Thursday 19 December 2013

Assignment 3 Not finished yet....

Ok I couldn't leave this alone, just one more idea.....(or 3)
No they don't fulfil the criteria of the brief and  they don't show off my skills learnt over the assignment but I wanted to put them out there as an idea.

I've put a load of  research and links to other artists on another page which is on the top tab. Hope you can see it.

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Assignment 3 Colour me - Part 2

To me the poem Warning uses purple as its imagery to represent
  • Independence
  • Wisdom
  • Creativity
  • Ambition to an extent (the writer aspires to be free from restraint and convention)
  • Dignity
The blog, You the Designer
http://www.youthedesigner.com/2013/03/14/how-designers-use-color-to-influence-consumers/
says "Purple is often use to calm and sooth. It also exemplifies wisdom and sophistication. As a result, purple is often used for beauty and anti-ageing products"

It's a shame she wears a red hat and not a yellow one.

I played with what purple represents
then tried to make a sort of word cloud

This can then be placed on a colours background
or overlaid on the previous purple lettering

More meaning but a bit busy

Nelson Mandela has just died and it struck me that he epitomises a lot of the values that are attributed to purple, Royalty, Nobility, Power, Ambition, Creativity, Wisdom, Dignity, Devotion, Pride.

Not sure how to take this further.

Going back to the poem "Warning" I want to use this to create a poster I looked for suitable images to base the old lady on and found the work of Jackie Seo. http://avatarsculptureworks.com/jackie%27s%20subgall(Old%20lady%20with%20a%20walking%20stick).htm Hyper realistic art is very clever but I find it sterile.

I did some more sketchbook work

and drew some more figures

this is the lady I like best

She represents Wisdom, Independence and Dignity.
I gave her a bit more colour, some stolen flowers and a brandy bottle

and sat her on a coloured background

she needs more definition
 I don't like the computer lettering so I drew my own. I'm thinking punk posters circa 1979. The vertical lettering is supposed to represent the railings that she runs her stick along

 Perhaps she should be bigger?
 Again the colours have changed once I upload the image. My colours are richer and darker.
This poster works if you know the poem, but that's not the brief. I have some purple ink so I did some lettering in my sketchbook.
I like the scratchy hand drawn lettering
Manipulated by the computer this leads me to

 or

It's coming out blue and yellow here but please believe it's yellow and purple on my PC. I know that purple isn't spelt pirple but I haven't got an attribute that begins with u
I think I prefer the list of attributes but maybe it needs a little modification to make things clearer?
Too much yellow maybe?
I wrote in ink with a dip pen until it ran out for the edges.
I tried manipulating the earlier image and overlaying it over a previous design.
This lead me to adding text to the little old lady



Help! The colours on my screen are bluer and have more contrast which is lost when I upload. These look like they've been printed using a cheap printer circa 1970.
I could go one with this exercise forever as I keep coming up with new variations. If there is anybody out there please let me know which of my efforts works best.

My tutor suggested I revisit this looking at the work of some other artists. He picked up and emphasised the potential link between the rebelliousness of punk and Jenny Josephs old lady and suggested I look at the work of Jamie Reid (and here) Is it heresy to say that he seems to be trading on a couple of brilliant ideas but nothing I found looked like he had ever moved on from them?  

I also found this website which has a number of cover designs for a punk magazine.  My rather rambling research has led me to Boris Müller his computer generated posters for Poetry on the Road are both brilliant and beautiful. Rudyard Kipling's If has inspired a number of good posters (also here) and Good Typography is a great site too.

I had another play around with the existing idea
 Sticking rather loosely with the homemade punk idea I used Batik Regular typeface
Then handwritten text
and a negative image
I thought I would try the word purple in cut out letters
 
I think the figure has become a bit fuzzy with the rescanning so I drew her again in purple ink

 I wonder if the text of the poem has become a bit superfluous?

 This is going back to Batik Regular
 Brush writing doesn't have the right feel to me

 but I quite like scratchy pen
I've added a bit of colour here to mess things up, I'm worried by the white background but I want my old lady to stand out. I don't think this works for me.
 These are my favourites

Sunday 8 December 2013

Assignment 3 Colour me - Part 1

What colour to choose?
 Encouraged by the fruit rainbow I found researching for the fruit and veg project I made my own using found objects in the house. I then tried applying a few effects from the Paintshop tools




I then thought about the colours and decided on purple because of the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph which I am rather fond of.

To get myself started I gathered some purple objects and experimented with arrangements.




and effects
 I also tried laying the fabric so that it spelt purple
which is difficult and becomes a lot harder to read when photographed so I tried some computer manipulation



I also used the magic want tool to lift some of the fabric
 which can be cut and pasted to make lettering

 and tessellated
 
None of which has any meaning.....