First roundabouts 10th September

On the 10th, we were put into groups and started working in our first lot of new lessons, which for me was Visual Communications and 3D (welding). I was optimistic about trying out new things instead of working just with photography and really wanted to experiment with some new materials and techniques.

Visual Communications - One

In the first Visual Communications session, we were introduced to the topic and shown some pieces of work related to the subject. We then picked an image from the previous museum visit, this was the photograph I chose to work from.

After picking an image, we applied filters via Adobe Photoshop to create different effects, which would be used later. The photo below is an example of one of my products

After applying stylize -> trace contour to the image, and turning it monochrome, this was one of my outcomes, which I would use in the next lesson.

The lesson was quite straight forward in a sense, because after years of photography I know how to use Adobe Photoshop, but having something ready to work on for the next lesson kept me optimistic, and didn't put me off the subject. I was looking forward to seeing what I could make out of the above photograph, especially as I'm not used this kind of art.

3D (welding)

In the lesson on 3D, we were given a brief introduction to the subject, shown some models made by welding metal together and given a basic health and safety tutorial. To weld, we had to place to two pieces of metal in between the two parts of the welder, and push down the handle to send an electrical current through it, causing it to heat up, spark and fuse together. 

After seeing the demonstration, I decided to work from this photograph to produce a similar model by welding metal.

I started by wrapping together thicker pieces of wire to create a trunk for the tree, and welding on smaller pieces for branches, but this soon fell apart, so I decided to make more of a cartoon styled tree, with big circles for leaves.

The hardest part of the lesson was probably keeping everything in place that you were trying to weld together; the area that welds is so small, everything kept falling off the machine, making everything take twice as long. That, as well as things not sticking properly and pieces falling off of the tree made the afternoon seem endless, and made me give up a few times. But I thought it was better to make something bad than to half finish something, so I completed my tree in the end; it's safe to say I won't be doing welding again.