Presentation Boards

Mega Crit - 10/12/18

The final crit left me feeling relieved after having doubts about the amount of work I had. I’ve had a few doubts about the work I’ve produced over the module but laying it out for display made me realise how much I’ve produced. The feedback I received from peers made me feel slightly more prepared for the overbearing deadline next week.

The feedback mentioned that the work I have produced has been considered strongly to work collectively which I personally I wasn’t sure of. The work was displayed in an organised manner as I hope the presentation and order of my process is clear for submission. The methodical process of work seems clear I apparently work in a neat and controlled fashion. The text used in the designs has been considered to fit alongside the visual aspect of the work and is strong enough to stand alone which is something I’ve tried to explore throughout the module.

The practical outcomes of my work have been described as punchy and exciting. I mentioned in the presentation boards that making my own poster workshop would have been an exciting opportunity. This was an ambitious idea for the time period of the module although the experience would have strengthened my knowledge of the subject further. The feedback mentions how the topic of Brexit seems quite difficult as it’s quite recent – they were right. The media is swimming with articles about Brexit but finding possible law changes was extremely difficult. Thankfully, but sadly, the animal welfare laws covered by the EU have already altered, giving me a lot more content to research and work with practically.

The synthesis between my theoretical and practical research has been reviewed as strong and the presentation boards have been strong in outlining this. The relationship between the two is consistent throughout, with the screen prints relating more closely to editorial illustrations that take a longer period of time.

If I were to continue the concept of this brief further I would continue making work ‘I give a shit about’. The subject I covered is something I am passionate about and would love to continue it further. Especially, relating to the current state UK politics is in. I would possibly explore mediums at larger scales and have the intention of opening a print workshop in my basement one day with my own screen printing set up. If this was to happen, I’d have to find some people in Leeds that would partake.

My work has been described as provoking, informing and exciting and I hope to continue my political ideas further in the future.

New GIFs

Mega Group Crit 19/11/18

The feedback I have received during this mega crit appears to be a lot more positive than the previous session which has aided me in wanting to progress further with my current idea of how animal testing may be reintroduced into the UK because of Brexit. I have been provided with new information which I haven’t considered myself throughout my research such as the use of more texture which could be handmade and altered digitally relating back to my research question. 

I need to start finalising my ideas further. I often seem to get stuck in a rut of creating development work in my sketchbook but never exploring at a larger scale and making more ‘final’ pieces which a peer has pointed out in the feedback as I seem to already have a sufficient amount of ideas but need to develop them further. 

The current highest qualities of my work are the text involving colour being striking and relatable to the content of my work (blue and yellow – representation of the EU flag). The use of repetition of my planned screen prints has also been pointed out in the feedback because of the clear message of mass use of animals in animal testing. 

I could possibly further clarify my current development work by developing my designs into more finalised pieces of work such as screen prints (this is hard because there’s not much time to drop in) and consider interpreting the colours of the EU flag in my designs with subtly to more closely relate it back to Brexit making them more understandable when out of context. 

According to my feedback I have shown a critical understanding of the subject that I am exploring (animal testing) and could easily develop these into more finalised pieces, such as prints. It has also been suggested that I could refer back to the current world issues that I mentioned in my sketchbook and develop these ideas further and look further into how animal testing affects the environment in various ways.

Fellow peers have advised me to…

• Stick with the colours blue and red/blue and yellow because of their relevance.
• Consider the composition of my posters.
• Explore print making and further paper cutting.
• Make more finalised images.

Image Analysis (Case Studies)

•  Symbolic colour (representative of blood, violence and Labour)
• Screenprint
• 1968
• Motif - housing (often seen in protest posters) weapon (usually a gun) connotations of violence. 
• Splitting the building in half (relates to point above)
• This particular image is still relevant today - relates to Varoom quotes about artists getting commissions for construction sites to distract people.

•  Contemporary editorial illustration 
• Digital 
• 2017
• Minimal colour again 
• Big hand/fist - similar motif to posters from 60s.
• Pinstripe suit is a representation of wealth.

•  Screenprint 
• 1968 
• Symbolic clenched fit motif 
• Text is easy to read from a distance (bold, capital letters)
• Slogan is straight to the point (like many of the 1960s protest posters).

•  France 1968
• 2 colour screen print 
• Glasses, suit and large mouth - representation of rich, 'man in charge', capitalism.

•  France, 1968
• Screenprint 
• Considered text placement inside arms choking the man thinning his not
• Composition - 3 arms (rule of 3, central placement of hat character)
• The main point of text 'SOLIDAIRES' bigger than other parts - shows importance - most readable from a distance. 

• 1968-71
• Screen print 
• Use of text is the focal point of this image 
• The sentence is extremely bold - risky thing to say (especially when looking back and reading it today) 

Research - Articles/Quotes/Websites etc

Useful links:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j7YvDXotpo
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/02/18/families-face-continued-wage-squeeze-pay-growth-standstill/
• http://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/remembering-1968-the-poster-workshop-1968-71/
• https://www.alumni.lse.ac.uk/s/1623/interior-hybrid.aspx?sid=1623&gid=1&pgid=1008

Mega Group Crit - 29/10/18

The feedback given at during the mega crit made me question my current work slightly. I’m well aware that I need to make more work and I wish I had more prepared to show my peers. Some of the feedback I received was related to the ideas I’d already considered in my head because of this making some feedback slightly less useful than others (this is my own fault). The feedback has made me question where my work is headed as I have been slightly unclear on where to go and whether to just stick to a specific subject (such as animal testing) or delve further into the changing laws surrounding Brexit.  

A lot of the feedback asks whether I plan on focusing on one specific subject or looking at more changes caused by Brexit which is something I need to think about further, considering time and extra research. Although, I also received praise for taking the aesthetics of 1960s protest posters and using them to cover more modern topics such as Brexit. I plan on further exploring different mediums that would fit under the same naïve, flat appearance of the prints and focus on how this could be made affective in modern society. 

Reviewing the feedback, I need to continue playing with shape. For example, experimenting more with the shapes of the animals. Could there be more emphasis on the scale or contortion of the animals’ body. As well as testing more with colour, which I have been struggling with slightly as I feel obligated to use a singular colour trying to relate my work too closely to the protest posters of the past. I could further experiment with more use of colour by still continuing to use one colour but considering line and texture to separate each area. 

I plan on also tightening up my research question to make it more suitable to the work I am creating in response to Brexit. Is it just the aesthetics of the 1960s protest posters that generated the possibility of a civil war in France? Or was it the physical use of a printed image and the sense of community when creating the work? Narrowing this down would drastically help me focus my practical work to create a strong opinion that stands for all. I need to consider printing my designs large scale and putting them online making them accessible for others to print out. This could create the sense of ‘we’re all in this together’ in a more contemporary fashion.

Research

Useful links:

•  http://cds.library.brown.edu/projects/1968/reference/timeline.html
• http://americanarchive.org/exhibits/first-amendment/protests-60s-70s
• http://www.lessonsite.com/archivepages/historyoftheworld/lesson31/protests60s.htm

• Timeline of events that took place throughout 1968, I picked out the pinnacle moments that relate to my subject and have posters in relation to the riots. 
• Prague Spring, Vietnam war, Martin Luther King Jr is assassinated, STUDENTS PROTEST ALL OVER THE WORLD (Paris, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Italy etc), Robert F Kennedy is assassinated, CHICAGO DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

GIF Making

Experimenting with making GIFs using my photocopied pieces. Adds a more modern approach to the protest poster in the age of the internet. 

Could be worked on and cleaned up slightly, the marks from the scanner/photocopier look slightly messy although parts of it may add to the image of animal testing (dirty, unhygienic, cramped etc)

RESEARCH

Project Proposal/Presentation Feedback 08/10/18

Questioning Naive Art 

Possible question ideas:

• How is the aesthetic of naive art is used in illustration, specifically editorial?
• How is naive/primitive art used in the contemporary illustration world?

Naive Art - "Naive art is any form of visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing).

• Refine research further - am I exploring naive art or editorial?
• What is the point of editorial illustration? Does it need to go alongside an article or can it stand alone? 

Sharing my ideas with others after a long summer of being alone with COP has pushed me considerably further forwards. At the moment my themes/ideas seem a bit broad and confused so I need to work on focusing more closely on a particular topic. Do I want to focus more closely on naïve art or editorial? Is it the aesthetic or history? At the minute I’m thinking aesthetic but who knows, after more research things might change. 

It was suggested that I focus on one specific year such as 1968 (French protest) to look at what was going on in the world in that time and how prints needed to be produced quickly to get the point across to the government or whoever in charge. When reflecting back on this, the aesthetic of the posters around this era appeal to me so I could put my soul focuses around that time. 

However, I enjoy looking into contemporary editorial and current issues (specifically U.K. or animal based) but use the naïve/primitive aesthetic to my own work which I’ve considerably noticed a lot in many professional editorial based illustrators which is why I came up with my initial question. 

I think the timescale of this module is putting the pressure on but I know how well I can do once I have an idea and get my head down, it's just the initial start off.

So after the peer group meet up I’m feeling slightly lost for where to head. I am going to continue researching into naïve art and possibly look more closely at the year 1968 as I am aware that the world didn’t seem to be a happy place during that time period and when I consider the practical side of my development, I could respond to issues from that period with a more modern take on the approach from the posters of the time, still with the same frantic process of making the designs and continuing with the ‘print on whatever you can find’ mentality. 

Final Task

Clowns 101 Typology Poster

 Using research to help me find objects that clowns often use allowed me to create a playful poster with a sinister twist.

Clowns are associated with bright colours and lots of props, including balls, big shoes, balloons and bow ties. All of which I've included in my drawings.

 As well as bright coloured, soft and squishy objects, clowns are now more often associated with fear and violence (sometimes seen in circus performances with acts such as fake suicide and beating each other with hammers).

I wanted to include this in my designs in a subtle way.

Having plans of making this as a screen print meant I stuck with minimal colour, choosing primary colours so it was closely related to clowns.

Using minimal colour allowed the more violent objects in the poster become more subtle, meaning you have to focus on the different elements of the poster to reveal the more sinister side of objects/props that clowns have been seen using.

The Netherlands Circus

Evil Clown Research

Mass Hysteria Research

Study Task 9 - Reflective Writing

Draft Essay Feedback

Study Task 8 - Peer Review Action Plan

Practical Feedback

Study Task 7 - Reading Extended Essays

The extended essay that I read was about how editorial illustration is affected by how people view images, as well as how practitioners constantly have to learn new skills to be able to keep up with the advanced technology to make their work suitable for the modern viewer, such as moving image that can be used on digital articles. The tone of voice is more personal than academic throughout the essay which I think makes it a lot easier to understand. Different practitioners are mentioned throughout the essay with explanations on how their work creates an impact as well as how they keep their work up to date by using more modern methods of work such as Adobe Photoshop brushes, which still keeps aspects of a traditional approach. Multiple texts are mention in the introduction and then later clarified further in the second chapter where the texts are triangulated. There is a section of ‘known knowledge’ which proves that Billie was well aware of the topic before doing further research which has allowed her to use paraphrasing in this section. A number of different texts have been used to produce a strong argument which have all been included in the bibliography. The quality of research is quite high as the sources have come from different places including the internet, articles, books and various other sources. Imagery has been included at the end of the essay including a piece of her own work from her reflective practice which was an editorial based piece created in response to the extended essay.