End o Module Evaluation

At the beginning of this module, my projects moved quite slowly and I found putting a lot of time into work quite hard. I think this was partly because I was a bit burnt out from the first semester. As a result, I think the research part of the book (visual journalist) suffered. I also found a lack of direction as a result of finding it hard to narrow down my topic (the untold story I was telling) at the beginning of the picture book brief, which made it hard to get into a work flow. After the Christmas break my work rate picked up again through simply making work and not thinking too much; which made it harder when I was bringing the project together. Although I may be being harsh on myself, I get a feeling that parts of this module have unfulfilled potential (I get this after every project) I always wonder where a project would have gone if I’d have followed one line of inquiry over another.

On a positive note, the work I have made in this module feels more like the kind of work I want to make; although, at times in this module I have been unsure about my approach, thinking it may have been too abstract at points. Putting my work from this module in the context of my work from visual skills; I think visually the work in this project it more interesting but concepts/ideas are still lacking. Essentially, I need to apply the same rules of communication to more abstract work as I would to more representational work. Occasionally, work from this project has felt slightly self-indulgent (I often feel this way about abstract work I make); the way I justify making work like this to myself is with a tongue in cheek approach to it. Using my blog to show how a project develops is hard as it felt like a very natural; almost subconscious development process; whereas blogging doesn't feel so natural. In future, making lists of what I’ve done and then thinking why I’ve done it and how it will inform my next steps might be useful and help reflection.

I was happy with my final book for visual narratives. While I think the concepts are slightly lacking, I’m happy with the visuals. I didn’t formally plan out and storyboard my book before making it as the development of the idea all came so fast and I already had lots of the artwork. However, I understand could be useful in a different project perhaps where it more based around an idea or concept. I was pleasantly surprised at how I dealt with digital work that I would have found daunting at the beginning of the course.

It was nice to be introduced to both print rooms. I didn’t make as much use of these resources as I would have liked to - but I expect to spend much more time using them in the future, especially getting back to experimenting and developing through print. The 1 week brief introduced me to research (and group work), both were tricky. I really enjoyed the screen print induction; especially doing silly things in the print process to get interesting results- not exactly following strict rules of screen printing.

I think my studio practice slipped for a fair amount of time in this module which I’d just put down to getting out of the habit of coming in when there isn’t a taught session. I just feel more in control and my work has more direction when my studio practice is good and I need to remind myself to maintain good practice. I found I didn’t make enough time for non-work things in the first semester which I think contributed to feeling burnt out. I feel like I make better work when I have a better balance. 

Having a longer brief has allowed me to develop and reflect further on my work and practice as I go along. This project has highlighted the importance of research, concepts and ideas especially in helping structure a project. While these are three things I’ve not found as easy as I’d have liked, I can see how useful it is and I’ll definitely employ it in my future practice. This module feels like I’ve drawn everything I learnt in the first semester together with what I’d learnt before and it seems like my practice is evolving. The work this module feels much more like my own than the first.

MEGA Update//Completo

At the moment I'm about 2-3 days behind on blogging. Normally that would't be a big deal but this project has been moving so fast that there are so many developments that I've missed out. I've been eating, sleeping and breathing books and caves. 

Development of Imagery

From the quite abstract paintings I had I developed it so the images ranged from small to larger, more complicated and darker (like walking into a cave) the final image was all black except a small about of white and red in the centre (an exit from the cave). Together the images are meant to tell a story of a journey though a cave. I scanned in all the images and corrected blemishes from the scan and the colour but tried to keep a fairly raw, handmade feel. I then put them all on indesign (which was surprisingly painless)

Title/Naming/Words

For a fairly long time in this project I've been worried about how to use words in this project. Once I'd put everything on indesign it looked fairly clear to me that words might ruin the effect of the visuals and in some ways they weren't necessary (?) Leaving no words might make it seem much more ambiguous? Hard to understand if you don't know what its about before you start reading it. However, I found the title one of the hardest parts of the whole final part of the project (maybe I left too much time on it, put too much emphasis on it?) but I wanted something that would make it clear what the meaning of the book was while not being too blatant. I very nearly went with 'Cavescapes' maybe didn't have enough of the feel? and I'd already used 'Cityscapes' in the zine I'd made (I find something about putting a word next to 'scapes' is quite funny). In the end I went with 'Belly of the beast' as it seemed to sum up the feeling of being in a cave also I like silly phrases like that (2 meanings?)

Cover

 I also struggled a bit for the cover. In my tutorial, Matt mentioned using one of the photos I took as the cover- as well as painting out area (which reminded me of 'the picadillies by Dieter Roth, where he painted out different areas of the same image from a post card of piccadilly circus multiple times.- see bellow.)

at first I scanned 3 images together (all of them wrong-overexposed, out of focus- but together they worked- maybe the darkness, nature in them worked well with the theme). I liked it but don't think it worked as a cover- so  I used it as the back cover). In the end for the cover I just painted out areas of a photo I took on Ilkley moor (in red, black and white- the colour scheme of the book). 

Printing

I did some test prints as I went along on indesign- but because of the format none of them worked as a booklet. Some of the test prints were so badly wrong they were quite interesting so I saddle stitched them (maybe if I was bolder I'd submit them as my book).

Mis-prints

 I wanted a weighty, fairly textured paper and was going to go to the digital print room but I didn't book a slot/have time. I printed on cartridge paper in the studio in the end and I like the texture and feel of it of it- but some of the colours (especially the darker ones) have come out different to how I expected; some look totally black where they had colour- mostly this is ok but theres probably about one too many pages that are too dark. I booked a digital print slot for Monday morning so I'll have a go at making it nicer- but I'm happy to submit it as it is (perfectionism strikes again). Some of the mis-prints were stapled but I'm also going to give saddle stitch a go with one of these finals as I feel like it might suit the feel of the book better (little things). It feels like this book has come together out of nowhere- from vague ideas at the end of last week to a fully formed book at the end of this week it almost feels like someone else has been doing the work. Its been a very fast moving, almost subconscious process. I'm happy with the work I've made and I've enjoyed the freedom and experimentation. 

Front cover

Back cover

Inside cover/first page

Inside

The Raiders of the Lost Update

In my last post I forgot to mention that that there was an important development last week:-

I did a page of red goache experiments and then absentmindedly
 worked over it in black goache and ink, continuing to try to recreate
the feeling of a cave. I felt the red added something over the
monochrome studies- the sinister side to caves?

 

I tried recreating it and I was quite hard to get the same effect.
However I liked the base red goache shapes and I felt they 

still communicated something about the caves.

 

Although it looks quite abstract, the red reminded me
of how strange the light (and how it falls) is in a cave 
as well as the slightly sinister air, unsettling feeling
 in a cave. (two things I wanted to recreate).

Through development I made multiples with varying levels of darkness and black in the composition, my thinking being it was like walking into a cave. I haven't really really been working from direct reference - some of my loose drawings from caves and from memory of working as a cave guide last summer (something I feel I could have drawn on much more?). I've made enough of these for my book and I think this is what I'm going to do (late in the day I know!) slightly conflicted- not sure if its interesting enough and still have this nagging feeling its TOO abstract. Thinking very carefully about how I will use words.

Weather Transcript

Finally Getting round to uploading these transcripts- better late than never. As my project developed (informed by other research) it moved away from these conversations. I wonder whether I should have done some more once I had a more solid idea?

Josh

Me: Hows the weather in Leicester?

Josh: haha Its a bit cold…haha… dark init… think its a clear one

Me: Its cold here too

Josh: I’m having a fag so its a bit cloudy, nice cloud

Me: I was wearing two coats today

J: Two coats?

Me: Bloody freezing

J: I’m stood outside now in a jumper and a t shirt and I’m ok

Me: Can you think of any weathering things to do with geology?

J: Rocks get weathered don’t they

Me: Yeah… what are the ways?

J: They get hot and then they get cold then they get hot then the get cold and that makes some rocks go round and its called onion skin weathering

Me: I remember that one, is there like spheroidal weathering as well?

J: Yeah cannonball weathering 

Me: Whats that?

J: Dunno can’t remember

Me: Got any nice weather stories

J: Ahahahahahahaha when its sunny its hot so I go outside… yeah I like the sunshine. I like the rain in urban settings, it metaphors my heart

Me: Got any more thoughts on weather? any weather vibes?

J: haha don’t think so think I’m all weathered out

Dad

D: When I think about the weather one time I really think about is when I was about 21, 22 something like that and I was working on an apple farm in the south-west of France, very flat area. One evening we started to hear a thunderstorm in the distance and we went outside the bunkhouse to the road and it was a flat area, no hills so we could see for miles and miles and miles and in the distance to the north there was a great big thunderstorm you could see the thunder flashing, great big grey clouds rolling towards us and I remember just standing out in the rain with the clouds getting closer and the thunder getting louder, lightning getting brighter and the thunderstorm passed right over the town where we were working. At the height of the thing there was kind of torrential rain, skys gone completely black, flack of lightning and a bang at exactly the same time because its so close and the whole thing rolls over you and can see it moving away behind you and its just so dramatic seeing the cloud rolling towards you pass over you and then go into the distance. So thats story number 1

Me: Do you remember in Spain when a similar thing happened?

D:Yeah, same thing happened

D: The other story was when I was working in Saudi Arabia we were staying in a little bungalow in the hotel grounds and obviously it doesn't rain very much in Saudi Arabia but there was a kind of torrential storm in the middle of the night and there was just a really really loud bang and there had been a lightning strike on the power lines right next where the house was so it was wet, and there was no light but the main thing was there was a metallic taste in the air like if you had a 2p coin in your mouth or something

Have you got a similar one on a plane to or from Sweden?

D: Thats right thats do you want me to do that one?

You can if you want to… All your stories seem to be lighting based

D: First thing that came into my head really… That one think we were coming into land in Copenhagen or somewhere in Sweden and it was the same kind of thing there was a storm outside and a big bang which might have been the lightning strike close to or on the plane and there was that kind of metallic taste in your mouth and the woman who I didn’t know sitting next to me sank her fingernails into my arm… there we go, no hard feelings. So theres that… let me think of any others I can think of another really really nice one I in late-mid 20’s and this is when me and mum lived in Sussex and we went to a place called Barcombe Mills and it was a really really classic stinking hot English summer day and it was really ice just a beautiful hot day, I must have been in shorts and a t-shirt something like that and I remember we were just walking around and there was this bridge that had been built over a river and I can remember just standing on the bridge and thinking oh bugger this and just jumping into the river. And it was deep, perfectly safe. But that thing about when its really hot just being able to jump into the water. The other time I remember doing that, you won’t rememberer it is when about the time we moved into the house we’re in now we had a holiday in Devon and it was stinking hot and we ended up at  the seaside and I remember just getting out of the car and jumping in the sea, thats really nice. Hows that? that ok for starters?

Yeah if you’ve got any general vibes, anything you’d like to say about weather, what are you’re feeling about the weather?

D: My feelings about the weather is people always say ‘eee dear I couldn’t deal with living in a hot country, nice to have crisp winters and damp autumns and springs and summers’ I think that sounds a bit boring so I’d love to live in a place where it was nice and warm all year round so it was the kind of temperature in Greece in late April-May something like that, not absurdly hot but so you can spend all of your life walking round in your shirtsleeves really and a t-shirt that would just be marvellous. I could quite happily spend the rest of my life without ever encountering a frost again or having any rain; just having that warm weather would just be perfect. Because thats what it was like in India, not too hot.

Do you think you’ll try and get mum to move the the Algarve when you go senile?

D: No, no I’ll get her to move to india

D: Anymore thoughts on the weather? eee climate warming… climate warming? whats it called? Global warming… eee its a worry

Would you say you notice differences in the weather? Like over time?

D: No not really… I’m sure its true, its a worry that we have these maniacs like Trump in charge who don’t believe in it… But there we go is that enough thoughts on weather?

Yeah if think you’ve got anything more to add you can but otherwise I think thats lovely

D: Yeah thoughts on the weather I think i’ve got one coming now… Hailstorms! fucking amazing man fucking amaazing how was that was that a good thought?

Yeah that was a good thought

D: Hang on I’ve got another one… Hay fever! really really shit man… really really shit… you don’t want hay fever god its so shit… hows that?

Yeah thats good

Mum

Me: I went for a walk along the canal the other day and I noticed there was this weird mix of kind of gentrified apartment blocks on one side and waste ground or abandoned factories on the other so I was wondering if you had any memories of being a kid in Wakefield

Mum: So I can start with Wakefield… I can tell you where the Hepworth gallery is now where the river is, the river was poisoned so there was no fish because now there are herons but there were no fish and the river used to be different colours depending on the dye works, what colour they were dying, used to be mostly orange actually. And it used to have big foam on top of it so it was a very polluted river. There was a lot of factories down there, there was Patton and Baldwins, Lee Taget and there was a big engineering company which I think is still there called British Jeffery Diamond erm.. a shirt factory called double two shirts and that was all kind of down by the river and the canal. It was very very industrial down there and all kind of very black, you wouldn’t go there unless you worked there. So now theres obviously the gallery but also those big sheds, B & Q, places like that so thats really changed. So thats industrial Wakefield. I just kind of smelt, had a very kind of bad egg smell sometimes… I think thats from coking works and things like that. Everybody used to get busses that were works specials so they were busses that took them to work in the morning and brought them back in the evening. So there were special busses for workers. Would you like me to talk about weather as well?

Me: Yeah so if you’ve got a nice weather story then

Mum: Ok so 1987? on the south coast there was a hurricane and the weather forecaster famously said… you’ll probably be able to get this on youtube… but someone had written in to say there was going to be hurricanes and they said it was going to be windy but you know there wasn't going to be hurricanes and then blow me if the wind didn’t get up it was a hurricane. In the middle of the night I woke up to and it felt as if the windows were bending in, you could hear the windows like cracking because the wind was so strong against them… and then in the morning when I got up there were leaves and everything all over the place and I decided to set out to work. They said don’t set out unless you’re journey is absolutely necessary… and there were just huge trees bending over and just bending back like one of those pictures of a storm on a desert island or something so these were kind of huge elms trees and things. Then theres a big open space called the level in Brighton don’t know if you’ll remember it but there is… and this had huge elm trees all around it and when I got to there it was like loads and loads of trees had come down all around it so you had to pick your way across the fallen trees to get to the other side of the open space. And so I started doing that and it was just climbing over tree trunks. I started doing that then I realised that it was taking me so long and I realised then that if was how long it was taking me and that was how difficult it was; you know it was probably the size of Matlock park. Can you imagine if all the trees in Matlock park blew down and I realised if that was like that then I probably wasn't getting to work because all the trees would be blown down and the trains wouldn't be running, which they weren’t so I went home. It was quite dangerous really people had trees blown down on their cars and walls fell down and all kinds of things fell down. But someone I worked with who lived in Surrey somewhere was travelling down to Chichester and he was a bit gung-ho, he'd been in the army. So he set out, put a chainsaw in the boot of his car and drove to work just sawing a gap in the trees as he got to them. So he had like a queue of people behind him driving along the road and he was kind of clearing a path for all these people behind him and eventually it took him hours because he had to cut through all these trees. So that was one, people had all kinds of stories like that. Someone else I knew who I worked with lived on the seafront in Brighton and their block of flats the windows got blown in so they all went and kind of sheltered downstairs in the back because obviously its really really dangerous and they just got out in time because they could tell it was getting worse and worse.

Me: Didn’t you live on the seafront?

Mum: Yeah, I didn’t live on the seafront then though; where I lived was kind of facing away from the wind so it was alright where I actually lived. But, it was still really really windy and quite scary. But then he had to move out of his flat because the wind had blown the windows out there was glass everywhere I cant remember if it was raining or not. But he couldn't live there until it was all mended. Then Sue… Architects mum, so the Architects were born more or less in the storm so she was on the top floor in a tower block which is where the maternity ward in the hospital and there was this huge storm blowing outside and I think the power went off in the hospital that was all quite dramatic as well. And then afterward for ages there were just trees everywhere, it took ages to clear it all up.

Me: Would you say thats that for the great hurricane?

Mum: Yeah

Me: So have you got any thoughts or feelings about weather… just anything in general? Any special weather you like?

Mum: Cold and crisp? I don’t like it when its cold and wet. I like snow. I like it hot, I like it cold, I like it snowy but I don’t like it cold and wet and rainy and not quite cold enough to snow; I really don’t like that weather. But most other weather I like. 

Me: Anything about how that makes you feel?

Mum: When its crisp and cold its kind of nice because you are all warm. Its not nice if you’re cold; but if you’ve got warm clothes on and you’re all tucked up and you’re outdoors its kind of cold but you’re not cold or its you’ve been out and you’re all wet and cold and you warm up and you have a nice cup of tea and it warms you from the inside not the outside… yeah… I guess thats the weather!

Poppy, Ellie and Tilda

Me: So has anyone got any weird weather stories

Poppy: I once got a sunburn on my bum and couldn’t sit down for 2 days

Tilda: Does a hurricane count as weather?

Everyone: yeah

T: Basically I’ve got a funny drunk story, drunk weather story about my dad.  So basically we were in New York for Hurricane Irene

P: Tourist attraction yeah?

T: yeah. And like we were trapped in this hotel so my dad decided to get really really drunk because he was like really really nervous and we completely loose him because we just left him at the bar and then we found him in his underwear, he'd been going up and down just in his underwear in this lift the whole night while hurricane Irene had been going on outside. I don’t know why he was in his underwear

Ellie: So he missed the whole hurricane

T: Well yeah pretty much, it wasn’t too deadly around the area we were but you could hear the wind. Like a bouncer found him just in his underwear

Me: Thats a nice story

A week's worth of work?

Last week I was mega inspired after my tutorial- so many ideas, so many ways I could see the project going; however, I ended up making the awful decision of working at home for most of the week.  As a result I carried on doing experiments - not with the direction necessary at this point and not its not really feeling any more final. Although I think I work fairly well at home and I like having all the materials I need to hand its not as focused - and now I'm feeling even more behind. I think I know where the project is going to go I just feel like there is unfulfilled potential in it? 

Cover

Zine - not relevant but relevant?

In the week I filled a small sketchbook - unrelated to the current project (I always keep one for personal work); lots of the work was quite abstract - but it seemed to have an overarching theme/style so I decided to make a zine through indesign (good practice for the book - also it was nice and quick to do) and I'm fairly happy with it - I'm slightly worried I won't be as happy with my book.

Vis Narratives update #3

It feels like a while since my last post. While I was home over christmas I visited a few rocks/caves and did location drawing, which helped with just building broader research  For a long time I did too much thinking about how I was going to develop imagery from my research- it felt pretty broad and i was interested in very different strands of it. 

In the last week I started just churning out imagery (learning by doing). So far my favourite things are cut paper from graphite textures- quite simple? There is still a long way to go in developing this project- I'm happy with most of the product of this recent burst of image making but I feel like it might need more to it (more beefy, more meaning).

I wonder if I'm not thinking about the overarching theme so much? it feels more image (abstract) driven than idea driven at the moment- maybe thats ok for a picture book? then again a stronger feel of context often makes a picture book more interesting? Again these questions need answering quickly as I want to decide on the imagery soon so I can spend plenty of time making the book look nice. This time I'm going to try and decide by making rather than vaguely thing.
 

3D Craft/Lens

I found it quite hard to think of something to mutate into. In the end I thought about how I had been eating more veg at home and I quite liked the idea of becoming a vegetable. 

I found out we had a big green sack I could stand in and lots of cardboard so I painted the cardboard green and stapled it to the sack to become a leek (maybe stapling was not the best method of attachment as it was pretty weak).

I had decided to photograph it in a flower bed/plant area to make it seem more like a leek in the wild. By this point I realised it didn't look that much like a leek (but maybe interesting as an abstract interpretation of veg). It turns out it is very hard to compose a photo when you aren't taking it- I would normally work out the composition as I'm taking the photo (trying to vaguely direct my dad was hard) and I didn't really like the cold wintery colours of the photo but it was so cold in the sack on the frozen ground I didn't want to hang around for long. Of the few, I thought a few worked slightly- but didn't quite capture what I wanted. 

Feel like this didn't quite show the
context- space?

Am I a leek growing or
just standing in a bag?

I find the new fangled adventurous side of 3D illustration pretty interesting and this has made me realise that like drawing storyboarding for a film, the composition is as important as the focus- and the composition probably needs to worked out at a similar time to the making of the focus (the object you are photographing)

I have just thought that I could have used a tripod, set up the shot, framed it and then set a timer- hindsight?

Liked the space in this shot- feels
cold and sad