One Week Book

ONE WEEK BOOK

A group project making a hot dog book according to our given subject

HOT DOG BOOK

>a quick and easy way of making a 6 page book

I had made these before on my foundation course, so this technique wasn't new or complicated to me. I was quite excited to use these books again because they're so good for quickly making a standard little book. 

CITY LIBRARY 

Our subject that we were given for our book was the city library, which naively I first thought was quite boring.. a book about books? However when we got there we were in awe of the decoration and architecture of the building and quickly changed my mind on our theme being less exciting than the others and became more passionate about the subject.

                  

        

                                                 

 

In the library/art gallery cafe

Main inspiration for our story came from the teapot that we had at our lunch break in the library/gallery cafe. We looked into the teapot and was grossed out by the contents of left over

chamomile tea and we thought that as it was a part of our day that we should put it in the story. 

But of course we had to make it clear to the audience that our theme was the library, so we decided to have a library in the teapot. 

Swamp in a teapot 

Swamp in a teapot

                                     

IDEA DEVELOPMENTS - ROUGHS 

Drawings from the library 

                                                       

first mind map for the story 

Page design - roughs

>My role was to do the first page - the man falling into the teapot.

I focused on composition - how can you create a simple image using as little shapes as possible?
The answer? BIRDS EYE VIEW

Design experiment - to see if the two would work together and if the materials would work 

Roughs for first page

Back cover roughs - composition and material experiment

Mixing the colours

exposed screen

Finished screen print

I was very excited to screen print, as I have done it before for my final piece for my foundation agree and enjoy the process. Although I had never actually exposed a screen before so was curious to see how the procedure worked and how different it is to using a paper stencil as I had done before. I was very surprised to see how quick and easy it is to expose a screen, which makes me eager to want to make more of my own screens that I could work from in later projects.

During the printing process, we worked well as a team to turn out as many prints as we could, making roughly around 3/4 prints each and after a bit of practice they became quite successful. At first I wasn't too sure whether the colours would work well together, but when we actually put them together on the paper I think that they contrast nicely as complimentary colours and is a colour combination that no one else put together. 

I am very interested in doing screen printing again in my future projects after this project, as I love how easily you can turn a drawing into a bold print design and turn it into something like a book or a poster. I definitely will be looking into this process to see how I can expand my ideas and materials.

Photography Induction

My attempt of figuring out modern technology, and failing terribly.

                                                                           

Trying to catch movement

Trying to catch movement x2

Visual Skills - Self Evaluation

SELF EVALUATION 

1)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

Within this module I mostly used paper cutting (brief 2&3), this is because I have used this technique many times so I know it’s something that I’m used to and very much enjoy doing. I also know that it is a method that, when done well, shows great craftsmanship which adds to the aesthetics of the piece. However, I don’t think I showed my best paper-cutting work in this module, as I chose very simple shapes to cut out opposed to my usual detailed style. But this was mainly due to the lack time. I also discovered COPIC markers in my first brief, which I used in my final outcome. I really liked the way they add a tone of block colour to a line drawing, creating a cartoony style. However, I didn’t look into using these markers in much depth in terms of colour and layering, so I want to see how else I can develop this media in my later work.

2) 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?

I found that creating roughs is such a fundamental aspect of generating ideas quickly and efficiently. This is because they can show an idea in a simple sketch and can instantly tell whether it is going to work compositionally and as an aspect in itself without spending ages of time drawing it out. Although I still need to use roughs a lot more in my work, as I didn’t generate enough rough ideas for me to work with to produce a successful outcome. However this has made me realise the importance of them, so for my next module I can use them a lot more. I also saw the importance of drawing within a frame, as it makes you think more about how the composition of the subject/narrative needs to adapt to the given measurements and how it needs to work with it. 

3) What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised one these?

My strengths within this module is that I didn’t over complicate a subject so much that it became totally bizarre to the audience. I also think that in some of my briefs it shows good craftsmanship, especially in my latest brief, as this is generally one of my biggest strengths and I didn’t think it was apparent in my first two briefs so homed in on it in my last. This is evident in my check pattern, as each line is straight and equally spaced out. You can also see this in the cutting of my last brief. It makes you realised how much of a difference it makes, as the aesthetics are a lot more successful compared to my first illustrations. 

4) What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in future? 

The area I struggled the most in was when we had to generate ideas, as I really struggle with creating narrative and content to my illustration work, as visual language is my stronger subject. I have learnt how important it is to create as many roughs as possible, even though they might seem  a bit obvious or simple, sometimes simplicity is key when trying to convey a message. I also need to focus more on my craft, as I was quite lazy in my first two briefs as I took the easy option. Although this has made me realise how important it is to put care in my work, as the outcome is always so rewarding. 

5) In what ways has this module introduced you to the BA (Hons) Illustration programme?

This module has introduced me to the world of blogging and how useful it is in terms of reflection and development, as it makes you think twice about the outcome of your work. It’s also made me realise that I can’t be a perfectionist (when doing roughs) as it’s more important to just put down a concept to paper. Also that I will make mistakes and not everything I do is going to be successful, which I think is important to remember. 

Study task - Play, play, play

PLAY, PLAY, PLAY

> DESIGN PROJECT - ideas as well as image making

>THREE ILLUSTRATIONS IN RESPONSE TO GIVEN WORD

1. Just image

2. Type and image

3. Type - letterform/typography

>A3<

>Work as a series

>Brief is type, not handwriting

GIVEN WORD - CHECK - list of words with different meanings of check

Started by making a list of words which defined the meaning of check, I tried to come up with as many as possible so my work wasn't too obvious or clichéd. The first roughs I came up with was the check pattern, as I personally enjoy creating detailed and aesthetic pattern work with simple shapes (in this case line).

ROUGHS - check typography - checkered print & checkmate 

ROUGHS - image - checkmate & getting checked out

ROUGHS - image & text - asking for the bill (cheque please)

I enjoyed this brief a lot more than the previous, as I had a lot more different themes to work with, I wasn't just restricted to one idea. Because of this I could draw a far more varied visual subjects, from pattern work to human figure. I found it a lot easier to produce a larger range of roughs to that of the previous, which in turn increased the validity of my group crit feedback. Now I am glad that I learnt from the previous brief how important creating roughs are, as I feel that my ideas are stronger and far more clear.

FEEDBACK

FEEDBACK SHEET 1

FEEDBACK SHEET 2

SELF EVALUATION

The feedback gave me a clearer understanding of what to do for my final illustrations in terms of style and subject matter. I find these group crits really useful, this is because getting another person's opinion on your work is refreshing, as they can pick out something that you may have missed or might have thought was a good idea but really might be too obvious. 

MORE ROUGHS - adding check element to each piece to have double meaning of check in each illustration 

IDEA EXPANDING - czech/check

CHECK IT OUT - line drawing of check for each illustration background - adding another element of check to
each of the images

FINAL OUTCOME

TYPOGRAPHY

IMAGE

IMAGE AND TEXT

Overall I really enjoyed this project, which surprised me as I didn't like the previous two briefs because I struggle a lot with creating an inventive narrative to my work. But I think because I personally liked the word I was given and could come up with many different themes that I could experiment with. I especially think that the check worked really well with each illustration, as it made it clearer what word was that I was trying to convey. Im also pleased with the craft in the check pattern, as the lines are all equal and straight so adds to the aesthetics of the piece as well as making the three illustrations work well as a series. This was the main positive point that I was given from my feedback sheet.

Although, if I were to do this again, I would redo my typography illustration, as it is quite hard to read the words which I realised after I finished cutting it and was pointed out a lot in my feedback. I think I tried to make it easier for myself by using less pieces but my laziness becomes evident as a final outcome which I am frustrated with.  I also would redo the lettering in the type and image illustration, as my feedback said that it was too much like handwriting and the cut off letters wasn't very successful. I agree with this, as I tried to make it look like it was a section of a map, but in reflection I think it would of looked better if you could see the whole word. 

Apart from some aspects of my final outcome, I think this brief was the most successful, as I am developing my skills more through each project, learning through my mistakes.

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