Summative project report

I initially decided to do the degree because I wanted to work as a creative some day. I want to earn money using my strongest ability which is my creativity and the toughest learning curve has been realising the complexity and practicalities of doing this. I've had to negotiate a compromise with the perfectionist in me. 

Over the 603 module I've realised which contexts my work falls into and how to adapt my process to communicate effectively. The module has been an extended trial and error process throughout where I've resolved the bad habits that were holding my process back.

I needed to stop, reflect and ask myself, 'What do I want from the module and degree as a whole?'. It came at a time in the module when I was really struggling and became very self critical. I was blinded by tunnel vision for a while, making work I didn't believe in so I'm happy with how I've resolved my practice as a whole over the module and proud of the work I've made. 

Self imposed restrictions were crippling my productivity as well as my ability to create an environment in which to let work flow naturally. I fell into a laborious hand drawn process which really slowed my productivity and didn't allow me to communicate ideas or let me realise my ambitions of making inspiring work. 

To have a USP I had to fully express my fresh perspective on the world. I needed to be open and honest to let this happen. Using collage has helped me realise my ambitions for the kind of work I truly want to make. It's allowed me to fully express my voice and create darkly humorous work that challenges both my audience and the subjects in the work. A huge benefit of collage is I don't overthink, become precious or fussy as I make the work so I can visualise a finishing point and a resolved image as I work that captures the tone and message I'm looking for. I rarely achieved this with drawing so it's eliminated the dread that came when starting new projects before. With drawing, my ideas were dictated by which ever drawing I rather randomly came up with. With collage, the idea always drives the process and outcome. 

I've been able to reach out to my audience, realise what it is I want to say to the world and how I want to say it. I believe I can create a stunning spectacle that grabs my audience and I've been able to absorb my passions and influences such as film, TV, science and nature into my work. I've rearranged and adjusted my practice to fit my mental health and personality. I believe I've achieved that through being less hard on myself and allowing myself to enjoy the process of making. It was becoming unsustainable before and it wouldn't have been worth the mental strain I was putting myself under. I've fully realised the importance of finding a process that is flexible and fun as well as being efficient at realising an idea.    

Being able to incorporate type into my illustrations has also been a massive breakthrough for me. I'm pleased with the Beautiful Beast final outcomes because they've allowed me to create the kind of work I want to make professionally and visualise my work in more varied and exciting contexts such as editorial and commercial illustration which often inspires me so I was able to contextualise and format them into mock up editorial articles. 

While I was disappointed not to produce any significant work with Kubrick films as the focal point as I'd planned, this failure was precisely the failure I used as the spark to change my process, stop and ask myself why I couldn't achieve the spectacle I'd wanted and do the work justice. The Kubrick project failed in the same way the adidas brief had. I've been able to use these failures and try new methods and that has been my biggest success. The module has been as much about reflecting on my process as it has been about building my portfolio. If I hadn't realised, learned and adapted from my previous projects in the module then I'd be finishing my degree with a much more pessimistic mindset. 

Whilst researching Kubrick's The Shining I started to see parallels in the jittery madness between the film and my head space at certain points. Luckily that's where the similarities ended and I've finished the module with a very positive and optimistic outlook on what I can achieve with my practice after my degree.   

Presentation Boards

7 x 7

Reflection 4

I feel in a much better place about the direction my work has taken in the last few weeks. What was meant to be a side project alongside my Stanley Kubrick project has become my best work. I've made it my main project because I'm more excited by it and my responses to my Kubrick project ideas weren't having the impact I'd envisaged.

My new direction has allowed me to use my strengths and the work has flowed much better. I've focused on the subjects I'm passionate about focusing on the shift in society towards climate change and our new perspective of how we look after the planet and it's species. 

It's been liberating using collage because it's allowed me to reflect on and express my views on these subjects much more effectively. I wouldn't of been able to get across the sharper, darker tones of my views just using drawings. My collage has a 'f*ck you' edge (my girlfriend's description) to it, a humour and a reflection of my personality. The collages are a combination of my desire to make something beautiful that brings pleasure to people but also with a message that was lacking before. 

I realised I was using cliched motifs of native american culture and slightly shoehorning them into other Shining references. It wasn't interesting enough to just draw Shelley Duvall and stick native American clothes on her. It was saying the opposite to what I think about the film which I thought was a beautiful film that needs a more in depth analysis and a fresh opinion to say about the film rather than pointing out the flawed interpretations of others. Also the themes of the Native American genocide in the film were serious subjects that I was on the verge of trivialising with lighthearted drawings. 

My partner has been really influential in helping my practice. She's honest and critical in a useful way about what she thinks of my work and her positive reaction to the new work along with friends has been a massive boost. Most importantly I'm enjoying my own work and not stressing as much in general. It's also been a proper reminder of the importance of making work for things you're passionate about. I've definitely felt the stress lately and it feels like a much needed breakthrough which is a relief. It can be a lonely place when you're not happy with your work and can't see a way of resolving it. 

Using collage again has allowed me to experiment combining typography with my work. I'm able to use the warm hues and colour schemes I prefer too and offset that warmth with the darker humour that was absent before. I need to start seeing myself as a creative worker with multiple skills covering multiple areas such as graphic design, rather than restricting myself by thinking 'I just do the pictures'. Labelling myself as a singular thing has held my practice back and I've realised I'm able to use type effectively and use it as visual tool that works alongside my artwork. I feel more optimistic and confident about expanding the range of disciplines I can work in, in the future. 

The Shining

Collage has been fun to use again to take a break from the drawing. The drawing took a while to come up with but the collage is so much faster and has more impact especially for the Room 237 film theory that The Shining is about the genocide of Native Indians. 

With the drawing I wanted to look at the way the Room 237 contributors took apart the film and over analysed it with lots of far fetched theories. I tried to make a poster with the drawing but find it really difficult to combine my drawings with type. It never works and the type and drawings take something away from each other. 

Collage fits much better with type. I'm still a novice with typography, it's always been a weak point for me but I want to use it more and in more interesting ways than just plonking it next to an image. 

Using one colour is helping eliminate indecision with colours. 

Evil Vultures

This BBC documentary has inspired me to start a side project about the bad reputation certain animals have which I looked at for my COP. 99.9 of some vultures have been wiped out. I want to also highlight the facts of decimating a species and the knock on effects on humans to challenge the myth that there are no consequences for us when a species is wiped out. Vultures are vital to the ecosystem and the demonising of them has led to a lack of caring about the rapid decline in numbers. I want to highlight the thought process of embracing some animals but not all and the how neglect and ignorance can lead to devastation for humans as well as the species being driven to extinction. Without vultures, dead animals are left to rot and spread decease. It's just one species but it shows the dangers of allowing just one animal to disappear and highlights our ignorance and abuse of the ecosystem.  

Room 237

The main focus of my work will be about Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) and specifically the wild theories about hidden meanings within the film. He has a reputation for being a reclusive genius who acts like a dictator when making his movies but a bit of research shows that's not true.

I want to make some work in response to these theories, most of which are told in the documentary film Room 237 (2012) which has some elaborate and ridiculous theories from some of the commentators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sz6AXOQU4A&t=6092s (proper version on Amazon Prime).

Kubrick's films are so thoroughly thought out and so clinically executed with such depth that I think focusing on one film will be better for time keeping. Each film deserves a whole project to itself. Plus I'm now obsessed with The Shining.

There's loads of layers, symbols and props I can use. I want to highlight the absurdity of the claims in the film and try have some fun with it so I don't get too bogged down with the project.