Persons of Note Workshop

In this workshop we had to create a A2 poster communicating a famous person - I choose Kim Kardashian. The aim of this exercise was to reduce/distill your chosen person into as simple an image as possible. Immediately I centred in on a feature that brought her fame and continues to be a key part of her image - her bum - and put this in a context of an instagram post. I think this effectively communicates her as a person because it comments on the emphasis she places on image, as well as her excessive use of social media - both of which play a key part in her career and fame. I also think that the composition is effective - using the dimensions of the paper as the phone screen. I found this exercise really valuable, I think that learning how to identify key concepts/ideas of what you are trying to communicate helps produce really impactful and dynamic imagery. 

Final Crit: Greetings from...

• I think I have effectively used illustrator within this brief to create impactful and well crafted shape based imagery. In the crit people liked my use of bold shape and colour. 
• People commended me on my composition - the use of vignettes, line of sight and negative space - they liked the simplicity of the images. I think visually this brief does demonstrate my better understanding of composition and colour - developing as a result of visual language. 
• My postcards do not effectively communicate the identity of each of my cities - this was actually highlighted in the crit feedback as people had trouble figuring out the 4 locations. I focused too much on my theme and not summarising the places and my concept as a whole. 
• On the other hand I do really like the theme that I choose for these postcards and think that I have managed to communicate it well - someone noted that the scale of animals makes them seem dominant within these cities and this links to how they are seen as nuisances.
• This brief has made me realise that I need to push my idea generation and thinking when approaching briefs. I need to focus more on evoking feeling or meaning - using visual metaphors and puns, rather than reverting to the obvious and representational image because this is boring! 
• Generally I think I confronted a difficult subject matter in this brief. As a result of this I think I fell into a lack of motivation, especially towards the end as I got lost in what I was trying to achieve.

I am glad that I now have a basic understanding of how to use illustrator, because it is so commercially popular right now, however I am not sure as to whether I like it as a visual aesthetic. It suits my process and way of thinking because it is a mainly shape based process and the images it produces are direct, simple and immediate. On the other hand it lacks the feel or look of a human hand, the final product is too clean cut and sleek...I think I just will never be a massive fan of digital processes. 

End of module evaluation

Colour & Notan

What role does value play in planning composition?

• Varying value in an image can be important in making your content easily identifiable and interesting to the eye - theres no point having a silhouette of a man standing against a dark background, because you won't see his shape properly!
• Creating greater contrasts in the focal points of your image will draw the eye of the viewer.
• Value can help create a mood or atmosphere within an image - a sad image would require darker and low contrast values, whether a dramatic image would maybe suit higher contrast between light and dark, and a happy image lighter values with little contrast.

How can we use values to focus attention on certain information?

• 'By contrasting the value of one thing with the value of another, we can create a centre of interest' - light against dark, dark against light.

According to the handout, what are the most commonly used basic value plans? How many values does it recommend you use in a picture?

• light against dark, dark against light, dark and halftone against light, light and dark against halftone.
• It recommends to use only one value pattern - its important to remain consistent and not overcomplicate.

As always, although this information is really interesting, can you challenge it?

• Value can also be used to create balance in an image, and not just a centre of interest.

In the session we created 3 images each working with a different value pattern. This helped me to see how creating contrast can bring focus to certain objects, figures or points within an image. As well as how how the values you use can important in influencing the tone or atmosphere of an image. (which I showed through the facial expressions of my king).

From this session we were set the task of taking a picture of ourselves in an outfit, and then from this creating a colour palette in photoshop. I was quite happy with this task because thinking about and putting clothes together is something that I really enjoy and do in my free time anyway. (the only thing I have to apologise for is the lighting, as it doesn't really do the colours justice)

• I choose this outfit because I think all the colours work really well together. There is a consistency of blue and white repeating throughout in the white shoes, white stripes on the trousers and across the top of the jumper. Then the blue of the trousers and on the jumper actually match quite closely. 
• The orange and the blue compliment each other nicely (blue and red being the complementary colours, but I think the orange is red'y enough to still work).
•  The orange jumper is the focal point of the outfit - the brightness of the colour contrasting against the more muted blues and whites.

Final fan poster

Positives:

• During the visual language session I got some positive feedback for the poster - that it was well designed and impactful. 
• I am really happy that I went with this composition and decided to crop the image. Initially I was afraid that this would seem too simple - lacking depth, line of sight ect, all of the components that we have learnt in the last session. But what I have realised is that not every image I make has to consider all these components, sometimes simple is better if its appropriate. 
• I think that people who knew the character behind the work, thought it well represented him and that the caption was funny (which made me happy). 
• I think I have showed a good use simple and bold shape to construct an image - using shape I think has helped to make the image really immediate. 

Things I could have done better:

• I think I could have used the potential of creating a third colour through overlapping to add more embellishment and detail. I think this would have worked particularly well in the moustache and would have helped to make it the focal point of the image. 
• The text seems badly constructed and out of place. It would have been better centred and smaller - I think giving it room to breadth would have made it more legible and would have given opportunity for even spacing whilst still keeping f*****g in the centre.

Development on Illustrator

I have pretty much created all of my postcards on illustrator now and am just playing around with colour and composition. 

In this I initially thought that I would include a couple of wild boar, but I quite like the idea of just having one dominant boar as it suggests the nuisance and problems they cause in Berlin as a city.

With this I have been playing around a lot with colour - I have realised the importance of using colour to draw attention to and highlight certain areas in order to help communicate my ideas. I like the bottom left the best as the pink and blue works to highlight the two key elements of the image - the baboon and cars. 

Overall I think I have just found that simplicity is best and not to overcomplicate things. For example in these two images - the fox and the parrot - I have tried to avoid unnecessary embellishment, such as getting rid of the clouds in the sky or just including a couple pavement tiles as apposed to lots of them. I think this brings focus and immediacy to the composition. 

New ideas

I have made some developments in this work simply through sketching and working through ideas in my sketchbook. I have been trying to approach this brief and my subject matter in a more inventive and 'illustrative' way. I want the drawings to communicate my ideas clearly, but also with character and interest. I like the images I have started to evolve here, in which I have emphasised key facts or problems surrounding these urban animals - such as the baboons 'playing' with the car like a toy representing them car jacking in cape town, and the parrot sitting on the Brooklyn bridge in a cage talking about how other areas have rejected and made clear efforts to keep them out. I think that overall these images are just much more engaging than my previous ideas. 

Developing on illustrator

In response to the crit I decided to start developing some of the vignettes and drawings from my sketchbook on illustrator. One of the ideas was to have the baboons climbing across the roofs and into the windows of peoples houses. As I began to draw it though...I just thought that it looked really boring. 

Problems:

• The central part of this project/idea is the animals being a part of the urban environment. In this the baboons are such a small part of the frame, that I feel like they get lost. 
• Its not eye-catching as an image for me...I feel like it just looks boring. Maybe this is because its too representational? 

I think I need to go back to my sketchbook and start to develop more ideas as to how to represent the idea of animals in urban environments - and the conflict this causes, in less representational and perhaps more metaphorical ways.

Developing vignettes/designs

After the crit I have began developing designs for little vignettes to go on these postcards. I think by doing this I have gained a lot more focus in my work - this brief is all about simplicity in the end. I like the idea of each postcard capturing a little moment or idea surrounding these urban animals. I need to know start moving these sketches onto the computer and developing through illustrator.

2nd Illustrator workshop

This workshop was based on creating our work solely using and manipulating shapes on illustrator. Starting with primitive shapes like rectangles, squares, circles ect. 

Key points:

• Use handles and toggles on shapes to manipulate and change them…
• Hold down alt to draw out from the centre point 
• Hold down shift to get completely proportionate circles, squares ect. 
• Use pathfinder to subtract or add shapes to one another - to make new shapes or to divide them up. 
• Using tools like reflect, move, rotate ect to multiple or make shapes go round, across, down ect in a certain direction…and then using 'transform again' to make multiples (good for windows on buildings)

CRIT

• I was a bit all over the place for this crit because I think I just felt like I had not done enough work, or that I just did not really have anything to present… 
• The feedback that I got though…seemed positive. I think people appreciated the idea and thought that the work I had done so far was good. 
• From this I think I have decided that I need to focus in on one little scene or element of this animal conflict. Jamie liked the baboons climbing across the rooftops and identified it as a potential good composition to just have it running across the postcard in landscape - I like that and think I am going to run with it. 

• So I need to do some more sketches like this… 
• I really do like them - I think there immediate, they communicate what I want about the human - animal conflict, and animals in urban environments, and they will translate well into simple shapes on illustrator.

Thinking about composition...

• After doing a bit of work on illustrator, there was not much point of me carrying on without knowing what I wanted the final composition to look like… so Ive done some planning. 
• I found this really useful and think that I came up with some simple and balanced compositions that include the main components that I want in the piece. 
• In each of them I have put the animal in the foreground, often causing or being a part of one of problems that creates this animal - human conflict I am focusing on in this work. 
• I wanted to resemble the animals in the context of these cities so I included cliché monuments or landmarks - which I know we were asked not to do but I think that it is relevant to my work. 
• The only thing I would say about this is maybe it's too overcomplicated? Also I don't really want my final work to be this 'scenic' - I would rather have little moments or vignettes like the example of the 2nd year student we were shown in the brief. I think it just overall looks a bit more effective and immediate. 

Creating some work on illustrator…

• I started to put some of the designs/sketches I had done onto illustrator - for the sake of the oncoming crit, but also to experiment and see how they would translate on screen. 
• I think the simple shapes that I have been creating using ink - and the two tones - has worked really well. 
• The only thing I think is that to me it looks a little too bland and lacks character. I want my work to feel illustrative and not representational. But my immediate response to this is to make things fun and playful - which is not the appropriate to the tone I want for this work… :/ I don't know what to do. I think I just need to draw some more… 
• Also I don't think there is much point of me doing more work on illustrator without knowing what I want to do and how the final postcards will look. So I need to go back to my sketchbook!

Parrots in Brooklyn

http://brooklynparrots.com/where-can-i-see-them-brooklyn/

• The parrots in Brooklyn is something that I stumbled across in my research and really wanted to include in the four postcards.
• They do not cause as much violent destruction or disturbance as lets say the bears in Anchorage or the Baboons in cape town - but I don't think this matters in terms of the narrative I am telling because it is as much about the animal in an urban environment - out of their natural habitat - as disturbing humans. 
• Plus they do create a degree of disturbance - noise, nesting - so much so that Manhattan has created a campaign to keep them in Brooklyn and out of their neighbourhood. 
• I also really like these birds because their beautiful (and nice to draw). I think putting them in the context of the high rise building of new york could produce some really nice imagery.

Blex Bolex

I like using shape in my work but I am unsure about the aesthetic created by illustrator. I think it sometimes looks a little too crisp and clear for my personal taste. I enjoy something will a little more texture and a handmade aesthetic. I do however understand why it would be so commercially popular because it creates these immediate and digestible images. Despite my aversion to illustrator however I do like the work of Blex bolex. I think the way that he allows the shapes and colours to overlap provides this handmade aesthetic reminiscent of screen printing (which he does a lot of as well I think). He is also really effective in using negative/white space to create extra shapes in his work.