Finished Piece

This is my final product to be displayed within the Final Show. I'm very happy with my result and I can't wait to see it being used!

I split the shapes created on my surrounding canvases into two for use with the magnetic board. This is because I want people to either create chaos (which they cannot do if all the pieces are already in one shape) or to retain order in line with the canvas pieces. This gives the user more freedom when using the shapes to create whatever random patterns they like.

This is what my surrounding canvases will look like. Pieces all cut out of foamboard now - I have painted each piece with a white acrylic to try and neaten up the edges as foamboard is not the easiest thing to cut, and damages easily.

I continued the paper dropping experiment on the other 5 surrounding canvases. I did apply a matt varnish over the top of these so the card wouldn't peel off. Ideally, card wasn't the best material to use for this, but I wanted to keep it in line with my other experiment, so it wasn't just an unexplainable random choice.

After cutting out my foamboard shape I lay it on top of my chosen shape on my canvas. This is an effective way of showing which shape I chose out of a few different options.

Cutting Method

Once I had chosen my shape to go on the canvas I used a pin to poke holes through my foamboard to draw around so that I knew where to cut. I know this seems an odd way of doing things, but it worked.

After my shape was drawn.

Cutting around my chosen shape to place on top of my canvas.

I then repeated this process for the other 5 surrounding canvases .

Going back to an earlier experiment

For the patterning on my surrounding canvases I went back to one of my earlier experiments. This was dropping coloured card onto a background and removing excess pieces to create a shape. For these I repeated this process, but instead of taking the excess pieces away I left them in. This was so I could cut the shape out of foamboard to lay on top of the canvas so that people could easily see my chosen shape, but also see what surrounded it.

How it looks together

I thought I would put it all together at this stage just to keep a record of how it develops from here. I think my thought processes can be closely followed as my ideas have progressed with this, now just to make the shapes!

Magnetic Canvas

The magnetic canvas took 4 coats of magnetic paint to definitely make it strong enough for people to re-arrange shapes on it. It could have been less, but I wanted to make absoloutly sure that it would perform to the standard I would expect.

How they look now...

This is how the canvases turned out - very happy with my background choice and patterning.

Method Continued

Using the cling film on the watercolour pigment when it was still wet also gave me the opportunity to play around with shaping if I desired. As my project is about random chance I didn't take this opportunity and just left it as it fell.

Due to the nature of my chosen backgrounds, they were very simple to paint with a very effective outcome. Here I am just showing my method.

Before going ahead onto my proper canvases I tried out the different watercolour pigments on a spare canvas first, just in case I didn't get the desired effect or it just wouldn't take to the canvas. Fortunately, this test went well so I decided to go ahead with my plan.

Backgrounds

Watercolour on canvas.

Acrylic on canvas.

I needed a way of producing an effective background texture for my surrounding canvases, so I experimented with 2 medias. One is watercolour pigment and the other acrylic paint. From this test I decided straight away that I would use the watercolour pigment as it's not as bold and a lot nicer to look at. a downside to this is that it's not very bright, however I don't really need it to be.

To get the pattern effect over the top I covered them both in cling film and let them dry, then removed it. I was certainly happier with the watercolour result, it turned out a lot better that the acrylic attempt so this will be my method of choice for my backgrounds.

Magnetic Paint

After the first experiment with magnetic paint failing, I decided to try again but with a different brand which I know to be very good. 

This was my first test swatch using the 'Marabu' magnetic paint and even after one coat it was clear that this would be the best method to achieve the results that I want.

First Test

The first experiment I undertook was to try out magnetic paint to see how effective it would be. This particular paint wasn't what I was looking for at all, it came out very lumpy and wouldn't cover the surface area that I needed to cover effectively.

Interactivity

I decided to back to an earlier experiment for my idea here, which was dropping card onto white paper and seeing what patterns formed in the shapes after they fell. 

My idea is to conduct this experiment again, but over the canvases and pick out patterns that I think would work well. These patterns would then be painted on the surrounding canvases in white, and I would have coloured shapes made out of acetate or foamboard with magnets attached to the back so that these can be arranged on the magnetic panel at the viewers will.

My main aim here is to have a piece of work that is interactive with a wide audience and that is fun to interact with.

Pro's and Con's (different materials)

I came up with a lot of ideas about how to make my main canvas interactive, and the pro's and con's of these. My favourite idea by far is using magnets in some way, so I will experiment to make this work.

Planning

This sketch was to work out what colours I want to use for background and also pattern. I had the idea of using opposing colours for the background and the patterning (colour wheel) and also ideas of what I could do with the middle panel.

Ongoing thoughts.

First thoughts about what I would put on the canvases + annotation about having an interactive center panel.

My thoughts on how the 6 surrounding canvases would look. Annotation about colour/pattern.

Final output decisions

To solidify my ideas about what I am going to produce for my final piece - I started to sketch out ideas of what I thought may work best. They are all based around the same idea, just different variations seeing what would look best. I want to produce the pieces on canvas so that they stand out and they are separated because of a previous idea that was the piece could be viewed as a whole, or as 7 stand-alone pieces. 

After feedback from friends I have decided to go with the simple design of having one big canvas in the middle with the other 6 surrounding.

Kandinsky

After more feedback it was mentioned to me that I should look at the work of Kandinsky as another experimental practitioner as my project has turned very much towards patterns. I took this on board and looked at a few videos showing his work to look at any similarities my work may have, and to see how he has formed his patterns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62BRsqEruE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8yk1Z1224o&feature=related

I also watched the first part of a Bauhaus documentary which I found interesting. The interviews conducted gave me a good insight into what was practiced and even emphasis on techniques taught and used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZOqTFtEHAw&feature=related

Ryoma Okamoto Filmstrip

As you can see, it's very similar to the effect that I achieved with my photography, but also some characters are in focus. This is also an idea I can play with within my final design ideas. Also, the use of colour I want to explore more, as I think something like this would look really good with different hues and saturation's applied, but through my own means, not using software (for me this makes it more experimental).

At the moment my thoughts are I want a series of designs that can work as a singular piece, or as a two or three or more as a whole when the viewer stands back from it.

This could possibly even stretch to these designs working on book sleeves, double page spreads or even mousemats to bring my influence of Graphic Design back into it, but for now I just want to focus on getting different patterns and exploring colour to create a truly interesting piece of work.

My Results

Initially my thoughts of these were no I can't use these as they're so out of focus. This was because the characters were just so small and my camera wasn't good enough to get my desired effect.

However, after feedback and a very useful tutorial I haven't discarded them as a book called Applied Typography 8, a book about Japanese typography, had an example of a filmstrip in there by a designer called Ryoma Okamoto, which was very similar to what I have done here.

After a discussion about where I should go next, I want to produce a few final pieces which can either be viewed as singular pieces, or can be put together to make a whole using my photography and discoveries as an influence in doing this.