Mai Yu

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In this task ‘Way of Seeing’ and ‘Talking Patterns’, the main objective of this is to introduce me to research methods/analysis, pattern making/development through the use of practical and critical observations. I feel like I was quite successful in this task in which I will be expanding upon later. Using the skills and experience that I have obtained from task 1, I really wanted to build on the critiques that I gave myself and create new and innovative textures and patterns by making use of observations from my daily life, new research from museums, and existing research that I didn’t get the chance to use.

An idea that I chose to develop further into my task 2 from task 1 is the painting that I did of the Grenfell mural in Ladbroke Grove. I developed four more patterns and textures, taking inspiration from the shapes and colour palette. I simplified the hearts and leaves into just plain hearts of different colours, but still keeping the original colour palette of green earth tones. I made this decision because after doing some research behind the Grenfell Tower, the green represents the tragedy of the fire that killed 72 people, so I thought it was only appropriate that I don’t take away the meaning and purpose of the original artwork. I played with oil pastels again but combined it with acrylic paint this time to see what sort of texture that I would get. The acrylic paint didn’t really mix well with the oil pastels as it glided off the waxy surface and made a dough-like substance when I tried blending it in with a paintbrush. I think this was due to my paint being too dry as I left it out on my palette for too long. I still wanted to incorporate the acrylic paint into my drawing so I just rolled the dough of oil pastel and paint into a ball and spread it onto the paper. This technique worked and created a rough texture to the surface when it fully dried – this reminded me of the texture of the brick wall that the mural was created on. From that, I moved onto making collages of hearts made from that pattern and also from a brown paper bag.

My other inspirations come from bubbles in the sink from washing the dishes, a garment and some ceramics from the V&A museum, tree stumps from the Natural History museum, a stack of painted tires found in Portobello Market, stickers from a McDonald’s happy meal toy, and even some drawings that I saw whilst watching a Korean television series. I find it fascinating that I was able to be inspired by lots of seemingly random items, but that just proves that pattern can be made from absolutely anything!

Some examples where I have clearly explored my ways of seeing can be found in images 1 & 11 (oil pastel drawings of flowers and patterns inspired by Korean ceramics). I have considered the scale of the flowers in image 1 where I zoomed in and out of the garment and drew from it. I think this is a great way of picturing different scales of patterns to see which ones work well, whether you prefer more big and close up patterns or more concentrated and smaller patterns. For the eight little pattern drawings, I zoomed into the carved sections of the ceramics that are made up of coloured layers. I focused on the pattern inside the crevices, but as you step away from the ceramics, you can’t really see the pattern inside. I wanted to bring emphasis to the hidden pattern inside by producing my own exaggerated and colourful version of it.

Overall, I feel like I have understood the brief well and have experimented with lots of different patterns on different medias. In task 1, I mentioned that I could work on different surfaces so this time I chose to paint on a ketchup bottle to see how a pattern would look on a 3D object. I now have a better understanding of the way I see patterns. To develop my work further, I should think about how to translate these ideas and drawings into embroidery for textiles. I also want to give digital art a go and editing in photoshop for even more possibilities that I wouldn’t necessarily achieve on paper.

The aim of this task ‘Talking colours’ is to introduce myself to colour and primary research through the use of practical and critical observations and drawings. I believe that I have demonstrated this successfully in my work in which I will analyse in the following points.

To start off my research, I went out and explored the areas of West and Central London with my group mates to find inspiration. Being somewhat new to the city of London, I was overwhelmed by the lively community, especially in Portobello Market with all of the diverse cultures that I saw there. As I come from a small quiet town near Manchester, I found it very exciting to be in this environment; it was effortless finding inspiring pieces of art and objects that I saw on the streets. Many of my inspiration stemmed from plant life around the markets, tile art in tube stations, the TFL underground map and a mural that was created to commemorate the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.

I enjoyed playing and experimenting with different styles of art that I wouldn’t normally do. I’ve learnt to be more open minded in my drawings in order to be up to date on my tasks. My usual style of art features more intricate details that are quite time-consuming, however I decided to let go of this mindset of being ‘perfect’ and really challenged myself at taking different approaches and looking from different perspectives. An example of this can be evidenced in image 2 where I painted on a brown paper bag and held it backwards against the light. This revealed the grainy sandy texture of the paper along with each brush stroke inside the hearts. It was interesting to see how the light emphasised the texture and how it affected the colour of the hearts, making it appear quite dull, which contrasts to how it really looks on the other side where the colour of the acrylic paint is quite bright and bold.

Surprisingly, a medium that I have never worked with before is oil pastel. I think this medium lays colour down really generously if you want to achieve bold colours depending on how hard you press down. In my oil pastel drawing of the flowers (image 7), I’ve noticed that the texture gets quite grainy with lighter pressure on the paper. This triggered my thinking of how this would look like in textiles in terms of what different kinds of material that I could potentially use to imitate that grainy texture.

I continued to explore colour through my other drawings – take image 3 as an example. I based this off my own drawing of the London underground tube map (image 4) where I drew part of the map over a background of receipts. I chose to use receipts because it was quite a unique way to add texture but also the faded monochrome colour will emphasise and contrast from whatever bright colours that I add on top. I started to emulate each tube line in their own colour; instead of drawing one straight line, I drew them in lots of little vertical lines going up and down across the paper which then form an irregular line with different thickness to it. I repeated this process, wrapping each line into and around each other which gives an abstract feeling to the drawing as the original map begins to become a blur of colours.

In conclusion, I think this first task went really well; I am really proud that I was able to come out of my comfort zone and experiment with different media and techniques. To develop my work further, I think it would be quite valuable if I experiment more on different surfaces, maybe even working on unorthodox materials rather than just paper. As a result, I truly do believe that I have gained more confidence and experience with drawing, experimenting, observing, and above all, just having fun with creating!