LOADING
Researching the artists.
Iulian Balinisteanu is a Romanian graphic designer of whom has a behance page to showcase his graphical work at Behance, as well as a digital market on GraphicRiver. The first thing I noticed about Iulian was his unique and consistent modern design. Rather than sticking to the traditional guidelines of using two images to create a double expsoure piece, Iulian uses an image, such as a profile photograph of a person, then a collage of images to put within it for the double exposure effect. Personally, I think that this creates a much more intricate and exciting feel as opposed to the traditional two image merge.
Another reason as to why Iulian Balinsteanu inspired me was due to the fact that he is not as well recognised as the likes of other similar artist, despite his work being of extremely high quality. He often mentions his love for electronic music which "gives me [him] a great amount of inspiration for my [his] work", which is clearly evident within his work. The sharp edges present in his work replicate the sounds of which electronic music creates - sharp, jaggered and diverse.
KAWS, born Brian Donnelly, is an American artist of whom designs a lot of his work based on existing cartoon characters, as well as his own characters. KAWS has his own Webstore in which he only sells, at this point of time, one piece of work, this being 'KAWS PRESENTING THE PAST'. Not only does he produce pure graphical drawing pieces, but drawings over photographs, toy and clothes. I particularly like his work of which he did with Kanye West, for the album cover of '808s & Heartbreak'. I like it due to its seamless conjunction between his graphical drawing and the photography of Kanye West as its accuracy is perfect.
Planning ideas.
What I intend to do.
My idea for the theme of transformation is to show the visual transformation from my base images to final product of a double exposure piece, inspired by Iulian Balinisteanu, with cartoon-styled graphical drawing, inspired by KAWS, over the top. I will use this to express emotions behind the image, or just to portray a certain feeling, such as nature, technology etc. I may, however, decide to pursue this idea without the photo montage as I have not entirely experimented solely using the cartoon-styled digital drawing and I may find this to be more enjoyable and effective than the inclusion of photo montage. If I were not to do the photo montage, I would focus in re-animating childhood memories from television by transforming characters or scenes from old/classic cartoons, such as The Simpsons, with more modern, mainstream shows such as Breaking Bad. I would do this to show that in the present day, most people are blinded by mainstream media to the extent of it impacting what they can previously remember in their memories.
If including photo montage, I will primarily focus on creating the double exposures for the images as these will be the main aspect of my pieces. After I'm satisfied with the double exposure side of the piece, I shall then progress onto the graphical drawing. This routine, however, may be subject to change through experimentation as I may produce some pieces of which have had the double exposure effect applied to the graphical drawing as opposed to the opposite way around. On the other hand, if the inclusion of photo montage is dropped as a thought, I shall only be including the graphical drawing on top of the original image without any major prior alteration to the image.
For the planning phase of the graphical drawing aspect, I shall be producing small snippets of sketches for practical purposes. I shall then be scanning said sketches into the computer for digital processing. This will be done by importing them into Adobe Illustrator, then using a combination of the pen tool and the inkbrush tool to produce a digital replica of the sketch(es). For the double exposure aspect, Photoshop will be the software used. This is because it has a wide array of tools specific to image manipulation, hence it being the optimal choice for this intended use. Overall, a combination of methods shall be used to produce my graphical work.
For the materials of which I intend to produced, I have retrieved them from several locations. Primarily the portfolios of both artists, Iulian Balinisteanu and KAWS. This provides a solid base for the materials produced by the artists as they are directly from the artists themselves. My other sources may consist of more generic sources, such as existing cartoons for the cartoon-styled drawing.
As the images will be split into two sections, each section will have the responsibility of displaying their own respective aspect of the final image. The double exposure 'section' will be responsible of showing what might seem like the thoughts of the person, whereas the graphical drawings will portray what will seem like the bridge between the reality of the person's photograph and surrealism. Overall, it will transform the image from the original into something completely different. This, of course, would only be applicable if I were to remain focused on the inclusion of the photo montage, however, if I were to only do the graphical drawing, I would, as mentioned briefly previously, transform the creation of one of the characters from an old show via the inclusion of an iconic asset from a modern one.
I am aiming for my images to portray an interesting and, mainly, unique aesthetic. For the double exposure side of the images, I am hoping for them to be visually pleasing as they could be used as flyers or posters etc. However, for the mainly graphical drawing images, I am aiming for an interesting image. This is because of the fact that if they were seen from an advertising point of view, then it would be a necessity for them to appear unique and most importantly, eye-catching. If I am to progress with the graphical drawing as the key aspect of my work, then the work shall be more focused towards an iconic visual rather than something of which could be used to portray something such as an event. This would be due to the use of cartoon-styled imagery, as this is such a well-defined sector of graphics that it has become its own genre.
Surreal images.
Editing original images to portray additional surrealism and interesting aesthetics.
The first of my photo montages was made from a singular image. I chose this image because the contrast between the cliffs and the foliage gave a strong differentiation within content. Also, with the plan of creating layered discs from the image I thought that the rotation of the cliff could make an interesting image. To being with this photo montage, I first increased the vibrancy in the colours to make them stand out from the more dull, original image. Instead of creating an image of the same saturation, I decided to lower the saturation percentage in each disc from the main image being 100% and deducting 25% from the saturation per disc. This left the final disc being at 0% saturation - fully grayscale. I felt that the row of beach-huts at the bottom of the image were too important to be affected by the layered discs, therefore I used a combination of the magic wand tool and the quick selection tool to isolate them from the main image by copying them as a new layer. I then applied a soft dropshadow to give the hint that they are positioned in front of what is going on in the background. This gave a subtle yet effective effect through the use of layering. Finally, the centre of the image seemed a little too bare in comparison to the lower row of beach-huts and the top of the cliff meeting the sky towards the top of the image. To ammend this, I added the text DORSET over the image using an American football jersey inspired font. This made it much more decorative that a plain font of which had a solid fill. Also, the use of the white font complied well with the newly grayscaled image behind it.
The second of my photo montages was made from another singular image. I chose this image because I knew that there was a strong distinction between the three main components of the image: the sand, the row of beach huts and the foliage behind it. I knew that the style of photo montage would allow separations of the image to be furtherly expressed through the rotation of the image around the center of it. Beginning with this photo montage, I decided that I would use the same shapes of which I had previously used to smybolise the term Transformation within my title page. I started with creating an outline of a square, copied the layer containing the base image, rotated it 90 degrees clockwise, performed an outline selection of the outlined square and finally inverted the selection to delete the content of the image to shape it around the square. I repeated the same process with the triangular outline, except using a rotation of 180 degrees. The same process was done, again, using a circular outline and a 270 degrees rotation. I ordered these layers for the square to be at the top, the triangle in the middle and the circle at the bottom. To further apply the layered effect, I used dropshadows to further separate them from the original base image. Keeping a larger ratio between the amount of space kept free within the shape and the outline created a minimalist look to the piece - this was also combined with the generalised alteration of 1/3 of the original photograph.
My third photo montage was, again, made from a single base image, using shapes to perform alterations to the image creating alterations within themselves. The base image was one of an amusements on the beach. I began by creating two identical triangular shapes, these served as the masking for the alterations of which I would create later. I copied one of the triangles and rasterised all three shape layers. I then used this to perform an outline selection of one of the triangles and, using the oppositely facing triangle, deleted the content of the selection to create the central diamond shape seen in the image. I used a similar technique as to that in my previous ones in copying the base image layer and wrapping it around the shape. This meant that each of the shapes now had a designated portion of the image. On the two large triangles I simply mirrored the image vertically, keeping the diamond shape's orientation in tact. I then added the dropshadows to further the layering effect. To create a stronger diversity between the shapes and the base image, I decided to desaturate the base image entirely, leaving it in grayscale. I then applied a tilt-shift blur, aligning the controls with the top and bottom of the image to blur each side respectively. I amplified this to an extent of which caused the blur to be visible up to, and inclusive of, the edge of the reflected triangles. This, in turn, created a further distinction between the characterstics of the base image and that of which was within the triangular shapes.
The fourth photo montage of mine was the most simplistic of the four landscape images, yet arguably the most contrasting. The base image was one of a groyne on the beach. I thought this image would be interesting to experiment with as it could be perfectly divided in half due to the distancing nature of the groyne, yet each half would be distinguishable from the opposing one. This was because of the beach on the right-hand side being covered in tidal foam, with the other half having the sand visible. I began by creating the guidelines in the document to allow for selections and other drag-based systems to latch on to them accurately. This allowed me to define evenly reflected guides for the selections, which subsequently will facilate the processes of which I underwent. The initial reflection occured covering around 1/3 of the image, including the majority of the height. I decided not to extend the selection fully, vertically, as this would not allow for the full tiled effect of which I was aiming for. Upon creating the selection, I used the selection to copy a portion of the image to another layer and reflected it vertically. This selection and reflection process was copied using a drastically smaller selection in height, with a slightly smaller horizontal span. This made the selection look proportional to that of the distance between the edges of the first selection but rotated 90 degrees on its side. After repeating the reflection process, a tiled effect became more apparent due to the contrasting colours in each half. In traditional fashion, I applied drop shadows to each layer as done in the previous pieces.
The fifth of my photo montages varied a little as to the subject of the base image. Instead of using a photograph of a landscape for the manipulation of the image, I decided to use one of a person. The pose of which they were in originally made it look like they were distressed or feeling anger, which was an ideal attribute to extend upon to show the transformation into how they are feeling. The plan of this piece was decided upon as soon as I took the photograph as it had such a strong factor of identification as to the emotion shown in the image. My initial thoughts were that of an explosion, as anger can be released in explosions; however, this was also accompanied by the thought of smashed glass or a mirror as these also seem like alternatives to releasing anger. To combine the ideas, I decided upon a glass shard look, aiming for the shards to look as if they were moving away from the origin of the image, as they would from the origin of an explosion. To begin this, I used the polygonal lasso tool to create long, irregular triangular selections, as shards of glass would not be neat. After creating a selection, I copied that partion of the image to a new layer and used the transformation controls to scale the layer, dragging it from the point furthest away from the origin of the image to enable the effect of the shards being pushed away from the origin. This process was repeated numerous times in order to cover the majority of the image, mainly focusing around the head as this is where the emotion is mainly felt.
This piece was entirely based upon the result of my previous (fifth) photo montage; however, I made some minor alterations, mainly to the colours of the image. I did this to make the background of the image cleaner as well as the colours of the person's skin more realistic. I also believe that the use of a white background complimented the sharding effect, as transparency - such as that found in glass - can often be represented in colour as white. Another modification I made to the piece was by applying a lens blur to the base image, causing the shards to be superior of clarity, which also helped to heighten the effect of glass.
Digital illustrations.
Creating vectorised illustrations using Adobe Illustrator.
This was the first instance of digital drawing, producing a copy of the Cartman character from the cartoon series, South Park.
Developing on from the first production, I have added a different form of lighting to show Cartman being in the dark with a light source coming from the left of the screen.
Inspired by KAWS' style, I have produced a digital illustration of KAWS' famous heads. This has been done as a development for later use on images/other pieces.
This series shows the development of the South Park character, Cartman, in the style of KAWS.
This is an illustration of KAWS' renowned hands of which are visible throughout his work.
Printing designs.
Vectors created in Adobe Illustrator manually printed.
The screen printing process was the process of which I used to manually print a black and white design in colour onto paper. Although I did it onto paper, the same technique could be used to print a design onto fabric, such as that in T-Shirt design. (1) I designed my template (see next image) in black and white, straying from the norm of the design to make other areas more visual. All of the black in the design would be replaced by colour when printing it. (2) The screen frame is then stretched in order to cover the entirety of the design, ensuring that it is as flat as possible. This is used to create the stencil as it is coated with a light sensitive emulsion. (3) When the light is shone at the film, the emulsion will harden (where it has light), creating a firmer stencil to work with. (4) After the exposure to the light, the screen can then be washed, as the areas of which were black on the design would have prevented the light from passing, meaning that the emulsion did not harden and hence can be washed away. (5) The screen was then placed within a frame, with the destination material underneath it, and ink was squuezed through the screen using an apparatus of which caused downward pressure when being pulled over it - hence pushing the design through to the destination material.
The template of which I used for the screen printing was based on one of my development digital drawings - the one of Cartman from South Park. I duplicated the original drawing and simply changed the fill attribute of all of the shapes within the drawing to black or white (depending on where it was). I decided to leave his behind as white as it helped to identify his signature pose, as otherwise it would have been rather difficult for the necessary details to be distinguished.
After completing the screen printing process, I produced 3 separate prints. The first of which was using a solid colour (blue, as seen from above) with the screen print in order to primarily familiarise myself with the process as it was my first time doing it. The final finish was fairly solid with soem minor apparent waves within the ink; however, it was of sufficient quality for an experimental piece. The second of my screen prints experimented further with colour alteration. I decided to mix black and purple into the blue in a simplistic waving fashion. When squeezed through the screen, this was the result. My third and final attempt at screen printing mixed the same colours as my second, but in a more organised and planned fashion; however, this was not very visible due to the screen not being washed properly and hence not all of the ink could get through. This was somewhat evident, also, within the second attempt, as the colours were not as strongly visible as the first.
Vector illustrations on images.
Layering vectorised illustrations on top of images, using Adobe Illustrator.
The base photograph for the first of my vector-added images was the same of which was found in the fifth of my photo montages. Inspired by the work of KAWS, I decided to use his style of hands and bones to integrate them within the photograph. The pose was ideal for this use as it covered enough of the original image to understand what was going on. The pose and the lighting also helped greatly in the lighting of the vectors, as it was evident as to which direction the light was coming from. Also, the lighting helped to cast an athmosphere of emotion over the image - one of frustration, regret or anger. This emotion is interpretable as I intentionally altered the levels of the image in Photoshop in order to cast a darker shadow over the subject's face. This meant that their true facial expression could not be identified and hence left the emotion of the subject open to interpretation by the viewer. I produced this image by using the digital drawings as a starting point, but mainly through outlining an initial sketch of the image:
Similarly to my first KAWS-ify piece, this was also inspired by the work of KAWS. KAWS' middle finger asset it greatly seen throughout a lot of his work, and hence I decided to experiment with it. I took the base image (see below) and processed it in Photoshop in order to make it more visually suited to the feel of KAWS' work. To do this, I: made the background much darker through the alteration of the levels of the image; removed blemishes from the background using the spot healing tool in order to make it as plain as realistically possible; selected the hand then inversed the selection to blur the background as a form of depth of field. With this, I then drew around the hand in the smooth style of KAWS to replicate his middle finger asset. This produced a rather effective outcome due to the contrasting brightness of the hand and the darnkess of the background.
This piece, differing from the other KAWS-ify pieces, used my own productions from scratch, such as the respirator. The initial base image (see below) was added upon with the respirator and then altered in order to make the respirator fit around the subject's ears. As the respirator was much smaller than the size of the hands in the KAWS-ify pieces, I decided that there was not enough alteration to the image to pass it as a standalone piece, and hence I decided to outline the subject's clothes in a simplistic vector style. Upon completion of this, I decided that the background was too plain, and due to the use of a respirator, I decided to include some clouds that were to resemble smoke; however, if a fill were to be used on the clouds, the background would not be as visible, thus causing me to leave them as outlines. This also added to the effect of surrealism as it was evident that it was not supposed to be a realistic scenario as none of the vector objects existed.
Further production of vector drawings.
Continuation of vector drawing in Adobe Illustrator, developing the idea of modern-day childhood being mindwashed with drugs/violence.
This shows the development stages of a donut, done in a similar fashion to that of which is found within The Simpsons cartoon. The donut initially began as a simplistic ring shape, which was drawn freehand using the brush tool in Illustrator. To cut out the hole in the middle, I had to first draw it, then use the pathfinder minus front tool to cut the circular shape out from the ring below. The second stage of the donut began adding further texture to the base of the donut, this being lighting and small dimples in around the donut itself. When doing this, I had to keep in mind that the source of light was coming from above. The next stage was the initial introduction of the icing of the donut, which was, again drawn free hand using a similar technique to that of the base ring. When drawing this, I had to ensure that some parts hung over the ring to make it appear more realistic. The fourth stage was that of applying lighting to the icing, using the same conditions as that in the base ring's lighting. The fifth stage was the initial application of sprinkles. To create a singular sprinkle, I used a rectangle for the shape and applied a linear gradient with darker edges and a lighter middle of the chosen colour to create a rounded effect, along with a white transparent rectangle to add a small lighting effect to each one. The sixth and final stage was the addition of the indentation shadows under each of the sprinkles, as without a shadow, it appeared too plain and simplistic.
The donut grid was produced from the final outcome of the development of the donut. I then used complimentary colours and a closed colour range to produce each individual tile, simply changing the colour of the icing in each one, using the complimentary colour as the background. I thought that this form of presentation was a rather lively way to present the development towards the blue donut to be used in my final piece.
Within my final piece, I knew that I would want footprints coming from Homer's RV to his current location. At the initial stage of the footsteps I planned the shape of Homer's shoes as an oval, as this was the most similar shape of which I could think of his shoe being made up of. Continuing with the shape of the oval, the second stage shows the slight transformation of using straight edges approximately 1/3 of the way down the show to produce more of a shoe shape. In the final stage, I cut out a rectangular shape within the straight edges introduced in the previous stage to show the arch in his shoes, producing the final shape for the footprint.
These four vectors show some experimentation throughout the development of the respirator. In the right hand column, I have used outlines to produce a more cartoon-y effect - removing them on the left hand side for a different visual effect. The main experimentation within this was the minor alteration in the outer colour of the filter, between grey and yellow. I later decided upon progressing with the yellow as the grey appeared too dismal.
This is the development of the mountain line of which will be in the background of the final piece. I knew that the piece would be set in a desert, hence the use of the dark sandy colours. Also, due to its distance in the background, I knew that the detail for the mountain line would not have to be significant in order to stay true to the Simpsons style. In the first section of this development, the outline was drawn, along with the base colour and outline. The second stage brought some lines of detail to visualise overhangs and the shaping of the inner rocks to prevent it from remaining flat. The third and final stage was the most important - lighting. The lighting was key in portraying the shape and structure of the mountains, as it provided a further insight as to which parts captured the most light, thus creating more defined and liable aesthetics.
This development is split into two main sections, the upper half and the lower half - these are developments of two different types of rocks to be used in the main piece. Beginning with the upper half, this development is of a boulder-styled rock. The first section of it was the initial outline of the boulder, giving it its rounded, rugged shape. To further increase the detail of this outline, I decided to include the lines of which define the inner parts of the boulder. These were used to remove the impression that the boulder was flat/perfectly spherical. The second stage of this development was the application of the shading, corresponding with the lines. This helped to achieve the rugged visuals of the boulder. The third and final stage of the development was the inclusion of blemishes in the boulder in order to give a rough stone texture, whilst not using excessive amounts of detail.
The second (lower) half of the development was of a larger, more mountainous rock. After creating the outline and inner lines of the rock, the three development stages were purely based on applying the shading to it. The first of said stages consisted purely of the outer and inner lines of the rock. The second stage began applying darker shades to the left side of the rock, as the lighting was coming from the [upper] right. The third and final stage applied even darker tone to the left-most parts of the rock and those faces of which were facing downward. This development highlighted the importance of lighting on the rock as the result from the first stage and that of the third appear to be immensly different; however the only alteration is caused by the lighting.
The development of the tumbleweed shows how the shape, shading and detail were brought together to create the final asset. The first stage was merely defining the outline for the tumbleweed. The second stage was the longest as it consisted of strategically drawing the wires on the tumbleweed in order to give the impression that it was rolling or moving towards the right. The third stage applied the shading to the tumbleweed, making it lighter on the right hand side and darker towards the left. This kept it in sync with the current lighting positions used in previous work. The fourth and final stage added a shadow to the tumbleweed.
This short development is that of the RV to be used in the final piece. There is a slight alteration between the instance of the left and that on the right - the lighting. The left hand side drawing was of the RV prior to applying shading - the right being post shading. Although this is a subtle difference, it makes a great difference in the detail and style of the drawing. This helped it to fit in with the scene, as without the lighting, it looked rather plain and misfitting.
This shows the development of the shading of Homer after drawing the initial outline (the first stage). The second stage was arguable the most important as it laid the foundations of colour. This was done by having a sample image taken from the Simpsons positioned next to this and altering the colour's attributes until they matched those of which would have been found in The Simpsons. The final stage was that of applying the shading to the piece. Continuing with the previously established lighting direction, the everything on the opposite side to the line of light would be darker, and the other lighter. This helped to define the rounded effect of the piece instead of looking flat.
This shows the development of Homer's creased up pants as if he had left them on the floor. The initial stage of the development shows that the outer and inner lines had been established along with the base colour. The second stage was were the different lighting was applied, continuing from the upper right light source previously established. This meant that faces towards the right and up-facing faces were lighter, with left and downward facing faces darker. The third stage added a shadow, using the direction of the light, to the pants to make them more suited to the final scene.
The finale.
Evaluating the project.
Throughout this project I have focused rather heavily on digital, vector, illustrations, something of which I have continuously developed since the start. I feel as though this heavy focusing has allowed me to improve on my abilities from the start of, and prior to, this project. Also, as it was a relatively new sector for me to explore, I have enjoyed it a great amount. I have used a mixture of using a graphics tablet and a mouse to produce said illustrations, as there were some pieces of which required intricate curving in order to look correct, whereas others could be done freehand. In order to get the correct level of curving, I used a mouse, as I found this easier to control, and more accurate, when using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. To produce the more freehand look, I used a graphics table and the brush tool (which simplifies the path afterwards to make it more curved) in order to retain a very distinct balance between accuracy and roughness. Also, in this project I touched briefly upon manual methods of printing such as screen printing, which was both a new technique and technology for me as I had not done it prior to this project. I found this to be useful to planning high quality prints, for example on to a shirt, as it wasn't as expensive as the cost of the ink for a high quality shirt print, but it still gave results of which could be used to judge the potential outcome of a design.
Without a doubt, my favourite artist throughout this project was KAWS. He was quoted in an interview about his Kimpsons piece that he "found it weird how infused a cartoon could become in people's lives; the impact it could have, compared to regular politics.", showing that his work was based upon how specific, subtle, aspects in life prevailed over what would seem like more important matters, in this case politics. Not only do I like his style, but also the reasoning behind his work, as it shows that he is illustrating his curiosity into how people's lives are altered by simple things. Despite Iulian Balinisteanu being an artist of which I originally planned to produce similar-styled work from, he did not have much of an impact on my work. This was due to the fact that I seemed to enjoy the KAWS-styled work more than photo manipulation, and hence Iulian did not come into play as much as I had originally planned. This meant that I had derailed from my original plan of creating photo montages and instead swayed towards the work of KAWS and similar illustrative artists.
I feel as though I need to develop my perspective judgement when producing illustrative drawings, as I feel as though this is a common mistake throughout the development of them. To develop this, I should plan each piece before I begin creating it in order to plot significant points, or just numerous points, and their perspective lines so that the entirety of the illustration kept the same perspective. This would also help with the judgement of the shading as it would be easier to identify which parts were further away and hence their degree of rotation relative to the amount of darkness or lightness that the area requires.
I have chosen to produce my work entirely digitally as I find it easier to manage. Not only this, but it is often more accurate as, for example, points on a curve can be modified in Adobe Illustrator, whereas hand-drawing a curve would not allow any modification to something after it was drawn. This meant that I could spend less time planning work and more time producing it, as a plan would be the start of the actual production. Not only this, but it also was much easier to implement into the website rather than the two alternative methods: scanning all of my work in and then putting it on the website; printing all of my work off and sticking it in a book. Keeping the work and the portfolio in the same medium allowed for a more flexible experience with it. Also, producing work digitally opens up a wide array of tools to use, meaning that endless possibilities can be achieved, such as, and especially, image manipulation.
My final piece is a fictional scene, inspired from The Simpsons, with an underlying message. The idea behind the piece started as a reflection on my childhood, but more importantly what persistently was in it. One of the first things that came to mind was The Simpsons - a cartoon about an American family produced by Matt Groening. This made me realise that I fit into the category of which KAWS defined in his quote from an interview of his, as a cartoon had impacted my life more than regular politics had. Since the subject of the project was Transformation, I needed a transformation of which I could apply to this memory. From my mind map, I decided to follow the route of change, and came to transitions, with transitions I linked age, and with age I linked the transformation of one thing, at a certain age, to another age. This made me think about the differentiation between my childhood and those of which are still being carried out today by the younger generation - keeping with the theme of transformation through age. One key difference between my childhood and the modern-day one is the sudden uproar of rap music. The majority of said music appears to be so-dubbed Gangsta rap and is a widely controversial topic for its influence of drugs, money and an apparent disrespect for women to the youth. This gave me the subject of which my childhood would transform into; however, I still wanted to include a common-ground between the transformation and my childhood. To do this, I took a popular TV series, Breaking Bad, and took its concept of drug production as the catalyst for the transformation. Hence the style and assets from The Simpsons (my childhood), used to create a scene inspired by Breaking Bad (the catalyst), to portray the sudden diversity in modern-day childhoods (the transformation) - hence the name "Breaking a Childhood". Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of my piece and the message behind it as it serves its purpose in showing transformation subtly (more if the context behind it is understood). Also, for my first major project in this style, I am pleased with the quality of the illustrations and I believe that I have been fairly successful in achieving my purpose with this piece.
I decided to present my work as a website due to many factors of which I shall explain subsequently. Primarily, by designing a website, I had more control over the visuals of it and most importantly the layout. This made it easier and quicker for me to put my work into as opposed to a book. This is because the layout, order and design could all be changed at any moment in time, meaning that it was much more flexible and less prone to planning. Another reason is that I could work on it from any machine, granted I had an internet connection, which meant that I would not face the risk of leaving or even damaging my work if it were presented, for example, in a book. The final reason is that I have had more experience as a web developer than I have at presenting in any other medium, hence a website appeared to be the most sensible choice of presentation for me. As to the layout of the website, I am very pleased with its ease of navigation as well as its aesthetical qualities as it is simplistic in both manners, yet effective visually.
If I were to make any changes to this project, or to future projects, I would like to experiment further with a wider array of styles/mediums. This is because in this project I only appeared to be influenced by a single artist, KAWS, and hence the majority of my work was digital illustrations (despite the few photo montages). I feel as though this limited my potential to finding another style of medium of which I would have either enjoyed more, or been better at than this current style. Hence in future projects, I will aim to experiment with more artists' styles and possibly different mediums.
Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and the interpretation of Transformation. This project has allowed to refine some of my techniques, such as those in digital illustrations, as minimalist image manipulation. These are two areas of which I enjoy, thus making the project even more enjoyable for me. I also believe that the use of manual methods has been an interesting twist in what I envisioned to be an entirely digital project, giving me a more hands-on experience with screen printing. I thought that the process of this was interesting as the quality of the result relied entirely on yourself, and the colours of the design could be altered easily through the technique used for the spreading of the ink or the mixing of inks together. Focusing back on the digital side of the project, I have experimented with more tools within Adobe Illustrator such as Live Paint, as opposed to painting an illustration using various paths, shapes, strokes and fills. This has given me an insight into various other methods of which I could use instead of purely relying on what knowledge I had prior to starting this project.
In conclusion, I feel as though this project has been the most enjoyable as it relied a lot more on myself and my ability to organise work; this being research, production and overall management. It has, also, allowed me to discover small, but great, artists, such as Iulian, through my own research as he only produces his work on various graphical sharing/selling websites, as opposed to producing and selling them himself. This is directly reversed when it comes to KAWS as he is a well-known artist for his work and manages it himself rather than 3rd party websites, yet their talent in their fields are on par with one-another. This has allowed me to find small-time artists with great potential and hopefully I can use them as inspiration for future projects.
