FMP evaluation

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland has always been an important book to me and not in the sense that it has taught me something valuable and life changing, its more to do with how Alice follows something that doesn’t quite make sense to her and she falls down the rabbit hole and down there she sees all kinds of nonsense.  Alice’s adventure will always be one of my favourites and it is still a very popular book today. I’d always had a little idea on my FMP theme and I wanted it to be about something I enjoyed and possibly something I could have fun with then I did research into it, I settled on Alice because as I said before she means a lot to me, she reminds me of being young and  not having to understand the adult world.

Like my other projects I had to get my primary and secondary research, unfortunately even though it is the 150^th anniversary of Alice’s adventure in wonderland there wasn’t much I could get involving Alice. There weren’t any exhibitions for my artists either so I just focused on what they look at. I went to a fancy dress shop and got a couple of pictures of some costumes, I also took pictures from my copy of Alice’s adventures in wonderland that has the illustrations by john Tenniel and took picture of the illustrations by Yayoi Kusama. I got pictures of a few other things like a bush in my garden that looked a little bit like a rose bush and I have a planter which has rabbits on the front o I took a picture of that too. As for my secondary research I used mainly Pinterest as it was easier to find pictures that had links so I knew where they were coming from. I didn’t really have much chance for drawing from observation in this project but I wish I had tried to allocate some time just to do even a small one.

I chose to look at two artist who had done pieces on Alice in wonderland, the first artist I looked at was Salvador Dali and I chose to look at him because his works is very unique and surreal much like wonderland and I just felt that it would be interesting to look at his work and to see if it would influence my work. The second artist I looked at was Yayoi Kusama and she has done her own illustrations for Alice’s adventures in wonderland, all her illustrations are done in a repeating dot pattern and it is really interesting to look at, like Dali her work is unique and different and I think it works well with my theme. As I am basing my project on the book rather than the Disney film I wanted to look at the illustrations by john Tenniel as I think all art that followed the book would have been slightly influenced by his drawings and I think they are very important and capture Alice and wonderland very well.

I developed my research by taking parts from my sheet work and sort of mashing them together, I did struggle quite a bit with my sheet work and didn’t quite get the inspiration I was hoping for, I think my sheets are quite poor compared to what they could have been.

I wanted to do a repeat print that looked like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and to do this I took parts from most of my sheets. What I found while drawing my design was I couldn’t use my artists style because they just didn’t fit well with my style so I had to simplify it by using bold colours from Kusamas work and just took the pig from Dali’s work and a few of his colours which I thought were quite muted in parts of his work, I think that the rest was inspired by John Tenniel.

Like any other project there has been constraints, mine were more to do with time, I was a little late at getting my tracing in which meant I had less time to experiment and less time to do samples. I’ve also had trouble getting things done when I’ve planned to do them because whenever Id go to do something I’d find something else that would need doing first. Another problem was we only have priority in the print room on a Monday and Friday, this meant everyone who needed to work in there in my class went at the same time and there just isn’t enough room to get in so I’d have to wait, luckily I’ve managed to get in on other days when it’s been empty and I’ve been able to get more done when there are less people in.

I’ve tried experimenting a little with this project, for my artist sheet on Salvador Dali I was originally using water colours and it didn’t work as well as I wanted, I was then shown how to use brusho inks and wallpaper paste to get a similar effect as Dali. I really enjoyed doing this and I spent a quite a while just trying to build up the colour, I think it turned out really well. I also had a chance to use my t-shirt yarn I’ve wanted to use for a while, I used the 25mm needles and I think it worked out and looks really good. I had a go at some 3D felting which I really enjoyed and I think it fits in very well.

I didn’t have to do as much problem solving as I’ve had to do in the past which is a good thing, I did have a little issue with my screen as if I’m using the registration bar it won’t fit very well and it just meant I had to move my fabric out when I do my screen with Alice’s dress. I bought a lot of fabric and I decided to cut it down so I could get three samples to a screen, this allowed me to do it quicker.

If I hadn’t had any time constraints I would probably have sewn into my fabric and maybe experimented with some other fabrics. I probably would have done another wall hanging with other colours.

I don’t think my artists influenced my work that much, I struggled trying to include their styles and in the end I uses Yayoi Kusama’s bold colours and then I took the pig from Dali’s work and changed it into my style and then used muted colours for the background to try and relate to his work. I think John Tenniel influenced me the most and you can see that in some parts of my print.

I decided on my final design by looking at my sheet work and taking parts off that, I know I wanted to do it so it looked like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and I just added things to that idea.

I didn’t use as many processes as I wanted to during this project but I did use needle felting, sewing, embroidery, knitting and screen printing. I really enjoyed these processes and I feel I did well in most of them, I think I explored embroidery quite a bit and I wish I’d had time to use in in my final piece.

I think my print went really well and I’m proud of how it turned out, I think it would have been better if id trued some more colours but other than that I think my prints went really well. I think my sheet work wasn’t as strong as it could have been and I’m a little disappointed with that.

I don’t think I managed my time that well, I did try keeping a diary and I started by planning what I was going to be doing each day, but this didn’t work and I ended up having to do other things that were more important.

I started off by using my blog effectively and then when things started to get busier I sort of lost track of where I was on my blog and I had to upload a lot of posts on the same day, I could have used it better and it would have been easier if I had.

Over all I am fairly happy with how my project turned out and I think I did quite well, I think my strengths were my prints and my needle felting. I could have spent longer working on my sketchbook and sheet work.

I originally wanted to make a dress which had a repeat print on it, but with the amount of time I had I just didn’t think it would be possible for me to do, this made me rethink what I could do, I decided that a wall hanging would be better and after doing my design it would look much more effective. It was also suggested that I do a cushion as there where two prints that were chosen for me.

I don’t think I handled the amount of work I was given all too well, I think I got a bit overwhelmed and work just started piling up on me. I tried to organise my time the best I could but I really did struggle.

If I were able to do this project again I think I may have chosen different artist and tried to do more experimentation and possibly focused a little more on my sheet work.

I’m really happy with how my prints turned out and I think I did quite well with it.