Photography - fashion and media

For the final day of fashion and textiles we learned about photography and composition of photos for modelling shoots.

Reflecting

On the day I got on very well with the tasks as they mainly consisted of me and my group experimenting with each other on different settings, lighting effects and locations. I feel that I achieved a lot in the sense that I learned a lot about how the camera is used and how the director asks for the model to be posed, but at the same time finding this as not too relevant as I'm not into photography too much. Concerning feedback i did not receive a lot of feedback as I was the person behind the camera for most of the day. With the 4-5 photos I did manage to take, I rechecked average feedback on them as I'm not so use to using expensive cameras, but for a first timer managed to get the basics of what to do. From the overall task I learned that lighting is very important to a photo, and that many factors such as reflectors and light beams can be used to alter the image. Also, I learned that adjusting the camera's light and exposure settings makes a big different to the models photo as well. In addition to learning about light exposure settings on the camera, I found that when I was filming during the summer for some performance video's, nothing came out clear due to the exposure settings being too high on the camera. From today I learned about how I could fix this problem, so that even in my own filming time for videos I will not make the same mistake again.

Analysing

I think the most successful part of the day was how I managed to very easily understand the very basics of using a camera in addition to using a light meter to change to settings around having effect on the model and photo compositions. In addition to this I found it interesting in how the different locations we used and the light reflectors and equipment etc. had very different effects on each photo. On the outside location shots the lighting almost looked as if there was a photo filter on the picture, which enhanced its appearance than just keeping it looking normal. I was not happy that I didn't manage to fully grasp how to use the light meter readings to adjective the camera settings, because I found the numbering very confusing since it went backwards. This was the most difficult part of the day right at the start, and when  attempted to change the lighting of the shots I found myself darkening the image too much. At one point whilst I was taking photographs my camera lighting had gone completely dark and I struggled to see through the lens. This however was fixed by my tutor Othello who fixed the camera settings after I had accidentally set them the wrong way. Overall I found the day very easy and quite fun as it consisted mainly of practical work and experimenting with our own style of photography and direction how we wanted a photo to look. 

Time management:

From the photography day I did not find any way on how to improve my current time planning patterns and management as we were not under any deadlines or time limits throughout the day. As we were only experimenting for the entire day it meant that I also did not have to work under any rush, leading to messy or rushed work. The one thing about this photography day however that was different to others was that we were given our tutorial on usage of the camera before break. After this tutorial the task was to experiment throughout the day with the camera and composition/settings of the shots we wanted to take. Even though this was a good way of letting us find out our own strengths and weaknesses when using a camera, it would be interesting to see how the day played out if each session was divided into a theory for the first half and practical for the second. This way we could be advised on our techniques whilst planning them, and because this would be before we begin shooting, it would mean that we could enhance the quality and meaning behind our images.

Creating the final Garment (fashion and textiles)

 For the fourth day in the fashion and textile week we created the final garment of clothing that was either part of a dress, shoulder piece, accessory or something else that could be worn.

Reflecting:

For the first task, which was to finalise any finishing touches to our garment design, I found this very simple when looking at the entire dress design based upon the skirt collage I had done the day before. However at the last minute due to time constraints I found that I could simplify the design by only designing the top piece, which made it much easier and also allowed more simplicity to be present in the design. Achievement wise I feel that I achieved the finished top piece, however because of time constraints I was not able to add colour or print to the main body top. This was due to the fact that I was ill on the day and had come in late. In addition to this, the complexity of my first design went through many Kay minute changes to be suited for the making process in the time frame I had. Because of this my final garment was successful as it was fully created however failed in the respect that the main bit that would be worn was not coloured or printed due to time. From my peers I received much feedback that my shoulder pieces that were placed on the side of the piece were very interesting because of the 3 shades of blue I used, and also the fact that it was folded in almost a DNA similar shape, which ofcourse was taken from my 3D collage design earlier on in the week. Staff commented that the shoulder pieces added a vibrant feel to my piece and that even without the main part being colured, at least the shoulder pieces brought an interesting and funky aspect. From the overall tasks I learnt that it is not a good idea to over complicate any designs that I come up with, but if I do come up with complex designs I should simplify them to the point where it does not take away from the original effect of my design.

Analysing:

I think that the most successful aspect of my final garment was the shoulder pieces, now because they were the only coloured bits, but because the way they were created (folding paper strip over again and again) made them stand out due to it's geometric similar shape look. This in addition to the colour however made the garment have a more funky feel as the light blue, laser blue, and dark blue shades all clashed with each other when the shoulder strips were made, and it also gave the pieces a similar look to some kind of necklace or simple square floral design. I was not happy with the fact that my main body of the garment was not printed on or did not have any colours, making it feel very plain. As mentioned before this was due to my absence in the morning due to being ill, and by the time I had come to university I had missed over an hour of making time. I did not find any part of the day difficult, apart from placing the garment on the mannequin which was slightly cumbersome but not difficult due to the usage of pins and paper being prone to tear. Overall the creation of the garment was very easy as my design was very simple in design, and this made it much more simple to create.

Time management:

From looking back at the day, I don't think I could improve my current planning methods and time management as I still managed to make the body of the garment within my shortened time limit. From my current planning patterns I could enhance my skills by not contemplating too much on last minte changes. Because of the last minute changes I made, it affected my thinking on how I would make the dress and because of this I spent a greater chunk of time figuring out how to make the net for the top dress piece. 

Life drawings day 1

Monday 22nd September I was given the task of multiple life drawing throughout the day.

Analysing:

As I had never done life drawings or anything similar in previous years, doing it for the first time was an experience. I believe that each if the tasks I got on with very well, especially seeing as they were not one minute drawings where we had to create multiple ideas, but long medium paced drawings that we had enough time to add as much detail as possible. I got on especially well with the 20 minute tasks after break where we were asked to create drawings of our model using graphite sticks, purely because the time that we had allowed us to not be in a rush but work at a medium pace compared to rushing a drawing. I feel that I achieved a lot from the day, expecially seeing as I had never done these types of drawings before so it was a brand new experience for me. Also since I have never been any good at drawing faces and facial features, most of my images did not include them too much but I felt that this added to the drawing by not over complicating it, but just focusing in the body. I also believe that the one minute figure drawing task right at the start of the day allowed me to condition my mind into the later stages, as I found that during the longer drawings I had drawn stick figures of the models pose and then built on the details and body parts around that figure. From my peers I received excellent feedback on my drawings with the graphite sticks, and was given the tip of smudging my shades areas, especially with charcoal drawings as this allowed my drawings to have more depth and appear more 3D, instead of just looking like an outline with shading marks that were very rough. Overall the main technique I learn from the day was using the method of stretching my arm and divine my view into sections, with my work page in sections so that my image would not be distorted or look wonky or too long/shirt in specific areas. Through learning this of my tutor Angie I beilive that this technique will help me in future works by ensuring that my designs/drawings do not come out looking too long/short or wonky.

Analysing:

I think the most successful part of my work for the day was how my 20 minute graphite stick drawings had been smudged in their shading to make then look more realistic and intricate as a figure. I believe this worked as the technique suggested by my peers allowed me to give more depth to my image, instead of having an outline of a body with rough shading marks. Something I was not happy with however was my designs on the garments that were our last tasks if the day. This is because it was difficult to come up with something quickly especially as we only had 10 minutes in each design. The photo above shows what I beilive was the most visual design however I still thinking that this could be improved upon as I more or less did rush into the colours I chose as well as the patterns. I found it extremely difficult drawing the facial features when drawing the model however I left this out and focused on the shape and shading if the body which would be taking up the majority of my time. This way the overall shape was there and nothing from the body was lost expect for facial features. I found the first task of one minute drawings extremely easyas it was just stick figure drawings of the pose the model was standing in, and this helped later in in the longer drawings when we had to build around a stick figure to get a full body.

Time management

From the overall day I don't think there was any problem with timing with each if the drawings. If there was any problem with the timing it had to be in the garment pattern task at the end as we were only given 10 minutes for this. I believe that I could improve on a task like this next time by not contemplating on what design I should put down first, but placing any small idea down as something is better than nothing. To improve my planning a method of improvement could be to quickly sketch some ideas of inspiration, or even just look around the room for inspiration instead if coming up with the final design in my head straight away. Enhanced planning will allow me to improve future work by allowing me to finish my design or drawing faster, which will give me more time to check over my design and ensure that there are no silly mistakes or incorrect parts to my work.

Creating 3D collages + Garment initial designs

Wednesday 24th September I had the task of creating collages from the materials and coloured paper I brought in as well as the images of the models I brought in.

Analysing:

When creating the collage work on my chosen model, I got on quite well as the task only consisted of cutting and sticking down existing materials onto the image we had. I feel that once the day was over I achieved more on the final task of creating dresses and garments with cut out shapes that we had created earlier on, as I was also going around to different mannequins and using different students paper shape cutouts to create very unique designs/dresses related to a word we were given. On the first task if collaging the model with my own ideas and materials, I received positive feedback on the vibrant blue colour that i had used as the skirting of my model, which included folded paper to create a dangling DNA similar shape that had streaks of light blue and a streak of dark blue.the resemblance to Goph's the starry night was also referenced by some students, which was evident in the design as it was part of the inspiration. For the dresses task at the end if the day however I didn't recieve any feedback as we were moving very rapidly around the room. From the overall day I learnt from the final task especially that it is essential to work with any materials available, and this made even more sense when we did the dress rotation task. As my group did not have control over what shapes other students created for thier own mannequin it made it interesting as there was an element of surprise with each different groups work that we had to use.

Analysis:

I think the most successful part about my works of the day were each of the dresses that we had to create at the end, purely because there was so much more to experiment with as everyone had very different designs and cutouts. Due to this variety there were many configurations to play around with which made this project more fun as it was difficult to decide on one final configuration on each mannequin. I did not like the 3D shapes that we had to create at that start if the day as my image of the starry night was not easy to break up and create a lot of different things from, seeing as the image was mainly dark blue and yellow in it's design with not many objects visible to create. This I found was also the most challenging due to the difficulty of oicking out aspects to turn into 3D shapes, however in the end I did manage to create 5 pieces which if course were used later on in the day with the final task. The easiest task of the day was configuring the different mannequins with the different shape cutouts we had been given, as we were simply pinning on of isn't structures that others created. 

Time management

From the day I thought that I could improve my time planning methods by being more spontaneous, with my collage section, as I was with the final dresses and garment creating. Being more spontaneous in the final part of the day allowed me to create and come up with many ways on how I could have assembled one of the mannequin dresses, and this I beilive would be suitable for the first task as it would help to create a much more wacky and funky collage. In future work I could do this by perhaps printing the model photo I was using many times and trying different things in each one, finally deciding on one to develop and take forward after comparing each of them. This planning would allow my future works to be much better as there would be more of a variety of designs to experiment with instead of just 1 or 2 solid designs. Having 4+ potentional designs could allow my range if ideas and thinking to show in this respect.

Fashion and media day 2

Today we began fashion and media/textiles and designing. The day comprised of 3-4 main activities which were:

Selecting bits from a chosen painting of ours, making 3D shapes relating to these sections of our famous painting, choosing one shape and creating enlarged cutouts/structures of it. In the end we used these pieces whilst rotating around the classroom in order to creating funky clothing relating to a word that we were told by out tutor. Eg flamboyant

Reflecting:

With each of the given tasks I got on quite well, apart from the first 2 activities. This was due to the fact that my painting did not have too many different bits to it so it was difficult to choose 5 different pieces and create shapes from them. From this it was difficult creating shapes as my image being flat did not give me much inspiration on how to create something that was related to it. However, after a period of thinking I found that it was fairly easy to create the shapes using my different paper and media. Overall I felt that at the end of each task I was happy with what I achieved on the task of creating the clothing items on the mannequin, and also the cutting out of enlarged shapes, as it was a very simple task to accomplish. (Pins and scissors were my best friends with these tasks). I received much feedback from my peers on the table next to mine as well as my own that my pointy castle structure was intriguing, especially since I created it in different types of paper including brown paper and pink, and also using markers to add colour to my plain ones. My tutors also remarked on the shapes of my pointy castle structure and gave me the developing idea of creating some at different heights and in different colours to create a variety. From the overall tasks I learnt that in order to create volume from paper or shapes from paintings, you must think outside the box as it is not easy to take a 2D drawing and turn it into a 3D piece with it's own unique depth. This could be seen as a challenge by some especially myself, as I am normally use to creating 3D images from my own technical drawings of what I am creating, and not somebody else's 2D work. Furthermore I believe that this day could help be influential in my future work by inspiring me to look more into creating 3D shapes from 2D drawings.

Analysing:

Looking back at my work, I beilive that the most successful aspect of my work today was when the final pieces on each mannequin came together to form the clothing we were meant to create at the end. I believe that this was most successful as there was a range of giant cutout shapes to work with, and the words that we had been given to design out pieces to very easy to decipher. An example of this could be seen with out flamboyant piece which was the first one that me and my partner created.

On the negative side, I was not happy with the 3D models that I had to create at the start of the day. This was because my image was very difficult to divide into different sections in order to create the different structures in 3D. I found it extremely challenging on the second piece that we had to make that the shapes that were cut out for us by the group had a very rough look and kept falling apart, which made it very difficult to manouvre and position without having pieces continuously fall over. I found the last 2 pieces that we created for the mannequins quite easy as the cutout shapes were not complicated to the point where we couldn't fit them on, but instead very basic in their geometric form which made them very easy to manipulate and bend without ruining the appearance of it.

Time maganent and planning:

I beilive that after reflecting on today's task, I could improve my current planning methods and time management by acting in a very spontaneous way instead of long thinking which wastes more designing time. This different way of acting towards the design process will block out any ideas that I may not think are fully up to scratch and because of this create and react more quickly when a task is given to us, especially within a time limit. I believe that I can learn more from my current learning patterns by experimenting with faster ideas that have little potentional instead of just one idea that has fullnornpossibly no potential because too much thought has gone into it.

LBM - Final Day

Hello and welcome to my final day on Lens based media for the week.

The final day consisted of 2 main activities. The first one was that we brought in 6 photos that we though had a narrative and told a story about something. Secondly we were asked to create an image that looked like impossible trick photography but without the use of software or photoshop.

Reflecting:

With both tasks I got on quite well. The first task was quite tedious for me as my 6 images were a story about myself, and I could not find a way to conclude it within one photograph. The second task however went very well as my idea straight away came to me when given the task, meaning less time was required in order to complete it. I feel that the first task didn't achieve much for me, other than the fact that it made me realise how poor my work of photograph narratives was. Although I made an attempt. I could easily tell that this was not my area of art and design. With the second task however I feel I achieved much more as the photo which apparently showed me levitating above the O2 drew much attraction from my peers. Leading on from this, the feedback of my photo story task was very critical from my peers, which further discouraged me from wanting to go into LBM. When it came to the second task many peers said it was the most interesting image they had seen, however my facial expression which was meant to show my fear of heights did not come out clearly due to lighting issues, and because of this it came under heavy fire by my group that I had been discussing with. From the overall tasks I learnt that photographs or any lens based media must have a very clear narrative and reasoning behind why those images exist, otherwise it will confuse people or even come ope to more criticism than it might have originally received. In addition, I beilive that this problem could help improve future pieces of work by ensuring I out more thought into my ideas first, so that the work can speak for itself and I don't have to do much or no explaining to my audience.

Analysing:

When analysing both tasks, the first task I believe was successful in the sense that I managed to put across a story about myself in a very chronological way, showing both a young self and my current self.  With the photo creation task I found it successful as it created a real sense of wonder among the class. Also the way it was shot from my phone, had purposely included the corner of the round windows of the building. Because of this the effect on my viewers was greater as it made it look as if a student had apparently seen the feat and rushed to picture it in that moment of time.

I was not happy with the fact that the photo I created was not clear on the features of my body. This was because of the sun shining through the window, which caused the cutout image of myself to look like a silhouette on camera without any details of my body  and also the expressions on my face showing. I found the first task difficult out of the whole day due to not knowing how to make my narrative very clear. Overall the photo creation was very easy, as all I had to do was take a picture of myself, shrink it to a very small (1cm high) size and stick it on the window after cutting my exact body shape out. All that was needed after this was to take a photo and print it. 

Time management:

Looking back at the day overall, I did not have any problems with time as all the tasks were completed within the time frame that was given to me. If I had to pick one issue I had relating to time it would be the fact that the computers took extremely long to log into, which made the process of printing much slower. From this I found that I could improve my time planning methods by perhaps printing elsewhere as the university computers would always be taken and logged into by other students doing thier work, in which having my own computer or just printing work from a USB would be much better of wanting to save time. 

Lenses based media day 2

On our second day of lens based media, we were asked to bring in 5 personal ephemera that we would use as an inspiration to create a story. In our groups we would create a narrative that involved out objects, and present it to the class.

Reflecting: 

From the lens based media I found this task to be the most difficult to grasp the concept off. When me and my group members showed our personal ephemera we found that we had many similar objects and that there were only 2 different objects that not everyone had. With the ideas we had, we found it difficult to describe our story ideas in 6 frames, by creating the characters, problems and worlds. At the end of the task we feel that we achieved a potential idea, which was one group member losing a personal item when waking up and then waking up to find out that losing the object was only happening in a dream. We felt that it was somewhat successful but not completely. However because of the way we pictured our character it was not obvious to others that our setting was a dream world. My group did not receive any feedback from this task, as we finished it slightly late due to printing issues. Overall I learnt from this task that thinking outside the box is very difficult especially when it comes to telling a story, as it has to be surprise and unassuming to have maximum impact.

Analysing:

I think that the most successful aspect of this task was that it wasn't over complicated, but very simple yet difficult to see the ending of the story. However the unsuccessful aspect was that it was extremely difficult to come up with our story, and this is what most of our time was spent on. Because of this we almost rushed the idea that we finalised, as we were quite confused by our tutor that we had to keep questioning the characters, settings, and decisions that we made for them. Ofcourse coming up with the story was the most challenging part, however photographing our story was very easy once we for the idea in mind.

Time management:

Concerning the time planning we spent on this Project, we spent no time planning or coming up with how we would achieve this task, and this was mainly due to the reason of us having to question out motivations for the worlds and characters that we put in place. As a designer I beilive that lens based media is an extremely difficult area of design as large amounts of time are required to analyse pictures, and think of a suitable narrative for telling a story.

Final Graphics rotation piece

Hello! 

Sorry if you are a little confused with the chronology of my blog it's been a hectic 2 weeks recently. This is the final piece of my graphics rotation. For this we were asked to study ourselves and represent our most meaningful and descriptive thoughts in these 6 squares through drawings and words that were 150mm in size length and height. 

Reflecting:

Reflecting upon this project, I got on with this task quite well as I already had an idea of how I would be laying out my 6 squares. I felt it was quite easy because of the convenience of my name having 6 letters and us being required to complete 6 squares. An idea instantly came to mind where I would have one letter per square and each of these letters would describe all the different aspects of myself. In the timeframe that we had I beilive that I achieved a lot yet at the cost of being rushed. Only 4 of my squares were finished. In this Resepct I beilive the project was semi-successful, and if I were allowed perhaps an hour more, I would have completed the task.

When doing our group discussions,the students in my group were very interested by how I used my six letter name to represent each square. Each had commented that the best thing about each square that was done at the time had no white showing, and that it made it less boring and added a sense of colour and dimension to it, rather than it being colourless and plain. The Tutor however of our group gave heavy criticism that my design was not consistent in making it obvious that my name had one letter per square when I told her of the idea. However I was not concerned anyway as I did not intend for the 6 letters in my name matches to each square to be very obvious. In addition this helped to develop my work by making my designs more direct instead of cryptic, as not everyone may like the idea of finding out why I have done my design of the six squares as such. From this task I learnt that a design shouldn't be too cryptic or too vague, but it would have a balance of both to make the viewer really think about what meanings and messages I have created in my work.

Analysing:

The most successful part of this work I beilive was how it was formed into a dice/cube that could be rolled around, this way it could be rolled as a dice and the side facing up would tell the people who have it something different about me. Another thought I had was that this was similar to socialising with someone without having to say anything to them, but letting the work speak for itself and myself. I was not happy however the way I made the dice. Because I was rushed for time I did not create a net for my cuboid to take place, but 6 squares with tabs that would be stuck together. If I were to attempt this project again I would ensure that I have a net first of the cuboid, to make it easier to assemble. Also I would use cardboard on the inside to stiffen it as many other students did, and this way it would not be flimsy and fragile.

I found that my difficulty with this once again was timing. I did not want this to be perfect, yet did not want it to look rushed, and on thinking about how to achieve this I lost track of time and eventually ran out of it. Overall I found this a fairly easy task, especially when completed at home as it only consisted of assembling a 3D cube and drawing images to represent myself, which was easy since we completed the passport project.

Time management:

From this task I found that a sensible way to manage my time would be to get the main sections of my work done in the classroom, and then do the finishing touches in my own study periods. For example doing this project from the start once again, the six squares would be cut out, and the words on each letter would be drawn on in the classroom. At home it would be to finish off the details and colir schemes. I beilive that future work this would help me to conserve my time and also give me extra time to reflect upon the project In my blog.

Lens based media day 1

Hello!

This week I will be talking about lens based media. 

Reflecting:

The first task we were given was to go through images that we considered as personal ephemera to us, and to draw this out in the time limit of 90 minutes as best as we could on A1 paper. I feel that I got on with this task very well as I progressed, although had much difficulty in the start as I'm not use to drawing portraits or people. From many peers I got generally good feedback, and this helped the development of my work as it encouraged me that I do have more potential in drawing people than I previously thought. From the oberall task I learnt that I was better at people drawings than I expected however it came only to the outlines. Afterwards facial detail was extremely difficult and for future work I do not be beilive that I will improve at drawing people or faces as I like working more with solid shapes and forms, not sketchy looking pencil drawings. Also after drawing most of our pictures. We were asked to use ripped up paper to block out aspects of our picture. These aspects were meant to signify the main sections of the drawing and bring more attention to it.  

Analysing:

I think the main successful part about my work is that I got a strong outline of the photo I was drawing and that they looked extremely detailed on the outlines. Also the hair on both me and Dynamo on the photo was commented on by other students as being identical to how they looked in the photograph I was working from. While completing more of this work at home I wasn't happy with the fact that whenever I drew a facial feature It would come out wrong and I'd have to re draw it once more. I found it extremely difficult to draw the facial features, purely because all my past experiences with drawing faces has been bad, and this one no different. Also as I'm more use to working with more solid shapes and forms this task was tricky in the sense that I had to let the pencil move more freely around and not restrict it to very basic geometric shapes. This task Overall was quite easy however.

Time management and planning

For the amount of time we had to do this drawing, I don't think that there is any way that I couldn't improve my planning and management. The main reason I didn't finish this within the classroom was that I spent a lot of time thinking how to ensure that this drawing would look as realistic as possible. To achieve this I took it very slowly whilst drawing and not trying to rush, as that would only make things more likely to look messy and unfinished and untidy. To improve my current time skills on drawing photographs I could practice doing times phot drawing challenges at home, to pick up the sense of what is the most important aspects of a picture to draw.

Collage of photos and One word challenge

On Wednesday 10th September we had two tasks to complete. Firstly we were asked to bring in A3 photos of ourselves to bring in, which were used in an early stage of out sketching task. However the main task it was used for was taking a quarter of each image that belonged to each person on the table and merge them into one big image.

This was a fairly easy task to accomplish and did not take very long. I really liked how each of our images all had a different filter or effect on them that when placed together all of them made the page stand out much more.

For our second task we were given the word perform. This word is something we had to relate to many things and then create a graphical item that represented that word. First we linked the word to things such as magic, comedians, Halloween masks, and this led on to many things involving theme parks and so kn when we found relating words.

After brainstorming out ideas, we decided to relate our word to that of politics and make a political graphic poster seeing as that is one of the main kinds of things graphics are used in. Our poster consisted of a joker playing card with a jester in the middle. Within this jester we photoshopped an image of boris Johnson, particularly because he is seen as a very jolly and funny figure. We titled the campaign 'stop the act' , which relates to the fact that boris Johnson and the conservatives had promised many changes to London and did not deliver them. This related to our word 'perform' as it showed that they were performing very badly in their political campaign to gain supporters, giving false promises and lies in order to be successful. I found this act quite challenging as during our planning process there was a late number of subjects we could relate to perform, and it was very difficult to choose between them. However we overcame this knowing that politics would bring up an interesting debate and discussion among fellow peers. We were told by peers that this was a very cleverly thought off way of representing boris. Also the fact that we places 3 posters in a giant piece of card, with some overlapping made it look as if these posters were put up in a London street alley as the Anti-perfoance campaign.

Sketches and Faceprints

Welcome!

This week we had a very interesting set if tasks to complete. 

Faceprints:

First thing we done this week was a faceprint with our name on it. To accomplish this, we were asked to go to the study zone to find typography related books with texts that we found interesting to ourselves. From the book I had I had chosen a text that I drew instead of printing out as I found it easier. Out next job was to put this on a photocopier and scan it along with out face on it. Although an easy enough task sadly only my ear was visible on the scanner! I guess this made this bit of my work more interesting as it almost appeared as if an image had somehow manifested into tomhe paper. As graphics is my favourite type of design, I found this quite interesting as I learned that graphic design can use an image to create a message or impression towards someone, and that it doesn't matter what way you do it as you will never be able to create a design that will please everyone. Time management with this was very easy as it was a very short task. When drawing out the letters I found that this was quick and simple as they didn't not need to be very intricate or complicated.

Sketches:

The second task of the week was sketching! I found this the most interesting part of the week. I believe that this task whilst being interesting was one that I got on with very well and apart from my own self portrait I achieved quite well considering the time limits we had.  Feedback I received from other students was very good, especially for my drawing of the left handed 10 minute sketch of the person sitting in front of me.

I wasn't happy with my first drawing being only made up of eyes as we only had one minute and also had to draw with our eyes closed. The most challenging part of the sketches was when we had to draw with our teeth and the pen, and even though it came out very jaggedly and wiggly, I was quite pleased that I actually managed to draw a basic face with glasses and hair using such a ludicrous method! I think the worst of the task had to be ofcourse when we had to draw out own self portraits. I've always been terrible at it and today it showed why. I'm terrible at drawing my own face! What I had drawn looked like someone completely different to me and after asking many peers about it they told me that the only thing I drew correctly was the hair. For the future this is something I could work on as drawing faces has never really been easy for me unless it was that off a cartoon or fictional character.

Concerning my time management with this task there was not much I or any other student could do since the tasks were to draw within a small time limit. Ofcourse this was most likely done to see how fast each of us would think on what feature to draw first or how to make the image stand out more.to improve my future work, I learnt from this challenge that this is a hint of getting basic shapes on my sheet rather than wasting time on what should be drawn first. Any idea is better than no idea in my opinion to work with.

Left handed drawing and self portrait: (10 minutes)

1 minute no view drawing and mouth one drawing:

Victoria and Albert museum visit

Hello again,

Last week I visited the Vitoria and Albert museum! Not to mention 2 other museums which were the Welcome collection in Euston and the Tate Modern Museum near Southwark. 

Firstly the Victoria and Albert museum, was quite interesting and also impossible to cover in one day, which is why I may need to visit back there one day soon. The most interesting exhibit I saw that day was the disobedient objects section, which portrayed pieces of art and sculptures going again what they were programmed to do. For example there was an advert playing with a barbie doll, as the voice of toys in toy shops saying they don't want to be stigmatised into being only for kids. It's quite doo cult to explain without seeing the actual clip itself but it was quite weird. I quite liked some of the Chinese works of art which included a scary ninja costume! Out visit there was short however.

Welcome Collection:

The welcome collection was out next stop in Euston. We were limited for time however still managed to get to visit 2 exhibitions. The first was very science related to technology and the human body. It showed different intricate bits of the body, and there was a giant transparent human body with very detailed body parts. Below there were buttons that would light up a certain part of the body when pressed. However the most interesting exhibit we saw was one on human feelings and some sexual imagery from the olden times along with old texts. The main stand out for me was a giant wall covered in the heights of different people. The instructions said to mark your height, name and date of birth and a social network contact so that people could be connected. Along with this there was another section that asked people to write thier near death experiences and close call situations. Deposit them in a box where an artist would paint it for all to see anomalously.

Modern Tate

The modern Tate was our last stop. We had very limited time here however got to explore a fair few bits. It was interesting in the way that the exhibits they showed different Styles of art. The connection to graphic design was quite hard to see but eventually it came to me. I will be visiting again soon so I can have an entire day to explore the museum and every single section.

A

Passport to Ravensbourne!

Welcome to my second blog post. Today I'd like to talk about my passport project. This involved taking a blank passport style book - and customising it completely with my own interests and feelings that represented what kind of person I was. I got on with this task very well as it consisted of different parts of me that I could place down on paper page after page. My brain was flowing with ideas since I already see myself as a very spontaneous and complex person, so I did not feel on the spot. I feel I achieved quite a bit for what time I had, however as there was only a day (less than 6 hours to complete this, it was extremely difficult to finish. Not to worry about ofcourse as this would be completed within my own study days. From many students I received quite a lot of positive feedback concerning the colour and brightness of each page. They were surpirsed that there was only one page that used a grey or black colour in majority and commented that it was very attractive in having different colours for images on each page. From this task, I learnt that it is better to get any ideas or thoughts down onto the page without thinking about perfection, instead of needing a perfect picture the first time. I believe that in the future this will save me time, and even not yet finished, allow me to show my ideas and creative process through smaller sketches that may have been ready to go on each blank page if I didn't waste too much time with the first few.

Analysing:

I think that the most successful part of this work was how I didn't want to stick with dull black and white colours, but a mixture of vibrant colours ranging from blue, yellow, orange ect. Being truthful I was not very happy with my second page (words related to playing cards) as this was a page I struggled with the most. As easy as I thought It would be in my kind, drawing it on paper was a completely different ball game. Especially since I used graphic markers straight away instead of pencil or fine liner, the dark grey that I used had given a very dull look to the page, and at first glance I had thought I completely wasted a page. I found it particularly difficult trying to come up with ways I could use the paper in clever ways after my first page, which was a blue box from the television show Doctor who. I used this as my first page as I believe that because I am such an intricate and mysterious person (according to many peers who have known me for some time), that the blue box ship would be perfect as there really is more to me than meets the eye. One way I found to play around with the card or paper was the use of a playing card to represent te love aspect of my life. Many peers believed this was the best part of my passport. In addition I found this the easiest as there was nothing complex to cut out or detailed drawings required.

Time management and planning:

After carrying out the passport project I'm not 100% sure on improving my time management with longer projects like this. Ofcourse the main solution to saving time would be to get something rather than nothing on each page, regardless or detail, but ensuring that it gives an accurate impression of what I am trying to show or represent. To improve my planning I could note down bullet point ideas in my sketchbook, and then make a quick decision between my different ideas of what I actually want to put down on my final paper. From my current patterns of planning I think I could learn more by not leaving or disregarding any ideas that I may not see as good enough. After being on this course for 1 week the main thing I have learn from my tutor is that art is never wrong but completely unique to each person in thier approach. I also believe that in the future this will help me to get over fears that I have of 'messing up' the first time, and having no worry in placing all my ideas down on paper. 

Thank you for reading my second blog post, and stay tuned for tommorow with my week 2 projects! (Each one will be it's own separate blog post)

First drawing tasks

Welcome to my first blog post! Today I would like to share my experience of my first art and design foundation task. 

Analysis:

Each if my given tasks were very interesting to say the least. Explaining my journey to college through only imagery was quite fun as I had a large array of ideas going through my mind, which had all been thought of in a very similar way to a storyboard. This I think wass the easiest task as everything happening so early in the morning had meant that my journey was fresh in my mind. In addition my task of outlining my personal objects, talking about them and my emotional thoughts towards them was even more exciting. This was purely because each of my objects had been related mainly to my story of my hobby of magic, with only a couple of objects not being related so much. I had many emotional attachments to each one but could only think of the first few that were related to each object. The task of taking one of these objects and drawing it in a very large scale was an easy one, but very tedious to get done within 10 minutes. Because of the limited time, I had only focused on the main colours of my object and not the full graphic detail, as the most important thing for me was to create the object on paper and make it instantly recognisable as one of my 10 items. The final drawing however which was to represent one of my objects in a piece that did not physically show it was quite daunting. Each if my tasks I believe was successful apart from this final piece - due to the idea coming into my mind with only 3 minutes of time left! However once this was in mind I found it very easy to represent on the paper, although not completely finished - however I would perhaps finish this another time. I did not receive much feedback, however the students siting in either side of me said that my final piece was intriguing due to how I made it look nothing like the object I was drawing ( healing crystals with a different property in each one).

Overall in each of the tasks I learnt that no drawing is wrong or full of mistakes, but can be done completely differently in a range of different ideas and representations. This was especially learnt from my final piece. In future works this experience would help me to think outside the box a little more, especially the idea of representing an object without actually drawing it. In my opinion I really like this idea as it would puzzle people and make them much more interested in my work, giving them an interest into what is represented on the page.

Analysing:

I believe that each of my works were successful in their own way, as they had all been completed within my 10 minute limit. However as mentioned in my reflection above, my final piece could have been made much better if I didn't dawn on the motive of wanting it to be perfect for the first time when oven the task. In all of my tasks this final work was the one I was least happiest with as due to it not being finished, however due to having my idea of how to represent this object that was being drawn, I was inspired to complete this today without any further difficulty. The 3 tasks of showing through drawn images my journey to college, emotional feelings towards 10 personal objects, and an enlarged drawing of one of those objects - was in my opinion the easiest tasks. If I had to pick a fault with each of these they would all have the common fault of me thinking too much about perfecting the drawing, rather than putting any thoughts that are related to it down on paper. In future work I will be thinking first of all ideas that come into my mind and perhaps taking aspects of each to put down on my paper, instead of wasting time thinking of which way would be more perfect. I was told about having some challenging days before my I started the course, and now I have a taste of what I can further expect after being given the final task!

Time management and planning:

To improve upon my current planning methods and time management, I believe that placing all ideas on my paper would be more suitable rather than wasting too much time thinking of the perfect idea to draw, and then not having enough time to finish my piece. To improve my planning, I think that writing all the ideas that pop into mind in my sketchbook, would give me a more visual aspect of what to be drawing, instead of having them in mind and possibly forgetting some ideas midway through a drawing. I could possibly learn more from my current planning patterns by asking my peers on how they would think about the situation. Some people of course would think in a very similar way in wanting it to be perfect for the first time, but by receiving many opinions from other students on how they would go about their work, I could mix and match and few different ways other than my own, and see what would work best for me, which would improve my future work as I would not be thinking as myself, but rather from another persons perspective.

Thank you for reading my first blog post! Stay tuned for next week, and until then,

Magical Wishes,

Saavan!