Vis Comm Ranking Project: Research week

Our brief is to design a book cover for any adult book we chose. The book I have chosen is 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold. The first week of our project has been allocated to research. At the end of the week we are to give a 10 slide presentation of our research using either Prezi or Powerpoint. I am going to present mine using Prezi. The 10 slides are as follows:

Slide 1: Title and author
Slide 2: Synopsis (150 words) and 3 words to sum up the feeling of the book
Slide 3: Location
Slide 4: When
Slide 5: Main Characters
Slide 6: Theme
Slide 7: Theme
Slide 8: Typography
Slide 9: Mood Board
Slide 10: 2 Book Covers that we like

Presentation viewable below:

http://prezi.com/k5ueggedbe1_/the-lovely-bones/

Sculpture Elective

Project: Five Senses

We started by taking the five senses and creating mind maps. From these we made further mind maps, from which we chose a verb to continue using throughout the project.

I chose the verb: 'to struggle'.

I used this as a start to design and cast two hand positions - a strangling pair of hands and one hand being strangled by another. From here I made various casts in different materials, experimenting with texture, shape, form and material.

Print Elective

For this project looking at the space around us, I returned to my photographs of Limerick, from the Urban Environment brief.

I chose a select few photos and used them along side new found images for inspiration and to get a vibe for the work I wanted to create.

I began by looking at composition, colour and texture, then turned to shape later. I played around with layering colours of varying shades to emphasis depth and also touched on positive and negative space in my third and fourth prints.

The main subjects of my pieces were organic; stone and natural materials such as wood. However, I also looked at brickwork; a man-made version of a natural material.

I didn't want my pieces to be neat of specific, I enjoyed the process of creating, experimenting and not knowing what the exact result would be, and I wanted this to show in my work. I think this gives a 'rugged' feel to my prints, which I am happy with.

One Day Project

Visual Communications Elective

The first week of my first elective proved pretty tough going, but i enjoyed it none the less. Our brief was to create a new form of typography to demonstrate the meaning/mood of a given word. My word was 'retiring'.


I initially looked at the idea of retirement, then realised the many other possibilities of the word; such as shy, lonerism, to be worn out. I used all of these ideas in my initial sketches.


I finally settled on three ideas; firstly: a piece which spelt out the word using items of a retired person, secondly: the word made out of play dough with the letters sagging and cracking and a small G 'retiring' behind the N, and lastly: a photoshop piece with 'retiring' written in white on a white back ground and only the shadow visible. The words are barely visible as if shy, on their own, and not wanting to be seen.


See images below of my work station, progress pieces and final pieces.

In the second week of the project we had the same brief but had to use images to portray our given word. I definately found this week harder and struggled to find a coherent conclusion. Given more time I would have liked to have explored my 2 final pieces in 3D. See below for the 2D result:



It was suggested to me after presentation that I used my word; 'retiring', along with these images.

Final Post for Urban Environment Project

Since my last post I was told that my prints resembled camouflage prints. I have therefore taken this angle within my work by looking at animal prints and using camouflage colours within the project. I also continued to study the kegs by way of 3D; wire, cardboard, aluminium, cans etc. My final display is as follows:

Close up of 3D keg studies

3D keg studies within final display

Close up of prints using camouflage colours

Final Display!

Thank you for reading.

Katy

Week 9

This week I worked on a piece using card and 3 different coloured papers. I didn't want to waste any paper so I used it to create a negative image. See below for different stages of the piece:

I then took rubbings from these in chalk and charcoal. I plan to make an A3 woodcut print of this image. I am hoping it will look similar to the above finished image of the kegs in 3 colours. I am also toying with the idea of using material and possibly making a collage.

That's all for now folks!

Week 8

This week I had my mid-project progress review. I put all my work up onto the wall in my space (photos to come) so that the tutors could get a good idea of what I was doing and where I might be heading with the project. We don't get our official feedback until a week later, however they did make one of two suggestions as to what I could do next. I was advised to use my prints and work from them as a source for my next work, perhaps in 3D or else 2D on a large scale.


This week I printed my wood blocks that I have been cutting out (for what seems like a very long time!). I have done 2 prints, each made out of 3 seperate wood blocks. The first one, the ivy, uses 2 greens and a dark blue - one colour per block. See below:

First layer: Light Green

Second Layer: Darker Green

Third Layer: Dark Blue

The second print was a little more complicated. The first layer is divided into 3 colours. I did this by drawing the image onto the block and deciding where I wanted each colour to go. I then had the block cut into 3 pieces which would fit together like a jigsaw. The second layer was used to create darker tones of the 3 colours already printed in layer one. It was transparent purple in colour. he third layer will be a dark grey/black. However the 'result' image shown here shows the third later printed in the blue from the previous print. I am not happy with the outcome of this print, but it gives you an idea of the composition and what the finished product will look like. See the wood blocks for this print below:

The layering technique I used worked really well for the ivy print and I am delighted. I am not so happy with the print of the drain, but at the moment everything I do in print is experimental so hopefully I will learn from my mistakes. See below for the finished pieces:

Ivy Print

Drain Print

My next plan is to make large 2D cut outs of these images, and also to do a woodcut of my 'Keg' image (See previous posts).

Thanks for reading!