Task 05 - Material Change

Return to your THREE-HOUR ARTWORK and build an accompanying work that explores an entirely different combination of materials. In doing this, you should identify at least 1 visual element/relation that links the two works.

My Initial Ideas / Approaches.

Since my last work focused on a material that has opaque qualities in how it is a dry and bendable material that can also be erased if needed, I wanted to look to a material with more permanent qualities. Maybe a liquid material like paint or watercolour.
I also thought since the last artwork I produced was on a single larger piece of paper, I could shift to working over a series of smaller paper. I decided 4 would be an interesting choice.
I wanted to be more free in how I explored the materials I used, not having any intended outcome for an image.
I also wanted to change up from figuration with my first artwork and look at exploring more abstract practices.

How I Developed This into My Final Work.

I started by thinking of watercolours and acrylic pen markers as my choice in material as they are both liquid.
A way I decided to tie the first artwork to this was to reference the material of charcoal through some rocks that I found at a dollar shop. The stones are of 3 varying sizes (LRG/MED/SML).
After laying the stones in a randomised pattern starting with a few large stones and then increasing amount with the different sizes.
Then I poured watercolour with enough pigment into the rocks and then dried it with a hair dryer. Thereby letting the material abstractly dictate the outcome of the narrative of the work upon the paper. Creating its own footprint.
By being more reserved this time with my approach it allowed me to have more control in some way over such a permanent and wild material.

What Went Well?

By Letting the work develop naturally I was able to see certain key featured outcomes in the work, that assisted in what steps to take next in the making process.
As this happened a story in the work started to develop, on that considers time, key moment in ones life, highs and lows, and levels of emotional tolerance.
I didn't feel rushed throughout the 3 hours which compared to the previous task (task 1), I was able to make clear decisions in an abstract image and didn't feel compelled to follow my comfort zone of figuration in artworks.

What Could Be Improved?

Some of the smaller stones when using the hair dryer were too light and started flying everywhere and made for a messy clean up.
Using wet Materials especially within a set time limit can be a constraint in the amount time spent in application of the material, as it needs to dry to move on.

Where Could I Go From Here?

The Mindset that I had when I was approaching this task was something that I should give more attention to in future works. It was new but offers some clarity especially in accomplishing a task like this within a time limit.
Giving more credit to the material in allowing it to dictate an outcome of a particular work, looking at how you engage with it and the time spent prior, during and when to finish on an artwork like this.