Illustrated Self development

Illustrated Self development

This is in many respects similar to the Delia Derbyshire project completed for Visual Communication however this is just more difficult because it is me and difficult to research and put into perspective. I coped well with the Persons of Note brief because I could directly link things and then explore from that. In this brief everything is very close to home and there aren't google pages which I could extract words from. Therefore I decided that I would find out my own research through asking people 1) Who am I? 2) Who am I to you?

I appreciate that this isn't a totally honest portrayal of my character because the messages were asked by me and sent to me. However it doesn't matter because a portrayal of myself in a poster with negative responses. I also found it harder than I expected to receive such an intense burst of comments on myself and my personality.

 I had to start somewhere with visualisation and thought I would start with the obvious portrayal of my hobbies as they build who I am and my identity. These are aspects of me that are identified by the people I asked responses from. I have found that continuous line drawings are a good way of starting drawing. It doesn't really look like the people of our band although it does have their important features.

 I then thought I would try the other band, also a continuous line drawing but in orange (my hair colour) and coloured pencil with some rough visualising of the curtains. Both bands are important because they have a very different dynamic. The bluegrass band is new and different, since starting uni and we just cover songs. The band below is like the bands I have been in through 6th form, we write songs and it is reflective of the music I enjoy singing and I love the live performing.

 I wanted to record my tap dancing. I came across a video of me performing and wanted to record it. I found that my flamenco dancers captured movement, strength and rhythm and I wanted to capture this in my tap dancing. In the video I am wearing my favourite green trousers and having orange hair so portraying this captures a stereotype of who I am and makes the figures recognisable as me. I made sure that the shoes and hat were in black as a common feature through everything. In tap rhythm is everything and therefore the tap shoes are vital to being a prominent feature. I felt that I have managed to show weight and movement through their shape. The hat is also good at capturing the genre of music (jazz/blues), reflecting what I enjoy tap dancing to. As I found in my flamenco dancers the line quality of the brush strokes captures movement through the hair and the movement of the legs. I wanted to do an exhaustive few pages as tap dancing isn't a static dance and can't be captured in one drawing because it is a process of movement and expression.

 To continue this I put them on photoshop to create a strip as maybe this dance could be a border, like a story board, a frame.

 Something I am very passionate about are patterns as they are a huge part of my happiness and identity. I wear patterns because when I look at them they make me happy and therefore I can be a "source of energy and positivity", "colourful clothes and aura". I also really like the textures of the clothing that I wear as well as their colour so tried to illustrate both.

 This to me looks like "radiating happiness" and being a "source of energy". It is an explosion of colour. It also has a plan, an outline, limitations, a guide line. It is "organised" but still "all over the place"

From this I think it could word as a good design. I like that the colour stops and there is just a dark, plain background colour. I think that the background would work well as grey. It really portrays the "up and high" but also shows the dark side, where the M.E is a ghost and haunting. The side that I don't let people see because I "try to be happy" but I'm human and not all of the time. I learnt how to seem happy after the downs of this year. I also thought it would work well to include the German element of me as Germany isn't a too dissimilar shape to the circles and will break up the rings. It is something that is subtle to my personality but deeply ingrained so working as a background shape would portray this well.

 This is a pattern inspired by my favourite skirt in the whole entire world. It is so messy and busy (a bit like me and also my brain) but also organised and categorised into different sections (a bit like how I process information).Needs to have strong lines to show "right or wrong" and "dependable/loyal"

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This pattern alone reflects my personality. Bright yellow but with some undertones of dormant energy and happiness. There are busts of colour and excitement and energy. There is orange which is my hair and green for my eyes. I am a but sceptical of creating a digital poster because I live in an analogue world: CDs, Vinyl, Collages, things printed out, postcards, handwriting...

I decided to hit photoshop and record some more patterns. I wanted to see how the patterns would translate digitally as these images are quite complex to drawing and line quality wouldn't add to the aesthetic. Although this is all individually drawn each flower is hand crafted. 

Maybe these patterns can become some of the circles in the energy source layout? Colours needing to include: green (favourite colour and eyes), orange (hair colour), yellow (brightness and enthusiasm), blue (has featured in everything so far). Turns out that these are pairs of complimentary colours.

My bedroom is a large part of who I am. It has always been colourful and full of inspiration and recognisable. Its mess because I have everything important to me around me (thats what I tell myself anyways).

I have my favourite pieces of art work that I have produced on the wall; my tap dancers, my bluegrass band figures, my doors screen print and the Delia Derbyshire postcards. I also have a bluegrass poem, the cassette tape front cover which I destroyed and a business card from my friends DJ night. I have a poster made by my next door neighbour on animation portraying the dynamic of next doors flat before everything turned on its head and a poster of nudists from thought-bubble. Along side this record cover insists and CD posters and Jim Morrison. Obviously can't forget the very recognisable Pear that I got for Christmas... Most importantly a hand drawn monthy plan that is my rock and under it a to do list. Lots of cups tea/coffee which I never get round to washing up and also pens everywhere.

 I really love having visual stimuli around me, everywhere and when I came to uni I had 253 postcards so I can't imagine what the number is now. Yes they fall off and yes I have a stack of ones that I can't fit anywhere... They consist of Art Nouveau-Posters-William Morris-Pictures of musicians-Van Gogh- Picasso-Kandisky-beautiful cars from local artists.