Group: Screen Printing/Final Outcome

 I wasn't overly happy with the final out come mainly due to colour choice. We went with red and yellow so as to represent the mustard and ketchup given that it was a story about hot dogs. However I felt that the yellow would be two weak when put against red and white. I think this is true of our final outcome with parts that were meant to be in orange being lost completely as the red simply over powers the yellow.

 However I did really like the double page spread of the child with a hot dog due to the naivety of its style which has really helped convey the sense of childlike excitement in the scene.
Further more, although I'm not a massive fan of my final image, I do like the rough texture the chino graph pencil has given to it.

Although it was the first time I had screen printed I found the process highly enjoyable and relatively easy to pick up although I realise it takes some time to fully perfect. Like previous printing that I've worked with before such as mono, lino and etching I like the fact that you have certain inherent restrictions that are unique to the particular process. Particular I like the fact that you are forced to both problem solve and take risks in order to bend these parameters which often leads to highly original and intriguing out comes. Therefore I hope to make regular use of the print facilities in my next projects.

Group Work: Image development

After much deliberation we finally came up with a narrative depicting the purchase of a hot dog. I was given the task of drawing a simple scene showing hot dogs cooking on a grill. Although it was a relatively boring image it was necessary to the story and I was happy to see whether or not I could add some interest to it.
I thought about different ways the colours would act with each other given the restrictions faced whilst screen printing( ie 2 colours. Therefore I focussed on using texture and pattern to make the most of both the overlay of colour and negative background space.

In the end I went for the third image down as I felt it needed the presence of smoke so as to be a more accurate representation of the cooking process and try and convey the smells that were present to the viewer. 

However in hindsight I think this was over complicated and quite difficult to read. To over come this I removed the orange grill the sausages were on leaving them instead sitting on negative space so as to simplify the image.

Group work continued: Deciding upon a narrative

In contrast to the previous day of fun, actually deciding upon and developing a narrative was far more difficult. This was for two main reasons.
Firstly as discussed in the last post I, as well as other members were under whelmed by our experiences of the day before and nothing in  particular stood out as an amazing, engaging and interesting narrative. This led to some embellished versions of experiences from the day before such as pigeons descending upon and engulfing a man, a statue coming to life as well as more mundane such as getting a drink at a bar and buying a hot dog.
The second reason for the difficulty was that, given that there was no stand out story it was hard for everyone to agree on one story. There was a tie between the pigeon story and that of the hot dog and in the end we went with the hot dogs as it appeared a lot of the year group was already creating narratives that revolved around pigeons.

Visual Narratives Introduction: Group Work

We were put into small groups and given the task of going out into the city of Leeds in order to document what we see around and try and stumble across any number of unexpected stories and experiences. A short list of 20 incredible tasks was given to us to complete so as to try and speed up this process. In response to this we would then have to produce a short visual narrative presented in the format of a screen printed hot dog book which would be produced together as a group.
Bellow is a collection of the more significant moments of the day.

Hot dogs from the German market. Along with mustard and ketchup 'teets'.

Multiple photos of us posing in front of statues whilst pretending to be them. Strangely enough the couple pictured below stopped to comment on how beautiful I looked whilst posing in front of the Henry Moore statue outside of the Leeds City Art Gallery which I guess is nice to hear.

Scarf left on railing with signs saying not lost but intended to be used by those in need. Noticed this type of thing is becoming more common as I have seen a fair few scarfs and even umbrellas left around Sheffield during cold and wet weather.

Leeds has an abundance of both pigeons and creepy dolls. The former of which tried to swarm Kieran whilst he so kindly fed them.

As well as doll's, I also find wigs and manikins insanely creepy. Going into a wig shop was somewhat surreal and unnerving to me and reminded me of that terrifying seen in the return to oz with rows upon rows of heads stolen by the evil queen.

Molly and Hayley sporting a pair of fabulous wigs, note wigs lose much of their creepiness when on the head of a real person.

                                                     

Pound items bought from the market and posed in various places. The man in the top picture is far too grumpy for someone playing an accordion.

Photo of us all trying various drinks, some of which were nice, other's such as the house speciality far stranger.

Encountered various strange foods in the Asian super market with these two being the highlights. The braised eel for the packaging and the vacuum packed ducks stomachs for the pure feeling of repulsion they inspire within you when looking at them. Unfortunately I have to admit I wasn't brave enough to try either of them.

Although the day was fun actually finding an interesting story proved very difficult. When looking back upon the highlights of the day nothing strikes me as being overly interesting or engaging. In particular throughout the day it proved hard to get people to fully engage with us or, if they did it didn't always result in any particularly interesting information being given. However I do see that the main purpose of this task was simply to get us to observe, record and respond to the world around which I realise is something that is invaluable to anyone hoping to be a creative practioner.

Drawing with Shape

The main positive of drawing with shape is that you can produce imagery that is both minimal and dynamic in it's appearance. This is particularly useful when applied to commercial work/functional image making.
Some would argue that tone and personality can be lost through this approach to image making due to the fact that it can result in colder, graphic looking imagery. However I don't think this is necessarily the case due to the fact that many established practitioners who create shape driven work produce imagery that is charming, emotive and easily recognisable as there own.

       
                           ( Olimpia Zagnoli )

    
                          ( Eleni Kalkoti )                                        

This is often achieved through use of texture, even if only subtlety, as well as being playful with composition, particularity with regards to perspective and character interaction. Both of these methods are easily applied to shape driven drawing due to its minimal nature which arguably allows you to be more free in regards to process.
Eleni Kalkoti and Olimpia Zagnolia can both be seen as examples of this and subsequently I have grown a deep admiration for them as practitioners and absolutely love their work. This is mainly due to the wacky inventiveness that both apply to their images which seem highly dynamic yet easily readable and, when de constructed, are relatively simple. I also find it very interesting that they are both able to achieve this even though one produces very flat uniform imagery and the other's is full of texture. Something to bear in mind when responding to this brief.
Below is Geoff Mcfettridge, king of shape based imagery ( in my opinion) , whom I've already discussed in detail before but had to be included in this post seeing as it is all about shape.


                   
Out of my final images produced for this task (first four images below) I personally like the green and black one the most. In particular I like how the more complex form of the hat sitting within the circle contrasts with the simplicity of the other shapes used. I also like how the textured/patterned shapes such as the lips and top sit next to the flatter parts of the image.
 I tried to apply these when creating the yellow and blue images however I feel they haven't worked as well mainly due to bad use of tone. For example on the yellow image the right hand has become lost in the shirt due to the grey ink wash I used being too dark. In much the same way the face in the mirror doesn't contrast well enough against it's back drop due to the pale blue I have used.

However what I do like about all three of these is just how minimal I have been when producing them as I set myself the challenge of trying to use as few shapes as possible. I think these has created some ok imagery although, as expected it is a little flat and in future I could take into account depth of field when approaching shape driven imagery.                                              

In response to this though I tried to add a fore, mid and back ground to the image bellow. This has worked reasonably well however it still feels rather static although this is probably due to the boring stance and face on perspective of the depicted figure.

In contrast to the first images I produced a variety of images within my sketchbook (the best of which are pictured above) that were more complex in there construction and had a much heavier use of texture. This was created in a variety of different ways such as ink wash, paint, charcoal, pastel and paper from magazines/newspapers. Although I don't like these images as much, as discussed at the start of this post, the heavy use of texture definitely does add I deeper level of personality and charm to the images.

Out of everything I produced for this brief this image of a hunched women in my sketchbook was my favourite. This is due to its simple construction and lack of distinctive facial features which I feel give it a ambiguous and almost unsettling feel. Furthermore I love how the dominate shape of the black shall interacts with both the page it is sat on and the white/ink washed hands and face.

Line:Tone,Mark and Pattern

For this task we looked how line can be used in conjunction with tone, mark and pattern to one, describe the contours of an image but also show how light behaves on a three dimensional form.


When looking at different artists I was drawn to the way in which the same process of mark making can produce entirely different results. These pieces by Moebius (above) and Mikkell Sommer (below) both use a similar method of basic line/hatching to describe light. However one is much more considered and refined making for a very complex image full of depth and detail whereas the other is a lot rougher in application creating a much more naive final out come that is strongly based around the shape of the subject matter.
The piece by Moebius (along with much if not all of his work) I found particularly mind blowing in that there is so much information within the image yet it is still highly legible/easy to pick out what is going on due to how he has used tone/mark making to break the image down into easily discernible levels of depth. This is something I struggle tremendously with and really need to work on.

I also thought there were a lot of lessons to be learned from Raymond Lamstra's work that could be employed within my own image making. This is due to the fact that his work is rooted in character and to a certain extent shape. However he then uses a really in depth understanding of light coupled with a highly skilled application of line/tone to make what would be fairly simplistic images look immensely detailed and full of depth. 

Although enjoyable , I found this task for the most part highly challenging and in the end frustrating as I would say that successfully describing light to add depth to an image is one of my weakest points when it comes to image making.

This task served to reiterate the importance of repeat drawing not just for refinement of the final outcome but also for exploration of process. In the above images I was able to create an array of different outcomes from the same reference by using a variety of different media/processes as well as focusing on different aspects of the image.

I wasn't massively happy with this series of images as I felt they were overly flat and almost graphic in appearance which seemed to defeat the purpose of the task. This could be simply a result of the way in which I create images however it is something I need to address as lack of depth is a major weakness of mine.

The images that I was happier with were those that explored the interaction of shape and negative space as well texture. I'm really interested in exploring the relation ship between these messy and anarchic textures created with dry brush and charcoal and my examples of more graphic approaches to drawing. They both seem at odds with each other and therefore I feel I could combine them to make some interesting work.

Finally I set myself a personal project of creating some 'finished' images in response to what I produced within my sketchbook. 

This resulted in the creation of several A2 drawings. This was so as to improve how I development and refine my ideas/images and get used to working within the constraints of a given format so as to get a grip on what works in terms of composition. 

A major pitfall of these images is still the lack of depth to them. I really need to start considering fore,mid and background when putting together my images to try and solve this problem that is consistently appearing within my work. Furthermore I feel the poor use of lighting in the left image has let it down dramatically.

However what I do like about them is that, although they weren't produced directly from reference images, I feel they have captured the energy and essence of the subjects depicted within the book African Gods which I looked at heavily through this brief. This shows how reference imagery can be used to inform your images and give them some real world grounding/authenticity rather than simply be used to create carbon copies of photos.