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.

603 - Kubrick Exhibition

Good for research for my Kubrick project and beyond...

https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/stanley-kubrick-the-exhibition

603 - Stanley Kubrick research

I had a visit to the Stanley Kubrick Archive when we went down for the Hanbury trip. I only had an hour and a half so only got to look at a few items from the Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey films. There's so much to look at so I had The Shining scripts with Kubrick's notes on them scanned and managed to have a look at Jack's Eagles t-shirt, and Wendy's yellow jacket. It was slightly surreal seeing the clothing which was faded and weary looking. It wasn't much time but it was worth a look for a bit of inspiration and shear curiosity as a fan of the films.

Stanley Kubrick Archive scans...



I had an idea of a tongue in cheek mini project that drew similarities between my experience on the course and The Shining. The stress has been getting to me lately and it was funny to match up some of the iconic scenes from film's hotel and the university. Room 237 is the best comparison. I wasn't sure what the overall contextual meaning would be and it wouldn't be worth just copying and pasting the characters from the film into the university building for a cheap laugh so might shelve it for now.



Shining (DVD) screen shots

Archive ref

SK/12/1/2/2 Typewritten notes on yellow paper giving plot and character points relating to the storylines for the scenes on board the Discovery Spacecraft and mainly relating to the computer character for the storyline of 2001: Space Odyssey

SK/12/2/1/31 Black and white photographs of the surface of the Earth taken from space

http://archives.arts.ac.uk/CalmView/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=SK%2f12%2f2%2f4

SK/12/2/4 Pre-production Artwork

SK/12/2/4/10 The scene depicts a teacher with children painting a pond area in the moon base.

SK/12/2/4/11 The file contains large pictures of concept artwork depicting spaceships as well as life on alien worlds. Included are pictures of the giant Monolith above Jupiter with an astronaut standing on it.

SK/12/2/4/4 Storyboards

SK/12/2/4/6 Roy Carnon Artwork

SK/12/2/4/7 Richard McKenna Artwork

SK/12/2/2/10 Pictures by Chesley Bonestell of futuristic spacecraft and planets in the Solar System. Also included are photographs of distant galaxies.

SK/12/2/4/21 Earth Art Transparencies

SK/12/3/16 Lists and photographs of costumes worn by the cast.

SK/12/3/16/2 Three colour positive transparencies of the ape masks

SK/12/3/2/19 Colour transparencies of scenes in Africa for Dawn of Man sequence.

SK/12/9/1/2 Black and white photographs of members of the cast and crew members on set.

SK/12/9/4 Commissioned Drawings and Paintings

SK/12/9/1/2/11 Prints of actors in costume, including Ed Bishop, William Sylvester and Leonard Rossiter.

SK/12/9/1/3/3 Final Bedroom Scene

SK/12/9/1/8/2 Pictures of the Starchild model, seen at the end of the film.

Shining

SK/15/3/4/2 Jacks Manuscript: eight sets of typewritten stacks of paper on each sheet of which is written "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

SK/15/3/3/3 Clothes and shoes for Wendy Torrance (played by Shelley Duvall) in six boxes.

SK/15/3/3/2 Costume for Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) in 5 boxes.

SK/15/3/4/10 Instructions for using the radio. The radio was used several times by the character Wendy, including a scene where she tries to contact the Sheriff only to find that Jack has broken it.

SK/15/3/4/12 The letters comment on not being able to think at the Hotel, and of strange dreams, and cuts off mid-sentence

SK/15/3/4/13 Overlook Hotel Letterheaded Paper

SK/15/6/1 Photographs and photographic material of set models

SK/15/6/2 Photographs of sets, both during the creation process and completed. Sets include hotel exterior and common rooms.

SK/15/6/4 Two files of images of the prop labyrinth

SK/15/6/3 Photographs and photographic material related to production, and especially filming. Many of these images appear to have been later used for publicity

SK/15/2/5Letter to Jan Harlan from Rudi Fehr with list of popular songs from 1920 to 1935.

SK/15/1/19 A one page description of a possible finale,

SK/15/1/1 Handwritten notes on Stephen King's novel 'The Shining'

SK/15/2/2/7 Photograph - Piano Lounge of the RMS Laconia

SK/15/2/1 Location Research

SK/15/2/3/3 61 drawings of floor plans, elevations and projected appearance of Overlook Hotel

SK/15/1/22 Partial draft script

Reflection 3

Hanbury 

Hanbury was a reminder that it's possible to have a multi-disciplined practice. It's possible I won't end up doing just 2D illustration and I shouldn't restrict myself to 2D illustration. I feel just drawings and collage won't keep me fully satisfied forever and I want to try 3D/CGI illustration after seeing the stunning work on Dust Studio's site.

I had a great talk with Michael Crozier from Dust Studio who I've been in touch with and his CGI work had inspired me to be much more ambitious with my work and what skills I want to learn. He recommended drawing pads he uses and the best software for 3D. Learning the software and creating 3D work is for the future. More than anything it's inspirational seeing the of kind work Dusk Studio do and what's possible. 

The restrictions of my hand drawn illustrations is something I need to be ruthless about from a professional point of view. They take longer and because I'm working to a deadline, rather than drawing for pleasure or just to experiment, they are losing their purpose of communicating. I've been having fun playing with collage for my other project about animals/nature/trophy hunting because I'm less fussy and precious. I love drawing, and have developed a fluid, bolder way to draw, realising the importance of having confident, bold strokes. Switching to a brush pen has helped rather than my slightly hesitant pencil drawings which always felt not finished or committed somehow. 

However, in the creative industry I will need to collaborate, compromise, be fast and flexible in making adjustments to my work and right now my collage feels much more superior to my drawing as a problem solving method. I'm happy to keep playing and experimenting with my drawing but I'll keep pushing my collage work because it's allowed me to incorporate typography which I've shied away from when using drawings, which I've consistently struggled to gel with type in a coherent way. I want my work to be bold and clinical enough to stand alongside type. I love the contemporary journals and magazines such as Wired and feel collage fits better with the aesthetic realised through my article mock ups. 

Drawing is such a personal and hard earned process. Considering I started my degree only three years ago I have plenty of time to develop my drawing practice for future work and if I get success through the drawing then that's great but I also want to learn how to make work that really connects with people and I want to do what ever method is necessary to communicate to my audience. It's taken a while but I've realised the key is to communicate an idea, ideas are the most crucial part to being a creative and the process is merely the method you communicate best with. This might end up being film, photography or illustration but I can keep working on all at once. I believe I can excel at anything I try now I know how many hours I'm willing to work creatively.