Circus Resarch, Freaks n Geeks

The theatrics of American science has become the driving force for my poster ideas, as to differentiate this from my postcards but also keep the theme consistent I want to explore Tesla's ideas that didn't come about, such as robot slaves and this "peace ray" that's definitely certainly a death ray. 

I've also been researching old circus posters as that freakshow element is definitely present in some of the ideas Tesla never finished, as a lot of it sounds like something out of (and has inspired a lot of) science fiction. The composition of these posters is also something I enjoy as it's sort of an early form of graphic design and I'd like to see how that aesthetic could work in conjunction with my own work, as it is a form of arrangement I havent fully explored before.

Plus I'd probably rather see a death ray at a circus than a polar bear on a seesaw. (Now I'm visualising polar bear vs death ray, its late).

Roll Up Roll Up - Science!

I've started exploring the showmanship of American Victorian era science and how it was both portrayed as and understood as a form of magic. I find it really interesting to see how a past culture responds to things that we today don't even notice as staples of society like television and the Internet. If one of us went back in time and pulled an iPhone out we would more than likely be thrown off a cliff on charges of witchcraft. I want to explore this idea of how ideas become conventional or unconventional depending on what time period they arise in, so I think for my postcards I'm going to focus on what an advert for a piece of modern technology that Tesla predicted would look like if he had had the means to actually realise his visions (his tele-visions, heh). 


The hyperbolic language and show-offy text is what really appeals to me in these posters, as I just find it sort of amusing that whatever these shows are they're almost definitely not the "greatest show on earth", but the showmanship and confidence of their arrangement and composition keeps your attention and even now I think makes you believe for a split second that you might actually gasp in amazement at a zebra in a cage or something "magnificent" like that. The main reason I'm interested in that idea is because of the generational difference and advancement between today's audience and those of the past is the only thing that separates us. We still go and watch massive IMAX films and jump in our seats and 'marvel' at shite on Britain's Got Talent, just as people back then would've done the same, except they'd have been in a strawberry field watching a clockwork monkey do awkward backflips. The response is the same though, and people are the same, we all still want to be amazed, it just takes a lot more to get us there now. Tesla seemed to understand this intrinsic craving for faster and better that the human race has always harboured, as his ideas concerning things like mobile phones and wireless energy illustrate. 

These are a few ideas I started to experiment with in the vein of the circus and carnival science shows. I think this brief lends itself well to this sort of approach as the posters and postcards are actual formats that artwork like this would've been presented on at the time. I want to make a modern interpretation of the flair of these traditional posters.

Tesla-Bot & Line thoughts

Brief ideas for posters, one of Tesla's failed ideas was that of a robot slave force: "In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization."

We aren't a million miles away from robot slaves as we do have Siri and Cortana and whatever other Artificial Intelligence's run our laptops and phones, so this prediction may not be wrong, just more of a slow burn than some of his others.

Since the I See Faces brief I've been trying to improve my line quality, as Matt said in some of my work I seem to not be confident in drawing and go back on lines trying to make them better as I'm doing it, instead of just going for it and drawing. I'm moving more towards ink to improve this and try to have a greater confidence in making distinct lines and shapes. 

Tesla - Research n Responses

For initial research into Nikola Tesla I chose to look into his quotes and opinions instead of just facts about him, as I want to try and get a sense of who he was more than just what he did. I'm also really interested in all his ideas that were dismissed and have since come to be the norm since his death, and also his ideas that never resulted in anything, such as a worldwide robot slave force or beetle powered electricity. 

Today in the crit Jamie gave me some helpful feedback and showed me I've been coming at this brief from a weird angle, I've been visually responding to images of Tesla as a guy when I should be responding to his ideas. In my initial ideas visually I think I've been focusing too much on Tesla the person, and my feedback from the crit has geared me to move away from this caricature approach and focus more on the concepts and ideas associated with him, as it's a much more vast and interesting source to draw from. 

Persons of Note - initial research - Titus Salt vs Amelia Earhart vs Nikola Tesla - Hell in a Cell

My three people of note to choose from are Titus Salt, Amelia Earhart, and Nikola Tesla. I'm already quite sure I won't be focusing on Mr Salt, just because I was lucky to get the iconic Earhart and Tesla, both of whom are both much more interesting to me. (No disrespect to Titus). 

I find Amelia Earhart incredibly interesting ironically for everything we don't know about her instead of everything we do. I focused on some of the theories surrounding her disappearance/death as most of them are probably bizarre enough to fuel a brief on their own. There is a lot of interesting material I'd like to learn more about, especially her almost storybook style adventurous nature and progressive thinking. Both Tesla and Earhart are enigmatic figures in death, as they both lived lives very much in the public eye but then died very much alone. The sheer lack of knowledge surrounding Amelia Earhart fascinates me, as it illustrates the difference in society, how it feels like someone is always keeping tabs on everyone today, but in her time a famed pilot could go missing and literally vanish forever. While there are rumours about her disappearance and where her plane (which by the way has the greatest lady plane name ever - The Lockheed Electra), everyone who ever went looking for her is dead now and so is she, so it interests me even more as its a mystery we will probably never get the answer to. Unless the Bermuda Triangle does turn out to be some mad portal and she's waiting for us in 2067. Which would be a great source for a brief.

When I started researching these people I couldn't decide between Tesla and Earhart, but the more reading I've done about both I've found a lot more material I'm interested in for Tesla. He died alone in a hotel room and what was left of his work was seized by the American government and never referenced again. That alone sounds like the start of a 90s comic book. The fact that he lived a life of intellectual discovery and exploration and then in death became an enigma and a mystery is something I really want to explore further, so I think Tesla will be the person of note I choose to pursue. Science bitch!

End of Module Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL404 Visual Language	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	ISAAC SMITH

1.     Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?
I feel that my confidence in using wet media like ink has been developed directly because of the initial tasks in Visual Language and how we were restricted from using methods that were overtly familiar to us. I feel that this restriction allowed me to be able to rely on a different form of image making and my confidence has increased because of it. I have also gained a better knowledge of 3D work and the nature of collage in this module, as I never really considered it as a way of making my own illustration but the task on collage in particular helped highlight to me that illustrations don't need drawing in them in order to be successful.
2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?
I see the theories on composition frame and arrangement as influential in all the work I have done since those presentations, as learning about these principles allowed me to look at image making in a different more complex way, and appreciate other work because I have a greater understanding of all the different elements that make up an image and the importance of how they work together. The importance of things like perspective and line of sight have improved my understanding of the mechanics of an images construction, and I feel that I have a greater appreciation for illustration as a whole by being able to identify and discuss these elements within an image. I think that I am starting to employ these theories in my own work as I'm much more conscious and appreciative of them than I used to be when constructing my own work.
3. What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission you capitalise on these?
I think that my stronger tasks have been the ones where I have tried to embrace a new way of thinking and making, such as the line task where I tried not to rely entirely on pencils and pens as I might usually do, and the screen print task where I tried to create an image with a consciously formed composition to create a certain atmosphere, which is something I wouldn't have fully considered before in my work. I have also consciously tried to evaluate my progress and what has and hasn’t been working so I am quite happy with the content of my blog.
4. What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future?
I think that my collage based and 3 dimensional work is an area for development, as I don't feel confident in this particular way of working and I would spend more time in the future familiarising myself with the method to create a stronger set of ideas and therefore better work. I also had to go back through my blog and add some photos of work, so in the future I would make sure to finish all my ideas before putting my thoughts on the blog.
5. In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)? Thanks to this module I think a lot more visually when analysing images, rather than just solely talking about line or colour I try to think about how all the parts of the image work cohesively to create a certain mood or tone. I also am much more conscious of the arrangement of images and how this can affect the meaning of an image, purely through where everything appears and in what order the viewers eye is brought to it.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance			x
Punctuality				x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes

Final Vectors - Pearl Harbour

For my Pearl Harbour postcard I was challenged in regard to how to represent what city I was illustrating, as there aren't many landmarks that would immediately set it apart from the many other cities that had bombs dropped on them in World War Two.  The main difference between these and the Pearl Harbour attack was that it was mainly carried out by Japanese kamikaze fighters, suicide pilots who fly their planes directly into their targets. This terrifying and unique method is what defines the Pearl Harbour attack, so I wanted to include that idea to best portray the city as a whole. I also wanted to express the vulnerability of the city, as typically America are the strong and powerful, and Pearl Harbour is one of only a handful of times in history the American people have been vulnerable. I chose the lighter softer colours for the shell and pearl to allude to this vulnerability. I think this is the most successful of my pieces as it's probably the most recognisable, but I think it takes a few seconds to add up the imagery. Although it's an absolute pain to do, I've enjoyed making vector illustrations, because it gives a really impressive quality that I definitely want to use again in the future. 

Final Vectors - Chernobyl

Im happy overall with this design, as it captures both the life and death nature of Chernobyl that I wanted to suggest through my response. In the future and with more time I would make more drafts and refine the linework etc to create a more solid vectored image.

Final Vectors - Hiroshima

my Hiroshima postcard I wanted to focus on a personal perspective visually, as it was the personal experience and perspective of Tsutomu Yamaguchi that inspired me to investigate this city and respond to it. Most photographs of the explosion are taken from far away, to grasp the scope and the size of the cloud, so I tried to visualise what it would actually look like to a person on the ground. The red gate is a Japanese cultural construction called a Torii Gate, and they are believed to be crossing over points for the natural and spirit world. I thought this imagery was appropriate in further visually explaining my ideas, as the mass destruction caused at Hiroshima would have erased the border between the real world and the afterlife for a lot of people. I chose to leave the explosion without colour to infer the chilling silence the bomb appears to produce for a few seconds before the shockwaves fully expand. To improve this piece Id want to try some different configurations of the line of sight and the Torii gate, as I don't think the composition is as dynamic as it could have been.

Fan Poster - Final Composition & Print

I am quite happy with my final print, although I had some difficulties in the print room, due to ink not applying properly and misalignment in some of the prints, but I managed to get two good ones. I chose this arrangement primarily to tell the story of what is happening in this scene, and focus on the character of Vader, who we don't really see much of in the film after this scene. I wanted to flip the camera and instead of focus on Luke falling, focus on Vader stood alone watching Luke fall and get smaller. I also thought the design of the chamber they are in was perfect for a composition-focused piece, as the various lines and lights lead the eye downward through the piece and lead to the tiny figure of falling Luke. I also wanted the lines to convey the connection between the two characters, although in the context of the image are very far away, I thought that drawing this connection would allude to the experience they've just been through together. 

I chose blue for the base colour of this print as I thought it matched the calm and eerie peacefulness of the scene, contrasted harshly with the black for the sharp angles of the architecture and Vader's jagged helmet and body. 

If I did this print again I would approach it from a more unconventional angle like from below the platform or birds eye view, just to give more of a challenge in terms of framing the whole thing. I'd also include one more colour in the red for Vader's lightsaber glow, as I feel that the object kind of gets lost in the whites and blues and its impact is lost here. 

Final ideas

Fan Poster ideas - Star Wars

Thinking more about this project I thought that I would start trying out some Star Wars themed ideas, as it's such an expansive canvas of ideas to draw from. With these roughs my ideas are to create an image with unusual framing and composition to match the unusual and strange designs within Star Wars.

I think that this idea with the millennium falcon hallway is probably the strongest idea in terms of encapsulating the weird and unique nature of the films, as I've chosen to focus on a mid action movement scene. I chose this setting as it is enclosed but it has depth, and the sloping corridor works as a line of sight carrying the eye backwards through the image. I also like how the curves of the foreground and the character of BB-8  juxtapose the straight uniform lines of the corridor, as I feel it helps convey the movement and imbalance within the scene I'm trying to represent. 

Here I was thinking more about conveying a more classic, instantly recognisable scene and therefore not having to utilise text. My first choices were the bounty hunter scene and the "I am your father" sequence. Whilst the bounty hunter scene could be compositionally interesting, we can only use two colours for this print so I don't feel that the atmosphere of the scene with all the contrasting designs and colours of the characters would come across visually as I would want. For this reason I think I will explore the "I am your father" scene, as there are far less complex colours involved and it has a much more immediate visual impact than any other scene in the films. 

Fan Poster initial ideas - The Hateful 8

I'm looking forward to using all the different elements I've learned about frame and composition and applying it to something that personally interests me as I feel like I'm much more prepared now to make a compelling and complete image knowing much more about the importance of arrangement. My first thought for a theme was Quentin Tarantino's latest well spoken bloodbath, The Hateful Eight. Being a western the film starts with a lot of long ranging shots of roads, forests and mountains, and I thought such shots would lend themselves well to posters with depth to create the sense of foreboding that is very present in the film. I also wanted to use the lines of the road and the hills to create lines of sight for the viewer, highlighting a sort of movement throughout the frame.

As I thought more about the visuals of the theme and how it mostly takes place in a hilltop tavern, I also wanted to experiment with creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia with closely arranged and overlapped elements within the frame. Things like characters being pressed up against a wall at gun point and certain people being thrown into a well helped me visualise this feeling and how I could best express it visually. 

Illustrator Tests

My first use of Illustrator on my own work is an interesting but frustrating way of working. I tested out the method on an idea I had surrounding the Ghostbusters firehouse building, mainly because I feel its a very shape driven design and lends itself well to vectors. I'm still working out how to properly apply colour to a vector image without ruining the line quality as I did here. Even though its real bad and wrong I'm starting to get to grips with the new program as I try different methods and designs.

My first idea for my Chernobyl postcard, using imagery of the ghostly empty ferris wheel that stands in the town square. As this brief is focused on shape and telling a story without text, I have focused on using symbols to represent the city, in this case using the sign for radioactivity. Nobody will be able to safely live inside Chernobyl for 20,000 more years as the radiation clears up. This permanent ghost town aspect of the city is the most interesting part to me as its very much its defining trait, even though it was clearly once full of people and life. I've used the imagery of the wheel combined with the nuclear symbol to try and capture both the life and death sides of the coin.