Extended Practice Project Report

EXTENDED PRACTICE PROJECT REPORT OUIL603

INTRODUCTION My extended practice module focused on a range of projects initiated from self-initiated or self-selected briefs. Throughout the duration of this project I have been taking on self initiated and self selected briefs which have all shown a keen interest in colour, line work and mark making, pattern and people. This has been through a broad range of mediums from print making to editorial illustrations. I have found my most enjoyable and most successful pieces to be those which combine research to form content with detailed and careful production methods, while still keeping a freedom to work into the work spontaneously. I think this last point is what I enjoy most about art and the reason I chose to study illustration - the expression and the freedom in art.

However this also is probably why the majority of my briefs were self initiated, collaborative or individual client based, all of which where there is some creative freedom. I loved working collaboratively and on a personal level with people. These were the briefs which I felt most invested in.

My final major project reflects these themes of people, research, line work and mark making. The time spent researching gave me the freedom to create a made up scene which still had relevance to the Indian culture and my own experiences there.

Lino was the perfect medium for me to work with as it was very practical and allowed me to really investigate into mark making and manipulating tools and the lino to create the image and shapes I wanted. It was a challenge to create this number of quite large lino prints and maintain a decent amount of detail, but I am really happy with the final results because I put so much time into the lino cuts production.

I have found my blog really helpful in keeping track of all of the briefs especially when working on a few simultaneously.

However I do find it hard to write as much critical points about my work there as I think in my head because I find it quite demoralising yet I do recognise that mistakes and disappointments are things to work and improve from.

EXPERIMENTATION & INVESTIGATION INTO MEDIA During this module I have allowed myself a self initiated brief, SunD.I.Y, to work on pushing myself out of my comfort zone and encourage playfulness and experimentation with different media’s.

This was because the majority of my work leading up to this point, with an exception to a select few lino prints, stop frame animations and collages, have been ink/watercolour and pen based.

This module opened my eyes to the importance and power that media has on the overall experience of the illustration. It taught me that media should be heavily considered just as content is; that my works meaning can be deepened and professionalised by the choice of appropriate and good quality media.

ANALOGUE & DIGITAL This module really taught me the importance of analogue techniques in my work. I love the crafting and hand making the illustration and I feel like I can capture what I want best this way.

It also taught me, however, about the importance of a professional final resolution. This, I found, could be executed through digital programmes such as Photoshop. Previously I had selected a few pieces of work to edit on this, but now I edit all my images slightly in order to get them to a professional crisp and clear standard. This has also been influenced by starting an online presence in my PPP modules, particularly the website, where it really hit home how important the properties and resolution of the image is when wanting to give off the right impression.

A LOVE OF COLOUR Throughout all of my briefs colour has been a key element. I never realised how much I enjoy bold colours until I noticed others around me using subdued colour schemes.

I was shocked to see people finding online colour schemes and restricting themselves to these colours in their work. Their work looks great but for me that type of restriction takes all of the life out of making the illustration.

Colour is such a huge part of setting the tone of the illustration and it is something I have found I really need to stick to my instincts with. The brief on the left had started out with subdued and limited palette because I wanted to try a more subtle look for backgrounds. I hated it so much that I had to go back and change it after the deadline. The bold colours aren’t perfect, but the illustrations are so much more full of life and the essence of Africa now.

A NEED FOR NEGATIVE SPACE Despite this module reminding me of my love of colour, spoken about in the previous slide, it has also forced me to open my eyes to the importance of negative space.

Negative space is something I have been hiding from for a while, over cluttering my work was a big part of my feedback from Level 5.

My online blog based briefs and editorial briefs, such as for the ‘Power’ book to the left, have helped me to explore how much more professional work can look if you keep the rest of the space minimal and let the audience focus on the main muse.

AN INTEREST IN PEOPLE Looking back on the briefs throughout this module I can see a clear link between a lot of my self initiated briefs; an interest in people.

This really does drive my work and people have consistently been something I will always choose to draw over anything else. This probably ties to my interest in the subject of psychology as I always intend of attempting to capture the character of someone.

My Q&A brief was helpful in investigating this. There were some weaker pieces which I don’t think reflected the character of the sitter as best as I could have, however pieces like that on the left worked really well. This also was a piece which I managed to get a good synthesis between media and content with as the sitter is an avid collector and loves media. I used a range of pencils, inks and pens which all helped to capture her interests within the portrait itself.

TAKING CARE WITH FINAL RESOLUTIONS This has always been my downfall as I love the research and development process and forget about how long it will take to actually produce the final work to a professional standard- this is what happened with my COP project.

Luckily with this in mind I had started my lino cuts a while ago, and although most of these were not used for my final resolutions they helped me investigate what worked and that more content and meaning should be added based on my experiences in India – this is why I chose to add the Hindu gods influencing the scenes.

In my FMP, paper stock and ink were a hugely important part in producing a good quality print so I spent a lot of time working out which colour schemes would work best to a powerful, relevant and professional standard.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT

This module helped me to understand how crucial a real life context is to creating an illustration, particularly at the beginning stages. I would previously have created a piece of art and then thought about how I could apply it as an afterthought. In this module responding to briefs such as the Crispin Orthotics brief, left, meant that context had to be at the forefront of my mind when thinking about initial ideas as the media, size and situation all had a big impact on how the illustration was designed. For example the bleed of line work on plastic orthotics.

CONCLUSION I found this module represents a coming together of skills, knowledge and understanding which I have acquired throughout the entirety of studying Ba (hons) Illustration. This has especially been apparent through the engagement with my Final Major Project which was the result of a self-initiated brief.

From the beginning of this course I have always intended to capture a moment or a feeling in a scene, this has always been a struggle. Particularly because I also have a strong desire to make things look as close to life as they are as part of me feels this is capturing the character... the last three years have taught me about the power of using media and processes to capture the character or mood of a piece too. Through lino cut I have not allowed myself to be a perfectionist with people and objects, it is hard to shade and to make things look 3D. I am also using a tool which sometimes is uncontrollable (hence the plasters on my hands) but this has been a great thing for my practice because with its restraints, lino printing gave me a freedom in not needing to be perfectly close to the real life image. The perfectionist element comes into account with the design so care and time must be taken in creating it and working into the details and line work.

In respect to my statement of intent, much of the noted key elements and themes of my work have remained the same. My work aims to capture the character and mood of a person or place through the use of media, line work, mark making and colour. In respect to a number of different platforms as witnessed in this project, from editorial illustrations to printed textile design and analogue prints. I will take these key elements of my work with me in whatever creative discipline I turn to as I feel throughout this course they have been intrinsic to the enjoyment of my practice and to my dedication to illustration.