VIS4025 - Housewarming: Intro to Viscom
At the start of this first module, I found the ‘open’ project format to be overwhelming as I was used to a very structured way of working. I didn’t know where to start so I utilised these feelings and began to document them in my sketchbooks. The confusion is communicated throughout each sketchbook through the random nature of the drawings, fragments of a city like pieces of a jigsaw I am still working out, eg. observational studies, shapes, people watching, visual diary spreads etc.
Using each of the sketchbooks we were given helped me understand, appreciate and warm up to the city of Birmingham, my new home.
The page below documents a day out I had with my mum, showing her around the city, this is an example of the kind of approach I usually take with my sketchbooks - I love using it as a visual diary, celebrating and appreciating the small yet signifcant joys of a memorable day!
To loosen up and generate some more ideas, I decided to focus in on the shapes I see walking around the city - simplifying aspects of Birmingham that some might see as visually unappealing and creating something bold, bright and cheerful that honours the beauty of the city. This idea was inspired by my own love for the abstract and appreciating things that usually go unnoticed. I was honing in on smaller details that could be pieced together like a puzzle, a visual demonstration of me piecing together the city. l enjoy using lots of colour in my work and like to explore different ways of drawing and making marks, so these particular sketchbook pages reflect this.
With the A6 sketchbook pages in particular I used Posca pens, a favourite medium of mine, so as to achieve a vibrant and joyful outcome, using colours that corresponded with the colours I was seeing in my adventures around the city.
The A4 sketchbook page below, is one of my favourites from the whole module, I used one of my A6 spreads as inspiration and enlarged my favourite shapes using Posca pens and ripped up corresponding coloured paper to add varying textures.
Since a favourite approach of mine is to use the sketchbook as a visual diary I thought I’d have a go at developing a short narrative about a few mishaps I have had a student living independently for the first time. I used fine liner as a way of helping me embrace mistakes by not giving me any opportunity to erase. This reinforces the story I was trying to tell - "it is ok to make mistakes, you have just moved from home for the first time and everything is new, be kind to yourself!".
During the module we took a course trip to BMAG and Ikon Gallery and were tasked to draw on site using our sketchbooks, it helped me once again get used to my new surroundings as well as get over the fear of starting and instead let go and enjoy the process.
We were encouraged to use a viewfinder during the trip and it allowed me to have more of a focus and pay attention to smaller details.
Below is an illustrated version of a menu I found on display in BMAG's 'We are Birmingham' exhibition, the menu itself is the kind of artefact that is seemingly overlooked, so I illustrated some of the items in a lighthearted and playful way - reimagining a menu that wouldn’t go as unnoticed. This inspired me to create a menu of food I had been having as a student living away from home for the first time.
WORKSHOPS
Throughout the module I took part in a variety of workshops, in the studio and in the print room! These helped me loosen up and explore new ways of working, experimenting and generating ideas as well as have fun.
The first of these was Riso printing where we were tasked to design our own loyalty cards. I really enjoyed learning the creative process of preparing the design for print as it was unlike anything I had done before and also loved the bright colours of the outcomes.
Throughout the module I made a lot of rubber stamps after taking part in an afternoon workshop and used my shape sketchbook spreads as inspiration for what to carve. I appreciated and enjoyed how simple the process was and how it was similar to that of carving Lino. Since the outcomes were both instantaneous and effective I was able to use the stamps to make different images and colour repeat patterns to fill my A5 and A6 sketchbooks.
We were encouraged to experiment, paint and draw with ink in multiple workshops, this was a medium I was very unfamiliar with so I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it seeing as prior to this I was used to a more controlled way of working. Inks can be used to make really cool marks, I used washi tape and crayons to make effective strong contrasts with the blended colours. I had a lot of fun learning how to make visually appealing outcomes despite the mediums unpredictable nature, utilising this to make bold and vibrant results. Drawing with ink pens was similar in some ways to painting in terms of unpredictability but I appreciated how the pen allowed me to have some control over my work and therefore draw and observe what was around me.
The character building workshops helped me learn how ideas and characters can be developed in such clever ways and from the most random places and prompts. It was such fun rewarding exercise as we were given such an array of different images/ prompts to create characters from. I started off by drawing characters who I thought would have owned the objects and then by the end was turning said objects and things into characters themselves!
In one studio workshop we worked as a whole course to create a cardboard city. I really enjoyed working in 3D and how collaborative it was - each element would not make sense by itself, assembling all our creations was really satisfying as we were able to see ideas physically come to life rather than remain on a page. To contribute I created a mini art gallery and got some friends to create small drawings to display – it was the perfect way to get to know their process’ and collaborate with each other.
My favourite workshop from the module was hosted in the print room - we were encouraged to make a screen print from paper stencils. I used the shapes from my sketchbooks to design a composition that translated well for print, challenging myself by making two stencil layers so that it was visually appealing and captured my perception of the city.
In one workshop we worked with letterpress to reinvent our favourite phrases with different fonts and type. I used orphan type for the word 'joy' to curate the words 'choose joy' since I felt it fit with the essence of the phrase. The metal type was harder to work with and construct on the composing stick because it was more intricate and fiddly but I loved the simplicity of the outcome.
I had fun in one print room workshop, creating a dry point etching inspired by a page in my sketchbook. It was a long printing process but I love how the final outcome turned out and how the original textures from the carving remained.
Throughout the module we had to come up with our own rules to follow. My rules developed from trying to figure out a new more relaxed playful approach to creating - the workshops helped me to do this so I thought I’d illustrate what I had learnt .
We were then encouraged to turn our favourite rule into a Riso print - I designed mine on my iPad so that the final print turned out more refined, it enabled also me to easily split the design into two separate layers. 'Take one step at a time - enjoy the process' – this rule is something I try and follow all the time as I tend to plan/rush ahead with my ideas. This module has really helped me to let go of that approach and just enjoy creating rather than having to be so fixated on producing lots of perfected outcomes.
