Creative Typography - Letter Cliches from Photoshop

Carrying on with my creative typography [Part 1, Part 2] the next step was to take my new alphabet created in photoshop from my oriental photos and to create a word/phrase out of it. For this I worked with using cliches. I used the cliche 'Honesty is the best policy' As i have always felt this saying held a lot of weight behind it and would work well with my different letter forms as they no longer hold there original form. I feel with this phrase it add an extra element to it as the phrase itself is very much centred around not lying and always behind honest with ones self and others around you. By hiding it behind a new layer of language it creates that wall around the phrase showing what effect it has on the reader/person trying to break down the lies to get to the honest truth.

Honesty.

Honesty is the Best Policy.

I really liked the way the final letter forms looked together in an A-Z style but now I've formed a word i don't really like how some of the letters work next to each other. I feel this is because of my choice of harsh vibrant colours but what i really love about it is the way some of the letter forms have been lost making it harder to read the words giving this saying a lot more weight behind it! I'd decently want to go back and revisit this and add a consistent colour scheme throughout the whole piece to see what sort of change it would have on the piece.
Looking at the single word of honest as above with the 'HITBP' i feel the lose of letter forms works really well with the message of hiding honesty as so many of people do. However unlike the colour scheme in the 'HITBP phrase' above, i really like the way the colour worked in the 'Honesty' piece. I didn't plan on this and just got lucky as i used the 2 letter forms going 1 cutout filter, 1 threshold and repeating. I fill this styled worked a lot better then the use of the same style for the whole word.

Paper Manipulation - Part Two Mannequin time!

Following the previously days experiment with paper manipulation i moved onto taking these forms and techniques further by creating a garment on a mannequin. Since i didn't feel all that confident with my build skills i decided to try and create something simplistic with a lot of eye catching details.
Using my example from the day prior i stuck with my main theme of twists, circles and spirals and used them to create a shoulder garment on the mannequin.



















































Having 0 background in fashion, textiles and to be honest anything of a 3D nature I'm very pleased with how this piece came out. I went into it pretty much blind other then knowing i would be sticking to a theme of Circles and Twisted forms for my texture. Using this i was about to create a very structurally sound centre piece which wrapped around the front and back and worked off that. Next i made a shoulder piece out of triangles stapled together and twisted paper woven through [Close up photos below.] Then finally added twisted circles linked to form a chain shape around the back part of the piece and a few around the front just for added little touch of detail to help pull the eye away from the very sharp shapes made around the front and back.

Looking back on this i definitely enjoyed making this body piece which i didn't expect to. See the final piece come together over a matter of a very short 2 hours had given me a real confidence boost and will definitely help me to branch out into fields such as 3D and take ever new thing one step at a time. I really enjoyed the intricate detail you can get from apply different strengths of twists to the paper, giving the effect of more free flowing design or a ridged solid look which can be seen in the main looped twists around the garment and in the different sized circles on the back.
Overall i think this piece was a great success and a lot of that come down to having tested the different forms of twists the day before with my smaller experimentation's. However if i was to do this again I'd try to aim to do a whole upper body piece and not just one shoulder by adding a large to small spiral coming from the other shoulder and link off that which another twisted band around the waist.

Paper Manipulation - Part One

Fashion... Not something I'd consider myself to be interested in at all, but the art of using different techniques such as twisting, scrunching and pleating together to create something does grab my attention and allows me to experiment in things i wouldn't normally try. This being one of them, first we got our briefs again and for the start of this lesson our aim was to manipulate, construct and deconstruct white paper.
I went into this with a very open mind and just let my mind wander using a few keys words to guide my manipulation:

As seen above the words i used to help guide me were Twisting, Fold, Cutting and Joining.
This was very much just a chance for me to experiment with different types of design with paper, its not something I'd ever really done before and i wouldn't say it was the most enjoyable thing. However it definitely gave me some more insight to how different types of materials can be used to create new textures and unique styles.

Ink & Charcoal - The mess continues..

Following the previous day and making a 3D model of an insect i drew [Links in previous post] The next thing I did was to experiment with Charcoal and boy did it get messy. The plan was to focus closely on a small part of our models [Mine being a moth] and blowing it up on an A2 piece of brown paper. We were given 30 minutes of each drawing, the first of which i decided to focus on the top of the model and part of the top 2 wings trying to add some depth by looking at it from a slightly angled birds eye view.

First off I'll comment on the time, we were given 30 minutes and for this first drawing i definitely took on more then i first thought was possible. I spent to much time trying to get the details of the string and plastics to have some impact through the steel wire that i didn't have time to even attempt the 2nd wing but for the amount i did complete i really like. Charcoal is a very messy material to use but once you get into the shading you can make some really interesting things happen, for example i think it really help make the string pop over the steel wire to give the image a lot of depth. 

Next we did another 30 minutes drawing with the same material and concept but this time to try using just lines and less shading.

This time i went for the same sort of angled birds eye view but from the bottom section of my moth and i really like the way this piece turned out. Once again we had 30 minutes but i feel i managed that time a lot better and was able to get some really good detail from the line work on the wooden end. As well as focusing on the bold string and wire work around the wood centerpiece.

Next onto the real mess. Indian ink time!

Now this is something i really enjoyed. I used very simple tools, White A2 Paper, Indian Ink Black and a Coffee stirrer, Yes one of those, one end was cut at a 45 degree angel to cause a very fine line when used with the ink and then the other end left as was in a circular shape which worked very well for thicker lines. 

With this drawing i decided to focus on the top again but concentrate it more on the upper right then just the whole top to help cut out the problem of time issues and i went in and it sure got messy fast but was very interesting to determine how much ink i need to apply each time to get the same effect i just made. For example with the wings i was trying to make a crisscross sort of effect but instead of just tapping away i changed my stroke to make the lines thicker in other places to attempt to add more depth within them. I think it worked well for a first try. The one thing i couldn't get to work in my favour was the string, i couldn't get it to pop as i added to much ink to the wing and didn't fade it out well enough. I'd definitely go back and try that different next time. 

Let the messy times begin! - Day 1 Animals from Nothing

Can't but to create a mess and end up with something interesting at the end!
But to start off before my first day i was given a brief in my final college interview to do a couple insect studies in collaboration with the Liverpool Museum in celebrating British insects, which at first i was a little hesitant about as well i don't like insects. But once i got some basically research done online just looking at photos of moths and beetles etc i noticed they have ALOT of detail close up. Especially the way beetles shells overlap and the different ridges shine in natural light.

So i set out to do a couple fast1-5 minute sketches to get a quick feels for the shapes and forms of the insects and then do a 30-60 minute final drawing of the insects i planned to take further.

After finding the insects i wanted to draw over at [http://www.uksafari.com] i produced the drawings as seen above and took them with me for my first day of college. I Really enjoyed tried to get the shells of the Devil Coach Horse Beetle, it was a bit of a challenge as all i had to work with was pencil and light effects but i feel like the final piece came out rather well. Comparing that to my Stag Beetle drawing i wanted to try something a little different and went with just a pen approach after completing a fast 1 minute sketch to get the proportions down i went for a more of an illustration feel for this once mainly focusing on the outer lines and bold details over shading and forming the true shape of the insect. This left it feeling flat but i really like the way it came out for a 2d version.
My favourite sketch was the moth as i knew i wanted to just go very creative with this one so i chose a moth with very plain tones, the Dark Bordered Beauty Moth worked perfect for this as its just a 2 tone colour moth and it let me experiment with different types of design on the wings and i like what i ended up with. Very simplest line work and a little shading which i feel sticks true to the original insect but adding my own twist onto it.

Now back to my first day after filling out all the usual forms and such we got down to business. We were told to look at our drawings and pick one which we would then turn into a 3d model made of of scrap/recycled materials left over from other projects in the college. At first i wasn't sure which drawing to pick as they're all rather flat but i though the stag beetle would make a nice wire piece but wouldn't other much in the ways of expression so i decided on the moth as if i needed i could change the design if needed as it was very much my own creation from the Dark Bordered Beauty Moth design. After pondering over the materials i dove straight in head first and I'm very happy with that i ended up with.

Having decided on a 3D Model of a moth i instantly wanted a solid centre and found two different colour sticks i bound together with wire and then also created 4 wings branching off from this. At first i wasn't sure how i was going to do the wings, either i wanted wire work using sticks and twigs until i found these little steel wool balls which when stretched out and wrapped around the original wire wing work gave me a decent base to work from. Moving on from there it was very much just experimenting which different materials threading them through the steel wool to add depth. I used the likes of string, different colour plastic and coloured lollipop sticks. Finally i added tinfoil to the bottom set of wings and the top of the stick middle piece to help break up the overpowering colour of the grey wool, which i feel worked out well and overall the final piece has a nice texture throughout. 

I'm not normally one to enjoy constructing things with my hands i prefer to have my ideas come through the median of drawing or painting but i really enjoyed experimenting with different materials here trying to add onto a drawing of my own creation.

Back to Education!

It's happened after 4 years of working, caring and thinking, plus a whole array of other activities i have finally took the plunge and gone back to finish my education. But for the fine eyed of you who have had a ganders about my blog already [and read the statement above] you'll know I'm what they would call a 'Mature Student' *DUN DUN DUH* Not to fear for those of you 'older folk' [me only being 21 years of age] It is never to late to get back into education and follow your dreams!
Mine of which wanting to pursue a career in Art & Design and i am doing just that thanks to a wonderful course (Access to Higher Education - Art & Design) and this blog is where i am basically going to be expressing my feelings, ideas and overall my whole journey back to education.

At the time of writing this I've just finished my first full week at my local college and utterly loving the course and the people. The staff our lovely and I'm not the only 'Mature student' i am in fact the youngest so never feel discouraged to get back into education if its what you want to do.

Anyway in short expect near weekly updates on all my work progress and thought to accompany them, after all I'm already have a week of work to talk about and show off to you.
So look forward to more posts soon.

Harry out.