I think this might have been one of my most challenging assignments to date. It felt very awkward and frustrating. This whole section has not been the best for me, and I will be writing a separate learning log entry to reflect on that aspect.
The first part of this assignment was to build upon the characters from Exercise 2.6. I took the digital characters and printed them onto paper so that I could stick them into my sketchbook. I chose four out of the six to progress and explore more.
Character One
For the first character, I tried to think about the angry face, and how it could be extrapolated. It reminded me of a few things, including a pie chart, so I thought about how I could add an od head on top of a normal body: in this case a businessman to link to the chart.
Character Two
For the second character, I wanted to think about how to turn this funny happy face into something more substantial I explored a few different aspected in response to the character, inspired by its appearance. I tried to interpret the image as a kind of Mr Men character, and then was struck by the similarities between a bin and a post box, so imagined a post box eating letters. I then was inspired by an example given in the assignment instructions. I had used a clothing catalogue in a previous exercise, and it so happened that a new one had dropped through my letterbox recently. I perused the content and found what I thought was a perfect fit: A t-shirt about being grumpy, which seemed like the perfect juxtaposition to the extremely happy face of the character.
Character Three
For character three, I started by exploring the metallic aspect of the face, using tin foil and marker to create a more humanoid character. I then wanted to explore something a little more surreal, having been inspired by the previous collaged character. I challenged my thinking, asking myself why I immediately thought that the light switch face was automatically a male character. I wanted to push that assumption, so used the catalogue again to try and create a female character that was equally fitting.
Character Four
For this character, I was trying to think about how I turn the character into something more fleshed-out. I had a few ideas, so used the printed copy of the character more than once so that I could help manage my ideas. The tentacled octopus made me think of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, particularly Cthulu. In the end, I decided to focus on the texture of the creature. I cut out the octopus shape in cardboard and covered it in white gesso. I used orange peel to try and texturise the primer and once dry added pen lines to finish the character. I stuck the octopus into my sketchbook.
Part Two
Gaining any momentum on this section was difficult, I wasn't sure how to start - how on Earth do you intentionally create something that has to be an accident?! The thing that allowed me to move forward was to draw on previous exercises. I had explored aspects of collage as part of a previous exercise, so thought this might be a way for me to construct things.
In order to create my first background, I went through scans of images I had made to write up previous exercises, thinking about how I could chop, rotate and manipulate them. I started digitally so that I could easily change the size and rotation of objects, layering them to start creating a composition and narrative.
I then added onto the top of this scene, using pastels and collage from a previous exercise, utilising other images from the exercises and pasting them manually onto the page.
For the second background, I had a bit more confidence, and seemed to be onto something with the collage idea - it was allowing me to not be precious, and just do what came to mind.
Instead of starting digitally this time, I started by using the pastels to create a rough layout. I had printed out some trees that I had used to explore pastels with. I had adjusted them to be lots of different sizes, and I decided to use this to try and create a sense of depth.
For the third background, I became stuck again. Not wanting to repeat myself I was not sure how to proceed. I remembered the 'drawing with teabags' exercise as I was walking through my kitchen. I noticed an old bag of fruit tea and thought that I might be able to do something with it. I created a concentrated batch of the tea and then used different sponges to make patterns on some cold-pressed watercolour paper. On top of the paper, I then used salt and cling film to try and create additional patterning. I then left this overnight.
What surprised me was how the colouring changed! It went from a very bright colourful array to a much more muted appearance. What was cool was the way the different ingredients started to assert themselves, giving the image amazing colours from purples to greens.
I got this sense of a surreal and spooky landscape, so printed off more copies of my characters at different sizes, so that I could try and create a sense of narrative:
I am not sure if these pieces are successful or not. I am really not clear what it is that I was meant to achieve. I am pleased that I pushed through to finish the work and that I drew on the previous work that I had done to come up with answers. I really want to explore and reflect more on this assignment and how I have felt for the past few months. The Assignment wants me to reflect on a few key questions too, which I want to do all together and reflect on this section in one go after I have received my tutor's feedback, which is the pattern I have adopted for other work and works well for my ability to process and learn.
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