'Record' Project: Using Cut Outs / JP King

I talked before about starting to use negative space in my collage work. I first saw JP King's work when we started the course and were being introduced to the Visual Communication group. His use of cut outs is very slight and careful and not over the top. It often is the main focus or helps to compliment an image. I think it's very clever the difference these small differences can make.

My first try, I like the mix of materials, however I think I'm overcrowding the page. The negative space isn't as significant because there is so much going on around it. 

Another progression, thread is actually red but it didn't show up. I think this works quite well but the negative space still isn't clear enough! I think I overused the dress pattern instructions and all the words is a little too much.

Another one but this time I cut the words from a book, I wanted to try another way of showing conversation. The words are from a conversation in my journal. I wish I'd extended the cut out a little more to the right and not had it almost completely filled by the brown paper, other than this I quite like it.

using the negative space and making it work is much harder than you'd imagine! I want to keep incorporating this technique, as well as the collage into my work. I think its a more experimental way of exploring different elements of my theme, that and I'm really enjoying it.

'Record' Project: Artist Research, Hollie Chastain.

I was looking at collage artists and remembered seeing Hollie Chastain's work earlier on in the course. I love her imagery, and think it's quite similar to what I've been doing at the minute. Although her pieces aren't necessarily about communication or conversation, I love her technique and style. The use of colour and material in the work is lovely, and there is a great mix of flat images, drawing and textures.

'Record' Project: Conversation Collage.

I'd been wanting to experiment with collage for a while, and so I thought I'd try to convey the idea of conversation and communication through found imagery. I was using figures I cut out from some old dress patterns, I thought they were perfect as they were quite cartoon like but still aged. I'd drawn up some ideas beforehand and then started working with thread.

My first image using a thinner thread, this works really well. I think the black/white and colour combination is very complimentry. I want to try something busier though and see if I can build it up.

Built up with more characters and thread, I was thinking about old and new conversations. I now wanted to try using coloured figures instead of coloured thread.

I don't think this works as well, you lose the significance of the thread. The textures work quite nicely but I think I'm losing what the image is supposed to represent.

This image was a complete accident, I was trying to begin working with black space, and scanning on top of a piece I did in my sketchbook where I followed conversations as they were happening around me. Instead i got this. I think it's quite interesting and I love that you can see the lettering coming through in all shapes and sizes. It's made me think more about using black space and cut outs instead of the figures themselves, moving forward I think that is what I need to experiment with next.

'Record' Project: Journal So Far.

I decided I'll do a post reflecting on the work in my drawing journal so far. I think it'll help me pick out what I like and what works and think about how I could expand the work I have now, and what techniques I can apply to future drawings. I picked out and scanned in my favourite pages.

I've really enjoyed including text, and also layering up work. I like the how busy some of the pages are. 

I think the pencil texture looks great, I always lean on pen and I need to push myself to work with a much larger range of media in my journal. I've started laying grounds too, to avoid those plain backgrounds.

I was being more careful with colour here which I think kind of works, but also looks a little harsh and boring. I wish I had included some collage in these images. 

I need to keep producing more work, and make sure I'm always drawing on transport when I have nothing else to do. Other than that, focus on experimenting with a wider range of media.

To expand from these I think I'll do some found image style collages, based around my theme as well as what I've produced so far. I'd also like to try the oil on paper/transparent technique as I didn't quite have time today. 

'Record' Project: Mixed Recording.

Recently I went to a cafe in town, I used this as a chance to record the same scene in two different ways. I used the napkins (which had several printed layers) to collage in my journal, and my phone to audio record the general atmosphere. At one point on the recording a waiter dropped a spoon and the whole cafe went silent for a second. It was interesting how one sound cancelled out another.

I think the joining of different media is really interesting, it creates a whole idea of the atmosphere on several different levels for the viewer, without them actually having to be there. Also I got to eat a tasty croissant -no complaints.

'Record' Project: Drawing Workshop and Development.

To generate ideas and begin work for out final major project, we had to bring in items to work from that were related to our theme. I chose glasses and toy cars. My project is called 'Record', I thought the glasses represented observation and the toy cars could relate to the everyday things you see around you. We were using them for a drawing workshop. This workshop was really fast paced, and covered a whole range of different experimental drawing techniques. I worked on sizes A4 to A2, and also on grounds we built ourselves.

I'm not sure how I feel about this piece, I think in some areas it really works, like the glasses cut out and where the oil has covered that. It gives it an interesting texture and almost looks like a print. I think I should have placed the large car cut out elsewhere, as the rectangle shape is cutting off the rest of the image. 

This one is tiny, only on A4. It worked initially but I regret cutting out a large section of the image. After that I struggled to find any use for the piece, or make it work with any other images.

This was the largest piece of work I did, A2. You can see that halfway through I managed to spill a whole pot of ink all over the paper. I did my best to half cover the spill with tracing paper and masking tape. It worked and I actually think it creates layers and texture. As a whole though, it definitely doesn't work. There is too much happening.

You can see that this was originally one piece, which I then cut up and developed, adding collage and layering up tissue and tracing paper, also adding a black ink drawing (bottom left). I think these were my favourite outcomes from the day. Cutting the image in half created two separate pieces that were decent. 

At home I wanted to develop another piece of work, using a viewfinder I tried to pick out areas from different pieces of work that I thought could stand on their own. 

The second image is my favourite, really toned down. In the end I actually made a completely different decision, and cut up the A2 piece of work (3rd image on the post). I really wasn't happy with it. I got rid of the car cut out, and places the glasses cut out over the ink spill, and then added some red found materials because it needed some colour. It's still really messy, but I'm glad I took the risk and cut it up because I'm much happier with the outcome now.

Overall, the workshop was perfectly timed for me. I think I was slipping back into being too careful and not taking any risks. Working this way reminded me that I need to start from scratch and really work on generating ideas rather than focusing on outcomes from the beginning. My work was clumsy and messy but it doesn't matter, because developing my work allowed me to really focus on moving forward and improving what I had. I'll definitely keep working this way every now and again, and hopefully come back and work on/from the pieces I produced.

'Hello Beautiful' Brief: Potato Printing.

I wanted to expand from the leaf/plants idea but wasn't sure where to go with it. I really fancied doing some printing, but was at home and I don't have a lino kit. So, I decided to use potatoes! A little unconventional, but it did the job! I created really simple leaf shapes and tested them out in all different colours.

I even tried two colours, which only very occasionally worked. I actually really liked the shapes and textures they produced, so I kept going with it. I created a found imagery collage, with prints and shoe polish. Then I started printing off the work in grayscale, and printing over the top of that. 

I think this worked really nicely. I loved the pinky peach colour.

I think this looks great in only two colours, the shadows on the back are prints on the other side of the page. I think this works really well and I want to see what else I can do with it. 

'Hello Beautiful' Brief: More Observational Work.

After doing my found imagery collages, I decided to focus on the other two words I hadn't used, 'Growth' and 'Life'. For this I thought I would do some object drawing with plants and flowers, since I thought they fit those words very nicely, and they're beautiful and resilient! I was focusing mainly on shapes and leaves.

I started with this, still trying to keep the work in minimal colours, I think this spread works because of the masking tape, I'm not sure why! 

Some flower studies in different drawing techniques, I'm particularly enjoying the green felt tip and the black fineliner! 

I wasn't sure about this but it's growing on me! I think the masking tape and cut out silhouettes work well, it was the scans and placement I wasn't sure about. 

I did a very simple plain fineliner study, then picked out details and etched them into the page with scissors, revealing them with shoe polish. I love the texture this creates. I want to keep on this track, as I think there is much more I can do with it and I'm enjoying the outcomes. 

'Hello Beautiful' Brief: Collage Work and Themes.

To generate more ideas, my tutors had the idea of, almost censoring magazine and newspaper articles. picking out key words with positive connotations. This was extremely helpful and I created a mind map of all the words I'd picked out afterwards.

After this I wanted to do something different, so I picked out some key words from my mind map. 'Beauty', 'Power', 'Different', 'Growth' and 'Life' were my favourites. I started creating collage using found imagery, my first was around the word 'Power'. 

I wasn't sure about the one on the left, it's really weak and doesn't strike you in the same way the one on the right does.

'Beauty'

I really like my second image of someone almost drowning in cosmetics.

'Different'.

I think this one works as a spread because of the connection with the text.

I like a few of the outcomes here but overall I'm not that keen. I think I could've used a wider range of media and explored the words a little more. I'd like to work with found media again at some point, and maybe in a little more depth than what I produced here.

'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. 

'Make your Mark' Brief: My Backpack/Badges Continued...

Moving forward with this idea for the brief, I decided to do more work focusing on the badges. I chose one brooch in particular to start of with, I like the shape and it's simplicity is quite interesting. I wanted to do more graphic style work and just focus on the shape. I started just by scanning in the brooch, printing and doing some continuous line and blind drawings over the top.

I tried to stick to really limited colour, the brooch itself is silver/a little pink and green, so I stuck with those colours. I continued to use bypass printing and layering up different images with line drawing over the top.  For the second drawing, I sprayed a little water to make the pen run, so it was less clean cut.

After this, I tried to layer up different cut outs, and incorporate negative space areas. Not sure how I feel about this spread, I think the shapes are interesting, but I'm not sure if it works as a whole.

I wanted to try something different. and I was looking at Simon Evans work -in particular 'Everything I have', where he has created a visual list of everything he owns. I thought this was really brilliant. I'm thinking about doing something similar with this idea, but for now I just created a smaller more illustrative style page with a couple of drawings in black fineliner. I like this style, and I think I'll use the same style of drawing but apply it to something a little more like Simon Evans' work later on.