Assignment 4

Creatively explore the statement ‘You are here’, produce either a short self – published fanzine, graphic novel or artist’s book, a online interactive experience, a piece of street art or an illustrative object.

Focus on developing your illustration work, the brief is very open so it’s an opportunity to be free and creative.

Use photography or mock ups in the practical options.

I Started this assignment with a mind map to help me get some ideas of what direction to go in, I started with simple putting in ‘You are here’ into the circle in the middle.

I then highlighted the keywords, the words I was most drawn to, which were:-

You, We, Local, Neighbourhood, location, free, accessible, walls, illustrator.

I then thought about what this could mean and how to interpret this into one of the products above in the brief:-

A fanzine, an art book, graphic novel, interactive experience, decorative piece or some street art?!

I thought some more about how art should be more accessible to people, I guess locally is a good place to start, how it can be free, and how it can help people or the environment they live in.

So I think from this it would be the street art choice for the assignment, as an Illustrator I could come up with some street art that is free and accessible for the local people in my neighbourhood, this would have to be on the side of a building or wall! So I am now going to do some more research similar to that in exercise 4.5 Street art.

Research

Street art helps artists to have a free space to display their work and creativity, it also helps transform a space in unexpected ways, it can transform tourism and drive it into the community.

Public art can reflect a community, it’s surroundings and working to help cultivate the cultural identity, it helps to attract people to the area and show its uniqueness, its the people in the community to express their values, and elevates the awareness of the community spirit for the people within it and visitors.

I looked at some community artists on Pinterest and created this board of visuals:-

I started to think about the area I live in, which is part rural and part urban, we are surround by fields and greenery, yet we are positioned on a small bypass, with have a small village of shops, and also horses in fields and a large country park, lakes and golf course nearby.

The community is a mix of cultures, yet we all appreciate the rural side of the area the most, we have dog walkers, family on their bikes, walkers, and family enjoying the parks and outside space. We are a mix of houses and apartments/ flats and there is a mix of incomes in the community.

Laura Gee

Whilst looking at the visual ideas on Pinterest I came across the artist Laura Gee and really liked her style of painting and the colours she had chosen.

Laura is a London based visual artist where she creates intuitive, abstract paintings which explore colour, emotion and nature. Laura has her own studio in East London where she creates all her work, she completed her degree at Manchester school of art, before moving down to London.

Lauras practise explores the notion that art can have a positive impact on our emotions and wellbeing, and can alleviate stress and anxiety. Her paintings are a celebration of nature, and in doing so, to take care of ourselves and the world around us. Art enhances positive feelings and wellbeing, pausing in the moment to look at nature.

Laura uses Acrylics, oils, pastels and crayons for her work, some paintings are used with just one medium, others are mixed media. The series above was inspired by the spring and summer months, the longer days, the lighter colours, gentle mark making and textures really bring the abstract side to life.

Contemporary community illustrations by local artists or communities.

I then thought about how communities bring art to there areas, and I looked into some visual ideas of how this can work, and in what ways it can blend into the buildings around the surroundings.

I found these images, although a lot of the images I found were very bright, colourful and bold, I felt that there should be another side to street art that blended into the community more or was more sympathetic to the surroundings. I know art is relative and can be interpreted differently by each and every person, and what someone likes, some else might not, I still felt for our community that it would work better that it would blend into the area, or enhance it, make a feature of a particular theme.

The giant rabbits above, with the children in the garden is good idea for local community gardens, a farm or a allotment site, as it reflects what is in the surroundings, it incorporates, and celebrates the community.

I also thought this trompe l’oeil house suited the area, it enhanced the bleak houses, the grey street, it gave it colour in a subtle way, it gave a nice view, it was interesting and a talking point, it would bring people to the area to see it.

Ideas and Thumbnails

started by creating some thumbnails on the things that I can recognise from our area, and what people do outside.

I started with a horse and dog walker in with some trees and nature, then I did some bikes and dogs again in nature.

I did a landscape with a fox in it, then a community group of people, then a cat, dog and horse, then just the landscape, insects and flowers.

I liked the idea of the landscape, insects and flowers, as that’s what most people are drawn to here, but I also like having some people and animals in it.

I will do two larger thumbnails and sketch out some more ideas on them.

I particularly liked the idea of the horse, and also a family and dog in the space, so here are two larger thumbnails:-

Art work/ sketchbook

I then started to illustrate these ideas into individual illustrations themselves, I used watercolours for most of them, but wanted to finish them off in Procreate to get them just right, I thought the mix of media and the textures would add to the effects I wanted, and also push the textures so there are less flat images, this was feedback from my tutor.

Research survey

I then went on to do a short survey of my neighbours and my mums neighbours who lives around the corner, to gauge a independent perspective of what they would like to see if there was street art in their area? Would they agree with me, and prefer a subtle, blended piece!

Ruth – subtle blended nature

Mum – colourful yet subtle trees

Lisa & Gavin – Colourful, modern, people

Jade, Lawrence & Mia – Animals, subtle

Ed, Manuela & Liam – Bright, animals and nature

Emma & family – subtle, animals and nature

John – modern art

Toni – Nature & people, subtle

Josh & Danielle – modern, subtle, nature

Dot – Nature, subtle

Peter & Wendy – modern, graffiti

Sam & James – subtle, nature

So from that survey we have 8 people that would want something subtle, 9 people that want it to be inspired by nature, 4 people wanted modern art, 3 people wanted it to be colourful.

So I think most people agreed with the idea of having something that reflected the surroundings, that was blended and sophisticated, to enhance the area.

Art

From the survey most people wanted nature in the art piece, but a lot said it wasn’t necessarily trees they wanted to see. So I thought about other nature that was around us so I then wanted to try a foliage background, we have a lots of lakes around here with meadow flowers and plants, bulrushes etc, this might work better with the ideas above.

I started by creating some texture with acrylic paint for some foliage, and some local meadow plants and flowers, I used some photos I had taken from a trip to the woods one day for the actual plants, as reference.

I came up with this illustration, then scanned it into the computer and finished of the background on Procreate, I wanted it to be quite textured and slightly abstract for the background, I was inspired by Laura Gee’s work for this design, although its not as subtle as hers, and the colours are darker, I can change that towards the end so its more pastel in tone.

I changed all the illustrations into psd files so I could re-arrange them on the background illustration to see which design and pieces would work best.

This is the first design, which is the nature style.

I then decided to try the people design, family and dog walking.

Then just a dog walker with the nature and horse.

Then a single mum with the horse and nature.

Then back to the family, but with the horse now and no dog.

I decided to mock up the first design, just because I felt it worked better with the nature, subtle and blended idea, and what was the most popular on the survey.

I found two sites around where I lived to use as a wall space to mock up the artwork onto, the first one was the side of a small block of flats, the second was a larger block of flats, it was quite tricky finding an area with no windows, just a blank wall.

I started with the smaller building to mock up, I did have a small problem with the image, as I had to use a bit of extra art for the bottom as it didn’t all fit the space, but I know on the second image how to layer the design so it fills the space better.

So this is the final image and mock up and art work I decided to go with, I added more greenery by layering the artwork, so it looked more natural. I also didn’t change the colours as looking around the area the greens are quite vibrant and dark, some of the trees are busy and bright, so it blended in better with this colour way and it worked out well with this design.

Although the flowers are larger than the horse, I liked the way it felt overgrown and natural, this is how most of the green space is around here, so fits well in the space. There are local plants that you can see around the lakes and fields, the horse and the butterfly representing the nature.

Reflection

What went well

I enjoyed looking at the research and looking around my local area to see ways in which I could introduce art, and how it could benefit and enhance the wall space to creativity.

I think using a mixture of media added lots more texture to the art work, it is much less flat, something I wanted to improve upon from the last feedback.

I have also improved my drawing people skills and think these characters have been some of my best yet.

Layering the design for the final mock up really pulled all the elements together, and it looks like the horse is in a field now, rather than just at the bottom of the piece, it also made it more overgrown and natural.

What would you do differently

would try to do a more in-depth survey to find out more particulars, but for this first one it worked well.

I would save the background elements separately as PSD files so I can layer the background with the illustrations next time, it would have made it easier in the long run, and there would have been more flexibility for moving and trying different variations out.

Up-dated 07/09/2022

After feedback from my tutor she wanted to see my painting process for the final design, so here is my sketchbook work and paint process of the background.

I did some texture abstract background art work a while ago, which I really loved but never got around to using it at all, and although the colours were not right for this design, I decided to follow the same process and test out the process again in my sketchbook.

Old work:-

The sketchbook I used was not a very good one, but it did create unusual textures with the paint, which helped the process.

I started with some white Gesso for the background layer and to give it a rougher texture, then I used acrylic paints to achieve the colour blends.

For the new artwork for the final piece, I tried out varying degrees of green colours of acrylic paints, to see which ones matched the outside scenery around us.

New artwork:-

I decided to go for a mix of the lighter and darker greens, to give it more depth. I then used the same process but on a larger A4 sheet of paper which is the background you see in the final artwork.

With regard to the plants and foliage I started by creating some thumbnails in my sketchbook of some plants I had seen recently, I was testing out the paints and style and colours here.

The dark greens and reds I really liked, I used gouache paint here which gives the paint more pigment and brightness, I then used coloured pencils to add detail and highlights, to give more texture.

I really liked the feel of these sketches and the colours were just right, I then went on to paint the plants and foliage you can see in the final piece, but using plants from around the area, bulrushes, ferns, lilies and marigolds. I did decided to use a mixture of watercolour and gouache on the final piece just because I thought it added more interest and variation.

I really enjoyed playing with the textures and paint in this assignment.