During today's review I saw the other posters in the room produced by my peers. I looked around at so many beautiful posters with interesting subjects and expertly crafted drawings. I felt that my work was weak in comparison, but tried to stay confident in my poster. I knew that I would find today's review difficult but I wanted to get as much feedback from it as possible in order to progress my work from where it stands currently. Looking at other people's work that I found successful would be a chance to pinpoint why it is so successful and how I can achieve such results.
People commented that what was successful about my work was that my subject and intention was clear. It was obvious that I was studying the personas of David Bowie. Some of my peers were also fans of Bowie and found the subject amusing, but others who were less familiar could still identify at least one of Bowie's personas and appreciate the expanse of his career. My poster was informative in this way and offered information to the viewer about my subject.
I think that I succeeded in understanding my subject through research. My early drawings of David Bowie weren't as identifiable as they are in the final piece. I watched videos of Bowie dancing, at photos of his costumes and listened to his music in order to compile a complete anatomy of his character. I investigated his life through fashion, expression and personas until I could recreate him as a character that moved and 'spoke' in the same way.
If I were to develop this project further, I would attempt to offer something more than just humour and information. I'd like my poster to say something important and change the way that the viewer thinks. I'd want to focus on more emotive content and make the poster a personal topic.
Neneh's poster did this effectively; she made a poster about 'Sisterhood' which was a very personal document of her relationship with her sister, but a lot of the class had an emotional reaction to that it in that they could associate memories and their own relationships with this subject. I found her poster greatly moving and there was a really sensitive and genuine tone of voice running through her work.
My peers also liked the colours I used and I think that this was the perfect choice for my poster. The bold red helped to tie all of the different elements of the poster together and work as a complete collection. I'd never worked to such a restricted colour palette before and I was wary about that challenge. Although it was not a restriction I had used before, I found that the effect made the final illustrations much less distracting and made the poster a lot more simple and less garish than if I used a full colour spread. This colour choice worked really well for a poster and I will definitely consider this restriction if I ever make a poster or a busy page similar to this again.
Other people had taken the monochrome restriction and only used black and white. For some projects, this was an appropriate choice as it kept to their subject, but I think that they lacked the attention that colour can bring and this restricted their artwork and reach.
Several students used coloured paper and worked with black media on top. I think this was a great choice because it enabled them to feature colours without taking away from the bold outline that can be achieved with a black pen.
Alex P's Kanye poster, for example, looked incredible on a neon pink ground. The juxtaposition of luminous colour with a serious black drawing on top matched her satirical humour.
If I could develop this project further, I'd like to see how my poster would compare if it was made with black drawings atop a red paper background.
I was asked several times what media I had used. I used several different types of media within this poster and had a lot of fun matching textures to each persona.
I used gouache, felt pens, coloured pencils and water colour which each gave a different quality of line. Perhaps this mixture made my poster too complicated and lacking consistency, but my peers seemed to like the aesthetic.
I really loved how Megan used lino cuts to reprint the same character over her alphabet and add simple accessories to change the situation. This reminded me of my summer project and how I used the same doll for each scenario, only changing the expression or location. A very tactful method which saved Megan time.
I think that I succeeded in understanding my subject through research. My early drawings of David Bowie weren't as identifiable as they are in the final piece. I watched videos of Bowie dancing, at photos of his costumes and listened to his music in order to compile a complete anatomy of his character. I investigated his life through fashion, expression and personas until I could recreate him as a character that moved and 'spoke' in the same way.
If I were to develop this project further, I would attempt to offer something more than just humour and information. I'd like my poster to say something important and change the way that the viewer thinks. I'd want to focus on more emotive content and make the poster a personal topic.
Neneh's poster did this effectively; she made a poster about 'Sisterhood' which was a very personal document of her relationship with her sister, but a lot of the class had an emotional reaction to that it in that they could associate memories and their own relationships with this subject. I found her poster greatly moving and there was a really sensitive and genuine tone of voice running through her work.
My peers also liked the colours I used and I think that this was the perfect choice for my poster. The bold red helped to tie all of the different elements of the poster together and work as a complete collection. I'd never worked to such a restricted colour palette before and I was wary about that challenge. Although it was not a restriction I had used before, I found that the effect made the final illustrations much less distracting and made the poster a lot more simple and less garish than if I used a full colour spread. This colour choice worked really well for a poster and I will definitely consider this restriction if I ever make a poster or a busy page similar to this again.
Other people had taken the monochrome restriction and only used black and white. For some projects, this was an appropriate choice as it kept to their subject, but I think that they lacked the attention that colour can bring and this restricted their artwork and reach.
Several students used coloured paper and worked with black media on top. I think this was a great choice because it enabled them to feature colours without taking away from the bold outline that can be achieved with a black pen.
Alex P's Kanye poster, for example, looked incredible on a neon pink ground. The juxtaposition of luminous colour with a serious black drawing on top matched her satirical humour.
If I could develop this project further, I'd like to see how my poster would compare if it was made with black drawings atop a red paper background.
I was asked several times what media I had used. I used several different types of media within this poster and had a lot of fun matching textures to each persona.
I used gouache, felt pens, coloured pencils and water colour which each gave a different quality of line. Perhaps this mixture made my poster too complicated and lacking consistency, but my peers seemed to like the aesthetic.
I really loved how Megan used lino cuts to reprint the same character over her alphabet and add simple accessories to change the situation. This reminded me of my summer project and how I used the same doll for each scenario, only changing the expression or location. A very tactful method which saved Megan time.
Composition was something a lot of people struggled with. I explained how I'd attempted to solve this issue by drawing out the Bowies individually, then cutting them and arranging them on the specified format of paper and then finally copying this onto the final page using a lightbox.
This process worked well for me and although I can still see areas of the poster that seem just a little out of place or too cluttered, my peers said that the way I'd laid the page out worked for this project. They admired my use of cutting and pasting to achieve my initial order.
Siobhan's A-Z of Lonliness worked really well in a grid and made me wonder whether mine would have looked more systematic and structured in that format, but her topic was very different to my own. The grid system gave Siobhan's poster a consistent and very slick overall finish.
I did try arranging my subject in that way and I chose the random placement over that for a reason, because it looked better for my subject. I will keep in mind the power that order and composition has over a piece of artwork because I will definitely encounter this challenge of arrangement again in most of the work I do. Composition should never be overlooked.
Other people had skills in imagination. I think I have skills in imagination but I tried to restrict myself by working in 'reality' in order to produce a widely-appreciated image.
I used imagination in the form of character development to translate a real person into a caricature.
The character still looked like David Bowie, even though it wasn't a realistic drawing.
Imagination was particularly successful in the work of Megan, whose A-Z poster was completely fictional and read as a story about getting a bear to fly. Storytelling and imagination is something that I enjoy and I don't want to restrict myself this much in future tasks. I want to feel free to create work that I love and will not take briefs quite so seriously in that respect. Although it is important to follow the instructions and client's request, I think that a sense of authorship is also valuable.
This process worked well for me and although I can still see areas of the poster that seem just a little out of place or too cluttered, my peers said that the way I'd laid the page out worked for this project. They admired my use of cutting and pasting to achieve my initial order.
Siobhan's A-Z of Lonliness worked really well in a grid and made me wonder whether mine would have looked more systematic and structured in that format, but her topic was very different to my own. The grid system gave Siobhan's poster a consistent and very slick overall finish.
I did try arranging my subject in that way and I chose the random placement over that for a reason, because it looked better for my subject. I will keep in mind the power that order and composition has over a piece of artwork because I will definitely encounter this challenge of arrangement again in most of the work I do. Composition should never be overlooked.
Other people had skills in imagination. I think I have skills in imagination but I tried to restrict myself by working in 'reality' in order to produce a widely-appreciated image.
I used imagination in the form of character development to translate a real person into a caricature.
The character still looked like David Bowie, even though it wasn't a realistic drawing.
Imagination was particularly successful in the work of Megan, whose A-Z poster was completely fictional and read as a story about getting a bear to fly. Storytelling and imagination is something that I enjoy and I don't want to restrict myself this much in future tasks. I want to feel free to create work that I love and will not take briefs quite so seriously in that respect. Although it is important to follow the instructions and client's request, I think that a sense of authorship is also valuable.
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