Visual Narratives- Personal Evaluation

I really enjoyed the project in general, and have definitely taken quite a lot about using research. Using reference has always been something I have done, but having the opportunity to go out and produce a story from scratch has been great. I feel towards the end of the module I did fall out with what I was doing, but that was probably because of the stress of it all. I have definitely learned a lot about the way I work, and know I need to improve on a lot of aspects of it. 

Visual Narratives- Final Product

Printing the book was a big relief. Finalising the brief was stressful and I'm pleased its done with. I'm relatively happy with the final product. The quality of the book could definitely have been better as the cropping didn't quite work out perfectly, and I think the paper weight was too thick, however I really like the quality of the actual printed images and how the images look on the page.

I am happy with the colour scheme, and how the linework looks on paper. I think the hand made look of the images really works with the block colours and I've had a lot of good feedback on the images.

Visual Narratives- Final Images

Once all of the images had been coloured, I created a border around them to separate them in the book. Below is the final layout for my product.

I am relatively pleased with the images I have created. and feel satisfied that I have used my research appropriately to produce a reflection of the feel and aesthetics of the local area. There are a few images that I am happier with than others, but that is to be expected. Surprisingly I have enjoyed using some colour (although a very limited palette) and feel I have broken barriers against only using black. 

Visual Narratives- Developing New Images

I knew I wanted to keep quite a natural outline on my work in the book. So I continued to outline the images that I collected on my initial research trip.

Once the images were scanned, I altered the levels on the image to deepen the blacks and eradicate any paper marks or leftover pencil marks, whilst still keeping a handmade look.

I then went on to play around with the colourschemes of the images. As I wanted the images to feel quite cold, I decided I wanted to use pale colours.




After reviewing all of the colours I tried, I decided the bottom blue tones would work best, as they created the coldest feeling throughout the images. I then went on to fill the rest of the images with this swatch.
I am fairly happy with the outcome of this; I like the way the colours look and I am happy with how the linework has come out.

Visual Narratives- New Images

After changing my mind, I spent a lot of time developing images more closely linked to my research, taking more directly from the photographs I took whilst I was on location. I wanted to focus more on how the images made me feel and mine and the locals reactions to the individual buildings.

The place was cold and empty, so I wanted to create an image which reflects that. See below a couple of examples of some of the developments I have worked on in the past couple of days. I am relatively happy with what I have produced. However I still think the images need something adding to them.


I again created the linework in pen and the colours were produced using photoshop. The one image I am most happy with is the bottom one of the old cinema. I like the heavy use of black to create the depth through tone. The images did take a while to produce however. So hopefully I will have enough time to produce at least 12 in time for the hand in.

I will continue to develop the images until I have happy with an overall style. I am still unsire weather to stick purely with the blue/grey colours or weather to chose the colours based on the actual building.

Visual Narratives- Change of Mind

Of course I've changed my mind. My original idea to purely focus on the buildings, when executed, seemed way, way too simple and boring, and I couldn't seem to get an interesting image out of it. So after rethinking the project, I feel that it is the lack of any narrative that makes it so dull.

So now the plan is to create a similar story but with more of a narrative behind it, with potentially a physical representation of me walking down a Northern seafront. Peaceful, derelect, rundown, and cold will be the feeling I will try to put in.

On reflection I am glad I took the time to look back at what I have currently done, as now I have realised I will be able to make a much more effective story with the new idea.

Below are a couple of examples of the progress I was up to before changing my mind. Obviously the images are really simple, which is the main reason I wanted to move away from them. Although I do think I could potentially go somewhere with them, I believe another method would be more effective in creating an interesting image.

Visual Narratives- Development of Image

The biggest struggle I am having at the minute is developing the actual image of the buildings. Although I am really happy with the images I have produced and in general the look of the image, I fell as though I have not made a huge development from my initial visual responses to the research.

The issue is I feel like I my have to produce more developments of the image to 'tick boxes' or to gain marks on assessment, however I am torn between doing that and actually producing work that I want to produce which I currently am. I'm finding myself filling my sketchbook with just shit that is trying to look like there has been a thought toward a specific feature of the images, when in fact there hasn't, it is purely done because I wanted to make the mark the way I did, not necessarily practised, but how I want it to look.

I think that I need to stop getting so worked up about gaining marks, because it's getting in the way of me making pictures, maybe I need to speak to Matt/Jamie about this? However I think for now I need to start making images that I am happy to be in the final product.

Visual Narratives- Outlined Plan

Narrative/Concept
The overall concept for my picture book will be a collection of images of interesting buildings in Northern coastal Seafronts. The buildings will not conform to the 'conventional' way people deem buildings interesting; but will be images that I find interesting.

This personal approach presents a danger of the book being unrelatable to people viewing it. However I believe if the craft of the images is strong enough then this can overcome it. Plus I think people do like looking at weird buildings, and hopefully a lot of the people will be able to relate to the locations as hopefully they will have visited them throughout their childhood.

The book will feature buildings from separate northern coastal towns, not just one; which does mean more research however I think it is definitely doable to visit the locations and gather enough research in time. Hopefully I will be able to feature at least 4 different buildings from around 4 different towns, potentially 3 buildings from 5 towns. Which will put me at the upper limit of the page restrictions. The buildings will be separated through where they are located.

To help me decide which coastal towns to use, I did a small survey with 10 of my friends, collated the names of the towns which they said they thought to be the best towns, or at least the most prominent/ popular. The 5 that came up most were (I still may only use 4):

- Blackpool
- Scarborough
- Bridlington
- Whitby
- Filey

Sweet as.

Layout of the Book
After playing around with different layouts in my sketchbook I have decided to keep the book looking fairly minimal and focus on a singular building at a time possibly 2 to a page. I believe the best way to get the most out of a page will be to use a landscape page layout. If the building is portrait in dimension, they I would like to allocate 2 to a page. Whereas if the building featured is landscape in dimension then I would like to make that the sole feature of the page, potentially adding in a second, depending on the size. Max dimension 200mm wide X 280mm high (portrait). I would like to make the book landscape, make the book around 230mm wide and about 160/170mm tall. I will discuss with Matt/Jamie to see if this is ok. If not then I will have to use the full limit of 200mm for the width and about 140mm tall, which makes the book around A5 per page.




Craft of Image The initial plan for the images was to create the linework with pen, then to render the images with a grey/blue copic marker which gave a really derelict and bare feel. However, the majority of these buildings are designed to be outrageous and eye-catching, and I would hate to take that away; the use of colours in these buildings is one of the most interesting points of them, so what would be the use in taking them away? The plan now is to create the linework of the images using pen, but now I will scan in the images and render them digitally, this way I can not only play around with the colours a lot more, but I also get to keep the 'handmade' look of the linework. I will continue to experiment with different media for colour but because of the amount of individual images, for convenience sake would be better to use photoshop.

Visual Narrative- Images I like

Le Duo- Illustrated Landmarks
I like the simplification of the buildings in this set of images, makes it look really graphic. I think a lot of the appeal is the design and layout of the images as well.


http://blog.allmyfaves.com/blogroll/can-someone-really-draw-all-the-buildings-in-new-york/

Particularly the top right, and bottom right. Drawign attention to the focus building by colouring and leaving the rest 'sketched'. I like how it isolates the focal point.



Really like these. I love how all of the buildings are laid out on the same space. Maybe I could do this for mine? Pick out landmarks from northern beaches and stitch them together and label underneath? Could look really cool, but thats a lot of work to fill 12-16 pages!



http://blog.patternbank.com/illustrated-new-york-james-gulliver-hancock/

These are great. Simple, Bold, Attractive. Really nice images. I love the labels, of the addresses.

Visual Narratives- Progress, Thoughts, Challenges & To-Do's

Progress
Progress on this brief has been pretty steady. And worrying.

I feel as though I'm too happy with how the images are looking too soon into the brief, and as though I should not like what I'm doing currently and be looking hard to further the image. Or is that really pessimistic? I know my images do need development, but I'm worried that I'm already happy with where the images are going, and that I cant show the development to get to the point the images are at, because there hasn't really been any development... I just seemed to make an image and be really happy with it. I will probably play around with further images and styles but I feel like I may be doing it to just tick boxes.

Challenges
I need more pictures on location, the first ones I took are total shite because I didn't know exactly what I was looking for. I need to go back and take more.
There is no time to do anything. Although there is but I'm clearly too lazy to do anything, especially over christmas. I need to do more basically.

To-Do's
- Take pictures that are actually useful
- Develop the making of the image
- Test new materials (although I like the look of the current one)
- Work on the narrative of the book. (I completely forgot about this.. shit)

So the narrative of the book... I don't want to create a 'story' out of the book, because there is no particular story to be told, and I wont make one up for the sake of it. Maybe the narrative is just a journey down a coastline? Or am I just blagging it? That's basically what it is though so that's it. Do I need a title? Probably. Do I need to think about the covers? Probably. Do I use any words in the book? No.

New To-Do List
- Take pictures
- Develop Images
- Test New materials
- Think about title
- Think about covers

safe.

Visual Narratives- Visual Responses to Research

After playing around with a few images from my research I went on to explore the photographs I took whilst on location. I want to portray the bleak atmosphere of the coastlines and develop images that represent the location but also is a nice image to look at. I tried using a grey/blue tone on top of the simple linework to create a feeling of emptiness.

I am relatively happy with the way the images look at this stage and I think I will continue to work within these guides to create my final book. I just need to develop how the images will look in the final book, by playing around with methods and materials I think I have enough time to tweak the images to get a look that I am happy with.

Below are two of the images I produced that I am most happy with, in particular the one on the left of the old cinema. I like the contrast of the black, heavy block in the middle of the page against a very simple surrounding. I also like the really simple use of tone in both the images as I think it achieves the feeling of bleakness that I am looking for. From what I could gather from the feedback session on our initial ideas people liked how the images looked, I just need to tweak a bit more.