Visual Narratives- Project Outline

OUIL405- Visual Narratives- Inspiration

After creating a vague idea of what I want to produce, I decided to collect images and ideas which I would like to take from for my final book, focussing on the creation of atmosphere in a landscape through the craft of the image.

Michael Cho- Toronto
Someone who I have previously blogged about, Michael Cho is one of my favourite illustrators/ cartoonists. I particularly love the set of images based around Toronto suburbs. I like how Michael uses simple colour pallets, sometimes just one colour and black, to create a feeling around the illustrations. Whether the area is cold, dry, warm, creepy or a happy place, this is always screamed through Michaels use of colour.





The above images were created using watercolour and refined on Photoshop, I love the feel of the images and will try to use some of the techniques in my own work for the current brief.

OUIL405- Visual Narrative- Crit Response

I found the crit really useful, not so much in the way of new ideas, but more confirmation and refinement of the ideas I already had for my project. The group seemed interested in my images and my idea in general, with the main point of feedback that I needed to go back to Scarborough and take more pictures, focussing on the images I would want to illustrate in the final book.

A mistake I made in the previous briefs was that I focussed too much on the idea behind the image, rather than the craft of the image, something I want to avoid doing for this brief. I think I'm pretty set on what I want to do for the brief. It just needs refining and the right images need collecting.

I want to focus my book on the journey through the coastline; and specifically things that people usually notice, but are mostly overlooked; arcade signs, old run down buildings, and small 'tacky shops' that people usually don't really consider part of the landscape. Possibly looking at the relationship between these exaggerated buildings next to the ordinary buildings next to them. This is something I need to experiment with in the coming weeks.

So my next step is to revisit Scarborough and collect the images that I would want to use for my final product.

OUIL405- Visual Narratives- Initial Research

For my research, I decided to go somewhere when I had been before. I wanted to visit somewhere when I could easily find people to talk to, and find different landscapes and environment in one place, rather then choosing a specific place or environment and not properly connecting with it.

The location I chose for the brief is Scarborough beach and the surrounding area. Reason being I know the area, and there will be people there, as well as different things to look at and investigate.

I travelled there alone, and upon arriving I had no preconceptions of what I wanted to achieve through the day. I left my car in the car park and started to wander, taking pictures of literally anything that caught my interest. I started to walk towards the less 'touristy' side of the coastline, where it is much more rural and there really isn't anything but pathways and the occasional bench to sit on. So the only thing I was taking pictures of was trees, paths and signs; which got very boring, very quickly.



I then began to walk towards the busier side of the coastline, where all the arcades and rock shops are. I enjoyed this part of the walk much more, and found myself drawn to the 'tackier' building and features, rather than the traditional 'pretty' things that people usually take more notice of.

Scarborough at the best of times is a bit of a shithole, but when the weather is horrible and the tide is in, it just seems even more run down. I loved how eerily quiet it was, there were more pigeons around than people. Pretty much the only people I saw all day were the arcade owners (the ones that were open) stood outside waiting for the punters to roll in...



After collecting pictures of all the things that interested me. I wanted to talk to a local about the area, and see if I could get anything out of them which I could use in the picture book. I went to a rock shop and spoke to a woman who worked there. After general chatter I asked her about what the area is like this time of year, to which she responded 'if you want to buy rock and look at seagulls then Scarborough is the place to be. There isn't really much else going on here".

After getting home, and feeling pretty disheartened about the trip, thinking I hadn't come up with a solid narrative that I wanted to work with. I looked through the images and really enjoyed looking at all the tacky shops and arcades and signs. They have a really eery feel to them, and although there isn't necessarily a specific narrative there in terms of a physical development or adventure.

I think a really interesting book can be created by illustrating the things that people never really look at. The mundane 'attractions' that people usually overlook as simply that, an attraction, are really what makes up a lot of what we see as a 'holiday town', and are purely the reason some people visit these places.

The adventure and narrative I had myself was walking down the coast, looking at the bright colours of the arcades and shops, and although it won't be the most thrilling story ever, I think if I can illustrate the images in a different way, it could create a really interesting set of images.






Here is a seagull



Edit: 1/4/16



I found this image which is useful for giving me a generaly idea of how the seafront looks. I love the 'layered effect to the buildings behind the 'focus buildings' I will try and incorporate them into my work somehow.

OUIL405- Visual Narratives

Initial Thoughts

I'm feeling quite positive about this module in general. It feels much freer and independent, and I think I'll be able to actually create work I enjoy making, rather than previous briefs where I've felt quite restricted. The brief is to create a picture book, with a narrative (it seems like the 'narrative' part is used quite loosely.

I'm looking forward to creating work which allows me to explore different methods, and I really want to use some colour in this brief and am also looking forward to being able to fully research a project.

I think some issues that could come out of the brief are mostly personal. I am an incredibly lazy person, and although I think I have a great work ethic when it comes to deadlines, given the chance to sit back a bit, I definitely will. Hopefully with this brief I will be able to motivate myself to work towards a final goal which I am happy with, which I have not yet done during my time on the course.

Visual Narratives- One Week Book

The brief set to us was to go out and find a story, document it, research it, and produce a small hot dog book of our time there. Our group ended up speaking to a homeless gent called spider, who told us about the dark arches and their creepy history of bodies being berried underneath. So we decided to take his advice and visit them.

We chose to focus on the arches for our book, and produced a story purely based on our experience there.

Although I didn't particularly enjoy the group work, I generally prefer working alone, I did enjoy producing the book. Screen printing was also something I had never tried before so this was also a fun experience. See below the final product.