Project Report

Statement of Intent

(includes form and self formatted proposal)

Self Portrait

Summative Post 4

As I’ve frequently highlighted in this blog, I have felt time and again this year that, despite the successes I’ve made with my practice this year, more could be done to develop my visual communication.

Therefore I wanted my final major brief to have a lot of conceptual depth and allow communicate themes, ideas and concepts in a concise and effective manner.

Dune

My proposed Dune project naturally seems like the perfect opportunity for me to achieve this things as well further steer my practice into the area of the creative industry I’m interested in; this time in regards to adult publishing and editorial.

Although in my statement of intent I’ve highlighted that I want this to loosely be a Folio Society style brief, this is more in regards to the context of creating a cover image and 4 inner images from than creating a series of full bleed images cinematic images. This is because I want to use this project as an opportunity explore and communicate the key themes of Dune rather simply illustrate what happens within it.

Conceptual Development

Despite this I still wanted there to be a sense of narrative within my work and found the work of contemporary illustrators Blex Bolex and Icnonri highly informative. This is because both of their practices have a very strong sense of narrative that is achieved through more abstract compositional methods that aren’t often associated with narrative image making. In my opinion this results in a much more immersive series of images that are actually much stronger in evoking a sense of narrative. This is something which I have tried to achieve with my Dune brief.

Alex Bolex

Iconori

Conceptually I was mainly interested in exploring the two rival families within Dune; the protagonist Attreides family as well as the antagonistic Harkonens. This is because I feel both families have very strong recurring themes and motifs attached to them through out the book which would allow me to create the more abstract narrative image which I desired.

In the case of the Attreides family, this project has been about trying to visually show Paul’s prescience, particularly its ominous and often violent predictions that he is constantly trying to avoid but feels powerless to stop. In contrast to this the Harkonens are all about blind conquest and stopping at nothing to eliminate their adversaries. Therefore I felt these two conflicting concepts would help create a dynamic, tense yet unified set of final images.

Aesthetically I wanted to try and avoid sci-fi clichés and therefore was drawn to the work of Daniel Mroz. Although operating in the realm of science fiction, much of his work was produced  between 1950 and 1970 before a lot of the genre current tropes had established themselves. In particular I like how the work is highly influenced by highly traditional illustration often associated with earlier time periods such as the 1800s.

Daniel Mroz

Final Images/ Publication

I think that the final images that I produced effectively incorporate the developments I have made through this year and are an example of the visual language I am currently implementing. Furthermore I feel that they have effectively achieved the conceptually and communicative depth that I feel my earlier briefs were lacking.

I think I have also very carefully considered context here given that I decided some of my images would form a fold out publication where as others would form editioned art prints.

This was so as to best capitalise on what I had learnt through my editions brief as well as finally, and I think quite effectively, combine the skills I have leant through my freelance commercial design work with my illustration practice.

In hindsight my only issue with this is that I didn’t give enough time or consideration to production methods. Although I have printed out a mock up, I should have realised that to effectively fold up the final product would have had to be on much thinner stock and therefore would need a print process, such as offset lithography or risograph, that would better sit on the paper.

Summative Post 3

Given that this is now over half way through the year, I think that I really need to start thinking about where I want my practice to sit within the creative industry and within what context I want it to exist. Therefore I think my subsequent briefs really need to focus in on the areas of the industry, music and adult publishing, that I highlighted within my statement of intent.

Although I have touched upon these in previous briefs, ie Don’t Look Now and Mono No Aware, I think I could do more to better position my work within these fields.

Mutant Beat Dance

Initially I was going to undertake the Secret Sevens brief given that it would allow to respond to music in a very direct manner which would require the careful consideration of context ie a 7” record sleeve.

Unfortunately I wasn’t particularly excited by the songs that were chosen this year and wasn’t feeling particularly inspired by them. Furthermore, my tutor highlighted the fact that, even though I want gear my work towards the music industry, I need to much more carefully consider context. Ie, if I’m mainly interested in the independent electronic music scene, how much am I actually going to gain from a much more generalised brief like Secret Sevens?

With all this taken into consideration I decided to undertake my own, alternative brief. This would be the same concept as Secret Sevens but responding to the music produced by the recording duo: Mutant Beat Dance. This would allow me to better explore image making in response to the specific area of the music industry that I was interested in.

Specifically I wanted this project to explore how lo-fi aesthetics can be explored in a way that feels considered and refined. This is due to the fact that I feel this is a juxtaposition that often exist within independent electronic music and therefore something I feel my work should reflect.

The work of artists working for small, D.I.Y labels formed the main basis of the contextual research for this project. I’m particularly drawn to Will Bankhead’s work for The Trilogy Tapes label due to how he combines illustrative elements, photography, typography and found imagery in a way that, on the surface looks very sophisticated but is in reality using a lot of simple and lo-fi processes.

Will Bankhead

However aesthetically I was also informed by the work of Ben Zeouller and Kazumasa Nagai. In particular I was interested in their reductive, playful and often unrepresentative depictions of forms and figures and how they feel very playful and energetic yet also very considered and solid.

Kazumasa Nagai

Ben Zeouller

Conceptually my main ideas focused on the simple but I feel, effective, motifs of both a mutant dancer and a mutated beat by which I fused the visualisation of sound I had explored within Cop 3 with scientific imagery of microscopic cells.

Final Thoughts

I think this project was highly effective in communicating the music in question and I was particularly happy with the variation of final images I mad. Furthermore I think this was my most successful attempt yet in merging analogue and digital as well as drawn and collaged elements within my compositions.

Although contextually I think this has really helped me to evaluate my practice particularly in regards to wear I want it to fit and what I want to respond to, as mentioned earlier in the blog I feel like I need to do more to develop more specific and refined communicative skills. This is something which I feel would be achieved by undertaking a project, such as the Dune one outlined in my proposal, that has more conceptual depth. 

Summative Post 2

Thought experiment

With the problems I was initially reflecting on the state of my practice, my thought experiment can be seen as a reactionary piece in response to the work I had previously been producing.

I wanted to create something much more direct in its communication of content and in a way that better merges analogue and digital image making techniques. The latter point is something that I have been trying to achieve since first year and that at the moment I feel it still needs a lot of work to be effectively achieved.

The main concept of the image was the fear that over thinking things is often my biggest weakness, both within my practice and life in general. Therefore I used the simple metaphor a broken light bulb/head to simply and effectively communicate this.

I was really happy with my combinations of analogue textures, mainly graphite, print and paint that I’ve applied digitally to create a considered final image that still has the warmth and immediacy of the analogue processes I’ve explored despite being digital.

COP3

My work in Cop 3 took these musings even further and I feel has been a key turning point in the development of my practice. This is due to how, much like my thought experiment, it was produced mainly as a reaction to my own dissatisfaction with the current state of my practice and a desire to work in a more experimental manner that was more informed by my subject matter than simply trying to fit my previous aesthetic around a concept.

Editions

I felt like the Editions brief would be a good opportunity to further push and explore the developments I changes to my practice that I had undergone in Cop 3. I wanted to keep the concept quite loose so that I could better focus on process and developing a unique and personal visual language rather than getting too bogged down in content.

Therefore I chose explore recurring motifs and imagery of early cultures, religion and mythology, taking particular interest in those images and motifs that reappear across different time periods and cultures.

Given that much of Cop 3 work was collage based, I wanted to use this brief to explore how I merge my own drawings with found imagery and scanned textures to create unified final pieces in which it is hard to tell what is drawn and what is collaged.

I also used it as an opportunity to further explore print given that my images would ultimately be forming part of my solo exhibition, Iconoclasm, in Liverpool. Therefore I really questioned what imagery is best enhanced by the process of screen printing and how this would translate into an exhibition. Therefore much of the imagery was very bold and carefully composed using negative space and the subtle edition of colour to optimise how it would be viewed; large scale within a gallery setting.

Final Thoughts

Overall I was really happy with these images, particularly how they came together to form a cohesive and powerful exhibition. Here I think my careful consideration of the context has really helped optimise my process and ultimately the effectiveness of my final images.

However, given how open ended and conceptually loose this project was, I feel like going into the rest of the year I will need to focus on briefs that have more of an emphasis on the communication of specific content. 

Summative Post 1

The main issue with the imagery that I have created in the first part of the year is that it feels far too safe and that I have settled into a process and aesthetic based on what was working in second year rather than continuing to evaluate and question this. This is primarily a traditional approach to creating imagery in a cinematic manner, using fore, mid and background elements coupled with other compositional methods such as lighting and negative space to create bold final images.

This was largely informed by my past work, particularly the About the Author brief, and my research into other image makers who work in this traditional manner such as Bill Bragg, Owen Davey and Jon McNaught.

Jon McNaught

Owen Davey

Bill Brag

Mono No Aware

Despite these issues there have been some successes, particularly within my Mono No Aware brief. My idea behind this project was to produce a series of folio society style images, ie full bleed, cinematic, narrative images, in response to the Japanese concept of Mono No Aware which loosely translates into a transient, gentle sadness in relation to the impermanence of things.

Problems

The initial two images I created I feel were mainly unsuccessful mainly due to colour and textural choices. I chose colours that were too punchy and vibrant that through of the subdued, wistful feeling I feel is evoked by the concept. Furthermore the images feel too clean and digital. This is partly due to a unconvincing use of texture masks and well as poor choice of drawing materials; the line feel too clean and therefore I could benefit from creating more visceral line work to reinforce the intended tone of the imagery.

Successes

The final three images greatly benefited from these initial reflections and I feel were a lot more successful. This is particularly due to a minimal and reductive colour palate that creates a more evocative set of final images. The choice of orange in particular helps communicate the idea of impermanence through suggesting dusk/sun set and its association with the passing of time. Furthermore, I decided to create my images using graphite stick which I feel has given the images a more visceral, analogue feel which I think better suites the concept as well as context of imagery for publishing.

Don’t Look Now

However, despite these successes with my Mono No Aware project, I think that this period has mainly resulted in unsuccessful imagery and personal dissatisfaction with my project. This is due to the fact that I have settled to readily for an aesthetic and at times feel restricted by it.

For example with the Don’t Look Now posters I think I was too concerned with making balanced compositions that fitted alongside my narrative work without considering what worked best in response to the context of night club posters. This is particularly true of the Volte-Face poster where I feel the Anime esque character and bold colour choice doesn’t accurately mirror the darkness and subtlety of the music in question.

Final Thoughts

I feel like the imagery feels overly static and bland and that I could have been far more experimental with it. This is going to be my manifesto for creating imagery for the rest of the year as currently I feel like I need to really evaluate and push my practice from where it is currently at.