Thursday, 13 December 2012

Evaluation

 The way in which my pieces of work meet the needs of the brief is that I have included the words that I have used and also the dictionary definition with it. I also think that for both words I have used imagery and typeface that works well with the words that I have chosen to use. I think that I have met the needs of the brief with both of my piece. I think that the only way that I may of not met the needs of the brief is that I have kind of used the same style of layout. It says that you don't have to follow the same style for both of my spreads but I think that they work well together either apart or together. The strengths of these two spreads I think are that the images are quite striking and the illustrations fit well together with the typefaces that I have used, like on my statuesque spread I have used Didot as my typeface because I think that the font is quite feminine and works well along side the illustration.
The only weaknesses that I can think of is that the spreads are quite simple and plain - I like this style but it may not be to other peoples tastes which I don't have control over so therefore I have decided to go for a simple layout with plain outcomes because I feel as though I don't want to stray away from my design style. Something that could be mis-read or mis-understood by the audience is that my words mean what the illustrations literally are. I have gone for illustrations that can relate to the word as after a bit of research I found that illustrations and photographs in magazines aren't literally what the article is about, it has a small relation to grab peoples attention so that is what I have done for this project. A way in which I could develop or improve my spreads is using a little bit of colour. I seem to say this alot in previous projects but I find it difficult to be something else to what I am. If I had a little more time to experiment with colour with the body or the faces then I would of gone and done that but I believe that bu using black and white the illustrations really stand out to what I want them to be.

My time keeping within this project wasn't as good as previous projects. At the start of the project I was away on work experience and so I missed an initial lesson which then gave me time to figure out which words I wanted to go for. I think that if I had been in for that first lesson it would of been easier on me to pick words and not be under pressure to get those chosen. After that I did have a few extra work experience days in London which I felt I couldn't miss out on so I chose to go to that, which then took a few extra days out of my working time. After those days I got back in to the work and got on with it quite well. I used some research to generate ideas by looking into magazines and looking at illustrations, as I said previously I found that none of the illustrations were literal and so I felt that I could be quite open with the illustrations. During the project I experimented with layouts and also different options of what I could illustrate for the word Dovetail. In the end I chose 2 that I thought I could bring forward, these being Laurel and Hardy and Salt and Pepper as these are two things that the audience will easily be able to relate to and also something that you would associate as always being together. The part in the project which I most enjoyed was the drawing of Laurel and Hardy, I spent quite a lot of time doing different drafts of the drawing and using slightly different pens to get thinner lines to get the right effect I wanted. The part of the projects that I didn't enjoy so much was the research, initially I found it really difficult to get into as a project and so I just didn't know where to look at first and so I thought that by doing illustration and I read magazines a lot, I would look at illustrations in magazines to get some inspiration and ideas.

Finals



Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Development of final piece of statuesque

Like a statue, esp. in possessing great formal beauty or dignity.
(esp. of a woman) Attractively tall and dignified: "her statuesque beauty"

Previously I have taken classes in life drawing. We had many different models but I have a favourite piece that I have picked out which I think would go perfectly with this word and project.

The drawing that I have chosen to use is this.. I have worked a little more slightly in to it to make marks slightly darker or shading seem a little more prominant.








Now I am going to put some of the drawings into Photoshop and just adjust them in a way digitally to put on my DPS.


I am looking at this with potential. I think that it might show a bright light shinning on a ladies front. To me I would think of this as a life drawing model with the studio light beaming down on to her to create shadow. I think that this easily shows the posture and statuesque woman in the drawing. To me she looks powerful and in the spot light.


In this experiment I have adjusted the tone and the contrast to make the black and the shadows really prominent. I am going to experiment with placement now for my DPS and see where I think the image should go.

I have now begun making some DPS for this idea. I am going to try a few different ways of placing the figure and also the font I think will be tricky to get right. I want the font to be elegant and fit well with the figure and style of the drawing. 

1...

2...

3...

4...

5...

For these ideas I have used the same version of illustration as I think that by editing it too much will take away the beauty of the drawing. I have just made one side of the woman's  body complete white so that it can carry on to the page without looking slightly broken where the side of the image stops, therefore by doing this the image continues on to the page with ease and it makes the whole piece easy on the eye and quite a beautiful sleek layout. 

I have done quite a few different layouts here, jut moving around the drawing and in one case I have doubled it up (5), as an experiment, to see what it would look like going onto the next page. I wasn't so keen on this version as what I was saying in the previous paragraph I liked the way that the image flowed well onto the page with the white side. With the doubled up version there is a very harsh line that I think breaks the page up too much, especially with the crease in the middle which will break up the piece anyway.

I am really happy with the typefaces that I have used. One of the experiments didn't work as well with the typefaces, which is number 4. I used courier and I think it seemed slightly too bulky for the type of illustration that is on the page. So this is when I went back to using Didot again. I think that this typeface is quite elegant and it looks quite beautiful along side the image, I have also used Didot for the definition as I wanted it to be quite simple as I didn't want to draw too much attention away from the illustration, but at the same time I want it to fit perfectly with it as the image doesn't literally mean what I am explaining in the definition but I think that is what makes it quite beautiful. Unless you have read or know the meaning or statuesque already, only then I believe it will be understandable why I have chosen to use that illustration. 

I am going to use this as my final:


I really like the simplicity of the DPS and I think that the body being over to the side of the page really works and I also think that it draws your eye to the image first and then to the definition which I think will be a good thing as the viewer will then realise why that illustration is there.





Research into statuesque

Definition is: 
Like a statue, esp. in possessing great formal beauty or dignity.
(esp. of a woman) Attractively tall and dignified: "her statuesque beauty"
(esp. of a woman) Attractively tall and dignified: "her statuesque beauty".

As a first bit of research I am looking at the Angel of the North. I think that sculptures like this really explain the word statuesque really well as they are in comparison to a human size.
It has great posture and a grand presence that makes people look and stare and feel as though they need to look up to, but not always in a literal way.

I great woman can be statuesque. A woman who can walk in to a room and every body notice her. A strong and powerful woman is what I think of when I think of statuesque. 



I believe that this could be a woman that a girl can look up to. Even a grown woman to think of this powerful lady as a role model. People such a Marilyn Monroe, she may have been a small petite lady but I think her posture and womanly features make her statuesque. 

I am going to look for images of woman who are tall and yet beautiful that their height makes them still feminine and womanly. 
I work in a shop especially for tall women clothing and alot of the things I hear from working with women who has issues with their height is that they feel they are too tall for men and that they feel manly because of their height. I think that is a sad thought that because woman are tall they feel this way. There are many positives to being tall.. They can look beautiful with their lovely long legs, most are slim, which as we all know, models need to be atleast 5'8". I am only 5'4" and so I feel the opposite to these ladies, being small. I try to help them with their fashion and seeing the ladies who have these lovely legs makes me wish I was tall!

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I am now going to look in to women that I think would be perfect for the word statuesque. I am also going to look at statues and the posture that is on them. I think that it is important that I get this right as I want it to look as believeable as I can with an illustration. 


I know that Marilyn Monroe was quite a petite lady and she would always mean the word statuesque.. But her figure and shape is what I am looking at in this image. I think that I would like to go down the route of a feminine figure and try to show the attractive tall look within an illustration. 


This image here that I have found online I think shows to me a good visual example of what statuesque can mean. On the right there is the slim lady modelling a dress, but to me the lady on the left with a more shapely figure is what I would see as more attractive. I think that being too slim can sometimes take away the beauty of a women figure.



Here I have looked at some sculptures of woman. I am swaying more towards the type of image that clearly shows a figure. I have previously done life drawing twice as classes and I think that my drawings from there could be exactly what I am looking for. I am going to find them and develop them slightly to fit this project more. I know that most of the drawings I did were at a lower level and so I am going to bring them up to a level of learning and drawing that I feel that I am at now.










Development to final piece of dovetail


Here I am going to show a few steps of how I have come to my finals. I am going to show a series of attempts of illustrations for the pieces. I am hoping to keep my Dovetail DPS quite simple with a line drawing. As I have said before I want to keep it within my style and keep to what I have done before. 


These are the first pencil drawings of some more experiements of Laurel and Hardy. I have drawn them before (in my blog post of research in to dovetail) but as I have decided to go for this idea I am now developing my drawings to perfect them so I am now drawing again to make them exactly how I want them to be. 



The two drawings above I have just done as my first experiment. I am going to draw over these with fineliners to get the style right before I decide to go ahead with some more experimental finals. I think that the style with fine liners is what I am going to do as this is what I enjoy using for illustrations and I think it can be quite effective even if the page might seem quite simple.



I have drawn these on a better paper for a final. After drawing over the others with a fine liner I am going to use these to make my finals. After getting the style perfect.

To make the piece more colourful and exciting I think I am going to experiment with colour within the text. Even a shade of grey or blue I think could work really well as I am using just black for the illustrations.

Here is my second attempt at the fine liners..


I am really happy with the outcome of these drawings and after getting some feedback from my class mates they recognise who they are instantly!!

After trrying a few more attempts for finals I have decided to use the fine liner drawing just above. I feel that these are my best versions and I was really happy with them orignially so I think that I should use those.

Here now I  am going to show progress of getting the DPS's designed. I am going to show a few ideas that I have and then decide which one I feel works better as a double page spread.




these are a few ideas that I have had as my DPS. I am actually really pleased with how they look.
I am going to still develop them a little further so that I can see more varies ways of making my DPS for dovetail.

Friday, 23 November 2012

Research into Dovetail

For the word dovetail I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and the definition that I got was:

1. A joint formed by a mortise with a tenon shaped like a dove's spread tail or a reversed wedge.
2. Such a tenon
3. Fit readily together; combine neatly or compactly.

After a talk with Sancha and Colin about my words we spoke about a few ideas that I could do. Sancha suggested that I look at an artist called Jacob Epstein who did a sculpture of dove's mating.
I have looked at this piece of work and saw why she thought I should look at his work.





The sculpture called 'Doves' is peaceful and beautiful. I think that the way he has made them fit perfectly together in the act says that they are made for each other in a sense. I think that it explains the word 'dovetail' really well in a way that not just becasue they are doves and that is what you initially think of when you say the word but because of the way there is no gaps between each of the doves.

 For this project, by doing illustration, I am not going to focus too much on looking at scuptures but to not futher look at patterns and repeated patterns. Like Islamic art and the meanings of the repeating of these patterns.

I have done a few ideas for dovetail that I think can easily progress into something worth while and that I could use if I was to develop them with a little more depth. All of these ideas are here:



 Here I have just drawn a simple way of showing a dovetail. I have thought that this could come across quite boring but in actual face if I 'jazz' it up a bit using repeated patterns or something along side it I think that it  could end up quite interesting. I spoke to my tutor about this and my thoughts about it being quite boring to show and she suggested that I combine photography as well as illustration instead of simply making it by using illustration and so I think that this would work really well with me drawing over the top. I am going to try and take some photographs of a dovetail joint so that I can experiment with this.


Here I have just shown a different way of drawing the dovetail joint. I thought I could make it a little more quirky but using bird tails to illustrate this. I think it looks quite cute and I was thinking of it going diagonally across a page.



Here I have just started to draw some cute characters showing fitting perfectly together. I have used birds because I think that I could use birds feathers to make a repeated pattern as such to create a dovetail type of link. 




Here I had just a similar idea to the birds. With a couple fitting perfectly together. I really liked this idea initially but I don't think that it will work so well as a piece to show dovetail. If you were to look deeper into the meaning I think that it could be understood, but just because I am only showing a small definition it may be just something that doesn't work well together. 





 

Here I am just experimenting with text. I wanted to create the dovetail word in a form of elegance. I think that it could work well along side the harsh lines on a dovetail joint.

Next I am going to look at the artist Lauren Child. Her work has a child like feeling (Charlie and Lolo) I really like her work and I think that in some respects I think that my style of drawing is quite similar, in a way wit simple line drawing. Her work is a lot more colourful where as I have a more plain and simple approach.


I really like this illustration because of the simplicity of it. I like the way that there is a few patterns and colours that have been put on the piece in blocks and some parts are still left white and plain. 


This illustration here I have similar views on. I really like the simple drawing that has been left plain against the background of the wallpaper pattern.

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I have looked more in to ideas and spoke to Tim and we spoke about my original ideas and I have decided that I am quite liking those and have new ways to be able to develop those into ideas that have potential to be something good.

Also speaking to Tim helped me realize that the drawings don't have to be literal. They can simply have some thing to do with the word as the definition tells the reader exactly what they need to know and the drawing just illustrates the word in it most widest view.

I have looked at company magazine where they have some illustrations in their magazine. You can see from them that they do not directly tell you everything about the article but they do relate closely - which I need to remember that is all I need to do so I can be quite abstract.



After looking at these I began to think about things that you would automatically put together. Such as
- cheese and buscuits
- beauty and the beast
- ant and dec
-laurel and hardy
-black and white
- romeo and juliet
-salt and pepper
- bonnie and clyde
- tom and jerry
- the chuckle brothers
 - gin and tonic
- fish and chips
- sugar and spice

they are some that I thought of that I can istantly think of when you think of pairs.. the dovetail and fit together compactly or homoniously.

I have decided that I still definitely want to keep my illustrations to my style that I have previously used as I want continuity in my portfolio and also I don't want to stray away from what makes me 'me' in my work and that is what I believe my peers think of my work too. I want them to recognize it as mine. 

I am going to try and find some images that I can experiment with to make these pairs.




Here are my drawings that I done of laurel and hardy. I am really pleased with the outcome of these and I think that they portray my work well. I think that I am going to develop this idea, maybe add a little bit of colour to brighten them up a bit but I will need to do these on plain paper. 


I also quite like the plain ad simple look to these and I think that people will think its quite humorous,  I think that I could even give the pots a little bit of personality in the shadow giving them a little bit of life.