Monoprint

MONPRINT

This was a really interesting workshop. It was really fun to just be able to be experimental in order to find out what is possible with this process. I have only done very basic mono-printing but nothing as professional as here. 

I just drew some shapes that I though would be simple yet interesting.

I then re printed layers, masking out areas by laying down the bits cut out of the stensil to mask the ink. I also lay it down on top of ink when printing a second layer which picks up ink and prints the ink from a different print.

Basically just played around with the use of stensils and how different colours mixed.

This is definitely something I want to try again!

Summative work - Bean Train Gang

Bean Train Bang

This doesn't link directly to Visual Language but I felt that it reflects directly to the progress of my visual language sketchbook. I feel that it collaborates all of the individual elements which we have studied in this module.

I saw this image a while ago in response to the film LaLa land and thought it looked amazing! As soon as I saw it I realised that I wanted to do something like this. I think this is done digitally, maybe on a Wacom but noticed that it would translate well into analogue collage/paper cuts.

I then did a my first gig with the bluegrass band that I sing for and thought it would be amazing to get some photos of us performing and come up with my own response to the reference photos.

I wanted to keep the element of collage but also my drawings. My aim for this is to turn it into a promotional poster for us, but at current it is just illustrations.

 This is them cut out and stuck on my wall...

I feel that I have learnt a lot from the last module of character design of how to simplify down faces whilst still keeping the essence of the person. I feel that I have managed to incorporate drawing and collage together!. I had a lot of neutral coloured paper. I thought that the people should be on an off white/greyish background rather than white.

 I thought I could incorporate a colour through a limited palette through trousers, t-shirts and their instruments. Their instruments are the most important part of the band and therefore they definitely should have colour. I also noticed that their was a common theme of orange throughout the imagery (my hair, the washboard and the violinists jumper) and therefore I thought I should play on this to add brightness to the image by subtly incorporating it into the other performers. I think it really brightens up the piece and captures a sense of liveliness from the music into something that otherwise could look quite washed out. 

I also left some of the clothing blank and added detail to some others to add variety and to not over complicate things as simplicity is sometimes the best. I think it works well having blocks of colour in contrast to the mark making.

The line quality is a constant between the figures, working as an outline as well as a form of building up texture on the clothing.

They all have different stances and body language. Some of the features are unrealistic but at the end of the day they are characters rather than replicas, just capturing my visual representation.

Also, the photos I had for reference were all taken from the same place and because we didn't have a lot of room there was overlapping. I plan to crop and overlap the figures when I turn them into a poster, looking at composition. However I needed full figures as the characters, therefore I had to elaborate a little... this was difficult with the double bass player but I think it works...

Simplicity in the hair was also something which I discovered, that with curls and light coloured hair it is just as important to leave bits out as to include them-just be suggestive.

I wanted to include these images because they were my inspiration for texture really and what I thought about when I was creating the band. Also I think it is a good example to visually see the progress between these figures and the band as I feel that their is obvious development.

It was really nice doing work outside of university, that was for myself but that I could still relate back to the things I have learnt as I guess it is applying what we have been taught through these sessions. However this is a work in progress...

York Day Trip

TRAIN MUSEUM

When I walked into the museum I saw this luggage rack and I thought it was really cool! I thought it would be a good thing to start my book drawing. I did my usual, getting out my fine liners and colouring it in with coloured pencils... It was quite nice being able to subtly mix the different colours. I tried to create depth through the value of the colour on the fill of the suitcases. I think the tone of the coloured pencils work well at creating the rustic and texture that the very old leather staircases had. I think it also has some character due to the fact that the lines aren't quite straight and the wheel isn't quite round. However this is still an uptight drawing with not very much gesture.

 From this I saw a different luggage rack and I wanted to create this with more looseness and gesture. I thought I would try different mediums. This is felt tip, coloured pencil and biro. I am sceptical in drawing in Biro as it doesn't seem to be a valued drawing tool however I feel that this mixture of these really captures the aesthetic of the wood. I like the contrast between the really bold powerful felt tip lines and the almost faded and scratchy biro marks, that there is a diversity of line quality in the image. I built this the shapes up in a different way this time, using line rather than block fill. I think this is my favourite drawing of the day. Although it is still quite busy I think it is interesting to look at.

 I then wanted to try something more basic because sometimes simplicity is better than complexity when creating an image. Here I really wanted to capture the gold coating around the train furnishings and the curved handle. I decided to focus on one small area of the train, these doors. To create something simpler I started off by using a thicker line than a fine liner, thinking it would be more representational. I then went back through and added some detail. There is also quite a lot of texture on the paint of the train through the coloured pencil picking up the tooth of the paper but also the scratch red biro marks I added. Again this has character due to the fact that it isn't architecturally accurate.

 Then I thought it would be good to try and looses draw part of a train through thick lines and started off in gold but realised that it looked weird and empty, needing some definition so I went back in and added a complimentary colour which had a less opaque line. I then tried creating texture through line in the colouring.

 I found the shape of the trains' wheel really interesting  and thought I would play around with the different qualities of line I could create through one medium. This has turned the wheel into something of a pattern. This wheel would definitely not function on a train but it was really interesting seeing how I could translate what was in front of me into different textures.

 Then I thought I would focus in on on something that was different to trains now-a-days, the type. This is something micro rather than macro but something which ties every train in the museum together. It was interesting how they had really considered their type and the colouring to add to the aura and beauty of the trains.

I realised that I didn't really draw any "trains" even though I was in a train museum. It is difficult because of the scale of the beasts. 

YORK PARK

It was quite a daunting task creating a full bleed image. There is so much to consider and you have to chose which section of your sight you want to translate onto paper as if taking a photo in your head, cropping out sections so it will fit on the paper.

Here I really liked the grandness of the lamp posts and the contrast these strong structures had to the nature surrounding it. I went back to my fine liners and coloured pencils. I tried to create depth through using less fine liner the further back I got in the image because things get less defined in the background in comparison to the foreground. I therefore tried to use stronger colours in the foreground. It was hard getting perspective though because the grass wasn't flat, it was bumpy and the path was windy and up and down (i messed up the size of the 3rd lamp-post). However I guess illustrations don't have to be fully representational as they aren't replicating what is in front of you, they are an interpretation/translation.

 I then thought I would take colour out of the equation and see what i could do with pencil. This is much more gestural in comparison to the first one. This worked well with the textures of the trees and suggesting where plants were. Also it was interesting building up brushes through pattern and texture.  Again the background was a lot lighter than the foreground and even though the building has very defined thin lines it was crystal clear and in the sun, I didn't give it any fill. I also feel i managed to capture that I was looking up a slope due to the direction of lines on the grass.

 I quite liked using just one media to build up my landscape. I thought i would try and do this with pen. I realised that this would have a different effect due to the nature of fine liners not having a range of soft and hardnesses. This therefore created a different aesthetic. It was interesting looking at what was in front of me and translating it into patterns through different mark making to represent grass and leaves and how I could show different types of bushes and trees through my line quality. The grass in the foreground is very representational but I feel its direction and tonal value adds depth successfully to the image.

 I thought that all of the full bleed images I had created so far were still very representational but that it is okay to chose elements to leave out of an image. Here I really wanted to focus on how I could portray different plants through different line quality and mark making. I kept everything black but wanted to experiment with how I could translate what I saw even more gesturally, chasing elements to leave out or translate very loosely.

I had a really lovely day out in York, it was lovely to go to somewhere new....especially somewhere outside, on a lovely sunny day. I feel that I have really subconsciously learnt about visual language through all of the different exercises we have done throughout the year and that when I was creating these images I could refer to the pattern and line exercises we have done and was constantly looking at what was in front of me and thinking about how I could portray what I was seeing. I also noticed that I was reflecting on what I had done and was challenging myself to try things that I hadn't included and experiment.

Synecdoche

SYNECDOCHE

Synecdoche: One of the most confusing things to understand... took me half an hour to process what the hell it meant!

"A figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something"

Examples: Calling a bicycle 'Wheels'

4 eyes (someone who wears glasses)

Bubbles (champaign)

I found it really difficult coming up with different ideas. These are people from school, work and my flat but I guess its easier to nickname people if you work at a pub or something...

 I think that this works best as an image when it is smaller than when it is large! It is more playful.

This is the lady that run the dance school I taught at. She is referred to as Ladybird and has even named her dance school Ladybird Borland school of dance. She is predominantly a ballerina, teaching ballet so I thought it would be apt to have her twirling into a ladybird. Each image becoming more ladybird-like. I also joined the images up with ladybirds and their flight paths. I thought the type worked best underneath her feet, like a stage.

I guess that this task fits with the new project due to the fact that you have to take the human out of the human. Not portraying their character rather portraying them through something which sums them up. This probably needs some re-working to get totally there... to the point where it is a ladybird flying away. However ladybirds are difficult to merge from an elegant ballet dancer!

Illustrator Stickers

After a very useful crash 30 min Illustrator savour session I managed to pick up the basics to build up images through shapes using path finder and the pen tool. I started off by using shapes to build make this holding hands image as a simple way of understanding how to understand.

Then I started building up the images...morphing the hair and nose. Also making 2 circles for the mouth and deleting one to leave a smile.

I also used this tool to create the zigzags as a shape. Here she looks terrifying, definitely not happy.

Then again to build up the face I made a tear drop shape and a smaller one in white to delete the middle.

Then came the rays of sunlight. Some of them went over the background but I don't feel like that really matters.

I then decided that my favourite part of the image was the face because it is so weird and makes me smile so I thought it could be quite funky just in the middle of the image.

I then started experimenting with this face and thought I could make some crazy hair coming out of the face also like a sun with some weird morphed shapes. 

Then I thought I should see what it looks like with multiple faces. This looks quite cool like a totem pole.

Then I started collaging the faces together. Figuring out what is too much and what works compositionally. It reminded me a bit of the musical Cats and their opening credits which has lots of different cat eyes moving starting off large and moving into the distance (screenshot below).

Too many... thought it might make a cool pattern though.

I quite liked it with the 2 large faces in the middle and different sized ones around it but then thought that to portray radiating happiness better it might be best to have one large face in the middle which inspires others to be happy.

I then went back to work on this image again, trying to add font to turn them into the stickers. I was struggling. I managed to get the words to write on a curve I had drawn but forgot that layers existed...

I then thought maybe the font would be better in the bottom in the same shaped curve as the smiley face... could represent a lucky horseshoe as well as a smile.

I also thought it looked a bit crowded with so many rays of sunshine so i took some of them out and I think this looks better. Still some of the angles of the straight lines don't reflect the angles of the circle.

I then started experimenting with the placement of the font on these faces. I think it works well here but I also quite like the connotations it has being at the bottom of the circle

Also to make it fit on the path I had drawn I had to shrink one of the words so I could see the happiness and I really like this as it accentuates the happiness and is more visually interesting.

With this one I had to move some of the faces around so that there was room for the font.

Here the font looks a bit squashed but I quite like how close to the bottom of the circle it is.

So these are the final 5 which I have to some how decide between. I have asked advice off my friends and they have all said different things. I think I quite like the simple single smiley face. Others really like the multiple faces and others like the faces with sun behind! How am I going to chose??

I decided to submit the image with 2 different central faces with others around because I feel it portrays the message of spreading happiness the best visually HOWEVER when I think about receiving the stickers on sticker paper I am imagining the single face coming back...and to be honest I feel that the face on its own does radiate happiness because it is so wierd it makes me smile looking at it.