Peer Crit

Some feedback that I got from my sketchbook motif exploration so far:

"Really smooth confident outcomes nicely presented sketchbook, lots of experimentation of media and colours"
"Good use of collage, nicely planned out Such a large variety of paper and patterns, love it!"
"Collages are beautiful."

 Themes i have chose to focus on: craft, hand made, artisans, consumerism, passion for your job

Briefs that I am interested in

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/propercorn

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/pan-macmillan

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/save-the-children

Peer review of dragon frame workshop outcomes

New learning from study task and workshop
I have learnt about timing and frame rates. I have learnt that 12 frames per second is the minimum frame rate for it to look a smooth animation.
Another thing that I have learnt is how to set up the dragon frame hardware and software to allow me to shoot my animation at a professional level.

Effectiveness of movement
In my wood carving animation, the combination of the flickery 3D with the smooth line of the hand movement worked extremely well together and contrasted nicely. Again the combination of the 3D and 2D here meant that it was more visually engaging, added depth and overall just looked a lot better. The addition of oil pastels to my paintbrush animation did the same thing and made it much more dynamic and exciting; this is something to bear in mind.

How effective is the concept or idea beginning to be communicated
My concept or idea that I was trying to show here was 'craft', I feel that in the 2 animations that I produced, were communicated well as it was clear what actions I was tying to show.

How can it be further developed regarding combining material/exploring
It could be developed further by producing more worth that collages materials and included textures. I could have more attention to detail, for example when the wood is scraped having a gauge line in the wood. I could also start adding in even more materials and textures.

Dragon Frame Workshop part 1

I am very pleased with how these stop frame animations have turned out. I really love the mix in medias and how it is hand drawn combined with cut paper. This is definitely something to bear in mind for when i make my 30-60 second animation as it will add something much more dynamic than just a singular medium.

Tryout for the stop motion on dragon frame

I made a quick mock up of the stop frame on my phone for the dragon frame workshop to see how it was going to look and to make sure that the torn paper for the wood worked well. I am really pleased with how it turned out an i am looking forward to doing this in a more professional way. 

Screenprint Workshop

Here are some of the designs that I came up with for the screen print worksop. I am really looking forward to printing them. I wanted to make it something that was exciting, interesting and a little bit different than what I would normally make. This is why I am choosing to go with the first design as a repeating pattern is something that I have never tackled before; I could make this into wallpaper, wrapping paper, the inner paper of a book amongst other things. I can't wait to see how it is going to turn out.

Themes- Research

Craftmanship- This is my main theme that I am going to explore.

Hand Craft- I am really interested in the idea of things being crafted by hand and by products being produced from start to finish with the human hand imbued with the product.

Artisans-  Artisans practice a craft and may through experience and aptitude reach the expressive levels of anartist.

An aptitude is a component of a competency to do a certain kind of work at a certain level, which can also be considered "talent". Aptitudes may be physical or mental. Aptitude is not developedknowledge, understanding, learned or acquired abilities (skills) or attitude. The innate nature of aptitude is in contrast to achievement, which represents knowledge or ability that is gained throughlearning.

Consumerism- Consumerism is another thing that I am concerned with. It is something that I do not know that much about but I would like to explore further. The idea that w

"The Industrial Revolution dramatically increased the availability of consumer goods, although it was still primarily focused on the capital goods sector and industrial infrastructure (i.e., mining, steel, oil, transportation networks, communications networks, industrial cities, financial centers, etc.).^[15] The advent of the department store represented a paradigm shift in the experience of shopping. For the first time, customers could buy an astonishing variety of goods, all in one place, and shopping became a popular leisure activity. While previously the norm had been the scarcity of resources, the Industrial era created an unprecedented economic situation. For the first time in history products were available in outstanding quantities, at outstandingly low prices, being thus available to virtually everyone in the industrialized West."

"It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other items of consumption, that people will undergo a very considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement climate, for people to go ill clad in order to appear well dressed."  “a shift away from values of community, spirituality, and integrity, and toward competition, materialism and disconnection.” "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate" The rise in consumerism has meant that credit card debt has gone up from $660 billion in 2002 to $2.5 trillion in 2007.

Self Evaluation & Rationale

Self Evaluation:

5 things that I have gained from this work and how it will impact on my practice:

1. I have gained confidence in trying new processes and methods.
2. Getting out of comfort zone by trying new methods and techniques. This will help my practice by helping me to be innovative. My work so far has been described as varied and experimental and this is something that I am glad to hear as my aim was to push myself so that I did go new places.  
3. I have gained better collaging skills from this work- usually I don't work with collage that much but I have found this process surprisingly rewarding and some of the results that I have come up with work really well. 
4. I have improved and refined my analogue crafting methods. This work has forced me to develop my analogue skills. Analogue skills are something that I feel I need to work on as it is an area that I am interested in and a key theme I have chose to look at in this brief. I am not ruling out digital work at this stage but I feel that concentrating on analogue methods of creating images will need to underline my work no matter if it uses digital processes or not.
5. I gave gained direction in my work; the work that I have produced has helped me to recognise the places where I should explore more and the places that I should probably not try again.

5 things you intend to explore further through visual journal and why:

1. I would like to explore more traditional methods of working and making pictures.
2. I would like to explore the use of shapes and graphic forms in my work. I could do this by using adobe illustrator or even more analogue methods like cut paper. 
3. I have enjoyed working with collage in my work and have got some really good comments about it, this is why I am thinking that I will introduce collage into my work.
4. This work encouraged me to innovate; a new method that worked really well was when I drew the negative space in a light layer of tippex and then once dry I went over with a wash of ink. The results were very different to things that I had already dabbled in but I found it a refreshing change. 
5. Negative space is something I haven't worked with that much but is something I definitely want to explore further. It is inspiring how people like Noma Bar use graphic shapes and negative space to communicate an idea so easily.

What theme do i intend to explore further through my visual journal and how will i explore these visually?
Craftsmanship is the encompassing theme of the direction of my work. I like looking at how things are made from hand, how things are laboured over and why and how this is much nicer than mass produced products that are so common today.

This theme is something that may be difficult to explore. I feel the basis of my work will be looking at different craftsmen and how this impacts their practice. For example I could look at how a guy builds a dry stone wall an illustrate the process and the craftsmanship within that (the selection of the stone for different parts of the wall, the laying of them to create something that is strong and stable etc).

How do these themes relate to my research and my chosen author?
The book that I chose to focus on is by Richard Sennett and is called The Craftsman so it directly links to my theme. The Craftsman as a whole explores the idea that everyone is a craftsman in their own right. That we all, in any job or in any area of life can be a craftsman. It is motivation and passion that produces a craftsman but it is the lack of human interaction on products that means the spirit of craftsmanship is removed from it. This is why craftsmanship is slowly decreasing among the people of the 21st century.

What research activities will i undertake in order to explore these themes further and how will these inform my work? Where will i go? What will i do? What will i come back with?
I am planning on researching different ways that people create things, so this may mean that I need to look at 'how to' books, by watching videos on youtube/vimeo videos of artisans doing their craft but also by talking to people about their craft and finding out about it that way.

Motifs with different lines. Fine, regular & Bold

Craft

Richard Sennett exclaimed that everyone is a crafter in some way or another. That everyone, from a surgeon to a builder crafts their profession. I want to explore this idea, and look at the effect of good craftsmanship on the world. I want to explore the effect of mass production, factories and lack of human contact on craftsmanship and the quality of products.

https://www.ted.com/playlists/146/craftsmanship

Research into Richard Sennett

MOTIF: CRAFTING

scissors

paintbrush

leather craft tools

Douglas Adams

My initial thoughts were that Douglas Adams was that he was very interesting and quite funny.

http://www.ted.com/talks/douglas_adams_parrots_the_universe_and_everything

I watched Douglas Adams speaking on Ted Talks, he spoke about his trip to the Galapagos islands where he came into contact with various people, endangered species and venomous snakes. He goes on to address environmental issues which leaves a startling effect. What he says is very interesting.

I feel that Douglas Adams is interesting to listen to but I don't find his humour that funny. I can see why so many people love listening to him and reading his books however I struggle to enjoy listening to him live and it's put me off him a bit.

Richard Sennett

Sennett explored how individuals and groups make social and cultural sense of material facts - about the cities in which they live and about the labour they do. He focuses on how people can become competent interpreters of their own experience, despite the obstacles society may put in their way.

Working precisely to high standards provided the Japanese during these years a sense of mutual and self-respect

The new economy has broken two traditional forms of rewarding work. Prosperous companies are intended, traditionally, to reward employees who work hard, at all levels. In these new economy firms, however, the wealth share of middle-level employees has stagnated over the past generation, even as the wealth of those at the top has ballooned. One measure is that in 1974 the chief executive officer of a large American corporation earned about thirty times as much as a median-level employee, whereas in 2004 the CEO earned 350 to 400 times as much. In these thirty years, real-dollar earnings at the median point have risen only 4 percent.

In today’s globalized marketplace, middle-level skilled workers risk the prospect of losing employment to a peer in India or China who has the same skills but works for lower pay; job loss is no longer merely a working-class problem.

In music this is the so-called Isaac Stern rule, the great violinist declaring that the better your technique, the longer you can rehearse without becoming bored.

About repetition and practice Piano observes, ‘‘This is very typical of the craftsman’s approach. You think and you do at the same time. You draw and you make. Drawing . . . is revisited. You do it, you redo it, and you redo it again.’’

Sennett alters one's view of craftsmanship by finding so much meaning in the detail. The grip on the pencil, the pressure on the chisel: he persuades us that these things have real significance. The Craftsman is one of a trilogy, with volumes to come on ritual and craft, and craft and the environment.

skilled confidence

+

skilled cooperation

=

craftsmanship

“It is often doing something wrong that is the most stimulating.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH1aX_6-xkY

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/09/society

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/02/featuresreviews.guardianreview14

Richard Sennett brings lots of issues to light that I can relate to and I feel that I can understand him more than other authors that I have looked at. Craft is something that I have always been interested in, my perfectionist nature, although very annoying, connects with what is being addressed in this book. I feel that The Craftsman will become increasingly relevant to todays society. This is because of the rise in machined and mass produced products; many products can lack craftsmanship and the level of quality that you can only get through human interaction.

I have recently started making my own leather wallets and card holders from scratch. I can understand why Sennett sees the value in pouring over something yourself and taking ownership over a process.

Toni Morrison

“She is the voice in consciousness of America who provokes us to become better, to look at the horrors of our past so that we might have a better future.”

'I want to feel what I feel. Even if it's not happiness'

"The idea for a novel about a black girl made to feel so ugly by the culture around her that she prays for blue eyes, came out of an encounter Morrison had as a child. A fellow classmate confided to her the same dream of blue eyes, which, even as a 12-year-old, struck Morrison as grotesquely self-loathing. She remembered it. "I wanted to know how she got to that place.""

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/apr/13/toni-morrison-home-son-love# A super interview with Toni Morrison where she expands on being a single mother, the death of her son and love. 

I really like Toni Morrison's books and the topics that she tackles in her work. I do not feel as though I am going to choose her for this brief however, as I do not feel as though I can comment on the subjects that she deals with. I do not feel as though I have enough life experience or wisdom to try and eventually illustrate something of such weight. Death of a son, growing up in a world rife with racism (and being directly affected by it) is something that I can only try to understand.

Summer Brief- Initial Response

Summer Brief 

My initial response to this brief was that it was going to be difficult. I am not someone generally reads for pleasure so a brief that requires reading seems daunting. 

The people that I have heard of prior to this are Agatha Christie, Lewis Carrol, Naomi Klein, George Orwell and William Shakespeare. However, Shakespeare is probably the only person where I have read their work. I am not going to choose any of these writers as I 

After having a quick research into 

Italo Calvino           Lewis Carrol        Terry Pratchett        Douglas Adams         Guy Browning

Agatha Christie      Alan Moore          Aldus Huxley           Edgar Alan Poe          William Shakespeare  

Niel Gaiman           Lin Yutang           NaomiKlein              Susan Sonntag          Haruki Murakami

Toni Morrison        Wole Soyanki       Richard Sennet       George Orwell            William Burrows

OUIL406 Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Through this module I have developed many different skills. Probably the main skill that I have gained from this module is my skills on illustrator and even photoshop. All of my final pieces were produced digitally. Another skill that I have developed was that I learnt to juggle many different things at once due to the nature of the module, although this was not my strong point, I never fell behind nor did I miss any deadlines. Rather, I internally struggled to juggle figuring out the workload.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

Especially on the last brief, creating lots of thumbnails and figuring out a solution whilst doing lots of drawing has helped me a great deal. It helped me to come up with more interesting and ideas. Using a pen to create ideas forces you to be purposeful with your drawing which creates quick and striking scamps. This helped me to work out compositions and layout for my designs. 

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I really like the gradients that I have been working with, especially in the last 2 projects. They have helped to improve my work a great deal and I have learnt a lot from them making me try out new things. I definitely want to work with gradients more so definitely for the next few pieces of my work, I will use these and build on my skills. Another strength is that I have been working predominantly in shapes, this has given my work a new feel compared to the start of the year and has made it more interesting visually.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Something that I found difficult about this module was that it was very demanding as there was other modules and deadlines going on at the same time. This meant that I struggled to focus and distribute my time just because my schedule was generally very busy despite time management. Another weakness was that I have probably not took enough risks with my process of producing work. I feel that although I am trying out new techniques and processes, my finished work is not evolving very much. To help resolve this, I feel that I probably need to think through my idea more and also inform myself more than I do already from other illustrators work before I respond to a brief. 

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Try a new way of working- not let things look the same as my other pieces of work- this will help my work evolve and not stay at the same level it is.

2. Probably plan out my time a little more- instead of a day by day plan, a more detailed hour by hour plan could be good to organise my mind a little bit more.

3. Simplify my work- this will cut down on a lot of work and help me to work 'smarter', the work itself will be much more effective if carried out properly.

4. Try to not be too literal- my postcards definitely show my 'literal' way of working, I would like to employ puns into my work and clever use of combining imagery- a bit like the work of Jean Julien!

5. Blog a bit more- be more reflective. This will help me to organise myself in my work and help me to notice where I am going wrong and what is working well. 

Final Poster

Here is my final poster design. I feel the feedback I got on Monday's crit, has helped me to understand what changes I needed to make. I knew that it didn't look quite right but I wasn't sure what to do about it. I have changed a few colours, toned down some and took out the line work in the face so that it suits the overall look of the image. My favourite part of the poster is the bottle, I really love how I have used tone, subtle colours and shape, I  dowish that I felt this way about the rest of the poster! The space suit is too flat looking- I was not sure how/where to add tone and each time I tried this, it looked strange and overworked. 

Development of Yuri's face

Throughout the development of the poster, I have been making small changes to Yuri's face. I feel it has definitely improved over time. In Monday's crit, I was told that his face didn't really look like him and had too much line work compared to the mostly shape work in the rest of the poster; therefore I have made a few changes. I changed the face to shaped and added gradients, I then put a helmet visor over the top because I feel that it's more subtle.