Notes on the Author

Animal Farm 

Initial reactions: 

Key complications 

• Maintaining a neutral and objective stance
• Images should complement and not impose upon the poignancy of the text  
• lots of subtext and themes to consider and portray 
• Placing of the illustrations
  -Should they frame the text?
  -Be small and scattered throughout the book in amongst the main body of the text?
  - A few large images incorporating a lot of the story? (Visual updates on the descent and state of the farm and animals.) 
• What will the animals look like?
• How will the pigs morph into man?
• How will the farm reflect the the mood of the animals?

.

.

Jowhara Al-Saud

Creating images to highlight the social constraints of censorship, Al-Saud created a series of images omitting his subjects faces. I was really inspired not only by the engaging concept of his work, but also his use of line, it has proved a major influence in my experimentation with markers.    

my initial attempts: 

I intend to focus next on my refinement of line. 

Further research and development : Anatomy

I find that that drawing anatomically has also really improved my control of line and shading on a smaller scale images. 

Patricia March's use of line and wet media heavily influenced my understanding and development in reportage. I love the literal fluidity of her work. 

  And feel her influence is really evident in these images. 

I found that this image from society 6 (source) was very similar to my  birds image

I like his use of light and dark and his range of geometric textures to create a depth of field and heightened atmosphere.

However the colours of my digital work lead me back to my felt tips, they were and ideal media  for reportage, life drawing and animals, as they came in a range of colours, blended well and were more self contained and less bulky than paint or ink. 

I used them briefly at the start of term, but then shunned them  for a biro, as I felt a biro fitted the concept of reportage and found objects more successfully. 

I 

 I used them briefly again in another reportage sketchbook as I found they were good for colouring large areas quickly and did not require a pencil sharpener.

I found that working with them my work was very hit and miss.. I couldn't understand how the end result could be soo good or soooo bad in the same setting with the same subject matter. This is best illustrated in this life drawing session:

 

I showed my tutor because I felt I was missing something glaringly obvious and needed a fresh perspective. 

He told me to consider light, this most certainly was a eureka moment, and I went on to produce this:

I also realised that they could be blended to an extent using water to soften the pen stroke lines. 

I went on to explore this technique further in my study of animals: 

 I'm happy with my experimentation and developed understanding of this media and fully intend to use it again in future.

I found working digitally bad for my health, being given the freedom to move, remove, move slightly and then change the colour of things, removed my objectivity. 

 

I think that if I had been working to an incredibly specific client brief it would have made life so easy, as you could literally add and remove the smallest details at the click of a mouse , and send them varied images instantly. 

I usually use wet media and just alter, and tidy them digitally, I think I prefer it because  you are committed to  your mark making, and it's much harder to obsess. 

The ability to do, undo, then redo was I feel detrimental to my working practice. 

I worked with photoshop again for my final project 'the book of drawings'  I set myself a tight deadline and felt I worked better as a result. But again I did find it much harder to consider the images 'complete' than I would have if I had been working with ink or a pen. 

Out of all the projects I have worked on this term, the collaborative installation was the most intense, yet most rewarding, as it gave me a chance to project manage and problem solve on a daily basis. 

Initially my partner and I wanted to build a red light district in the foyer of uni, however it was eventually decided that it probably wasn't a good idea, (but we DID almost convince everyone that it was)

Add caption

SO we decided to raise to pay tribute to Hartlepools' thriving older community.  

(it's amazing how easily a brothel becomes a granny flat) 

SO the concept was that we would construct a a living room in  the foyer, and have these two dimensional glamorous old women partying away, showing the passing younger generation how it was done. 

 (above, initial concept sketches and finished wired granny)

Although the concept worked really well, the set filled an otherwise pretty unassuming space, and the use of lower lighting and lamps helped create a sense of intimacy for the viewer of our two dimensional characters.

Over all construction was very straight forward, we painted them on to heavy card, and as the limbs, heads and bodies were constructed separately it meant we could fully collaborate, mixing things up, Devon's bodies on my heads and vice versa...

 
The only issue we had to overcome was the final construction, we could not get the limbs to remain stuck  to the paper paper bodies.

 We tried glue and gaffer tape to no success, although we very much enjoyed the irony of these seemingly delicate old women, being held together with industrial strength adhesive.

At the ninth hour, I resorted to plan G
(we had truly exhausted plans A,B,C,D,E and F )
And used pegs..

 as modeled here by Jamie. We have a very unorthodox degree.

They held the women successfully and we heaved a massive sigh of relief.

Over all  this project has taught me to never leave the overall mechanics and construction of an exhibition till the end of the project. it should have been an integral part of the research and experimentation alongside the character designs.