End of module evaluation

Final outcome evaluation

What I like:

• I think that the work I have created fulfills my intent of evoking a feeling of science, space and technology. I like the ambiguous and abstract quality of my final outcomes, especially in the collage pieces, as I think something more conceptual does well to reflect the idea of space and the unknown. 
• In the postcards and poster I feel that my use of collage has been really effective, I think I have demonstrated a good understanding of how to use shape, colour and composition to create impactful and dynamic imagery. 
• I think the poster is the most effective in communicating Carl Sagan - what he believed in and tried to communicate to others. The amount of negative space combined with the scale of 'the pale blue dot' and the sunbeam creates this idea of vastness - referring to the insignificance and humility of humankind. 

What I don't like/could improve on:

• I like the concept and idea placed behind the stamps of using these mathematical diagrams, but I don't think my crafting of these was as high quality as my poster and postcards. I think that using the grey paper did affect their visual quality drastically when edited in photoshop. 
• Also when thinking of all of this work as a collective piece, I do not think the stamps work as well together with the rest of my outcomes. I feel that this comes down to the media I used - compared with my collage pieces it just seems flat and out of place. I also should have used a colour palette of black and yellow - in order to match the colours in the rest of my work.

Something that I have definitely struggled within this brief is translating my work onto screen and then in good enough quality to digitally print. Through this process I have often found that you lose your intended colour palette and the handmade quality of the original work. When looking at the final printed outcomes I am pleased with the postcards, but the poster and stamps I feel have lost some of their visual quality through the editing and printing process. This is a shame as I was really pleased with the original work - I guess that learning what media works best within this process will be something important to develop within my own practice. 

Retaining the handmade!

After the crit I went away and redid my poster, and I am really happy because I feel that it is a lot better than before! I took on other peoples comments and added more depth to the black background - painting layers of blue, red and black paint and then flicking white on the top to create a 'starry' effect. I then also reduced the scale of the sunbeam, 'pale blue dot' and the text. I feel like now the composition now more effectively communicates this sense of vastness and the insignificance of earth. I think placing the text by the earth instead in the corner of the poster works a lot better - drawing the viewer into this point. With the added texture as well, hopefully when printed the poster will still retain this sense of handmade and not look so digital as before. 

CRIT

Positives:

• Good feedback - sense of science, technology ect. 
• Like the use of collage - combination of cut shapes and image

Negatives/ things to work on:

• The poster - needs a greater sense of vastness, scale, texture, lost of the handmade, not sure about the text - again scale?
• The stamps seem out of place, flat? 

From this crit I think that I will go away and try make some adjustments to my final outcomes - especially to the poster as I feel this is the central object to the brief. On the other hand I do feel positive about the feedback I have gotten - it has made me feel that I have successful fulfilled my intent for this work and effectively communicated what I wanted about Carl Sagan. 

Final postcards

These are my final three postcards. I think these are the work I am most happy with in the brief so far. I think that the combination of image, with simple cut shapes and the grey tone/earthy backgrounds does work really well together. I think they show a strong understanding of layout and composition. They also evoke a sense of technology, space and science - which is what intended to achieve through my work. The fact that I sourced the images from the collection of photographs sent up on the golden voyager record I think also gives them  extra relevance to Carl Sagan and his career. As a medium this method of collage is something that I really enjoyed using and think that I will definitely come back to it in the near future.  

Poster development

I have made a A2 version of my final poster, and then scanned it and started editing it on photoshop. I think that it translates everything as well as how I felt about it when roughing in my sketchbook - with the composition communicating this sense of vastness, and the intensity of the colours creating this dynamism and drama. 

So far I have just playing around with text and the idea of including a quote within the poster - I think this would be relevant since the illustration directly refers to Carl Sagan speech 'The Pale blue dot'. I feel that it also helps provide this idea of him being an educator and communicator. Text is something, however, that I always struggle with and whatever I do it always seems to be a bit out of place. With the crit coming up I think I will try to get some feedback on this...

Another thing I have been struggling with is that when I scan the poster in and edit it in photoshop I have found that I lose the handmade/painterly quality I really enjoyed within my roughs and on the original. Maybe I just need to play around with the levels a bit more or add more texture on the original?

Final Stamp editing

In revaluation of my stamp designs I have found that when placing them within the context how big they will be printed, with a stamp stencil and text, you do not notice the 'noise' in the background or a loss of visual quality through editing. I am not wholly happy with them as a final outcome and feel that I could develop them further - but with the pressures of time constraints and other work to get on with, I feel that it is more important to start on my other designs and come back to these if I have time.

With the stamp stencils I think I prefer keeping them white, as I think this allows the text of the 1st to stand out - I feel that with the blue it makes the design too dense in colour and almost distracts from the patterns themselves. 

Stamps concerns

I have selected these four final patterns to use for my stamps. I really like the mix media of ink and oil pastel I have used in each design, as well as the colour palette of blue and yellow on mid-tone grey paper. I think they evoke this sense of science and technology, whilst still remaining eye-catching and interesting to look at - something I am happy with as I was worried that in mimicking these mathematical diagrams they would appear dull and lack visual quality. 

On the other hand the only thing I have found is that I may have made a mistake drawing these on this grey paper. I do like it as a background in terms of the colour, because white would look too stark, but when scanned into photoshop it starts to become really 'noisy' and loses visual quality. Everything being on this background also makes editing the colours and shapes to be more vibrant and clean cut really hard. I could either find a way to better edit these photoshop, or as Jamie suggested I could go back and draw them again, and then when I print do them onto a grey paper instead?

Stamp development - colour schemes and more roughing

I am moving forward with my idea of creating little patterns inspired by the mathematical diagrams included on the Golden Voyager record for my stamps. I really like some of the compositions I have created here, as I think they echo the feeling of these diagrams whilst still being dynamic and interesting. I have been looking at using some grey tone paper, as drawing them on white I think will look really stark. I also think using a mid tone will allow me to use playful and eye-catching colour palettes, as it will mute them and help maintain the sciency/technological tone I want to my work (without seeming too boring or dull). 

Stamp ideas?

Taking some of the symbols, signs and structures from these mathematical drawings put on the Golden Voyager record, I have made these small little drawings or patterns using ink and oil pastel. I really like these visually as I think they seem exciting, playful and eye-catching, but still communicate space, science and technology as well as mimicking sort of organic and planetary structures. If I further refined these in my crafting I think they could work really well for my stamps - I want to try them on a mid-tone grey paper…?

Experimenting with Gouache for the poster

I made a small little mock up of what the final poster could look like...I think this is a lot more impactful and dramatic than my previous collages. You can not really see it here, but using gouache to paint the background in layers - one of blue, red and then black - adds a lot more texture and depth of colour. I also like the intensity of the yellow sunbeam against this background and the 'swishy' texture I put in the pale blue dot - mimicking the sky and clouds of earth. I also think the composition - the scale of the 'pale blue dot' and sunbeam, combined with the amount of negative space - is really effective in creating this sense/atmosphere of vastness and the insignificance of earth. 

Tutorial

• I found this tutorial really helpful and reassuring, coming back from easter has been a bit jarring for me but I think I just need to adopt a more positive attitude and do things that make me happy/relax more often whilst I am in leeds. 
• In terms of Cop I need to dedicate more time to the visual journal, I like the idea of focusing on what happens when we remove ourselves from technology, how this can achieve mindfulness? I think this is something we can all relate to… 
• In terms of the 'persons of note' brief I feel positive about my work so far and what I am trying to say about Carl Sagan - science and technology, vastness and insignificance of man...
• I agree that I need to focus more on crafting and media…I would like to do some more collage work and agree that they do need a background - think grey, earthy mid tones? 
• Type is something I struggle with but learning about the character tools of photoshop has been helpful and I need to try out the suggested type faces Matt made.. I do think including it especially in my poster would be really effective and appropriate. 
• I also think that increasing the intensity of the colours and adding texture to my collage pieces through the use of media such as gouache or ink, is also a good idea - as I agree with Matt that cut paper can sometimes look a bit flat. 

Collage with Photos

So now after looking at the work of Anthony Zinonos I feel really motivated to create work with both cut shapes and photographs. I remember in my research that on the nasa website you can source the actual images that were put on the Voyager Golden record to represent life on earth. 

Here are a couple of the images… I think using these in my collages is really relevant and talks about all the things I have discussed before - like who/what represents earth and humans having a permanent presence within the universe, all things Carl Sagan was concerned with when putting the Golden record together. 

Most of the images also contain something to do with science, technology or space travel - so using them I think also helps evoke this feeling in my work, and therefore represent Carl Sagan and his passion for science, technology ect. 

I think that the combination of cut paper and images work really well together - I have tried to cut the images and cut paper into simple geometric shapes because I think anything other this can have the tendency to look a bit naf? I think that the circular shapes work really well and evoke this feeling of space. The colour scheme of yellow and black also works well together (night and day maybe?)…but Im not too sure about the pink! These could work really well as a series of postcards...I especially like the two on the bottom. 

Killing time until Spring - Anthony Zinonos

This illustrator is someone I have blogged about a bit before, I just can't stop raving about his work, I love it!! This is a book/zine that he made called 'Killing time until Spring' which came to my mind whilst working on this new project, which features a collection of collages communicating the idea of spring. I am in two minds about this as I think that the images are so simple, do they really communicate anything? But on the other hand I think this isn't true at all, the colours, the images and shapes combined with the stark white or tonal backgrounds do express this idea of freshness, beauty and nature. Compositionally I also think that his work is so well balanced and visually satisfying despite the lack of content on each page. I would like to do something like this for my project - focusing on communicating the idea of the earth, space, technology and science - but I find it hard to make images so stripped down yet well composed. I guess I just need to be brave and go for it...

Idea Development

After the crit, and realising I need to learn more about this person I went online and started with the video Matt recommended - 'The Pale blue dot'. Immediately after watching this video I felt like I had a whole new level of understanding about who he was and what he believed in. The video features a  speech written by Carl Sagan made in response of a far away photo taken of the earth by the Voyager space 1 probe. The messages he puts across are beautiful and profound, generally looking at the world in the sense of the 'bigger picture' where we are in relation to the universe and therefore what this means for the significance of our home, the insignificance of our conflicts and hatreds, and the self-importance of humanity. Personally I found this video really amazing and moving - I think it sums up Carl Sagan's beleifs, his passions and his role as an educator/communicator. I have started to create some work in response to the key quotes and points in the speech.

I would really like the poster to be illustrating the idea of the 'pale blue dot', and like what I have been making using collage, combining with textures. I do think that the 'blue dot' needs to be smaller though, to create this idea of vastness and insignificance. I also would really like to include a quote to make reference to the fact that is about a speech he made, because I think this communicates his role as an educator. 

I have also been making other collages using similar techniques in response to other quotes in the speech. This one is looking at the 'rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that...they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot'. But, I feel much less thrilled by these, I feel likes its hard to put across such profound messages through such simple image making, but on the other hand this is the way I like to work and I don't want to overcomplicate things.

Persons of note research crit

The crit has made me realised that I have narrowed down my understanding of Carl Sagan too much. I have focused on one or two achievements in his life as apposed to looking at communicating him as a whole person. From now on I want to focus more on what he fundamentally strove to do throughout all his work. As I said in the briefing I want to be 'evoking meaning rather than just bodly presenting the truth'. 

Speaking to other people who had also researched Carl Sagan helped me massively in this crit. They gave me new ideas and understanding of who he was and what he stood for: A dreamer, sense of wonder, the curiosity of man, the unknown, humans making a mark.

I did, however, get some positive feedback in response to the work I had already done and my research. I think I will continue with my idea of using collage and shape in a slightly abstract and ambiguous way as this is a medium I would like to explore more and also something I believe is appropriate to this subject matter. 

Carl Sagan

So...I have started to make some images in response to my research of Carl Sagan. Right now I am really interested in the Golden Voyager record and pioneers plaque. They are two 'time capsules', I guess you would say, that have been sent out on voyages with two different space ships with the hope that they may represent earth if they come into contact with extraterrestrial life. In terms of Carl Sagan, I think these two achievements, even though he did many more things in his career, represent him well in terms of who he was and what interested him - speaking about the curiosity of man, the immensity of the universe (there could be something/someone else out there), humanity making a mark in the universe and raises questions like, who speaks for the earth?

I think that the symbols and engravings on these are really interesting, and offer a good starting point for my visual investigation. I have enjoyed using shape in past briefs, but have always in a more representational way - I feel like this would be a good opportunity to create something a bit more abstract or ambiguous. Below I have started working with shapes created by the engravings on these plaques/records, I think this works well and is something I could take forward - look at using textures, mono printing, collage?

Persons of note: Initial research

Carl Sagan

• astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist...
• Author 
• Discovered high surface temperatures on venus
• Had a really strong interest and role in trying to discover extraterrestrial life 
• assembled the first physical messages to be sent out into space (time capsules)
• Pioneer Plaque
• Voyager golden record
• Award winning TV series - Cosmos: a personal voyage
• Professor of Astronomy at Cornell for planetary studies. 
• Died of pneumonia at 62. 

Ella Fitzgerald 

• "The first lady of song" - american Jazz singer
• Humble and rocky beginnings
• mum died in a car accident, and her step-dad died shortly after of a heart-attack 
• went in a downward spiral - started skipping school, getting trouble with the police
• she was sent to a reform school were she was beaten, from which she escaped at the age of 15 years of age. 
• Faced discrimination during her career - in Dallas the police arrested her and her musicians for on reason and took them down to the station. 
• Marilyn monroe was one of her avid supporters
• Deep concern for child welfare, generous donations to organisations for disadvantaged children 
• Health problems in her later life - which led to her legs being amputated at 76. 

Hypatia of Alexandria 

• female philosopher and mathematician from Alexandria, Egypt. 
• Her father was Theon, last professor at University of Alexandria.
• he did not raise her in traditional female roles but taught her his trade of teaching 
• She was known for her 
• generosity
• love of learning 
• teaching of Neo-platonism, mathematics, science and philosophy
• She remained celibate throughout her life and devoted herself to learning and teaching 
• Little is known about her actual life, the most important aspect of her life was actually her death and what it represented. She was murdered by a Christian mob who branded her witch, because she was teaching concepts that undermined religious beliefs/teachings. 
• Her death represented the loss of civilization in the face of religious intolerance. 

In this initial research I think I connected more with the struggles of Hypatia of Alexandria and Ella Fitzgerald. On the other hand I feel more motivated to research further the life and work of Carl Sagan. His work is primarily based on space and technology, which I think will be really interesting topics to research and illustrate - therefore I think I will take him forward as my 'person of note'.