Thursday 8 May 2014

Context of Practice: Module Evaluation

Throughout the brief I had endeavoured to improve my investigation of research and the thereafter visual responses. This has involved a broader selection of appropriate texts, which have directly informed the decision making during visual development. I have also greatly improved my capacity to use a sources form a variety of media, rather than solely relying on the the internet for limited and often vague information.

In terms of image making I have continued to pursue the use of screen printing, though this proved quite stressful and error-laden I eventually produced a series of good quality prints and introduced myself to the use of vacuum beds. This process has definitely contributed the overall visual quality of the final pieces, that perhaps would not have been instilled if they were produced digitally. My application of varied line has boosted in confidence due to the fastidious studies I conducted of reference material. Though I did not eventually make use of loose ink application in the final pieces, I did investigate it frequently in earlier visual responses, which I think has been beneficial to my overall understanding of tone and lighting. By using the light-box I have been able to selectively refine my drawings repeatedly, which resolved the initial problems I experienced with accurately portraying the faces of each Bond actor.

I rather find that the final resolutions are quite strong pieces and have benefited from an expansive amount of thumb-nailing and repeated investigations of format and composition. The quality of the final prints are due to a arduous repetitive struggle with the screen printing process, thankfully the sheer amount of problems that occurred throughout did not have too much of an effect on the final pieces.
I have shown a dramatic change in the use of fine liners and other assorted pens, the early drawings in my sketchbook are quite different from the final pieces, this is due to a considerable improvement of confidence which has allowed me to draw quicker and with no digital aid. In addition I used a large amount of reference books which allowed me to produce dense areas of detail within the compositions.

In terms of the less successful; many of my prints present poor registration this would have been resolved with a more appropriately sized silk screen, as the A1 screen proved somewhat noncompliant.
My own inexperience with large screens also produced multiple printing errors, notably the odd void of tone on Roger Moore's face is a result of not cleaning the screens sufficiently. I would also add that I am disappointed in not making more of an effort to faithfully reproduce the hair texture of each Bond, as within each composition, this is the most notable deficiency.

Upon the chance to repeat the project I would investigate perhaps creating a single image with multiple colours, rather than the black and blue combination, as this is a palette I have used for several projects and seems to be getting repetitive. I would also liked to have printed the posters on a larger scale, as the downsizing of my original drawings resulted in prints which were about half-scale.




Context of Practice: Studio Brief 2 (Final Review)















In this review session we left anonymous feedback in regards to both positive and negative attributes of the final resolved pieces. I rather think the group as a whole produced some really high quality illustration, and this sentiment appeared to inform a lot of constructive feedback.

I am quite pleased with the resolution of my work, and this has been mirrored by the largely complimentary peer reviews, however some comments have pointed out several less successful elements within each composition that I had not considered.




Context of Practice: Studio Brief 2 (Final Screenprints)













After the advice of the print room technicians I separated the three tonal images onto one A1 screen, and the line art onto another.
Using two A1 silk screens was a largely inconvenient in terms of mobility, and it forced me into using the vacuum beds for the first time. The initial attempts at printing were largely flawed and quite poor quality. However over the course of a day in the print room I eventually managed to produce about 20 prints of a pleasing quality.

I also conducted two other colour tests, however after the feedback of several peers, it seemed more appropriate to unify the colour scheme of each poster to a blue tone.

Friday 2 May 2014

Context of Practice: Studio Brief 2 (Colour Test)

I have added a second layer of colouration, to test the potential in screen printing. I have opted for the colours most evident in Cold War thriller posters. In addition I layered a select amount of newspaper articles from each of the eras to give each composition a little more detail.








Thursday 1 May 2014

Context of Practice: Studio Brief 2 (Completed Line work)

By consulting with numerous photographic annuals in the library I added heaps of historical references to the Bond imagery, I chose a wide range of images, each representing a significant event or progression. For example, the Connery piece contains a several nods to the space race.




I decided to broaden Moore's era to the 80s, as this seemed logical due to his long legacy.
I hope to screen print these images with some suitable colouration, though I may have to sacrifice some amount of scale, as the current images are larger than A3, which is rather a complication.