Intentions - Visual Research Week 1 - Urban Influences

To start my visual research I began searching for artists on Pinterest that work using architecture and the urban environment. I found several artists that use geometric shapes in their work as well as other artists that take a more abstract approach - fitting in perfectly with the drawings I worked on over the summer period.

Dario Moschetta and Karen Benedetti

I have thought about the concept that I adopted over the summer project - 'Disguise and Cover-Up', and by using the urban environment to cover and disguise other things I have managed to include concepts such as; homeless people, new buildings covering old, and detail covering abstract which all still link to my summer concept.

During this first week of the visual research task, I began to collect images of buildings that had geometric shapes in their architecture so I could draw the lines (working in a figurative way). I wanted to find buildings that had an older quality and some that are relatively modern, so to do this I visited Manchester City Centre and MediaCityUK to achieve the contrast I desired. 

After doing several figurative drawings of both buildings and homeless people, I felt my work lacked colour and, as I am an embroiderer, colour is a very important element. Using different wet media and my Costa Loyalty Card, I created backgrounds in which I could layer the drawings over. This is in keeping with my concept 'Disguise and Cover-Up' as the paper dims the colour down slightly in areas.

Whilst thinking about the composition of the architecture in my backgrounds, I picked out elements of detail on the buildings for the foreground. The way the abstract and figurative are collaborated, I believe, make the drawings more interesting to look at and also underpin the concept effectively because of the media used.