Rebus

The last project we have had is that of a Rebus, a mix of words and images to create a statement, poem or quote.

I decided on using the Groucho Marx quote from the film Animal Crackers: -

 "One morning I shot an Elephant in my Pyjamas. How he got in my Pyjamas, I don't know."

The project was fun and quick and I enjoyed working out the best way to visualise each element. Stupidly I've not recorded it before the Studio work hand in and so I will have to wait till I get it back to post any photos.

The Essay is moving ahead nicely and my personal work is in a neat stack ready for the hand in on tuesday.

Only worries are what I need to hand in for my journal (being this blog) and where my lecture note book should be, probably handed in tomorrow as well. My rule/ reflection book for my personal work should be included in my personal work as it is intrinsically linked it.

Maps - part 3

So the blog has not been hugely active recently, most due to unhealthy amounts of procrastination. However with deadlines approaching I realised that I haven't actually officially recorded any of the work I have done in the past few weeks other than ramble about them a bit.

First things first, the second Map project, was a conceptual idea, recording 10 minutes of anything. As I have previously stated, I chose to record 10 minutes of thoughts, in all I ended up with 77 post its over the course of time. With these I decided to place them on an A1 sheet and then use this as a dynamic layer with which I can change in order to map a variety of the different experiences over the 10 minutes.

Time running from left to right and top to bottom.

From here I wanted to map 2 key parts of the experience, firstly was the thoughts I had over the course of the 10 minutes.

The map not including any of the distractions which had affected me.

Secondly I wanted to reverse this and map all the distractions over the course of the 10 minutes.

The interesting thing I found about this was that it is obvious that as I become more comfortable with the experience I get distracted less by non external influences.

Finally I wanted to map each related group of thoughts on the page.

This was an outcome that surprised me with just how many of my thoughts could be placed under the same categories, these and the distractions where interesting as several key themes started to reveal themselves to me as I had been blind to them before.

Maps pt2

So last week we were working on our map drawings, thanks to some wise words from Peter I was able to stop procrastinating and get some solid work done and take my work in an interesting direction. I would love to say more, but honestly there isn't much to update on this project. once I have a bit more done I will post a few images.

With assessment baring down upon us, I have been doing some personal development work, in fact thanks to my recent resurgence in productivity I have been making some very nice progress with my systems series, this is something that is really resonating with me, and I am really involved with the process of this project. This is a massive shift in my usual methods as I usually have a hard time looking at anything other than the outcome of my projects. With this current process there has been not one thought in my head with regards of what the outcome of the project will even be. The process is a learning experience, with each new ruleset and modifier I find something new and something that doesn't work, these just feed into my next few experiments.

If I carry on in this direction might end up with upwards of over 100 different drawings for this project and with the progress so clear to see with each advancing series, that could be a very exciting possibility indeed!

Maps!

So today was spent learning about the art of Cartography and after having a fairly decent walk, I am left feeling that drawing maps is again something that I kind of get quite easily.

Using time as a unit of measure and (admittedly wrong) directional bearings from a compass, we have the basis for creating a functional instructional map which hopefully would be actually be fairly accurate. I am tempted to buy a decent compass and go and redo some of the bearings as the compass we had was terrible.

Since this is our weeks project I am looking forward to seeing what I can come up with.

A week of changing methods

I'd once read somewhere that it takes 6 weeks to build a habit, clearly they forgot to mention that it takes a couple of days to break it.

Anyway in more relevant terms, I've been slacking a bit of late with these journal entries, for that I am regretful and eager to start again in terms of building my habit back to where it was.

On a more positive development note, after my discussion regarding my narrative project I have been extremely productive in my sketchbook, I have been struggling for a the past few months to get my drive and passion to be back to where they were earlier in the year, although I feel I am not quite there, it is getting better.

I have recently bought a brush pen and have found that it allows me to really loosen up and be far more expressive in my drawing than I have ever done before, this has been a revelation for me, and with it I have the passion I lacked before return to me. I am slowly becoming more active outside of the studio as well which will hopefully lead to me producing far more work than I have recently.

Personal work wise the A2 rule drawings are still going well, I would like to spend more time on my memory drawings project but I am finding that people have such an interest in it that what ever I will produce won't be at a level that I will be satisfied with to show folks, thats obviously a crutch but I'll find a way to produce something I am happy with.

 So in terms of days last week, the majority of the week was the fairly standard continuation of the narrative and reportage projects, however we had a really great day on Thursday as we went on a field trip. We were able to draw horses, poultry and a variety of other animals, personally I ended up drawing Horses and Koi Carp. This was a great chance to draw things that wouldn't usually be available as subjects. I was really pleased with my drawings made with my brush pen and a small amount of colour.

I have also moved quite pleasantly ahead with my new plan for my narrative drawing, having sketched out all the panels in my sketchbook and have drawn up the map side of the drawing using conte and ink, hopefully next week I will be able to finish it.

Continuing battles with choices

Solid critique from a respectable source given in a constructive and direct manner is possibly more valuable than all the back patting you could want.

I have had the luxury of such a discussion today, and with it has lead to me rethinking my method (11th hour plan change!) for my narrative project, and over the next couple of days it will take on a new form. I still want to finish my current piece, but thanks to my experiences today I now have some fresh interesting ideas that will push myself and my work slightly further along the path of evolving my process. 

So ideas then.

Narrative wise how can I make the work engaging, possibly introduce an interactive element to it - maps, to be read and folded etc. 

How can I make the most of the tools I am using, rather than being almost naive with my media I should try something a little different, using multiple tools at the same time, the way I make the marks etc.

Also, bought a brush pen and have been loving it!

Tomorrow have to give a talk on an artist for 5 mins and show examples of their work, off to start a PP then....

Offensive levels of neglect

Last week was busy, but that is no excuse for not keeping up with my entries.

Last fridays Life drawing was in preparation for our animation workshop which at the moment is tbd, I decided to use biro, it was pretty effective at getting the drawing down quickly and confidently. Rest of the day was used to carry on with my narrative project.

Monday: Travelled to Bristol to look at the RWA Drawing exhibition, was a loooong journey, but it was nice to see such a wide range of work on display and it was great for getting ideas and inspiration for my own work, got a series of drawings done in my sketch book on the way back which was a nice change from my usual approach so I would say the 8 hour round trip was just about worth it.

Tuesday: Had an epic lecture from Phil, again lots of really great information, plenty of names in my notebook to be researching, and nice to see this approach from a different angle. Afternoon was just spent carrying on with my narrative drawing, was doubting wether to carry on with what I was doing and if it was the "right" way, but since there is no "right" way to do this project I had a couple of solid ideas and want to continue with it now.

Wedsnesday: Not very eventful, did a bit more work on my narrative piece after having some neat ideas (vignette style animals and a treasure map in background) 

Thursday: Joint project with the 2nd years, Looking at non linear drawing, the likes on pointillism and van Gogh, was actually really interesting and have really been enjoying using colour of late, it is a nice change of pace from my standard pencil drawings. Got some good feedback from Isolde which has been taken into account and ready to explore. 

Friday: Reportage life drawing, was really enjoying this, used pencil at first and then found myself using biro, I have been a lot more confident in my mark making recently and I will be should to see this continue and evolve.