We were asked to build a box based on a famous icon. The rules were that the box had to be 20 by 20cm cube made out of what I thought would work well and I was not allowed to put my famous persons name or face on this box. We picked a random name out of a bag and I got Winston Churchill. I had to find out more information about my famous person, With Churchill it was quite easy to find information and things I could use to put on my box, Churchill was famous for being former prime minister in the 40s and 50s, he was famous for wearing round glasses, a bowler hat, and famous for doing the peace sign. I decided to build a wooden box and I painted it white all over and added some of his famous quotes inside and outside of the box. I thought I would add things that not a lot of people would know, for example I added a clementine, to represent his very supportive wife Clementine Churchill. I also made some glasses out of a metal wire the I welded together, I added a paper cigar as well, because of how many he smoked a day. I painted the Union Jack, a bulldog and a bowler hat on the back and the insides of the cube.
Overall, I was very pleased with the final outcome, my painting still needs a bit of work, however I was pleased with the peace symbol that I did.

Throughout this term, I have done at least 10 Art History blogs, I enjoyed most of them and some were not something I was very confident in, for example my least favourite was Fashion Photography, I was not really sure what I was looking for in that brief, I did however like Western Post-War Illustration and the Bauhaus and German Modernism because I like to find out more about artists like Norman Rockwell and Wassily Kandinsky, but they are all very interesting lectures. Here are some of my notes that I have taken during the lectures, I tend to write the artists recommended to me, I also write down any key phrases that aren't in the PowerPoint but said by the lecturers. The lecture I was most interested in was how famous European artists like Monet were inspired by Japanese artists like Hokusai. I did enjoy the Art History lessons, and I look forward, to knowing more in the world of Art because I can always find something new about art or find a new style of art that I might want to try, also it also expands my knowledge on how the world or how a society has changed over time throughout history. I find being given different artists to look at can be fun to do because of how they got to where they are now and finding out things like that could help me become a better artist, and I find that really fascinating.
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This is the latest edition of GQ British, and the two I've chosen are 'The Seasoned explorer" and "Big Time operators". The first article is showing a new style for the winter, GQ is a magazine for men between the ages of 20 to 50, this article is for men aged 20 to 30, because of the style is young and fresh, however it can be worn by anyone. The prices are quite high, due to the brand. 
The second article is about watches, one of the most popular accessories for men, specifically analogue watches. Watches have become their own fashion statement for that you get different types of watch like digital and analogue, prices between £50 to something ridiculous in the thousands, different straps from leather and matte to  stainless steel and pleather.

Victor Moscoso is a Spanish-born, American artist, most famous for weird rock posters, advertisements and comics during the 60s and 70s, His work is seen as quite psychadelic and the vibrant colours that give a intense visual .He was one of the few artists with experience in making rock posters. Moscoso was taught by Josef Albers, who was used to teach at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, He moved to San Francisco in 1959, he went to the San Francisco Art Institute, were he became an instructor later on. In 1968, Moscoso became a leading artist for the underground comics called ZAP comix. 

Norman Rockwell was an American Illustrator, his work would be based around American culture, His most famous work was for the front covers for Saturday Evening News, he did that for almost 5 decades.   His work has some added humour, but also a story to his work which I find really interesting, Rockwell was born in New York, 1894, his work was based on what would be called The American Dream, he went to the Art Student League of New York and the National Academy of Design, He was seen as the godfather of American illustrations, This piece I find really intriguing is that it is a portrait of himself painting himself, what I like about this piece is how he was able to is how much he has done in one piece and that it shows life in a still, painting, its a triple portrait. This piece was for the Saturday Evening News, it was made in 1959, however, it was published and year later in 1960, he used oil paints on canvas. 

Otl Aicher is a German Graphics designer, his most recognisable work is the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, He was born in Ulm, Germany, 1922, where he also co-founded The Ulm School of Design with Inge Scholl and Max Bill. The school was founded in 1953 and ended in 1968. Aicher was a self-taught designer and teacher, he learnt from other peoples teaching methods like Jospeh Albers  and use them to improve his teaching skills. Aicher started taking an interest in corporate branding, he designed the brand logo for a German airline, Lufthansa, he also created the logo for Munich airport, 

It is a variety of subliminal messages throughout 2019, some political, others are controversial.

​This image was made by Clare Leighton, This one I preferred a lot more than the other two, I might of scraped too hard in some places but out of the three, I both enjoyed doing this forgery and I most accurate to the image I personally think. 
The most  tedious part was scraping all the white from the sky, but like the rest of them, I was rushing them when I should not have done, I need to practice not rushing my work and take my time with everything I do.

​This image was based on one of the characters from the classic story Treasure Island. At first I was a bit hesitant with pen and ink, I won't deny, if I was given a chance to do it again I would, but overall, I'm pleased with the outcome, I worked to quickly with it so I need to slow down with all my work.

For three of my tasks, I was asked to make forgeries of the chosen images using three different materials; pencil, ink and pen and scraper board.

​The first image I had to forged was called Mary by Eric Robertson, The image is of a young woman and Eric Robertson used a pencil to draw her with. My image shows that I'm trying to draw the same image, however mines was done too quickly, and looks like very stylised, it also doesn't show off her face as well. This was final drawing, I did do another version, however it doesn't look any better, this image was the best out of the two.
 

​Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian artist and art theorist born in December 4th 1866 in Moscow, Russia. He married his cousin Anna Chimyakina, he then got divorced with Anna in 1903 and years later married Nina Andreievskaya in 1917 and stayed married till Kandinsky died in 1944 at the age of 77. Kandinsky graduated at Grekov Odessa Art School in Ukraine, he also enrolled to study law and economics at the University of Moscow.
In 1896, Kandinsky decided to give up on dream as a lawyer and moved to Munich, at the time, it was seen as the most popular place to be for European Art, he met a Yugoslavian artist by the name Anton Azbe. Azbe had his own private painting school, were Kandinsky learnt about composition and with line and form. However, this did not satisfy Kandinsky, so he enrolled into Munich Academy of Arts. In 1922, During his time in Munich he met a young artist called Gabriela Munter, The World War began and both of them were forced to leave Germany so Kandinsky and Munter moved to Switzerland, where Kandinsky wrote the book called "point and line". Not long after Munter and Kandinsky had to go their separate ways, Munter went back to Munch and Kandinsky moved back to Moscow, where he met his wife Nina.
The founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, sends an invitation to Kandinsky to teach at the Bauhaus in Weimar Germany , he taught basic design for beginners, painting classes and a workshop where he expanded his colour theory with new forms of psychology. Kandinsky up to the very end had not doubted his "inner world", the world of images where the abstraction was not an end in itself, and the language of forms was not "deadborn"; they arose from will to pithiness and vitality. 

​The two I have chosen to depict are both from Russia, the first image is a picture of the former dictator Josef Stalin surrounded by children cheering and clapping, this source is from a magazine in the time he was the leader of the Soviet Union. This image is monochromatic, not alot of text about the image and the image of Josef Stalin covers half the page to make him stand out from the crowd, This image would have been used for propaganda to show his more human side in politics.
The second image is a poster from 1925 made by Stenberg Bros called Battleship Potemkin. After watching "Mark Kermodes reviews Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin" based on true events, the film is based on a mutiny revolting against their commanding officers, seen as one of the greatest movie of all time. The poster having the colours of red, white and blue which would be coincidence as it's the Russian flag now is also red, white and blue, for at the time it would have been soviet red. The image also shows two sailors; one with a sailors uniform on and the other wearing a captain's uniform, the captain in the image shows that he is falling, which I think ties into the plot of the story.
 

​Art Nouveau is mixture between architecture and applied art, Art Nouveau has a fluorescent style but in different cities around the world they also add their own style to it. For example, in Glasgow, their buildings on the outside tend to be very squared and boxed but on the inside they is a lot more finesse to their rooms, one of them being the Willow Tea Rooms, inspired by the artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the rooms remind me of a more modern Japanese style of interior furniture. However in places like Vienna, the outside of their building is where the have their gothic architecture with the Art Nouveau, the buildings are more floral and vibrant than the buildings in Glasgow and the buildings have more intricacy and detail in them especially the roofs. Otto Wagner created the wall art on the Majolika Haus in Vienna, the building itself is quite simple but the front of the building is the beautiful artwork that he created.

Many of famous artist from the 19th century have been influenced by Japanese art, for example, French artist Claude Monet in 1899 painted a piece called "Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge" which has some similarities to Hokusai's "Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa" which was made in 1823. Both pieces have the one similarity and that's the bridge, Monet's bridge is very small and peaceful compared Hokusai's large and a lot more seems to be happening. Another example is by Danish-French artist Camille Pissarro, an8d his piece called "Boulevard Montmartre" (1897), This piece was influenced by Hiroshige and his piece "Sugura street", both pieces are based on a road were there are a lot of people, in Pissarro's he has added a more modern theme to his piece like vehicles and street lamps and with Hiroshige's piece is that his is more towards his cultural being.

The Harrington Jacket was originally made in the 1930s by a British company called Baracuta, the jackets are very light weighted, at the waist and they are one of a few jackets that can be a all round seasonal. The materials to make  a Harrington jacket is made out of polyester, cotton, wool and suede, and the jacket is known for the traditional tartan lining and the flap pockets, I really like the funnel like collar. What makes a Harrington so popular is that it can work with a lot of different items of clothing, I personally like a plain black T-shirt and some jeans with my Harrington jacket. These jackets go for on the Baracuta website for £300 to £400, Unfortunately my Harrington is worth about £20 from Primark, not worth quite as much. However, due to its style and its make it does count as a Harrington, just not a very good one. Many people can wear the Harrington jacket in different styles, for example James Dean wore his collar upwards in the film "Rebel Without A Cause" , Steve McQueen wore his collar down as it was originally made as, but my personal favourite is like Joe Strummer from the Clash with the sleeves rolled up. The Harrington jacket was brought back in the 1960s when Ska became a popular music genre in the UK, most popular with skinheads. What I find really interesting about the Harrington Jacket is how everyday and simple the jacket is, and how it also adds style to my clothes that I wear everyday.