3D Craft & Lens research.

Riitta Ikonen

It was really difficult selecting just a few of these beautiful photographs to put up because they're all so amazing. I love how she uses natural elements to create her costumes. She clearly combines costume with location to achieve her beautiful outcomes. 

I definitely want to do something with costume after seeing these. Super inspired!

Self-Evaluation

What have you discovered about research over the last two weeks?
Mainly that there are so many aspects and so many different approaches to take when researching a particular subject. The more i researched, the more confident i becomes with my topic and my ideas. Every part of my inspiration for the book has come from being exhaustive with my research.

Which approaches to research did you find beneficial?
One on one conversations with the homeless people mostly. Getting a very raw and true idea of what homeless life is really like through meeting the guys that endure it every day felt like the purest form of research. Photographing this has also been incredibly helpful, and is beginning to be the base of my illustrations.

Which approaches to research did you struggle with?
Mainly the enormity of the subject I chose. At first I found it really difficult to approach the guys on the streets. Approaching strangers is always difficult. Dealing with a sensitive subject like this meant I needed first hand information, so i had to be brave and talk to the homeless. However I think it was more of an initial struggle that got easier the more I did.

What do you regret about your approach to research during this brief?
I feel I covered a large amount of research, and although some parts made me hit some brick walls, they only made me research more, which has got me to this point. I don't feel any of the research I did has been pointless and I definitely don't regret any of it, as i wouldn't be at the point I am now without it. All trial and error, all important.

What kind of media, skills, tools and processes are you going to explore?
As many as I can! I need to experiment more with media, and nows the perfect time to do so. I would like to try some watercolours, inks, charcoal and anything else that I'm not familiar with. I will also try my hand at photoshop and attempt to enhance my skills on the programme.

Visual journalist - Project proposal

Picture a book title?
A simple act of kindness.

Idea: What is your picture book about? 
It's about the homeless that live on our streets today. However, it won't be about what they stand for, and not how to tackle the problem. I merely have 16 pages to cover such a huge issue.
Rather, it will be about kindness. About how its so easy to turn a blind eye to these suffering, but if we were to just stop and offer a cup of tea, this small gesture could go a long way.

Intent: What are you trying to achieve?
A book that will make people stop and think. A book that will hopefully persuade people to find it in them to be a little kinder in life, to homeless people in particular but also in general. It all starts with a simple act. A small gesture of kindness could could make the world a better place.

Structure: How might this book function?
I think it will take the form of a saddle stitched book. It may start with illustrations of the streets, the homeless, and the people simply walking past. I will pose questions along side the illustrations to make people really think about the subject. I will then go onto produce images that highlight my experiences of just being a little bit kinder to the homeless, and what it resulted in.

In order to develop these ideas, my research over christmas will be...
A lot more drawing. Im happy with where I've got to with my research, i now new to draw exhaustively to get an idea of what the book will look like. I will be creating mocks to visualise my ideas.

Tell an Untold Story Part 1 - Research

For this brief i really wanted to push myself right from the word go. I wanted to make a book that meant something, that raises awareness. I therefore chose to study something that i felt strongly about. Since moving to Leeds the amount of homeless people on the streets has really astonished me.  Ive really wanted to make some work on it, and i felt this brief allowed me to. However, its a sensitive subject to study, and I know I must approach it with maturity and carefully.

 My initial research for this brief started with going out into the streets and taking photos. I didn't have many expectations when I set out, I just wanted to spark ideas by talking to the homeless and get an idea of how to approach the subject. 

In all honesty I was pretty scared as I had no idea what to expect.

I was really happy with the photographs I got and the conversations I had with the guys I met. 

Secondary research included getting in touch with Leeds universities societies. They have one called 'HOMED' which helps the homeless people in the city. They do weekly sandwich runs. I contacted them and asked if I could join their next sandwich run and document it. They were really supportive of my ideas and I am going along with them one day this week to help out and take photographs. Hopefully i will base my book on this event, to promote helping the homeless. 

http://www.leedsuniversityunion.org.uk/groups/homed/

A few studies from the images I took and the stories I was told-

Successes-

• Working on the likes of newspapers and cardboard created a very raw and life like portrayal of the homeless people. I noticed that many homeless sit on cardboard, thats where i got the idea to draw on it. 
• The mark making I used to frame or shade the pictures adds a rough and weathered look to the men. Also added textures that I felt worked well.

                                     Really excited to do some more studies for this brief.

Collage Posters

I started this weeks collage brief by dressing up two of my friends and photographing them. I really wanted to get hands on and creative. I felt it would spark some more ideas and inspirations once i had the images. It also gave me the option to work digitally with my own work.

I chose my favourite images and the ones i felt would work best on a poster, and cut them out on photoshop.

Here's the two digital posters i made using photoshop. 

Successes- 

• Using my own photography makes these images highly authentic and organic.
• Composition i felt worked well, using the 'multiply' tool to overlap and place the photographs strategically. 
• On the whole, I'm also pleases with the colour schemes.

Areas for development-

• I felt the finals didn't work well as posters. I could have added type to be promoting something or made the positions of the models more gestural to be promoting something. 
• Adding some of my own drawings would have added a bit more of a hand made feel to the finished product, which could have worked well next to the photographs. 
• Layouts before hand would have been a really good idea, and is definitely something i will consider when approaching the next brief.

Here's my handmade ones. I printed out the cut outs and found other bits of paper or painted various bits and bobs to collage with. I used type in one of these which I think makes it look a bit more like a poster than the digital ones did, although i still think i could have used it more effectively. 

Successes-

• The combination of my own photographs and some of my own painting worked well.
• Collecting various things for collage was so fun. The feathers in the second one are real, and i love that when its scanned its completely flat, but you still get the sense they're real given the textures you see. 

Areas for development-

• A wider selection of materials could have added more to the piece.
• If I'd world on a larger scale i could have been more creative and playful, added more type and made it more of a poster. Layout is key and that's definitely what i will take away from this brief and aim to improve.

Collage artist research

KATE GIBB

Kate Gibbs collage work is awesome. She has so many great elements in each piece, like textures and  carefully selected colours. I like that she uses photography and then works in and around her images. Think i'll do something a little different to my usual stuff with this brief after seeing her work. Im really up for using a camera and getting some shots, so think i'll give it a go.

HOT DOG BOOK - More development, Screen printing and the end result.

A few development drawings and the final images i intended to use. I tried out the colours we wanted to use too, just to get an idea of how to go about doing the two separate layers ready for screen printing.







Once our ideas were finalised, we can to trace them onto tracing paper ready to go onto the screen printing stage. The images had to be transferred in the correct places so that the hot dog book would work when folded into place.

Screen printing

From top to bottom: 1. Cleaning the screen after its been exposed. 2. Applying the first layer to create our base colours. 3. Charlotte looking mighty happy with half of our book. 4. Naomi all kitted out to do the dirty work of cleaning the screen.

Our book came out a little like this. I think our whole group was really pleased with the end result. I thought the colours worked really well together. Some things weren't as perfectly lined up as we had thought they would be, however i feel this added a really authentic touch to the finished product. On the whole we had a really great time working on it!

Here's a little video of the book.

HOT DOG BOOK.

The one week collaborative brief working on a hot dog book in screen printing has been so much fun. I feel so much work was produced in such a short period of time given that there were 6 of us all working together. We were given 'Greggs and sandwich shops' to research and create a book about.
Initial research began with venturing into the city to visit our location. I took a camera and tried to be as confident as i could when it came to talking to people and taking peoples photographs. I talked to the customers of Greggs mostly, given that the workers were usually busy, and were a little scary to approach. I met some lovely people during the day.


Some photos i took:

                               Clearly had to eat some Greggs, just for a little extra research.

 The people at the smoothie company were much more approachable. And offered us some valuable information, and told us how they felt about these big chains such as Greggs. He had a lot more time to talk to us and actually let us take some photographs.

During the day we also drew from observation. I found this slightly difficult as I was taking the photographs and talking to people the majority of the time. Here are a few roughs from my sketchbook though.

A few points of conclusion from our day.
I feel the first day went really well and after a group discussion we had a clear idea of what we would like to include in our hot dog book.
Difficulties- I feel I contributed most when interacting with people during the day, which took me away from producing many roughs. I know its scary to talk to strangers but it would have been good to have a little more input from the group in terms of gathering research from the people.
Successes- We came away with good ideas, a clear direction and personally I was really excited to get stuck in.

Textures and shape

 

Textures has been pretty exciting really! Ive used lots of different mediums to create texture and then worked on top of them to create images. I used thick layers of acrylic, various brushes, brusho, and also did a bit more paper cutting. I then decided to use a little photoshop, as i haven't done much on it yet. Adding various textures to see what kind of outcomes i got. I feel this weeks work has been successful in the way it has completely freed up my style, and its stopped me being so restricted and limited in the work that i produce. 

Using photoshop helps me to visualise compositions with the freedom to move things about easily. It helps me consider colours and add things i wouldn't in a drawing. I feel if i used it more, became more comfortable with the software and a little more confident, i would be able to incorporate these types of compositions and styles into my drawings.