Manchester Metropolitan University

The Manchester Metropolitan degree show provided a wide range of high quality pieces of work that were exhibited around the university campus. The degree show provided the chance to explore a wide range of Art and Design courses available at Manchester Met, to which most appealed to me including Graphic Design, Photography, Fine Art, Embroidery and Illustration with Animation. I felt that Manchester Met had a lot to offer, as there was plenty to look at and lots of interactive displays that gave the exhibition more appeal and interest.

I feel that the visit to the degree show was beneficial for me as I got to witness a lot of inspiring work that I definitely feel will influence my thoughts and style in my future work. One designer whose work really excited me was a Manchester Metropolitan student called Rebecca Hall. Her course was a BA(Hons) in Illustration with animation. A captivating piece of her display was a diary she had created for a month of her student life. In this diary each page was carefully made and customized using different media. What I liked about this diary was the simplicity and ease the diary portrayed, each page would have handwritten text and simple drawings of her day. A technique of hers and many other designers that I saw at the degree show was watercolours. I would certainly like to experiment myself with watercolours as I have seen some very nice images made with watercolours, what appeals to me most is the way watercolours blend with each other and the easy way of creating shades. The image below on the right is a large piece of her work that was on display, the most eye catching part about this is image is the delicate colours to the birds. It was produced on fabric, a unique and powerful way to add texture. The letter block text keeps the image legible and striking which also works well with the soft watercolour used with the birds. 

Another designer whose work I approached and admired was Elizabeth Power. When I examined her work I was immediately drawn to the detail she put into her portraits, I could see that she had used pen and watercolour for shading which gave a striking appearance. I felt the handwritten type she included on the paintings worked very nicely with the image as a whole, giving it a feminine feel to it. A small technique that I felt added more layers to the image and gave the white space more appeal was the ink running off the drawings. 

Although I wasn’t able to get many photographs of Charlotte Jones’s work the only photograph I managed to take is a very striking and engaging drawing. The drawing mainly works monochromatically and the only use of colour is on the candle, which I feel could be a emphasis on the object highlighting a meaning. The drawing has only been drawn with highlights and the use of bold black lines adds a haunting feel to it. A subtle technique which makes the image portray quite a dark and depressing emotion to it is the paint brush strokes around the candle, this seems a nice effective way of using negative space but yet it can help exclaim the emotion.