Notes On Reflection

Digital notes on reflection

 

Notes On Reflection

 

 

 

1. What combinations of digital tools, materials and techniques did you explore to construct the images?

 

I used photoshop most regularly, to paste things into and manipulate images. I used photoshop to resize my scanned in art for further work. I used the eraser tools to tidy pieces up. I upped the contrast and saturation on scans as they don’t always scan the same quality when I have scanned work in. I used Adobe Illustrator to make Vector images. I used Adobe After Effects to make Puppet tool animations with the work of mine which was half a painting and half digital medium. I used Adobe Photoshop to create a GIF with the bird images from Moodle. I had wanted to animate a ribbon also for the Parade work but I was not the best at being time efficient … that is something I still need to work on and struggle with.

 

 

 

 2. How has your analysis of working methods and processes used by illustrators informed the development of your own work?

 

I feel through the inspiration of observing others work and techniques, I feel encouraged to just try and not be worried of stylized ideals. There are so many techniques and styles, it’s great to be inspired so much. It has a direct positive impact on a person as an artist.

 

 

 

3. What technical problems have you encountered and how have you overcome them?

 

I had a bit of trouble following instructions during class and remembering the process, so I found having hand-outs with the lesson plan on was a great help. So, I have something to refer to each time I want to use those processes.

 

 

 

4. How are you using drawing in the development of your digital work?

 

I have used my digital tablet to tidy a few bits up, but this is something I would like to get more familiar with. I have mostly been drawing on paper then scanning things in, so I would like to try to do complete pieces only using the tablet. Experimenting with all the different digital tools in Adobe Photoshop. I like the Vector images we made using a photograph, I would like to use that again with photographs I have taken. To be able to mix up the mediums.

 

 

 

5. Have you identified moments when digital tools have been a very useful/useless tool. 

 

I found that being able to scan in art work and manipulate the colour saturations and contrasts is great! Being able to quickly copy your work to work from is very useful as well. The way you can share your work globally online is very good. However, some formats that some websites don’t like uploading, can be stressful. As you can lose quality of images when there is too much compression in using a JPEG image for example. Where you would have uploaded a TIFF file or a PNG, but not all websites can upload these formats. So sometimes that is frustrating, as it can change how your image looks radically. I have also found, that the screen on my laptop when editing images, looks different than the image when it is displayed online on my phone. Which is then hard to tell how well the digital image has been made, without trying to check lots of different screen qualities. That does pose a bit of an issue with digital art for me. I feel perhaps it is best to use digital tools to make the art, but to print a copy out as well as just sharing the digital version. Then you have a visible and tactile copy of the colour and line quality of your work.

 

 

 

6. Has the module helped to identify areas of weakness/strengths/areas of interest that you would like to develop in the future?

 

I would like to work more with using movement to further my designs. I’ve always enjoyed cartoons and simple drawings and movement. You can bring anything ‘to life’ with adding even the smallest movement to it. It’s quite exciting for future work.

 

 

 

7. How effectively have you managed saving and storing your work.

 

I have been saving my work both on a memory stick and on an external hard drive. I have been thinking, is the one external hard drive enough or should I back things up again. Something to contemplate on, whether to buy another one or not. Then put everything on those and keep the USB stick freed up. As it is small and easy to take into University even in your pocket.

 

Zoetrope

 

I wanted to celebrate some of the earlier beginnings of animated images by creating my own paper zoetrope.

I love the motion in drawings, even in some that appear not to have any. I was inspired by the American girl, from the 1917 Parade Ballet, it was the movement in her skirt that spun round that caught my attention.

The zoetrope was not the first moving images that was invented, there were actually other designs before it. Which I think is quite incredible, and the beginnings to the age of moving pictures we have now.

I first looked on the internet for the quickest way to make a simple zoetrope, where I found this … (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Zoetrope)

It took me a while to find the right base, I made one before this one but it was too heavy. So then I made this one, I took a plastic shallow lid and pierced into the centre of it. I placed a split pin through the under side, and taped it down on the inside of the lid. I covered that with some paper. Then I had to measure the circumference of the lid for the pieces of paper and card I needed next. I got the desired amount of black card, and measured intervals of equal space along its length. I repeated this for a piece of white paper that was half of the black card’s height. I cut slits into the black card half way in height and along each interval line. I stuck the black card into the inside of the plastic lid.

For the image design, I went into the image files I had just previously created for the Horse GIF. I selected the specific frames I wanted on the layer, and cut and pasted the image onto a new photoshop file. I took six images/frame images and positioned them neatly, so I may print them for placing onto the white paper.

 

So, I printed them off and stuck them onto the white paper, and then placed that on the inside of the black card. Here it is finished …

 

I then tried to video the zoetrope spinning on my phone’s camera, but I was not entirely happy with the outcome, and was not sure if I could convert it to a GIF for Word Press. That is why I decided to do another stop motion file instead, to display the Zoetrope in action! Here it is … (Same process as the last stop motion for the making of the stop motion, and then converting the AVI/MPEG4 file to a GIF file to upload here)

 

 

I’m not sure if it is at the ideal speed or camera angle .. or if it is better viewed by eye. Perhaps best by eye, or I could have made a few more videos at different angles and speed. These things take trial and error I suspect.

 

 

 

American Girl Stop Motion Animation

I wanted to use stop motion for an animation, as I love the older styles of animations as well as the newer techniques.    

It has a very retro feel, and was fun. The only down side was that I struggled to position the camera in the ideal place whilst in class, so I managed to do the image capture at home with a music stand to clip the stop motion camera on in the best placement.

For this process, I first sketched a piece of the American Girl from the 1917 Parade Ballet in my sketchbook. I decided to use a colour theme for my work for Parade, as I felt the Ballet research indicated a very proud cultural feel. Which included a French manager and American girl. The colours for the American and French flags are red, white and blue. Red was also used in the Conjuror’s costume, and  it is typically used in circus illustrations and tents. I experimented with the colours, by dripping red and blue ink onto white cartridge paper, and then added some red and blue acrylic droplets. Which gave an interesting effect in places as the ink rejected the acrylic, so slightly marbled and dispersed.  I photocopied that to use for collage as background for the wheel. I placed the American girl sketch on top of the wheel and stuck that in place. I drew a circle around the wheel on a piece of A3 cartridge paper, so I could see the positioning I wanted for the stop motion process. I like the circus stripes and thought I could use that around the wheel as I experimented with that in my sketchbook and thought it looked nice. Then, I set up the stop motion camera kit I have on my laptop, positioned the paper and wheel. I created a new folder for the stop motion image files. I used the ‘grab’ selection to take each image, taking one then moving it slightly. Then taking another image, and repeating the process for each image capture. I discovered that the wheel appeared to spin faster on the pieces that I had made larger movements on the turn of the wheel, and slower for the images that I spaced in smaller movements.  When I had made the animation as I wanted, then I selected ‘Make Movie’, which saved as an .AVI file. So then I had to select, open with Photoshop. When it opened in Adobe Photoshop, I selected File>Export>Save for web(legacy). Changed the setting to save it as a .GIF file, then changed it to loop as ‘Forever’>saved as> then uploaded to Word Press.      

I would like to use this process again, and perhaps edit the individual images to contain digital mediums as well as the hard mediums.                                                     

Sequence And Narrative.

The process begins …

This is the original source I was given to work with:

A factual book, with text and illustrations based on different types of weapons and armour throughout the ages.

I began to explore the book through reading, and drawing some of the illustrations from the book. Here are some of those first drawings I did:

I enjoyed drawing these, but I struggled to find a strong narrative at this point. So I decided to pick an era from the book to try and find a sequential idea. I picked the Viking era, and wrote a few ideas down. After settling on two to try, I drew some more draft sketches.  Here are some of those drawings:

I then decided upon one story line, which was that of the shape shifting Viking God Loki. However, I found there was not enough narrative to explain the story with just those draft sketches. So, I decided to use some informative text and text graphics with old and new images. I drew the new book design out on individual pieces of A6 paper. I drew the second colour layer images first, as I wanted to see the hard lines of structure of the image before drawing the first colour layer. I used the light box to then draw the first colour layer, by placing the second colour layer images onto the light box underneath the paper for the first colour layer design. Which allowed me to see the areas I wished to use to create a tonal or block colour effect, to design the first colour images. I wanted to use the first colour layer as a tonal effect, which I feel worked quite well. Once I had finished the designs, I laid the first colour layer onto the light box, then placed the second colour layer on top of that. At this stage it is all hand draw with black Copic marker for the first layer, and black fine liner for the top layer. Here is a photo of how it looked on the light box:

I am excited to see how it will look with colour.

After deciding I am happy with the design, I then scanned each individual image into the computer. I used Photoshop to crop each image and place them onto an A3 horizontal page. Which I had already made a grid on, using the ruler guides to create the eight individual A6 sections for the flat layout of the screen print book. I had to use free transform to resize and rotate the images to the correct formula that would allow the book to be folded up, to display the images in the correct sequence. Here are the finished Photoshop designs:

First colour layer:

Second colour layer:

The next stage of process for the screen printing was, to print a one copy of each of the layers onto A3 paper. I then used the light box again to check alignment of the images, seeing as I moved things around in Photoshop previously. Thankfully I was happy to go ahead without needed any adjustments.

I used a cloth to rub lots of linseed oil over the top of the papers, which was then left over night. This made the paper almost transparent and ready for image exposure onto silk screens. Sadly I did not take any photos of that part of the process, though thinking on it now I would have like to have done so. Perhaps next time.

So, the silk screen had already been prepared for me with a special type of medium used for image transference. I laid the papers onto the special machine (forgot the names of the equipment and the medium used previously .. will update this when I ask again), then placed the silk screens on top. Pulled the cover down, switched on the UV light … pressed the nice green button for about 15 seconds. Then switched it off, and took the papers and screens out.

The next part of the process was to power wash the silk screens, until they were clear of the residue in the negative spaces of the transposed images. This was to prepare the screen for the ink passing through the desired places. I had to allow the screens to then dry, and helped them dry a bit faster by using the hand driers on them.

I wanted to have a look at different colour choices for the screen printed book before mixing up paint, so I used Photoshop to change the colours of the design. I colourized each individual layer different colours, and merged the two layers together to view the colour choices. I did this a few times. Here are some of those designs:

I tried some turquoise blues, which contrast nicely against the red. This gave a 3D effect, similar to the styles used in movement drawings or actions drawings.

 

 

This dark green and black design felt a bit too flat.

 

 

The orange and brown colour scheme looks more like sepia tones, but doesn’t create the best effect.

 

The pale blue and pink surprised me in how effective it looks, it also feels more fun and playful. These will be the colours I use in the printing process.

 

Now that I have chosen my colour schemes, I mixed up the correct tones for each colour with acrylic paint and added the same quantity of screen printing medium (forgot to note the name .. again will edit this part too) into the mixture.  I used a board with vice grips at the top of the board, on the table to attach the first colour layer screen in position. Lifted the screen up out of the way, and placed the desired paper underneath the screen on top of the board. I made sure the paper was in the best position and bought the screen down onto in. I then used a plastic paint knife to put a generous amount of paint across the top edge of the screen, and pulled the ink through at a 45 degree angle with the squeegee (I think that is what the tool is called, I will check this also). I had to scrape off excess ink from the squeegee and replace it to the top of the screen each time, sometimes having to use the knife to move ink from the bottom of the screen and putting it back to the top. I pulled the ink through twice for each piece of paper.

To create the second colour layer, I took that screen off the board and replaced it with the second screen. To help align the image layer correctly, I made the first print onto tracing paper. First the tracing paper was placed on top of the board, with the screen hinged up out of the way and placing the paper in the right position to receive the design through the silk screen. The tracing paper was positioned towards the edge of the board on the right hand side, with tape laid across the length of the horizontal edge away from the desired area. I made a hinge on the tracing paper, by folding it back onto itself along the crease of where the tape had been laid. Then the paper was placed back under the screen, the screen is brought down on top of the paper. I used a plastic paint knife to put a generous amount of paint across the top edge of the screen, and then pulled the ink through at a 45 degree angle with the squeegee (I think that is what the tool is called, will check this also). I did this once for the tracing paper on the silk screen, then lifted it up and was able to use the tracing paper as guides for the second layer of ink to go on. I slid the paper underneath the tracing paper, and masking taped just next to the edge of the paper when it was in correct alignment with the tracing paper image. So it could be used as  rough guide. I also used masking tape on the corners of the paper to hold it in position, so the paper would not lift when pulling up the screen. I folded the tracing paper out of the way, on its hinge. Then I placed the screen down, and pulled ink through in the same manner twice onto the paper. I checked to see how it had came out, and though I like the texture of screen printing and the effect. It seems that perhaps my screen was blocked in areas, as some of the lines of the images and text did not print too well. I tried on a few prints to use a small lino piece to push the ink through specific places, where it had not previously taken. This worked a little but was not overly effective.

I allowed the designs to dry, and cleaned up the paint pots and squeegees in the sink. I had to clean the screen with the power wash again, which I seemed to get a bit covered in spray back. So I did use a mask for that bit in the end. I left the screen to be completely cleaned by the staff that deal with the chemical removal process for taking the images and mediums off of the screens.

I picked my favourite ones from the screen printing process. I trimmed it down using the guillotine and folded it into a book, which was fun!

To fold it into the right lay out:  I made the first fold with the paper laid out in portrait, from right side to the left. Then unfolded that and folded it in half, from the top edge to the bottom. Then unfolded that and folded the top edge to the middle crease, then the bottom edge to the middle crease. I unfolded it all again. Then took a ruler and paper knife, to make an incision along the central vertical crease. Which started from the first horizontal crease line to the third. Then I pinched the paper in along the second horizontal crease, pushed both sides of the paper out to back onto themselves. Which then can be folded, using a bone folder to help crease the paper nicely.

I took photos of my completed book. Here are some of the photographs:

COVER

PAGE 1

PAGE 2

PAGE 3

PAGE 4

PAGE 5

PAGE 6

PAGE 7

I scanned one of the best ones into the computer, to keep digitally. Also to play with in Adobe Photoshop. Here is the scan:

I like the effect, and enjoyed the process. Though I felt the colours are slightly more muted in these prints than the digital version, and a bit of the text is missing. I thought I could edit a scan of the print in Photoshop to change the colours or retouch the text. I did make three edits, just of the colours:

This was my first edit of the screen printed book:

I like how it kept the texture and I was able to just make the colour pop! I cropped the scanned images slightly, upped the contrast. Pushed the brightness up, and the vibrance levels. I turned the saturation up also, and saved the image as a JPEG for my blog.

I did not exit the image at that point, I just pushed the invert adjustment to create this edit:

 

I quite like the grungy, negative effect on this.

I went back to the original scan and created a more old fashioned one. I cropped the scan again, used the black and white adjustment. I upped the contrast, pushed the brightness down. Turned up the exposure very slightly, used selective colour to turn the blacks up a bit. Then upped the vibrance, and put a photo filter of warming (81) onto it. Which I also saved as a JPEG for my blog. Here it is:

I like this older effect too. I feel that the motion theme is carried on through all of the images, partly due to the slightly staggered alignment. It gives the feel of action, importance and urgency. I really enjoyed the process of making this, and would love to do it again.

Illustrator-Image Trace

We imported a Bitmap image into Illustrator, copied and pasted a second copy. We then did Image Trace on the copied image. Which turned it into a black and white Vector image.

We then coloured it with a live paint bucket and layered it on the top of the first unedited image, so that there was a mix of Bitmap and Vector. Then we used colour and no fill on the layered image.

 

 

 

Layers And Blending

 

Today we were experimenting with layers and blending.

This is my first try.