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February 14th 2017
Brighton University Gallery: In between exhibit
I went to Brighton for a University interview and the whole area was rich with inspiration and art. I took snap shots of buildings and sceneries for inspiration and maybe experimentation work for my project. I saw a Cafe and Inn that was dedicated towards local artists where the sign read "Make, Art, Drink, Eat". There was also alot of graffiti around the area, There was one I didn't manage to capture as by the time I noticed it my phone had died. It was a mural on the side of a building of MLK (Martin Luther king jr, a civil rights activist well known for his "I have a dream" speach. 1929-168)
Once I arrived, the gallery was sectioned into safe for work (appropriate) and not safe for work ( some works that would upset some viewers) They were all works created by second-year university fine art students. The first section was mainly 2D works, oil paints, photo montage, portraits and culture representation. It was beautiful. I was inspired by the colours and materials used. After looking at all of them within the first section I sketched down some of the works in my sketchbook to document this trip and what really inspired me there.
After spending a lot of time within this section of the gallery I moved to the more inappropriate for large audiences part. and It's my favorite part of the gallery, it was filled with installations and 3D works. Most of it was questioning sexuality, and what's makes us human as the others were intentionally humorous for example. There was a work on display that was meant to represent skin on an endless roll that was made from latex and fake fur and another piece that was across from it that was a silk blanket/ fabric tied up in to demonstrate erotica. The other end of the area had a void installation that was made from pink fur and in front of that was a work where it simulated a statue peeing on the floor making a mess. To say the least, it was amusing to try and figure out the purpose behind these and to be entertained by the works themselves.
Sketchbook
I collected leaflets and cards of the show and location while doodling/ drawing works I personally liked within the exhibition. The end goal was to make the pages bright and beautiful and make it best represent the unfamiliarity feeling I had at Brighton and at the exhibit.
27th February 2017
I had only a really rough idea of what i wanted to make the story to be with this children narrative, I thought maybe a personified moon would be a good start point, the moon would either be a loving mother or a out of control child. Both very popular personalities within a narrative directed are children. I wanted to do a romance story that would have LGBTQ+ themes. But at the current in time of writing a story it seems difficult to place into a short story without development. I did some rough sketches of what the character would look like, my own personal style to stylized eyes, faces and noes to realistic. I also did a rough idea page out outfits and presentation.
The experimental ideas I have so far are over laying with either fabric or paper making it layered art and lineless.
28th February 2017
I reflected back on my sketches and rough ideas for the main character for this story and decided to focus on my one design of her being small and having powerful vibrant colours to draw attention to her. I brought that work into digital and drew her onto mspaint and I was overall happy with the outcome and thought I could cover all sides which would be handy/ useful when moving towards 3D work for the project. Once I had finished, I felt like the face wasn't as exciting and eye grabbing as it could have been and took the work back and used a sketched idea in my sketchbook and took it towards the digital work. It was mainly the doll like eyes and the simplicity of the face that added the personality to it.
2nd March 2017
Today I did work experience. I teach a class of all ages (mostly children this time) art and design/ drawing techniques and for this lesson I chose to do expressionism and make them do observational drawing while expressing themselves through line, color and texture. I gave them little instructions so the group had freedom and if they thought they had finished I would incur rage them to draw/ paint more. It was a fun lesson but the after math of their work I thought was interesting and took pictures with theirs and their parents permission and use it as inspiration for my project and artwork for the story. They used interesting shapes and colors. I also learnt from this experience how energetic children are and how thin their attention spans are and this will be difficult to try and grab with the story.
6th March 2017
Today I started thinking of a secondary character which could possibly be the sun if I were to stick to the space/ personified moon theme. The sun would be a mother character, I did only one large sketch idea I had and thought to leave it later with a clear perspective. When coming back to it the idea of a sun character just didn't feel right nor would it compliment the first character design I have constructed. This is when I thought up the idea of the earth personified character. I did rough face sketches on the same page as the earth character and then once I was happy with the appearance I moved to outfit designs. The designs I wanted to be similar to the first character so they can be associated with each other. Once I picked out a design I wanted I then went to digital and sketched it besides the first character for height difference. I plan on doing an all character profile for the character so I can prepare for 3D sculpting as well as expression page. I want to make an A1 sheet each or the character and their developments.
7th March 2017
I decided to fully commit to the moon/ personified moon idea and use it for the story, so I began researching the moon and included what would be great for a story and I found out the "Rabbit in the moon" and thought that would be perfect for story and it would be a lot of fun to try and look into for a narrative with the mythology behind it. With this in mind the idea also suited the first character I had came up with. While researching I thought that a Rabbit/ Bunny mask would be perfect for the character and I will try and do some designs that would be branched out from reference images i will draw from Rabbits/ Bunnys either online or from local pet stores.
13th March 2017
Today I arrived to class and decided to either plan out the rabbit mask or to do observational drawings of landscapes I took from Brighton and later the day bring them into the computer digitally and see if i can create an atmosphere for the characters to be within through contrasting background or make them fit the characters and their style. I ended up doing a drawing of some buildings I took a photo of in Brighton and then coloring them with water colours. I am pleased with the outcome of it so far but I want to try and make it less realistic and more cartoonish and make it feel like an entire different world from our own, I will attempt this digitally either at home or in Graphic design.
For the story, I thought It would be better to pick a genre and work with the audience that way. I think that has been a huge mistake I have done with this project so far, Jumped right in without a clear idea of what the topic is and who the audience is. I thought about how a Horror would be a subject that could be experimented around with, manipulating the audience's emotions and reactions to situations. I also thought contrast would make the whole situation more effective. Today I explored fear as a whole and the audience I am aiming this work towards.
15th March 2017
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I started planning my sculpture, I know this will not be a final outcome because I will go through trial and error during this but I added in measurements and thought the process through. The material I will be using is the type I found and thought it would be good to recycle the material to save on money. During this progress I thought about how the measurements might add up and how it would effect the overall outcome of the sculpture and its proportions will really matter is if the scale is off the sculpture would look distorted. I sketched it out digitally so I could make it look more professional and cleaner. What inspired me to do this was a video. I watched a video of a man sculpting a scarecrow and I thought the idea for doing a sculpture for my story would be goo to know all the angles for drawing refrence as well as.
Mckenzie Jim, YouTube video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0N-UIp-Cnw] 2016
20th March 2017
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I started on the sculpture I had planned before and i prepared by getting a chopping board/ a surface which wouldn't do any damage to normal working surfaces. I got a cup of water to help with the clay as it was drying up but still workable (air dry clay) I started at creating the head as I followed the instructions but I was starting to struggle with the clay as it was partly dry making it hard to mold into any shape. I managed to do it eventually but once moving towards the body of the sculpture I knew it wasn't going well and I needed to get better material but I thought I better try and at least manage to reach a near end with the sculpture before giving up and once it reached the part where i had to mold the hair it reached the state where it was impossible to keep working with this. I think I will redo this by thinking it through better, using materials such as wire, aluminum foil (used to mold easier and taking the weight away from the clay) clay and acrylic paint. I plan to make this larger so more room for trial and error.
April 3rd
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I thought it would be good to do two sculptures before and with the first attempt of the character sculpture I think now is a good time to start planning the child mask which I want to test out with paper. I wrote and planned out a what I would do and it will involve shapes mostly triangles so it would fit together and fit around the head. so not only is it wearable but would be also perfect to display.
May 3rd 2017
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Talking to my tutor I learnt that I have much more to do. She suggested I do a visual journal that is full of the small ideas/ sketch that will help in my project as a whole but really didn't fit in my main sketchbook. I did just that and manage to put in the sketchbook key components which would prove useful in creating the story such as observational drawings, figure work, rough character ideas and illustration face diversity. I have filled in the sketchbook about 25% I want to be able to fill it up with colour schemes so I am able to construct something like a colour script with the story. I also started planning on how I will present and display my work along with the final outcomes.
Evaluating My Project
The theme I chose for my project was a narrative aimed towards a specific audience and the goal was to create a narrative, a children story.
My journey was set clear in my proposal on who I would study and what I will be doing but it turned out completely different then I expected. I moved far from a genre I had planned originally and began to work along a line where I didn't know what would be at the end of it. At the beginning I think I was too confident on how my outcome would be at and I believe that was my weakness in this project as I didn't make much space for freedom within it. If I could redo this project I would change that and make it more of a open project then such a closed one, I was too ambitious. At the end the story Is something I am proud of but It could have been so much more. I also struggles with time plan with it being so closely planned and over whelming that the time to complete the story was too short that I was shy of about 4-5 pages.
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The way I had planned it at the beginning was going to be a heart felt story that shined some light on the LGBT movement that was friendly for children, Doing research I then began thinking about how much more entertainment and a challenge It would have been to make it a horror visual story aimed more towards children. The style changed and so did the colours, The sculpture I planned at the beginning also changed dramatically thanks to the experience with the materials. I still think it was a mistake to take on such a ambitious project as it did effect the outcome of my work in a negative way,
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I went to one art exhibit that was set in Brighton University where the students places up their years work for visitors and other students to visit and look at. The work was separated into two sections one which was for all viewers and the other NSFW (not safe for work) that some might find disturbing or upsetting. Most of my favorite works where within the NSFW section as the work were far more out going and experimental in my opinion with the sculpture that was a Television playing childhood moments and it was displayed in a playful play with fabric arms and legs but it it can be considered creepy it presentation. I worked at a Youth club to teach people of all ages how to draw and paint and that experience was a lot of help with this project as the colours the children used was greatly influenced on my outcomes/ final pieces. I also studied famous children story writers/ illustrators and I got a lot of insight of what I could and couldn't do as well as inspiration for a story that turned out to be 'Run Rabbit.' By far the research was where I learnt alot and was key for this project, I studied children's behavior to fear roughly and got examples of real life fears that people had when they where young as well as fear as a whole and it was significant to the visual attempt of scaring the audience but not damaging.
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I think with more time i could have been able to make the project more polished than make more as I have mentioned it was an ambitious idea and I over whelmed myself with a lot of set goals I don't wish I did less nor do i wish I did more, I wish I just planned my time better and became more organised in this project. something I will take more seriously with any up coming projects in the future and with my own personal work.
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The main artist who inspiration to my work is Michelle Czajkowski, an artist who has inspired me a lot throughout the years and I inspired by her to do this project. The artist's who inspired my development was Chris Turnham and Aaron Becker with their simple shaped and lined work and yet it was bright, vast and adventurous. Michelle used digital art to create her works (which was the running focus for the story in my project) as Turnham and Becker both have similar styles with flat colours over lapping.
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I wish I had more time and did more exploring around 3D sculpture, My outcome was rather much a mess and I am not happy with it, With more research and experiments around that I could have made it way better then It turned out to be. I would like to have experimented more with wire and recyclable items. The project was more around the structure and making of the story and It made other area's of the project besides the story itself suffer and thats my main regret about this project.
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My final Piece
The formal element I used that stands out is colour, its bright and the colours contrast making moments stand out that are important. I didn't use line much as I was going lineless within this work much like Turnham's work. I used a lot of shapes as symbolism and links to religion (square is human/ earthling and a circle is a spiritual being) I tried to make colours and shapes important throughout the story/ structure so it was clear as well as eye catching for the audience.
I have involved alot of movement throughout the work, making it a page turner so each page lead to another smoothly. Emphasis is seen at moments the main character experiences fear where the colour represents the stages of fear with dull/opposite and negative colours show and make the audience feel the fear. I think I've made it rather successful in those areas, Harmony was present in some panels but it isn't always carried through.
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The material I used was digitally, I drew all the panels on MS-paint (Microsoft paint/ free paint program on windows) to get a more soft flat working appeal to it. I did attempt Illustrator bu It wasn't doing what I had intended it to turn out. It worked out really well, I got the look I wanted for the story, I followed the Plan I made at first and It didn't really appear well so I followed the structure of it and that lead to the outcome.
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The story is about a young Rabbit that runs away from home, ideally the moon. She runs around a forest that reflects her fears. She firsts exposes herself to the forest showing her face and they reflect her fears starting with The stranger (toddlers fears) which turns into a monster (childhood fears) by 'removing' their mask to reveal their true self. The last phase is the character experiencing the last fear: Death. But I didn't have enough time to complete these pages. The true form of the stranger is meant to be a crow as the crows that appear in the panels signify death/ upcoming death and from the start closes the fate of the protagonist. The story was originally meant to have a prologue but I thought It would be better to leave the origin for the reader to decide, making the journey more personal to the reader. I involved shapes to be match the personality and foreshadowing of the cast (Circle being the main character, pure being, square being an illusion that the stranger is friendly and the triangle being aggression/ danger) The eyes represent the stages of fear counting down to the last one (death.)
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I am extremely happy with the outcome although It can be improved and made better and completed but other than that I am pleased with how well it worked out. The elements I like the post is the colours and how they contrast and balance each other out. The main challenge I faced was to make the panels seem natural as I did struggle with perspective of the protagonists movements with the view of the landscape behind them.
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