My Visual Logbook

The five key elements of Scandinavian graphic design are clean lines and forms, simplicity and minimalism, sophisticated colour palettes and nature inspired. The aesthetic of which is very similar to that of my own work, and the two can work well together.

When tasked with creating a branded model release form, estimate and invoice, it made me think about me and my work together as a brand and how I want to be perceived and how I can influence this through my logo and branding. Minimalism is at the very basis of my work and I want this to be reflected in how I present myself professionally through my website, logo, and all correspondences with clients such as estimate headers etc. I have chosen to draw inspiration from Scandinavian graphic design.

My fifth approach was collage. I really enjoy being hands on and being able to mix my photography with more physical aspects of art and getting my hands a little dirty. I revisited my A level work for initial inspiration and as a starting point for research. I also got a book from the library on collage titled ‘Collage, contemporary artists who cut and paste’.  This book presented me with many modern artists of which collage is their main craft and who I took inspiration from. I firstly attempted to use a combination of illustrator and photoshop to digitally stitch multiple images together and to create a new one, combination of the two; and then doing the same by hand using a stanley knife. I really liked the compositions I created, bringing a new, interesting lease of life into my own images. I knew this was something which I wanted to develop further towards my final rough cut image. 

I am familiar with Anzeri's elaborate stitching into images from my A Level work where I took on a similar approach. I find his method very beautiful, however they do overtake the overall image quite a lot, and I think in my stitching I want my embroidery, and any of my experimental approaches, to complement my images rather than distract from them.

His collaboration with photographer Richard Burbridge for Dazed and Confused is quite well known, and his a little less averting for the eyes. I want my embroidery to be minimal rather than mesmerising.

My fourth approach was sewing into prints. I had done this previously by hand but wanted to see how using a sewing machine could improve my technique. Sophie had mentioned doing so in my crit last week and so I experimented. I found the process far too uncontrolled for my liking, I couldn't make the shapes I wanted to precisely and quickly got frustrated. I came back to it a day later for another go but despite making some imporevments, knew I wasn't going to be able to achieve the look I wanted from using the machine. I reverted back to hand sewing to be able to take control and go and a much more steady, relaxed pace. I find hand embroidery quite therapeutic so happily stitched into my images for a couple of hours. I was happy with my outcomes from it; below are my attempts.

I found Francisca's work in the book collage: contemporary artists who cut and stick,
and the simplicity of it resonated with me as I could see my images working in a similar way.

My third approach was taken from my second and the idea that I could recreate a similar effect using more destructive methods, such as using salt, bleach, and acetone. I wanted to have the splattered effect and for the colour to be taken out of the print, completely bleaching it. I had used these methods before, and also burning. I chose not to experiment with burning as it gave me much less control and I didn't see how I could progress my work doing so. Salt had no effect on my print. I tried soaking my print in hot water and rubbing coarse sea salt over the top. In previous times I have seen the salt bleach the image and take off the first layer however something wasn't right and I wanted to progress so I abandoned the salt idea. I concluded that the print quality effects how they then can be destroyed. 


Bleaching again didn't do much to my prints, This could be due to the type of bleach I was using, as I left it on for plenty of time to no avail. Again, in previous experiments bleaching has been successful and has produced some fascinating outcomes, but sadly not for either of my experiments, it can be seen very faintly at certain angles but nothing remotely different happened. 

Lastly using nail polish remover containing acetone, was one I knew would easily take off the first layer of the print, however controlling the process was difficult and I didn't want to ruin my print entirely, and for the image to peel off, but rather just bleach the colour off slightly. This can be seen in the image below, but I wasn't really happy with any outcome from this approach and knew I definitely wouldn't be taking it any further. 

I was approached by a textiles student, Daisy Abena, who has recently developed her own line of vibrant silk head scarves, and wanted some images for her website and social media pages. I hadn't yet shot my final images to use in my rough cut brief and thought it would be the perfect time to do so. I had free range to shoot the scarves how I wanted, with the only aim to show them on a model and to make the images reflect the style of her brand. I chose vibrant colour backgrounds to really bring out the colours of the scarves.

I plan to use these images for my final experiments for my rough cut brief, they work really well as a plain image already, but I think I can enhance them nicely with the addition of stitching or painting.

After becoming more confident using Adobe illustrator and getting a few tutorials from my friends, I begun to experiment alot more and realise how much it has to offer in terms of creative freedom. I discovered so many new brush strokes which made it look as though I had used actual brushes ontop of my prints and I experimented and played around with different strokes and weight, whilst still trying to compliment my images. After exploring the digital side to this I wanted to see how it would compare to physically painting onto prints. I used acrylic paint and a selection of different brushes to try and recreate the effect which I had done on the computer. I found this alot harder and I couldn't undo mistakes so it left me having to waste quite alot of prints that just didn't go right. Below are all of my attempts, the bigger ones being the images which I deemed to be more successful and my final images. 

When choosing my methods for my five approaches I looked back at my previous work from my A Level photography course. I'm excited to see how my new work compares with my old, and to be able to see how I've improved over time.

I want to experiment with doing this digitally also as I think it would really refine the process and make it alot neater; all of these were done by hand.

When making this work I looked at artists David Blottiere and Michelle Caplan, who use collage to create new work. I used found images, something I don't plan on doing now but looking back at images I made two years ago is really interesting to see how I progressed.

On 2nd December we had a lecuture we had four MA photography students show us their work and talk to us about their work. I hadn't really considered doing an MA after my BA but its definitely the best way to refine your practice if you are still struggling to find yourself after a three year degree. What I found really interesting about the MA and how its structured is that you have group crits across the courses, so peers from other courses can collaborate and give feedback to everyone.

The student who's work I felt was most relevant to me was Demi Hopkins. Her work immediately stood out as innovative and experimental; they were different to anything I'd seen from a student before.

When looking into what I could do for my rough cut brief I immediately thought of Demi's work and want to use paint and other mediums to to make marks on my prints by hand.  This physical aspect of manipulating my images really interests me as I really enjoy being hands on.

My first approach is inspired by the work of Hattie Stewart. Once I knew I had room to experiment I knew I wanted to get to grips and practice with the Wacom drawing tablet. Living with animation and graphic design students who use the equipment almost every day, I had previously had a go but had really struggled with getting use to it and quickly given up; Although I knew I wanted to master it I borrowed one and persevered. The first image was the outcome of my first test using it. It took some getting use to the hand eye coordination aspect of it but I was really happy with this first outcome. I hadn't shot anything for the new brief at this point so I practiced on images which I have taken for the previous project.

After shooting for the brief I went out and bought my own drawing tablet and had another go with it and using adobe illustrator; I started off in photoshop and quickly realised I was making the process alot more difficult for myself, as illustrator will take any drawn lines and perfect them for you to look more defined and alot less shaky. This helped my work look 10x better and professional just by using a different programme. I am happy with the outcome of this approach; it was enjoyable and I had fun experimenting and using new means to create. 

As I begin to work on my second BA2a brief, I wanted to gather up all the images I know which I definitely want to submit for my BA2a project. I am happy with these working together and know that I now need one more still life, two more portraits, and one more landscape. I feel like I have the images I need already, I just need to go back through my work and take another fresh look at my images. I plan to do another portrait shoot tomorrow where I experiment with props similar to Mansur Gavriel.