Persons of Note - Analog to Digital

In this project I want to focus on my Photoshop skills again because there are still areas for improvement and more things I want to try out. I have been scanning my work to try and editing it to try and better visualise some of my initial ideas, for example the image below is a test to see how the colours and contrast I am hoping to use will work together.

 This is not the type of aesthetic I want my work to have, it will instead be digitally collaged and appear less 'drawn'. I want a higher level of finish and quality in my finished pieces and working into my work on Photoshop will help me achieve this.

 I have tried out recreating Gandhi's face by hand, using cut paper and foil, I scanned this in and was hoping to work into it but I don't feel that the quality of the shapes and the edges is good enough, scanning highlights all of the small imperfections, these could be corrected but this method doesn't give me the instant flexibility that working with layers of images in Photoshop does. I feel as if the process is just as intuitive on or off screen, I just have to spend a bit longer cropping and adjusting the levels of the newsprint.

 I really like the visual quality created by collage in Hannah Höch's "Brokenann" Okanoue Toshiko's "Falling", the contrast between light and dark whilst retaining texture and grain really appeals to me, I like the halftone 'printed' marks that you can see up close. This is something I will hopefully be able to recreate digitally since my analog methods are not suitable.



Graham Moore's "Mo Derenes" has a a more subtle contrast in texture and has an appealing low- fi look and feel, in my own collage I need to think of ways to highlight and darken certain areas of the face - manipulate in Photoshop - saves having to find exact tone of grey in newspaper - could re-use same piece but keep altering the levels and brightness

Persons of Note - Ideas Development

Trying to capture the main qualites/traits that I see in Gandhi with a vibrant use of colour and bold mark  making - happy - light - gold - warm - blue is calming and peaceful I think it could be nice to work monchromatically, using varying levels of blue. Looking at objects - the robe, flip flops, glasses - somehow incorporate imagery of freedom inside glasses lenses - reflection

I could have the same face repeated onto all of the postcards, but each one could be showing sa different message within the glasses - sum up four key pieces of imagery/symbolism to use - vegetarianism, freedom, peace and prayer?

Stamps could be cropped imagery of gandhi - his trademark features? The poster could make full use of the space and allow me to create a full body Gandhi cradling the Indian population he helped towards freedom?

A simple 'peace' hand gesture for poster? Repetition? Do one image well and re-use? Compositionally I realise I could be more adventurous, but I don't feel as though it is always necessary to be pushing that area of image making quite so hard... I want to include the person and not associated imagery, which requires more information within the frame

Symbols to go inside glasses need to be easily read - banned meat - vegetarianism - leaves?

blue is calming and peaceful I think it could be nice to work monchromatically, using varying levels of blue - maybe highlighted with something else? Making use of notan. I am pleased with these ideas so far, the close up cropped image of Gandhi's face makes as much use of the frame as possible. I am still unsure about the poster and it may change as I begin to take my work into Photoshop.

Persons of Note - Gandhi

Produce a series of illustrations in response to a given person of note. This series must exist across of range of differing formats whilst maintaining a visual consistency throughout.

The range of formats are:

4 X Stamps. 50mm x 30mm. Format orientation optional

4 X Postcards. 105mm x 210mm. Format orientation optional

1 X Poster. 594 mm x 420mm. Format orientation optional

Mahatma Gandhi

Of the three names given to me to work from I have chosen Gandhi, I before making any initial research about him I hardly knew anything about him. Gandhi was at first a lawyer before he became involved with efforts to end discrimination against the Indian minority in South Africa by the British and the Boers.

• Founder of Natal Indian Congress which worked to further Indian interests
• Today India has its political independence largely due to the work of Gandhi 
• He practiced sexual abstinence, renounced modern technology and developed 'satyagrahawas', a method of non-violent resistance - willingness to endure punishment and jail
• Stood for peace and non violence - "In its positive form, nonviolence means the largest love, the greatest charity. If I am a follower of nonviolence, I must love my enemy."
• He was a vegetarian
• He led a 200 mile Salt March so that the people of India could make and gather their own salt. His goal for the people of India not to buy salt from the British
• He led a life long fight for the Independence of India which became reality on August 15 1947
• A figure of integrity, consistency and humanity

Known as "The Great Soul"

"Gandhi was a pioneer in these new realms of consciousness. Everything he did was an experiment in expanding the human being's capacity to love, and as his capacity grew, the demands on his love grew more and more severe, as if to test what limits a human being can bear. But Gandhi had learned to find a fierce joy in these storms and trials. . . . By the end of his life he was aflame with love." 
— Eknath Easwaran in Gandhi The Man

He practiced compassion in creative ways

The story below is really inspirational - a good basis for an illustration of compassion?

"One day Gandhi stepped aboard a train as it started to move, and one of his shoes slipped off and dropped on the tracks. Unable to retrieve it, he calmly took off his other shoe and threw it back along the track to land close to the first. When an amazed passenger asked why he had done that, Gandhi smiled and said, 'The poor man who finds the shoe lying on the track will now have a pair he can use.' With the eyes of his imagination, Gandhi saw a man with bare feet, saw him coming across a lone shoe and desperately searching for the other, and saw the disappointment on his face when he didn't find it; seeing these things, Gandhi did what he could to help."
— Donald McCullough in Say Please, Say Thank you

"I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort, and cultivate the same hope and faith."

 'Full effort is full victory,'

"Late in Gandhi's life a Western journalist asked, 'Mr. Gandhi, you've been working fifteen hours a day for fifty years. Don't you ever feel like taking a few weeks off and going for a vacation?' Gandhi laughed and said, 'Why? I am always on vacation.' Because he had no personal irons in the fire, no selfish concerns involved in his work, there was no conflict in his mind to drain his energy." 
— Eknath Easwaran in The Compassionate Universe

He was happy and at peace - I could illustrate this simply through a smile and him giving something? - The flip flop story

My group crit was helpful, it helped me pinpoint the message about Gandhi that I want to communicate and how I want to portray him. I need to think of ways to show the main themes peace, freedom, non violence and leader. I am still unsure about how literal to be, do I include associated imagery, the person or both? I think at the moment I am hoping to use a combination of the two but in the simplest way possible, I don't want my work to become over complicated when we have been given such a simple brief.

Final Postcards

I am really pleased with my final postcards and have learnt a lot about working with Illustrator during the process, my compositional skills have also benefitted from the flexibility of layers and repetition. The London bus was based on the NYC cab and the buildings have also borrowed from each other. the limited colour palette and soft focus created by grain really brings the pictures to life. 

During the final crit it was mentioned that I have managed to retain my own visual aesthetic and the work is recognisable as mine. This is interesting to me since I initially set out to reinvent my way of working with new tools. I retrospect think it may the tone of voice and the way in which I have combined layered shapes which which came about through play - something I do away from the computer anyway.

Overall the group decided that my work goes together as a set/series but the Cairo postcard is the least successful of the three. I was too abstract in my use of repetition and the over did the simplistic visuals. I maybe could have included something secondary to them, like a tourist bus or camels to give the pyramids context.

Illustrator Development - Final Postcards

Using complex array of triangles - rocks - robe of Christ the Redeemer - lots of different surfaces to take into account

Opposing gradients on adjacent triangles - 3D

Because of the consistent visual style and limited use of colour i am using across the 4 images, I am able to reuse and adapt certain elements of each, I am working on the pyramids for the Cairo postcard by borrowing shapes already created in the Rio document and again I am multiplying/creating a pattern

Illustrator Development - Final Postcards

I have included gradients from light to dark and contrasting areas of dark and light - 50% grain gives it a soft glow - glass surfaces - altered transparency of overlapping blocks - layered city

It took me a long time to create this individual NYC yellow cab, i have continued to make use of grain - blends the different facets in nicely - perspective parallel to bottom edge of skyscrapers

I have multiplied the cab to create rows of gridlocked traffic - working digitally benefits me in that i am able to put a lot of time and effort into a single element and duplicate it to create a strong and detailed image - I am really happy with the result - the yellow really stands out against the darker teal bottom half of the postcard

Continued drafting/finalising ideas

In light of what I have learnt and the way I am happy working in Illustrator, I have gone back to drafting more ideas. I am now set on London, New york, Cairo and Rio de Janeiro as I feel the visual key elements and monuments from each will lend themselves well to geometric pattern and shape. Using clean lines and sharp edges will also be a lot easier and less time consuming.

Geometric pattern - almost like tiles will make up a series of very graphical looking pyramids in Cairo, London will focus around a double decker bus passing by Big Ben - I am not going to be too true to life and represent exact building locations - just the key visual elements like a clock on a tall block building - simplistic and clean

New York will show a gridlocked street in new york covered in yellow cabs 

Rio de Janeiro will be one of the most complex despite my limited use of shape, it will be a very angular reinterpretation of Christ the Redeemer, looking out upon the city

Developing Illustrator skills - finding an aesthetic

I think that for now I need to stop thinking about my rough ideas and focus on getting to grips with the software, I have tried to create a 3D block of colour (maybe could be used later as a building) and have used the Perspective Grid tool to guide me with the perspective and angles. The colours I am using complement each other well - reminds me of a big chip - new york initial idea about fast food skyscrapers. i used the gradient tool to add a change form light to dark - gives it added depth

Using the grain effect has given the work the soft and airy visual quality I was after - want to create a sense of space and light

Teaching myself how to use the software has given me a new way of working and as a result I am having second thoughts about my ideas for the postcards - I don't feel as if the idea including Godzilla is ever going to work - doesn't really meet brief requirements - I think that now I have established a visual quality I can use it to link the work together and not so much a character or subject matter - each set of imagery can just be my favourite piece architecture or common from each city- simple idea so needs to be executed well - need to make more angular and geometric drawings

Line of Sight

Helsinki Archipelago Town Hall by Ness Lafoy - good use of line of sight - looking down - eyes guided by juxtaposition of vertical, diagonal and horizontal lines - works in conjunction with orange colour to create a focal point to be drawn towards

Analysing the use of view point, depth and line of sight in professional's work - quickly sketched out key visual elements and commented on the composition - breaking down an image is really interesting since it begins to expose the inner workings of a picture - for example the path the eye follows and the way areas are separated/ordered e.g. rule of the thrids

Using extrude tool in illustrator to create accurate 3D objects

Final Resolution

I have tried to illustrate the brief 'transport' through means of travel and the journey an object is about to make - a ball about to fall down the stairs - suggested by diagonal lines pointing towards bottom right corner - pulling eyes in that direction - shows the pathway the ball will potentially travel down when it rolls forwards. Sense of suspense - just on the edge of the step - stairs drop off out of the frame - how far will it fall?

 Texture - grain - blue - calming - empty - minimalist vectors - science - physics - kinetic energy

• Colours are complementary of each other - nice contrast using yellow as a highlight and teal as shading to add dimension 
• I used the gradient and grain tool to create areas of shadow and light, highlighting the basic shapes and giving the image depth