Abbey road

This was my first experiment with the Abbey road cover. I wanted to alter insignificant elements of the image to include different techniques and mediums. This was an experiment using oil pastels to recreate the trees. i created this by printing out the image and using oil pastels over the top. I think it worked well as it added texture to the image without making the image unrecognisable.



I wanted to incorporate some of John Lennon's lyrics onto the piece as it revolves around him. I chose these lyrics as they mention heaven which relates to death. I scanned in a piece of blue dotted paper to use as a background texture and wrote the lyrics on using a downloaded font.







I arranged the words to fit in the sky behind the trees, so the most important words are visible. I then erased the words that were partly hidden to make the image look neater. I decided to place the lyrics in the sky as it relates back to the lyrics used and i feel it works well as it adds a softness to a dark concept.







I used Banksy's controversial graffiti as inspiration for the abbey road piece. I wanted to replace John Lennon with a policeman escorting his killer away. I did this by finding images on the internet of a policeman and used Photoshop to combine the image with n image of mark Chapman. I then applied the stamp filter to separate the image into black and white.






I used the clone tool on Photoshop to remove Lennon from the image and then layered the image of Mark chapman on top, after drawing it myself and scanning it in. I experimented with how the print should be displayed and decided to include a white outline around the print to make it stand out.





I wanted to try and incorporate many different mediums in the peice. I had already included Photoshop and drawing and experimented with oil pastels, but wanted to extend on this further. I decided to try out oil pastels again and decided to replace the Beetle car int he image with one i created. I drew the Beetle with oil pastels and layered it over the top of the original.





After placing the car within the image i decided to go back to the idea of placing newspaper articals within the zebra crossing stripes. I wanted to replace the general newspaper cut outs that i had stuck on, with more apropriate items. I found articals of Lennons death on the internet and pasted them into place and arranged them so the most important information was portrayed. I feel it works well as It makes the idea of the piece clear





This is the first draft of my final piece. I believe all the separate elements work well together and i think the idea behind the piece is clear. I am not sure about the car as i don't feel it has enough meaning within the image, however i think it fits in the image as a whole.

Final Piece ideas

1.John F Kennedy
I want to incorporate all the characters in the chain of deaths proceeding after John FK was shot. This includes JFK, Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby. I also wanted to include the subject of Jack Ruby escaping the death penalty in jail by dieing of cancer.I would like to use a mix of newspaper images and paint to create the image, in the style of Rauschenberg.

2.John Lennon
I want to appropriate the famous Abbey Road album cover to express John Lennon's murder. I wanted to use graffiti style painting over the top of the image to express the story of his murder his murderer, Mark Chapman, and a police man.

Peter Blake

Peter Blake is a leading figure in British pop art who emerged in the period of mass production of products and images such as magazines and record sleeves. Blake's work is also inspired by love affairs between icons. 'Got a girl' is based on the song about girlfriends obsessions with Fabian, Avalon, Ricky Nelson, Bobby Rydel and Elvis. The piece is a combination of collage and silkscreen

Peter Kennard

Peter Kennard's work reflects his involvement in the anti-Vietnam war movement. his photo montages are "full of histories irony, fury and anger at the mistakes made in its name"The base of his work is rendering iconic and easily accessible images unacceptable, using controversial images placement.
"there is a natural alliance between truth and affliction" - Simon weil.

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert rauschenberg served in the military in the 1940's which was an obvious inspiration for his political and cultural art. He uses images of current and symbolic events out of magazines and the media in his collages, expanding them with 3d objects, also using techniques such as painting with ink dipped tyres. Rauschenberg used a large press still of JFK from a televised news conference, juxtaposing it next to an image of an astronaut which gives the piece a time frame and allows the viewer to read a story.

James rosenquist

James rosenquist is an American artist who combines both pop art and fine art. He creates his work using techniques such as silkscreen printing and collage. His collages are composed in a way that the individual objects make sense together and tell a story. His print 'president elect' uses the image of Kennedy's face from his campaign poster, which is another example of appropriation. Rosenquist said he was interested in people who advertise themselves.

Andy warhol

Warhol's silkscreen Monroe prints are another example of appropriation. The original image is a publicity shot from the 1953 film Nigeria.


These prints undermined the authenticity of the original portrait and allows the image to be reproducible. Warhol had an obsession with morbid concepts and cult celebrities. I am interested in exploring the fate of these cult celebrities if they had the chance to burn out like the celebrities with no controversial story.