Caricatures: College Edition

Caricatures with Friends 

Sunday 17th April 2016

I created some caricatures of my friends for fun, but I it turned into an entertaining exercise of observation and exaggerated proportions. I definitely enjoyed drawing these and I intend to create more in the near future. I chose to draw friends from my old college (Stockport College).

I had to observe certain characteristics of the face and I chose to exaggerate certain parts of the face, some were unexpected which turned out to be funny. I used images on their social media accounts as a reference,  I chose images which had a sense of character or expression which I could express through the drawing.

I started with Jimmy Wilkensano- I found that the lips stood out because they were relaxed in the image and I wanted to exaggerate that expression through the lips. I would improve the top lip because it is slanted and reduce the size of the body to make the head out of proportion with the rest of the body.

The next one I created, Patricia Petrelli Wilkinsarno is the twin of Jimmy Wilkinsarno; therefore I applied the similar facial structure however expressing a totally different character. The image is rather blurry and he appears to be laughing, however in the sketch he appears rather 'posh' with his raised eyebrows and closed eyes.

'Danacious Nesbit' (aka Weeb God) was the next drawing I created. As his chin was rather low it gave quite a strong perspective and a great chance to express some sinister character. However I found this a challenge as I wanted to exaggerate his cheeks, and from a perspective they would have to be smaller as the head is closer to the audience.0.

I did try to have the eyes looking directly at the audience however I found this quite difficult to get them exactly right. Therefore I drew the eyes looking downwards; pleased with what he sees. (Whatever that may be...?)

This is one drawing I would like to re-visit to improve, to add a greater sense of depth through perspective and to express the character further.

.After that I created a sketch of 'Dilly the Willy'. I am particularly pleased  with the results of this sketch because I managed to exaggerate a part of the face which gives a great expression and sense of character. I also chose to shrink the neck and make the suit huge to further exaggerate proportions.

 'Nigella Hater' was an accidental yet funny result. I started with the head and neck as I wanted to exaggerate the shape of the neck as it is squashed in the photo. Then I moved onto the eyes which I intended to be apart as the eyes are not direct in the photo, however I over exaggerated this which produced a 'fish-like' appearance. I chose to keep the eyes that way because I found them too funny to change.

Finally 'Roberto "Treat Day" Llamertey' was the last drawing I produced on Sunday. This was a great photo which expresses such a 'not impressed' or 'leave me alone' character. which contrasts with the other sketches I produced. This drawing was exaggerated in a number of places but not overly exaggerated in a single place because I wanted the expression to be the focus of this drawing.

 

---BONUS---

As I produced these sketches, Mr Nesbit took it upon himself to produce a illustration in the likeness of myself.

In denial of his own 'weeb-ness' he claims I am, and I quote: "Mega Weeb" which is incomparable to the magnitude of a "Weeb God". He did not use a photograph as reference as he can't get me off his mind.

I have had great fun with creating these sketches and intend to produce more in the near future. This is both a great exercise and great fun to test my drawing abilities. It also acts as revision for observation and exaggeration of proportions.

Unit X Psychology Research

Sunday 17th April 2016 

Unit X Research:

Researching Mental Illness Linking to Depression (Giselle’s Mind)

Towards the end of act one, Giselle is betrayed by her lover and she quickly spirals into depression even to the point of committing suicide this contrast and sudden change of personality and emotions is a significant and striking moment during the ballet.

Therefore I have decided to continue my research into mental illness to better understand how Giselle must have felt at that moment of time; this way I will have a better idea on how to visualise this state of mind. As a group he had decided to create an installation which would grant an audience to step inside a “broken mind”.

--http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/193026.php--

After reading through this website I found something interesting; I had never thought about Giselle’s personality which could be described as bipolar.

Bipolar Disorder: “A mental condition marked by alternating periods of elation and depression.”

(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/bipolar-disorder) [17/4/16]

This can be supported by the idea that Giselle is extremely happy in the first act and finds ‘true love’ and then quickly spiralling into depression to the point of suicide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqOm922Fhx8 (Video of Ballet)

I will share this with the rest of the group at the next group meeting to further develop our ideas.

Unit X Group Talk 3

Monday 18th April 2016

Another group talk with the Unit X group. However only three of us showed up to the meeting where we had to share new ideas as well old ones to ensure everyone within the group understands what we intend to do. We discussed ideas involving the visual representation of mentally dislocated mind, and shared our research since the last meeting to develop our idea further.

I shred my research into the psychology of Giselle and how we can relate to mental illness such as ‘bi-polar disorder’ and depression. This could potentially add depth to our work into larger themes of psychology and even raise awareness of such conditions. Other members of the group also found it difficult to research world War One, specifically British attacks on German towns inhabited by citizens. Therefore I thought the best idea is to focus on the theme of Dislocation to ensure we do not stray from our objective, or lose the meaning of our work.

Asking psychology further we chose to focus on how to visually represent a dislocated mind, and we discussed the best way of expressing this. Because it is within the mind we intend the isolation to be rather abstract and have an impact on the audience. We discussed the idea of the war being a destructive force within the mind which is tearing the reality of the child apart as which is represented within his mind.

This how we started to talk about the idea of the child’s objects and thoughts being torn apart within a tornado which would break own into a single point. We have lightly touched upon how we are going to create the installation and practical problems we will face, however I feel that these ideas and problems cannot effectively progress with the absence of the group. In contrast the group understands that we will progress as planned with or without other group members to ensure we meet the deadline.

We produced sketches and notes to present at the meeting tomorrow when we will have to have a definite idea which we will choose to do. We understand that this idea may adapt in the future however this is the point of no return where we cannot significantly change our idea.

 

Notes taken during the session:

 

 

Professional Employability: Last Session

Wednesday 13th April 2016

This was the last professional employability session, this was an overview of all of the deadlines and to catch up to where we are with the unit. We spoke about each of the requirements for the deadline including: the review of two events, the cover letter, the CV etc.

We discussed what makes an effective CV and cover letter and what to avoid such as grammar and spelling errors. I intend to create a creative CV which reflects my personality which I will have to find a balance of both creativity and professionalism. This is because I intend my CV to both be visually appealing and contain relevant and concise information.

We then discussed how the Unit X project was progressing with each group as well as the London trip.

(Notes from session below)

Digital Stream of Consciousness Workshop

Thursday 14th April 2016

Another optional workshop as part of Unit X, this time hosted by Andy. This workshop was called ‘Digital Stream of Consciousness’ where we created short animations timed to a piece of music.

We used Adobe Flash and listened to music on one layer and let our imaginations flow to create shapes that illustrate the sound. The music I chose was called ‘firefly’ which had string instruments playing throughout which was repetitive however I could visualise the movement of the stings as the sound is made like a musician is playing a violin. There were also sounds of a piano or drum in the background that would play every now again which I used these shapes to appear and shrink.
 

 

This has reminded me about Flash and intend to use it in the future, I particularly enjoy how the shapes would appear to the music which then allowed for fluid and quickly producing an animation. I will use this technique in the future as it does both revise the tools of Flash and develop an understanding of timing. 

 

Science and Industry Museum

Thursday 14th April 2016

As part of Unit X there are offers to visit archives to a range of places, I visited the Science and Industry museum.  

We looked at the archives where they stored items from previous exhibits and were given information about future visits how we can use these archives for research.

There was table laid out for the group specifically for animation which I found really interesting. There were pieces of old time animation before moving images where they used candle light to project images and used sliders to bring the images to life. Other pieces included following the career of one stop motion animator including his undergraduate films and his involvement in professional productions.

There also armatures from “The Nightmare before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach” which were extremely detailed and looked amazing. The archives also contain other information about the animation within the Manchester area which was mainly stop motion puppets from Cosgrove Hall.

I will definitely consider the Manchester Science and Industry Museum as a future source of research. 

Unit X: Research Submission

Unit X Research Submission

Before we left for the Easter holidays, our group had not decided exactly what theme we wanted to work on. This is because of the Animation deadline sharing the same week as the Unit X beginning and this would allow the group freedom within their research. We continued to discuss throughout the holidays; then planned to meet up after the holidays to share our findings. This would provide a range of sources and research, which would then be chosen and combined to produce a dynamic idea.

Therefore, over the holidays I took time to commence initial research into the two themes of: “Love, Betrayal and Forgiveness” and “Dislocation”. I did find this difficult at first because I found that this was too vague and left research too open and felt faced by a ‘blank canvas’. Therefore, I decided to watch the Giselle ballet to gain inspiration; I did this by a live screening from London shown in Manchester’s Odeon. After the viewing of Giselle, I decided to research the theme of Dislocation because I was inspired by the end of the first act as how Giselle suddenly changes character and descends into madness. I focused on the theme of dislocation and wanted to explore the idea of Giselle’s mental dislocation from herself, family, friends and her lover. I believed a visual representation of her ‘mental snapping’ would be an opportunity to produce something unorthodox and dynamic.

I researched this theme by starting with the definition; this provides a clear definition of what the word means and ensures that the definition is clear and doesn’t get lost during later research. I then moved onto creating a mood board of artist’s interpretations of the theme of ‘dislocation’, which often portrayed the juxtaposition of two random elements. These were a portrayal of elements that are not associated together, yet they are shared within the same composition. This delved into the abstract which developed my ideas further of what can be the final product of unit X.

I started to sketch and note ideas of what could be an abstract representation of a dislocated mind. I chose to design an installation because this would be the way to create a scenario in a small space, which would transport the audience to another world. This would also engage and involve the audience in some way to make the experience personal and unique for every individual.

We exchanged ideas after the holidays and we used a combination of the research from both the themes of ‘dislocation’ and ‘Love, Betrayal and forgiveness”. We ended with a combination of our ideas compensating and compromising to create a dynamic idea which we contributed to. This way everyone had a say into what we created which produced a creative idea rather than just one person taking charge.

In the end we decided on the idea of an installation portraying the mental space of a German orphan during the First World War relating to the theme of dislocation. The era of the First World War was because we seemed it appropriate to take advantage of the 100^th anniversary of the Great War with a new perspective. We understand that ideas maybe subject to change and as we face practical problems the idea may not be exactly as we had planned initially. This is just all part of the collaborative process and we will prepare ourselves for those challenges.

From the them and idea we have chosen so far, we decided to research the lives of German citizens to understand how they felt and begin to prepare the requirements needed to replicate the era within our installation. I have decided to also attend all available workshops and trips which will provide a range of different skills and knowledge which I can bring back to the group; this could potentially strengthen our ideas.

Overall I believe I have researched effectively and the plan of our group has gone well. However we have also had our problems within the group regarding attendance of some members but this may just be an initial problem and we hope to see other members in the future. We have prepared ourselves to assume they may never attend and allow the project to continue with the absence of any group members.

Unit X Group Talk 2

Unit X Group Talk: 2

Tuesday 12^th April 2016

We had a group tutorial where we discussed our idea with one of the tutors who shared their ideas about the practical problems of the world war one idea and how we would have to find these items which would be authentic and represent the time. This gave us some perspective of the challenges we would face with our chosen idea.

After our brief discussion we decided as a group to discuss ideas further to clarify what we have chosen to do and solve practical problems with our idea. I proposed an idea that we would completely re-think a new idea from scratch to produce some fresh ideas and once the best ideas are collected we would tackle the practical problems facing them. This way we would not feel limited by practicalities and focus on the ideas we had because it is difficult to comfortably think of creative ideas if we worry about how it can be done.

By doing this we started to think deeper in how we can express the theme of dislocation through the installation. We began to think about how we can make it unique, therefore I brought ideas forward such as making the installation diverse by placing objects at angles and on corners. Just by doing this it would make the room more interesting and can begin to produce interpretations including the idea that the room portrays the dislocated mind of the orphan and how his world is broken and even falling.

We continued to discuss more abstract ideas which were interesting. We used this opportunity to clarify the idea we have chosen and why we are doing this. One point I fear is that we will lose the point of our work through over complications and would like to maintain a clear connection between our work and the brief. This is why I bullet pointed in the notes what our work is and what it represents.

By the end of the talk we had decided what we wanted to do as a group and what we will continue to do as research. We had chosen to research the lives of German citizens during the First World War to find the opinions of these people and possible find events that occurred to these people. Due to not all members attending these talks, we have organised another talk on Thursday which will be the day we finalise the idea; this would be the last opportunity for any significant changes to the core idea. This is because it is known that details of the project will change due to practical challenges and even design choices however we must stay consistent with our core idea otherwise we wouldn’t be focused to complete one final product. 

NOTES

Unit X Group Talk 1

Unit X Group Talk: 1

Monday 11^th April 2016

Over the Easter holidays we decided as a group to commence initial research which we will then discuss as a group to produce a collaborated concept which would be developed through specific research. Therefore we decided to meet as a group and share our ideas and research after the holidays.

I had chosen to research the theme of ‘dislocation’ as I was inspired by the Giselle ballet as you can see more of in my previous posts.

Georgina also researched the theme of ‘dislocation’ whereas Sam and Lauren researched the theme of ‘Love, Betrayal and Forgiveness’. This provided a range of research which we then discussed ideas and began combining elements together from each other’s work.

After much discussing this was the idea we had reached after the first talk:

• We chose to continue with the theme of dislocation – this was chosen from the start to avoid the theme of ‘’underworld’ because it turned out that every group had chosen underworld and we chose to pursue a different theme to stand out as a group.

• We will create an installation- this is because this something no-one has done before in our group. This will challenge us and provide a new experience for everyone in our group. In addition this will engage the audience to be immersed in the world we create in the space given, we would make the space interactive to engage the audience and make our work memorable.

• World War One theme- this was a point raised by myself as this would be a great opportunity to incorporate the 100^th anniversary of the First World War as this would never happen again for another 100 years.

• The installation would be based upon the narrative of an Orphan- this was based upon Sam’s research into the theme of ‘Love, Betrayal and Forgiveness’ which he researched the story of ‘Oliver Twist’. We incorporated this idea into the theme of dislocation on the idea of how dislocated orphans are from their families.

With all of these elements we discussed the idea of creating the installation based within a child’s bedroom. This bedroom would belong to an orphan experiencing the First World War from the German’s point of view. This would provide a new look into the First World War and allow the audience to step into the world of this orphan by standing into his/her bedroom.

We even discussed about projections which would breath extra life to the installation as these would play films on the walls and bring images and the story to life before the audience's eyes. 

As not all members of the group did not attend the session we decided to discuss this further in the near future to hear all of the group’s opinions and ideas. 

NOTES: