Drifter and Playscape - The Final Submission Outcomes

 The silhouette tree branches - 
Representing how I was loomed over by the many 800 year old trees on the big Tatton Park trip. 

 The Cracked Tree - 
A particularly old tree with a smooth crack down the center, which began to break as the wind picked up, and caused it to shake. 

  Representing how the path home never seemed to end, my personal favourite image deals with that very subject. 

The hollowed tree trunk simply represents one of the many old dying trees in the area, and was a great test of how to incorporate inking and textures in an overall work. 














It's been great fun drawing and responding to the Drifter Zine. Overall, I feel like I've managed to alter my visual language to a more "rough" aesthetic, rather that keeping the work 100% literal, which works well compared to my colleagues work. The Drifter Zine isn't as colourful as the Playscape one, but still keeps a brilliant ambiguity, on a more natural and darker sense. The fact that we ended up taking a trip to different areas was no problem at all, since the natural elements we all provided flow enough to replicate this through visual response. 

 Based from my earlier photo collage, this image deals with how I made my way through the natural elements. The image keeps that level of interaction obvious, and also more texture, to look like it's merging with the natural elements around. 

 The Horses sign and the collapsed tree, once again show change, and how that change was represented to me on the trip. The fact that the sign was very old and the original area that it was for had gone, represented this, through the "collapse" of the nearby old tree. 

 With a looming plane flying overhead, this "block item" interrupts the flow of the natural images below it, causing a disturbance of sorts. With the planes going over regularly, I thought this would be a good chance to visually represent this from the outing. 

The bricks under the tree have a similar theme to the horses picture, showing a living tree, next to a damaged one. It grows over the brickwork, showing how in this instance, various man made elements have failed in the face of the natural progression. 

The Overall Feeling: 

I think the level ambiguity has definitely been captured in the works, and the fact that I was able to differentiate two different styles and themes for each zine was a difficult task, considering how I ended up going to a completely different place. The work itself has also taken a very sketchy "rebellious" route, compared to my regular work, making me feel like i've achieved a greater understanding for composition. It seems to be able to represent a better feeling for the area this way. I've really enjoyed working on the project! 

The Upcoming Zine Fayre! - Risograph and it's issues! - Our Zine's Looks!

Time has flown by since the last post, and I'm finally coming back up to date with posting too! 

As the project work flies forward in full swing, our Fayre Committee have crafted this fantastic poster for our event: 

With  a printing press drawn by by my fellow teammate Steph, and the poster then taken to be Risographed, This was the awesome result. I'm incredibly pleased with the general aesthetic of the work, and massive kudos to them for taking time to create it! 

Minor Risograph Issues: 

It's finally come the time to get our work printed and cut down to A5 for the zine, however today, we had a small problem. The overall colour schemes for each zine require certain colours, which annoyingly, are not currently available and are out of stock! 

Personally I thought the priority week of the Zine creation would include a bigger availability, however this wasn't the case. 

I've decided to print my work out the expensive way on the printers. 

This is a big frustration, since it's not only going to cost us more, overall, but it's going to loose the aesthetic I was after, with the half tone patten. 

Sadly these things happen, and I've got to get printing my work out. 

The Zine Layout: 

After another short meeting, we decided to discuss exactly how the zine would look and function. Below are some quick notes I made in my sketchbook on the subject, looking into the size, and how / where the text would be placed. We decided on making darker card covers, with an inch margin on the top for stitching, and some original letterpressed covers, that Beth kindly offered to create. Overall, I think we can pull it off!

Now, the final step involves actually sorting the work and getting the prints done in time. It's a busy time, but we are going to do our best to create everything in time. 

Journey - Submission Progression and Final Work

Not long after the previous Ampersand deadline, the second risograph zine (Journey) also comes to a close. I decided to keep with the previous ideas of an illustrative "mash-up", I began to draw the elements of the images out in higher quality, then begin to photoshop them together into a montage of my journey to Kidderminster. Here are some examples: 

Journey To The Midlands: 

The work is simply a visual pin up of various elements that made an important journey, to see an important person in my life recently. The trains, music, video gaming, and the converted hotel/mill, are all key elements that made the trip important to me. 

I've enjoyed this work the most (so far) in terms of creation, since it's comic aesthetic is something that not only appeals to both of us, but creates a connection between the art and us personally. It shows how a journey can bloom into other areas of life. 

Ampersand - Final Dev and Submission

First deadline draws near. 

The tension kicks in as we all work hard to submit what we can, as we craft our zine work. 

Progression: 

I now have a solid and complete work for the Ampersand Zine, which conveys a small message through simple visual means. 

Using the cobbled street from the drifter/playscape work, and the hand photo i used earlier, i decided to combine the two with lettering, making a "black spot" style murder work. 

Using further editing, and some type manipulation I created the final work, using a mix of digital collage, and hand drawn elements, with added photography. 

I'm pleased with the result. It doesn't go overboard on any excessive intricate linework, and tributes the old punk style collage of the 70s zines, discussed awhile ago. 

Symbolica Mortem - (symbolic death) 

with the general public never truly understanding the origins of the symbol they always recognize and see, the ampersand gets it's revenge, in a forensic style pun collage. 

After handing the work to chloe, she asked me to make a lighter version, so the risograph would detect the image better, which may mean a colour change. The tones should work well hopefully... 

Drifter - Responses 2

This zine focuses more of the natural form side of the trip. 

I decided to explore possibilities regarding the 800+ year old trees and their forms around the area, since I don't normally draw trees or natural forms in general and thought it to be a cool response, in terms of intricacy. 

Responses: 

- The first two images relate to the silhouetted arms of the trees, and how they constantly loomed over me while I was there. 

- The cracked tree seen in the next one down actually began to break around me, when the wind picked up. Another incident of nature I can record. 

- The final two relate to two possible images, involving the hollowed tree trunks, and the endless path, another two important events in the flow of the trip. 

My responses above are the final pencil stage sketches for Drifter. I decided to dive in and sketch these, mainly due to wanting to keep the images very "developmental" and almost giving off the "half process" vibe. 

I'm pleased with how they look overall, and could do with some digital editing to enhance them. 

This particular zine will stick to black and red, with my work sticking to a crisp black and white. 

Playscape - Responses 1

After discussion, we decided to keep the Playscape zine in the teal and orange colours, and that we would risograph the work for both zines. 

I completely agree this was the right choice for the group, since the risograph can offer a unique outlook for the publication, and also is rather cost effective.  

The playscape Zine deals with more physical, literal elements to the experiences. I've decided to pick a few to focus on: 

- My interaction with the nature
- The flightpath of the planes, and the planes as "objects" 
- the bricks I found scattered around some of the plant life 
- The "Horses" sign, i randomly found near an old path (items no longer in use)

Development: 

Using a range of photographs taken (as seen on my report into the trip on the previous posts), I began to mash together photographs, to make a "pin up" of digitally collaged scenes, almost like a summary, of sorts. The pictures below were a vital experiment into forming an image that I wanted to use in the zine. 

In descending order from the first image: 

- The lake, representing an enlarged plane shot, showing how the thick, manmade dark object intruded into my wander, and dominated the immediate moment. 

- A mixture of barks, textures and branches, showing my personal interacting with the trip. 

- The collapsed old tree next to a sign, shows how the area is constantly changing, and how my trip moved from one event to another. 

- A mix of trees with a protruding brick. The overall point of this was pun towards the man made objects in the area being "grown over". 

When I produce these, I want to think of my planning not just a sketchbook body of work, but the trip itself to be a "plan", and these particular photo collages to play a big part in this also. 

I also feel that over complicating the image in terms of accurate drawing shouldn't be done, since a more ambiguous approach, (like our zine rules state) would be more beneficial. 

Sketches: 

I decided to make a few shorthand ink sketches, to get a rough idea of the general "feel" to the image. 

the balance of line and texture in the image is something I want to particularly "rebel" with in terms of that image really shows, and what is really representing. 

The final sketches for my portfolio, and for further zine development are finally done. These represent the playscape mashup and my personal idea / response in a way that isn't too ambiguous but not too literal, which I believe is a strongpoint. 

I'm eager to see how the digital phase goes. Will it effect the work too much?

The Tatton Park Visit - Tatton Hall and Surroundings

After an extremely long walk down the pathway, I eventually found myself coming towards an exit for vehicles on the other side of the park, leading to an area where I used to play, back when I was a kid. I completely forgot about this area until now, and it brought back memories of being here years ago.

I decided however to head towards the house, and walked towards an enclosed area, full of shrubbery. I ended up going through a small hedge, and appearing in the old sevrants quaters, where the cobbled streets and old stable area was now riddled with gift shops and the back entrance to the house.

This particular area brought back memories of the family outings, and it hadn't changed a bit  They were not too keen on me taking photos here, so I began head back the way I came (since you had to pay a crazy amount to enter the house grounds). I took various shots of the cobbled street for textures, and and the old brickwork too.

I wanted to try and capture the more natural side of the trip, so I headed right back the way I came, but this time, decided to head alongside the exterior of the fence around the garden, and head across the park to the far side, and head back that way round.

The deer were grazing nearby and got some more good shots. the hills around this particular area were also more interesting , since the majority of the wooded area is on this side of the park, and I thought it interesting to follow the incredibly long pathway back. From what i've gathered, the natural side of the trip so far has been the biggest influence, and holds many interesting points to draw upon, such as textures, wildlife, and the trees. After making my way across the park once again, I came upon a seemingly endless stretch of forest pathway. As I walked back, I continued to take pictures of it, trying to capture the colour change and the light changes along the way. 

Eventually my trip came to an end, and I returned where I began. 

After exploring, I have decided to focus on several areas for my quickfire zine ideas for the two main publications: 

- Colour 

- The complication of natural forms I encountered and how I became lost in them 

- The separate "areas" of the park, and how I reacted to each of them 

- The old trees, and their knotted patterns 

Wandering by myself was a drawback, but also gave me a complete detachment from any distraction, and gave me full ability to take control of my wander, which I don't think would've been as productive, if we were all together. 

I do wonder what the outcome would be, if that was the case. 

Now for the sketching...