Project Report OUIL505 Neneh Patel
OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Contents
Brief - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Initial Ideas - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Drawing and inspirations - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Development - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Making finals - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Final images - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Reflections - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Summative Evaluation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Project Report
OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Brief/Overview The brief for this project p was to create six images that would accompany the publications ‘The Value of Arts and Culture to People and Society’ by the Arts Council England. I think that revising the proposal for this brief was instrumental in me enjoying this project more as it meant that I had a clear focus and was able to understand exactly what I needed to make. Having a clear goal in mind was helpful, even though I ran out of time towards towa the end to make all the outcomes that I had originally proposed. Although my original proposal seemed quite vague, I think that narrowing it down quite quickly allowed me a breadth of research on the general topic. Having that background meant that there was a good amount of research that informed my image making. I think that for this project having a clearer timeline would have been more successful, as I am pleased with the final images, but would have liked to extend them into moving image. I am quite confident with After Effects, and tend to build up my images using lots of separate layers, so I think that the images would have translated well into short stings. This is something that I will prioritise in the future as the final outcome of the project, p rather than just the physical illustrations.
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OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Initial ideas For this project, p as the original proposal started out quite vague, I found it hard to generate images in the beginning. I felt uninspired by the prospect of making a publication that would ‘promote an arts education’ as it didn’t feel like it had enough direction. I have realised that I like to work to a set text. As I really enjoy editorial work, it makes sense to have a specific piece of writing or article to work from. I’m glad that instead of compiling a list of loosely refr lated texts, I was able to work from one publication by a single organisation. This gave my image-making better focus and I started to think about different ways of presenting the ideas within them. After choosing the Arts Council publication, I was able to brainstorm ideas better. A big part of my process is making mind maps at the start of a project, and I think that this is especially useful with editorial work. Being able to pick out key words and then link together words and phrases allows me to explore through research, before visually exploring the topic through making. I didn’t want to be really obvious with the visual metaphors that I used, as I had struggled with that in the first editorial brief in OUIL504. Having that experience made me more wary of falling into clichéd images, and I started to look for symbols that could be used to represent the ideas within the text. Although I could have made infographics, as was proposed to start with, I felt that more traditional editorial images fit in with how I want to situate my practice. and also translate better to stings.
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OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Project Report Drawing and inspirations For this project, p I kept going back to the idea of an energy that I wanted to communicate. I wanted the work to feel dynamic and be exciting for viewers, as it was intended to promote the #culturematters campaign. In order to do this I looked as further inspirations and artists like Rune Fisker, Jasu Hu, Gizem Vural and Keith Negley. Although I do often return to Keith Negley’s work, I like the focus of his work and the simplicity of shape. I wanted to try and make the images quite simple qwith a central symbol in each, so I started to shortlist phrases to work from. I tend to find that when I start a project, I make a lot of mind maps and brainstorm words to help generate visuals. This was a large part of my process and helped me to think of some imagery to use. Going back to the text often and picking out key phrases and words that I responded to. I found this happened often and it was easier to draw when I had the text in front of me to refer to.
The original publication cover
Rune Fisker
Keith Negley
Gizem Vural
Jasu Hu
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OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Project Report Development I think that focussing on symbols made it a lot easier to make the images work as a set, as I tried to have a central symbol and then additional visual information in each of the images. This worked well as I has a large collection of textures and variatons of the images. I found it better to keep drawing the same thing repeatedly, especially when using ink as there are so many possibilities. I was advised to look at more mo abstract artists in relation to my practice which helped me develop my work further. From looking at that work, I started thinking less about making a whole image and then editing it, but started to think of all the marks, tetxures and symbols I had made as components. By doing this, I found that the experimentation process was invaluable and saw so much more potential in the material I had made.
Robert Motherwell
Antoni Tapies
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Project Report
OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Making ďŹ nals To make the final images, I made neater versions of some painted elements, like the dancing figure, and then combined them with other materials that I had. I worked from a strict colour scheme, and tried to steer away from primary colours I had started out with, to make the images more sophisticated and less playful/childish. Working to the colour scheme helped when making the images sit togeth er as I had one main colour for each image and added small shapes and marks across all of them to link them together. I think that working on a few images at once helped to ensure that they worked well as a set.
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OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Final images
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OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Project Report Reections I was really pleased with how the final images turned out and how they looked together. Although I didn’t have the time to develop them into stings, I think that the extra time I had to work on the images really helped me to push for something more abstract instead of resorting to my safety of watercolour paints. Whilst applying my work to campaign images, I tried to keep the applications simple and realistic. Obviously the intended publications, but also out-of-home and social media platforms. I would propose that the images be translated into moving gifs or shorts for Instagram to make them more engaging for the campaign. I also think that perhaps the poster was too simple, and the quote is too long. If I were to refine the applications, I would make them look cleaner and be more selec tive with text. I also think that considering the brand guidelines earlier on should have been more of a focus. Whilst I feel that the colour scheme I used is strong and impactful, if I were to propose this, the organisation may want to reconsider in line with their own guidelines.
8 Arts Council England brand guidelines
Project Report Summative Evaluation I think that whilst I haven’t haven necessarily built up any new technical skills, I have strengthened my use of traditional media and combining it with digital. I have also discovered a lot more about how I work, which has been useful to my process. Identifying the best ways that I work will help me to be more efficient in the future. I know for certain that I prefer to work in the studio, and I value the opportunities to get feedback on my work. I also know that experimenexperimen tation and handmade textures are a large part of my practice, which has led me to start building a digital collection of my own textures and painted patterns. I will continue to develop this, which will allow me to have a quick go-to selection of images to work from. This will make the process of image making quicker as it will reduce the time taken to experiment, which I definitely spent too long on in this module. I think that this year I have found time management more of a struggle, whilst juggling the modules. I am disappointed that I didn’t manage to make the stings that I proposed to, but I am glad that I didn’t. At that start I was so focussed on the moving image that I was neglecting the still, physical illustrations. Although I want to situate my work within more animated editorial work, I think that I need to focus on the image first. This module is the first one where I have genuinely felt happy with my outcomes. A large part of that has been the subject matter, which made me excited to continue with the project. Being more strict with the images also helped - I made sure to set out a colour scheme before working on the images which forced me to work to restrictions. I liked having the set sizes and chal lenging myself to make the images work using 5 colours.
OUIL505 Neneh Patel As always, blogging has been an issue for me, but in this module, I started to see how it can be beneficial and an active part of my practice. I think that I sometimes I get too carried away with making things, and forget to reassess where I am. As mentioned, this meant that the playful, experimentation part of this project was extended over Easter and had a knock-on effect on making the stings. Working to more strict self-imposed deadlines will be a necessary part of Level 6 and future practice, so this is something that I need to do to work more professionally. When it came to reassessing where I was, I found that Instagram has been really useful in helping me to discover work that inspires me. The work that I am drawn to now has been more abstract than I am maybe comfortable with, but I have enjoyed trying to let this filter into my practice. I hope to take more risks in this aspect of work. Using the library more also helped to inform my work and I think that I want to make more use of the resource next year. Being realistic with my expectations is something that I have to come to terms with. It would have been possible to make six stings (at a pinch), but then I need to make more firm deadlines with myself, so organisation is key. I also think that I would more thoroughly research brand guidelines for future proposals/organisations as this may have affected the colour I used and changed the feel of the final images. I have throughly enjoyed this module, despite not making the stings, and it has definitely been a highlight of this year. I think that at the start I was concerned with trying to make work that was ‘professional’ and sat within what I perceived as being ‘proper’ editorial illustration.
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OUIL505 Neneh Patel
Now, I feel that I have allowed myself to be more experimental with my practice, and whilst my work is not as abstract as I might have wanted, I think that it still responded well to the brief. Through this module I have discovered that I do actually have a process to making work, and learned how to better recognise the different parts of that. I realised that I really enjoy the first initial stage of re searching the topic, but needed to have a fixed text/article to work from. I liked having the clear direction once I had chosen my text to work from. I also enjoy the process of exploring my topic/concept through words before starting to visually explore it. This is something that I have done within responsive and 504, as well as in COP, and I think that that is one of the reasons why I focus more on theory in COP than the practical side of it. Identifying the ways that I work best has been the most important part of this module as it has allowed me to enjoy the journey more, as I feel like I have a clearer direction.
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