'Leaves'

Made an initial material by glue gunning leaves onto a piece of fabric. This helped me to practise positions and where the lighting is best.
The material didn't work as well as i expected as the backing fabric was white... It would have been better if it was darker.
Doing this experiment helped me to realise that i did not want a flexible piece.

 









I went on to look at different ways in which I would make something with more structure. My favourite method was plaster casting. This was a quite simple technique that took a couple of people to complete. As the casts had to be of me, I had some help with the casts. They worked well using scrim, but other materials such as some fabrics were not as strong.

After the cast dried, i did a dark base coat as to not make it visible in final photographs like the first attempt. I took some photographs to look at composition and lighting again. Some shots worked really well with the shadows.












I then proceeded to cover the painted cast with leaves and debris from the ground in which the test shots were taken. i did this by covering the cast in PVA glue and pressing the debris onto it. this process took a couple of goes as some leaves were hard to glue on.

In the second attempt of photographs, i noticed that the inside of the cast can be seen in some shots. this would be no good for when it is placed in the exhibition. i painted the inside of the cast brown as to blend in with the soil. This worked well and i am very pleased with the final outcome.