These are the next 15 drawings for the holiday project, unfortunately I didn't manage to do them in two days, there's something in me that just won't let me do a really quick drawing. I think it's because in the past they've turned out boring and usually nobody likes them or I'll try and do something different and nobody understands what it's trying to communicate. The part of the brief telling us to think laterally and not do cliches worried me somewhat, it's something I find hard, thinking laterally not avoiding cliches because I've got it inbuilt to dislike them. What are the reasons I find thinking laterally hard and how can I get better? First reason: I actually really like literal things so long as they're interesting to look at or done using symbols or something. I don't know if this is an atual problem to be solved, but I will in the future judge things as better the more novel the route you have to take to get to it's meaning, that could be lateral things and also literal things in particularly well thought out styles. Maybe if i start thinking about this more I'll be able to apply it to making my own work. (The second and third reasons are really personal and not that relevent, I just read this http://www.arts.ac.uk/cetl/visual-directions/flash/reflective/flash_reflective.htm and I feel a bit stupid having written all that out now, I'll leave it there to teach myself a lesson.) Second reason: Years of low self esteem have hammered me into a person scared of thinking laterally so I never learnt, but that sort of thing is not what this blog is for... Third reason: I get worried I'll do a poor job if I get tired or I'm in the wrong mood so I take way too many breaks and get distracted and the days fly by. I'm trying to overcome this today and finish all the blogging I need to do whether I get tired or not, it's just me being freaked out by a new course worrying I can't do anything good enough but I'm paying £9000 x3 so I may as well just do the best I can and stop worrying.
This is the first image I made of the 15, I tried to start making a quick image but one that was still interesting using black ink and paint to try and be expressive so the image wouldn't be boring. I was going to try and communicate really simply because I thought that was the only thing I could produce quickly so I did really simple faces on the left one supposed to be originally encountering the person on the right then two different possible situations underneath. I was trying to do the most basic faces I could that weren't too 'boring', at that point for some reason I thought shapes floating about too close to each other was 'not boring'. I think this is really unsuccessful, it's composed terribly and people probably won't be able to follow it, I think I could have done this better if I'd sat and thought a while about the left hand side, the right is not as bad because I focused on thinking about that. I could possibly have even just had the happy yellow brain with a grey mask on it's own and just developed it so it made sense more. There were too many afterthoughts in this.
This one is OK, I learnt to like the effect of wax then ink on top on the foundation course and have found it really useful as a bold negative version of black lines, it was actually made quickly as well. What made this go well? I did the first five images in one night and I did this one at the end of the night when I was getting into the swing of drawing, it could be that or it could be that it was a really simple concept to draw 'say what you think' if that's true maybe I can make myself produce better images by simplifying the sentence I have in my head that I'm supposed to illustrate.
The concept for this one was OK but I've just drawn it badly, looking at in on a computer screen where you can't really see any detail that might have made it look better I think it needs something other than pencil, but then that could have made it more confusing like the first image. This is like a sketch to work out what I want in an image, then I could have done soemthing more interesting afterwards if it wasn't supposed to be quick. i should have dwelled more on the idea and found a way of drawing that wouldn't look so half hearted paired with the it.
I thought this one communicated quite well, but that's only because it uses a cliche so maybe it's not so good. This is the sort of thing I'd need honest feedback on I don't know if it's too cliched or not. I like the colours, rich dark colours on white look sort of classy, or tastefully decorative.
I thought the idea for this one was quite good and suited the sincere way I feel about the subject (symbolic things seem sincere to me), a clock carrying thought bubbles, I went for pencil because I thought the subject was quite subdued sounding and serious ('needing time to think') then I used lines on ink to set it in a desert canyon because the clock looked a bit like a vulture and the rest looked melancholy or sort of lonely. Also I didn't want it to be any more cheesy by making the backround a cloudy sky. The border is because it needed containing to make it look less scruffy and doodly, and also because the black and white pencil looked like an old photograph (that might have a border round it). I should have drawn the clock before I drew the thought bubbles, the whole thing looks doodled but the clock looks worst, I think because I had to draw it so small. Picking out main subjects and thinking most about them, seems a good idea.
For a lot of the time I was making this one it didn't look like it was going to turn out well but I added a load of finishing touches and that made it better, finishing touches are quite important. I also think although painting takes me a long time, it does make me produce more finished looking images (I painted a LOT in pre foundation year studies) so I should do it more.
With this one I decided to do illustrations that were more for use with some writing to explain them nearby, I enjoy that more because I can be more imaginative without having to worry about people not understanding me, I don't like to keeo doing that though because I do need to get better at communicating just with images. I don't know how to get better at communicating through image alone, I need help with that.
This one I did after a long break so I had a lot of time to think about it. I feel a fraud when images look good only after I spent ages thinking about them. Producing a sort of set and then sticking characters in there was really fun, I should remember that method.
I used to think this image was successful at communicating without words then I asked my sister and she didn't understand it, I added the words, but made sure they weren't that explicit because I assumed that would be too literal (now I think about it it probably would have suited the image a lot better, I should note that distinction between what words to use and that some images suit different types of worded explanation) I showed my mum and she didn't understand even with the words, she thought what I had drawn as lava streams underground was a tree and the faces weren't anthropomorphised lava but people running away from the lava. I should not sacrifice clearness for expressive ways of drawing, especially when the drawing is as small as this.
I found a technique I like in this image, depressing part of the image and using a different material for it to communicate. I also learnt that blowing ink to make random, exciting looking lines has limitations, like it can start looking like a mess really quickly, but it's ok if you don't mind it taking over the image and you factor it in properly, or you're really careful.
Again I used too many expressive lines on the cloud blowng the tree, I should look at ways other than scruffy lines to express ideas or something.
This was a really quick idea i should have thought for longer about, but I think I started this at the end of a night again so I just wanted to finish it. Part of me thinkgs it needs more levels to it, like a lower level at least to make things stand out more. The other part likes how flat and consistently bright the image is, it was supposed to refer to old neon coloured video games so maybe it works because it looks like a screen. I enjoy the brightness and boldness of the felt tip pens I used for it, also being restricted to less colours was fun (I should use felt tips when I'm tryin to plan a print so I don't use too many colours by accident).
I found the technique of mottled black felt tip ink on plastic which makes a slick sort of stoney or rough rubbery look (it looks better than in this photo) earlier in the holidays and based the whole idea around getting to use it, I chose it for the image for 'networking' though because networking sounds professional and scary to me. I am pleased with the slightly hidden layer of talking fish and the octopus' book in this because for a representation which is kind of silly, it gives it a bit of depth so it suits more serious subjects (In my opinion, I need to ask other people about that).
I learnt that conte crayons are actually really nice for drawing surfaces and making a nice colourful image relatively quickly in this one, I always used to hate them, and also collage funnily enough and I actually think it looks intriguing here and nice and bright. I was inspired by a bit of illustration I saw at Middlesex uni open day that was about black hole research I think, it used the same combination of colour and technical or boring old fashioned looking photos to make it interesting to children (I think). The subject of this 'getting access to printing facilities' is kind of a boring thing to have to draw as well. I recognise the technique though, I think it's been done a lot before, cartoony images plus more dry photographs. Perhaps I could have done this better by adding a transition from photo to cartoon rather than leaving the photos jutting out, that seems less cliched.
I had the idea of making 'knowledge and support' little beasts being released from a box, it came after thinking about pandoras box. Briefly I considered geting some actual wood and veneering the image inspired by the cool patterned veneered boxed you see at car boot sales but that would have taken forever and wasn't worth it, I still want to try it out though. I actually thought laterally in this one which I am happy about, I think it happened because I thought of a way of representing the subject I was comfortable with (beasts). I used pictures of some trees and forests and some planks instead of pictures of wooden surfaces to collage which gave more interesting textures that were sort of pleasently conflicting with the usual veneer, I think it made the image more positive/ less boring.
This sort of achieved what I wanted in the first picture I did of these 15, it was quick and I thought it up quickly and it's relatively simple, what's different I suppose which made it more successful is it's things I enjoy drawing and also know how to compose. I also put words in there because it wouldn't make literal sense without them, this is what I sacrificed for getting to draw something I enjoy more...
At some point I will read all of this back and summerise what I've learnt through having a think about my work.
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