Etching Inspiration

see PPP blog: http://e-santos-gandhi1316ppp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/etching-inspiration.html

Responsive - live briefs/competitions

http://www.dandad.org/en/xl-recordings-illustrate-label-history/
XL Recordings - Illustrate Label History:
I chose this brief because first and foremost, it involves a subject matter that I'm relatively interested in - I had known about XL Recordings for a long time now, but now after actually visiting their website I've realized that several artists that I'm interested in are signed to them, such as The xx, Ratatat and Jungle. Also working on producing a music-related illustration last year was really fun, so hopefully this would be too.

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/pan-macmillan
Alice in Wonderland - 150th Anniversary
Very straight forward brief involving the creation of a book cover and two interior illustrations. Book cover design has always really interested me so I think this would be a good way to get a taste for what it's like. Also the thought of having work displayed on a scale as wide as a book jacket is always an exciting prospoect.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/index.php
Penguin Book cover
Another straight forward cover illustration brief., which interests me for reasons similar to the Alice in Wonderland brief. I think that this competition also offers a great opportunity in terms of the work placement and of course, the prize money. I think having the opportunity to read one of a selection of books for the competition also makes it seem more appealing.

More visual journal play - this represents the erratic nature of Naked Lunch - the text is like a fragmentation of Burroughs' thoughts, so here's his head coming apart

More subtle version. I may develop these for printed/moving pictures.

This was really time consuming but really fun! 13 frames of animation. I thought the spoon looked really mishapen and off while drawing the frames but seeing it in motion they look fine. I even got a nice animation smear going to suggest faster motion when the spoon is at its highest point. 

Good warm-up for the animation to come.

Spoon head

Surreal idea - portrait of a heroin addict incorporating motif of spoon and needle.

Play with crop to see if I can still convey heroin addiction less literally:

I want to do another version traditionally based on the initial sketch as the digital approach is a bit sterile

Coloured version and crop experiments:

Went with a scratchy brush to convey a worse mood as opposed to just doing flat shading. I think it's more a suitable way to go about illustrating heroin addiction, but I think I need more practice with it to make my brush strokes look more deliberate and less mindlessly chaotic.

Self-evaluation and rationale

What 5 things have I gained from this work and how will this impact on my practice?

1. Visual play has shown to be really important in pushing ideas further when given an initial starting point, similar to COP last year which helps kick start projects.
2. Use of texture is really helping to bring the work to life and set atmosphere and mood and is something I want to use more of in future.
3. Format of set tasks has allowed for quick generation of ideas - i.e., being told to do 12/16 ideas in one go: 
   
4. Using collage to push us out of our comfort zone and create more varied work is making the images I produce more interesting.
5. Being given a task which focused purely on line, and then another in which we do shape, before combining them into a sheet of 16 has helped to make me think harder about what methodology I use when making work.

What 5 things do I intend to explore further through my visual journal and why?

1. According to the peer feedback sheet, my use of collage was quite strong so I want to experiment with that further:
   
2. I want to explore how different line qualities can change up more finished pieces of work, since some of the lines have given images an interesting quality.
3. I've been using minimal amounts of colour to convey a certain mood, but might try and add a bit more to see how it affects the mood I currently have going.
4. See how I can incorporate traditionally created textures to suitably enhance the mood of the images.
5. Incorporate elements of foreground, mid ground and background into the image through layering:
   

What themes do I intend to explore further through my visual journal and how will I explore these visually?

I want to explore drug addiction on a wider scale, such as rehabilitation, long-term and short-term effects and how it affects people's lives.

Many photographers have explored the world of heroin addicts and their works will be interesting to look at.

I want to further play with texture to convey any more emotions I come across as I continue to look into the subject.

How do these themes relate to your research into your chosen author?

Drug addiction was a big part of Will Burroughs' life and his books are very much focused on this side of his life

What research activities will I undertake in order to explore these themes further and how will these inform your work?

• Continue reading Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" in order to discover more visually rich inspiration to draw from.
• Could re-watch "Trainspotting" in order to observe another interpretation of the struggles of a heroin addict and the environment in which it's found.
• Read firsthand experiences and stories from various sources about heroin users.

The intangible

12 pieces that try to represent the intangible - I'm trying to illustrate the theme/idea of drug addiction in some, the cut-up nature of Burroughs' work in others and in some both at once. 

I've also introduced the motif of veins, which helps to suggest the use of heroin. The more abstract pieces have helped me to get a grasp of what sort of mood I want to convey with the rest of my illustrations

I think the broken up images of the head and arm are quite powerful in showing both the effects of drugs and the nature of Burroughs' head as he wrote "Naked Lunch" (though I'm not trying to explicitly illustrate that book at the moment).

The last image of the veins of the head cut out from the red sheet was another experiment in trying to represent drug use more subtly by making a creepy looking face that would represent the world of "Naked Lunch"

16 images

Sheet of 16 images of the motif using line and collage to create them. I ended up making these a lot simpler than I think I should have, but I think experimenting a bit with cut shape and collage was useful and produced interesting results, particularly having made some textures on them with quink.

In the group feedback session, I was told I need to play a lot more with composition and potentially scale.

Themes/motifs

Workshop: Take 3 motifs per sheet and illustrate them using differently line qualities as per the "line directory" exercise. For the second sheet, the motifs were taken and then drawn using only their outline. 

It was difficult to illustrate the more detailed images like the hand and syringe, but I think the heated spoon looks good with the rocky lines in the third box. This change in line quality could be good at conveying different moods.

Taking 3 of the motifs and composing them into an image:

These take into account the different line styles and weights that we've been experimenting with to create elements that are in the foreground, background and midground.

I like the idea of the molecular structure of heroin being a large, light presence either in the foreground (as in the second image) or in the background behind the other elements.

My favourite is probably the bottom right one The needle is what I consider to be the most important and identifiable motif so I made it most bold. I think if I had moved the molecular structure of heroin to the left a bit more to fill up the empty space the composition would feel a lot tighter.

Mindmap

Mindmap collecting some information about Burroughs that I learnt through research

A bit of visual play: shattered glass to represent what Burroughs was aiming to shoot when he accidentally killed his wife, a visual representation of the cut-up and play concept of the literary cut-up technique that was used in much of Burroughs' work.