savini who turns Hubba Bubba into high art, these artists are the ones who
remind us that the best kind of art isn't the most complicated, it's the kind
that leaves us with an experience. Medium: Trash
Beyond the Brush: Inventive Use of Media for Painting Students (Part 3)
This
article outlines unusual painting and drawing techniques that are useful for
creating exciting sketchbook pages, grounds, textural layers and adding tone
and colour to an artwork. While mastery of traditional painting techniques can
be all that is needed in a high school art project, sometimes combining
traditional methods with wild and inventive approaches is advantageous!
Dip paper directly into paint / ink
Splashing liquid paint or dye onto a surface is one of the most unpredictable and exciting means of applying colour. Take turns at the classroom sink, dipping whole sheets of paper into watered down acrylic, splashing and flicking water across your work: holding paper, canvas or other painting surfaces in the air and letting the paint run down. Once an appealing wash of colour has been achieved, placed the artwork flat to dry, so the paint or ink pools and dries in naturally occuring swirls.
This image depicts simple geometric blocks on a watery Indian ink ground that has dried on the paper surface. Irregular smears of black ink added to the right-hand edge of the work create a varied and interesting drawing surface (teaching example by Amiria Robinson – www.studentartguide.com).
Paint using drips
Gravity can be a superb painting tool. Working with thicker, yet still runny paint (the consistency of house paint is ideal) long splashes and drips of paint can be controlled through tipping and altering the direction of a canvas, or through flicking paint wildly at a work in the style of Jackson Pollock (photographed by Hans Namuth) below.
There
was complete silence … Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he
picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as
if he suddenly realised the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at
first, gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black, white,
and rust colored paint onto the canvas – Hans Namuth.
Abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock is well known for large ‘drip paintings’ that are made by pouring, dripping and flicking household enamel paint directly onto canvases tacked to his studio floor, using sticks, trowels and painting knives.
Using only gravity and a rotating canvas (and sometimes string as a guide) Canadian artist Amy Shackleton creates vibrant, complex scenes that are formed entirely from drips of paint squeezed from a bottle:
Paint with your body
Students should never be afraid of mess. Embracing the physical act of painting (removing the boundary between the maker and the artwork) allows you to 'become one' with an artwork. Get rid of your school uniform and dress yourself in old painting clothes. Spread a big plastic sheet in the corner of your art room (or go outside) and apply paint using your hands your feet or any part of your body that you dare! (Note: wash yourself thoroughly afterwards so as not to enrage head teachers or senior management)!Painting with hair by Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen:
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen’s extreme paintings take on a performance quality: great sweeping actions as hair is dipped in ink; her whole body a painting tool. This work is an interpretation of Janine Antoni’s ‘Loving Care’, in which Antoni soaked her hair with dye and mopped the floor with it.
Painting with feet by Kazuo Shiraga:
Swinging from a rope suspended from his studio roof, Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga used his feet to smear oil paint dramatically across a canvas.
Draw using utensils tied to a stick
Just as removing the boundary between the maker and the creation can result in exciting outcomes, so too can exaggerating the gap between the artist and the work. Here we see exciting, gestural drawings by Year 10 students from Bolton School (Girls’ Division):
Chalk tied to a stick has been used to create drawings of shells using black and white on a grey mid-tone: a great way to loosen up and remove hesitancy or fear about making marks on paper.
Smear paint with a rag
Most students will wipe paint off their work at some point – usually when fearing they have made an error. Michael Shapcott does this with a magical beauty: using a rag to spread paint across his canvas until the right intensity is achieved. Beginning with a detailed graphite under-drawing, he applies oil and acrylic paint over the top and then wipes most of it away. Watching him work is entrancing:Apply paint with card
An alternative to applying paint with a palette knife is to use the flat edge of a piece of cardboard. This is a cheaper and much more accessible strategy for a high school art student. Able to be cut, bent or folded as required, card is a great material for applying flat areas of colour to a work.An example of painting with card by artist Mike Bernard:
Cardboard can be used to achieve flat hard-edged areas of colour, or to apply paint to the raised up portions of a textured area (as illustrated in the left artwork by Mike Bernard).
Paint with a roller
Most students have used a roller to apply printing ink; fewer experiment with using a roller as tool to apply colour to their paintings. Although acrylic paint doesn’t roll out as well as printing ink (it doesn’t spread easily and covers surfaces in an irregular, unpredictable fashion) it is nonetheless a great way of achieving layers of flat tone in an artwork.An example of painting a sketchbook page background with a roller by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer:
Suitable for creating grounds (in both artworks and sketchbooks) ink rollers are a tool that most painting students enjoy.
Squash blobs of paint flat with a piece of paper
A less controllable method of achieving areas of flat tone in a work is to press paper in blobs of paint and use these to transfer paint from one area to another (see example at 0.17 in this video by artist Michelle Brown):Paint with a sponge
Sponges of all kinds make excellent painting accessories. Whether you use specialist artist sponges, cleaning sponges or naturally occurring sea sponges (able to be purchased from most art shops), sponges can be used to apply beautiful textural mark-making to a painting.
Painting with a sea sponge: dabbing a fine layer of paint across a coloured ground can result in the illusion of intricate textures such as those shown in the example above. This can be an excellent way of depicting natural surfaces, such as foliage or shrubbery.
Flick paint-covered string
Construction workers flick taught string covered with chalk to mark straight lines in buildings. A similar principle can be used to create painted lines, using string laden with paint.Examples of painting with string by artist Sophie Munns:
String paintings by Sophie Munn: exploration of the linear: a beautiful interwoven tangling of line.
Paint with a mop
Sometimes a mere change of scale can be enough to invigorate and inspire a student. While most students do not have access to enormous brushes like those used by contemporary painter Fabienne Verdier, there are plenty of other substitutes that might make do: old kitchen mops, brooms, branches off trees, large house paint brushes...
Fabienne Verdier applies ink using huge suspended brushes, which hang from the ceiling and are moved by a pair of bicycle handlebars welded to the frame. Verdier moves the brushes in great, sweeping arcs, applying gestural smears of ink to the paper or canvas spread out below.
Make a drawing machine
Drawing machines come in many shapes and forms. While most high school Art students do not have the time to create complex, automated drawing devices (such as the ones illustrated below), the concept of mechanical application can be used to inspire creative output on a smaller scale.A drawing machine by Eske Rex:
A drawing machine by Joseph Griffiths:
Joseph Griffith’s drawing machine is driven by pedalling a stationary bicycle and turning handlebars, rotating coloured markers and moving them side to side against the wall. A participatory installation work, this device allows audience members to contribute to the drawing over time.
Penwald drawings by Tony Orrico:
The human equivalent of a drawing machine, artist Tony Orrico ‘performs’ for hours, producing drawings that are crafted from endless circular lines. A dancer as well as an artist, Orrico uses his whole body to transcribe endless circular arcs the length of his outstretched limbs. As he tires, the density of the lines fluctuates.
Paint using unconventional mediums
Although care needs to be taken when using materials that are not purpose built for art-making (especially when posting artwork to another country for assessment), avoiding sticky mediums that do not dry cleanly, or those which decay / rot over time, there are plenty of exciting, unusual products that can be used, which are found outside of the art supplies cupboard. Dye from walnut skins, stains from coffee cups, brightly coloured food dyes, splashes of shellac (varnish) and so on, can create wonderful outcomes.Painting with M&Ms by Nikau Hindin:
The brightly coloured food dye from M&Ms has been used as a painting medium in this example, with the chocolate candy photographed in place (photography is a good option when using mediums that might erode or decay over time).
Sprinkle watercolours with alcohol or salt
Artists have long known that certain chemicals resist wet paint and can be used to create textural surface patterns. Sprinkle semi-wet washes of watercolour with alcohol, salt, dishwashing soap or bleach etc, and the result will be an organic, intricate pattern.Example of salt sprinkled onto watercolours by Sarah Knight:
This painting detail by Sarah Knight shows the effect of sprinkling watercolours with salt while wet. Most of the salt has been scraped off once dry, although some glistening pieces remain.
Press foodwrap into watercolours
As with the technique above, pressing crinkled plastic foodwrap (such as Gladwrap) into wet watercolours results in intriguing patterns once the plastic is peeled off when dry.Example by artist John Burge:
With endless possibilities for the creation of mottled, textured grounds, these water colour techniques (gladwrap on the left, salt on the right) can be useful even for students who specialise in acrylic paintings.
Use gel medium to create digital transfers
Although students should be careful not to rely on digital transfers at the expense of their own observational drawing, there are times when the integration of digital elements in traditional paintings can have spectacular outcomes. The following video by Chrystal Hethcote shows a simple image transfer technique using gel medium, which could be useful for applying a digital image to a traditional painting surface:Spray paint through holes to create texture or patterns
Painting students often forget that stencils offer exciting possibilities. Items with gaps or holes can act as a stencil through which paint can be sprayed or flicked, creating repeating patterns, textures or irregular marks. Any number of found objects (leaves, branches, feathers, lace, mesh, fabric) or purposefully created items (card templates or paper with holes cut or ripped through it) can be suitable. It is not necessary to purchase large cans of industrial spray paint for this (indeed these can be hard to wield and tend to fill a classroom with paint fumes); rather use small, empty spray bottles from craft shops and fill these with watered down acrylic in appropriate colours.Application of spray paint through lace by Tara Nelson:
Spraying through patterned lace can result in exciting and beautiful ornate patterns. This technique works well when the patterns created seamlessly integrate with your subject-matter.
Leaf prints by Diamara:
Prints and stencils created by natural forms can be used to create backgrounds for detailed observational drawings, or to add textural elements within a painting. (Note: this should be used with care and not as means to ‘trace’ objects).
Card stencils by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer:
Card stencils can be used to add beautiful, regular patterns and textural elements to an artwork. Note in the example above that the stencil has been intentionally blurred / smudged to provide visual interest and to soften the patterns so that they don’t become over-dominant.
Intricate paper stencils by Kris Trappeniers:
In addition to background elements, stencils can also be used to depict the main subjects in an artwork, as in these stunning paper stencil portraits by Kris Trappeniers.
Apply ink directly to objects and print them
There are many natural forms (i.e. leaves, fish, mushrooms, eroding sticks) and manmade materials (i.e. corrugated cardboard) which can act as printable objects themselves. While objects should only be used if they support your theme or subject, this can be an exciting method for introducing textural elements to painted artworks.Gyotaku fish prints by Barry Singer:
Gyotaku is an ancient Japanese method of printing, whereby a natural object is smeared with ink, covered with a sheet of paper and then rubbed until the image has been transferred. This results in beautiful prints such as the gyotaku fish print above. This technique could be used to transfer surface textures and patterns to an artwork, as well as (when appropriate) to add actual images of relevant natural objects to an artwork.
Mushroom spore print by Lynn Corsi Bland:
As with the fish print above, this mushroom spore print illustrates the beautiful intricacies – and also abstract pattern making – that can be achieved through the printing of found natural and manmade objects.
Corrugated cardboard relief print by Christina Leung:
Litter, scrunched paper and other ripped, torn or eroded pieces of cardboard can be used to print textural elements into an artwork.
Print from a rotated termite eaten stick by Christina Leung:
Cylindrical items are ideal for creating a wide area of repeating textural pattern: here Christina Leung has rotated a termite eaten stick to create a beautifully irregular series of marks.
Make items to print from
If you are unable to find suitable items to print, make some. From drizzling hot glue to layering strips of cardboard, there are endless ways to create abstract pattern making that can provide interesting mark-making within (or under) a painting. Remember not to make random patterns for the sake of it: select shapes and forms that support the ideas explored within your work.A hot glue print by Terri Stegmiller:
There are many techniques that are introduced in primary school Art classes and forgotten by high school. Hot glue prints are one such thing. Although hot glue can be a clunky and unforgiving medium, it can be a quick way to introduce printed linear elements to a painting.
Printed pattern by Susan Mathews:
Repeat patterns created by rolling ink onto lino, MDF or other engraved surfaces can be a great way to add a patterned painting ground to an artwork. The use of a subtle print with a darker tone in this example creates a varied and interesting surface which would be an excellent ground to paint upon! Take care if using printing ink for such an exercise, as some brands take a long time to dry and can ‘bleed’ into a painting when subsequent layers are added. There are often inconsistencies in drying time between colours, so test first!
Take rubbings / use frottage to add texture
A ‘rubbing’ is the act of laying a piece of paper over a textured item and rubbing a pencil or crayon (or some other medium) over the top to make an impression of that texture on the paper. The frottage art technique simply involves taking a rubbing one step further, and using it to create an artwork that no longer directly mimics the original form. Although it can be difficult to add frottage to paintings (unless as pencil under-drawings), using frottage can quickly result in interesting and varied drawings.Frottage art by Kumi Yamashita:
These portraits are created entirely from rubbings of expired credit cards, which belonged to the subjects drawn.
Frottage art by Max Ernst:
Max Ernst was one of the first to explore the frottage art technique, initially using rubbings from wooden floor boards to create imaginative landscapes, objects and other unusual creatures.
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