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Before the previous poster I blogged I had made an earlier poster design during my process to create a poster for guitarist Charlie Richardson Smith. I stopped making this design and started on the one that became my final poster for several reasons. Firstly, I did not like my use of colour, which was my favourite part of the final poster, as I felt it was not attention grabbing enough or reflective of Charlie’s music. I also did not like the quality of the photo I used and how I had edited out the background in photoshop. As well as this, I felt the composition didn’t flow, so needed to start from scratch. I’m very glad I did this, as I feel my final poster is much more effective and well made. In the future I would like to learn from this experience and understand it is okay to create things you do not like as it is part of the process and it is better to create something than nothing, and it is more important to learn from your mistakes than forget them.

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For this activity we were tasked with creating a poster for guitarist Charlie Richardson Smith. I did this through the use of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Procreate. I started off by drawing a design for what I hoped the poster would look like and then attempted to create this in Adobe Illustrator. At first I found the software difficult to use, particularly when trying to create curved shapes but as I continued learning it got easier. With my final edit of the poster I feel I have created an effective, aesthetically pleasing, and interesting poster to look at and promote Charlie Richardson Smith. One thing I wish I could improve on the poster is to have been able to have created something more in line with my original design, and use more features available in Adobe Illustrator. In conclusion, although I am happy with the poster I created, particularly my use of colour and shadowing, next time creating something similar I would like to create something more detailed and experimental.

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Here are some edits of my poetic documentary, I wanted to try to use filters and edit the colours to see what effect it would have on the mood. I did this using both premier pro and the filters available in IMovie. I feel that in some ways these edits have improved my documentary particularly my second edit as it gave it a more warm and cosy feel which matched the music and the general mood of the piece. I really enjoyed the vintage feel which paired nicely with the animation I used as the title and end cards. Although the third edit added a lot of character to the documentary I felt it was quite jarring and uncomfortable to watch. Overall this has taught me the impact colour can have on a piece of film. To conclude, when making my next piece of film or documentary I hope to further experiment with colours and filters to give my pieces more feeling and make them more interesting.

Please find the other video in the notes/reblogs

slip.stream(2021) ‘Salient Salinas’. Available at: https://slip.stream/tracks/37c70668-0283-4ea6-808d-426580dd9dcd

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This is my first attempt at creating a poetic documentary. I did this by first taking clips of my journey into university and then editing them together in Premier Pro to create a documentary. I found this task very challenging as it required many skills I do not have past experience in. I mainly found it difficult to work with Premier Pro as I struggled to keep track of what I was trying to do. Overall I think I was very successful at doing some creative and interesting editing to describe my journey into Kingston. One part of my documentary I particularly like is my use of split screen which was inspired by the editing style of Linh Truong, I feel like it creates a similar playfulness that can be seen in her videos. What I don’t particularly like about my documentary is the lack of editing of colour and little variation in transition types. In conclusion, this was a very useful activity for me as it helped me develop new skills and abilities when editing. To improve in the future I would like to see what effects changing the colour and adding filters has to my documentary.

slip.stream(2021) ‘Salient Salinas’. Available at: https://slip.stream/tracks/37c70668-0283-4ea6-808d-426580dd9dcd

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One of our upcoming tasks is to create a poetic documentary of our journey into University. When thinking of editing video and what interests me I am drawn to the videos created by YouTuber Linh Troung. Although her videos may seem at first just normal videos of her life her use of colour, split screen music and typography give her videos personality and sends a message of who she is. In preparation for creating the documentary I have watched some of her videos and taken note of things I would like to replicate such as her use of split screen as well as watched her videos where she shared how she edits her videos where I learned a lot particularly about editing colour in a video. When I create my poetic documentary I hope to use what I have learned from her work combined with the moods that I want to create to make an effective poetic documentary.

Linh Truong(2022) how I edit my youtube videos (aesthetic + colourful) 2 February Available at: https://youtu.be/XEmVj1hZ4g4

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“lights on, no one home” This is my photo essay that I have revisited. I first took these photos in Guildford and London as I managed to find places and lights that intrigued me. I first took these on my phone then edited them using my phone’s photo editing software. I feel very pleased with the work I created although it was challenging I think it forced me to play more with the use of lighting and angles to create an interesting image. One way I struggled with this task was editing in an interesting way I tend to prefer to edit in a way that changes and transforms the image rather then just improving it. Of my images my favourites are probably the image of the staircase and the image of the 3 buildings. What I like about the staircase is the lights and shadows reflect of the red stairs to make them look almost alive or like a piece of flesh. These connotations are also seen from the shape of the stairs replicating a dna strand. This can be interpreted as the light creating life even tho no one us using the stairs. I love the image of the buildings because of the angles, contrasting shadows and the composition. I feel all of these add to these sense of being overpowered and watched over even tho the building is empty the lights through the windows give it an almost threatening personality. Overall this has been a great experience for me creativity as it has challenged me to consider new things when taking photos that I hope to continue to use when taking more photos in the future.

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When doing the photo essay for our client briefs before coming up with the photo essay I delivered I was originally planning to do it on lights at night and explore light pollution as well as how much I enjoy walking outside at night and looking at all the lights I see. When I first chose this topic I struggled to create images that inspired me and I felt told enough of a story to create a photo essay. To challenge myself I am revisiting this topic to create a photo essay titled “lights on, no one home” highlighting how lights are left on even when not used and the impact this could have but despite this appreciating it’s beauty. This is going to be challenging for me as it is largely outside my comfort zone to take photos without a person as the main subject. I am hoping I can take photos that I find interesting that express mood and a story despite not including a person.

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Interactive Art

Recently I went on a trip to the Tate Britain to see the interactive art exhibit created by Heather Phillipson, RUPTURE. This art exhibit created a stimulating atmosphere that attacks the senses using both digital and tactile techniques. The aim of this work is to highlight the impending doom of climate change, it was an impactful and chilling artwork to experience. One thing I really liked about this piece of work was the use of sound which is often not explored in art even in interactive exhibits. The overlapping of different sounds was very effective at feeling overwhelming and bringing about the sense of panic many feel due to climate change. I also really appreciated the use of colour and the changes throughout, although each section created its own mood using colour there was an overarching theme of reds and dark pinks which generates a sense of urgency. I would like to use this focus on colour in the future when creating art and include the interaction of sound and colour as used by Heather Phillipson. One thing I would critique the work on is how effective will it’s message be to a larger audience? With how common doom scrolling has become many people already have anxiety about climate change and could desensitised to these topics. Here are some images I have taken of her work.I have edited some of these in Photoshop to improve how accurately they reflect the experience.

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Audio Tour

Through my audio tour I wanted to present Kingston Town center as a place with a large verity of activities or any kind of person by pointing out a wide range of the attractions Kingston Town center has to offer. First I went into Kingston to record the wild track audios, I wanted to show the two sides of Kingston, so I took some recordings walking along The River Thames, some in the Bentall Center and some walking along through the middle of town. I then wrote my script of what I wanted to say in order to best advertise Kingston and then recorded that until I had a good take that fit the 30 seconds. I then edited this together using the software audacity in order to overlay the vocals and wild tracks to create an interesting promotion for Kingston.

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Animation

My animation was to advertise an online concert for the Kpop group LOONA and was created in Procreate and Premier Pro. I made it in a vertical format so it could be used across social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as LOONA has a largely young audience and a big online fanbase. I made the animation to the song # by LOONA (#, 2020). First I had the LOONA logo (BlockBerryCreative, 2016) fade in as the music the builds up to create anticipation and excitement. I then had the information come on screen with the beat and in large red lettering to emphasize it and give it urgency and importance. Finally I animated over a clip of the choreography (MUPLY, 2020, 2:58) for the song by taking the frames from the original video and putting them into Procreate and drawing over them to create the silhouette of the dancer. I then used Premier Pro to edit the sound and animation together.

BlockBerryCreative (2016) LOONA [Logo]. Available at: https://loonatheworldus.com (6 November 2021).

LOONA (2020) '#', #. Available at: https://youtu.be/xrps062bn5M (Accessed: 2 November 2021).

MUPLY (2020) [4K] LOONA - 365 → # → So WhatㅣKNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. 10 February. Available at: https://youtu.be/awmsBrTh2rs (Accessed:2 November 2021).

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Photo essay

My photo essay titled “Grandma’s China” is an exploration of nostalgia and how the past impacts our self-image. I wanted to recreate the bittersweet feeling of memories you can't revisit. This essay is personal to me and is inspired by my memories with my grandmother, represented by the blue willow China that she once owned. I created the first image by editing a photo of a blue willow plate on top of a self-portrait using Procreate. I then created the second image by using the liquify tool and moving a picture of the design over the liquid I had let leak out of the bowl. I then used the soft light tool and adjusted the vibrancy and saturation to make it look like the bowl had begin to melt. This was inspired by Livia Marin’s sculptures that commonly use the Blue Willow pattern and portray melting pieces of broken china (Jobson, C. 2013). These photos represent the past self, idealized memories and nostalgia. The third image is of shattered pieces of the plate and the fourth is a hand holding up one of the shards which were edited using the Photos app on my iPhone. These are meant to show the feelings of loss and mourning that can be felt when reflecting back on the past and feeling nostalgic. Finally the last image is meant to represent a healthy connection to the past and was made by using a soft light layer of the pattern over the hand and erasing the outside.

Jobson, C. (2013), Colossal, Available at: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/07/melting-ceramics-by-livia-marin/ (Accessed: 7 November 2021)

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Lights at night

This is a series of photos I took in Guildford when trying to come up with ideas for my photo essay. Although I really like these images I then later came up with an idea I liked more but still edited the photos in Photoshop to see how they would turn out. Of all of them my favourite is the photo of the spiral staircase as the brightness and lights make it feel alive and gives me connotations of DNA and anatomy. I liked the idea of taking photos at night as I enjoy spending time walking at night as it’s more peaceful and less overwhelming I enjoy the lights contrast to the darkness and how the different colours of the lights stand out much more than in the day. Another photo I liked is the lights leading down the staircase as I feel it incites a sense of curiosity of where the image leads I also really like my use of leading lines in this photo and how the water droplets on the rail reflects the water. Although I like how these images look and I enjoyed taking them I didn’t feel they told enough of a story or evoked enough emotion to be used for my photo essay. In future I will think more about what I want to take photos of before taking them so I can give them deeper meaning.

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Stop Motion Animation

. For this we made an animation in groups based on the idea of “a new friend”. After discussing some ideas of what we could possibly use to create the animation we decided on creating small images and capturing them using stop motion animation. We first created a story board to plan out what would happen within our animation and then created the moving pieces we needed. One of us held the camera still and took the photos while I moved the parts one by one to create our story. I’m very happy with how it turned out as I think it is a sweet story that is simple but effective. Maybe it could be improved by putting it into premier pro and adding a fitting typography and audio to develop the story even further. I really enjoyed this experience as I’ve always had a fascination with animation as I’ve always had a big love for cartoons and anime and being able to experiment with animation made me appreciate the skills required to create them. I’m hoping to use the skills I learned doing this and continue experimenting with animation in the future. One difficulty I found whist doing this was that figuring out how many frames each motion must be in order to look smooth and realistic. Overall this was a great experience that I would like to try again.

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Diptych

For this lesson I was able to look at my classmates work and become inspired. I really enjoyed seeing what people had done for the first photos and coming up with the ideas I could use for my merge between mine and another photo. Initially I was aiming to use another photo that focused on seen strangely through glass however once seeing the colours of Gloria’s work I decided I wanted to use them in my diptych. I then put both of our images in photoshop and played around with them by distorting Gloria’s photo and overlaying it on mine and seeing what effects look best. I’m very pleased with the end result as I feel the addition of shape and colour makes my image look more dramatic and whimsical which I really like. Although at first it may have seemed our images would not be a match as I created one based of if the idea of seen” strangely through glass” and Gloria based theirs on the idea of “my kind of hero” they ended up working really well together as Gloria’s photo contained some very beautiful lit up stained glass.

https://k2118163.wixsite.com/gloriaf

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Seen Strangely Through Glass

This is my interpretation of the brief ‘seen strangely through glass’. My first thought when hearing this brief was the way that water in a glass distorts shapes and light. I wanted to explore this and see the different visual effects this could have.

In order to create this image I first set up coloured and white lighting and got a glass jar and bowl and filled them with water. I then experimented by placing different things behind the glass to see what had the greatest impact. Finally I decided that the way the glass and water distorted my face was really interesting and created a surreal contortion of my face.

When taking this image I was surprised by the way that the light was distorted and reflected by the glass alone without the aid of the water and how the shapes of the lights effected the image. I also found that when seen on a larger screen the textures in the image take a larger focus the scratches on the glass and bubbles in the water are far more prevalent when looked at on a computer than when I was taking the images on my phone.