Gregs Art Blog

My First DSLR Camera Ive decided to write about the photography equipment which I have used throughout my life. I dont have a great deal of knowledge when it comes to photography but I have been interested in it for the past 5 years or so. I remember the first camera I got was a Finepix s4000 which its quite a chunky DSLR style camera with a very simply design and performance. This camera got me through the Art and Design btec course with some great results, it introduced me to the world of DSLR cameras. This camera only has 14 megapixel which doesn't sound like a lot nowadays for a camera, given that most phone cameras are far better. My current phone has a 12 megabytes camera which is quite impressive, but their are some camera phones out there like the Huawei P20 that have a massive 40 Megapixel primary camera, which is pretty insane for a camera phone.  My experience with Camera Phones  Taken with an iPhone 4. 5 megapixel camera  This was taken around the t

Richard Long has a very unique way of working which I haven't seen before. We were shown a video in class showing an example of Richard Long's "A line By Walking" work. The man in the video we watched was called Dr James Fox, he drew a straight line on a map in which he tried to accurately walk to try and replicate Richard's work. It was a little harder than he thought as he had to climb over a lot of obstacles and avoid cold ponds. He ended up in the middle of some woods and he felt very underwhelmed with the whole experience, just like I was watching it.   This is a screen grab from when James Fox first starts out his attempt A Line Made by Walking 1967 This image shows an example of his work. He would walk back and forth following the same line until the grass was flat and catching the light of the sun. For me, I don't quite see what he achieves by doing this apart from getting exercise. He explained it as sketching the portrait of the coun

Since diving into the world of surrealism I have had a lot of names thrown at me who are relevant to the kind of photography I aim to produce. Man Ray is one of them, after reading up on him I can see why people thought that I'd be interested in his work. I found out the he was a significant contributor to the DaDa and Surrealist movement. One technique that id like to focus on is his work with Rayographs which actually inherited his name once he perfected the technique, originally referred to as Photograms. Other artists have used this method such as Robert Rauschenberg and Gyorgy Kepes which I didn't know about until I did research. Rayography I was told about this method after asking about Man Rays work in class. I was told about a few other artists who have tried this also but Man Rays images were the first ones that were shown to me. I have a desire to try this which is why I have purchased some light sensitive paper. Man Ray started out as a commercial photographer

David Hockney is one of those artist who I hear a lot about in class. His impressive joiner photography is a very clever and unique way of producing an abstract image. I have tried this technique's quite a lot recently with success. I don't feel like I've done enough research behind this technique and his work in general. So I've decided to focus on him for one of my 5 photographers that we are to focus on for our photography unit. Something as simply as this work space has been given a lot more dimension which creates more information for the viewer to absorb  Ive read that his famous joiner photographs occurred accidentally. He didn't like the wide angle lenses as they seem to have a distortion he thought, which must've pushed him to take these individually images and join them together. This accidental method occurred when he was doing a painting of a living room and he decided to take polaroid photos of the room and glue them together. Possibly to

I"m not that familiar with Tommy Ingberg but recently I have dived into the world of Surrealism with my photography. What I like about surrealism is the idea of creating something that no one has seen before or even thought of. I want to shock people and create a sense of wonder at the same time. After reading up on Tommy's I found a similarity between me and him. He got decent grades in school and he went on to start a safe non-challenging normal life with a boring job. He only did photography as a hobby just like me with my drawing. I didn't get any satisfaction from doing this as I was being told what to create. I can image that this would feel similar to him in this situation. Once I started college again I felt more free to do what I want and pursue the styles I wanted without being held back. Tommy's photo's transport me to this dream like world where I want to keep exploring. The level of surrealism here is something I hope to achieve myself. you real

Recently we started looking at Ceramics, which is a subject that interests me quite a bit. I love the feel of clay and the process of creating a finished piece. I have some experience with clay but I am mainly self taught. clay can be very unpredictable at times, mainly during the firing process. I've had many sculptures fall apart on me after this process. This is possibly due to air bubbles in the clay So I went online to find out some examples of ceramics and I came across these eye catching pieces by Elisabeth Kley. She creates these fantastic vases with brightly coloured designs. I would like to give one a go in this style. I'm not sure how easy it'll be to create a vase but shouldn't be that difficult. Elisabeth's sculptures feature colourful peacock designs and birdcages which make for good opportunities to incorporate a vivid colour pallet. I might go on a similar route with my designs. Id like to incorporate as much colour as possible. I would love

For our photography unit we are to research different techniques of taking a photograph. Ive decided to focus on Ansel Adams for my first report. His work impresses me with the detail and the sense of scale he translates to his imagery. Technique and Equipment Adams was well known for his work in the darkroom in which in produced every image by himself. So to better understand this technique I looked up the process from start to finish. Like the name suggests the photographer would work in a dark room because the photographic paper could easily be ruined when exposed to light. This techniques sound slightly tricky to me and the risk of ruining the image is quite high. The waiting period to see the results of the photograph would be quite stressful for me. Possibly because I'm so used to seeing my results instantly which allows me to retake the image if I need to adjust the angle. This technique is still used today but it isn't as popular due to the rise of the more instant

For our photography unit we are to write about the different techniques of capturing a photograph. I figured that the best place to start would be the first reported evidence of photography, and take it from there. I did research and found out that a man by the name of Joseph Nicephore Niepce, produced what is believed to be the first ever photo from a window of his estate in France. He used a technique called Heliography First recorded photograph by Joseph Nicephore Niepce I read that the process involved using a naturally occurring asphalt, as a coating on glass and sometimes metal. It hardened when exposed to light. When the plate was washed with oil of lavender, only the hardened areas remained. This sounds like a very clever way of create an image but its not one I feel I can fully review as I wont be able to try this myself. This technique sounds more like a science experiment than photography, but come to think of it, chemistry and photography are closely related when i

For this report we were to look into two male artist and focus on what their interpretation of beauty in the male or female body is. We are to write about how their different views of beauty make their work different from other artists. What's todays definition of beauty? Ive decided to find out what todays definition of beauty is and what effect it has on us. Confucius who is a Philosopher and teacher described beauty like this "everyone has beauty but not everyone sees it". I find this quote quite enlightening as I do believe this myself. We spend everyday looking at the same face in the mirror and whenever a flaw appears we obsess over it, and find ways to correct it in order to achieve the perfect "beautiful" look. But these flaws are what make us beautiful.      I believe the media plays a huge part in convincing us what is beautiful and what's not. But the thing is, the majority of these "beautiful" people have their looks alte

So today the class set out to Hawick, my hometown, to view a series of works by Onyeka Igwe. We were directed into a room surrounded by 3 screens, and in the center were 3 projectors on a very meticulously thought out apparatus. When Onyeka started to describe her work I realised that she has a very different outlook of art and visuals to what I'm used to. She went on to describe here process and the stages leading up to the first film. She mentioned that she looked into Colonial Archives which is where the idea for this project was created. First film   When the first film started to roll, it at first looked like nonsense, but I then began to tune into the idea behind the film. I got the feeling the artist is trying to trigger a reaction from the viewer because their didnt seem to be much context to the imagery. As I continued to watch, I noticed interesting uses of the camera, She would zoom into the worn corner of the book emphasizing the age of the book. then

So I woke up today far too early (especially for a sunday) and had the urge to visit an exhibition as I'm wanting to keep my motivation up and keep finding new inspirations. I remember my lecturer mentioned that a great exhibition is showing at the Hawick Museum, so off I went. Apon arriving to the museum I realised that I had an hour to spare before it opens. So I decided to wander around the park and take pictures, thinking about perspective. These are some of the results.. I then decided to play around with them and add some different effects. I wasn't going for a specific look, I was just going through different filters until the image took on a new look and feel. The Surge Exhibition So I made my way back to the museum and I finally started the tour of the exhibit. there was some great work and techniques on display. I have taken photographs but I wont post them on here as they wouldn't do them justice. its very much an