Visual Communication; Final Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

This module has exposed me to new medias and ways of working that I hadn’t previously encountered. I’d made simple GIFs before but not in relation to my own work and illustrations, and Adobe Illustrator was a completely new program to me that I hadn’t used before at all.

The GIFs project was a lot of fun and something I found myself enjoying, I felt that the addition of movement in my illustrations really helped my devolve further into what I was trying to achieve. Gesture really made me think about WHO the character I was creating was not just WHAT they were. I also found the whole process of creating small animations very rewarding when they were finished.

Vectors was something I did struggle with; though I got to grips with the program after a while I feel as though the final illustrations perhaps lacked that energy and touch of personality that my initial sketches and scamps entailed. I think the program itself does allow for the creation of very professionally finished pieces of work, but I think a lot of thought and consideration has to go into the images beforehand (sketching out the final thing then importing to illustrator to go over). If using this program again I would be sure to push my scamps further and make sure they were a lot more detailed and developed before scanning them into illustrator.


2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

As above stated, I feel as though the addition of movement to my illustrations in the GIF brief pushed me to really consider the characters I was making. The gesture and movement had to match who the character was and how I wanted them to be portrayed. This meant that scamping out various movements for one character really allowed me to get a sense of who they were. The 3D and lens GIF was also something new to me and forced me to move my illustration in new ways, and transfer them to different surfaces.

The vector brief also pushed my use of shape in illustration. And while shape is something I enjoy using I feel that because I didn’t necessarily scamp in shape the end results may have felt a little lacking in dynamic movement.


3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I feel like with my GIF and Persons of Note briefs I really played around with ideas as well as developing and being decisive over which ones worked and which ones didn’t, which allowed me to manage my time well while still getting the results that I wanted from my final pieces. I also feel like with all three briefs I did spend time crafting the final images so they’d be at a high quality. Secondary research was also very useful and informed a lot of my thought process and choices within these briefs; looking at other artists and illustrators as well as gaining additional information on my subject matter allowed me to understand what I was illustrating and, perhaps more importantly, form my own opinion on it and decide what I wanted my illustrations to say about it.


4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I feel that within the vector brief I got too caught up in research and didn’t do enough scamping when it came to my final images. I had a lot of information and opinions on each of the gangs//people I researched for this brief but due to a lacking in extensive scamping and initial play beforehand, I feel the final illustrations may have felt a bit bland. This could be remedied through more exhaustive image making before picking a final outcome.

After using a larger sketchbook for my final brief, Persons of Note, I also feel that the smaller moleskins used in the two previous briefs may have tied me down//restricted me in my image making and how exhaustive I was in it. Buying a larger sketchbook for future work could open me up to more media experiments and a freer way of getting ideas out visually.


5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

To manage my time well throughout all briefs so that extensive scamping and visual research can be undertaken while still being decisive about what works and what doesn’t. This will allow for more developed final outcomes, crafted at a higher level of quality and understanding.

Work in a larger sketchbook so that more play with media and research can be undertaken. Can also experiment more with scale when compared with a smaller sketchbook.

Ensure to keep looking at current illustration and illustrators while undergoing a project. I’ve found this to really help and inform my own work when tackling a problem or dilemma as well as open my eyes to alternative ways of working both stylistically and in regards to media.

Actively seek out the opinion of others on my work, I’ve found feedback to be really useful both as to help solve problems and identify my strengths. I think it’s also useful to see what other people in the class are doing and how they are doing them; it inspires me to keep pushing myself further and try to get better.

Test out various scamps//ideas before settling on one; don't let an idea become a final image purely because it does the bare minimum (as I feel the vector postcards may have done in certain areas). Challenge my illustrations; could they be better, clearer, stronger? Could they convey more by saying less? Are they saving enough? Push myself even further!

Person's of Note; Evaluation

Final poster, postcards and stamps

INTENT

To show Spike Milligan for the person he was; to not shy away from his struggles but focus primarily on the joy//positivity he brought to the world through both his work and person

Have the poster be almost biographical in the way it displays and conveys information about him

To use traditional methods of illustration (analog) to make the pieces feel very hand-made and human in feel as that's what Spike prided himself on being; flawed and imperfect but kind and loving and human

To reflect his quieter, more thoughtful side in the poem postcards through more stripped back illustration, simplified imagery and selective colour

To create a series of illustrations that also met the brief and worked well as a set

STRENGTHS

 I time managed well on this brief, completing all of the illustrations by my booked print slot on Monday and to the level I wanted them to be at; this was largely due to making small timetables for myself and writing down when I would complete certain things by.

I feel as though I was also more thorough and exhaustive of my ideas in this brief when compared with the vector one. If an idea wasn't working in the way that I wanted it too or wasn't evoking what I wanted to say, I feel like I managed to push things further and be decisive about what worked and what didn't; what could be pushed further and what would fulfill my intent.

I would like to think the time spent on my images also indicates to a level of craftsmanship and consideration into the final outcomes

The images themselves are all very personal and reflective of Spike Milligan and his life 

CONCERNS//WEAKNESSES

That my viewpoint on Spike Milligan might not be translated in the way that I want it to be? Will the viewer get the dual sides that made him who he was while still understanding the overarching positive aura I wanted to display? Is it too complex?

Although all the images were constructed using the same media I worry that maybe they don't work as a series as much as they could. A set colour scheme would have helped all the images work well together; I was worried about the postcards having too much negative space but maybe the end results now make the stamps look too bare when compared to the poster and postcards?

The poster is slightly off center (the tree on the right is too close to the edge)

I worry that the tone of voice in the poster is still a little bit too 'cartoony' and 'grown up' or 'serious' enough? Maybe it looks a little bit too 'child friendly'? Though this could be seen as a positive given Milligan's love for his children

OVERALL REFLECTION

I'm pleased with the final outcomes and how they've been printed; I'm glad I took the time to book a print slot and have my work done in time so they could be printed on good stock white card. I'm also pleased with how the images themselves turned out, and that I got to practice using watercolours again as it's something I haven't done for quite a while.

I do feel however that I should have pushed the stamps a little further and filled more of the negative space as I worry they look a little bare when compared with the poster and postcards. Maybe I should have included a small bit of type into all of them to fill more space, or used colour in the backgrounds and had negative space objects like the postcards and poster.

Persons of Note; Week 3

Colour//media tests for postcards

The peer feedback was really useful, especially when it came to my problem of negative space in my postcards; the suggestion to do them in a similar way to my poster solved my issue! I did a few scamps to experiment with different medias to work with the watercolour and eventually decided up watercolour and mechanical pencil, as it seemed to work the best over all three of the postcards, as well as fitting in with how I would construct my poster.

Process of watercolour (and graphite) poster

I bought some watercolour paper to do my final work on. This did make the watercolours seem a lot more pigmented and bold when compared with my tests in the sketchbook however I didn't mind this as I wanted the poster to be a very positive and vibrant thing.

I kept the same paper quality and watercolours throughout all my final images to ensure they would work well as a set. Once compete I scanned them all in at high resolutions and had them printed in the print dungeon, I wanted a clean white matte finish on all the different works so again chose one paper stock to fit all three pieces (poster, postcards and stamps). I also printed out the postcards and stamps with a grey background so I would know where the white borders I'd put in where when I cut them out.

Postcards and stamps (traditional)

 

Final printed pieces

Persons of Note; Week 2

Amélie Fléchais

I found Flechais a while ago on pinterest, and decided to revisit her for this project given how stumped I was currently feeling in regards to media. What I utterly adore about her work is the strong and confident use of character and media application, resulting in unique and well crafted pieces of illustration. 

Her often surreal subject matter also fit in well with the sorts of source material I was working with in terms of Milligan's bizarrely fun poems; seeing how she applied media and used colour to evoke a sense of atmosphere. 

 

'Granny' poem with watercolour experiments 

From this I started my own watercolour experiments and felt that they worked a lot better at conveying the tone of voice Milligan used in his poems, but through illustration. They were still whimsical and quirky but with a bit more of a sophisticated and considered attitude. 

Though I was more pleased with my image making I still felt as though I lacked direction for my A2 final poster. At this point I turned to the book 'The Essential Spike Milligan', an anthology of Milligan's work spanning throughout his life in a almost autobiographical sense. I thought it might make sense to document different poems from different parts of his life in order to select which ones I wanted to use for the postcards; and this might help to inform what I wanted to be included on the poster.

Break down of Spike's poems via his life events//illustrating of 'The Land of the Bumbley Boo'

Once I'd separated the poems into the different chapter titles of the book (each chapter documenting a different period of his life) I started to illustrate the Bumbley Boo, however I felt like I was just going in circles. I was just illustrating another one of his poems and I wasn't really getting any closer to what I wanted to portray and say about Spike Milligan; what did I want his legacy to be? What did I want the illustrations I was making to convey?

A3 portraits of Spike in mixed media

I tried doing two larger scale illustrations of Milligan, I thought by upping the scale of my image making something new might come from it. This was also another opportunity for media play and I found that I quite liked the mixture of graphite pencil with the watercolour. It allowed for more detail and contrast within the image; it was sort of bringing together that notion of the colourful side of Milligan mixed with the darker, shadowy side.

Spike Milligan: Love, Light and Peace (documentary)

Growing up I'd seen a few documentaries on Spike Milligan, and I felt as though I needed more input into my work for it to be truly successful; I needed a way to draw together everything I knew about Spike Milligan and conclude it via an A2 poster and accompanying work.

I watched the very recent BBC documentary 'Spike Milligan: Love, Light and Peace', that I hadn't previously seen. And it was EVERYTHING I needed. Largely made up of interviews with Spike talking about his own life and work, with interviews from family, friends and those he inspired, this documentary said everything I needed to know and everything I wanted to say. It summed him up so well because it was told from HIS point of view, from the point of view of those who KNEW him.

It got to the very core of what I wanted my poster to be; what I wanted my work to convey. Here was a man who struggled, who battled and was flawed and so far from perfect, but was kind and loving and magical. A man who loved his children beyond words, who campaigned for mental health to be talked about, who fought for environmental issues. Milligan was at times in his life utterly depressed, but he was also utterly in love with the world. And so I while I wanted to show some of the darker sides to Milligan, I wanted these illustrations to largely be a celebration and something positive, as I think that's what he would have wanted to be remembered by.

Compositional scamps

It was also after watching this documentary that I finally found a composition that worked for my poster! It came in the form of a little scamp but it solved my issue of wanting to include lots of aspects of him in one image without it being too overwhelming or confusing.

The documentary also made it a lot easier to organise what I wanted to include in the poster, and what I wanted to leave out.

Winnie-The-Pooh - The complete collection of stories and poems//Illustrations by E.H. Shepard

Stylistically I knew I wanted to work with watercolour, but the tone of voice was still a bit of a blank spot for me. Given that I was at home in Hull during this time I turned to my own art books for inspiration. It was here that I picked out my Winnie-The-Pooh complete collection of stories and poems, I felt that the illustrations in this book reflected a similar sort of 'homely' and nostalgic quality I wanted my own to evoke. From here I began scamping out the separate components that would make up my poster.

 

Watercolour scamps of smaller components of poster

Once the poster was out of the way I set about picking three poems that I felt reflected different times in Milligan's life. I decided on The Land of the Bumbley Boo, Unto Us and Goodbye S.S. I wanted to keep the postcards quite simple with a mixture of text and type, I felt that a 'quiet' sort of illustration would be appropriate here as I wanted the poems to reflect a more quiet side to Milligan; a more thoughtful and withdrawn side, without being overly sad or tragic.

Colour tests//choosing of poems for postcards

For the stamps I decided to focus on Milligan's various occupations and roles, I then picked four I felt could be best represented through a couple of simple symbols given the stamps small size, and scamped out some roughs to choose my final four.

Colour scamps for stamps

Personal reflection//feedback

OWN CONCERNS

Will my opinion of Milligan be conveyed the way I want it to be? Is it too overly complex?

Time constraints of doing an A2 watercolour poster?

Too much negative space on postcards when compared with stamps and poster?

STRENGTHS (PEER FEEDBACK)

Good knowledge of Milligan

Have something want to say

Conveyed well

Lots of research

ACTIONS TO TAKE//IMPROVEMENTS (PEER FEEDBACK)

Rather than have the postcards with a white background and too much negative space, have them with a coloured background and objects in black and white to match the poster - start scamping this out to choose colours//see how it'll work

Work on A3 for final poster then blow it up to A2 to be time effective 

Persons of Note; Week 1

Notes on three given persons of note

While I had to research all three given names, I knew once I had them that I had a clear favourite. Since childhood Spike Milligan has been a small but important part of my life; my dad used to print out his poems for me when I was little and we'd read them together. Their quirky, imaginative and sometimes just hilariously ridiculous nature had always captured my attention and creative thoughts.

Since childhood however, I'd be exposed to a different side of Milligan, documentaries and adult poetry revealed there was very much a conflict within him. It was this relationship between Milligan's well known comedy sketches and poetry, this happy and ecstatic human being, with his struggles with mental health and depression that I really wanted to explore further.

Sketchbook pages beginning to visual understand Spike and his poems

After initially looking at Victoria Borges I wanted to try something more painty and experimental to the way I'd normally construct work. Milligan's spontaneous natured allowed me to fully embrace this messier way of working. I really wanted to exhaust the ideas I was illustrating and experiment with style and tone of voice within the various poems

Close up of 'cows go bong' scamp

I continued to experiment with the Ning Nang Nong poem as well as doing more research into Spike himself and a few portraits; I was wrestling a little bit with what side I wanted to focus on with my series of illustrations. I was well aware of his struggle with mental issues throughout his life, and the fact he'd had a couple of affairs, however I was completely in love with him as a human being; despite these struggles he was incredibly affectionate, earnest and caring. His flaws MADE him HUMAN. And I think this human element was an extremely important part of what made Spike Milligan, Spike Milligan.

I think I want this series of work to embody that idea.

Feedback from crit

MAIN POINTS

Strong understanding of subject

Find one simple visual metaphor or create multiple stories using lots of images (collage?)

Idea of conflict could work - reflect him

Consistency of colour//media to link illustrations together

Use small parts of poster for stamps?

Illustrate a poem for each postcard?

Consider TONE OF VOICE - is it appropriate 

Victoria Borges

REFLECTION

For my poster I was thinking of having an image similar to Borges (above) to incorporate a few different aspects of Milligan's personality and life; with perhaps some of the imagery in black and white to reflect the hardships he faced and colour to represent the joy he brought to the world

I'm still not sure about media; while I like some of the images I've created I agree that the tone of voice isn't quite appropriate to the subject matter at the minute; it's too 'cute' and 'bubbly' and I want something more serious so that my intent is met

I like the idea of illustrating a poem for each other the postcards as I could choose poems from different times of his life; when he was going through different things

I think I need a bit more research into the chronology of his life and more media//tone of voice experiments to really lock down what I want to say and how I want to say it

Persons of Note; Contextual Research

Victoria Borges

What really drew me to Borges' work is her use of media and experimentive way she communicates ideas and figures. The way she overlaps somewhat abstract imagery could come in useful given the nature of this brief; trying to summarize someone's life could be quite a task, but Borges is able to deal with more than one element of an image and synthesise them together fluently.

Her use of colour and texture is also sublime. While most of these illustrations look digitally rendered they've really got me inspired to try some more painterly, textured work. It's something I haven't had chance to do so far this year and something I actually really enjoy. I think it's nice to do something different with scale and media to push and experiment with your own style of illustration.