'Make Your Mark' Brief: Picture Books and Evaluation.

To finish the project, I decided to go with the picture book idea that I mentioned previously. Constructing these was fairly difficult, as I couldn't decide how I wanted them to open. Having them pop out (like paper pop up books) proved too difficult an idea, so I settled for something much less elaborate. My first one is about the backpack/badges idea. I combined many of the techniques I had used when experimenting with ideas, and picked out my favourites. This included white on black imagery, bypass printing and blind drawing.

For my second book, I use similar techniques, applying my favourite processes to create final images. For the hands, this included more collage, bypass printing, scans and text. This book was shorter, because I felt like what I had was strong enough to run with.

Evaluation.

Initially generating ideas for this project was difficult, I thought I'd have many ideas but I got quite stuck. Tasks like the quickfire questions/100 things I love were very useful, and are simple, thought provoking challenges that I'd do again. I got to try many new processes, including collagraph printing, experimenting with type and working more graphically (which I then continued to do throughout the project!). I'm definitely happy with the work I have produced, although ideas for themes were lacking. Moving forward, I need to push myself to explore further ideas and concepts which will give me a wider range of materials to work with, and generally make life easier!

'Make Your Mark' brief: Observational work.

I'm nearing the end of the project, and have been experimenting with more observational work, and the idea of having all the badges on one page (like previously). I've been working with mixed materials and just trying out different layouts on the page. Here are two badges in continuous line/collage. I really like both of these, I think the image on the right is stronger, with the little bit of black on white imagery.

The next two are mixed, one is all the badges collectively, and the other is a simple observational image of my hands, bringing it back to the previous project idea. I love the card outline in the first image.

This is quite a short post, but I thought I should show little bits of progress in between. I spoke to my tutor about rounding up the project, and we talked about doing little picture books, and looking at both the badges/hands idea (why I included both). I think it's a great idea and finalising both main ideas would be a good way to finish this project for me. 

'Body Parts' Brief: Day One.

We were set a new brief for the next two weeks, the title is 'Body Parts'. The brief is completely open and in our control, which is both exciting and a little unnerving. We started off just covering the brief and then it was up to us! I did a quick mind map in my sketchbook covering possible areas of interest, and then went to do some artist research. I found two artists yesterday who's work inspired possible ideas for experimenting within this brief.

The first was Nicolai Howalt, the images were from a series he did called 3x1, where he documented a stay with a family.

I thought these images were so simplistic but striking. In terms of 'Body Parts' I hadn't thought about being so obvious with ideas, but looking through his work I thought it may be a good place to start. I love how the hands (both right) are so controlling in the images.

The next artist I looked at was Isidro Ferrer.

I loved his work, I printed off much more that this but these were some of my favourites! His work is clever and witty and something I would like to look into doing more! It was very similar to what we were doing today.

As well as artist research, we worked on creating different images/objects out of separate parts. It was the beginning of the 'Body Parts' brief and gave us an idea of the different ways we can interpret the phrase. I had so many different objects to choose from, and I tried to be quite imaginative with the shapes and what I was doing. 

A drip and a hook, I like the drip but i'm not sure it's obvious what it is. The hook was a little too obvious.

A question mark and a scooter, I'm happy with both of these. I think the simplicity of the question mark works well, and the yellow material with the colourful scooter is appealing.

A telephone and a dragonfly. These were the last two I did and I'd finally got my head round what worked and what didn't. These are probably my favourites from the day.

Playing around with the nails and creating different emotions.

A bare coat hanger, and one with a shirt on it. I don't like the shirt, I should have found a thinner material to do the outline, it just looks a bit off and awkward.

A man, and another face.

A face and an eye, The eye was probably the only one where I layered materials up.

A face and a chest of drawers, the drawers were the first thing I did, and I think you can tell. It's too simplistic and not really clear what it is.

Overall I had a really interesting day, and I have come away with a few ideas on where to start with this brief. I'm excited to get started and experiment with different possibilities.

2D Design: Colour Palettes.

In the 2D block we're currently experimenting with contrasting/matching colours and colour palettes. Part of the work for this week was to create explore three different colour palettes, and then create three compositions corresponding to those colour palettes. I used three leaflets collected from the last exhibitions I visited.

The first was from the Laura Buckley exhibition, the mix of warm/bright pinks and cooler dull blues and greys worked really well, and was used throughout her work too.

I used a camera and blind/left hand drawing to do the composition. I liked the grey messy pen line, however I think as a whole the images were washed out by the white page. I could have filled the background better. 

The next was from Nicolas Deshayes' exhibition, the colours were quite industrial mixed with more natural blues and greens. 

I used a toy figure and blind drawing for this composition. As before, I liked the pen lines but as a whole it was washed out.

For my last one I used a leaflet I picked up about art in sheffield. Unlike the other two this colour scheme used neon yellows and oranges, and contrasted it with plain black/grey.

I decided to use a button and collage for this piece, as I didn't feel the last two had worked out too well. Looking back I am kicking myself for not using a background, the whole thing is just too plain.

Overall, I wish I had experimented with materials a little more, and less on just using pen and watercolour. I feel the white background overpowers the majority of the compositions. I think had I used background the images would be far more interesting. However, I enjoyed experimenting with different colour palettes, colour is something I really enjoy playing around with and I am beginning to notice the use of colour palettes/themes much more in everything around me! I enjoyed exploring this task, but I am not as happy with my outcomes.