Important musical beliefs

Who am I?

Musical maps

Group experiment musical soundmaps

Group experiment musical soundmaps

I was interested as to how different people respond differently to different types of music and how people express things differently and how visual language can communicate sound.

I conducted an experiment with me +5 others who were male/female and art/non art students.

This presentation compares the leading similarities in the visual language per song through visual analysis.

This fuelled the start to my project.

Musical Expression through paint

Studio Brief 2: Individual Practice

Evaluation

1.    Although I have really enjoyed researching the topic I have found it quite hard visualising the political metaphors. I really enjoy metaphors, puns and language. This is something I also enjoy when vocalising emotions through lyrics. In fact, on reflection, the refined list of my metaphors for the A2 boards could be turned into a poem.

2.    I have realised that I always use language as research. This project began from identifying words from news articles; cracks, dead ends and cutting ties. This is an important skill because, as an editorial illustrator, you have to turn things around quickly and having a strategy for identifying

 elements to stimulate creativity is crucial.

3.    Even though I feel more confident about strategies, I think I would struggle to do this kind of work as a profession because my brain can’t process the themes and ideas fast enough for intense editorial turn arounds. I guess over time and with practice perhaps this would speed up?

4.    I have realised that editorials are rarely seen out of context, hence the importance of mocking them up, but I appreciate in professional circumstances I would be working alongside a graphic designer to put the information into the text.

5.    I have always been interested in the processes of illustration/image making. I find that the choice of media can express a lot in its-self. Because my images are simple, the media used is very important and it subtly communicates part of the message. It makes the viewer have to consider what is being visualised.

6.    I feel that these pieces have been very thoughtfully constructed and really capture the main themes of Brexit at present; the anxiety and frustration that Remain voters feel. It has been a hard subject to tackle due to its complexity and I have tried to condense the atmosphere of over about a year in just 4 illustrations.

7.    I have found this quite a slow and stressful brief. I have been frustrated that I haven’t been producing a large quantity of work but I have spent a lot of time thinking, understanding, linking and considering process, media, visual language and theory.

8.    Following feedback, my goals for this module were to explore; simplicity/ refinement, developing digital skills and finding my place as an illustrator. I think that I have made progress in all these areas. These images include lots of thought and depth but are communicated minimalistically. For the first time ever I am submitting a digital portfolio and, although the images include analogue elements, it is significant that they were constructed digitally.

9.    I am glad that I challenged myself to do some political editorials because it has helped me develop as an artist, illustrator and image maker. I think next year I am going to focus more on music. However, I want to take forward the way I have not been too literal with the image making and really explore visualising the emotion, sound and atmosphere of music, using skills which I have developed through these editorials.

BREXIT development

BREXIT development

MESS / FRAGILE / FRAYING / PROBLEMS / OVERWHELMED / UNKNOWNS / VULNERABLE / UNSUPPORTED / WEAK / UNWRAVELING

I don't think that this is there yet but it could be very powerful. It intends to represent how Britain is having lots of different problems and issues (a messy buzz) that it will have to deal with independently. The problems are stronger and full of depth, straining the people negotiating for Britain who are fragile (fraying), don't know what they are unwraveling

Perhaps it would work better if it was in the basic shape of the UK? This portrays not only the fragility of the situation and negotiations but also highlights that the UK is an island and now very vulnerable. However, this image doesn't show that the power in centralised to the government in London because the frayed string is in cornwall haha.

I feel that this image can show to strength that the EU has at being part of a huge union. It is full of depth (no cracks-solid and supported). Also the mixture of different colours shows the diversity and the vibrance that comes a long side this ( that Britain has chosen to get rid of through sending EU immigrants home)

I also thing that this image could be interpreted differently, by tweaking the colour levels the EU can look quite scary, powerful and looming which is why some citizens voted to leave the EU. Also some people wanted to get rid of diversity in the UK and therefore a patriotic "British" nation looks appealing to them

Putting it into recognisable context a little bit... Adding the substance of a huge ocean as a divide

This is more obvious Im not sure that I think this solid image I thknk it it detracts from the textures of the string. I think maybe this portrays that Britain is "united as a nation"... so therefore portraying BREXIT as a positive, patriotic nation -Remain ??

This is trying to represent the downward spiral of all of the problems that the UK now need to negotiate. These problems are all being dealt with by fragile "frayed ends". These "frayed ends" are surrounded and trapped by these overwhelming negotiations and problems

This string is exploring that there are some huge tangles and knots. Big problems that have arrived that citizens and the government didn't know would be affected by the leave vote (eg. medical research) and that there are lots of loop holes that the government need to try and navigate around

Portraying all of the lose ends that need to be negotiated, that are making Britain very vulnerable. Also the confusion that is created for civilians with the anticipation of the unknown. Also representative of all of the problems that have been discovered and how there aren't answers or strong solutions 

This presents how Britain has decided to break away from from a supported union (the plait is literally holding all of the different parts together) and now flimsy and unwraveling

This aims to represent how much support and funding the UK had from the EU and that there are dead ends (knots) where the EU (stars) aren't helping out any longer

I think perhaps this is quite summative of the different developments using string. It communicates the UK being a lost, fragile mess as a result of Brexit. Furthermore it has fragile pieces of string springing out of it, with fragile frayed ends and loop holes as a metaphor of all the problems that have come into view and then a knot at the end, where outcomes haven't been defined and there are no longer support systems from the EU.

Scrumpled paper is a form of expressing anger. I think scrumpled paper is a nice metaphor to represent the frustration which has affected many voters across the UK post Brexit vote. 

It also visually represents all of the grey areas which are the negotiations and everyone (including politicians) being in the dark as to what is going to happen... The nooks and crannies of the grooves of the paper capture the depth of issues that have risen, almost like mountains that need to be overcome.

This portrays how alone the UK has made its self... it is a tiny island that has isolated itself! This shows that the UK now has to deal with all of its problems by itself.

This is supposed to juxta pose the strength of the EU vs the cracks of the UK. The process of actually making the EU was a lot easier (with masking tape) than the UK which was very delicate and fiddly... visual metaphor for the UK not having masking tape/ EU support.

The blue sort of puts it into context... However I do think it is quite striking having the image as grey. The blue kinda portrays hope and sunny day rather than the greyscale really creates a moody atmosphere...

This is experimenting with the use of tone. I feel that the strong stable EU should perhaps have more intense colour than the UK... but this could also show the EU being dark and looming and that the UK is 'seeing the light' and in a better position

This very dramatically shows darkness sweeping over the UK as a result of the leave vote... Perhaps this captures how unnerved people are feeling in anticipation of the consequences of leaving. Also because it is very stuck half way it almost shows how slow everything is taking as well... 

The blue adds a calm peaceful element... the calm amongst the storm. Rather than a harsh gradient divide line I thought a really angry, inky storm could be really affective to communicate the atmosphere - the fear and darkness spreading over the UK as negotiations happen

I then thought maybe it works best that the dark storm is coming from the EU who are pale and in the clear and that the UK is the place which is covered in the inky stormy mess

I like this visual analogy... its not just that string is very flammable but also that it now looks like a time bomb, a disaster just waiting to happen, which is how it kind of is at the moment but without being too cheesy.

I think this works well over a double page... it has more of a conversation