Vis Com: Persons of Note: Research

The Three people I got were Titus Salt, Lesya Ukrainka and Nikola Tesla.

After I researched these people I was most drawn to Lesya as there are so many different aspects to her that could be pursued.
 

• Aunt was arrested resisting the Russian Empire - Lesya wrote her first poem 'Hope' based on these experiences
• Ukrainian culture/language etc was banned under the Russian Empire but her mother brought her up speaking Ukrainian (Could speak many languages)
• Had her book published in Ukrainian by having it published in Kiev and smuggled in
• Her and her brother started a literary circle to keep Ukrainian culture and literature alive
• Marxist - translated the communist manifesto into Ukrainian
• Known for being a political and womens rights activist
• Travelled a lot for treatment of her tuberculosis of the bone

Vis Com: Greetings from: Final Images, Feedback and Evaluation

Feedback +

• Generally the circular frame is liked, not using the full rectangle is intriguing
• Appropriate colour schemes
• The concept is interesting, &the tone of the images suits the theme
• Good use of shape & tone

Feedback -

• WHY DIDN'T YOU FINISH (I can explain) 
• Would like to see more highlights and depth in the shire image
• The Shire and Sauron's tower are obvious choices and the other two places are not so recognisable, could have pushed the theme more

Evaluation 

I genuinely don't know how I feel about these images. On one hand I like them, I really pushed myself making them especially as I had not really used illustrator before this brief but on the other hand I feel like I could have done so much more with this brief, maybe my theme wasn't the most appropriate or best thought out for this.

I got off to a really slow start on this project and it held me back further on, I really need to learn to get straight into things and make them visual right away rather than mulling over things I could and could not do.

The most successful thing about my images I think is the colour palettes used. I think they work well because they are suitable for the places and I used a lot of different tones to add highlights and shadows to the pieces. As well as this I tried to use complimentary colours - for example in the image of Barad Dur I knew the background and sky area would be red so I used a more green-toned grey for the tower to make it stand out.

The circular frame was actually supposed to be a Hobbit door, and to look as if the viewer is looking out of the door and into these other sceneries. The circle serves its purpose well, and I think it makes the images look really interesting but due to the colour I have used a lot of people thought it was supposed to be the one ring - I don't think this matters too much though as it has much the same effect.

I definitely think it would have been a good idea to simplify the places more as I spent 5 hours each on Barad Dur and Minas Tirith, so I didn't end up finishing my last postcard by the deadline and had to catch up later. I also had a change of heart halfway through one of my postcards and ended up scrapping it completely in favour of a more interesting building, which affected how long it took me to get things done.

OUIL404 Visual Language Evaluation

1.  Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?

I think I have developed a range of practical skills within this module as I’ve worked with loads of different media. A skill that I think I have developed most is collage and working with shape in general, as this is not something I would normally do when image making – I draw with lines so it was really fun to work with shape as it forced me into a new way of working – which influenced art I made later on in the module (particularly my digital composition piece). I particularly enjoyed doing collage when it included different textures as I found this made images more interesting to look at, texture is definitely something I will be exploring further. I have been able to draw from life and from reference a lot quicker, and I’m not as apprehensive to mess up a drawing and just do another (as previously I probably would have spent hours erasing and working back into an image to attempt to make it right)

2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice? I’ve found pretty much everything I learned this module valuable. I think line of sight is one of the most valuable principles I have learned, as it’s important when thinking about the composition of a piece. I found it difficult to create an image solely thinking about the line of sight but when I was drawing my ‘do something good’ image I found myself thinking more about how the background of skate park ramps would lead to the focal point of the image, and I know that I will be able to transfer this knowledge to other tasks. Another principle I’ve found useful is the realisation that drawing from reference does not have to mean recreating a photograph/image exactly but capturing some essence of that image whether it be the pose of a model or the atmosphere of the image. This seems like something simple but after so many years of secondary school art classes where I’ve been told to copy pictures it’s been a revolutionary concept to me. I think this allowed my drawings to be more free as when drawing from reference I wouldn’t be trying to get the image exactly perfect I would be focusing more on the task of thinking about the line quality or shapes etc.

3. What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission you capitalise on these?

I've been pretty good at breaking out of my comfort zone because this module was more about drawing and making mistakes and trying new things than making a polished final piece. I particularly think my use of shape has developed greatly in this module, which is most demonstrated in my 'Dragula' poster where I really got into using shape and collage to create a piece. The poster is one of the best pieces I've ever done and I'm super proud of it as I have NEVER liked doing collage. This module has given me the chance to just improve on my drawing skills and my understanding of key principles of image making. I think throughout my sketchbook the improvements are clear. I have also been able to keep pretty up to date with my blogging throughout the module, I have not left them all until the last minute.

4. What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future?

Although I did all of the tasks I definitely think there could be a higher quantity of work. There was a lot of room for experimentation that I don’t think I took advantage of to the fullest, though I have experimented and learned a lot from this module. In the future I will try to fully exhaust my ideas visually with sketches, experiments, different media etc. and I will try new things even if I think they will turn out unsuccessfully. Again my time management has not been the best during this module but I am working on this by using a diary and calendar to plan and keep track of my time.

5. In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)? The knowledge of compositional elements; depth, frame, line of sight etc has really made me able to focus on these in other people's work which is really useful in pin-pointing exactly what makes the image successful/appealing to me. This has also helped me in the planning process of my own work, as I can analyse these elements within my roughs to find which one(s) should be pursued. I think this module has helped also to decode the intent of the artist by looking at different formal elements, such as composition or line quality. The tasks within the session helped to look at images with these things in mind so I can continue to do this with works outside of visual language.  6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor 1 2 3 4 5 Attendance x Punctuality x Motivation x Commitment x Quantity of work produced x Quality of work produced x Contribution to the group x The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Do Something Good

 Two Colour Screenprint based on: Do something Good

I've been feeling pretty summery so I decided that having some kind of refreshing drink in the sun with your 'gal pal' was doing something good.

I did a couple of roughs just thinking about how the two characters would be interacting. From here I started thinking a bit more about their positioning. Initially they were just apart from each other talking but I saw it looked a little as if one was offering some of their drink to the other, so I decided to roll with this as it would give a bit more story to the characters - giving a romantic edge to them. 

I drew some skate park backgrounds, the ramps helped with my line of sight as the shape would lead the viewer inwards to the couple. Each time I did a sketch the girls ended up getting smaller and smaller on the page, I knew they needed to be much bigger to make an impact. 

I sketched and lined the characters with traditional media and then scanned it into photoshop to add colour and the background. When I do two colour screenprints I always do this process of doing all the colour and then making two layers -one for each colour and turning them black in a duplicate file to create my positives. This may not be the most effective way but it's how I get my head around doing it best. 

I decided to keep the background minimal - just shape and no lines as I thought it might detract from the main feature of the girls. 

I knew I wanted to work with a pastel pink, I decided to go with a blue/turquoise too as this would allow me to have three colours in my print. Pink, Blue and purple where the two would overlap, so I could make the outlines darker. 

We were printing in pairs which made the process a bit difficult as the squeegie was pretty big and difficult for a tiny person like me to flood and print alone. We ended up having both of us do it at the same time to get the right amount of pressure to create a good print.

I had some mishaps with my printing, involving my screen not being screwed in properly - causing some mis-registration to happen. I only ended up getting one really good print but I am very pleased with that one print. I'm particularly pleased with the colour merging! It came out exactly how I intended. 

Visual Language: Line of Sight / Transport

For the mode of transport I decided on a bus, I wanted to focus in on the stairs of double decker busses. My roughs are still sketchy but I am trying to block out important shapes more than wispy lines. 

I realised fairly early on that I needed some reference images as I had no idea how the stairs of a bus worked, or the hole in the top floor where they emerge looked like but once I had the references the images were much easier to rough out. 

I had wanted to draw someone appearing on the top floor, having come up the stairs. The perspective of the aisle and passengers looking at the person would create the line of sight. However while I was drawing my roughs I found the image of someone walking up the stairs (seen from the lower floor) had a more interesting and clear line of sight. As it led from the passenger stood up, to the person on the stairs, to the mysterious foot disappearing. 

The final image had to be black white and one other colour. I chose to use a dark blue as I wanted it to look like a dreary british day, the use of watercolour helped make the scenery look extra wet too. Although I am happy with my image I think I could have limited my use of the colour here to draw more attention to the line of sight, or added more black shadows to break it up more. I had thought about adding an extra person at the front of the bus, buying a ticket but in my roughs I found this detracted from the main focus of the people going up the stairs so I did not include them. I feel that the line of sight in my image is strong as the eye is lead from the foreground passenger, up to the people on the stairs. Though I did find it a little difficult to create an image while thinking 'this has to have a line of sight'. I feel like a lot of the time a line of sight is created through other compositional choices rather than consciously thinking 'ah yes line of sight'. Despite this I think I will definitely keep line of sight in mind when creating future images. 

Visual Language: Depth // Three Figures

I really enjoyed doing this task! I decided to relate this back to my horror movie theme as I thought Van Helsing and the Harpies would make a really interesting composition - particularly as the harpies can fly so there's more choice of where to place them in the image, and more possible angles to view from.

I wanted the image to look as if the harpies are swooping down on the Van Helsing- type character. I did like the look of a birds eye view, looking down at the character and the backs of the harpies but I thought the view from behind the V.H charachter looking up at the sky was more dramatic. By having this character large on the page there is a lot of overlap with the other two figures, creating a greater sense of depth. 

The image looked best from a low angle - at the characters feet looking upwards. I struggled to draw this so I laid down on the floor and got Olivia to pose for me so I could get a better idea of the perspective. (above is my sketch of Olivia which I added a fancy hat to) 

This was my final rough for the piece. It was suggested that if I'm going for a fantasy look the wings and flowing hair should be completely over the top and spanning the complete width of the page rather than stopping just shy of the edge. Also now I had the basic idea I should work on getting the positioning of VH right on the final piece and working the other figures around that. This was pretty good advice as some of the time I do get caught up trying to get composition spot on in my roughs when it would make more sense to have an idea and work with it on the final image as I can always change stuff while I'm doing it or go back to sketching something I'm not sure about. 

Working with coloured pencil at an A3 scale was pretty difficult (and very time consuming) though I do enjoy the range of tones and textures I was able to use with this medium. This piece was really frustrating, the more I added to it the more it looked like really bad fantasy art you'd find on a teenage boy, who's into Metal's myspace page but I'd gone so far I had to stick with it until the end. I think the depth in this image has been pretty successful, which was the point of this task anyway. The overlapping and sizing of the different characters makes it obvious that they are further back in the image (and not just very small). I did add some texture to the floor that suggests depth too but I do not think this is necessary and could definitely have been executed better! On the whole I can't tell how successful this image is, on one hand it's kind of busy and tacky but I kind of still like it never-the-less. Classic horror is pretty busy and tacky anyway.  

Visual Language: Composition avec Elephant

This was one of my least favourite tasks, though I have gotten some good feedback on my roughs and how to improve them.

I sketch things out using a lot of wispy lines and it has been suggested that it would be more beneficial to my rough-making to try and plan more with pure shape instead. This was helpful feedback as I find myself that a lot of my roughs are unrecognisable and messy due to my sketchy planning.

I should also redraw the same composition a few times - perhaps with subtle differences to explore all the options I have before creating a final image. Another point brought up was to compare measurements of the rough with the final image so that image stays in the same proportions.

I don't like much about my final image, I think the only good part is the butterfly coming in from the corner. I was really bad with the inks, though I do like the areas of tone I've been able to include - I really would like to try more ink-based work.