Amber Kaplan OUIL603 Extended Practice Project Report
Overview Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and everything inbetween. Welcome to the project report to end all project reports. The project report for OUIL603. This module has had its ups and downs but at the end of the day it has really helped me to develop and refine my practice into something that I could be proud to bring out into the real world with me. While I am still learning (always learning, you know the drill) this year I have really developed my practical skills in both digital and traditional media, including use of printmaking, papercut, photoshop & illustrator which has in turn helped me fine tune my tone of voice. Before the end of last year I was struggling to find a tone of voice but I started to realise a lot of things that worked for me were things that I had shunned because I hated doing them, this year I have made the effort to capitalise on these points to broaden my practice, and oh boy it worked! One of the biggest changes I made this year was not doing briefs I didn’t want to: and while that may seem self indulgent and not commercially sound my reasoning is this; last year I wasted time doing briefs and projects I wasn’t invested in, and I made work that I hated so I decided the best thing to do for me and my portfolio was to focus on taking on briefs that I would enjoy and be engaged in so I could make work I was proud of; and it worked.
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Now sit back, relax and let me talk you through a years worth of briefs.
One A Week Brief Monster Girls Self Initiated
One A Week Monster Girls Brief: To create one partially papercut image of a ‘monster girl’ each week. As well as a portfolio building project this was a project that I wanted to use to explore and expand my papercut skills. I realised close to the end of second year papercut / textures / shape are something that drives my work and defines my tone of voice so I wanted to capitalize on this and develop these techniques. I went through a couple of different ideas before settling on this for my one a week brief. Initially I started doing a 3 panel comic each week based on the illustration Friday word, but I found this totally unstimulating & knew I could create something much better if I stopped worrying about meeting targets and just did something I wanted to do. I like drawing monsters, I like drawing girls – BOOM there it is.
One A Week Monster Girls
Initially I started doing each piece part papercut and working into it in different ways traditionally, just drawing the monster girl. When I made one of my Monster Girl pieces for the ‘Out of Order’ Exhibition at Colours May Vary I used the same technique but worked in using photoshop to make a background – Which I then started doing for a few other pieces. I would have liked to have given them all full digital backgrounds but time constraints meant I could only do a couple; though this means I will be able to continue with them in the future. This self-initiated brief, for me, was important for shaping and developing my personal tone of voice. as I felt like I had a lot of freedom with it. I was able to gain more skills in papercraft and how to work that and more shape based ways of working into my practice. As well I have been able to play more using photoshop, adding different layers, textures and details which I believe have become a staple in my style.
Inktober ‘self’ initiated challenge brief Brief: Create one image per day of October using ink as the main medium.
Inktober I chose as a simple brief to get my creative juices flowing at the beginning of the year. Much like the illustration Friday’s I bailed on it pretty quickly. The project did not engage me, I didn’t find the prompts exciting or anything and I kept flip flopping about what I wanted to do; whether I wanted to do everything printed or mix media and thus kept getting behind with the project and ending up doing 7 Inktober images in one day, which is just not the intended purpose of Inktober. I realise that since the brief wasn’t stimulating me I maybe shouldn’t have just given up on it but moulded it to make it more engaging for me.
For example; I didn’t find the prompts engaging but I could have made them more engaging if I had taken a moment to think outside the box a bit more, or make the prompts my own. I could have also scrapped the prompts and just stuck with working in ink. However I chose to not continue with the project, as this was the beginning of my final year and I messed up a lot of last year making work I didn’t want to; I felt like I couldn’t make something I was proud of with this brief at the time and thought my time would be better spent focusing on a brief that I could really sink my teeth into. Nevertheless I did make two or three small images I’m vaguely happy with and it did give me the opportunity to practice more with lino, ink, and mixed media.
Stardust BBC Radio Competition Brief – Small Brief: Create an Illustration for the iPLayer thumbnail of the radio dramatization of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust I was interested in doing this brief because I loved the story of Stardust and am a fan of Neil Gaiman overall so I jumped at the chance to get involved, even though I’m pretty sure this competition was aimed at a younger audience, as the categories were 13-17 and then 17+. Which struck me as a little odd because the book of stardust is quite graphic for a younger audience.
At this time I was still giving inktober a go and had some small linocuts to print anyway so I decided I could try a slightly more complicated lino print for this as well, that way I could print in bulk. It was interesting. I’m happy with the result in which I digitally layered two lino prints and touched them up a little. I was unsure my kind of style would transfer well into Lino because of small details of the face and lines of the hair but, I found with some patience and the right tools (as well as some gentle digital touch ups) this was achievable. From doing the touching up I learned not to overwork my images digitally, if they only need a few tweaks – as this would end up with a bunch of messy, busy, horrible looking images. As well the images lose the traditional feel And texture once they are overly worked into. To the right is an example of one I worked too Much into. I didn’t win, or place for this but the image is in a digital ‘gallery’ of submissions. One thing I would do that I didn’t even think To do at the time is to go the full hog and Adapt my design into a standard book cover for Stardust
Travelling Man Exhibition Live Brief Brief: Create an A2 Poster around the theme ‘Fan Art’, with a set colour scheme, to be displayed in Travelling Man by November 1st, in conjunction with Thought Bubble Festival. This was new for me as me and Jack Newbert were pretty enthusiastic about ‘leading’ the project because we’re big nerds. I’m not confident around anyone so leading is not something I ever jump at doing. Through doing this I definitely gained some leadership skills, as we were able to run meetings and get all the work printed off and delivered to travelling man on time. Communications with TM themselves was a little less than I expected, they weren’t really sure what was going on, which made me and Jack have to think on our feet about deadlines, prices, delivery of prints etc. I think it’s one of the projects from has run most smoothly – and one where to stick to time constraints. Perhaps the responsibility of other people on
this year that I have been able because I had me as well?
Me and jack decided the theme of ‘fan art’ as we thought it was fairly universal and would fit into the comic / pop culture / thought bubble scene smoothly. We also chose a difficult selection of colours using my pocket colour wheel. The colours were not ideal it was an odd selection of 5 quite murky colours but that gave everyone, including myself, a challenge on how to work to those constraints, which I enjoyed. I made three images: two of which were displayed as someone dropped out last minute. I made the three as a ‘set’ simply because I couldn’t decide on ONE to do and I wanted to get some good practice in. These are the first images in a long time that I had drawn fully digitally. I struggle with lining on computers – for one I used photoshop to line which made the lines uneven but also look more natural – Ben Cox thought it was actually an ink drawing I had scanned in and coloured. The other two images I lined in Illustrator which has options to smooth out the lines – good for smooth steady lines but also removes some of the natural fluidity of drawing? In other personal project I have experimented with different ‘brushes’ in illustrator to make lines look more natural and I think I have just about developed a technique that works for me. This project is another that really started to define my working style as it struck a balance between traditional and digital, as I had not especially merged the two before this; granted the traditional element was just adding texture in afterwards but that element is what started to make my work recognisable (and also look good, as my digital is still pretty unrefined but when a texture is added it looks a lot more natural and like it’s meant to be.
Overall I am proud of the works I made for this. I do worry that too much of my work is becoming “fan art” based – but at the same time, a lot of illustrators including Babs Tarr (one of my faves) also drew a lot of fan art which is what got them noticed. I’m not planning to make an entire portfolio of fan art but why deny myself the fun of doing stuff I like? (it didn’t make sense not to live for fun, your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb – All Star, Smash Mouth) I made these at the beginning of the academic year and I’m still very happy with how they turned out. I would perhaps re-do the sandman one as I feel that one does not fit with the other two in the set so smoothly, though it is still recognisable as a coherent set of images that I am proud to have my name attached to.
Talenthouse briefs Short Snappy Competition Briefs Capture The Spirit of Halloween & Create an Image Inspired by Space
The talenthouse briefs I did because they were short, sharp, quick turnover briefs that I didn’t have to get too invested in – as COP was going on alongside and I didn’t want to get too absorbed into anything when I wanted to focus on writing a dissertation and researching that. The briefs I picked appealed to my interests and were easy for me to complete quickly – to build up some portfolio imagery – without being too challenging.
I used a bit of creative license on this create an image inspired my space brief as I decided I would make my depictions of space into women as that is something I enjoy drawing, am good at drawing, and I’ve just been itching to draw some space ladies since last year when I turned my ouil505 project into something about ancient greece. The project satisfied an urge, and also allowed me to practice more digital drawing. After the travelling man brief had given me some more direction in my practice in regards to how I use digital work, I wanted to employ these techniques further and continue making work that had a certain feel and tone of voice to it. This series of images is a little close to my monster girls series because I’m a cliché and only draw nude women 90% of the time, but the three of them work together as a series. A lot of the projects I have done have not been very product based so I haven’t been able to make a lot of mockups however I have been able to modify a couple of theses images so that they can be applied to products on my RedBubble store, which shows the versatility of my practice.
The capture the spirit of Halloween was another nice simple talenthouse brief I did in approximately 3 days as soon as the academic year started for again – I am a clichÊ and was ready to spook. At this point I hadn’t dabbled too much in using photoshop again, though I had done some stuff over summer so my piecing together of things is a bit more clunky than I would make it now. However half of the chunky placement was just the aesthetic I was going for. I think comparing this image to my later work in the year you can tell that I have improved a lot when it comes to both digital and traditional skills.
Sex Work Exhibition Live Brief || Basis Yorkshire Brief: Create a piece (or pieces) of work based around sex work for an exhibition held by Basis Yorkshire for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. I found this opportunity while I was browsing facebook and decided I wanted to get involved because the charity aligned with my personal views, as a feminist. I knew from the get go this would be something different for me and a delicate subject. as it was for an event raising money for the charity aiming to help sex workers and around the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers I decided to create my pieces around violence against sex workers. This brief took a little more research, as I had not been told that it was the international day to end violence against sex workers, I found the date (December 17th) out while researching, and the deadline I had been given was before December 17th, so I put two and two together there.
I found that the symbol associated with ending violence against sex workers is a red umbrella, and I decided I wanted to make that a running theme throughout my pieces for this. This was commented on by the person who organized the exhibition, as there were red umbrellas all around the exhibition space too. I asked a few friends who are or are in contact with people who are sex workers on what would be a respectful way to portray the violence against them, and was told that sex workers probably wouldn’t want the issue to be shied away from as it is a big problem, with a sex worker having been killed in Leeds just the other year.
Initially I had kind of just thought of physical violence but upon further research I found more about the stigma of being a sex worker, having their houses vandalised, being targetted for police raids, abused and raped by clients, and being the targets of attacks & murders. I tried to portray a few of these throughout the pieces. The four pieces sold for £40 which went to the charity, towards helping a sex worker stay safe which I’m really happy about a. because someone bought my work and b. because in some way I’ve been able to use my practice to help someone. I think in the future I would like to do more charity stuff or artwork to raise awareness about things I’m passionate about such as lgbtq+ issues and mental health issues
Becky Bowe Logo Live Brief / Collaboration with Music Student Brief: Create a hand-lettered Logo for Jazz Singer Becky Bowe This experience was a learning curve for me. I was approached after putting myself out there through a networking page called “girls that gig” and asked to do a logo for a singer studying at LCM. The brief was excellent for communicating with a client as me and the client had an ongoing conversation and she was consistently giving me feedback and direction on what she wanted from the logo, which was a really great experience as I’ve not worked FOR many people before. However I learned, type is just not for me, I thought I’d give it a go because hey, try anything once, but my regular handwriting isn’t even legible so pulling this off was reallt difficult for me. At the end of the day the client was happy with what I made for her and even asked me to do some more, which I had to decline because I am rubbish at this type stuff!
Barely secret 7 Self Initiated Secret 7 Rip off Brief: Create a Secret 7 ‘style’ record cover for songs of my choice
Against Me! – Haunting Haunted Haunts
There was no secret 7 this year! And though the college offered a tracklist that we could use like secret 7, I decided to do what I would enjoy and did it for songs I liked. Along with the cover I also made ‘speed making-of’ videos with the song as the backing track, as I thought that would be an interesting way to showcase my artwork and my practice, though it does give away the secrets of my trade!
This brief meant I could make something I enjoyed (because I love music and could pay homage to some bands I love while also showcasing my work), and also be able to have a real product application of the work , so I’m able to see what these would look like in context – which I get a real kick out of. I found myself working quickly on these, usually completing them in 2-3 days because I just got so invested in them and in the zone. Sometimes with the song on repeat. I’ve had a lot of good feedback on the videos I have been making which is promising as I definitely plan to continue making more of them!
Alkaline Trio - Warbrain
Personal Jesus – Mindless Self Indulgence
Although I was invested in the project, due to time creeping up on me I didn’t manage to get as many finished as I wanted (or fully anyway) I have a couple of other spontaneous ones and ones that I have got the imagery but not pieced the video together yet. I feel like I’ve said this for everything so far but this is another thing I can see myself continuing into the future as I have always enjoyed making music inspired art and I don’t think that will stop anytime soon.
V for vendetta Poster Live(ish) brief – Film Society Poster Brief: Create an A3 poster to be hung around college for the film society This was another very small brief that I did in a day, which gave me some more experience doing quick turnover briefs. I wish that I had gotten more involved with doing posters for the film society, V for Vendetta is just one of my favourite films so I couldn’t NOT do a poster for it. I thought this was a worthwhile piece to add to my portfolio as it shows my ability to compose a poster which could come in handy for events, gigs, films, flyers etc. I got a lot of positive feedback on it and would love to do more film posters, or posters in general. I think the images that I make can be really bold and eyecatching and suited to this kind of setting. I designed this poster so I could easily take the time and date off it for it to just be a ‘V for Vendetta’ poster for fans. V for Versatility.
Richard Hawley – Disgraceland Live Brief Brief: Design/ Propose an A2 poster in 3 colours, suitable for screenprint for Richard Hawley’s Disgraceland. What with other deadlines on I kind of forgot about this brief and ended up doing my proposal in 2 days. Not my best idea or my best work. I had forgotten everything I’d ever known about screenprint separation and had to quickly re-learn how to do halftones and separate channels. I drew the whole thing out digitally for time saving & convenience but I believe I would have been quicker and more efficient if I had just used traditional methods. I think I thought od this too much in the realms of it needs to be a screenprint and only three colours and halftones that I neglected to think of it as an image which I could then ADAPT to be a three colour screenprint instead. The Ram Skull’s pretty rad though.
Buffy 20th anniversary redesign Self Initiated brief Brief: to create a series of images appropriate to be applied to the covers / merchandise of a dvd box set for the 20th anniversary of buffy the vampire slayer. I did not come close to completing this project. It was a passion project I wanted to do because I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and thought it would be good fun to do a DVD redesign because the whole thing looks as if it hasn’t been updated since the 2000’s so I wanted to make something a bit more modern. This was a bit too much of an ambitious of a project as the scale of it, should it have been completed, would have been similar to that of the final major project. I had intended to work on it throughout the academic year but ended up pushing it off to the side a lot, especially with COP and more pressing deadlines going on. I did not end up making anything that could constitute being a ‘final image’ so I have elected to not include images in this project report.
I struggled a lot due to the fact I was trying to capture real people, but also not sacrifice my personal style. So far I have not made anything I am particularly happy with and the whole project is very much still in a development phase, and not close to ending at all – which means I can carry it on. I feel like it will be one of those projects that since it is a ‘passion project’ I can just take my time with it and it will eventually form into something I’m happy with. I feel like maybe making this a brief I worked on for Uni was a mistake – I thought it would be fun because it’s basically just fan art of something I enjoy, but then there was added pressure to make it good, which I just wasn’t and with other briefs I didn’t end up spending as much time on it as I would have hoped to.
Final Major Project Self Initiated Brief: Create Illustrations based on Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber
Final Major Project was a beautiful experience in which I flip-flopped all over the place. I started off with the concept that I would make some makeup packaging inspired by Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber cause you know me, I just like to mash things together. I had an interest in doing some makeup packaging because makeup is something I’m passionate about and I had been in touch with a couple of companies and sent them a portfolio so I thought adding something like this to my portfolio would be good for my future job prospects. I was happy with my concept but I was questioned about how the two related and I couldn’t answer so I had to rethink my idea, it was suggested expanding into sanitary products etc. as that stuff would be considered more Carter related, as a lot of her work concerns menstruation as a coming of age kind of thing. I considered this and did a little research into this but ultimately decided that I would just get caught up trying to design a product rather than focusing on the imagery, so I ended up stripping the project down to just classic illustrations of Angela Carters Bloody Chamber. Because I’d stripped it back I had to find some new ways of making it interesting.
This lead me to make this wild semi-3D bits which was something completely new for me. It was interesting to be able to make these objects and use photographs of them within my work; I think that’s really opened up options for my work as it gives me even more freedom to be able to mix things up with media and composition. Initially I didn’t feel confident with this method as I can be pretty rough around the edges when it comes to making things. Luckily I had improved from practicing with the monster girls this year, and comforted by the fact the objects did not have to be my final image and I could digitally enhance the images.
I think I achieved more than I thought I did during this project. I really branched out beyond my comfort zone and I think that I made a lot more work than I have for most other projects (Hence it being final and major). By simplifying the brief I was able to focus more on the image making – which really helped the project forward as once I had the images done I could then actually apply them to the contexts I had originally considered; such as makeup packaging. I also applied them to a publication setting – turning the images into a front & back cover, title pages, and general in-book illustrations which will definitely be valuable skills and works to have in my portfolio – as book illustration is a bit less niche than custom packaging design. The project has allowed me to explore a varied range of products, outcomes & methods of image making to add to my repertoire of versatility. I thoroughly enjoyed my FMP even though it was a little bit stressful at times, particularly as my time management is still bad (I blame my Dyspraxia and various mental health problems), but I managed to pull it out of the bag really last minute. Which isn’t a good idea but I’m glad it’s a skill I have as it means I’m able to power through briefs that may have a short deadline.
Although I’ve done a lot for it the project still isn’t quite as finished as I would have liked it to be and I would love to create a few more illustrations using the photographs, ideas and roughs I didn’t have a chance to develop yet. Potentially in the future I would love to do an illustrated copy of the whole book, as I only did a few illustrations for three of the stories. Another thing I would potentially change or add would be adding more smaller spot illustrations, so not every image is a huge full page, or double page spread illustration.