Creative Thinker by
Mary Anscombe
Contents Chapter 1 - Bygone Chapter 2 - Today Chapter 3 - Prospective
Chapter 1 - Bygone When starting Sixth Form I had never used Photoshop before and had no experience in Graphic Design, I had only ever studied Fine Art, so everything was new to me.
Here I am looking into the past 2 years at my artwork, looking at the materials and media I used and why. Why so many layers?
Lets start at the FIrst year. The FIrst time I used Photoshop it I saved my work as a jpg not a psd. Needless to say I learnt the hard way.
Over the year I learnt the basic layout rule of thumb in Graphics, like layout so the piece has a focal point, where the text should go, colours to use. Whilst doing Graphics as also did Fine Art as an A-Level, for some reason. Here I reFIned my drawing and painting skills, the FIrst year was more we were given a brief we couldn’t choose our own, and I wasn’t really free to do what I wanted.
But something I discovered in my FIrst year as a Graphic & Fine Artist was my love of layers. I used layers in my FInal pieces for Fine Art, I am not a strong drawer or painter, so I built up my pieces by adding and adding and adding onto them. Layers! The two FInal pieces shown here are from my FIrst year of Fine Art, the fruit piece is from a Natural Forms unit where I used watercolour and LIne liner, I kept adding to the fruit putting in the detail with a FIneliner. I think using the pen gives an extra element to the piece I used a continuous line to add the said detail in.
The next piece was from my FIrst year exam unit, it was based on a true story of a song, by Brand New. I really like this FInal piece, I remember my sketchbook from this unit and it wasn’t good, there wasn’t enough experimenting. I was just getting to grips with how to use a sketchbook and I was discovering my style of working. the drawing I did for it wasn’t that strong so I think the fact I kept adding and adding helped to make this not only more interesting but a stronger FInal piece.
This was something that continued into my second year of Sixth Form and in our second year we had more freedom to do what we wanted in both Graphics and Fine Art. In Fine Art I did a Cityscapes unit as coursework and Urban Societies as my exam. The pieces I produced for all of these were all very textural; I used a lot of layers. Drawing inks for the Cityscapes and Acrylic paints for the Urban Societies, but I built the pieces up to give them form and texture. In Graphics I produced an album cover, even in Graphics I was using layers in my work and scanning them in and editing them in photoshop.
I was really happy with what I produced in my FInal year; I’d developed my own sketchbook style and my style of working.
Chapter 2 - Today Now we’ve arrived at the present. Hugh Baird. Here I furthered my skills in Photoshop. Was thrown in the deep end with Illustrator, which I still don’t get on with. Got to grips with the basics of Premier Pro & Used InDesign to make this very book you’re reading now.
Over the year we’ve done around 8 projects. I counted. That’s a lot! Being here (for me) gives me a real feel of a proper Graphics environment, everything’s fast paced.
With Shirley I’ve learnt the basics of programs SUCH AS ADOBE Illustrator, how to CREATE VectorS, CreatiNG MY OWN Type AND InDesign TO PRODUCE my book. i HAVE ALSO WORKED WITH Premier Pro, WHICH IS USED for editing clips to make into a MOVING IMAGE. FINALLY, I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SHOWCASE THIS THROUGH MY BLOG (ARTBY_MARY.WORDPRESS.COM). With Tadhg, I HAVE HAD experience of using the PHOTOGRAPHY studio and furthered my knowledge in photography. With Andy I HAVE learnt the aesthetic of design WHEN completing my Art Nouveau inspired Label, I HAVE RESEARCHED things like colour process and layout, FIND OUT About the baseline grid and rule of thirds.
With Adam we just talked about Doctor Who. No, but with Adam I reFIned my drawing skills. I produced pieces in Adam’s sessions that didn’t have layers, for example in his Animal Study, I used one material. Soft Pastel. Not like me. But it taught me that I can produce something good without using all those layers, which I love so much. With all my lecturers I have reFIned my style, BUT I’M still developing, SO I’M CONSTANTLY LEARNING NEW SKILLS AND PROCESSES IN HOW TO DO MY WORK.
When given the FMP brief I knew I waned to reveal something about myself I knew I wanted it to be something personal, something I was really invested in. so I chose to reveal myself as an artist, my identity if you like.
I started a project the way I always do by doing a mountain of research, I looked at pages and pages of layout designs for my book and then my old work from sixth form, photographed it and then looked at artists I’d used in the past whose work I really liked. Then I did the classic thing and started about 5 different concepts before I didn’t like what I was doing as, I felt I was repeating myself and so I changed my idea. So I conducted some new artist research and started on my new idea of getting other peoples opinions of myself as an artist AS WELL AS my own, by making and putting a survey on Survey Monkey.
Whilst doing this I started the FIrst chapters of my book. I knew I wanted to split it up into past, present and future to get a full overview of myself as an artist, so I OPENED InDesign and Blurb AND STARTED LOOKING AT FONTS, AND WHERE I WOULD PLACE MY PHOTOS.
PRESENT PAST
FUTURE
When doing this I started my FInal piece. I purchased a set of postcards, got my Survey Monkey responses and started ripping up and writing the answers. pasting them onto my postcards in a collage style, ready to be joined together to create one bIg piece.
I also did some spot illustration from my responses, These would be the digital aspect to my FINAL PIECE, AS I HAD TO PUT THEM INTO adobe ILLUSTRATOR TO create VECTORs AND then transfer them into adobe PHOTOSHOP TO MAKE SURE THEY WERE THE RIGHT RESOLUTION. this resulted in me creating digital versions of my fInal illustrations, that can be shown both as prints and digital images.
Here is my FInal piece. It took me a while to get to this stage, AS I felt like I was repeating myself and my old artwork. But I feel this piece reFLects me well as an artist. It shows other peoples thoughts on me and my own through the collage on the postcards and the illustration. I USED A VARIETY OF DIGITAL MEDIA ALONGSIDE MY HAND DRAWN ILLUSTRATIONS TO CREATE THIS PIECE. Everything down to the presentation I am pleased with. I tried something new that I haven’t done before but I can still see my style throughout.
Chapter 3 - Prospective I have another year of Hugh Baird. Another year of exciting projects and trying to become friends with ADOBE Illustrator.
. s e i t i s r e v i n u f o t c e ? p o s o g r p I e h t l s l i g w n i r b e r o e s h l a W t , o s But i f I ? o g I l l i W
What wil l I do a fter Hug h Baird?
? y l r e p o r p g in c n a l e e r F t Continue/Star THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT AND CONSIDER!!
At the moment the future’s hazy, I’ve been looking at universities AND CONSIDERING INTERNSHIPS but there’s so much information my brain turns to mush.
RIGHT NOW I’M GOING TO CONCENTRATE ON FINISHING MY FIRST YEAR OF MY GRAPHIC DESIGN COURSE, HAVING A BOSS SUMMER WITH FRIENDS AND SEEING WHAT EXCITING PROJECTS THE SECOND YEAR HOLDS. THE FUTURE IS AS EXCITING AS IT IS SCARY, BUT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT MY NEXT STEP WILL BE.
Reveal - FMP G1