Production for vis. com.

What level of practise would I rate my self?

I know that I’m not a beginner as I have a good understanding of my practise, however I know I’m not to the standard of an expert. Other wise I would not have come to university to study and would have started on my career.

I think I’m more like a competent description, as I know how to draw and different technique involving different practises, because when being taught how to do printing etc I already knew what I was being told, because of previous experience. Considering this I also think that I can show traits in the proficient level. For instance I think I can produce really good ideas and media at the end of a project. I can take responsibility of my ideas, and I do see the improvements as well as the positives in my own work. However taking this all in I don’t think I'm a consistent artist at the proficient level but I am on my way to becoming this, with a little time and elbow grease.

My work flow diagram

production & outcomes

Interpretation

At the top is a painting by Jean-François Millet and at the bottom is an image of van Gogh.

In Millet’s time, the early 1800, art had to have a sense of realism to it so that the viewer can relate to the picture. It was in this time where people were straying away from the neoclassicism movement that was heavily based around the art and culture of the roman’s. This style was over powered by the Romantic Movement, which encouraged artists to paint with a purpose and add emotion into their picture.

However in Van Gogh’s time (late 1800) it was the time of the impressionist where small broken brushstrokes were used to show the passing of time. Van Gogh was influenced a lot by the people, and landscapes surrounding him, favoring images of the countryside, village buildings and the people there.

In millets picture you can see that the painting is dreary and drains the audience of all their energy so you can feel how the farmers feel. However Van Gogh has taken the same picture down a different rout. He’s changed the angle of the whole paining so that the lighting gives you the sense of it’s the end of the day so it’s the end of work, but the sky is still blue telling you that the rest of the day is yours. So the characters give off a different sense to the viewing audience, because even thought their lives are hard as they are farmers, because of the colors used you can see that the lives they have a busy but yet fun and interesting. This goes to show that van goghs out look is that life is hard but that just makes it more interesting. Where as millet’s view on the farmers life is that its hard work and an occupation you should not desire, or at least there is hope for those who work hard.

 

Delivery

Adam Neate is a new artist and has found a different way of publicising himself and getting know by more of the public, through his open air gallery project.

It all started when he was a budding artist and he ran out of room to store his art work, so from there he decided to give his work away to charity shops, which in later days he found on the street. From there he decided to place a free artwork gallery in the streets of London. From word of mouth he begin to grow in popularity where he was dubbed the new English Picasso.

From doing this his artwork in the galleries dramatically grew in price from £1000 to £30 000 in less than a year. This just shows that with the right publicity you can gain a lot from it. Also his work is made from throw away material that fits his open-air gallery theme, especially for the economic climate as his gallery was put together around about the time of the economic crash. Plus by giving art away its sending out a positive message to the public which in turn will make them desire the work even more, even the ones being sold in galleries.

Character building

Appearance: 
At the start of the film you see will smith as Robert Neville; he is a normal looking wearing dark clothes. This appearance tells the audience that times are hard and that when it comes to living if an object doesn’t have a practical use or function then there is no need for them. However in the film he has the need and use for a car but he picks a fast riding car the mustang above a 4x4, but this could be for a number of reasons as is its use being a fast device to get home safely; but it may be his human characteristics coming out where he wants to impress and wants nice things.

Then later in the film you see him as an officer in the military where he’s in uniform, this piece of information gives the later outfits a different meaning. So this gives his black outfit of jacket, trousers and boots a more military or Special Forces feel. So when you look at him he looks like he’s on a mission, which he is, to save the human race. This whole look it toped off with guns and the fact he has a military dog (alsatian) as a friend pet and ally to help him in his quest. His physical appearance is clean-shaven and hair cut down to the scalp, which is the universal look for the army, and this tells you about his military background is influencing him.

However Robert Neville has two sides to his character, the military gunslinger hunting for food in a concrete jungle, and the precise scientific calculation of a scientist working on a cure for the human race.

Interaction:
For Robert Neville there isn’t much interaction between himself and other human beings, other than him trying to stay alive from the changed humans who will kill him on sight. The interaction that seems human is that from his dog Sam and the mannequins in the video store, but this isn’t a healthy relationship because it leads to the dead of his friend and companion Sam. The other place he interacts with is his lab, which is very hands on. For he captures and sedates a human to test different cures on, but this is very one-sided interaction as the human is asleep throughout the film. The brief bit of human interactivity is that with a boy and a young woman, however when they arrive he doesn’t know how to act. But this only last for a day and night as Robert sacrifices himself for them to escape. His main interaction to the film is the saviour of the human race as he finds a cure and saves the lives of 2 humans who he barely knows.

Action/function:
Roberts purpose in the film is very simple: to survive each day that comes, to stand out at the dock at noon waiting for survivors, and to find the cure for the virus that was meant to cure cancer. The reason for this is because in his military career he was in charge of the city (ground zero) and feels obligated to protect it and save it.

RVJ

Reflection

When working in your RVJ a reflection and what you are doing and have done will always help you develop an idea. This is so because when you look at what you have already done you will see the positives and negatives, which you wont necessarily; see when creating the idea on the page. So by analysing your work you will know what to include in the next development stage and what not to include.

For example in my RVJ I’ve looked at a few ideas and evaluated, what I did was I drew one Idea down look for its pros and cons. This process allowed me to come up with a few different options I could do for a final piece.

This meant the images I have could all be used to create the final image as all had their positive points and all had there negative. This shows that experiment and reflection on those experiments is of grate important, so that you can see the good and the bad, and improve upon the last. Because there is next a perfect out come.

Language

In a RVJ the use of language is very important because throughout, you need to use different types to create artwork. Because a visual representation wont tell you in later days or others about your thought processes. This then leads on to the fact that as human beings we don’t have the greatest of memories, so and Idea you had a month ago might be lost. So by writing down your ideas you can let your mind move onto the next idea. This leads to your mind being clear so that when you have to tackle two different projects you haven’t go two different brief’s and designs running at the same time.

Also by writing down your thoughts you can process your idea and see different directions to go; so for instance with the fusion brief I didn’t think about my final outcome (mythical creature made from two animals such as the griffin) till I thought about science and how they fuse different elements together to create a new element. By writing down my thoughts I managed to find a suitable format for my picture, a playing card and this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t write down my thoughts an artist I was looking at.

Itap – Visual Principles

Tone of voice

When constructing and image or a piece of writing you needs to establish what emotion you can to portray. As every visual we see are minds interpreted into an emotion so when you see and image of a girl blown up by Napalm will instantly made you pity and fearful of the girls life. However reading a passage from a romantic novel will make you feel passionate and loved. So by deciding what emotion you want to get through your work will determine how you image turns out.

For instance the images on book are very important, and need to portray the feeling and content of the book because having a man and woman arguing wont portray a romantic novel and neither will a man reading in a library portray a high action book.  

As an example the book cover for Sabriel by Garth nix is of the symbol used for casting spells (charter magic). The white background represents purity and innocents; this being because a girl aged around 17 takes over her fathers role as an abhorsen who puts the dead to sleep (the opposite of a necromancer).  Plus the fiery symbol represents the possible out come of the main villain in the story (fire, destruction, chaos and the end to all living things on earth).  So this cover represents the story very well and tells the audience what they can expect from it.

Visual hierarchy

When looking at an image there always has to be a place for the more important info or imagery and a place for the less important info/imagery. This is true for a photographer when they take or construct and image. In most pictures the thought of thirds is apparent, as there has to be something going on in each third of the image in both horizontal and vertical lines. This can also be said about posters as they on average have an image in the middle with the title at the top and subtext at the bottom with the actors, director and studio names. However this cannot be said for every poster for every film.

For example this poster has the Title at the top and a main image in the centre but then have put the subtext around the edge to frame it. They have also put the main actor’s name (Nicolas cage) in capitals because he is in the image and plays the main character. This might also be because by showing his name, it will portray the quality of the film. So when I comes to posters the most important info, little film title and a famous actor will be bold or at the top where it can be seen. Then all the other less info follows after in smaller text.

Bibliography

Google.co.uk, www.garthnix.com, The book Sabriel which I have I’m my position, http://www.smashingapps.com/2009/04/01/40-must-see-resources-and-inspirational-collections-for-designers-to-discover-the-best-of-the-web-in-march.html

Itap 2nd lecture

Through the ‘visual practice’ of observation, collecting, studying and exploring, illustration can contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject.

A Deeper understanding of a subject matter can only be found through research and experimentation. The two main research-starting points are secondary and primary. Secondary is where I would research images in the library or on the net, I may also see what other artists have done for the subject that I’m doing. With Primary I would go out and capture images that are relevant to the subject I’m studying or I would go out and do a questionnaire and find out what the audience wants, as they are the people who will be looking and understanding my work.

From these images I (and many other artists) I would experiment with different styles, mainly that of other artist that I researched in my secondary research. This would then develop my own style and bring about a new understanding and way of depicting the topic.

By looking at all of this it heightens my understanding of the subject, which means that I’ll be able to relay the intended idea and emotions onto the audience.

An understanding and knowledge of ‘an audience’ can enhance and focus the communication.

It is very important to understand your audience as these people are going to be the ones who critic your work, and are the ones who wont know you intended thoughts. So your have to find a way for your intended audience to understand and to appreciate your work for what you intended it for.

By just working for your self and producing a good piece of art may not work for your audience, this has happened to an graphic designer before who worked for Granada TV where he produced a piece of work which was award winning but for the client and the intended audience wasn’t successful at all. This just goes to show that if you don’t keep your intended audience in mind your piece wont sell.

Two Principles

Can recontextualized ideas be contemporary?

When a piece of art is made its not the artist ideals that is put upon the page but that of the era, because what is happening around and artist influences their out comes, their ideals and the meanings of their art. For instance the naked body back in the 1900 will be seen as sexual and shocking, how ever a naked body in the 20^th century is seen as empowering and the norm. So even though context in art might be the same from different era’s but the meaning behind the art will be portrayed differently. For example the piece called discount soup can by banksy is a play on the art work done by Andy Warhol.

In Andy Warhol’s piece he was trying to portray the mass made object as apiece of art that everyone has and owns and to make high marketed art more trivial in the process. So there target of his artwork was that of the middle class who can afford expensive art works made by big names. What he also did that aimed it to the middle class was that he mass-produced his own art so that his art can become commonplace as well as the Campbell’s soup. Another area of his work that illustrated the mass market was the fact that he could reproduce his artwork for the masses because of the techniques used to make them (silk screen).

In Bansky’s art he’s basically copied the style of Andy Warhol and the subject, however he’s placed a very different meaning to the image. I think he’s trying to portray the fact that people have become cheap and colourless in are every day-to-day life. He’s done this by using a bland and cheap version of today’s tomato soup. By doing this he’s saying that presently people are only interested in their money and how much their getting for it, as the price and weight are highlighted on the image. The little tare in the corner of the can also illustrates that the quality of what we as a people today made isn’t as good as it once was, because this shows that in the hast of producing and shipping this product it was damaged and still on sale.

These images just go to show how artist who take another style and subject can turn it around to mean something so different. Andy Warhol’s image was headline news and portrays the public in a good light, Bansky’s was not headline news and portrays the public in a negative light.

Notions of Originality

In art industry there isn’t one picture that is original, originality to me is the bending and distorting of and idea and from forms around you. So you can’t be original when painting melting watches (Darli) as you’ve painted a watch that someone else has designed and has then taken a style from a previous version, and this chain can go on and on. Even recreating a tree is copying as mother nature as already designed that tree. The only way you can be original is in your thinking and naming of your creation.

This can be applied to Rachel Whiteread piece ‘untitled’ (free standing bed) by just giving the sculpture no name your giving the audience a choice of what it means to you. So to some it will mean nothing because it’s just a cast of a dirty old mattress. To others this could mean a lot more as when you look at the mattress which looks old but because it worn it must be a good and comfortable place to sleep. However as it’s a plaster cast it’s hard and cold and cant age past the time it was cast. By casting it she’s preserving the mattress and the history along with it as each bump or lump could hold meaning to the owner, thus making the mattress an object of history and meaning.

So a cast mattress on it own is just a mattress, but by her choosing to give it no name she’s allowed the piece to have its own meaning to each person that views it. Thus giving it a multitude of meanings, emotion and opinions for each person that views it.