OUIL405 One Week Book part 2

I was unfortunately ill when the group decided on the images pick, but the general feel of the book is reminiscent to what we agreed on, emphasising our frustrations over the merrion center's bureaucratic system that limits creativity. However the one image that doesn't really work with the rest is the men giving out makeup as it jilts the flow of the book. 

I've always enjoyed the screen printing process but I prefer to work singularly because it allows me to go at my own pace and if I am ill i don;t have to worry about others and can pickup on my own slack also if faults happen they are mine to deal with. However when collaborative work is used with effective communication it can go on smoothly.

OUIL405- One Week Book

The focus of where we we're assigned for this project was the Merrion centre. We where told that legally we where not allowed to draw within the premises. I decided to tackle this by talking to people and drawing them and their experiences when I got back to college. Overall this issues felt very frustrating as it limited the groups ability to document experiences as they happened.

I found that the most interesting things I took away from the Merrion Centre was the time spent talking to people with in the centre rather than the centre itself.

After creating a series of quick sketches that reflected some parts of the dissuasions I'd had and the general experience during the day I found it all a bit lack luster. When we all grouped together we agreed that there wasn't that much interesting going on so thought of taking another route.

The way the hotdog book is going will be a more cynical look at the over bureaucratic side of the centre than the more emotive and humorous point raised from conversations with people in the Merrion centre.

Photography Induction

Depth of filed

Long Exposure

Shallow field

Short Exposure

•  Found the depth of filed and shot exposure to be the most interesting ways to take photography.
• I am personally not taken by photography but understand the necessity of it.

OUIL404- Shape

It was difficult to create block shapes with pencil

These Images have been cleaned up to get rid of pencil lines. I had difficulty with the sketchiness of my shapes.

These feel more logo-esque than anything else

With the shape brief I found it difficult to get into. It did give me the same interest and adaptability that I found the detail and Line gave me as I felt with my chosen subject didn't allow as much flexibility as others could have. However with the next brief on texture and shape I hope to find ways to push the way I look at making the images. I'll start looking into artist to help push this process further.

OUIL404- Pattern Tone and Line

Really enjoyed this. Experimented with control and fluidity of line work. Tended to take more time that previous pieces. Really enjoyed pencil work.

OUIL404- Line

Though the anatomy felt off in this one I did find that the gouache helped me create bold and consistent line work.

I had to battle with anatomy and proportion throughout found it easier to come to terms with once I started to get the hang of it .

These pieces where more an exploration of the amount of line to use within my work.

Towards the end of this experiment I found it easier to decided the amount of line work I needed in an image and the way line changes the way an image is read.

OUIL403 Final Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL403 Visual Skills	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Naomi Crompton

1.  Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?

With the first brief Initially, I focused mainly on brush pen trying to create block colours and controlled line work within that piece. You could say that block colours and controlled line work have become a consistent focus though out this whole module for me with varying degrees of success. I found that block colours tend to catch the eye more. However creating block colours can be difficult. I found the most successful way to do this was with paper craft in my Play Play Play brief because it allowed for the overlay of blocks of colour and after time it felt like I was using the scalpel as a drawing tool rather than a cutting tool, which is something I found the most successful. But the least successful attempt at creating block colours was A Day In The Life where I was working in gouache; it was difficult to get the paint to the right consistency and I believe the paper I used may not have helped the process. I have struggled with my control over line quality with all these briefs, from using gouache to brush pens to fine liners parts of my work become to overthought and as a result have the quality of line affected because of this. However I have begun to be more expressive and less precious with my lining; thinking about it more than doing it. Which is a method that seems a lot more fruitful in better line quality than before.

2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?

I found having both scamps and restricted dimensions to be incredibly helpful as it is an easy way to create a full idea of what the image is without having to draw it all out. Also drawing in set dimensions beforehand allows you to not have to fuss about re composing your image. Scamps are also great ways of showing a client or art director the general plan of an image without having to have a fully illustrated piece on you.

3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these?

I have a strong sense of narrative and character, which is something I began to play more strongly on with the final brief. Going through with a narrative of character-based route make my idea generations not only quicker but more abstract than usual. I have also been complemented on my idea generations so I have been using more scamps as a way of quickly visualising these ideas.

4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?

A major issue for development is Time management, due to my poor time management the craft and finished result of my work has suffered. So becoming strict with myself on how much time to spent on ideas, development and crafting is something I will be focusing on intently. The sketchiness of my final piece of work also has to stop, I will do this by focusing more on using one line instead of several when drawing the outlines of an image but also looking and drawing more images so that I become more confident in my line work so that the sketching doesn’t happen on my final pieces. I have also had numerous notes to chose subtler colour, so I feel that developing a pintrest of different ways to approach colour as well as creating my own colour experimentation sketch book will hopefully lead to me becoming stronger and more well versed in colour within illustrative work.

5. In what way has this module introduced you to the Ba (Hons) Illustration programme? By blogging as away of reflection it’s forced me to be more critical of the work I am doing and more aware of the things that need improvement. I also find that by this module only having 2 weeks per brief I have become less precious over work and began to head peoples advice more as well as develop more ideas for a project within a short amount of time. And by having the large crits at the end I have noticed patterns of both success and things that need to be improved in my work.

OUIL403 Play Play Play- Final Images and Evaluation

I didn't get the text finished on time and wasn't able to practice the composition of it. However as the one I spent the most time on I felt that the craft and composition of the image was the best out of all the ones I did. 

With this piece the main issue with it was the composition, I hadn't look into a type template that would be large enough to fill the full page therefore denying me the ability to make the characters clearer to see and the paper craft of this one easier to manipulate. 

This final image had the least amount of development and was, probably the most obscure as it was a fair big size. As you can see it has not full been complete and the bottom image is the draft of this. What this piece really taught me was that I have to learn to time manage better and learn to create extra wiggle room within those time tables for outside factors which affect my work. 

Evaluation

A major issue that arose with this brief was my time management. Creating and developing 3 coherent images was something I found difficult within the time constraint due to me working more on certain images than others.

I also acknowledge my use of vibrant colours which some people can find difficult to look at, however unless I feel the brief call for or it specifically asks for muted colour I see know reason to not use more vibrant colours as a lot of work tends not to becoming lost within the mass. Though I understand that a tone or two duller will make it easier for people to look at so it is something I will research into; creating bold colours that don’t visually impair the onlooker.

I did however think the paper crafting was a success as the layered block colours against the line based background looked very striking when the image was finished. I got a lot of positive response form my character design and as characters and narrative is something I am really interested in it’s good to know that it is a strong area of my work. But I still need to look at my refinement and cleaning up my images more although I went to lengthy processes to make sure the pencil work was barely viable (through tracing paper) it was still an issue for some.

OUIL403 Play Play Play-Development of ideas

I used  template lettering to draw the trolls in because my hand writing is very poor. It allowed me the flexibility to adapt the women to the lettering as many times as I wanted.

Looking at paper craft for the images, however after realising the amount of time it would take to craft all the piece I decided only to paper craft a few as a way of highlighting each image.

With the Text and Image I decided to work on the sisters meeting at a fair however instead of the fair bizarre with the skeleton feotus which was very vague I decided that they would meet at a regular fair. However one sister would be part of the fair as one of the member of the freak show.

Final designs for the sister and the beginning of working on how to compose this piece so that if the text was not read the image could still make sense.

At first all the compositions where too complex and showed too much landscape. 

Looked at using a carousel as it is is an instantly recognised symbol for a fair so I began looking at how to compose it without having to do a heavily detailed background and  after having a conversation with Matt decided on the bottom right composition. 

Looking at how to pose the "lost" sister in a way that shows her more rebellious and relaxed personality.

With both paper cuts I was figuring out the mechanics of how to create the more fluid poses I can sometimes get from line with paper craft instead.