Unit 2 Evaluation

Brief
The exam board set a brief using the theme "Covert and Obscured" which meant being concealed and hidden. I first researched the meaning of these words in depth and created mind maps which helped me to find out what the themes could inspire me to think of. I also came up with three subject matter sheets and wrote different Graphic products underneath to come up with the best ideas for the exam. From the main brief I found the word silhouettes which enabled me to use shadows and outlines to create the theme "covert and obscured".  I chose the subject matter of fairy tales. I focused on looking at the Disney fairy tales because there is a vast variety of resources used, such as books, films and pictures, compared to fairy tales like The Three Little Pigs. I wanted to use a Zine as the graphics product because it was one of my favourite things to do and make in Unit 1. I made mood boards using Pinterest and looked different books like Rob Ryans - A sky full of kindness to find suitable images for all three of these main starting points. I took observational photographs of my things that would be in Disney movies in real life and then drew from the photographs. I also did a photoshoot using the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood. Then I started to look at the conventions of  zine so that I knew more about what  would have to include. I experiemented using my own cut out images like Rob Ryan's work to make shadows, I used watercolour to make a silhouette of colour, polysterene block printing, photoshop shadow work, and using photoshop to make things look handcut. When drafting I used line drawings and used lots of little items that were included in each story. For my final drafting I made a dummy book which I used in the exam.For the final piece I created a hand cut and block printed zine using the fairy tales from the disney movies.

A Piece That Has Been Influenced By Another Artist/Designer
 I chose Laura Barratt as my artist because her work is very inspirational. She uses intricate lines and detail to create an amazing silhouette of fairytales. She does this by hand cutting paper with a craft knife. However as a first attempt I used sharpies and fineliners to create the images because its very difficult to hand cut something so delicate and detailed. From her work I realised how important background images and borders are when using silhouettes like the ivy around the border. The more detail that goes into a hand cut piece, the better it looks.


A Piece Where I Have Experimented With Different Processes.

When looking at different fonts I experimented by using collage, paint, alphabetti spagetti spaghetti, drawing hands in the shape of letters, a whole page of different shapes and sizes, and colours.

On the whole page of different ones I took risks by just doing each one by either copying or just coming out of my head. I also didn't know if the collage one would work or it would all come apart. I used a variety of different resources to create these fonts to develop my ideas however I didn't use any on my final piece because not all zines include fonts and 
 lettering. The limitations show when you're doing photographs and you can only find certain letters, I would have liked to do more experimentation on these using trees and household objects. 

 
  I also used a picture from pinterest which had a girl with shadowing over her face, so i created my own piece using photoshop from shadows I had taken and shadows/patterns from google. I also used my own cut outs to create shadows of the thing I had made. The risks were that I didn't have enough light or darkness to do the shadow or it wasn't the right size. Also when making the shadows with my own cut outs you had to position them so that they weren't blurry and the right size by bringing the image closer or further away from the light source. I took photographs of silhouettes and shadows to make the objects contre-jour. This was a really effective way of making the silhouettes, i then did line drawings from these photographs. I also took silhouettes over a lake when the light was behind the town and the trees, this is really effective because there is a lot of colour coming from the sunset/sun and the lake with the dark contrast of the town silhouette.

 A Piece That Needed Refining Over A Period Of Time.

When it came to my final piece I needed to choose what experiment/technique I was going to use and which Disney films I was going to look at in more detail to decide what my Zine was going to be about. I chose my hand cut silhouettes to use as the main technique along with a bit of polyseterene block printing. I felt like I didn't have a lot of variety in my experiements so I tried block printing and hand cut craft knife images. I also tried experimenting with photoshop to see if it would be more effective if I used photoshop to create my silhouettes. Each technique took its own refining to get it perfect for example on the left the print looks better sometimes compared to the other.With the photo edits it depended on how much detail and how many different colours you wanted on the image to how it looked. The hand cut silhouettees needed more detail in each one to look more effective and interesting otherwise it was boring to look at a simple shape.


My Final Piece

My final piece linked with two other artists - Olly Moss who creates silhouettes of famous disney character faces and Laura Barratt who creates fairytale silhouettes. I thought the way the Disney characters came out looked good but I think that some were lacking detail and character compared to the others. If I did it again I think i would add colour through paint and I would have used more of my own observational drawings compared to the original disney characters. I was influenced by the artist Laura Barratt because she showed me how important detail and boarders to the picture was. I also think that layers make it more interesting to the eye because of the 3D effect. If I were to do it again I would have looked a bit more into spray painting and painting with colour like the copy of the watercolour pinterest image I did. I think for my final I would have done a different technique because it was so time consuming which left me hardly any time to assemble it all together. It was also alot of effort to cut each piece exactly right and so it looked exactly like the character. However by doing the zine as my final piece I've learnt so much about the technique and been inspired by other artists that I haven't heard of before. I found the copy images from pinterest very effective and I would deffinately use them if I were to do this exam again.

Mindmaps and Notes

The mind maps are looking at a more detailled version of the words that I was given for inspiration in the exam paper. The two main themes were "covert and obscured" but then I looked at different words within those themes to come up with an idea of what I was going to produce. I then made three sheets of different coloured paper and looked at different graphic products that I could make. I have decided to make a Zine using silhouettes of famous fairytales.

Convention Of The Form

These are my conventions of the form explaining all the things I  need to make a Zine. It shows loads of different versions of of Zines including shape, colour, type, folds, papers etc.

Inspirational Books

These are a few books showing my subject matter. My favourites are by Rob Ryan, showing alot of hand cut work which is what I want to do for my final piece. The fairy books show colour schemes and the peter pan book just shows things to do with my themes.

Moodboards

These are my moodboards that show silhouettes, fairytales and zines. These will help me to draw from my subject matter and give me inspiration for each pin board.

Observational Photographs

These photographs show my subject matter, handmade silhouettes, silhouettes using contre-jour.

Line Drawings of Memorable Disney Scenes

I have used a biro to draw line drawings of my subject matter to narrow down which scenes from disney fairy tales that I would use inside my zine.

Fairytale Photography

This is my own photography of Little Red Riding Hood, using simple props.

Case Study 1 & 2

The Open Market Zine

My case study is about a zine called “The Open Market” which was produced by an ex-student.
Zines are made to promote something that the individual is interested in or inspired by. They are cheaply made with cheap publication. Zines are normally dedicated to one main theme such as music, art, film. This zine runs through a small market place. It paces through each stall creating a realistic experience.

Content and Context
It has two title’s, one on the front of the market brown paper bag saying: “The Open Market, established in 1920’s, For all your shopping needs,”and then a second title on the front of the zine saying “Come In, We’re Open”. The connotation of the word “Open” shows not only the name of the market but it also creating a welcoming and friendly attitude. When opened, it is a small rotation of market stalls starting with a menu with prices. It is split up into two pieces making each stall 3D with the most important things (sign and produce) at the front and then it has a background relating to that stall. The overarching theme is food as opposed to craft or knick-knacks. It relates to contextual matters such as healthy eating, buying produce from local providers and support for cultural foods. This zine could be seen as a link to “Kings” by another ex-student which is an accordion book which opens up into the insides of Kings (the shop in Wem) showing all the bits and bobs it sells. It follows the same theme as “Vestibules” by using pop outs, flaps, and hidden backgrounds. Zines are made to introduce something new to somebody or share share the same interests with somebody else (fanzine.) So I think this zine could have been made to advertise a marketplace to bring in more customers and suppliers. The narrative is shown by each title sign showing the reader what each stall sells with little price tags and notices also. Zines normally have no writing but only black and white pictures, however sometimes they do which shows that this zine follows the conventions.

Form
The colour palette is achromatic consisting of lots of different tones ranging from Black to White.The most dominant colour is black because it draws out from within the large amount of negative space. I wouldn’t really say that it had been rendered but it’s definitely shaded using different gradients of pencils, I’d say that the detail is more made up of different small shapes.
The background is positioned into the centre of the grid so that it feels you’re looking straight through a window or the room. Each sign uses a different serif or sans serif font to contrast with the sign before it. There are lots of grayscale tones used instead of colour, the hierarchy is the darkest greys and blacks - uniform fill. The layout is exactly the same as a market hall, the sign at the top of the page and then the rest is filled with produce. The artist uses no colour to reflect the main theme of a zine. Depth has been created by the movement between the foreground and the background showing the hidden bit that you don’t normally see, this isn’t traditional perspective. I think this zine is great as it is however, i would have made every page as detailed at the first stall but i do like the way it changes every page. The artist chose to use these materials because they’re cheap to publish and cheap to buy and use, they make up the simplicity. Nothing is controlled and I think its based on chance, no plans made. It’s obvious it’s been hand drawn. I think the composition has been thought about and designed before it had been produced. The texture has been made by different line and block colours, not rendered.

Process
I think the processes used to make this zine were mindmaps including fresh ideas into markets, what they sell, what they look like etc. Research into other zines and pop ups, how they’re made and for what purpose. I think they will have used observational drawings of marketplaces, fruit and veg, chairs from real life photographs. They will have used ink, biro and pencil to carry out their drawings. After this, I think they would have made a dummy book showing outlines and paginate. They would have used black inking to create black uniform fill. The artist doubled up so that there is an image on every single page. No cross hatch has been used. They would have thumbnailed during development. Final designs would have been favoured during development. When collating I think the artist would first design the covers, then draw out the foreground, followed by the background and assemble together with glue while paying close attention to the pop ups researched. The specific skills the artist would need would be paying very close attention to detail and basic drawing skills which could be simplified. I think the zine would have taken anything from a week to a few weeks, because there has been a lot of work and detail put into this. The shading and movement of lines show that its been hand drawn and not constructed by technology.

Personal Response
The thing that draws my attention the most is the attention to detail and the fact that its fascinating to look at and find new things that you haven’t seen before.
I think it reminds me of “Where’s Wally?” by Martin Handford because there’s so much to look at, it’s kind of overwhelming. It’s like you’re searching for something but you can’t find it. It makes me feel inspired to make my own. I love the way it flows in a rotation, it creates a flowing and calm attitude. I think she has a great drawing style that she carries on through the zine. I really like this because it creates a realistic experience reflected from the pages made from someone's imagination. I don’t like how it has low levels of detail on some of the pages because this ruins the flow of the zine.

King-Cat Comics and Stories by John Porcellino

I am looking at a small press comic written by John Porcellino which was published by Spit and a Half in 1999. Small press comics are basically small books or zines full of small comic strip stories made by amateur cartoonists. They are shared to any other creators and buyers who are interested in buying them. Most of the time they are handmade with biro and paper and then photocopied for other people.

Context and Content
King-Cat comics are a series of small stories that Porcellino has been writing ever since his teenage years, The stories include: humour, anger, fiction, romance, and philosophy. The front cover shows somewhere that has been a memory for Porcellino or something to do with the rest of the comic, a self cover. The title “King-Cat comics and stories” gives the designer identity to his work so that he can allow himself to make a fun logo for his readers to recognise and remember. Also it shows a link to his favourite beloved feline friend “Maisie Kukoc”. The fact that it says comics and stories underneath King- Cat allows the reader to understand what's inside. His overarching themes are humour and anger which are contrasted next to each other so that you get more involved with the story. He has been influenced through childhood stories for example; stories about his dog Sam, morals; and how it angers him that he didn’t do the right thing, and pretty much everyday life. There’s a link to other small press comics such as “Reggie and Brian and the Lousy Nickname” by Cathy Leamy. It has the same simple line drawings but it has a lot more uniform fill than King-Cat. Porcellino’s work has been made to entertain others, give them something to read and possibly warn others not to make the same mistakes that he had once done. The narrative runs through each picture and stops at the end of each story like a comic strip and begins again on a new page, this follows conventions. His comics have a fun, hip attitude to inspire all ages.

Form
The colour palette consists of black and white only - achromatic colours with the negative space overpowering the black lines making the white most dominant. Texture has been shown by very simple shapes such as very short vertical lines on the ground to make grass. A lot of texture has been used on the front cover to make it look busy and fascinating. This texture has been made by using scribbles and short vs long line marks to show rendering. There is not much texture or rendering used within the comic strips though. The artist uses more detail for decoration rather than emotion, however on the page after the story about “Sam”, a lot of detail has been used possibly to convey emotion. Depth has been used by making 3D line drawings within the comic. I think all the elements work together well however, i wouldn’t have mixed cartoon and photography personally because i think it looks out of place. But i think it does give you another perspective of the story. The artist chose these materials to reflect the general theme of a small press comic, make it cheap to design and publish. He has also developed a drawing technique from just using pen and paper. Everything is very controlled within each box on the page, so nothing looks out of place. You can tell that its been hand drawn because of the biro lines unlike solid shapes used on photoshop. The composition has been organised and designed to its ultimate simplicity before it has been produced. Everything has been written in sans serif to make it look handmade and hand drawn. The hierarchy shows everything organised into boxes because its in a neat grid which is easy for the eye to follow. All the lines are drawn with a thin weight creating simplicity and neatness which makes for a great quality finish.

Process
I think the processes Porcellino used started with thoughts about stories, memories and just things he wanted to talk about. These could have been mind mapped to think about each story in detail. I think he would have spent a great deal of time on planning and fitting things into each box precisely. I think he would have tried lots of ways of drawing his images as simply as possible.Observational drawings would have been carried out to produce the front cover. A dummy book may have been made to trial his ideas and here he would have used paginate.
The comic has been doubled up to create a continuous story. He may have used blue pencil to show where he needed to draw simple shapes into the boxes. When Porcellino was finished with developing his ideas, he would have then drawn them out on each page and collated them with two staples and then photocopied. The specific skills the artist must have are; being able to cartoonize real life ideas, shorten stories into their simplest form and be able to line draw imagery accurately. Each Biro mark shows that it’s been handcrafted with no support of computers.

Personal Response
The things that draw my attention first are: the grid of boxes where the comic strip is laid out because they’re centred on each page making them the first thing you see, the simple sans serif title is bold and reverse block colour to stand out and also the difference between cartoon strips and the other pages such as “cat calls” because this creates a big contrast making it more exciting. Porcellino’s work reminds me of “The Simpsons” because of the style of drawing. I think that the stories are very powerful and emotive. I love Porcellino’s work because they make me feel happy and relaxed. I don’t think there is anything I dislike about his comics. The adolescent stories remind me of myself and what I am currently going through.

Initial Drawings

Pinterest Design Copies

Copies / Emulations

 Laura Barrett

 These are the original designs by Laura Barrett.

This is the copy that I did using black permanent marker and fine liners instead of cutting them out with a craft knife.

 This is my inspiration for my emulation.

This is my emulation using a scalpel and paper of Hangman's Tree -Peter Pan.

Olly Moss

This is the original design of Buzz Lightyear and Woody by Olly Moss.

This is my copy, I have drawn the shape first on white paper and then cut it out using a scalpel. Then I glued the white paper onto black card. This enables you to see the silhouette more clearly.

This is my emulation using Flounder and Sebastian from The Little Mermaid and I used the same method as I did for the copy.

Drafting

Handmade silhouettes

Experiments - Polysterene Printing

Experimenting with Photoshop