Studio Brief 1 - Initial Brief

For my initial brief I had to produce an illustrated interpretation of my partners initials based on their responses to the questionnaire and interview that formed part of the studio workshop. It had to be just black and white and be presented in A2 portrait format.

I used the interview and questionnaire of my partner to chose ten words which worked best to describe and represent her.
The words I chose were:

• Ireland
• Painting
• Books
• Duvet
• Ocean
• Orange
• Internet
• Friends (TV series)
• Tidy
• Buffalo 66 (DVD) 

I then picked 8 and folded an A1 sheet 8x8 to use a row for each word. For this I got rid of 'orange' and 'friends' as I thought these were either too vague or specific. In every one of the 8 boxes for each column I depicted 8 different drawings to portray the word. I actually found this really hard as I am used to spending ages on my work and producing something very detailed and lifelike. So just creating thumbnails of the concept and idea was challenging for me.
Then I created another similar sheet.



After this I began to experiment with adapting initials to represent each word or multiple words. I still found this extremely challenging and doing it didn't feel at all natural to me.

However after talking about it with Matt and with the group I started to understand how I should be thinking towards these small illustrations; instead of trying to represent them accurately and make them look realistic I decided to aim for simple yet thought out thumbnails.
I think it is clear that my last sheet was my most successful as by then I had started to get to grips with the systematic approach and also knowing that I could use factors from the previous image in the next meant I worked a lot quicker and produced many more sketches.

I then chose five of my favourite images to enlarge to A5 using the photocopier. Matt suggested that I included a simple design of a girl leaning over to paint; creating a 'C', which is art I don't normally create but I think this project really helped me to understand the art in the simple, and to think more about shapes and effectiveness.

Then we were put together into small groups to talk about our projects and our work so far. My group consisted of Tom, Orla, Lewis, Alice and Paul. All had many aspects which inspired me; I liked the tones in Toms work; the simplicity and sense of movement in Orla's tap dancing 'A'; Lewis's portraits and free line; Alice's fun combination of a princess and pirate; and Paul's use angles and interesting techniques such as a woodblock effect. However, some of them had not followed the brief and were creating work that was good but irrelevant. My feedback from the group was that my work was effective as it used a simple form to communicate an image and idea but that in specific pieces I could change a few things such as adding moons and stars to the background of my 'duvet' image and leaving the letter blank in the bookshelf and leaving the rest full of books (reverse it). 

We discussed common issues and came up with a few; 

• It was hard to get relaxed about creating bad ideas and just going with the flow and moving onto the next square.
• It was hard to avoid getting caught up in what the final image would look like and instead focus on creating as many ideas as possible.

I then needed to think about my choices of media and positioning on the A2 page. I also needed to choose the initial designs I would use in my poster. I used my sketch book to experiment with these ideas. 

This piece by Pete Fowler reminded me of my ideas for the initials.

I continued to experiment within my sketchbook trying out layout ideas and combining both initials into one image. I wanted to do the simple curved body as it looks visually effective and still answers the brief. However, I found it appeared really weird next to another letter and I started getting bored of that design as it didn't show much love for painting, or any of her other interests.

Some of my sketch book pages: 

I was struggling with some of my ideas and decided to look around for some other artists work for inspiration on blogs etc.

After seeing this piece of artwork on Pinterest I began to think about combining characters positions to portray the letters. I thought this would be better as I am more interested in a more realisistic depiction of the human form, plus it meant that I could include multiple interests such as both reading and painting. I realised that I could create both a 'C' and an 'O' through just adding two more characters to form a small line joining the ends of the C together. 

I drew out some thumbnails and ideas in my sketch book: 

I looked at portraying seven different aspects of her character but all in the same form as her. i used her distinct long black hair and fringe to signify that these all resemble the same individual. The interests I targeted were a love for: oil painting, reading, duvets, Buffalo 66, the ocean, ireland and tidiness. 

After doing sketchbook work I realised the proportions needed to have some reference. To do this I did some primary research and took some of my own photographs of my friend in similar poses. It was hard to get the exact poses I had sketched out however I think I got as close as possible, plus they were just used to get a general idea of positioning and perspective. 

These are some of my reference photographs: 

I then printed them of the computer and cut and stuck them onto an A3 size to work with positioning them:

After I was sure about the layout I drew over the top to visualise how the final illustration would look like, I just used black fine liner to do this: 

I then used my phone to change the effects to monochrome so that I could clearly visualise shadings and colour blocks:

I was really happy with the layout and design so I decided to start on my final A2 piece. Even though I did have my prototype poster to guide me I still had to focus a lot in order to get the correct proportions and positioning. I also needed to ensure the expressions and emotions were portraying the right message. 

First I drew the rough design out in pencil and then went over it in pencil again this time adding more details and clearer lines:

Then I went over it in a black fine liner to clear up the lines and secure the image:

I then added water colour to add shading  to the work: 

To finish off I used pencil to shade in and add texture to the image.My final illustration:

Overall I think my piece works well mainly due to the inclusion of many of her favourite things as well as managing to create her initials O C. I think it has a calm dreamy atmosphere to it just like a lot of her interests and likes, for example the ocean, reading and painting. However I feel I could have created a more simple and effective piece like the preliminary work I produced. If I were to do it again I would look at a less obvious representation and look more into the symbolism and message these interests suggest. This would benefit my work as it would appeal more to the audience catching their attention and stick in their minds more. 

In regards to media I am not sure if I should have left it toneless and just focused on line work instead; this would be something I'd experiment with more if were to do the project again. 

My peer feedback was that it reflected Orla really well and fulfilled the brief, but that I could have experimented and developed more. Also my work bounces off the Pinterest inspiration a lot which meant that for someone looking through my sheets then to my final piece there wasn't a strong connection, however I think it is a clear progression from human form in simplistic terms to directly create the initials to human form representationally used to directly create the initials. 

I have learnt that it is important to get the ideas down onto the page and not focus too much on how perfect it is drawn or how well represented it is initially. This allows you more choice and exploration as it frees you from focusing too much on technique.
I have also learnt to plan out layout and experiment as much as possible with it, for example in your sketch book, especially if your final is a different size or shape to your drafts. This allows for error and means that you can figure out the best way to display your work.
I learnt that you must visually explain your thinking process, as my sheets don't seem to naturally flow to my sketchbook work if you are a viewer and don't understand the process.