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If I Had More Time - small additions

We’re now a week a way from hand in and I have to accept that I no longer have time to tackle big projects, but I have been trying to make some small additions throughout these weeks. 

Also, just a note before the rest, I did consider redoing the Poetic Objects one, that went so wrong, but I just don’t really know what to do. It just seems like a rotation very dependent of the circumstances of the time and difficult to dive into later on, maybe that’s just me and my fears...

Cabinets of Curiosity is something that I think has now just become a practice. I’ve grown up going to exhibitions all the time and it has actually made it more interesting to introduce drawing to it. In a way it allows me to be honest about what I want to linger around, but also what doesn’t really interest me and I can just move past quickly, even if it is indeed something famous.

In Material Explorations there was something bothering me since the beginning of the year, and turns out I’m still not that great at it, oh well. That turn-around really did not go well and so I redid some sketches of it now. I didn’t completely reproduce the conditions of the exercise, I guess that would have been more challenging, but at the same time it wasn’t really what I was looking to work on now...I guess that’s ok? It was funny, but doing the new sketches, it was then that I realized how much my line has changed. It has gained so much confidence and a bit more vividness? 

For Out of Character.. I hated how it had turned out at the time, but I think since then I’ve improved with human figure and character so I just decided to redo some of the exercises and see what has changed. They seem better indeed. I’m also trying to capture some characters from life while traveling for a few days, although it didn’t go as well as I’d like. But it’s a process, and I’ll keep trying, and gathering more references and it will eventually get there some day hopefully.

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If I Had More Time - Graphic Narratives Workshop

At the time I wasn’t able to go to the presentation day so I ended up not finishing the drawings I was making for my story - I called it ‘One very hot summer memory’ - great at naming things, can’t you tell?

Again, so mixed feelings; this time about the results I just created. So, the drawings have quite a children’s illustration feel to it which I don't mind, I’m happy with the colours and how the materials worked together - but there’s something about it that is just not quite there yet...maybe they’re too tight (?) or they need more space, more expression, white space? Maybe I’ll try to illustrate the story again, just a different take on the drawing I already have, it could be interesting.

One thing I’ve been trying to work on with this If I Had More Time tried is not to fall in the same tendency to have already everything figured out in the roughs and make the final piece just be one more repetition fo the same. I think that has been kind of working, but then I fear that I’m misunderstanding and just mixing it with lack of planning or more experimentation? Hopefully not...

Once the drawings were done I also wanted to try to come up with a way to display them in physical format. After some research, concertina seemed to be a great idea but it didn’t really work out here, and it is way too big - it’s actually not too bad once everything is opened up, it just takes way too much time. But if I’m thinking of redoing that after assessment then maybe I could keep that format, make the pages all the same size this time and just try to make it work better? I just really have no more time for it now, I ended up making over 40 drawings...

Some references for how to display it physically:

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If I Had More Time - one panel narrative

This was the one project I definitely wanted to redo - it brought me a bit of mixed feelings: at the time I was actually pleased with the result, it represented a lot of improvement on my part and it was something I definitely could not have done when I came into the course; but the crit didn’t really go as expected. Maybe it’s just my own insecurities or a problem taking criticism but I remember feeling quite disappointed at the time and since then have not like my one panel narrative. 

Since the drawing with scissors workshop I’ve been wanting to do a project with cut outs so, right away, i decided that would be the medium I’d use this time. After that, reading the brief again, I’ve just been trying to see where this takes me this time. It is very interesting to observe the difference between one and the other - technical, conceptual, imaginary (I think this makes more sense in Portuguese). It’s just encouraging to see the evolution. 

It has now kind of turned into a nude apocalyptic beach kind of situation, but I’m much happier with this one. Hopefully it is actually better than the first one, I can’t really assess it objectively. I know at least this time it has more planning and iterating, but I wonder if it is enough? I probably still struggle with that... Also, I don't think I enjoy this type of exercise that much -  just the fact that we have to make up interactions between them, they seem a bit forced, superficial; I wish they could be more subtle, but I don’t think that’s what they’re looking for here. I should try some smaller exercises of this, trying to explore interactions and relationships differently. And mood too: I think this one panel narrative actually achieved a good sense of mood, and it wasn’t even planned. Maybe it’s just me.

Some references:

Charlotte Ager

Laura Carlin

Kirsten Sims

Faye Moor House

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Playing Narratives

I was quite pleasantly surprised by this workshop - I guess I feared the interactive aspect of it and, as always, the fact that it was something so different than what I know.. however Viv had a such an effective yet simple method to apply here that it revealed itself a very fun process!

There were some group issues that were not anticipated, still, it was great to get acquainted with new areas of this practice. I didn’t really know any games other than classic board ones, but it turns out it is a much bigger industry than I anticipated, we were introduced to so many different ones and started to understand that it is its own form of storytelling - definitely worth delving into it further in the future. I just wonder how I would do it? Or about what? And in what context?

Right on the first day of this project my group played quite a simple card game called Bandido - just wanted to leave a quick note of it here because it was very enjoyable and I might want to get it in the future.

And here are some references I gathered for the card design:

Looking back, I don't think we had enough time for the design phase, or at least it wasn’t very clear that it was only some kind of rough, it didn’t have to be all figured out. Even though it didn't work out for this, I had the idea of making the pawns out of origami, which immediately made the people much more invested in the game so I think that is a good idea to keep in mind.

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Process and Portfolio - narrative? and captions

 For the structure of the portfolio I decided to include the works I thought most important during the course of the year. Not only in the sense of being the most enjoyable personally, but also the ones that represented evident marks in the development of my own practice. I’m opening with one of the strongest projects, which taught me a lot about iterations and testing. Then moving to more observational drawings that were crucial in loosening up and experimenting more and, most importantly, turning drawing into a very enjoyable process again. In the middle are two main projects - one that helped me do and redo things without fear and the other forced me to push further my initial ideas, which was quite difficult but brought good results. Following that, a few works from different rotations of the second term that were crucial in giving an insight into other branches and possibilities. Finally, the strongest project that I found such a great opportunity to learn a process of working and develop tools to one day work on my own.

These aspects of what I learned, I’m thinking of including in brief comments of the captions, for example:

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Writing for Graphic Narratives

The workshop was actually much more exciting than I was expecting and it really is great to have the opportunity to work with visiting tutors/artists in such an environment, without any pressure and where you can explore what interests you the most. 

I found it a bit difficult to get on with the writing, but it was good that it was drawing on personal memories - I’ll try working more on finding a style to tell stories in English, I finally have time to read again so I’ll try keeping that in mind. But I did make it better on the Wednesday and it was fun trying to put the images I remember onto paper. Two things I noticed: I really am putting all the effort I can into this course and what I can learn from it, independently of what other people’s approach to it is; and I also now really enjoy thumbnailing and it is becoming part of my process, so it seems my effort is making a difference, yay.

Some references I had looked up before and during the workshop:

Pablo Auladell, Anne Laval, María Medem, Liang-Hsin Huan

Sarah Lippett’s work was very interesting, specially the humor she mentioned from her next book, left me quite curious to read it. Just one note for future reference: her first book develops around her relationship with her grandmother and getting to know her grandfather through her - it’s a very good work to keep in mind, one day I will definitely do something in honour of my grandma, just waiting for a good idea and to be good enough to execute it, I think it will be a very important project personally. One more thing, the drawing a spiral exercise we did at the beginning of class (for about 2-3minutes) really does work as a relaxation/focusing method.

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Process and Portfolio - finding a structure

What I’m planning...

- Title page

- Penguin Design Awards - Paddy said we should start with one of the strongest projects

- Life Outside Rotation - I think its the only rotation from Term 1 I’ll include

- Visual Diary (?) - it has a relation with location drawing from Life Outside

- Christmas Postcards I made - they’re inspired by location drawing/photos

- Everyday Connections (?) - connecting photos with thumbnails

( Should I include here some Play the Scene stills? It would make a transition between photos and animation and also show a wider range of work)

- Hold the Eye Rotation - frames from experimental animation 

- Ideas in Motion Rotation - shows process pages (I don’t know if this is the right place for it, but it does still have a connection to animation/movement, it’s a GIF)

- Cabinets of Curiosity - creating an archive, research

- Writing for Graphic Narratives - creating a personal story

- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - finish with what for me is the strongest project, show process, iterations and handling of presented book

This might be too much for 20 pages?

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Process and Portfolio - putting things together

I think I’ve figured out my title page

But i wonder if it should be more simple?

I also selected some of my earlier sketches/thumbnails of the first reads through ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’. They got quite lost as a whole in my research sketchbook (although I do think they fulfilled their purpose) and they seem to gain quite a lot on their own.

And I think I’ll include some drawings from this week’s workshop, Writing for Graphic Narratives. It is nothing final, I think, but I think it gives a good idea of process and iteration - plus, I quite enjoy the drawings to tell the truth.

I like that tiny car

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Interpretation Adaptation - all the parts

Hmmmm don’t really know how to start writing about this one, it was just so important for me. At the same time, now I’ve reached the phase when I don’t like the final result anymore, it was an exhausting process, but still, I can’t stress enough how crucial this project turned out to be.

The first part, over the reading week was quite intensive but came with a few realizations: this course is giving me what I’ve been looking for a few years apparently - the opportunity to learn a way of working and shape it to my needs, but giving me the tools I need to tackle new projects, instead of just not having a clue everytime because some teachers are lazy (not all, I know); more than ever I’m taking this opportunity to the fullest and giving it all I’ve got, don’t know if it’s enough but I just want to learn; aaand thumbnailing turned out to be very enjoyable and I was able to really multiple iterations notion, I think, at least more than any other project until now. 

The second part was a bit less enjoyable, I guess they focused more on creating an animatic and didn’t really give us freedom to explore our take of the story. When you look back it’s not such a problem because you understand that’s what the third part is for, but that wasn’t very clear then and it became frustrating. I couldn’t do a more abstract interpretation but it was good to understand how images better communicate to others and how transitions between takes should work. The crits were also very helpful then, small groups, moving around, testing things on the spot, changing frames - and I actually talked quite a bit, I’m improving on giving feedback in small groups, at least that.

The third part was a lot, I wish we had one more week, specially because the essay was due around the same time. And it seemed as if, in general, The Page ended up having more work to do than The Screen? But that might just be a mistaken impression. We got to explore and create our own perspective, and it seemed the first project we had such freedom to do so, that was great! Just a side note, not all the tutors had the same ideas about The Page brief and had the same openness to abstraction, which sometimes became confusing. In any case, we got a real (?) feel of how an book project would unfold and I tried to push everything further and I got some more ideas for further developments (some simple zines?), so I’m still excited about it. Also, the crit went very well, Rose and Paddy seemed quite happy with the result and I’ll try to improve a couple of things they pointed out.

Here are some of the references I kept in mind for Part 3:

’Death of an Insect’ by Pekka Veikkolainen and Hannes Vartiainen, ‘Chimera’ by Lorenzo Mattotti, Anish Kapoor, ‘Othello’ by David Hughes

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Process and Portfolio - capturing

Finally took some photos with natural daylight and I think they might work

Maybe I should try to get a more zoomed out version of the concertinas too?

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Process and Portfolio - lesson three

Portfolio Show and Tell

- Create a reflection, narrative of what we did this year

- Title page, might have a cover image

- Include module number and project name

- Start and end with stronger projects

On the second half of the lesson, I got some very helpful and specific feedback from Paddy on what I’ve done so far. I’ve started writing captions and changed some specific pages but a few of the projects/drawings I showed him I don’t think I’ll use (mostly sketchbook drawings from the summer project, I prefer to include recent ones, those mean a lot more).

For the rest, I’ll try taking photos in natural light and try to provide context with those. Paddy also suggested to start with the Penguin Design Awards works and that I include some photos from the Everyday Connections project; one of the examples from the Show and Tell connected location drawing with photos, which got me excited to try it too actually. 

I scanned some more works to include too...

How do I create a narrative through sequencing of works?

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Process and Portfolio - trying out

This last week I’ve been thinking which projects and drawings seem worth including in the portfolio and I’ve started laying them out (without text and mostly just chronologically for now) just to see how they look, how they work together. I’m thinking of continuing this work during these next two weeks, just so I have a few options and then edit it down to what seems more relevant. Right now it’s just scanned images, but I will start taking photographs next week.

Here is what I’ve been working on so far

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Process and Portfolio - lesson two

This Friday we had and introductory tutorial with Nina Carter on how to set up a portfolio template on Indesign. I realized I’d already learned the steps and tools she introduced, but still find amazing that these Adobe tutorials have been set up, completely different of how I had to figure it out...these are so much better, it shows an actual care for the students.

Indesign Template we’ll use these next weeks

We then started capturing our work in specific spaces set up for it. Again, great opportunity. I haven’t recorded much yet, I’m thinking this week I’ll try to plan the projects I’d like to include and maybe some extra works I could still have the time to do, and then try to recreate the set up at home during the day or shoot them at a good natural light location because my phone kept capturing annoying yellow lines... In any case, here are some of the photos from yesterday

Yeah, I’ll try some natural light..Will there be sun again?

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Set reading - Street Artist

Endangered Orangutan by VIHLS

Young, A. (2014) The Street Artist. Street Art, Public City: Law, Crime and the Urban Imagination. London and New York: Routledge.  pp. 23 - 33.

In this passage Young approached the ‘Street Artist’ highlighting initially how their practice and the discussion around it is often defined by the city council staff, local residents and police, rather than the views of the artists themselves. This is partially due to the fact that street art still remains illegal unless with consent of property’s owner and a consequential ‘suspiciousness towards outsiders in the street art world’.

‘Street art is not just a cultural practice, but a culture in itself, with hierarchies, conventions, forms of inclusions and exclusion’

In conversation with different practitioners, the author discovered that graffiti  culture was a significant aspect in the start of many of these artists’ careers, some kind of initial motivation force. I found quite interesting, however, the contrast with graffiti these interviews revealed: most artists regard communicating with others as an essential component of their work. There are also evident links with political activism and the idea that ‘street art partakes in conversation’, as either a personal connection to the city or a border one to the whole construction of the city - encouraging positive change through the transformation of the relationship between spectator and public space.

Another striking concept is the ‘making art for everyone’, associated with the belief that anyone and everyone can make situational art and ‘bringing art to people who wouldn’t normally experience it’.

Nevertheless, critics accuse street art of removing ‘individual choice by imposing their work upon the passerby and by adopting an autocratic position with respect to other people’s property’. Maybe hypocritically i disagree with this claim in the context of street art but am in favor of it when related to contemporary graffiti and tagging...

Lastly, Young underlines on aspect I consider key in this subject: street art had the potential to contest social arrangements and indicate new attitudes to share public spaces.

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Process and Portfolio - lesson one

Last Friday we were introduced to the last project for this module. Paddy lead us through different approaches to present our work as artists (archival, diaries, or edited sequence), as a way of communicating a sense of practice, a personal narrative around how we operate. He talked about three important aspects when capturing and presenting work: the content, the process and the context, for which we then looked for examples in groups. It was quite a simple exercise but I found it quite effective, gave me a much better idea on how to display your work and the type of images to start capturing next sessions:

for the content - images or objects optimized for best display + details captures to highlight visual ideas within the work

for the process - images that demonstrate the act of creation/construction, roughs + details captured to highlight the use of materials or construction methods

I’m wondering if we can include works from continuations, themes developed in different ways after the initial projects at school? I also don’t really get how to create a narrative through the portfolio, but I think we might have a lecture on that?

After class I researched some more examples to help me understand how to photograph my work for the portfolio so I focused on how a few artists display their projects on their websites:

Carolina Celas

Tess Smith Roberts

Charlotte Ager

Jane Ormes

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Week seven - Comics and Visual Narrative

In this lesson Maggie lead us through a brief history of three of the major areas of comics: Franco-Belgian Bande Dessinée (quite a few I knew from my childhood); Japanese Manga; and the American Comic Book.

We then talked about the basic constituents of a comic page: the panel and the relations from one to another, from which the viewer infers what is happening through a process of retrospect and anticipation; the gutter, the negative space around the panels where the reader can make the connections of what has place between one panel and another; the frame and the bleed. We considered the different things panel size and shape could suggest, the meaning that the page layout can convey, the splash page and types of panel transition. 

Boyeux Tapestry

Frank King, ‘Gasoline Alley’

Marguerite Abouet, ‘Aya of Yop City’

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Set reading - Spatial Poetics in Comics

Dodds, N. (2013) ‘Control of Time and Space in Graphic Narratives’.  Varoom!Lab Journal 2, Spatialising Illustration. pp. 41-50. Available at: https://theaoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/VaroomLab_Journal_Issue2.pdf

The article highlights some crucial aspects of comics that I’ve never given too much thought too, revealing a whole other side to it. It brings forward the concepts of spatial design, visual literacy and the breach between expression and readership. As Dodds puts it, ‘according to some, the predominance of the digital has led to a profound reevaluation of the balance between word and image’.

The reading experience in a graphic fiction page is plurivectorial, the viewer constantly traverses and rewinds across it, to retrieve the information necessary to propel the story onwards. The direction of reading can be set in different ways, for example, the change of direction of projected light from one panel to the other; through unfamiliar zonal pathways... Moreover, the author suggests that the format of the panel  in a sequence can help circumscribe tempo - thin vertical panels might help speed up the pace of the narrative whilst it might be slowed down with flat horizontal panels.

The Curse of the Molemen