Study Task 2 - What's the story? Cont.

I had a busy weekend in Sheffield over the weekend and decided to take a few photos of churches I went by with the little time that I had.

University of Sheffield Drama School (formerly Glossop Road Baptist Church). I find this spire interesting as it belongs to a building that is no longer a church, and is therefore an "odd one out" with the rest of the images I have taken. And makes the need of the spire questionable.

St Mark's Church 

A Church in the distance that unfortunately I did not have time to get any closer to.

Study Task 2 - What's the story? cont.

I went out and took more photos at St John's church, the oldest church in Leeds city centre:

However it was unfortunately closed due to a "lack of volunteers", so I was restricted to taking photos of its exterior, which I still found to be quite photogenic.

I then took photos of the spire of St George's church as I thought it was potentially quite important to get the exterior of my locations as well as the interior. 

This allows greater reflection on what I see when I enter the building as I can compare and contrast impressions of the building before and after entering the structure.

While doing this, I found the spires and architecture of the buildings themselves to be quite nice to look at, feeling that the restriction I faced at St John's church might not have been so bad after all, inspiring me to appreciate the outside of the buildings.

Study Task 2 - What's The Story? cont.

Visit to St Anne's Cathedral:

My next destination to collect research was St. Anne's Cathedral. 

Some more sketches of "church life", done at St. Anne's Cathedral, showing the various people that I observed going in and going about their business, most of which was praying.

 What I like about these sketches:

• They are documentative
• They contrast greatly with the drawings done at the carol concert in terms of the mood they convey
• They show a more traditional view of who goes into a church/what people do

Towards the end of my sitting, this man walked in with a crazy hair style and so I did several quick studies of him because of how interesting he looked.

Study Task 2 - What's The Story?

The 5 potential questions of further enquiry I brought to the group tutorial were:
-What are all the different piecesored clothing people wear at the shopping center?
-What was the man in the red suit's story?
-Is the church hiding a secret by forcing people to buzz in?
-What did the man in the church mean by "the elves would do the killing"?
-Was that kid in the shopping center bunking?

The tutorial was spent discussing the possibility of following the question about the man in the red suit, but when I showed the sketches I had done at a Christmas Carol Concert at the church I re-visited, it was suggested I followed that.

So for my further research I think I will continue to look at churches, taking photos, drawing from life and researching their histories and other interesting historical facts.

I don't yet have a question or set intent with my research, but I think something to keep in mind will be to compare what I see, as this may help me come up with one.

Visual Language Study Task 4 - Shape and Texture cont.

For the collage tasks of visual language I'm setting up a comical battle between a giant Galapagos tortoise and Marine Iguana, similar to those seen in Japanese Kaiju films such as Godzilla. For this, I have also designed a title logo:

Logo designs in both english and japanese

Japanese logo text cleaned up in Adobe Illustrator, took a lot longer than I hoped it would have due to having to re-trace and adjust every character, but worth it in the end.

Both posters coloured on Photoshop with completed titles. I've noticed Japanese movie posters generally have much bolder text, and is not often similar to the same fonts/type we get in Western posters

The 6-page parody epic that is Nigel VS George. 

OUIL405 Study Task 1 - Find a seat.

My three seats were:
-St. George's Church
-Fab Cafe
-Starbucks in The Light shopping centre

Key observations at St. George's Church:

• They are setting up for Christmas and for a contemporary carol worship band that weekend, overheard a woman saying how excited she was
• Probably the most modern church I've been to
• Everyone here is in such a good mood and is happy
• "Altar" looks more like a stage
• I had to be buzzed in to enter, which was odd

Key questions:

• What did the man mean when I overheard him say "The elves would do the killing"?
• Was everyone here happy because they're Christian, or is that just circumstantial?
• Is that worth thinking about?
• What kind of church buzzes people in?

I was given a booklet of facts by Brian, the church caretaker - he told me that the church was build in 1838, suits 1600 people to accommodate the growing Christian population and changing environment, there is a large student population, the crypt was opened in the 1930s, but is now used as a soup kitchen for the homeless, etc.

Key Observations at Fab Cafe:

• Smelt like a mixture of urine and lager
• Was playing Tim Burton's Batman
• Full of memorabilia
• There was a pub quiz going on that night
• Round 2 of the quiz was Harry Potter themed
• Guy sitting next to us was determined that "Bono" was the answer to every question.

Key Questions:

• Where do they get all this memorabilia?
• How much would it all sell for on ebay?
• I wonder if anyone comes here just to watch a movie?
• How many people here are regulars?
• Should I apply for a job here?

Key Observations at Starbucks:

• Cash lady had a very squeeky voice
• Everyone goes to Starbucks in pairs
• There's an ordinary loking guy with an oversized full red suit under an overcoat
• 12:31pm - A tall formally dressed woman meets the man in red suit
• Many people walk through this shopping centre multiple times

Key Questions:

• How did they get those huge dangling Christmas decorations in the middle of the roof?
• What was the man in red suit's meeting about?
• What was in that mysterious long package that guy in a high vis jacket was carrying?
• What's in that one window with the light on?
• Why is the Starbucks logo a mermaid?

Visual Language Study Task 4 - Shape and Texture cont.

In these two drawings I applied a thick water wash over the paper before applying watercolour afterwards in order to get a spread watery look over it. In the marine iguana image I thought about how the drawing could work as an illustration and gave it a format box

Another experiment with shape in which I drew a photographer with brush pen and then decided to re-draw him using only shapes of watercolour washes.

Visual Language Study Task 4 - Shape and Texture cont.

Finally decided to use digital means to create an image for visual language. I used a tablet to draw out the shapes on Photoshop, although Illustrator probably would've been a more appropriate program to use for the particular look I was going for, though the end result is still the same.

I will probably try and experiment with adding texture on this image a little later

Another experiment where I scanned in a wash of brusho from my sketchbook and then digitally drew an iguana for it fit into:

Probably one of my favourite images I've done using shape. The wash of brusho works so well with the neat and tidy shape of the iguana and the white lines help to define the iguana just enough.

Another attempt at using brusho to create shape and form. I wanted to see how far I could get just with traditional means. It is less aesthetically pleasing than the iguana mixed with digital, but still interesting in its own right.

End of module self evaluation

I think a key skill that I have developed throughout this module, and particularly this latest brief, is the ability to persevere with a single idea, developing it, and making it the best idea I can before executing the final resolution. I think this perseverance shows through the experimentation I did in Studio Brief 4 in which I progressed through several ideas and tests before going ahead with my final three illustrations. Though I may not have produced my best work by the end of the brief, the whole process to get there was a valuable experience, and I feel as though each brief I’ve been set has been a similar story.

The varied nature of the briefs has given me an opportunity to try out a fairly wide range of media. This experimentation has led to me becoming more considerate of the scale/aesthetic of my developed work in relation to media. With the exception of studio brief 3, each of my final resolutions has been made using a process or method which I do not usually work in.  Therefore in terms of experimentation, I find studio brief 3 to be the weakest, as I fell back on using pen and a gouache wash, since I didn't have time to be more adventurous due to my initial struggle with the brief.

I think my development work and use of sketchbook throughout the module has been strong. This is supported by the feedback that I have been getting from peer and tutor reviews. I think the ideas that I come up with for each brief are varied, allowing me to be selective in regards to what I develop into a finished piece. However it was noted that the amount of development work I did for each brief was inconsistent, which I need to address in future. I think the development I did for studio brief 4 was the strongest and most adventurous “journey”, and is definitely what I need to be doing more of.

In the initial brief, we were asked to produce two sheets of 64 thumbnail ideas. While I was not a stranger to thumb nailing quick ideas on a sheet, I had never done it in such a large quantity. I feel that the exercise was useful for that project, but was not a method of working in I particularly enjoyed; I appreciate the skill it tried to develop, but I felt as though I was putting down ideas just for the sake of it. In future, I would like to get better at being able to throw out quick, rough ideas so that I can give myself even more ideas to work with. I feel as though sometimes I am too precious with ideas. I also would like to give myself more time to work on my final outcomes, which would naturally make them look better. These two points are related; if I can achieve the first the second will come naturally. I would also like to give myself more time to experiment with materials/stock so that I don’t go working into my final resolution blindly.

Studio Brief 4 Final Resolutions

These are my 3 resolutions for the 4th studio brief.

• I think that doing them on fabric was a much more interesting solution than just using paper. Similarly, using a round shape for the third illustration was most appropriate.
• I think turning them into a sort of narrative with figures climbing a cliff and then skydiving off was a good idea.
• Painting on the fabric was extremely difficult and meant that with the time I had, I could not work into the paint as much as I wanted to and so it looks messy
• Using pen for the figures meant that the figures looked more controlled.
• The feedback I received suggests that the quote or idea is not very well communicated, which I can agree with.
• Actual painting technique is quite far removed from Fauvism which is what I had in mind at the beginning but lost ventured away from.