Level 3 Ext. Diploma in Graphic Arts, Animation & Photography
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Photograms Workshop
6/3/2020
Today we were asked to create photograms in the darkroom using objects, we had a selection of objects to use. We looked a little bit at Man Ray before starting the process as he created many of these along with other artists such as Pablo Picasso. This is a process I have used before and have enjoyed but I liked recapping it to refresh my memory and I used different objects to try to create different effects, I used lace to see the pattern produced from that and i used translucent objects to see how the light hit it and what effects it made.
Process
For this process I started by setting up the enlarger and placing a test strip of photographic paper so that I could test the process and see which exposure time would look best for my bigger pieces. I then layed my objects on photographic paper on the baseboard of the enlarger so that it is in frame. Then I arranged my objects on my paper and exposed them to light for the time I decided worked best based on my test strip. I enjoyed this process as I thought it was interesting as it’s not my usual go to style but could work well as a different approach for some of my work.
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Going Postal Workshop
3/3/2020
The aims of this session were; to respond to research examples and a specific artist, to visualise our ideas using mixed media, photomontage and collage, and to make connections to research as we begin our final project. We were asked to use a left facing profile image to create a collage/ photomontage similar to the work of Raymond Johnson. This process was new to me because I haven't done much collage work in the past, I enjoyed using analogue processes to produce an outcome. To begin with we took a side profile photograph and printed that off, we then used this to cut out the shape of the head and ink it out to make it a silhouette. I then collected imagery i could include, some primary and some secondary, that I then arranged inside the silhouette to show my personality and some of the thoughts I have. I decided to put my head collage on an image that means something to me, the image I chose is a place I like to visit and I chose it as the background because that is a place I like to think so it fits with the theme of showing my thoughts. I enjoyed this process because I haven’t done collage very often so it was nice for me to attempt this analogue style to add something different to my work. It was helpful doing this workshop in week 1 because it gave me another process to consider during my FMP to broaden my range of techniques, I could extend on this process in some way to relate it to my project and help me with potential ideas.
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My rotoscope
7/2/2020
Today I decided to make my own rotoscope from the inspiration of Traceloops because I wanted my final outcome to include continuous line drawing in my final piece and decided to incorporate it through rotoscoping. I began by thinking about my subject matter within portraits because you need a video to be able to create a rotoscope. I thought about my theme of transformation with I am showing through the movement of the video but I also wanted to link this with the subject matter. Because of this I decided to video a figure revealing itself through the hands to show the transformation of the person showing her emotions. I then used this video and captured some stills from it by pausing the video and screenshotting it. I then traced from the screenshot by printing them and using the light box, tracing loosely in one continuous line.
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What is rotoscoping?
30/1/2020
Rotoscoping is one of the oldest animation techniques that is still used today. In the early days of cinema, rotoscoping meant tracing over live action footage frame by frame to be used in animated films. That means that the animator could then get very realistic movements by tracing over the subject or character in the scene. Animators trace live action footage projected frame-by-frame onto paper, either to use as motion reference or directly copy into their work. They would take the frames selected and trace over them and then layer them all together and alternate the images to show the movement through a video.
I would like to experiment with this process and try it using line drawings of a portrait. My original idea was to have a line drawing over a photographic image however seeing the works of Traceloops and seeing some rotoscopes has made me think about doing this as a process. Instead of having still images I would like to either have a moving image or a series from the video drawings to be able to create more of a narrative through the portraits. Looking at rotoscopes has made me think more about the audience as I think I could show a story more and convey my idea more clearly by using a moving image.
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Uses and gratifictions
28/1/2020
Uses and gratifications is a theory from the 1970s that uses media to satisfy people’s needs. Those needs are; Surveillance, personal identity, personal relationships and diversion.
Questions
Does the theory consider the audience to be passive or active?
In this theory the audience is active because the audience are free to their own opinions and are not being told what to think.
What are the four key ways we use media to gratify our own needs?
- Surveillance
- Personal identity
- Personal relationships
- Diversion
Can we link these key ways to how we look at portraits?
Yes we can, we connect with portraits through personal identity because it reflects the person in the portrait but also reminds us of ourselves. We can also connect through personal relationships by connecting with the portrait, looking at it like we know the person in the image.
Can we apply this theory to our own experiments and work for this project?
Yes I think I can use this theory on my portraits. I think my portrait from the marked workshop links to personal relationships because through the portrait we try to connect with he celebrity and try to think of them like we know them on a personal level.
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Traceloops (Matthias Brown) research
28/1/2020
I decided to research the work of Matthias Brown otherwise known as ‘Traceloops’ because my idea includes continuous line in portraits which is the main style of his work. I looked at some of his work and really liked the aesthetics of it, this then got me thinking about animating a continuous line rather than just drawing it over a photograph.
Matthias is an artist and animator based in New-Jersey. He experiments with both digital and analogue forms of rotoscoping, an animation method where real footage is traced frame by frame to create live-action animations. He is unashamed of imperfections and he often leaves in spontaneous mistakes in the unfinished gif, he likes to show the hand-rendered effects.
Here is some of the work of Traceloops, this is mainly his work done in the continuous line style and a huge inspiration to me. Now I would like to experiment with this process, I want to try rotoscoping in a way similar to Matthias Brown’s with the effect of continuous line. I will take a video of someone and separate the frames into several stills and then trace over the subject in continuous line form. I could then either select a few from the sequence and present them as stills or create a rotoscope video.
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Distortion development
24/1/2020
After the distortion workshop I wanted to try to relate it to my idea so I decided to take an image I had taken and turn it into a line drawing. I did this by using Photoshop.
Process
To start with I opened the file I wanted to turn into a line drawing and duplicated the background layer twice, that means I have 3 layers so I am not working directly onto the background layer so I still have the original image underneath. Then I changed the background layer blending mode to ‘colour dodge’ and remove all the colour from the image by making it greyscale. I then inverted the image and added a Gaussian blur (filter, blur, Gaussian blur) and changed the line thickness to 5px so it stood out more.
I enjoyed this process and found it very quick to do with good results, it is an easy process to do when following the steps. I like the look of this piece however it is not the look I intended, this has more detail than I was looking for as the image comes out looking like a sketch whereas I want my work to have a looser feel with a continuous line drawing.
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My idea
24/1/2020
My idea is to create a line drawing over a photographic image. I would like to experiment several ways to do this; drawing in pen over a photo, drawing over the image in Photoshop, creating a light drawing and putting that on top of a portrait photo, creating a separate line drawing and photo combined together and experiment with different colours and combinations.
Themes
Hope & aspiration- I could take a photo of a couple and do a line drawing over the top, I could create a line drawing of a celebrity over their photo or I could create a continuous line drawing of a person over a background image or a simple line drawing over an image with makeup/ comparing to an image without makeup.
Distortion- I could take distorted photos and create line drawings of them either by hand or through Photoshop.
Truth and honesty- I could do a series of continuous line drawings comparing females with makeup and without, I could take a photo and do a continuous line drawing of a child or family.
Rebellion- I could do a continuous line drawing of a fight/ war scene.
Transformation- I could try continuous line drawings of different facial expressions and see the difference between them, I could compare the difference in images using makeup and without, I could do a sequence of photos using different colours and comparing the different effects and combining black and white with colour, I could mix the images of animals and humans with the line drawing of the other.
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Distortion workshop
24/1/2020
Today we were asked to take photos in the studio distorting our faces using elastic bands, string and sellotape. This is expanding on the ‘Pulling faces’ workshop where we took photos of ourselves making strange facial expressions whereas in this workshop our expressions could not be controlled by us but were changed by the things we put on our face, the expressions were forced rather than our choice.
I also experimented with the angle by using a fisheye lens which bends the photo to distort it even more.
I like the effect of the photos using the fisheye lens because I like the way the photo bends without me manipulating it. It changes without my control so you can't plan exactly how the photo will turn out and the angles the fisheye will create.
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National portrait gallery
23/1/2020
Today we visited the National Portrait gallery in London as part of our Portrait project. We went here to help us with ideas for the project we are completing at the moment. This was helpful for me to see different styles of portraits and the changes in portraits through time, the uses of different materials and processes depending on the time frame. It was interesting for me seeing more paintings in the gallery as when thinking of portraits I usually think of photography but I really enjoyed seeing some of the more analogue processes such as paintings and sculptures.
Why are portraits important?
While we were in the gallery I was thinking about this question and closely concentrating on the use of identity in each of the images, there were many well known faces in the gallery that I could recognise easily but even the faces I didn’t recognise I could still relate to as they were portraits I could identify with the person in them and get a message from it without knowing the person in the image. I asked a worker in the gallery why she thinks portraits are important, her answer was that she thinks they are very helpful for historical uses as in the past paintings were used to depict people and now we can identify with what people looked like throughout history so we can put a face to a name of people from the past. She also mentioned that by painting a portrait it brings out a part of the artists personality which is nice to see mixed with the identity of the model and is different to that of a photo which is very realistic and like-for-like. It is nice to be able to make slight changes with a portrait in an analogue process to put it in a not so realistic style.
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Light drawing workshop
21/1/2020
We started today’s session by briefly looking at the work of Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau and trying to recreate some of their work in our own way. We were aiming to use long exposure to create some light drawing of portraits. I liked this idea and I think it could be interesting to experiment with because it is a spontaneous process that you can’t see the outcome as you're going along, you can only see how it turns out at the end. I am looking forward to trying this process because it is different to anything I have done previously, I would like to experiment with drawing in a different way using long exposure and lights. This work links to our previous project ‘Decisive’ because the work is done in the moment and captured within a short time span.
To start with we created 6 continuous line drawings resembling a portrait using a pen and paper each having a different time limit to be able to draw; 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 15 seconds, 10 seconds and 5 seconds. The less time we had the less detailed our drawings would be.
We then went into the studio to try to recreate some of these in light drawing form, we set up the camera for 15 seconds and drew a portrait using a torch to draw the shapes. The iso was set low so the image is dark and only lets in the bright light of the torch. I liked trying this process because it was different to anything I have tried before and I like the look of the images , the darkness of the background and the colour from the lights. I also enjoyed actually doing this process because it is more a physical analogue process but you also cannot really plan the outcome and don’t know how it looks until the photo has been taken, I like the spontaneity of the process because I am not used to being this loose with my work. I normally like to plan things out very thoroughly and try for perfection every time however this is near impossible for this process, and I enjoyed seeing the outcomes after I created the light drawing freely without knowing a specific outcome.
These are some of the light drawings I produced, I really enjoyed this process and found it fun as a new process. I like the outcomes and like seeing how they resemble the human face, it was fairly hard getting them to look human like but I got the hang of it and figured out what I needed to do to get the features of a face. I think some of these images really resemble the human face, I especially like the style of the image and the black background works with the bright colourful outlines of the shapes drawn. To improve from this I would like to try overlaying my light drawing on a photograph image of a portrait because my idea is mixing continuous line drawing with a photo and I would be intrigued to see how the light drawing would look over a portrait and if it works well.
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Types of portrait
17/1/2020
Today I researched some different types of portrait to give me some more ieas of outcomes I could create.
Traditional portraits
A traditional portrait often depicts the subject looking at the camera, it is often posed to help the subject look their best. Traditional portraits are usually shot in a studio with a formal photography backdrop. The composition is usually taken from the head and shoulders crop rather than a full body portrait but not always. Traditional portraits are the most popular in the portrait genre, this type of image has been around for a long time but remains popular because the mixture of studio lighting and posing is flattering. A sub-genre of the traditional portraits are formal portraits. Formal portraits use the same posing and studio setting, but with formal or business attire.
Lifestyle portraits
Lifestyle portraiture is the opposite of traditional portraits. Lifestyle portraits capture people in an everyday environment, normally doing everyday things. Instead of a studio, this genre of photography works in an environment familiar to the subject. Lifestyle portraits can be taken in a family’s home and aren’t posed in the traditional sense. A lifestyle photographer often has a limited time frame in which to capture a series of portraits. Lifestyle photographers will often direct the subjects for example asking siblings to jump on the bed or asking a family for a group hug. This type of direction isn’t posing. Lifestyle photographers don’t adjust the placement of the hands or nitpick the position of the subjects. Clients that choose lifestyle photography often pick it because of the way images resemble real life. Lifestyle family photography also tends to capture the interaction between family members which can create some touching memories.
Environmental portraits
Environmental portraits are a mix between traditional portrait photography and lifestyle portrait photography. In environmental portrait photography, the environment is as important to the image as the person this type of portrait photography shoot takes place in a location that means something to that person. This gives the viewer clues to that person’s personality, the location could be a home, an office, or an artist’s studio, to name a few. Location is important but unlike lifestyle photography, environmental portraits can still use posing techniques. While the environment is important, the photographer works in a similar manner as a traditional portrait in setting up a pose and lighting. The pose, lighting, person, and background all work together in an environmental portrait.
Candid & street portraits
Candid portraits are unplanned which is often the case with street photography featuring people. Photographers don’t have to photograph strangers to take a candid portrait but this genre doesn’t use the planning and forethought that goes into a portrait. Candid portrait photography doesn’t use any direction or posing from the photographer, street photographers often take candid portraits of the people they meet. There is often no set-up however the photographer is inspired by the position the person is taking naturally, the light, the environment or any number of other factors. Some photographers use a mix of posing and prompts to encourage candid moments.
Glamour & boudoir photography
A glamour portrait can also be called a beauty portrait, glamour places an emphasis on the beauty of the subject. This often involves planning the wardrobe and using professional make-up artists. Glamour photography is also sensual and is designed to highlight a woman’s beauty, sometimes in lingerie and sometimes nude. Glamour has a similar feel and similar posing to fashion photography but glamour still emphasizes the person, not what they are wearing. Boudoir is a similar but not identical type of portrait photography. Glamour photography is often shot in a variety of different locations, including outdoors however, Boudoir is shot in a bedroom or home. Boudoir celebrates sensuality and women often book a boudoir session to give the photos to their significant other. Boudoir isn’t about sexual poses and lingerie, many say a boudoir session can help boost a woman’s confidence.
Fine art portraits
Artists debate exactly what classifies something as fine art. Many agree that fine art is something that would hang in an art gallery, something different from the the typical placement of a portrait that hangs on the walls of a family home. Fine art photography is often inspired by other types of artwork. Some fine art photographers model their portrait photography after Renaissance paintings whilst others get creative with wardrobe and makeup, posing, and photo editing. Fine art photography also often encompasses conceptual portraits and surreal portraits
Conceptual portraits
Conceptual portraits capture an idea or concept within a portrait image, often using props, setting, or photo editing to achieve that concept. Because conceptual photography encompasses an idea, the possibilities are endless and could include levitation, perspective manipulation, makeup or wardrobe tricks, Photoshop stunts and more.
Surreal portraits
Surrealism is an artistic style that feels dream-like, this style can also apply to portrait photography as well. You can’t photograph something that doesn’t exist, so surreal portrait work often involves Photoshop to edit the surrealist subjects. Some can also be created using props, wardrobe, and other photo tricks. A surreal portrait turns dreams into real photos which is tough to do, but when done well, the results are often stunning. For inspiration, look at photographers like Brooke Shaden.
Self portraits
Quick smartphone selfies give the self-portrait a bad rap but when done well, self-portraits can be very beautiful images. Photographers tend to bestow the more elaborate term self-portrait on a serious portrait that took planning and insight whereas a selfie is a quick snapshot. Taking a photo of yourself beyond holding a smartphone out at arm’s length can be tricky so most use a tripod to get rid of that selfie look with extended arms. Focusing and composing can b hard when you’re in front of the camera rather than behind it.
Couple, family & group portraits
A portrait doesn't always have to be a single person, photos of couples, families and other groups together still fall under the portrait category. Portraits of more than one person are often more challenging than portraits of an individual, because there are more people to pose together and interact in the photograph. With more than one person you can capture genuine interaction which you can’t capture with a single person.
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Comparison of Marked and Opied workshops
Marked
Opied
Compare and contrast
The effect of the two portraits is one is very textual and layered up whereas the other is very two dimensional filled with block colour. One is done in a cartoon style with thick outlines and very simplistic the other more complicated and a little more realistic as it has more detail. I have gained quite a few new skills through this, I have learnt how to monoprint, how to edit on Photoshop in this way and add colour overlays and I learnt how to use the pen tool to trace around a large image, using many anchor points.
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