End of Module Self Evaluation

 Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice? 

I have learnt to speed up my reference drawing time and also that drawing several versions of the same subject (even though i don't particularly enjoy it) has taught me how objects look or move so i am able to draw these things again in the future without having to reference them so heavily. It's also shown me that it's not always so important to draw something exactly how you see, 100% accurate.

Also, looking at other artists work and how they compose their work, and even the techniques and materials they use can be helpful. More recently got to use the screen printing room again, and found myself picking it up a lot better than i had originally done within a large group. In general its encouraged to be more 'crafty'.

 Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?  

To use different tools other than the safety of pen and pencil, to try and be a bit looser with the way i produce my work. I've tried new techniques to a point, but could still benefit from experimenting more.Also its taught me to consider the composition, line of sight, frame more than i usually would, and i usually consider it a lot. Again, repetitive drawing has impacted on  me within other modules too - i'm finding myself knocking out roughs quickly without thinking too much how neat they look, of objects i wouldn't usually know how to draw, and thinking 'wow i couldn't do that a few months ago'.

 What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission & how can you capitalise on these? 

Having had experience with poster/flyer layout in the past i felt my consideration of composition and frame were already quite sound, and i feel I've always been wary of making my images to busy, too bunched up or spaced out.This will have only been improved on through the SB2 classes. Also working with a restricted colour palette i feel I've dealt with quite well, and it's something i enjoyed being challenged with. Final product has also been to a hight standard.

 What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future? 

Analogue-based work. I know what i'm good at so i need to try methods and techniques that I'm not so familiar with. I felt disappointed with my sketchbook work throughout the SB1 part of the module because i wouldn't be producing enough work or that the work i was producing was using techniques that i was already more than proficient at. Everyone was making interesting looking stuff with paints,ink,paper cuts etc, and i was turning up with (what i felt was) soulless,polished digital work with no substance. I also put this largely down to not giving myself enough time to actually have a decent play around with these new methods and materials.

 In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)? 

Looking at other artists work has taught me how to go about making images more interesting to look at without necessarily adding more elements to the picture.Its made looking at art more interesting for me swell, as i now notice the way an artist has used frame, composition, depth, line of sight etc. It's made me think more of it than simply wether it looks attractive or accomplished - I've also started noticing the not so well thought-out compositions. 

The importance of development sketches again has been recognised. It gives me the opportunity to move things about into different arrangements, colours and sizes before committing to anything final or too detailed.

'Do Something Good' - screen printing task

At the time of me making the scamps for possible print designs for this project i was also producing roughs based around American street food, for my Vis Coms Brief. I knew i wouldn't be using food as the final theme for that project, but i did really fancy drawing a giant monster hot-dog or mutant donut and try fitting it into this particular brief. The two-colour rule was also at the forefront of my mind too, i was always very vary of making something to complex where only two might not be able to d it justice. "Simple,bold, and nothing too fancy" i kept telling myself!

I spent a lot of time just looking at the roughs and trying to work which colours would go where and how i could make the best use of the stock colour. Also, composition was proving to be a bit of a headache as it just kept getting more complex.

In a bid to make the image a bit more simple i knocked up some mock 

featuring anatomy shots i did of my self, and get a better idea of 

the scale of the donut monster compared to the city.

The way i was setting out all my roughs in a box/frame made my mind wander onto the way the Obey Giant poster looks. It made me re-think of heavily cropping a simple looking image rather than using lots of elements and detail that might've got lost during the screen printing process. I then just played with the ideas of doing a cheeky 'rip' of Shepard Fairey design and slogan,which in itself is also a 'rip' of 80's sci-fi film 'They Live'. (see below)

Shepard Faireys iconic design.

Obey is now Dobey, featuring a reworked donut-faced Andre the Giant.

I pulled the sketches into illustrator and used the Fairey design as a rough template, adding my own touches to it, in order to created a drippy sprinkle covered donut man mess. The only original part of the design left was the eyes, and the altered type face. To give the impression of shades i got some halftones involved in the sprinkles, making it a bit more visually interesting, i guess. Also adding shine on the glaze by using slithers of white, which would hopefully make it look a bit less 'flat'. I realise depending on what part of the country you're from the whole "Do-Bey/Dobey" play on words might be a bit confusing. I hadn't totally thought it through, got carried away wight the visuals!

- TO THE PRINT ROOM -

Final result all framed, cheering my room up a bit!

I've discovered the screen printing process is a real roller coaster of emooootions! Due to some issues with my ink starting to dry up and stick to the screen, resulting in the black ink not printing at all well, it looked like the day was a right-off. Which was a shame as the pink layer had gone super smooth, and was really happy with how the colour had come out. Was a bit worried it might come out a bit pale, but alas, it could melt your eyeballs. But thanks to Lyndon (the print tech pro) he salvaged the black layer. It meant a fair bit of waiting around (after having to clean the screens and pull the black ink)and panicking as for some stupid reason,i'd only made 6 prints, but I'm pretty chuffed with the look of the final prints, imperfections 'n all! 

I know part of the brief was to incorporate aspect of the past visual language lessons (line of sight, composition, depth, tone, etc) but i also kept this part of the brief in mind;

Have fun

I did, mostly. The hardest part was the rough design stage.I felt i whole printing process sunk in a whole lot more compared to when we were screen printing in big groups. I went away feeling that when it comes to doing more screen printing in the future that i could handle it without as much guidance. I felt genuinely interested and buzzing about it all, and was already thinking about what i could do next.

Make the work you want to make

I totally did, which may have detracted from the brief somewhat. Although the design did involve frame, composition, tone to a point. My reasons for going down the graphic route was largely to see how i could produce crisp solid shapes and colour using analogue techniques.

If we'd be able to use more colours then i probably gone down the hand drawn monster donut route i started with - as it would given me a bit more to work with as far as the final composition went.

Say something

As far as saying something, i think it's mainly saying 'borrow from other borrowers, but put

your own take and tone onto it'.

Line of Sight - Transport

I found picking subject for this brief a bit of a challenge as i don't really know what a guy jumping a ramp on his skateboard, or the rear view of a sports car accurately look like without having to heavily reference them - and thats pretty much how the final result turned out. Like a re-worked, digital version of someone else photo. The examples of line of sight in them are a bit blatant, and although i got compliments about the execution of the final product i don't feel there was a whole lot of me put into it. I was set a task, i completed on time, with minimum of creativity.Not giving myself a reasonable amount of time to experiment and try something more analogue was again my downfall. 

Having said that, i set out to produce a heavily shape driven piece, with minimum detail and well thought out colour composition, so maybe the digital route was the most effective to achieve what i had envisioned.

various photos featuring a clear line of sight & focal point

I produced a few  rough layout sketches of the skateboarder. Although i didn't make any coloured mocks, i did mark the scamps up with 'B' 'W' & 'R'  (black,white,red) to indicate which parts would be what colour.

I turned my focus to the photo of the Dodge, as i felt it had a bit more potential.

I planned to use negative space for the smoke, and include only essential details. I added pylons, some landscape shapes and a wall on the side of the road to indicate the vanishing point.

As the original photo was square it felt a bit squashed, so to give the image a longer line of sight and some more breathing space i extended the length of the frame, but not the height as i didnt want too much empty space above or below the car.

I traced my lifework and brought it into Illustrator, as time was running low, otherwise i would have considered painting it - but as there was some thinner linework involved i feel this probably the smart choice. I added lines in the road moving away from the car, and a cropped moon at the far end as another slight focus point and also to balance against the red sky and with the white smoke in the opposite corner. Again, the line of sight isn't very subtle, but i feel the image keeps your eyes moving around it quite well.

Viewpoint & Depth

I hadn't used colouring pencils since about '96 (no exaggeration) and the original set of pencils i used are older than the majority of my classmates, but i dusted them off to produce a composition featuring depth and a viewpoint.

I was ill on the day of this task so had to play catch up, for that reason i hadn't produced many roughs for this one. I haven't had a cooked breakfast (or any other type) since xmas and it;s been on my mind a lot recently, so that was the driving power behind my subject of a greasy spoon cafe.

I'd only forgotten that the image had to include 3 figures! So i added them into my roughs. I wanted the main focus to be on the breakfast, the big delicious breakfast so i positioned the people in the back ground and just the hand of 'myself' giving the image a POV angle - like those computer games Doom, or Call of Duty if you're New Skool. 

As you can see the final image is started,but incomplete. I intend to finish it up, as think i was enjoying using the pencils after all this time? I mean i had to constantly sharpen my pencils as i didn't want my colours to be too wishy washy, but it was beginning to give the picture a certain sweaty cafe aesthetic. I tried not to reference my objects too much (at all), as in my past task i'd almost completely referenced it. This image has suffered slightly as a result as some of the elements are a bit undersized i.e: the glass is possibly as bit too wee, the hand too big. More development of my roughs could've solved this issue however. 

I'd forgotten the simple coloured pencil has a certain charm - i can't say i'll be incorporating into a whole lot of my work in the future, as it still reminds me a lot of the scribbly, animated children's horror film, The Snowman. Untidy.

I'm still awaiting my fry-up.

Composition - 3 Elements

COMPOSITION: 3 Elements task

Create an image with the following...

1. Figure

2. Object

3. Landscape

I also had to position each of these elements in the fore, mid or background of the frame.I produced initial pencil sketches within an A7 frame, then developed the one with most potential into a final A5 format.

INITIAL SKETCHES

Featuring Woody (a famous cowboy) and how he has been 'dispatched' 

by a native american indian (not shown but possibly famous).

After working on a set of rough potential compositions,and getting fairly far into it i decided that i should create something that was actually by me - as Woody was created by someone else i felt i was cheating or taking a short cut somehow. It was looking quite fun, so i may pick it again in the future as a personal project.I was also putting pressure on myself to make him look realistic. He's a friggin' make-believe CG cowboy,man?!

I opted for a less busy composition this time - and as i'd made the design u-turn quite late in the day it would also be less time consuming in order to make the deadline

After producing the final layout i inked my line work, scanned it in and coloured it using panels of brusho paint texture (see below).  A rookie at using it,I'd been experimenting in the studio after-hours to see what random patterns i could produce and also to how much i could control the paint flow. Turns out its really hard to stick to specific line work and even with masking tape it was getting a bit messy looking for what i had in mind. So i scanned in several squares of Brusho and used it them to make a digital collage. 

.

Texture & colour test

Finished versions

I was pretty happy about how using the brusho layer had turned out, within the the mask in-particularly . As it was my first time using this paint for anything i was worried there might be a bit too much texture happening. Looking at it after completion it turns out I'm not too happy with my line work - the hair feels a bit static and heavy, like wind would struggle to blow through it.I should've noticed this at the pencil stage, but it became much more noticeable after the colour was added. It still turned into a bit of a drawn-out process in the end, putting everything into photoshop and working on it from there, without a definfinate idea of how i wanted the final result to look.

Frame & Arrangement

I hadn't been taught about the rule of thirds before, but now i've read about it i find I'm looking at pictures more carefully to see if the 'hotspots' technique has been used. It's a method used in photography & arts to enhance the visual strength of your image.  If you imagine dividing your photo into 9 equal parts - by adding a grid of two equally spaced horizontal and vertical bars on top of it - the areas of the photo that are on the lines or at the line intersections become visual ‘hotspots’.  

Photos that take advantage of these ‘hotspots’ are much more pleasing to look at than photos that have the subject centered in the middle of the frame.  As humans we tend to appreciate symmetry; and the rule of thirds allows for nice symmetry between the subject and the background.

Rule of thirds 'hotspots'

bad example

good example

Practical Task - Butterfly,Elephant & Myself 

1 hour to knock up some rough compositional sketches followed by a final A3 image, in just ink, of myself with an elephant and a butterfly. Speed really isn't my thing, as far a a final piece is concerned, so was good to be put under a bit of pressure - sketching out roughs i can do quite swiftly though, so i'd come up with a number possible scenes. Matt had seen them and asked if i always wanted there to be lots going on in them, and to be honest i didn't. So I sketched out some compositions using minimal elements, and from a different viewpoint,and with a narrative (most unlike me).The inking took a bit longer than the hour time limit as i got a bit precious. Again, it's something that I've not done a whole lot of, and i found myself trying to replicate the cleaness and consistency that i would have been getting if id been using fine liner. Which i know,replication isn't the point of it all! I enjoyed working with a grey wash to get the elephant feet texture though.I feel like I've achieved more at the end if its been entirely created by hand without any computer intervention, like a 'proper' artist.

Initial sketches of the 3 main elements. SO cheesey and soft 

looking,i hate them, don't know what i was thinking?!

Approached at from a different angle, literally. Making the emphasis on  

the space in the middle rather than on the characters in the frame.

Final inked A3 'You Ok?' image

I'm pretty happy with it, more so than some of my digital pieces,as its not my usual way of working - but I've managed to retain a fair bit of detail whilst just using the caveman tools of brushes and ink. Working with a wash was also a learning curve, which gave me some satisfying results, simple as it was to achieve.