Studio Brief 1: Idea Pictures

For this project I wanted to work entirely handmade (not digital) and set myself the target of having clearer communication of ideas. One of the set of finals were produced though photocopying. I found that the colour photocopier doesn't produce as interesting quality images as the black and white (the two degrade the image in different ways). I think this approach; while teaching me how to work an idea through fully through analogue processes also taught me how useful digital processes are; and with more time (especially on the miners and factory ones) I think these could have been much stronger. After finishing I thought I'd just give it a go digitally. This was fairly simple of just scanning in the components, adjusting levels and arranging them. I think the square and landscape work better this way. I think the landscape one lacks something - maybe detail on the figures, more general detail. I also think I cleaned it up too much - and it looks too digital

 I felt the first two ideas came quite easily - and I was happy with them (mine shaft and factory). For a long while I didn't know what to do for the third. I did some drawings of miners that I liked (and was considering for the mine - but thought it would be too detailed). Ben said these could be used for the landscape - I agreed - goes with themes of unions, fraternity etc. and almost says as much as the other two. I think the fact that I had to work harder on the miner (landscape) composition means that in the end I think its better; in contrast, I think I didn’t push the factory (square) idea as far as the concept came to me fairly fully formed, so therefore I didn’t concentrate on the composition further than the image itself.

The thumbnail process was good; I feel like I usually push idea creation quite far, but the target of 60 meant I pushed it further than I normally would - and therefore created more interesting ideas than I otherwise would have.

I didn't feel like I had a good enough understanding and I was into the project and George Orwell himself at this stage to do the kind of work I wanted to (more abstract, less obvious) and therefore it feels quite different to the kind of work I usually make; which is not necessarily not a bad thing.