Final Major Evaluation

Due to being unable to present my final major piece in the studio as I had first planned, I have suspended the piece in front of a wooden surface. I felt that the worn textures of the wooden boards alongside the brown tones compliment the tones of the spine sculpture whilst contrasting the illustration piece. Although this environment was not in my original plan, I feel that this environment is very successful as it is more interesting for the viewer compared to the large white toned negative space that I had previously chosen and creates an aged mood similar to that of the fossilised bones that I have studied.

I feel that my final major piece highlights the personal links to my spinal surgery through the use of bone forms throughout the piece as well as drawing inspiration from the works of Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomy studies, "Anatomy Studies-Ribcage" in particular. Alongside this, the sculptural elements of the piece drew inspiration form the life size scale sculptural works of George Segal such as "Old Woman In A Wicker Chair" which inspired my use of a large scale spine sculpture within my final major. Leonardo Da Vinci's works also inspired the use of ink as my chosen material for the illustration element of my final major as I was very inspired by the sense of depth and dimension created within his anatomy studies and wanted to incorporate this within my own piece. The accuracy captured within Da Vinci's studies also inspired my use of the dry brush technique within both the illustration and sculptural elements as this technique created marks with a natural sense of texture similar to those of which I have studied on bones from life. To further the links to my chosen artists, I feel that I could have drawn inspiration form the composition of Da Vinci's anatomy study pages and incorporated multiple illustrations on a single page such as in "Anatomy Studies-Ribcage." However, I am unsure whether the final major piece would have looked too crowded and not have a focal point that would draw in the viewer's eye compared to the single featured ribcage if I were to incorporate this composition.

(Old Woman In A                (Anatomy Studies-

Wicker Chair- George          Ribcage-Leonardo

Segal)                                   Da Vinci)

Viewing the final major piece from afar, I feel that the decision to not incorporate a wash of watercolour tone within the illustration was the correct choice as the illustration piece may not have contrasted as well compared to the monochrome scale piece. This decision also relates to the absence of colour and tone within the sculptural works of George Segal. I feel that the use of marks within my final major was very successful such as the use of hatching and cross-hatching which creates a sense of depth and dimension within the illustration that highlights the contrats between the illustrative and sculptural elements. Despite stating in a previous post that I did not want to incorporate sketchy lines for the final major illustration piece, I decided to incorporate them using a 0.05mm fine liner to create the impression of line without drawing the viewer's attention from the focal point of the textures of the ribcage. I also felt that using a thicker fine liner would have blended some of the smaller details together such as the form of the ribs which would have resulted in a loss of the delicacy of the piece.

However, I feel that the final major piece could have been presented in more of a unique way such as incorporating the use of lighting. Although I was able to create a sense of dimension within the photograph of the final piece using the sun as a light source, I was unable to direct the light in ways which I would have liked to highlight the piece. To improve the final major piece as a whole, I feel that the illustration piece could have been presented more professionally such as within a frame although I was unable to order one that would arrive in time due to the lockdown, also I am unsure whether this would have directed the viewer's eye to the frame instead of the illustration piece. I also feel that a large portion of the spine sculpture was obscured and hidden by the illustration so I feel that I would experiment more to find a suitable method of displaying both pieces alongside each other rather than using the hook I had sculpted at the end of the spine sculpture. Originally I had planned to build the structure of the spine and ribcage directly onto the wall so that the ribs would frame the illustration piece and I would not need to use a suspension method of presentation but as I did not have access to the studio space, I was unable to follow this plan and this was yet another reason as to why I decided to remove the ribcage sculptural element from my final major piece. Overall, I feel that the piece was quite successful despite the setbacks and problems caused by the lockdown which resulted in many alterations from my original plan and proposal.