EVALUATION
Flipside: Verdant / Barren.
I was drawn to these flipside words as I knew I could interpret them in an entirely different way to how a person might visualise them. When people think of the word barren, they may picture a wasteland or deserted area, when people think of verdant they may think of luscious grass. To combat this, I went for a completely unpredictable perspective on the two terms and moulded them into what suited me. Pieces of research that have influenced mywork most heavily have been various magazines and clothing brands - Fruits magazine has evidently been my biggest influence, impacting my usage and thoughts on colour combination, outfit combinations for my magazine and just project overall as I’m seen to reference Fruits across my entire blogwork. Reason being that I’m completely enamored by the photographs and general style of the magazine, in fact I have a whole wall of photographs from it in my bedroom that I get to just look at every day. I think it was a wise choice to have Fruits central to my project, as it’s made it feel more personal to me and I think due to my admiration I’ve been able to incorporate what I take away from the magazine into my work. I’ve asked for opinions from friends and I’ve been told that I captured my inspirations well. Other than Fruits, another well-renowned publication Delias has influenced me when it comes to considering layouts. As I’d taken the majority of my images for my digital magazine in the same location, I wasn’t able to recreate how Fruits mag is laid out as the majority of the images are outside, near brick walls/graffiti - on the street, as the name ‘street snaps’ suggests. This is where Delias comes in, as Delias has simplistic, cut-out-like layouts where whatever background that an image had originally is removed and the pages look somewhat like digital collages unlike Fruits. The influence delias had shines through in multiple spreads in my magazine, particularly when clothing pieces have a key. Another key inspiration for me has to have been the brand Unif, as they advocate sustainability which I’m a big fan of, all while showcasing awesome fashion. In terms of wider world research, taking images of my surroundings and books I stumble across has proven really useful and although often times (due to the randomness of some things) I’m unable to expand on the subject matter much, but am still visually inspired - such as, the primary colours and block-like layout in the Japanese toys book and the fridge magnets that then went onto inspire my front and back cover lettering. My concept essentially is the distinction between black, monochromatic fashion and the bright, overflowing and joyous. This can be seen often in Fruits magazine, as the publication combined individuals of all fashions. In Harajuku (epicenter of new looks in 1990) many styles come into play - a simple google search of ‘harajuku fashion’ will reveal this. In my art across the project I wanted to showcase the importance of colour, how it influences what you think of a subject, and how that ties in with fashion also. Fashion is a key part of self expression: how you choose to dress affects the way you’re perceived, similarly to how a drawing is done affects the way a person thinks of it - mark making can reveal a lot about a piece and the thoughts behind it. And although this can be useful in some cases, like how poisonous frogs are bright as a warning, in others like Kusama’s artwork you can get the wrong impression. Kusama’s art may seem outwardly warm, welcoming and lighthearted, and deep down tells her tragic story. Unlike Kusama I’ve kept the journey of my FMP artwork relatively lighthearted, merely referencing dark themes occasionally and this is because I wanted to keep my work up to interpretation similar to the way people may interpret how another person may act, think and feel according to how they present themselves. Not only that but an outlet like a magazine exists to showcase groovy outfits, not moving tales. It exists to channel my inspirations from various sources. The piece of artwork, or series, that was most impactful to my project I believe was the A6 postcards. As that’s when the cogs started really turning, and I felt sparks of inspiration. I really enjoyed myself creating art in a way that I can’t say I’d felt in a while, and was really chuffed with how they turned out. During the FMP I’ve experimented with woodcutting, collage, mixed media and more. I’ve found love for some mediums and hatred for others - I hope to never woodcut again because it took a lot of strength to cut through the wood and even then the results of the prints didn’t look to a standard I was happy with, lino was much more effective and smoother to cut. Despite my eagerness to use it, I was not and am not a photoshop pro. In high school, I would get asked for help a lot during class as I know the basics - other than that, I’m fairly clueless. Thankfully, it’s been quite self explanatory and google exists. My magazine has taken over 3 weeks to complete and I’ve dedicated almost every day to creating it, re-doing pages, experimentation and so on and so forth, sacrificing days off to come into college just to work on it. This has partly been because I’m unable to access photoshop at home, and that’d mean not working on my crucial final outcomes for any more than 3 days a week and I just couldn’t have that. Despite so much time spent, I wish I could’ve spent longer and I would’ve loved to add more type and text as I really enjoyed doing typography In Charlotte’s digital lesson on adobe illustrator, recreating my inspirations in a way I found to be effective. Seeing as my magazine’s taken so long I was unable to explore other avenues such as sculpture and textile, I wanted to bring my sewing machine into college to be taught how to thread it properly however the idea of carrying in something so heavy makes me nervous but I can save that worry for another time. From my outcomes I’ve learned photoshop skills and compositional techniques that will be useful for years to come. It’s been a labour of love and although there are parts I’d want to do different, I am proud of it.
10 Words To Describe My Final Outcome: Retro Stylistic Bizzare Developed Time-Consuming Contemporary Nostalgic Playful Quirky Trendy
