Final piece development.

Here is a developed final piece.

My idea was the incorporation of Queen Victoria with Art Deco that she never got to see, due to her death in 1901.

I researched Art Deco as I found it an interesting period of history that was situated near the end of my coins dates. Similarly researching Art nouveau as another art period of history that situated nicely in-between in my coins dates. As seen in this work by the incorporation of the natural elements in the foliage and such.

The ideas for this piece were that I would look at the dates on my coins, my collection, and investigate around this period. The first and oldest coin I have is from 1877 and features queen Victoria on the back. Similarly I found that in 1877 Queen Victoria was declared the empress of India, which was an important event. From this I then went and found artists to research that then relate to Art Deco and collage practises to then inform how I did this piece of work. e.g. Enrico Nagel. I then created a collage that had elements of Art Deco and architectural elements that I found interesting. Whilst also including the Queen herself to create this piece. Drawing inspiration from the artists I have looked at and my own interpretations of the period.

I initially had the circles placed in the background as I felt this would relate the piece more to Art nouveau, And to the shape of the coins that Victorias face was sat on. However in the composition of the piece in digital it made it look too cluttered, so I edited it out. Opting instead to create a darker outline around the figure to make it Stand out more in the piece, as if it were the raised figure on a coin.

Similarly I found the colours in this original collage to muted and light so I decided to edit them better in photoshop. Creating more in-depth shadows and more vibrant reds and pinks.

From this research, and creation by chance with found pieces within magazines, I believe that my final piece resembles that of an editorial piece that would be used to advertise the V&A museum. or perhaps in merchandise.

The V&A had a foundation stone laid in 1899 (close to the date of one of my other coins) by queen Victoria, meaning it is very much connected to the queen, and as my piece is made to almost honour her in the year 1877 I feel as if it would fit nicely into the V&A aesthetic. likewise the V&A museum is a very striking architectural building and so I feel my elements of architecture can be easily related.

Here I made a small edit of the image with the V&A logo as a sample. I feel this puts the piece in context and shows the potential of the design.

Similarly I have considered how it would/could look on merchandise. I call this Totetoria.

So from my initial collection I have managed to create a collage digital piece that incorporates elements of Art Deco and art nouveau and brings elements of 1877 into a piece that could be used in advertisements.