Wednesday, 15 June 2016






The above images show the entirety of the photos and the process that I have gone through in order to create the 6 finalised images with all editing and refining complete. 

Tuesday, 14 June 2016

Final piece development







Here shows the development stages of my sketchbook and how I came to the conclusion of some ideas for my final piece before researching artistic poses for the final photo shoot of the base images for my final piece.

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Artistic Influence Interpretation


Painting From Primary Photos Photo-shoot


My Experience With Clothing


Disrupted Nerves Physical Experimentation




After a peer review of my sketchbook I realised that I was lacking in sampling and I was quickly falling behind in quantity due to the fact that I was stuck of small ideas and trying to make them of high quality when ideas down need to be refined and finalised at this point in the sketchbook. For this reason I decided that I would now try and simply have fun with the project and this concept and begin making some 3D samples. 
Due to the fact that I am thinking so much about my hypersensitivity I am looking back on so many sensations and feelings that I had when I was younger in relation to the them of my FMP in order to potentially bring about some fresh ideas. From doing this I kept thinking about both good and bad physical feelings and how hypersensitivity can sometimes be a good thing as many good feelings can be heightened in a good way. One feeling that I remember really enjoying was peeling dried PVA glue from my hands as a child, and I know of many other people that enjoyed this feeling too. This memory had got me thinking, and I realised that this feeling can have two sides to it in that the feeling is good when you know the glue is just glue, but when you peel off dried glue in the context of a wound of something painful on the skin you feel very uncomfortable. I love that this ideas has the two sides of something beautiful like a childhood memory and how it can be switched to something you wouldn't expect and it to be so ugly. 

Stand Still Idea



Above you can see a page dedicated to a conceptual idea I had for adding further physical meaning and communication for the nervous system idea, This concept was to portray several small evil looking creatures attaching the nervous system, therefore a surreal interpretation for the cause of pain that some hypersensitive people go through. However, after reviewing the images I realised this style would essentially bring down the realistic quality of my work massively even if their were represented on top of a highly realistic drawing or painting. In doing this I could lead my work to looking rather commercial and illustrative which is something I didn't want to do - I wanted to communicate this project as sophisticated and real as possible. 
Because I was doubting myself and the future of the project here I decided to discuss it with my course leader and he was in agreement that I could p better than this for the rest of the project. Because of this I did leave this idea behind, but in doing it and doing it well enough the first time around, I saved myself a potential several weeks trying to push this idea and make it work. From this point onward I can exclude any ideas of similar nature to this and begin exploring more realistic and professional looking ideas.

Anatomy and Nerves



This page is currently unfinished but I felt the need to explain the idea here as this could be a large development concept for my project. Due to the fact that hypersensitivity to the degree of pain is so unusual and upsetting, it felt important to explore it because even though it is something I do not experience it is important for me to cover the area well and really get this point of real discomfort and pain across to my audience. 
The drawings above show a loose representation of the anatomy for the underside of the arm (the most universally sensitive part of the arm) as well as the thigh as I want to make this slightly personal to me and this area is one that is most sensitive to me. In doing this I am making a point to show the little details and highlight the nerves in yellow. This is because research seems to show that hypersensitive people whom experiencing most likely have an issue with their nervous system and that is the route cause for the physical pain from the constraint or discomfit. Also, many people find viewing the anatomy makes them very squeamish and uncomfortable which will essentially add to the overall uncomfortable response from my audience. 

Painting Into Images - Quick Experimentation



This piece used a combination of Photoshop and painting on top of the image in acrylic in order to create this visual representation. First I went t into Photoshop and used the liquify tool to pull in all the parts of the body that I feel are the most affected and irritating areas when I wear clothing such as tight tops and skinny jeans. As you can see I came to the conclusion that the chest, waist thighs are often my problem areas in these circumstances. I then went into painting this image with acrylic to show what was casing the constrict. This aspect of the image was inspired by the work of Yung Chen Lin as he often uses thread and constraint as running themes throughout his photography work.
I really enjoyed making this piece as being able to go into Photoshop to create the illusion of constraint ended up being so much more effective in the realistic sense and time wise as opposed to if I were to take a traditional route and paint the entire thing from scratch or even trying to manipulate the figure in a photograph using paint, 

Developing From Photos (Inspired by Yung Cheng Lin)




This recording of a personal idea is something that I have wanted to show to people almost my entire life. Ever since I hit the stage of 'womanhood' I have been terrified, anxious, self conscious and ashamed of the simple fact that I cannot sit comfortably and without an autistic stim whilst wearing a bra. Because of this I often found didn't wear one in my early teens and this lead me to feeling rather left out and 'odd'. This is something that gave me my most hardship with my mind and body in the entirety of my teen years, and because of that it is something I wanted to include in my FMP work in order to almost prove myself to people that I am not strange, I am in pain and I shouldn't have to put myself through that, and nor should anyone else be expected to be,

Micro Idea - Skinny Jean Interpretation



Here is a micro idea that I have jotted down in my sketchbook recently as it seemed important enough an experience to expand upon in the coming weeks. These images show a current battle I'm having with my hypersensitivity, in that I am experiencing far greater discomfit and pain in my legs than usual. As this feeling is so strong and prominent I really wanted to document it and it's visual pairings before this issue dissolves as I will forget many of the details. In this case I came to the conclusion that sharp stabbing pains were the best way to visually express this feeling.

'Normal' and 'Hypersensitive' Brain




This was an idea that I'd had early on in my sketchbook prior to much artist research. I decided that I really wanted to do this idea quite simply and at the initial stages of my sketchbook becasue I wanted anyone looking at my work to see hypersensitivity from the aspect that I view it from - it is something medical and it is often hard to pinpoint the cause of. Being overly sensitive with tactility is often linked to ASD (down to different brain activity to that of a 'normal' person) or something deeper such as problems with the the central nervous system or the release of certain chemicals in the skin such as histamine, as too much histamine can trigger an allergic response from something mild and temporary to no trigger and as a constant. Here I wanted to take an artistic approach towards what hyper tactility can be the cause of for some people - above we see a perfectly normal painting of  a brain scan inspired by images from the internet. I then took this and created a duplicate in a less technical and more abstract way. The drips and splats were inspired by jackson pollock as much of his work was created in a time of pain and depression, and I created a link between the two i order to produce a brain can that is chaotic and out of control. The ideology behind this was to show from my own experiences how you can feel during an episode of extreme hyper tactility - your brain feels like it is setting all of the alarms off and allowing your body to lose complete control and cause nothing but discomfort via itch, constraint, muscular contraction and anxiety. 

Thursday, 21 April 2016

Inspirational images

Here is a mood board of imagery that reflects the way I currently believe I'd like to approach my work. The clear discomfort that is received from viewing these images is a style that really resonates with me as it captures an element of how I feel during uncomfortable situations, such as the sheer discomfort of allowing anything so tight on the skin that it leaves an impression on the skin itself, or feeling like the skin is being pin pricked on the days that 




My theme - Hypersensitivity 

For my FMP I have chosen the theme of hypersensitivity which is an aspect in the autistic spectrum. It can effect each sufferer differently and to varying severity - it as all very personal, from how the condition affects them physically and medically as well as how they cope with it personally. For me, I am on the lower end of the autistic spectrum and struggle with its symptoms on an entirely personal level, therefore from an outside perspective there is seemingly nothing wrong with me. However, my entire life I have suffered with extreme sensitivity, mainly that in tactile nature (however it also incorporates difficulties with sounds and speak). This means that for me it is hard to wear many types of clothing that cling too closely to the skin or are made from materials where I simply feel every fiber, wrinkle and crease, like sand paper. As a result I often feel very self conscious in how I present myself as I cannot wear clothing that shows my form in what I see as a 'beautiful way' as garments such as bras and skinny jeans lead to such discomfort that I can't help but voice it, and to those around me with little knowledge of how my discomfort differs to theirs, they simply see it as complaining.

Hypersensitivity is a huge part of my life and makes up a lot of who I am without my own consent. This becomes all the more difficult when so many people look at me and do not know the reason why I am tugging at my clothing, scratching my skin and pulling my hair in frustration, and this is all simply down to a lack of awareness. For this reason, I want this to be the driving force of my FMP, I want to give awareness of this condition and just how difficult it is to deal with on a daily bases.

It is an endless battle that I deal with personally, so I want more than anything to bring this to light, to show people the reality, to look like someone in need of understanding rather than an avid complainer to avoid.