Studio Brief 3: Project Proposal

- Take prints - make overlays physically interact with underlays - i.e. tiger exhaling mist?
- Emphasise mood of initial difficult themes - mutilation/ self image
- Heighten contrast theme - sound (loud/ quiet), movement, speed (not just shape/ colour)
- Create ambiguity, eeriness, unsettling - sound!!
- Create MOOD (key) that can resonate in everyone (over about 7)

Some Cool Illustrators I've found

Shonagh Rae

 

Katy Lemay

 

Study Task 6: Print Marketing

George Benjamin Douglas 

Exclusively on website - no biography, context
2/ 3 colours
Resograph A3, 10 - 50 print editions, unsigned
Screenprints A2, signed
Resograph zines
unframed, No paper stock info - Badly Marketed?

Elena Boils 

Digital prints - screenprint aesthetic - quicker/ cheaper
Sale: Print Club London website/ Urban Outfitters (in store/ online)
Brief biography- contexts on website
Up to 5 colours, multiple sizes, acid free archival paper - sold internationally
Unsigned, not editions

Study Task 5 - Sound Study

 

https://vimeo.com/100806816

Sound complements image - reacts (sharp movement = sharp noise)
+ eerie background soundtrack - fades in with composition/ builds = tension - mood (matches dissolve effect)
silences = anticipation - contrast
minimal sound = eeriness

 

https://vimeo.com/142445483

Layered - depth/ complexity to simple moving image (static/ eerie)
Builds/ cuts - tension
Reacts to: moving objects, transitions, lighting changes, applied effects
Slow soundtrack/ image movement
Suggests whats out of frame - footsteps, creaking

Study Task 4 : Animated Shorts/ Strings

Andre de Loba
Moving overlays/ print texture - hand made
Jittery animation/ slow pace/ soundtrack = mood
smooth transitions - zoom/ intensified effect
Complex subject made childlike - text, tone

https://vimeo.com/78389117

Ray Lai
Moving cutouts (expanding/ rotating)  + effects (flashing, colour changing) + fade transitions = SIMPLE
Intense sundtrack = speed
Ambiguous, loud, flickering - melancholy

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/lei-lei

Wieden + Kennedy

Complex collage/ simplistic animation
Sharp, Complex soundtrack = LIFE

Key component in colour - follow through panning scene

Stunted character movement, voices - Humour

https://vimeo.com/232952984

Studio Brief 2: Reflective Report

Overall, I feel I really benefited from the time and independence I was given in this brief to explore my ideas and create work. It helped me face two of the recurring problems that I had last year. Firstly, I struggled to bring colour into my work and the two colour specification forced me to do this while its limitations gave me time to experiment with lots of different combinations. The other thing that I struggled with was making my work look finished because of my tendency to overcomplicate. Here, I was given the time to refine and simplify my images and apply a level of craftsmanship to my finals not possible with the shorter briefs.

I also really valued the amount of time we were given for media experimentation. It helped me to get away from thinking about concepts and to just play. I am pleased with my decision to use overlays because it allowed for a lot of visual experimentation. It was interesting to see what happened when I overlaid some of my linos with the wrong images. I got some interesting results, perhaps the most successful one being the image of the tiger with the hands overlay. I think that I was effective in creating a contrast in between the sensitive, almost delicate lino prints and the solid ambiguous shapes which overlay them. Colour was a key component in creating this contrast and I like the positive spin the bright colours put on my quite morbid subject matter. However, I could have saved myself time by playing with colour digitally rather than rolling out all of the different inks.

It was also interesting to try to create a series of different moods across my images, from the stiller, eerie flower images to the more aggressive tiger prints. I think I was successful in doing this.

Initially, I had lots of big ideas, which I struggled to bring together but as suggested in a tutorial I wrote a list of the pros and cons of each and how I might bring the pros together. This reflection was a major turning point and I had forgotten the value of blogging, which I now realise need to do more of.

Moving forward into my moving images I would like to continue to think about mood and how I might bring more of a sense of eeriness into my images while continuing to think about my theme of contrast. Perhaps bringing in more contrasts in sound and movement.

Studio Brief 2: Project Proposal

- A series of screen prints?- Focus on difficult recurring (feminist?) themes and contrasts (start light turn twisted) - disguise and the ugly reality/ female entrapment, mutilation
- Using Carter's symbols? tiger, lily 
- Somber, Creepy but beautiful - delicacy/ stillness?
- One bright colour? Hi-light contrast
- Audience: young women? - most relatable 

Study Task 3 : Print Process

HAM 

 

Simple digital vector work - screen printed
Print Club London website; own website; instagram; pinterest
Prints, products


Tian Gan

 

Pen sketch; tracing paper/ sharpie; lino cuts big white spaces then detailed areas
insagram, website, artfinder, behance
Prints, products, hand made stamps


Camilla Perkins 

 

Paints/ draws onto acetate; scratches with knife; photoshop edited/ screen printed
Print club London, own website, physical stores - Urban Outfitters , instagram
Prints

After Effects workshop 4 Notes

Adding effects to objects - change colour etc. -
in right hand pannel - choose effect - drag directly onto literal object
- control effect in left panel (under stylise) - turn off and on etc.
- can also animate effects (have an effects dropdown above transform) - i.e. make something change colour in time

to change how your whole animation looks or nearly the whole thing - add an adjustment layer / add effect to adjustment layer instead of actual layer  (layer, new, adjustment layer)

You can overlay an image with a texture - just drag in texture - multiply or overlay (in photoshop effects dropdown) (can add a video or photo overlay)


Making a composition out of lots of tiny assets
Open objects - make composition size of asset - drag asset onto this icon

Change size after - composition, composition settings - change

to embed one composition in another (i.e. animate rocket fully then make it move in sky)
make rocket then go file new composition - make it and it will exist already in side panel
see list of compositions here

Can then duplicate rockets or whatever

To make object follow path nose first (more naturally - layer, transform, auto - orient - orient along path
Can also import illustrator files - make sure you tick this so it doesn't get pixelated

After Effects Session 3 Notes

Bring in photoshop file - File, Import, file

To loop a movement (so it goes back to start/ not in circles) - do action- right click - toggle hold keyframe - you'll end up with 3 points (middle one an arrow) - Copy and paste all three to loop
Pause movement - copy and paste point at which you want it to pause

Resetting workspace layout -

Duplicating and repositioning moving object - Copy layer - select all key points - position line on specific keypoint then move whole object (make sure it isn't parented when C/P it)
Can turn on motion blur - add realism to moving objects



Parenting objects - Change dropdown to object you want to pair it with

 

Importing sound - File , import, drag from left to pannel at bottom
 (aif, wav) Edit same as image pretty much - Shift, Cmd, D to split sound or double clock to open layer - can move brackets specifically
Cool music on - free music. org - or google sound effects on youtube (or royalty free sound effects)
If something is copwrighted - edit it and its yours

After Effects Session 2 Notes

Getting your objects into After Effects:
Either have them as separate assets - file, import - drag them in separately (to left panel)
- I guess you just rub out bg and export ? or save as ps..

A different .. Better? way of doing this - Photoshop
File, New, Film and video, HDTV 1080p
Can change canvas size - still keeps used area outlined - so things have space to move
file, import, file - choose doc, composition - retain layer sizes - puts everything in neat folders
when in double lick on it
*If you want something to rotate fully once - instead of changing the degrees you can just change it to 1x
Can also move backwards in time when you're setting things up - position - so that they move into exactly the right place
Export: Composition, Add to Render Queue
Render queue tab, render settings, time span, work area only
Output Module: H.264
Output : desktop - name RENDER

Studio Brief 1: Reflective Report

I think that I have combined media well in this image. Chinagraph and ink work really well together as chinagraph allowed me to achieve a deep black and extra level of detail impossible with ink, which added to the eerie, disturbed mood of my image. I also think that the way I have overlayed my grayscale images with block colour works well to create an unexpected contrast. The fact that the layers don't quite match up also adds an interesting friction.

I really struggled to simplify and reduce down my images. I did receive good feedback and I think that they communicate a mood well but they aren't what I was personally pushing for. I translated them into mono-print just to see if this would help me to simplify and it did with the castle. It forced me to think more about light and dark and how to better split up the image planes to create a sense of depth. I know that I am going to struggle with lino and screen print but I think that their limitations will really help me to simplify. Maybe I should think of a new way of designing my images, a more shape lead approach?

I also struggled with the drafting stage because I was so stumped for ideas. However, I discovered in the crit that I was trying to be too clever with my ideas when I could have been a lot more literal and spent more time visually developing them instead. I.e. taking just the castle concept and spending a couple of pages playing with it compositionally. Initially I thought that this was just how I worked but after my reflection in the crit I think that I was again just over complicating.

I want to continue to explore chance colour overlays. I think that the friction between the bold coloured shapes and the drawing behind is really interesting. I also want to want to continue to explore this theme of deception and the illusion of beauty, to hide the dark twisted reality. However, I need to read 'The Bloody Chamber' before I do any more drawing. Right now I think I'm focusing too closely on 'Nights at the Circus' and it seems quite different from her other writing. It will be interesting to see what other illusions and disguises crop up here.

After Effects session 1 notes

New document - Composition - new composition (layers - like PS)
HDTV 1080 25 - composition setting for brief (preset)


- this is 5 seconds

Bin where project lives - mid left
Layers pannel - bottom left

Creating solid shapes - flash etc.
layer, new, solid - change pixels and colour - will make coloured square
can change where image appears by moving timeline at bottom along
to split madia - edit - split layer (shift, cmd , d)
to change colour of a solid - layer, solid settings, change whatever (can also do with general composition - composition settings)

Zoom at bottom - zoom in and out of frame per second - so you can be super accurate 



To do a different shape - use shape tool at top instead of new solid


Drag brackets at top to choose which bit to play - can also use these when exporting


Making a keyframe animation
Composition, new - choose colour, size etc (100 x 100?)
create solid - dropdown in layers menu (under transform)
before you make the image move - put anchor point to centre of shape so you can see path
to make an image move - click stopwatch next to position  - diamond appears - drag line off stuff to time - to determine how long it takes to move - drag shape to where you want it to move to
to move it to a couple places move time then object, time then object, time then object
You can also use the rotation stopwatch to make it rotate while it moves - also size and fade etc

Always start with movement then change the other things while its moving along its path
to change whatever it is - drag time along and type in new value at specific time - will auto fill in the gaps



If something hits something then moves - move anchor point to pivot point
Instead of always typing in a new value you can also grab the value and drag it to the right to make it move - can also change time by moving diamonds after animating
is a path is curved - want it straight - go on pen tool, click anchor point to toggle
to make shape pause - copy movement diamond and paste further along time path



TA DAAHHH !!!

Screen Print Induction 2 notes

colour spotting - working with channels

• go on grayscale, channels, dropdown dialog box - new spot channel
• stay on the coloured spot channel but select black for ink - is really black but you can visualise in other colour
• you can use different tones of grey - comes out as different tonal values of printing ink 
• To nock out - select area with wand one one layer - go onto other layer, click delete - on dropdown change to white 
• To fill in pre drawn areas - Select area with wand tool on black channel then fill selected area on coloured channel - if not a totally closed area use lasoo selection tool 
• to edit line art colour etc - create new spot colour channel - select, all - copy across from grey channel then turn that one off
• to paste texture across into area - select texture - lassoo? - select area to paste it into using wand - right clock - paste into (edit, paste special, paste into)
• When you save - save as PS document and have spot colour box checked 
• to print - change into halftone image - open illustrator, create new CMYK doc, paste
• Window, separations preview, tick overprint preview - untick what isn't spot colour (CMYK)
• Print - (on BandW) output, mode, separations - untick CMYK
• On line art layer - change angle to 15
• On spot with tonal variation - change angle to 75 - change dots to 50 or below - 30 nice 
• FINITO

Further Carter research (personal notes)

Recurring themes -

The clock striking 12 - woman in company of man - shocked at how late it is

Woman - pale, naked, skinny -young innocent female with older man

Powerful man in secluded castle - entraps woman

Contrast - idea of beauty being an illusion - cover the dark truth - runs through every story - extreme beauty, hope, happiness - all an illusion covering something dark/ twisted - the reality

Characters - fevers, clowns/ Locations - bloody chamber, circus, brothel, Mr Lyon’s castle

woman looking at herself through a mans eyes/ as a man might and seeing something ugly - saw beauty until they were with a man

(bloody chamber, Mr Lyon) - eyes crops up a lot - whats behind them - rep how they see woman - nothing behind eyes woman as object, beautiful reflection of self - how you start to see yourself as your man sees you?

Man rep as beast (lonely - sad nothingness behind eyes) - masked to cover true identity - sometimes dark ugliness beneath, sometimes gentle beast

Woman rep by white roses and lilies - always white rep purity/ verginity - flowers dying when things turn sour - hope (dark scenes - no flowers/ dead), purity, happiness - recurring pricking finger on rose so that it is smeared in blood

Recurring curious female - disobeying greater power - man - young curious / powerful older woman able to control man

Marks of the past - trying to cover things up - heart of blood/ clown paint/ masks of beastly men - literal cover up 

Older man controlling younger naive woman - trapping and objectifying her - woman referred to as lamb (sacrificial), man tiger - lots of literal female sacrifice

Recurring forrests - isolation - spooky stillness

Entrapment of woman in marriage - relates to her own experience 

Fun Literal Imagery to draw:

Chopping of wolf poor (red eyes) - trail of blood left - turning into warty human hand

Tiger’s bride clockwork twin - music box heart, strings

Some spooky settings - sepia setting with cut trees TB/ WW witchy vampire setting, BC castle - railway, sea

Eyes - flames in tiger/ Her face reflected twice like buds in green eyes

Bride’s skin being ripped off - turning into a tiger 

Mr Lyon’s house - single rose/ window lit

Mr Lyon - Lyon in tails

‘cobra headed funeral lilies’ 

Girl in BC - pale face, muscles sticling out like thin wire 

Mirrors - reflected lilies, ‘bare as a lamb chop’ ’stripping leaves of artichoke’ - woman as meat/ food/ object

Description of lily stalks looking like dismembered arms in vase

mocking objects - illusion of life - shoes on feet , hats on heads etc.

Dead wives in BC - candles, lilies, skull, pale corpse, torture equipment, coffin, blood spill

Cleaning bloody key under dolphin gold tap

Mother from bloody chamber on horseback - white hair swept - black windswept clothing, pistol

I am going to start drawing some of the more liberal things just to see where it takes me - I was initially playing around with broader themes like the objectification of women/ drawing women as literal objects etc. But i'm not sure how Angela Carter this is going to look at the end - too editorial??

Generally I found nights at the circus more interesting than the bloody chamber I like the magical realism and circus imagery - but in my last tutorial they said it was very un angela carter ?? - question this ..

At the moment I am most interested in this recurring theme of beauty being an illusion to hide the darkness behind things.- disguise/ covering up the true nature of things - masks - makeup etc.

draw some of the beasts ? lion man - clockwork woman - walser as shaman 

Do an illustration for each story - that represents it ?? - sums it up?

draw some literal metaphors 

Some more imagery from the end of the circus book

Screenprint Induction notes

• SCALE / RES : Check res = 300ppi - If you're going to scale up then scan higher res, untick resample to change res to 300 (this will altar width/ height) - then retick resample and you can change w/ h to exact measurements
• COLOUR : to remove colour in RGB - Image, Adjustments, Desaturate
• CONTRAST : Change either using levels - lay arrows on top of each other or image, adjustments, threshold - move single arrow 
• PRINT : to black and white laser printer - in print studio

• TO ADD 2ND COLOUR - do in new layer - add block colour over line drawing? 
•  TO SEE WHAT TWO COLOURS LOOK LIKE PRINTED - change panel next to opacity from normal to multiply 
• if you don't want to see through - just select, rub out colour 
• CHANGE LAYER COLOUR TO REP INK - you can use hue/ saturation adjustment layer to colourise - just turn off layer when negative prints
• You can still nock out shapes, add them in just using shape tools - if you draw a shape you can click across layers and fill it on multiple ones 
• SIMULATE PAPER STOCK - add another layer - behind background - multiply scanned image so you can see through the white page (make sure all adjustments are applied just to the layer below)
• MAKE POSITIVE TO PRINT - duplicate coloured layer, lock transparency (b and w check board) - locks checkered pixels - then fill 

• TURNING IMAGE TO CYAN MAGENTA etc. i.e. A photo - change to CMYK, go on channels - next to layers menu to see layers separately 
• place image in illustrator, print settings - A4, output settings - change from composite to separations to see different colour separations - change frequency to no higher than 50 !! (so dots come out) - can make bigger (30 about right). All colour dots need to be at different angles too in rosette formations - 15, 75, 105, 155
  

Study Task 2 : Editorial Illuatrators

Chris Madden

 

 
- Love simplicity of visual metaphors - simple play with shape/ scale
- Interesting digital, hand drawn interplay (scans in each textured cut out component then assembles/ colours them on photoshop)


Jeffrey Decoster

 

 

- Uses sharp juxtapositions/ ambiguity to deal with difficult subject matter - viewer forced to join dots
- Creates images using mixed analogue media/ digitally manipulates them (to create dramatic juxtapositions etc.)