Remembrance Day project

As it has been 100 years since the beginning of World War One, a live company came to visit us, handing us two life-size wire sculptures of humans. As a group we were asked to decorate these people with items related to Remembrance Day and WWI to present on Remembrance day. To begin my research of Remembrance Day traditions (despite the knowledge I already had), I visited  Experience museum, which at the time had a world war one exhibit, to my luck. I took primary sourced photographs of the things that stood out to me most in relation to war. I would then interpret these into small pieces to put into the models.

After visiting Barnsley museum, I created a mood board, using some of the primary photographs I had taken previously. I started by dripping Brush o ink onto my page and blending to create blood. I also splatted it onto my page using the end of my paintbrush to make a splatted blood effect. Using water colour as a base and then coloured pencil I created a range of studies from primary and secondary evidence. I drew the medals I had photographed which in the end really stood out on my page. I drew the remembrance cross and a guy in battle, and blended the coloured pencil outwards, which I didn't feel had worked very well. I could have spent more time blending to create a better effect. Using water colour I painted some poppies as Poppies are what are commonly recognized as the symbol for WW1. I used the paints watered down first and then quite concentrated as I wanted to use two different painting styles to have a nice variety. I also created some poppies out of layered tissue paper and a red felt tip to create the creases which I was really please with and I crisped the tissue paper to look more like petals rather than a flat piece. The guy in the centre  is created using a brighter colour palette so he really stands out. I wanted him to be centralized to show that the war is about man and freedom for man, and our sculptures originate from sculptures of man. I used a mixture of coloured pencil, paint and  oil pastel, and began by being very loose with detail and then building layers and layers to really make him stand out. to improve I could have been better with my proportions as his helmet was too big but I am overall pleased. I painted a truck using the stippling method with acrylic paint just to have some variation. I am happy with my moodboard although I could have used some better materials such as texturized papers or a wider range of drawing methods.

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As an extra I did an A5 painting of an army Chief using water colour.

 

I started by going into the jewelry workshop, and producing some ration cards out of Copper;

-Firstly, I found a design of a real ration card from Google, and traced it out onto tracing paper

-I measured out my pieces of Copper and cut them out using the guillotine

- Then, using a stop out pen, I traced the lines and larger letters onto each piece of metal, and then stuck duct tape onto the back of each metal piece.

-I then placed them into a  tray of Nitric Acid, the tape being a protective layer, as the acid eats away at the material, and we didn't want the whole piece to disappear. the stop out also acts as a barrier.

-After leaving the pieces in for roughly five minutes I put them into water to wash away the nitric acid (wearing gloves at this time so my hands did not get into contact with the acid)

- I then found some methylated spirits and wire wool to rub away the stop out

-Using a hammer and some metal stamps I stamped in the letters and headers, making sure to hammer onto a metal surface as the stamps push through better and it did not damage the tables.

-I then used ammonia, which is a yellow liquid, rubbing it on and then straight off with water and drying. The ammonia turns black and makes the indents more visible. I then went over with wire wool to rub away any excess

-To finish off I covered in a coat of white adhesive to prevent anything from rubbing off, let it dry and then bent the metal by hand to appear worn.

Overall I am incredibly happy with my result, because the lettering is readable and they really represent that time in war; the dark colours make me feel depressed, which is how the people felt at that time.