Summative statement / evaluation

My first goal was to achieve a portfolio suited to professional usage. I self-initiated and took part in competition briefs relevant to these ideas, namely editorial (self-initiated, New Statesman), publishing (Penguin, Stratford) and children's illustration (Carmelite Prize). This resulted in a series of pieces of something of a professional standard, including one that placed in the competition (Carmelite). However, these pieces, plus the more personal other work I completed, resulted in a portfolio that has been criticised for, although having a strong voice, being disparate and inconsistent.

I think that is because I have been finding myself, my voice and visual signature over the year, including my work for COP but also the more self-directed briefs, that hugely informed how I draw now. The work I produced after the Christmas break is moreso the work I see myself making. I've become keen on experimenting with form and figures, and using gouache and texture more. This all said, my keen-ness to change my way of working (shape style, media) hasn't stopped, and my mind will always be an idea ahead of what I'm doing. I question how I should approach my practice beyond the degree... whether to limit myself (and embrace that challenge for a while) or to continue to change (if that is still the natural path). Perhaps I consider a line of practice that runs concurrently but a little separately... just so it doesn't infringe on the portfolio so much, and I can get a foot into professionalism a little easier.

I also wonder if these more "experimental" looks may not be so appropriate for editorial or publishing illustration, and I look to test how far I can push an image whilst still leaving it sensible and appropriate. I have also enjoyed working on more personal projects, particularly Kick Don't Twist which also is something that is published. Being able to combine self-indulgence (to a level) but also make money from it (hurrah) is... what everyone's after, surely.

In regards to the FMP, I have voiced most of my concerns and feelings towards it, but mostly also struggled to come to terms with working it towards academic practice, at this late stage in the degree. Whilst I could or maybe should have specifically briefed myself that I was working on something for the degree, I have seen it as something far more self-indulgent, longer lasting and potentially prolific. With a good old pinch of "artistic angst" (of which I am self-aware of, don't worry) I sometimes resented working it towards the needs of the module.

This all sounds negative, but three years later I really have found myself to be someone who moves forward by analysing, not self-praise. But I'm glad with how things have gone, glad to have found, or am beginning to find, my own artistic voice, and all in all I feel like I've been learning how to learn. The last year, and the two before it, have largely been about opening up my ways of thinking, more than anything, and I hope to be someone who continues to think (and then, at necessary points, think not to think).

I'm going to have fun.

Statement of Intent

It's a little odd to post this document now when the intent has already been achieved... so I left it largely untouched, but put a couple of plans in the planning section, as life goes on...

Project Report

Final Resolutions

FMP: evaluation of paintings and overview of progress

Brief, briefly: a series of paintings reflecting on our relationship with the British natural landscape

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This project has been a strange one all in all. I struggled with timing, with other projects (Carmelite and Shortbox). I've had a lot of ideas in regards to the research undertaken, and have always seen this as something that will go beyond the degree. But, I knew I would need something that would appear finalised for the module, and wasn't sure which route to take. I ended up creating an overview of many reflections, and inevitably struggled to really hone down any of the ideas. It may have been more beneficial to just really look into one.

The relationships I chose to illustrate for this:

The Children (Born)- our most feral selves

The Children (In Wonder)- wonder of the environment, but also as a tool for learning and imagination

The Children (In Conflict)- conflict with the environment

The Witch- folklore and spiritual feelings (negative)

The Wizard - folklore and spiritual feelings (positive)

The Instinct  - what keeps drawing us back

As a start, I think this is a good beginning overview. However, many of the images resulting from this appear to be quite violent, which is not the feeling I necessarily wanted to get across. Nor did I want these to be endlessly happy, but rather... tender? Visceral? Soil under the feet. 

Visually, the paintings are heading in the direction that I'd like to be, though are not quite there. I'm pleased to be using shape in a more complicated and playful manner than say, the paintings of Kick, Don't Twist, but, looking back on the sketchbook  work, I think I have lost so much feeling in these paintings. They are at once too formalised, but also not skilfully tight enough to have ownership of the flatness. I struggled working on paintings that were so small, and I think that lended itself to a lack of movement and power. I'm unsure about the use of symbolism, and with the somewhat improvised nature of the way of working on these I struggled to keep the pieces balanced. 

But! I'm moving forward, and these criticisms are... mostly minor.

I'll admit that there isn't much "application" to this body of work. But it wasn't intended to either, this is illustration as a tool for investigation and display, not selling something, or even promoting anything. This should be exhibited, and could be displayed in a book and online but... having done much applied illustration for the module, it felt it was time to do something different, further.

As I continue the project, I look forward to going slower, and more thoughtfully. Work may be re-painted for the show, or more paintings added, but I don't think I'll have time to re-imagine the concept at this point. 

FMP: finals for module submission

Large painting depicting the landscape, surrounded by smaller paintings depicting how we reflect on said environment.

The Trees 

(large painting, 56x76cm)

For this piece I had to decide what kind of landscape I wanted to portray as the very thing we project ourselves on. I could have made it grandiose, or dismal, or catered to my own understanding of it. Whilst still interested in making something visually appealing, I did try to make quite a generic portrait of it. No sprawling mountains, or rivers, or lakes but trees. Something we've all seen, and daily engage with.

 Interested by an Orwell quote along the lines of "[in the city] nature goes on, unofficially", I wanted something that could be related to by all, rural or urban resident, in whichever way they do reflect on it. This project is about projection of different feelings, which does not mean the base image has to really reflect them.

Small Paintings (in box)

The Children (Born)

Perhaps a wilder consideration of instinct than my painting titled The Instinct. Plainly, a recollection to when we were wild, but also a reflection on our slightly feral instincts that still remain (you might dig them out more than most if your name is George Monbiot)... It is not a violent image, but is not about peace either.

The Children (In Wonder)

Looking back to investigation into Montessori and outdoor learning, but most of all the reminiscing of being a child in awe of the environment. Actually, awe is the wrong phrase. As a child you might not register the landscape to be something particularly special as a whole, but it is the little things within it that are wonderful.

The Children (In Conflict)

Our relationship with the environment isn't always peaceful by any means, and in a literal sense of the children, our actions or lack of can influence a disrespect of their surroundings. Sometimes you don't care. (Quite literally, inspired by seeing children throw stones at ducks)

The Witch

Considering connections to the landscape that may feel the same as The Wizard, but are considered to be (unjustly) menacing.

The Wizard

Simply, a reflection on general folklore, the feelings of wonder that quite clearly captured people when looking at large stone formations. A connection that is more positive than The Witch. Influenced by Julian Cope's Modern Antiquarian, and, as well as ancient stone circles, more modern groups of people who found wonder in them- i.e. The Kibbo Kift. 

The Instinct 

For this image I wanted to convey the primal urges and instincts we might feel out in the wilderness, big or small, as much as the urge to embed your hands and yourself into the grass. Instinct could suggest something harsh, something violent, but what I mostly feel and wanted to get across in the project is that unspoken gut feeling of peace and detachment. I suppose this ties into earlier researched ideas of Attention Restoration Theory, but it's not so much about productivity.

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FMP notes

Due to time scales I don't think it would be feasible to do a rush job of all of the aforementioned relationships with the environment. I have chosen six to begin, with the hope of getting more done by the show.

The Children (Born)- our most feral selves

The Children (In Wonder)- wonder of the environment, but also as a tool for learning and imagination

The Children (In Conflict)- conflict with the environment

The Witch- folklore and spiritual feelings (negative)

The Wizard - folklore and spiritual feelings (positive)

The Instinct  - what keeps drawing us back

photo research

I compiled the photos I've taken over the last few months as an aid to this project to get an overview of what I've been looking at. My focus has been on twisting figures and textures, and that inevitably came from these routes.

Photos, out of order, from The Strid - Barden Bridge, Seattle and "Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve"*

*could be the route or day I took, but it was little more than a creepy railway line. Bad vibes

Kick Don't Twist: final publication

I received my copies of the final book!

It is graciously floppy, and though I knew the dimensions it still felt bigger. There's parts I'm not fond of, but it's great to feel it as a tangible object. I'm also happy I chose to print it on satin slightly shiny paper, as I think it makes the colours a little deeper than what would have printed matt. I look forward , but tentatively, to any public response I can get from it.

mini proposals, tutorial notes

On going to the tutorial, my proposal has been:

• To create a series of images reflecting on our behaviours with the environment, the focus being that the relationship with the land is often unrequited, or that we project ourselves/ desires on to it.
• This would be based on the following list:

• I had decided to work in this way, having not had the time to do in depth research on any particular thing and time clashing with other projects. I have been worried that my approach to this is too "surface-value", with no real mind to it, but I also believe I can make something that is... visceral (?), or touching from it. 
• My main focus, now, is to make something visually interesting, and to just enjoy myself for the last two weeks of my degree work
• (and show work can be developed further too!)

• "it's about making sense of the unspoken"
• create images that display behaviour without being explicitly about the 
• consider dividing the lists differently, could the focus just be on the "children"?
• could it be wholly positive? a celebration? (more than observation)
• do the images need a caption? does this detract from them?
• I'll paint without, and they can be added after, if further explanation is needed. I would prefer, however, an image to be able to speak for itself.

• one set of paintings, a5, a4 + one large painting 
• large painting would be -> the landscape that these behaviours are imposed upon. something neutral? or something (with the purpose of being) beautiful?
• large painting could be potentially substituted with photograph, collage, or film/animation

Some quick thumbs I've began...

paintings

These paintings have so far been tests of taking the work from my sketchbook and translating it into something a little more finalised.

I've been keen on using gouache in a way that is say, a little more involved than solid blocks of colours (almost a paint by numbers approach). The buildup of multicoloured marks seems to be working as something interestin, and the addition of shadow in the image of the bird with the hand is taking it a little further. I've also tried using large sections of black as shadow, but I'm not sure how much I like it yet. It's a little heavy on some images.

I think what needs to be considered next is the portrayal of an environment (around a subject).  That had been the intention in this painting of the horse and rider, but the marks were too absent, or too similarly sized, which lead to a generic background with no signifier of it really being anything at all.

sketchbook

Through this sketchbook work I've lightly touched on themes from the list of interactional behaviours I had made, but the work that came within it was more... immediate and visceral. The images of dancing figures were, simply, just about catching the energy of the wind, gnarly tree branches, and being swept up...

But! I'm not sure how much they speak alone, or relate to the ideas of the project without further (text) examination.

I hope to be able to catch the energy from these drawings into more (thematically, visually) realised paintings.

A couple of spreads:

James Rebanks, "Hardwick Shepherd"

Observations from others on the idea of "ownership" of the land.

Stanley Spencer, Evelyn Dunbar, Charles Mahoney

A little out of inspiration, I turned to some paintings to get me motivated. I began by casually re-visiting some Stanley Spencers- with the idea in mind of reviewing an artist who had ties with the (british) landscape.

Spencer's work can often be compositionally quite complex, and I'm fascinated by it, but it also makes me feel physically ill to look at. It's unsettling, and uncomfortable, and not just the more confrontational "Resurrection" paintings, but even the landscapes. But, there's something about the sometimes complex, unrealistic way that he composes an image 

I haven't got a particular mind to make something that looks "british", but something about Spencer's (and Dunbar's, and Mahoney's) work looks inherently so. Maybe it's the colour palette, but I think there's also something in the eeriness that takes to it. I'll keep it in mind with my own. 

Stanley Spencer

Charles Mahoney

I can't say I investigated much into this Mahoney, but appreciated the surrealness. I'm not even sure what kind of feeling it is there to evoke, but again like all of these, it's a little nightmarish. 

Evelyn Dunbar

Dunbar and Spencer's paintings here are the ones that most explicitly document the landscape and the people within them. What I'm mostly taking from, each of these artists, is the initiative to make work that is just a little interesting...