PhotoSOC | University Life

Project 1...

Since studying at the University of Sheffield, my artistic interests have been waiting on the shelf for me to rekindle. When you're thrown into a new environment, it can be difficult to continue with your interests when they're not at the forefront of your studies. 

In order to rekindle the fire... I decided to join Univerisity of Sheffield PhotoSOC. A society that works with students to channel shared interests of photography and art as a way of creating a platform for people like me to showcase our projects. 

For the first week, I attended a lecture with the focus on 'flash photography'. During the lecture, we explored how light can be manipulated just as much as the subject you are photographing. In order to have full control over the lighting and manipulation, we used artificial lighting and kept the lecture theatre dark throughout. The results were drastically different from one student to the next - with some creating strobes of light, others illuminating the subject itself (in this case we nominated a few members of the society to be our subject), and in my case - the light was layered in both the foreground and background of my images. 

My images as a result of light manipulation

Stay tuned for the upcoming projects showcased here along with information about where my next photography adventures will be... COMING NEXT SEMESTER! :)

*All images were taken using CanonPowershot G5X

Check out TRC Arthive to see a featured post of my recent work and how I ended up fortunate enough to be involved in things like this today! :)

http://trcarthive.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/where-are-they-now-riannon-davies.html

Art Critique | Art Prof Appearance

Exciting news ahead!! 

During my A-level Art studies, I ventured to a little website called 'Art Prof'. This hidden gem consists of lots of different and talented artists - working and creating in all walks of life... from school level studies to college, to University and beyond. The organisation is run by a great team of individuals who are also involved in their own artistic adventures - all having their own little areas of interest.

When creating work for my final exam, I was really interested in the way Art Prof focused their time and efforts on giving students feedback on work from all over the world. At this stage in my studies, Art Prof was offering free art critiques for students that wished to gain some extra information and constructive criticism about their work. Being keen to get my name on the waiting list, I snooped around their website and contemplated signing up.

A few weeks past and I was busy creating, brainstorming and doing revision for my other subjects. In short - life was catching up with me. Just as I was starting to forget all about signing up, Clara Lieu: an artist in partnership with Art Prof, commented on one of my Instagram images of my most recent project. I was absolutely ecstatic to see that she had noticed me. It was only a few weeks earlier that I had been researching her work on her website and admiring her talent and hand for charcoal drawings. Subsequently, I signed up, sent some images of my latest work... and within a few weeks, my work was up on the website ready to be seen by many people who use and love Art Prof.

My submission for the Art Prof critique

I was very priveldged to be involved in this program at this time as it allowed me to use the feedback from a range of other artists as a way to push my ideas and concepts forward. This was definitely beneficial for my studies during my A-Level and gave me just the boost of confidence I needed to move my project in the right direction.

A closer look at the original print

The above works are intaglio prints inspired by the details of onion skin and the concept of textures.

Take  a look at my Art Prov appearance here: https://artprof.org/critiques/riannon-davies/

Youtube Video/Audio of the critique: https://youtu.be/YxtgGP2UYxM

Screen Printing | Techniques

Screen Printing...

In the second year of my A-level art course, I discovered a love for screen printing. As an avid drawer who likes to capture fine details in portraits and textures, I was sceptical about starting a new technique process which I'd only ever associated with graphic design. However, screen printing soon became a large focus within my work and something still of great interest to me today.

Because I am so intrigued by the finer details and textures you can find in a drawing, it seemed only natural to try and find a way to combine the Fine Art and Graphics element... and so the Screen Printed drawing was born...

Left (an inverted version of the drawing scanned onto a stretched screen)
Right (the result of a screen transfer in charcoal grey ink)

My work for this particular project is very close to home. With a continuous interest in the history of the mining industry, I wanted to capture a point in time by using my grandfather as the focus of my work. It goes without saying that this project wasn't short of its difficulties - creating pieces from unfamiliar techniques so late on in the course produced added stress, but the hard work eventually paid off with the finished design.

I'd fallen in love with the effect of Screen Printing. The way that I could combine light and dark greys to match the charcoal effects that I desired really allowed me to convey my concept and do justice to what I wanted to explore!

Since leaving college, I have started to develop skills in a fun and creative way to create the beginning of my own craft, card-making selection. As Christmas is only 10 days away, I wanted to surprise my family and friends with something a little different this season... below is my finished lino printed design ready to hit the welcome mats of lots of homes!

As I would now say I am an avid printmaker...I had the pleasure of being invited back to Thomas Rotherham College during early November to make Christmas cards for TRAC - a brilliant way for students and staff to collect funds for the department and charities! Thanks for having me for the evening!! :)  See their featured blog post all about the event here:

http://trcarthive.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/open-evening-festive-fun-trac.html