Message & Meaning

In this lecture, we learnt how to create a message behind an art piece. 

"Meaning is what the source/ sender expresses." 

From this, we have learnt to visualise the communication from the piece to the receiver's point of view. This has helped me to make sure that my work has a clear message, and is easy for the viewer to understand the link between my proposal and final piece. 

"Is the content complicated, controversial or private?" 

I find myself asking this question a lot, especially when creating a piece of art work. I have to make sure that there is a clear message/meaning behind each piece of work. 

Map Illustrations

When doing some artist research, I came across an artist named Emily Garfield. I love her style of drawing, and it really inspired me to experiment in a similar style.

Her main pieces of work are illustrated maps, I love the simplicity of her pieces, she uses very minimal colours and lines, but I love how each piece is so delicate and unique. 

In this piece, I decided to draw inside of the silhouette to represent the thoughts in someone's mind, and how each person's mind is complicated and unique. I chose to use vibrant colours to reflect the complication of our thoughts and imagination. And even though Emily Garfield kept to very basic colours, I found that the vibrant colours in this piece really represents a person's mind. I also feel like this is represented with the use of various shapes within the silhouette. 

In this piece, I created a very basic map illustration of Home (in Epsom, Surrey). Using a map of the centre of Epsom, I drew the basic outlines of roads, rivers and parks, and also included little illustrations of things found within the town (for example- church, trees/wildlife, lakes). I like this little illustration, as it represents home to me, and I also decided to write in nearby towns, which I have also grown up around. I took inspiration from Emily Garfield's pieces by using her simplistic lines and shapes, but again, I added colour just as an experiment, and to make it my own. 

Photoshop experiments

 Taking inspiration from Dan Mountfourd's photography pieces, I decided to experiment in this style of layering different images on Photoshop.
I am very pleased with the outcome, it creates a 'dream-like' sense in the piece due to the blurred effect of each image. I plan to use this technique throughout the rest of this project.
I chose to use portraits layered with either a landscape/ place, as I find that it relates well to the project, and almost reflects how a place can define a person, and how we're constantly being surrounded by different places, whether its somewhere you feel comfortable or not.

In this image, I chose to use a portrait of my sister mixed with an image of a wave. I did this because it is where she feels comfortable, she loves water and the sea. I feel like this image reflects her love for the sea, and almost shows her thoughts, or even day-dreams about being there.

In this image, I made a combination of an image of The Natural History Museum in London, and an image of Matt in front of a tank of jellyfish. I really like the outcome, it represents a great day in London that we had this year.
To any other person, it may seem like a strange image, but I personally love the way the jellyfish are floating in the sky, it creates a very unexpected surreal image.

I am definitely planning to use this technique again, I love the final outcome of these pieces, and I feel that it reflects my initial idea of dreams/nightmares very well, as they have a surreal feeling about them, due to the merge of the images.
To Develop this experiment, I plan to try mixing in some illustrations or even some typography, just to create a unique mixed media piece.

CC Process (InDesign)

In our first InDesign session, we were asked to re-create these posters.
I found this task very helpful, and it helped me to learn different techniques on InDesign.
Firstly, we created a grid to help us when creating the block shapes, and it kept the text all aligned and neat.
I really enjoyed doing this task, as it allowed me to go at my own pace and learn what each tool does on InDesign.

InDesign is new to me, and this task has taught me how to use it throughout my work, and I have used it since these tasks.

During Workshop week, I attended an InDesign catchup session. In this session, we re-created another piece.
Again, we started with a grid, which helped keep everything in place and match up to the original piece which we were re-creating.
Then, to create the line of text along the left side, I created the shape I wanted, then using the 'type on path' tool, it allows you to write along any shape outline.
To create the title, I wrote out the title in a normal text box. Then, to move the letters around, I used the 'baseline shift' tool, which creates a gap between each line of text.
Then to create a gap between each letter, I used the 'tracking' tool. This allowed me to place the letters around the line of text on the left hand side.
The text on the write hand side was very simple, I created a text box and used the 'fill with placeholder text' option, this filled it in with random text to fill up the whole space.
To create the silhouette of the cat, I found an image using google. Then using Adobe Illustrator, I selected the image, and from the object menu, I selected 'live trace' and then finally selected 'tracing options' and 'trace'. This creates a silhouette of any image.
From this silhouette image, I copied and pasted it into all of the fall stops of the text on the right- hand side. This adds an extra bit of decoration to the piece.
I really enjoyed this task, it taught me even more tools to use through InDesign, and it has allowed me to create a piece of work which I'm not used to.

Approaches to Research

At the beginning of this seminar we did a Question & Answer activity, where we had to think of an everyday object, and come up with a few Yes/No questions to ask our partner, to try and figure out their object.
This activity was a lot harder than expected, it took a long time to figure out each others objects. This was because we could only use Yes/No questions, which has taught me to explain my answers throughout this project, rather than answering a question with a simple Yes/No. It is very limiting when asking very basic questions, it made you want to ask more detailed questions which would give you the answer in a shorter amount of time with a better description of the answer.

Then we discussed the word Parallax. 
"When the subject stays the same, but appears different with an altered perspective."

This taught me to start with a basic idea and expand on that, with words, phrases, images, sketches... anything which helps you to generate ideas. This lets you look at it in a different way, allowing you to create more unique ideas. And it doesn't have to be using a simple mind map, we could use mood boards to portray more imagery, which I find more helpful when trying develop my work.

How to have an Idea

In this lecture, we learnt various ways to generate ideas, and how to evaluate and annotate our work in the best way.

"The generation, development and transformation of ideas that are novel and useful for solving a problem= creativity."
This is a simple way to remind yourself to develop your work/research to help stay creative and produce a better final outcome.

I found this lecture very useful, as usually I only use mind maps to generate ideas. This helped me to realise that changing the structure/layout helps me to generate more creative/interesting ideas, as it allows you to look at it from a different angle.

DISCOVER

DEFINE

DEVELOP

DELIVER

After this lecture, I have found myself referring back to this. It really helps when annotating my research, especially artist research. Now, I would usually Discover an artist off of Pinterest, then Define what I like about the artist and their work, then I would carry on to find similar artists to allow my work to Develop. Finally, it helps me to Deliver a good understanding of where my research will lead to.

I really like to question myself when doing research, I find it helps me to improve my work, as it helps me to look at my work from a different angle/ point of view. It also helps when I create some experiments, I'm constantly looking to develop my pieces, so I find myself writing questioning the piece to see how I can improve, does it have meaning, what can I do to make it unique?

When making lists, I realise it can be daunting to look at a long list of words. So, this lecture helped me to realise that there are other ways to create lists which make them easier to read and look through.
-Location
-Alphabetical
-Time
-Category
-Hierachy

Image Triangulation

When doing my artist research for this project, I discovered two artists who used this technique with geometric/triangular patterns within their artwork.
Those two artists are Aldo Tolino and Lucas Simoés.
I loved the modern feel it adds to the image, and it creates an 'out of focus' feel to the portrait, its just a simple way to modify the image.

I created this effect using an IMAGE TRIANGULATION EXPERIMENTATION website.
(https://snorpey.github.io/triangulation/)
It allows you to edit levels of:
- blur
- accuracy
- point rate
- point count

I experimented with it and got some interesting outcomes.


Using this image, I edited it a few times through this website, and i experimented with different levels of blur and accuracy.

I did the same again with this image, although I decided to experiment with changing the levels of point rate and count. It changed the image dramatically and created two very different outcomes.
As you can see, the image on the left is a lot more detailed and accurate when compared to the original image, this is due to creating a higher level of point rate.  Whereas the image on the right has fewer amounts of shapes within the portrait due to a lower level of point count/rate.

Notes Journal

For this project, I decided to keep a journal filled with my own personal notes taken from lectures, seminars, artist research.. etc.

I use this journal to help me throughout the project, it allows me to read my initial reaction to artists' work or even to take down notes which I think will help me in the future.
I like to use this journal to plan out my ideas, and ask myself questions based on what I'd like to complete next.


For example on this page, I wrote down my initial reaction to 'Blendscapes', an art project created by Oriol Angrily Jordá. I wrote down a list of questions, to see if I can discover the meaning behind the artwork. This works for me, as it helps me to start annotating in a Question and Answer form.







I often write myself 'TO DO' lists, I find this easiest when setting myself tasks to complete, and its a simple way for me to keep on track of what I need to complete.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

As a class, we visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
I have never visited the sculpture park before, so it was a great chance for me to get some inspiration and discover some new artists and art forms.

I really liked this piece. I have seen the poppy installation at the Tower of London, so for me it was very interesting to see the poppies in a new and completely different location. It represents how the place may not necessarily affect the purpose of the piece. It shows that wherever it is, people will appreciate it and its meaning.






I've always been inspired by Rob Ryan's work, I love his use of Typography and cut-outs. Its so delicate and neat, and it really shows that he has taken his time when creating these pieces. I love that even though each one is very similar (in style), each one has a different meaning and tells a different story.

I enjoyed seeing the sculptures which were hidden away. For example, we found this bridge, just simply from walking around the park and coming across it. I like that the typography is simple yet effective.

This Iron Tree really stood out to me. I love the colouring of the iron, it really reflects the texture of an actual tree, even though it has a completely different texture to touch. Its been put together so well, and has a lot of detail on the surface, simple markings make it even more realistic.

People.

I have always struggled to draw people, especially when moving.
I'm constantly practising and trying different techniques.

In the last couple of weeks, i've drawn a few people in different locations.


This image was drawn using a black pencil, I like this drawing as it isn't perfect and has a few lines out of place, it almost shows the movement of her hair and face.





In this drawing, I chose to draw onto coloured paper, to allow me to experiment with drawing in white. I really enjoyed drawing the highlights in the image rather than shading and shadows of the person.

Then, I decided to draw a person using this 'sketchy' technique. I enjoyed the quick way of drawing this, it allows you to shade as well as outlining the figure in a very quick method.

Interior Drawing

After doing Exterior Location drawing, we were then asked to do some interior drawings.

I sat in the same spot and drew the space surrounding me.
Again, I only gave myself roughly 10 minutes to draw these spaces. I found this method to be successful last time, and I also enjoy this 'messy' style of drawing, it feels a lot more natural and can create some interesting mistakes.

When drawing these images, I sat on the floor, which gives the images an interesting view point, and i think it comes across in the images that I was looking up to draw the space.

Location Drawing

Throughout this project, we've been asked to photograph and draw our surroundings. 
We started off with exterior space. I gave myself 10 minutes to draw each image, just to see which part of the space I drew in the most detail. I had an interesting outcome, as it made me realise which part I found most interesting and which I take the most notice of.

For example, in this image, I spent most of my time putting detail into all the objects in the foreground, and spent less time on the actual buildings behind. I chose to do this because I found the space very old fashioned, especially with the old building and old phone box. This little space isn't fitting with the rest of the modern buildings surrounding it, which is why I focused on the detail on the smaller objects, to hide the modern space around it.


Then, I moved to Huddersfield train station. The statue is the main focus, it stands out in the whole space. I chose to do very little detail on the train station in this piece, just to allow the statue to stand out, much like it does in person.





I'm very interested in typography, so for this piece I chose to only illustrate words that surrounded me in that space. Which included; road signs, shop names..etc.

Mindmapping and Note taking

I always struggle to get started on a new project. So whenever I feel uninspired or unmotivated, I start with a key word in the middle of a page and mind map around it. It helps me to link and associate words together, and helps my ideas flow.

The next step after mind mapping would be to select a theme found through the mind map and take notes on that specific subject. This allows me to research the topic and make little notes/reminders to myself to help me research further into that topic.

For example, this project brief is ‘Sense of Place’. I started off with a very broad mind map, noting down any words which link with Sense of Place, including; Location, place, senses.. etc. 

From this I created another mind map focusing on the topic of ‘Place’. Again, I linked more words, and discovered the idea of Nightmares and Dreams. Which helped me to discover a completely new angle on ‘Sense of Place’. This then started my inspiration for the beginning stages of research.

Future Genealogies: If Cats and Dogs could talk?

In our first Seminar, we were asked to pick a topic to discuss. This was our chosen topic, as a group we decided to create some unrealistic ideas, to make it more humorous and interesting.
It includes products which animals would use if they could talk, for example- breath spray, doggie soothers, chimmy choo toy… etc.