Adding colour and questioning everything

So this is what my finals were starting to look like. Pure line, sketch line on top in order to add movement, and then a little bit of colour.

I think it was when I started to add the colour that I started to realise that this imagery was in no way strong. No one will notice me at the final year show, and there's something quite bland about it. 

Im happy with the imagery, but it doesn't express me as an illustrator, and I don't think its showing off any potential that I might have.

I feel a little lost now. Do I keep going, or attempt something new? Do I have time to attempt something new? 

My plan is not to worry, but to keep thinking, pushing ideas forward, and asking people's opinion. Please pray for me. 

Importance of sketchbooks this year

I have subconsciously filled a few sketchbooks this year, for fun and for various briefs. Upon reflection, I realise how important they have been for me, and how important it is that i keep it up.

Sketchbooks are where most of my ideas are born, they're where I feel free to experiment and not worry about making mistakes. 

I have taken sketchbooks wherever I go since last summer and started to enjoy various processes of image making rather than concentrating on the final outcome.

I have been able to take elements from this playful stage and work them into my finals, refining techniques through a process.

I will submit my sketchbooks because i think they show a progression in my personal ability to create images, and they show my personality. 

Real life documentary

Discovering my love for documentary illustration this year has been amazing. It's made me want to chase a creative career for the first time. Finally having a context in which to place my work, that works for my practice and my values has been the most enlightening part of the year.

However, as discussed in PPP I want to make a difference with my documentary work, which is why I am looking at this as a warm up for the real thing now. 

I have applied to volunteer in Greece this summer with an organisation that work with refuguees, and from their reply I will be venturing out there sometime in August, which I am really excited about. 

I want to document what the Timber project are doing out there, and the refugee crisis, in order to shine a light onto it for others. 

I really believe that I need to experience the things I want to document. So as hard as they may be, I think its a really important thing to do. 

Im really excited about the future, and will try my best to make a difference through image making as best I can.

For now I need to keep making documentary work, keep practising. I need to come up with various ways of documenting, a system perhaps. I need to feel really comfortable doing what I do when I go out there.

Line and Play

Ive been focusing on pure line and then sketch lines, working with this idea of open and closed creativity. However Im still not sure this is working. The idea is there but something isn't quite right, I think I need to seek advice. 

Having said that, I have been really enjoying creating these images. There's something about documentary illustration that really excites me. Gathering all of these old photos of my dad and drawing from them in varied ways has been good, even Im learning things about him. 

The idea is to merge the line and sketch together, in order to create something refined, that has come from the open mode of play. Having the added theory really interests me too. I like concepts, I like feelings and I like empathy. Need to keep pushing these things.

Photos

The wagon he made

Boomeranging

Putting up marquees

Climbing trees

Making cider

Its actually hard to remember all of the things this man does. There's so much. Still gathering photos from everywhere so that I have enough material to work with and choose from.

Making a spoon

When I went home for easter, I got my Dad to teach me how to make a spoon. I thought it would be good to experience what Im documenting a little more. Ive got a few images to work from of my Dad sculpting from wood, so I wanted to see his process, and get involved. I also wanted to make a spoon so it was good for lots of reasons. 

I worked on that spoon every day that I was home, I took it every where I went, and its still not finished. The process of sculpting takes so long, and I have a new found respect for my Dad. Ive always thought what he does is amazing, but when you actually try it yourself and see how hard it is it takes it to a new level.

 I want to submit the spoon as a documentary process that I carried out. 

In my tutorial with Matt a while ago, he told me to have systems of recording. My systems have varied throughout this project, but experience is starting to feel like the most important system for me. It helps me to connect with the work Im creating.

This spoon is a system of recording. It meant time spent with the man Im documenting, it meant learning about what I was drawing, and it was an experimental process within my practice.

Re-working images

With the idea and the initial design already surfaced, I decided to play with it a little. 

Things that worked well-

-The angle- Ever since colour may vary I've been trying to play with interesting compositions and angles a little more.  

- The colour palette worked fairly well, but could be adjusted slightly.

Things I wanted to work-

The background- could be more interesting. Not sure the leaves framing the image worked too well. 

- Although there was a sketchy element, I think it still looks a little too refined. 

I want the sketch element so that the image feels as though it's been created on the scene. It adds movement and tells more of a story. It ties in the idea of open and closed creativity, using roughs from a sketchbook of a documented event and working them into a finished piece, whilst still maintaining the original aesthetic.

I worked with the same image, and just altered the background.

I don't want to just settle for ok illustrations anymore, I want to work them until I'm really happy.

I worked into the sketch and decided to pull more from this and into the final.

This one is a little messy, and the background doesn't quite fit with the foreground. So I tidied it up a little and added some sketchy elements into the background so that the illustration had a little more rhythm. 

This is the final piece for this one. I considered transferring it into a screen print, however I think there are just too many colours, and given the time frame I need to be realistic. I want to make a more playful version of this and transfer that into a screen print, work with a very limited colour palette and see if it works well. I think this particular style work well digitally. 

Unfortunately I still think this image could be worked further, however, I need to get some other illustrations done first, and then come back to this. Once I have a clear aesthetic I am working towards, it will be much easier to adjust certain elements to make a coherent body of work.

Nathaniel Russell- reportage reserach

Interview for Thrasher-

"The trick is how to walk that narrow line of not making it corny or nostalgic—trying not to totally pander to other skaters my age but to somehow tap into those common feelings and memories while simultaneously making a good drawing. It was nice that it was at a skateshop because that was kind of the target audience, though a lot of non-skater types showed up and seemed into it as well."

When I talked to Matt I said that I wanted to add a sense of nostalgia in the work I was creating, in order to give it an extra layer, an emotive element. But Russell describes it so well here, to tap into common feeling and memories whilst making good drawings. That's what I want to achieve with this project.

His reportage work is beautiful. Its full of expression and movement. In these images he's captured a depth with tones and shapes, and the hand drawn quality. I really love his work, and he has so so much of it! Im not sure I would class him as a reportage artist, because he does so many other things, but I find this series to be a documentation of skating, thats been illustrated from various angles and view points in order to capture a culture rather than just a sport.

I feel with skating, there are limited limitations, and I think he's explored this and communicated it so well. I really think its because he was/is a skater, and understands the culture surrounding it. Being involved or having experienced what you are documenting really enhances your work, and Im starting to realise and believe this a little more every day. This is what I want to feed into my practice.

Artsit Research- Nathaniel Russel

Just appreciating some beautiful work...

Development

Artist Research- Sarah Lippett

Sarah Lippett created this comic in memory of her Grandfather who passed away before she was born, and its beautiful. It documents his life, and flicks from past to present, which I think is an interesting technique to use within illustration, and something I want to try and achieve in the future. 

In a way, I will be doing this, studying my Dads life, past and present. 

This novel is a her way of learning about Stans life, and her systems of recording are included in the story, looking at old photographs etc

The reason I have been studying this comic is because Lippett has managed to make her audience feel emotive towards something that is clearly so personal to her. 

I think she has managed this, because the subject is relatable to almost everyone. Loss. By changing her colour palette to suit particular memories, she takes her audience on a journey. 

I need to continue researching contemporary illustrators that document events and stories effectively, and that create their audience to feel something and I need to try to feed this into my practice. 

Screen Print design

I said a little while back that I would make this design into a screen print. Or at least a proposal for a screen print. If I run out of time I will make it after submission because I really like it now!

I tried a few colour palettes, trying to keep it to a minimum, so that the screen print wouldn't be too difficult. I wasn't liking any of them! So I re designed the composition, and tried that, but when I asked Charlotte for a crit she said she preferred the first compositionally. 

I agreed, so went back to it. I needed more negative space. The bright colours allow there to be space for nothing. This works much better. I would print it onto slightly textured paper, so that the negative space isn't completely blank. Managed to get it down to 3 colours too!

I think this would work well as a screen print. I want to do 3 more. Variations of the serious imagery into a more playful style.

Hopefully I will have time to print this before the deadline!