Alternative Techniques - Vinyl Process

We continued to do some of our own pattern work thumbnails until we had soaked up a bit of inspiration for the following few tasks and learned some Adobe Illustrator techniques such as using the spray can, blob brush, pathfinder and compound path to create some wacky shapes and designs. I think learning these techniques really affected the outcome of my vinyl as I did use the CAAD session techniques to create my piece.

                         

Unfortunately I was unable to attend due to outside-of-college occurrences the following week and had missed out on the vinyl cutting. But made my design and sent it over ready to be printed.

When making my vinyl I was once again influenced by the Halloween vibes, and decided to make an elixir/potion bottle. I started by gathering inspiration for it's design and appearance, looking on websites such as Pinterest, Etsy and Tumblr.

I used these three as a reference, looking at individual aspects of each of them, such as the shape of the bottle, the cork, the label and even on the last one I liked the look of the contents spilled up against the glass, it almost appeared as though the potion itself was floating in an upwards motion and helped me branch off more ideas.

I started off by making an A3 canvas at 300dpi and made a circle using the ellipse tool as well as a rounded rectangle on top.

I warped the rectangle in to an arc to make it look as though its almost wrapping around the bottle.

To me this appeared more organic and flowed much better with the style and composition.

I had to consider how I was going to make the neck of the bottle look, the general shape and size. I went for a more simple looking one so that the piece didn't look crowded. I then went on to use the pathfinder to unite the neck with the rest of the bottle.

The lip of the bottle followed the same process as the banner; apply a rounded rectangle and warp it in to a slight arc. I could now move on to more specific details such as the cork, lines and the tips of the banner. All for which I used the pen tool. The cork I impromptu decided to change it to look like the end of a bone, giving it a little extra creepiness. This had brought an end to the general overall shape of the bottle which meant all there was left to do was to touch up the little details and add my type.

For the lines I went around changing the weight, opacity and profile in the stroke options so they did not look so stiff. 

Which meant the last thing there was to do was to fill the bottle with its contents and put my type on the banner. I used to blob brush while reflecting back on the previous CAAD session to fill in and round off the liquid. Inspired by my research in to the three references I gathered I wanted to make my contents look as though it was floating and bubbling upwards, giving it an 'eerie magic look'. The type I placed over my banner felt very fitting of the piece. Looking as though the bottle contained this 'Black Magic' in liquid form. I applied highlights around the bottle where the liquid was to give it a little more depth in its shape.

Finally to round off the design I added little stars on the inside to add a little more of a 'magical' appeal to it.

Et Voila!

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Alternative Techniques - Print-Pressing Process

Fortunately I already had a bit of experience on from the previous year on print-pressing so could organise myself accordingly to how I remember. I started by making a 20x20cm canvas to work on, and traced over some bird skulls on Adobe Photoshop using my Wacom tablet.

I had originally planned on doing just the one skull but later found that it looked quite barren and empty, so filled it up with a couple more skulls before putting it in to Illustrator.

Using the ellipse tool I placed a circle around the skulls and turned the fill off. I thought this would bring the piece together as a whole when printing on paper, rather than having three skulls looking quite barren on the page.

When actually doing the press-printing we worked in two separate groups before and after lunch time. Myself being in the slot before lunch meant myself and a couple others were the first to run in to some of the blunders that unfolded. For a select few people who's designs had very fine lines, the ink would struggle to pick up, meaning we would be tightening and loosening the roller a bit. Unfortunately when we tightened it enough for the ink to pick up this, it would be too tight and some times crack or snap the plate. This happened a couple of times on my plate and I had to glue some pieces back together and get some sandpaper on the job.

Once we had gotten past all the small technicalities though I found it to be very rewarding and loved the turnout of my prints.

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Alternative Techniques - Print-Pressing

Rolling one out on the press print. (Yup that's my design stained on to the felt from last year when I spent the day printing after an all-nighter and forgot to even put my paper down😅 My claim to fame in this building)

A post shared by | N I C O L E | (@witchitaflowers) on Nov 4, 2017 at 2:48pm PDT

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Livetales - Process and Evaluation

For this task the class was separated in to four groups to discuss ideas for the installation of Livetales designs.

Although slightly intimidated by their skill and hard work, I was very relieved to be in a group that were able to pull their weight and support the other teams members. Because I was unable to attend the Livetales theatre my grouped helped me out a bunch by sending over and sharing some of the photos they had taken on the day. I used these pictures to generally doodle on and brainstorm some ideas for installation. We had also created a diagram to bounce around some ideas, themes and installation concepts.

I had generated a couple of ideas in my sketchbook, some of which I tried to work in with other team members ideas and discussed and developed it further with my group. With the advice I received off of them and my tutor I developed my ideas in on to a digital format.

This idea stemmed from the Halloween mood, after not long binging on some Ghostbusters I thought of the different ways I could install ectoplasm dripping down the stairs. I obviously couldn't just apply gross gooey substance without having to cater for the mess. I considered layering vinyl over eachother to apply some under-shading for the little craters of goo you can see. 

I dropped this idea later on in the unit because I wasn't really feeling it, it was a bit out of place with the rest of the place and designs of my group and I definitely felt I had better ideas.

My next idea was to apply animal/monster body parts to each of the chairs to swap around with each other, I thought this would be a creative way to get the kids engaged as it was a fairly interactive design. The idea was definitely inspired by my one group member's idea.

Because my idea and my a member of my groups idea was very similar, I saw more potential in his design and let him work and develop on it. 

I really liked the idea of a tiny door for a tiny person. As a child I was always looking for mouse holes and other little doors myself or my dolls/toys/etc could fit in to. Nowadays I feel like I can associate children as little hobbits and was inspired by the small decor and design. I would also kid on with my friend about a 'cupboard gnome' who would live in my closet and it developed from being a regular door to having a letter box and 'No Junkmail' sign.

This is one of the ideas that seemed most informed so I gave it the green light to develop further with my group.

I was a massive Doctor Who fanatic growing up and upon eavesdropping on a couple of ideas about 'an open door to the void' or 'a window looking out in to space' really triggered my inner Whovian fan to come out. I looked at the different Doctor Who concepts where there is a tear in space or a crack in someones bedroom with space junk inside. I decided to develop this idea in to replicating the design of the windows inside and placing a spacey background behind. I think to install this I would just be printing out on vinyl and applying the same if not very similar roller blinds above. I also looked at lights and illumination for this piece to give it a slight glow from behind.

With the green light from my group and tutors I have decided to go ahead with this design. I think it would be very awesome for children and teens alike. 

Lastly I went on to develop a design based on Lego. I looked at making a vinyl of a crack and/or a hole in the wall where I would be able to install lots of tiny lego pieces. This could be interactive with textures such as the top of the pieces were it is bumpy and the sides of the pieces where it is smooth. Would be playing with the touch senses and the imagination that inside the walls for all of the building would be made of lego. If this installation does not work out I reckon it would also work with just vinyl, and have made three separate cracks to present.

This is the last idea I decided on, for its simple yet interesting concept. The colour and shading is still subject to change but the general idea is here.

When presenting our ideas on powerpoint in front of the Livetales staff I felt a bit nervous in the moment and as though I was talking too fast. There were moments where I had to remind myself to slow down, be calm and act professional but I am very relieved from the feedback we received. Our ideas were well received! I am very happy with our group work and team effort, I can't say there was anyone in my group who wasn't pulling their weight and doing their job. I think if there is anything I would change it would be that I personally organised my time management better so I could work on more ideas with better quality.

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Alternative Techniques - Researching Pattern and Type

I've been looking at the different patterns and type to make a moodboard out of. I raided through the Pictoplasma website to gather some illustrative text and typeface that I like the look of. For the patterns I looked on Pinterest and Tumblr and specified in my search certain subjects such as 'teeth pattern' and for many of the imagery in the typeface I looked on Pictoplasma for many of my influences.

(I'm not too sure why my pattern moodboard won't give me a coloured version)

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Character Design - Evaluation and SWOT

When I initially started this unit I was very motivated and excited to be given a module based around my favourite thing to do. It was later when distractions started cutting in to my workload that I found myself struggling to keep up.

 Starting from the beginning, I found that despite my research in to several different styles was made, I didn't produce enough development and experimentation for either style. Whilst I was very settled on Hellen Jo's style I feel that it would have done me much better to delve deeper in to more experimentation with body shapes, expressions and looking for a more open approach to how I draw as it was quite limited.

It took me far longer than it should have to be producing the work I did which is a shame because this is really what I wanted to elaborate my skills upon but rather limited and humiliated my self with my lack of motivation and willingness to experiment and develop.

I came across another issue regarding my work when I realised whilst working on the final piece, I did not set my canvas to the correct size (A2) and instead began my work on A3. Because I had been working on bitmap-based software such as Photoshop, it was near impossible to stretch the piece without gaining some kind of pixelation. After confronting my tutor I decided to make the decision to make two turnarounds, both on A3 to make up for the mistake, one in her outdoor clothes and one in her outdoor clothes.

Whilst this plan solved my issue with the canvas sizing it did not help the already difficult state I was in with my workload. I had to work very tirelessly to catch up and the result did not feel as though it paid off. Getting the layout of where to place my characters was proving a difficult task as a lot of the layouts I had in mind were quite unflattering when taking in to consideration the amount of stuff I was trying to cram in (x2 turnarounds, x6 dynamic poses and items from her back)

Ideally if I could I would have loved to have just done the one turnaround with her hat on as this drove home her origins and a little more of her backstory. But this is my own downfall and one I could have avoided had I been more focused, on task and a little more open-minded.

I hope to learn from this module and reflect upon this unit when I go in to future modules.

SWOT

Strengths:

• Informed development and via research
• Handling workload
• Problem solving
• Learning new techniques and methods
• In depth backstory and write ups

Weaknesses:

• Lack of motivation
• Limited experimentation
• Bad time management
• Boring and basic colours
• Limited anatomy knowledge

Opportunities:

• Listen to motivational speakers for inspiration
• Spend an hour a day doing coursework
• Start making achievable timeplans
• Find poppy colour palettes to use in your work
• Attend life-drawing classes

Threats:

• Dismissal of motivation altogether
• Falling in to art slumps
• Giving in to failure
• Not solving an issue and taking the easy way out
• Not working to improve weaknesses

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Character Design - Making the Character

When designing my character I decided to go for one that really appealed to myself, especially one I wouldn't lose interest in half-way through the process and one that I could look forward to creating rather than just dragging out like a chore. When we were first issued our brief in September I was already very hyped up for the spooky season of October to come and had a lot of witchy influences (from reading Wiccan and witchy books). I had settled on the idea of a Garden Witch residing in the heart of folklore mythology, Ireland. Before I had even considered her background in detail I did a couple of doodles to really get a feel for her and because I was very excited to vent my latest witchy-finds in character form. When I had eventually gotten around to filling in details about her I started to gather more and more of a mental image until I could start applying all these details to her on paper. Before I started making anymore concepts I had to reflect on my research and develop a style fitting of her and experiment similar techniques and styles. I was very inspired by artists in No Brow and a few from the Pictoplasma website. Artists that really caught my eye was Will Morris, Zosia Dzierzawska, Bianca Bagnarelli, Helen Jo and Mikkel Sommer.


               

 

I was very interested in trying something outside of my comfort zone and the traditional methods they applied to their work was something I felt like I could work towards and learn from. Techniques such as ink and inkwash as well as watercolours. I felt as though traditional techniques would also be a really nice approach to my themes (vintage, old-fashioned). I did a couple of tests with lines using regular fineliners and quill and ink, tests with colours including inkwash, watercolour and even coffee. And then took those tests on to fancy Fabriano paper. This was a good base to arrange my workflow and time schedule. When working on my dynamic poses I paired up with my friend Katie to make a list of the different poses we would like to make before shooting. After we had captured pictures of the poses we printed them out in black and white and traced over them on the light box.

        

When I had built up confidence to use the quill and ink I set off to to do the lines for my turnaround and dynamic poses on the light box over my under sketch on Fabriano paper. When I had completed this task I scanned it in to fix the nit-picky mistakes, colour and shading on Photoshop.

This is where my my work started to run dry.

After skimming over the brief I had realized that whilst applying colour to my piece that when I was working on A3 I should have really been working on A2. While I felt this could have been fixed had I been working on a vector based program such as Adobe Illustrator,  I had been using Photoshop which when scaled starts to appear more pixelated. After confronting my tutor about this mistake, we agreed that I would go on to make two turnarounds sized at A3 to make-up for the size difference. This definitely increased my work-load and where I was on perfect time and making good headway I started falling behind and over-complicating her design and written background.

I also later found that because of the change in my schedule and work-load I had to start cutting corners, making things look rushed, lacklustre and not that of a HE student going in to her second year. The development was looking spotty in regards to my final piece(s), not relating to anything I said I was interested pursuing and making my turnarounds look very uninformed. It's not something I can honestly take pride in and for this I am really disappointed.

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