#techniques&processes2

10.03.20 Introduction to Adobe Illustrator with Kostas.

Today I spent the morning on Illustrator. This software was new to me, if I’m honest I didn’t enjoy this session as I found it really confusing with all the tools. I struggled to keep up and missed a few steps which made it harder for me to make my final product the same as everyone elses.

I intend to revisit this software in my own time and get to grips with it again. And I have a laser cutting workshop which I will be using software to design what I am laser cutting. Overall, my finished product is basic but colourful, I overlaid shapes and wrote my name multiple times to give it a fun effect. There was a lot more I wanted to do, I feel I compare my work against others too quickly which makes me feel less confident.

ILLUSTRATOR ARTISTS

OLIMPIA ZAGNOLI

An amazing illustrator artist who creates super fresh shapes and voluptuous forms with her clean bright eye catching colour pallets . OLIMPIA has such a bold stance to her work in which I love and inspires me to get into using the digital software provided to incorporate into my practice within the future. Her work has been on shop fronts such as Uniqlo and even done a collection with Prada for a campaign. Her work speaks in so many different ways to me you can’t imagine. I think it’s due to her loud charm of colours and empowering message she gives across when creating her curvy shapey unique girls. I also was very interested in the patterns she uses within various shapes . I love the way she has designed these which also springs to mind how she usually doesn’t put eyes/mouths/noses on the faces of the people she illustrates to me this is so it doesn’t draw any attention away from the extravagant shapes and colours. Overall I am really excited to move forward within the illustrative world.

SARA ANDERREASON

For this workshop we were instructed to film a short amount of clips to join together and play around with the effects of premier pro.

I struggled with figuring out what I wanted to film for this project but I had this vague idea of attempting to illustrate what the inside of an ADHD brain feels like. I wasn’t sure how I was going to portray it but I thought I would start by writing (or should I say attempting to write as my brain thinks so fast I couldn’t keep up) all the things that popped into my head when I just let my brain wander. This would create a script for me to read and then edit to the speed of my thoughts on premier pro.

The quality of my videos was poor as I got this idea quite last minute. In a way this enabled me to release my need for perfection and let myself go a bit more. I feel positive about where this project could go and where it could take me next year.

I hate myself

Here is what I came out with after the lesson. I have not made enough time to explore this further before the deadline but will be expanding my premier pro knowledge surrounding effects by continuing with this video.

13.03.20 Introduction to Bookworks with Craig.

This was a workshop where we learnt how to bind a book of our own together. For my first booklet, I chose a Cyanotype I had previously done to be the cover of my book.this gave it a really industrial/grunge look to is as my Cyanotype was not perfect. I found the 3 way stitch a really simple process to do, I finished my booklet quickly and also learnt the method of how to knot the thread onto the needle to keep it secure. I really loved this workshop because I thought it would be a great life skill for my future work, when I have a degree show, to create my own leaflets using this simple yet effective stitch.

The focal point of my piece is ­­­­­­­my Cyanotype, I used white stitching to give it a clean/neat look. I felt it was lacking in work inside the book, that’s when I created a separate one for my prints!

During this workshop we also had to make a hardback book, I really struggled with this as the measurements confused me, so instead of wasting time and ending up with no book, I proceeded in my own studio time to create a mini booklet of my prints, these were cut down into small sizes on the guillotine and sewn together using the simple 3 hole binding technique I learnt from today. My only issue was that i could not fit this booklet into the guillotine to neaten the edges, and so I had to use my own strength and a craft knife to do so. I am going to hopefully make some bigger books that I can present my work in for submission. I have an idea to create books for collage.

21.02.20 Cyanotype’s workshop with Craig.

Today I have my first Cyanotype introduction workshop. Where we learnt about the inks used and the steps of what it takes to produce a Cyanotype.

I created 4 all together using the images that were already given to me, I originally had 6 but unfortunately I could not fit my other 2 in the dryer. I really enjoyed this workshop, I have done Cyanotype’s before this university course at my previous college, however I was very limited to what I could use, in terms of bleach etc. I feel that this and screen print are now my 2 favourite mediums to work with and experiment with.

My Cyanotype’s came out really successful, I tried to choose images that I could link into my theme of Pop Art, and so I found a graffiti type of text which I Incorporated into the background of some photos, along with buildings and land marks such as the Statue of Liberty. I left some of my Cyanotype’s to set in the bleach, just experimenting with tone and different outcomes with the things we were given. Some of my images were lob sided as i couldn’t get them to line up in the vacuum press that is used for screen prints, this is the only disadvantage to my Cyanotype’s, but other than that I am really happy and will continue to develop some more using those cut outs from my Pop inspired screen Prints.