The Untold Story Part 2: Artistic Reference - Felix Scheinberger

Felix Scheinberger

I really love this piece of work created by Felix Scheinberger, I just love the abnormal facial features and body language the character provides. The tone of voice in his work is very recognizable and provides us with a sense of humour - which os my intentions for this project. I love that this piece is very vibrant and playful and its something to consider when creating my own work.

The Untold Story Part 2: Artistic Reference - Lewis Rossignol

Looking at Line, Shape and Colour.

Today I stumbled across Illustrator/Artist Lewis Rossignol through Instagram. I'm absolutely loving his work at the moment! His working methods include a mix of digital work and traditional art which is something I am heading towards working with in my own work. 

I can really admire the simple yet complex mix of the lines, colours and shapes involved in Rossignol's work. The problem I have when it comes to drawing figures 

The Untold Story Part 1: Drawing From Interviews

Feeling a little bit stuck :(

At the moment I'm feeling slightly stuck, I'm still really really ill but I need to start making some work. I thought as a starting point it would be a good idea to start making some drawings from my interviews and maybe this could then lead me on to something.

Overall Thoughts 

• Feel like I'm not really getting anywhere. 
• I don't really have any form of direction.
• Realistically these drawings wouldn't look great in a picture book so if I am going to do anything with them they will need developing.

What's the next step from here? 

• I think it would be a really good idea to start having a look at some artists I like - maybe some ideas will start to spring??
• After looking at some inspiration I could have a go at doing some drawings that share a similar tone of voice?
• For the time being whilst I am ill I think research is a really good idea and hopefully it will allow me to move forward.

Visual Language: Collage and Ephemera

LOVE COLLAGE!

It feels as if I haven't collaged in agessssss and I was so happy to revisit! I feel as if when I'm creating collages I can be really free with it, like theres just so many possibilities and paths you can go down with collage, its so experimental and I feel as if nothing you can do with collage will ever be wrong. I've continued my circus theme and pretty much just been really free with it, with collage I never really plan what I do - I just start looking and finding shapes and images and just experimenting with them and putting things together.

What I was tying to achieve with these images was some kind of 'freak show' that you would see in a film or a tv series, I wanted to take my own twist on a circus theme. Collage is something I'm definitely going to revisit, I enjoy it so much and its been such a fab task, I think its such a good way to develop work e.g create collages, scan them in , work with them digitally, there doesnt have to be a 'final' thing its all about experimentation.

What I think went well:

• I feel as if some of my collages are quite funny, its always nice to add elements of humour into your work.
• I think the collages are quite unique, i don't think you'd see anything similar anywhere else.
• I really had fun whilst creating these and I think its evident in my work? they look really fun and energetic and thats exactly how I felt during the process!!

What could I improve on?:

• I HATE working on huge scales, I really love making cute little small collages and these were so big - I feel like I didn't use the space as well as I could done on some pieces.
• Use my time more effectively!!! I spent a lot of time locating and sourcing my imagery so maybe if I could do that a bit quicker it would give me more time to make work!
• don't be afraid of just getting straight - make some weird and wonderful stuff

The Untold Story part 1: Audio Research

Today I had a really interesting chat with my 14 year old sister.

Can I ask you a few questions really quick about a project I'm doing on Age?

Jenna: Erm, Yeah If you really want.

Okay, errr, what do you think Age is? Like if you can describe it in really simple terms what would you say?

Jenna: What? you mean like what do I think age is? errr, It's like...Smelly Old people init hahaha... or like people always say my year are horrible, so I guess Horrible 14 year olds haha.

Yeah keep going thats a good interpretation

Jenna: Yeah, Like I don't know what else to say?

Keep going, you've gone onto something quite good here, if you could stereotype an age group like you just done what would you say? 

Jenna: What like Moody men? or Annoying mums? errrr...I cant think, what about horrible sisters and boring brothers?

Eyy, no thats brill, I'll stop recoding now.

I really like her interpretations of stereotyping age genres, I think its a really interesting idea to work with, I think maybe my step from here is to do some drawings on these particular characterisations.

The Untold Story Part 1: Field Trip - Museum

Field Trip to the Museum - Thursday

With my Picture book being based on 'Age' I thought it might be worth while visiting the museum so for Thursdays field trip I decided to keep my research local as Leeds has a lovely museum! which holds a whole range of historical information and research so I thought it could be interesting to have a brief look round.

             

             

             

What I got out of my day at the Museum

I managed to sit in the museum for around a couple of hours to get some pictures and do some observational drawings. Although I am not yet fully sure on what my picture book is going to be specifically about, I thought going to the museum would be a good starting point due to the research and content the museum holds.

I managed take back some information on varied era's which were as early as 1900's-1950's whilst also sketching what was in front of me which included different types of uniforms, clothing and lots of little objects such as tea pots. In terms of Audio research I was unable to collect this whilst in the museum, this was because I had to have permission to interview the public and I couldn't just go and do it from my own will - as we did not know where to find where we could gain permission to carry out this research we had no option but to leave it out just this time. (scan in sketch book)

Overall thoughts - am I going to carry this theme through to my picture book?

As much as I enjoy researching the early era's, I don't think I will be able to do enough with this research to carry it on through to my picture book. When considering what to do with my picture book earlier on in the week and considering questions such as 'What does it mean to be 14' I think basing it on something like that would be much more successful and interesting. I also feel like I really don't have a direction at the moment which I'm feeling really unhappy about.

The Untold Story Part 1: Field Trip 2 - Collecting Audio Research

Collecting my audio Research.

Ive decided that I don't want to head into the historical direction - I don't want to focus on victorian eras or anything like that because I feel like it is a very basic subject - maybe I can interpret this theme in later on? For the time being I want to start investigating what age actually is, as at the moment I'm feeling bit lost with this brief so I need to gather some research on what the subject actually means.

Due to being really poorly I've not managed to get out and take some pictures or do any drawings, however with a little visit home I managed to get some audio research from family members to get their opinions on what they think age is. Here is a Transcript.

Catherine: 40 Years old 

Can you tell me anything interesting or anything you know about Age?

"Urmmm, Age... You learn from things more about age, you become more experienced, and things, like you become more patient and you not as fiesty as your mind from being a teenager, you kind of..every stage is different and you learn more and more at each stage, you learn more about yourself, more about the world, more about life, its like you just absorb everything more, and you kind of grow up and you learn that you don't know everything, despite what you might think when your a teenager, theres so much more to find out, theres so much more in this world.

What do you think exactly what age means and how would you describe what Age is? 

Age is like learning isn't it? Like I said before the older you get the more you learn, more life lessons you have, but I think age is just a natural process of life isn't it? its what its supposed to be, you're  supposed to grow old and die..

Can you remember what your favourite age was? And why was this? 

I don't think Ive reached it yet, I don't think I've got to my favourite age, Im hoping I'm pretty close to it, but, I'm still waiting.

What if age just didn't exist? How do you think life would differ?

well we wouldn't chanage or experience anything would we, we would just be like...just be boring wouldn't it.

Doreen: 70 Years Old

Can you tell me anything interesting or anything you know about Age? 

"I'm Old, Whats interesting about Age?...Well, I'm 70, and I still feel like I'm 16, erm..I don't wish I was 16, I'm quite happy to be 70 and you know.. have progressed beyond all the aggravations of youth, erm...I don't think...actually theres a saying that says 'youth is wasted on the young' and it is, because when your young you don't know anything and, you know, you just go ahead and you do your thing, but when you get older you realise what you should of done and you could've done and now its too late because you're too old to do it.. its like putting the chicken before the egg, it should be the other way round really, you should know all these things when your young and be able to make the most of your youth.

What do you think exactly what age means and how would you describe what Age is? 

Age is errr...Oh I can't think of the words...Its how you feel, Age is what you feel...if you feel old then you are old, if you don't feel old then you aren't old..I mean sometimes you can be when you're young you can feel like everything is you know too much and you can't do things and you can't cope with things, its not really anything to do with actual years , its a state of mind, thats the words I'm looking for..Age is a state of mind, you are as old as you actually feel, if when you're young you're feeling you're in that state of mind that you feel old then you know you're older than you are, but when you're old you're not necessarily old because you don't feel it.

Can you remember what your favourite age was? And why was this? 

Ermmmm... Ohh thats a difficult one, every age has got its own things... when I was a teenager, when I was at school, when I was at school that was my worst time of my life, I didn't enjoy being at school, I mean I enjoyed learning, but I didn't enjoy the experience of being at school, ermm... I enjoyed my first job when I was 16 and started work, and I enjoyed my first job because thats when I made all the friends that Ive got now for life that the ones that I'm still in touch with, erm... I loved my teens and sly 20' it was great to be alive and living in manchester at that time because manchester was the greatest place on earth to be in when you were in your early teens and 20s in the 60's, it was a fantastic place to be in, you couldn't be anywhere better, I loved my 20's, late teens, early 20s, I really really loved, the first few years I was married..were good... then everything went to pot... the time that I really sort of came to be was in my 50's, because in my 50's I was my own person... I was free, id got rid of the problems id got with your grandad and his drinking... I was on my own, which seems  strange to say that you enjoy time when you were on your own... but, I was free and I could do what I wanted and i didn't have any...it was my time, when i turned 50, as a pose to life begins at 40, for me it began at 50, I think 50 was a good time, a really really good time, and now I'm into my.... Autumn if you like, I'm enjoying retirement, I wouldn't want to go back to work, but when I did work,...when I was working, i really really loved work, I enjoyed the job that I did, I had a brilliant job working at university and I loved it.

What if age just didn't exist? How do you think life would differ?

It wouldn't differ because age doesn't really exist, its not, Like I say its a state of mind, if you...if you feel like your decreped and old then you will, if you don't then you're not, I think age is completely a material. I don't think age is important at any level, its just a case of how you feel and you might feel diffeentty, people would feel differently at different stages of their lives to the way I felt at different stages of my life, people...some people would've hated the 50's, people would've hated their early teens and 20's, its a state of mind, age is completely a material.

Overall thoughts 

After collecting this research I have a better feeling of what direction I intend to take. I want to focus on what favourite part of peoples lives where and if it was because they was happy? is age related to happiness? From this research I will be investigating two themes, age and happiness.

The Untold Story Part 1 - Choosing My Subject

Visual Subject 

In todays session we were given 3 visual subjects in which we could base our picture book on which I liked the idea of as I had bit of a variation to chose from. I made some notes on each of the topics so I could initially pick the one I think would suit me best, which ended up being 'Age'. To gain a little bit of research we discussed with our tutorial peers what we know about the subject and asked each other questions on what the topic actually meant. This gave us starting points and allowed us to create a small book of rough sketches. I think this was really important as it opened up a whole new range of ideas and thoughts on my chosen subject. 

Planning ahead - work for this week.

Audio

As a part of the brief an important source of research involves gaining 3 audio recordings of conversations about my subject. My intentions for this week is to interview different generations of people about the same age, e.g interview my 14 y/o sister about what its like to be 14, and contrast that with what it was like for my grandparents and parents to be 14. I have chosen this idea purely because in todays session I asked students "what was your favourite age?", One said 14 - which I found a lot of students would reply with a similar answer (including myself).

Observation

Another form of research which is needed as a part of this brief is observational sketches. I intend to make lots of drawings from observation in perhaps places I used to go as a 14 year old/young teen. A place I used to go as a 14 y/o was Bolton town hall steps, which interestingly is still being carried on by the younger generations, so it would be nice to revisit this location and gain a sense of nostalgia and make some nice drawings to recreate what it was like to be a young teen. Another thing to think about is similar places like bolton town hall steps - its a place were people gather, much like the steps outside of Uni of Leeds.

Ephemera 

I think it would be really nice to pick objects up relating to my subject throughout my journey. It might be worth visiting some charity shops/antique shops which the majority of the time objects held in these shops are able to show a clear representation of age. I could also consider if theres is anything I can get hold of that represents that feeling of being 14 - like empty cigarette packets on the floor around bolton town centre. (will that look weird picking things up off the floor?)

Secondary

I need to consider collecting any historical information or data? It might be a good idea to visit any museums - museums could open up and influence a better understanding of my topic age especially if theres is any memorabilia across different eras relating to age.

One Week Map: Screen Printing

Screen Printing Induction

Today we transformed our template into screen prints. I wasn't really looking forward to doing screen printing after trying it at foundation - it didn't work and I didn't really understand the process of it, however, Mike guided us step by step through the whole process and I feel so much more comfortable, I know A LOT more about screen printing now - how the process works - how to prepare your screen etc and I've also learnt that I really like screen printing and will definitely be doing it again. 

What went well?

• I was able to get a lot of experimentation out of the induction - creating lots and lots of prints, some successful and some not so successful but it was all apart of the learning process. 
• the screen overall was successful and it was a clear representation of our template.
• I really like the colours on all of our prints, it was nice to experiment with more than just one set.
• I think the shapes are really nice and bold which give the piece a really nice and simplistic tone of voice. Simple yet effective.

What could I improve on?

• Im looking forward to being able to do screen printing again purely because I wasn't massively happy with our design and I know I am capable of creating some really nice work through screen printing. Although this task was purely an experiment, I wish my group could've spent more time on the print to make it more detailed and refined which would make it a better representation of our journey.
• I think the shapes are very basic and both layers would look better with more shapes and detail.

One Week Map: Collecting Research

S O U N D   M A P P I N G!

In preparation for collecting our research the class created a sound map. This basically meant that we close our eyes and create lots of mark making which represents the noise you can hear. I really liked this research technique as it is unique and really effective in a way in which it can really vary your research.

Collecting the initial Research

In order to gain our research for our screen prints we were put into small groups and sent into the city to explore and investigate different locations in order to create a unique map of our journey. A few things to consider when carrying out this task were how where we feeling? Emotions? what could we smell? what could we hear? So it was a good idea to keep record of this in our sketch books as it may become useful when making our final maps.

Other research which we also thought would benefit our final map were photographs, in which we could draw from, and also audio recordings so we could go back and create some more sound maps.

Cafe Nero

Christmas Markets

Trinity Shopping Centre

Victoria Quarter

Victoria Gate

Kirk gate Markets

Colours May Vary

 Sketchbook Drawings

I'm really happy with the outcome of my drawings, I think they look really lovely. It will be nice to see if I can incorporate anything I have taken from today into my screen printed map. Overall I think my research is really succsessful, I have recorded the feelings and emotions we felt throughout the journey, I have taken voice recordings, observational drawings and many photographs.

Preparation for Screen Prints

Me and my group have taken lots of little elements of our research and added it to our map designs. We have taken elemets of the sound we recorded e.g the music notes and the saxophone which have both come from our audio recordings, and also have simplified object in which we thing represent the areas we have visited.

In preparation for my groups screen prints we initial drew out some sketches in our sketch books on what we wanted the screen to look like. Once we was happy with out final design we then took the idea onto kodatrace and created two layers for the two different colours. This was a really interesting process as I was completely new to screen printing however it was really nice to learn as to why you need a different layer for each colour and why you have to colour in black the shape that you want to be coloured.

Overall thoughts?

• I'm not massively happy with the collaboration piece, I think if I was to do this on my own I would make it a lot more detailed.
• I am kind of glad it is simple because it is my first time screen printing so it will hopefully make the process and method a lot more easier to understand.
• Overall I'm really excited to screen print!!!!!!