Picture Post

I found this book in a charity shop last weekend and absolutely love the photographs! Picture Post was a photographic journalism magazine started in October 1938 that ran up until June 1957. The series has been recommended to me before but I was really lucky to find an annual with such a vast and varied amount of images. They haven’t scanned brilliantly but I think the character of the photographs is amazing! I really want to practice my portraiture skills by working from these and I also think they’ll make great reference material for future briefs.

Final Images (My Eyes Hurt)

These are my four final images for the Digital Imaging brief. I found choosing appropriate text slightly challenging but decided that this was needed in order to anchor the meaning of the illustrations. I'm pleased with the slightly obscure nature of the drawings as I think the strange quality works well in conjunction with the more obvious text. I've also learnt a lot about how photoshop can enhance my work through scanning and manipulation of surfaces.

First Digital Image (Text)

0.1 Fineliners Are My Favourites

I decided to apply the method of drawing I explored in the T-Shirt workshop to my digital imaging brief. I have been developing ideas surrounding the development of cosmetic surgery and perception of body image over the past ten years. In a discussion with my tutor we looked at the new pressures put upon men and their body image. This led onto the development of how, in a way the definition between genders appears to be becoming less and less defined. Both males and females are faced with clear suggestions with how they 'should' look by the media. For females beauty products promote long eyelashes, exaggerated lips and the perfect figure. Men are similarly faced promotions of 'designer stubble', perfect body, skin ect. I decided to combine the ideals faced by both genders, use my research and draw from imagination to create the supposedly 'perfect human body image' that has arisen from the noughties. I like the strange quality of these characters as it relates to the unatural and enhanced way we are led to believe we should look.

T-Shirt Designing Workshop

This week we had a T-Shirt desiging workshop directed by Illustrator Marcus Oakley. The idea was to 'Say Something' with our designs as we were presented with a list of sentences ranging from ideas such as 'Wear A Hat' to 'Be Nice To Trees'. My initial instinct was to reach for a computer and find images to work from as inspiration, but before I could even turn the screen on I was told we were to simply draw from imaginiation. After a slight panic, I begun to really enjoy myself and become much less self conscious of my work! I felt there was a coherence in the images I created despite utilising a very different design strategy to usual.

Pretty Pattern

Lots and lots of little lines. Doodle from sketchbook, used to experiment with photoshop and the use of repeating patterns.