Exercise 3

Creating connections

Print off the ten images from the last exercise, you could use different sizes and versions of this work. You will then mix up and combine the images and work to create 10 new pictures, you could do this digitally or traditionally cutting them up.

Arrange the compositions and drawings and make connections with them, choose elements of different drawings and put them together or your photographs, create new stories and narratives and be experimental as you can, upload and reflect in your blog.

For this exercise I added in a few more images from my work just so I had enough to make the new pieces from, here are the images of all the pieces below:-

I then printed these off individually and placed them all on the floor so I could look at them all together and see which ones had connections.

I started with the most recent work, so the illustrations I did for assignment 4. I set off with the tree composition and thought about putting the origami bird into the sky line, then added a watercolour tree I had painted in my sketchbook.

I thought this added some depth to the original picture and could also come up with a story about the bird, I think they connected well and looked in keeping with the original illustration.

I then went on to use the cameo picture from assignment 4, but cut out the middle bit of looking through the leaf and added the spot illustration behind. I actual fact this would have been a good idea for the original illustration as it would show the tiny size of the fern creature and also introduce him as peeking through.

I then added some of the granulation texture I had tested out, and used this as a background for the spot illustration, it gives it a mystical sparkly texture.

It would need to be refined for the proper picture, but this gave me another insight into ways in which I can explore my compositions, and use two together to create a stronger one.

The third one was for the panorama illustration, I used the granulation texture to make the picture thicker in size, I added the bit of illustration I had cut out from the cameo middle, and I had cut out the origami lady to implement her as a character walking down the path. I think the middle cameo section looks like one of the pictures that shows what’s going on underground, and with the granulation texture it looks like its within the earth.

I’m not sure the origami lady works as well here, but I think with a bit of tweaking or painting her traditionally would embed her better into the composition.

I then went back to this original collage that I really liked from section 3, and used the granulation texture paper and ripped the edges, to create a raw edge, then used this to cover over the camper van. I then cut out the dragon from assignment 3’s illustration and placed him on top of the mountain.

My thought’s for this collage was that the child looked like it was screaming, so I thought if I used the dragon, it would be something it was scared of, this could then turn into a good story.

I had gotten quite into the ‘looking through the leaf’ compositions and wanted to experiment with this further, so I used the photograph I had taken in the woods from Assignment 4, and used one of the bits I had cut out of another collage that was left for this exercise, and used this as the backdrop. It looks quite abstract and unusual but I like that about it, it could be the picture of some really unusual fantasy/ science story.

The 6th collage was from one of the pictures I created in section 3, again I used the idea of the granulation texture to cover over the original stuck on pieces at the bottom, I then added a few green mini hills that I had cut off from the panorama collage, on the middle right. Then I added the photograph of the leaf I took from Assignment 4 when I went to the woods, as a unusual colour and texture in the distance, this could be interpreted as hills or some massive encroaching cabbage leaf!!

I really like this collage and think it makes a nice landscape, its different but I think that adds to the unique-ness of it, I enjoyed making layers for this piece and has given me some more ideas around this going forward.

The final collage I made from the original 10 pictures was this leaf, again looking through, but this time I used the leftovers from the dragon picture to put behind and use as depth and distance through the leaf. I think it looks a bit like binoculars and what you can see through them. Having the leaf cut out in this way, where parts of it lay over the background image, really adds to the sense of looking through.

Reflection

I tried to make the connections relate to the images to create stories, or ideas for stories, and also looking at the visual images to see if they could be made into illustrations for books.

Reflecting over my previous work, made me think more about how much further I could push the original ideas and drawings, and how I can or could use two of the compositions to make one stronger one.

The textures and paint effects really help in these collages, they add another dimension and the experimentation I am having with different paints and art materials is really helping with my course work.

The strongest thing I am getting out of the creative process is compositions, and this has really worked since section 2, It has helped a lot with me wanting to create whole scenes for my drawings to practise my book illustrations.

I enjoy the layering techniques need in collage, I find this easy as I’m used to this with surface pattern design.