Ū la Š ve ikauskaitė
Portfolio
Curiculum Vitae 1994 - Born in PanevÄ—Ĺžys, Lithuania 2013 - Graduated from the Vilnius Jesuit Gimnasium 2013 - now - Studying printmaking in the Vilnius Academy of Arts
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Group projects/ Exhibitions 2015 - A. Švėgžda’s drawing competition in the Vilnius Academy of Art 2015 - Summer academy exhibition “Survival” in “5 Mills” 2015 - Student days of art “Cosmic Odysey” in “Kablys” cultural bar 2015 - “Situations” in the Latvian Art Academy 2014 - Summer practice exhibition “Castle” in the castle of Panemunė 2013 - Solo exhibition in Vilnius Jesuit Gimnasium 2012 - Solo exhibition “Cafés” in “Coffee Inn” café, Vilnius
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Book Art In our department, book art is a very wide sub-
ject, which includes illustration, book design and book binding techniques. The students are often given tasks which encourages to combine these three disciplines (for example, making a picture book using illustrations, typography and binding it). In the first and second years of my bachelor studies, I was lucky to attend book art lectures, as they gave me wider perspective on book art itself.
Lecturers: prof. Rimvydas Kepežinskas, prof. K. Vasiliūnas, prof. Giedrius Jonaitis, doc. Matas Dūda, lect. Jolanta Mikulskytė, lect. Agnė Dautartaitė - Krutulė.
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Illustration
The ability to tell a story using images is very
important nowadays, as a lot of ideas and concepts in books, articles or advertisments needs to be expressed visually. Because of this I studied, different types of illustration: character design, picturebooks, interpretation of certain topics, etc. Illustration is my favourite subject so I chose it as my specialty for the last two years of my bachelor studies.
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“Seven Days of the Week” 2014
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“Shining” 2015 (lect. E. Vertelkaite)
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Characters based on image of a squirell and a realistic drawing of this animal 2014
The chosen character in his surroundings 2014
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Illustrations and the picturebook for the Arabic folk tale “The Weasel and the Mouse�, 2015
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Illustrations for Rimantas Urbonas’ short stories “Grasshoppers in the Grass”, 2015
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Besides handicraft, computer skills are also very
relevant. In the first year of study, one of the subjects we leant typography, where we learned to match fonts, did some tasks, such as a typographical illustration, a poster, theatrical programmes and business cards. Later on, we had book design lectures. Our projects consisted of designing various types of books (such as a novel, a scientific book, a poetry book, and an advertising booklet) because they all should be designed differently. The ability to to understand typography and to be able to design a book gives students not only wider career prospects, but also a more interesting, creative worldview.
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Typographical illustrations. 2014 - 2015
Scientific book about beetles. 2015
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Printmaking Perhaps printmaking is lightly the reason why
I am in the graphics department. No other field of study gives you the possibility to experiment with such a vast variety of technical nuances using modern printing equipment and tools.While studying this subject, I was able to try etching techniques (such as aquatint, soft ground, spit bite, drypoint and mezzotint), learnt about xylography while doing linocuts and wood carvings, got in touch with litography and offset print and had a chance to do some silkscreen prints. I think that students in the graphics department have all the necessary opportunities to try and master all the printmaking techniques.
Lecturers: prof. Giedrius Jonaitis, doc. Marija Marcelionytė Paliukė, doc. Matas Dūda, lect. Jonas Čepas.
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Etching
This
study subject is very appealing, because no other printmaking technique has so many technical nuances as etching. At the first half of the semester students were encouraged to try etching, aquatint, soft ground, spit bite, drypoint and mezzotint on small plates. Later, we were given a task to create a cycle of 4 - 5 prints from one larger plate. The task was a challenge, but also provided the possibility for technical and compositional experiments.
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“Dragonfly” 2014 “Black square” 2014
“Tights and Adolesence” 2014 “Roofs” 2014
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From artschool graduation cycle “Caffes” 2012 (lekt. E. Vertelkaite)
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“The Roofs of Vilkpede” 2014
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Silkscreen
Composing different segments, blending colours
and printing can be very difficult for a beginner in silkcscreen prints. So for the first half of the semester students have been given artistic freedomin order to get used to the technique. The task for the second half of the semester was to present a conceptual work cycle with a clear idea and a fluent explanation.
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From the series “About boys” 2015
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Litography
Litography is a quite demanding printing tech-
nique as polishing stones is hard and the printing process can be difficult at first. However, it is a technique where one can achieve very delicate efects which are similar to pencil drawings and watercolours. In litography lectures students were given topis such as “still-life”, “auto-portrait”, “landscape” and the task was to make not only monochrome , but also coloured prints with several layers. More so, students had a chance to try offset print.
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“The Oak” 2014
“Still-life” 2014
“Tommy” (fragment) 2014
“Self-portrait” 2014
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Xylography
Xylography was the first printing technique that
we learnt. We were given tasks such as copying an existing xylography work, linear composition, patch composition, textured composition, coloured work from the same plate and coloured work from different plates.Theese lectures were a good start to get familiar with printmaking itself.
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“The East” 2013
“In Snipiskes” 2013
“Thoughts” 2013 “Framework” 2013
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Visual Exspression A
significant part of printmaking studies are lectures of visual expression. During them students learn to understand principles of drawing a portrait and nude, drawing techniques, states of ligting and shading, Also, these studies train the student’s sense of colour, composition and painting skills.What is more, during the practical process they gain knowledge which includes getting familiar with the works of the old masters and contemporary creators.
Lecturers: Prof. Rimvydas Kepežinskas, Benas Narbutas, Paulius Juška, Jonas Vaitiekūnas, lect. Jonas Čepas.
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Watercolour
Watercolour is probably one of the most diffi-
cult areas of painting I have ever encountered as coloured water moves on the paper sheet and one must have the right knowledge and skill in order to control this flow.. The result is always unpredictible. However, after a lot of effort I felt that the sense of colour and ability to apply paint in layers is an essential part of litography, silkscreen and illustration work.
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“Grandmother” 2015
“Self-portrait” 2015
“Holiday Rest” 2015
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“Gabriel” 2015
“Animals and Borders” 2015
“Urban Landscape” 2015
“The Prosthesis” 2014
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“Jan I” 2014
“Gabija” 2015
“Jan II” 2014
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Drawing
From my point of view, drawing plays a very im-
portant role in printmaking and illustration. For example, drawing skills are benefitial for biting a plate. The ability to draw a human figure, understanding the rules of shading and anatomy is very helpful for character design even if it does not resemble a human at all.That is why in our graphics department we learn to master academical drawing and apply it in the contemporary context.
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“Vytautas” 2015 (lekt. A. Jonikas)
“Jadvyga” 2015 (lekt. A. Jonikas)
“Apolo”2015 (lekt. A. Jonikas)
“Kristina” 2014
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“Bicycle” 2015
“Deep blue” 2014
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“Migle” 2015
“Lidija” 2013
“Paulius” 2014
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“Sergej II” 2015
“Valentine” 2014
“Sergej I” 2015
“Still - life” 2013
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Summer Academy For
our students, the Spring semester doesn’t finish after the final reviews and exams. In June we go in plainair for a week or two. There we have to reflect our surroundings in our works and participate in workshops or group projects.
Lecturers: lect. J. Mikulskytė, lect. J. Čepas.
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Summer academy in Nida
In June 2015
the students of the academy participated in a group project, called “Survival” along with students from the Latvian Art Academy. Students’ works had to reflect nature and mood of Nida and depict the topic of survival. Lectures by artists or survival experts were also included in our schedule.
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“Remainings” 2015
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“Survival and faith” 2015
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Vilnius Academy of Arts, 2015