Le Gun

Following the crit from the other week, Ben said I should look at a collective/publication by a group of artists called Le Gun, who met as graduates at RCA and formed in 2004. It is made up of 5 illustrators and two designers.

On their website it states they 'create idiosyncratic imagery, which blends a punk, occult, pop and surrealist aesthetic' - which sounds really quite amazing and perfect to me.

'LE GUN’s founding members collaborate in the curation of each issue, selection being undertaken with ideals of originality and eccentricity in mind. 
LE GUN is more than a collection of artwork; LE GUN is a story of stories and stands as an independent work in its own right. Somewhere between pulp fiction and artist’s edition'

What I enjoy about the look of their publications is that they maintain this weird tone, and keep in touch with their interests and influences but manage to create an end product that is professional-looking and well curated.

SB2 | Sketches & Progress Crit

So after deliberating for a while on the whys and hows I did some really scrappy drawings of stuff I may turn into printed matter. The whole thumbnail thing and extensive planning doesn't really fit with the outcome I wish to make, as well as the tone of my author.

I don't want to just regurgitate his stories. I want to put across the feelings and ideas, as well as what his work makes me feel and think about.

The plan is to keep on making images for the time being, generate lists/a collection of images I can go from, then go into the print room and go really experimental and harness those weird vibes.

From there, I will have (hopefully) created a mountain of printed material which I can reassemble, chop up, sort out, and put into my printed publication by the end of this brief.

Here's the really quick starting sketches. Not too sure, they're not great but are okay starters I guess. Recurring things about bodies, changing, mutating, merging, melting, slimey figures, lonely ghosts and becoming  e x t e r n a l i s e d !

Peer Feedback

I made a complete meal of the feedback sheet (wrong boxes), but I did note down some things I thought were important.

• VISUAL POEM (I liked this term. It could mean lots of things.)

• Loose narrative, could use simplistic words and phrases? (Don't want text to overpower the images, or for them to become dependent on the words to 'make sense')

• Negative space

• Inversion

• Shape - to juxtapose lines. Push line drawings forward. (Colour, texture..)

• WHEN IN THE PRINT ROOM - take a list of buzzwords, stuff you can draw and just get into the print zone, okay?

Software Workshop 2

Spot Colour

• Applying tints of colour to high-contrast linework. In order to do this you need to set image mode to grayscale.

• Channels palette, drop down menu, 'New Spot Channel', pick your colour and set solidity to 100%.

• Painting in tints of one colour, by selecting a lighter shade of grey in the colour picker above the layers palette. You are able to paint in a range of tints of a single chosen spot colour.

Halftones

• Image > Mode > Bitmap

(Try this instead of Filter > Pixellate > Colour halftone -- on a gradient)

!!!

"Aaaaaah!" Me, as of now

The next stage for the Printed Pictures brief would be to plan my publication layouts, and generate ideas for pages and such.

However it's really giving me a headache!! I don't want to plan it too rigorously, because I feel when I get into the print room I will spend too much time trying to meticulously recreate my plans and whatever roughs I make.

What I want to do, is to have ideas to go ahead with, but use my time in the print room playing and experimenting (with mono, lino, and other techniques.)

Then, I will take all of this printed material I have amassed (from finished mini prints, to scraps of paper that have printed textures and drawings on them), and assemble them into the publication digitally.

This approach makes more sense in my head. Am I over-thinking?? (this is 90% probable)

I want my publication to be a collection of aesthetics and visuals and artwork that reflects my author, not exactly a narrative type thing. Hmmmmmmmmmm

Cut-Outs and Cut-Ups

'Cut-Outs and Cut-Ups: Hans Christian Andersen and William Seward Burroughs'

Edited by Hendel Teicher

Another cool book I found in the library. I think it may have been based on an exhibition that took place at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It showcased the artwork of each of these writers alongside one another.

It's an interesting comparison because they are from different countries and periods of history, and yet both used cut-ups, scissors, collage, amongst other things within their visual art. Some of the aesthetic similarities are also fun to see, and I think it's just a really lovely book on a niche subject.

Proposal Form | First one

Here's my first proposal form. This is the first draft, because it's a bit ropey and I think I'm still toying with a few others ideas. So in a way this is the pre-proposal proposal.

Study Task 1 | Brief Selection, What is the Problem?

Analysing the content of an example brief, breaking it apart to find out what the task at hand actually is and what is required of you for submission.

Adobe brief from D&AD (2017)

What problem(s) are identified by the brief?

• To use your creativity to communicate ideas and advice visually, but how will you choose to do this?

What is the brief asking you to do about it?

• 'This is your opportunity to get introspective, look at who and where you are now

• ''The challenge is to celebrate what you've learned and your great advice. Don't go too dark and navel-gazing - think fun and life-affirming'

What is the brief trying to achieve?

• Communicating ideas through image alone. Text isn't a fundamental part.
• 'Remember that craft is crucial and idea is key'

Who will benefit?

• Creatives and those in the creative industry

• Those starting out, or those established already

What is the message?

• To draw on your creative experiences and lessons to date, and share pieces of advice to the public/other creatives through illustration, photography, whatever medium you choose.

• 'This is your message of creativity and discovery, so be as expressive as possible and make it count'

• 'A visual manifesto for your future self'...'a rebuttal to all the bad advice you've been given'....'a snapshot of what you are trying to teach yourself'

Who is the audience?

• 'You get to decide who your target audience is...just be sure to tell us when you submit your work'

• 'Is it for your peers, those about to tread ground you've already explored, those that are older but no wiser...?'

How will the message be delivered?

• In the format of a set of 3 poster designs or prints
• Dimensions of 578 x 370mm (for potential publication)

Can you foresee any problems in responding to the brief?

• Maybe the piece you create doesn't effectively convey what you want, the idea is lost completely


Summary: A set of three posters/prints that convey creative advice and lessons that play on your experiences and things you've learnt through visuals alone.

SB2 Printed Pictures | Reflecting on Research

Thinking about the project ahead, in terms of what I want to set out to do, and what directions I could take based on the research I've gathered up to now.

Research

Photo collages by Burroughs. Really really love these. He taped them on his wall in massive sections, like a big collage mural. However, he wasn't precious about them. That's why only a few scraps are still around today.

'You Don't Look Like a Cop' and 'Man in Hat'

Paintings by Burroughs that have gun shots in them. Funny, interesting, weird.

Scrapbooks and collages by Burroughs. Reminiscent of Brion Gysin's work, who he collaborated with frequently. Combining word and image. Reappropriating found imagery to create new and interesting combinations. Words and language suggest thought processes, and give meaning.

I suppose throughout my research what I find inspiring and valuable is Burroughs' experimental, weird, and playful approach to everything he does. Also how his career in writing wasn't the only creative avenue he explored, going on to do collage, visual art, poetry, music, spoken word recordings.

The whole interdisciplinary thing is really interesting to me, and I suppose on some level, it's something I would like to do myself.

Another value/idea that resonates with me is how his interests managed to worm their way into all of his work, written or otherwise. Whether this was his interest in weaponry, travel, reading, it just makes everything more personal and not just surface-level.

Another thing is just the whole observational side of things, and absorbing knowledge. Gathering source material from real life, and stuff you read in books or watch on screen. I find this so valuable myself, so I guess that's why I've latched on to this part of Burroughs' work.

Software Workshop 1 | Part 2

Digital Colour Modes

• CMYK - subtractive colour, ink on paper
• RGB - additive colour, light via monitor, projector, etc

• Channels palette - how photoshop stores information on an image's colour. 

1. cyan and yellow | cyan + magenta

• If we were to consider screenprinting in CMYK, for example one screen cyan, one screen yellow...the black and white image can act as a positive for printing.

• Process of colour separation - separating an image into positives of four colours, one for each ink (C, M, Y, K). 

• Save image as TIFF. Then open image in illustrator. Use illustrator to print the document after separating the channels.

• After placing image in illustrator, go to print, set size and dpi. Then go to output, change mode to 'Separations (Host-Based), now more information is visible. You can print the different colour channels, creating a single positive for each of the process colours.

Printing Tints

• Printing tints of a colour using halftones. A black and white gradient is transformed into a grid of dots. The spacing of the dots dictates the tint/shade of the colour. 

Software Workshop 1 | Part 1

Creating a positive for screenprint

• Chinagraph pencils on kodatrace (analogue process)
• B&W print out of artwork made on computer, on regular copy paper (digital)

Example 1

• Analogue illustration that has been scanned in. Using photoshop to add additional colour.

• If something already contains colour, go to Image > Mode > Grayscale to make it B&W

• Make sure size of the document is appropriate. Image > Image Size. Check resolution and dimensions.

• 'Resample' tick box, if ticked the resolution can be maintained if/when the dimensions are changed. So if 300dpi is needed, keep box ticked.

Adjustment Layers

• Image > Adjustments - for example, levels, curves, exposure..

• Something that sits in the layers palette, doesn't contain pixel info. Just an adjustment (e.g. brightness & contrast). 

• Bottom of layers palette, black and white circle icon. A list of adjustments will appear. Can be applied to single layer below it in the stack of layers. Doesn't affect whole image/all layers.


• Printing out each layer individually, still needs to be black and white for when print-outs are going to be exposed to UV.

• Edit > Fill > select 'Black' from drop down. This means foreground and background swatches can be maintained.

• Use movement lock to restrict movement of layer. Stops layers being misaligned for print.

Example 2

• Knocking out and over-printing. Setting blend mode to multiply, simulates the overlapping of ink colours. They are set to over-print. This blend mode simulates the transparent property of the printing ink.

• Acrylic ink and binding agent. Mixing the binder adds transparency to the ink. 

• Over-printing gives the opportunity to create a third colour.

• Cursor over magenta thumbnail, turns to pointing hand. Hold command, click thumbnail, everything on that layer will be selected.

Images above. Magenta is selected, click on yellow layer, press delete.

The magenta selection has been 'knocked out'

• 'Knocking out' separate colours on layers prevents over-printing (where the colours overlap to create a third colour..) However, this could mean registering the different screens becomes more important, so they aren't out of line.

Study Task 3 | Print-Based Illustrators

Blog

Sophie Lecuyer

Wowowow! Very glad to have been shown this illustrator during this morning's presentation. Such a varied and experimental approach to her work - doing mono, screenprints, engravings, and collaging parts of her prints together, or assembling them digitally.

She also shows the many possibilities of print, and how it doesn't just have to be purely shape-based. For someone who likes drawing and lines this is important.

I also like the gloomy, old-fashioned imagery that runs through her work. Anatomical diagrams, diagrams of natural forms, and drawings that look like they belong in old books. Lovely stuff.

Website

Palefroi (Damien Tran & Marion Jdanoff)

Berlin-based collaborative print team. I've followed these two for a little while now, and they are just total print wizards!! They just take the medium of print to its farthest level by seeing what can be printed, how overlays and arrangements and colours and stock effect the finished outcome.

Some really lovely experimental stuff. They also have books too, which I may end up looking at if I go ahead and choose to create a publication. Their stuff is a mash up of textures, cut-outs, drawings (mono?), and what looks like screenprinted photographs at times. Very inventive.

I just love the well-designed craziness that they create. 

Website

Sunniva Krogseth

Although this person isn't exclusively a print-based illustrator, I suppose I could look at their work and how they assemble analogue textures through digital methods. There is also evidence of overlays of colour, and has made me think about this for when I create prints, also stock colour against ink.

I really love the poster on the left. It's just so bold and lumpy and weird! Nice one.

Responsive | Making a start

D&AD

• Briefs to be announced, signed up to their newsletter/membership for the time being.

PENGUIN | Student Design Award 2017

Info / Submission Details

• Maximum of one design submitted in each of the categories.

- Adult Fiction Cover Award (To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee)

- Adult Non-Fiction Cover Award (In Cold Blood - Truman Capote)

- Children's Cover Award (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend)

• Entries submitted digitally via a link available on their website from Wednesday 18th Jan 2017. Closing date is 12:00 Tuesday 7th March 2017

• I'm interested in this competition because it requires research to be carried out in order to understand the subject matter of the book. It also combines an illustrative outcome with design principles in order to produce the final outcome which is suited to a specific format.

SECRET-7

Info

• 2016 competition has closed. Tracks for 2017 will be announced.

• This competition interests me because I think the idea of Secret-7 is really interesting and inventive, especially the idea of the contents of the sleeve being completely unknown to the buyer, so in that instance the image really has to draw someone in and effectively put across the vibe of the piece of music.

• Also, similarly with the book cover brief, it brings in elements of design which I enjoy doing. It is illustration that is applied to a specific physical item, which required a bit of thought to the layout, etc.

Final Editorial Illustrations

Finished Editorials

Here are the completed designs for my Burroughs editorials. I ended up using the digital print facilities for the outcomes. I'm happy with the quality of the print outs, the matte paper looks quite professional and the colours really pop. You can also see the slight texture that I applied to the background.

This brief was a relatively stress-free one for me, which is a rare occurrence. I just made a point of not over-thinking things, and making decisions when I had to. Although they aren't perfect, I do think they sit quite well together as a set of images and manage to be consistent aesthetically, and maybe thematically.

The combination of traditional and digital methods was very beneficial, because I think I got the best of both worlds. The pencil lines and scanned paper scraps give it that rough edge, and maintain something 'human' and handmade, whereas the digital methods of their assembly and finishing touches make things appear more put together.

Progress Crit Feedback

Comments on concepts/messages of illustrations

• Communication of deterioration, addiction. Abstract but still clear

• Wavy, drug induced scenarios - like the person is losing himself

• Humour, like how the looseness of the drawing is kept

Comments on visual language and tone of voice

• Graphic, playful, interesting, clean, dramatic, abstract, consistent, energetic, shakey, irregularity

Comments on visual quality and craft

• Professional print quality

• Professional outcome but still has handmade feel

• Mix of digital and analogue

• Balanced images, pink is exciting, feels collaged / cut-up method

• Inversion of lines is interesting

• Loose line quality, textural