callumritchie1styearillustration

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

09/05/2017 Evaluation of collaborative project

I started this project very excited to be working in a collaborative way because I see it as an essential part of being a modern creative to be able to work with clients and contemporaries in a collaboratively way effectively. I didn’t know my group very well at the start of the project which made it nice because by the end of the project we all became good friends. We worked well as a team tackling tasks over short deadlines and managing creative differences nicely. This was also good as it forced me to be exposed to and have to manage illustrative styles I don’t normally deal with. I particularly liked making a zine to such a tight deadline as it has shown me the limits of time frames for production and how these can be increased through collaboration. Our ideas of our subject which was money were fairly similar due to us all being roughly the same age, students and having similar interests, once we realised this it made the initial planning stages of each project a lot easier. I would have liked to have had longer to tackle some of our briefs in order to produce a better finished outcome but overall it has been an incredibly useful experience that I intend to explore a lot more in the future. I already have a collaborative project planned for the summer making a zine for a band where I will be working with a graphic designer, writer, music business and illustrator.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

05/05/2017 Kaleidoscope Illustration festival

Today was the final event day at the Forum. My group set up at 9am by making up the table, putting up our posters, getting chairs and tidying the area. Our layout looked very professional and interesting. After everyone had set up it was really inspiring and interesting to walk around and see/interactive with all of my peers stands. It was an engaging interesting event to look at. Throughout the day our group had a lot of visitors from the general public and peers from different course at NUA to our stand. Our visitors enjoyed the wide variety of hand outs and visual stimuli on the stand and particularly enjoyed the defacing money activity. My patches also received a nice amount of compliments with all of the handouts going out and people asking about how they can make some in their spare time which made them a success. Our group’s table was balanced as we placed any handouts and the interactive activity at the front and examples of our work behind it. I learnt a lot about how to run a stand and activity seeing the importance in both free handouts, social engagement and strong visual examples. Overall the day was very creative and successful event and encouraging and educational day. I would love to participate in more events in the future.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

04/05/2017 Final planning

Today I met with my group so we could put out our final layout of our stand for the Kaleidoscope illustration festival tomorrow. We bought a black cloth to cover the table to give the stand a cleaner more professional presentation. We then divided the table in half. One half will contain the interactive activity which involves the public drawing on printed notes and sticking them onto a board which we will then paint an illustration over. The other half contains our individuals responses to saving money with the hand outs at the front of the stand and inspirations and how we have used these techniques at the back of the stand. I am very pleased with our final outcome and excited for tomorrow. We intend to manage our shift as a full group of four all day taking small breaks for lunch and drinks.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

28/04/2017 Poster and stand group crit

Today my group had a crit for our poster and stand. Our poster was comprised of a variety of our different styles of working in a square around the £ symbol. Our differences in style also translated into our finishes as we had a variety of printed and hand made outcomes on different thicknesses of paper. This represented both our own ways of tackling a project with consideration of money while demonstrating the expensiveness involved in illustration. Our peers liked our poster and the ideas behind it however we received some feedback about getting rid of the borders on some of the posters which we intend to do. After this we continued the crit into our stand idea and got some useful advice on adding an interactive activity to our stand as well as making some 3D visual stimuli for the audience to look at.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

27/04/2017 Promotion copy

Promotion copy

 Our vision is to provide people with informed information about money saving techniques. We aim to take away the scrappiness from DIY working methods by teaching people how to create something which they are can be proud of. It’s also about people being proactive in helping themselves and others in times of increasing economic austerity and hardship. We hope our work encourages people to reach further into considering how they can use a creative mind set to solve every day economic problems. Our inspirations were focused on our hobbies which we related more widely to everyday life activities such as cooking, fashion, sport and social events.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

25/04/2017 Grid poster working

Our next and final task before our exhibition was to make a poster which consisted of 9 A3 portrait sheets put together in a grid like format to make a larger image. My group decided to complete each A3 sheet separately with me completing three sheets and the others doing two. We wanted our work to stand alone as an artwork and provide some insights into how we feel about our subject as our stand deals for the most part with how to tackle issues surrounding money. Our poster is centered around a £ symbol painted over notes with the eight other artworks around it being things that money is used for or related to. I did two paintings depicting relationships and power. The rest of my group tackled issues such as politics and corruption. It aims to expose some of the issues surrounding money as apposed to our stand which offers a solution.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

Margaret Beal - Fusing Fabrics

I carried out some research by reading a book by a pioneer in art and textile designer Margaret Beal. Beal discovered she could use a soldering iron to cut and make marks in synthetic and natural materials. This book was incredibly helpful in showing me new techniques I could use to make patches. I liked the tactile quality of different fabrics and the amount of layers I discovered I could create using this method. I also liked this way of working as it felt hand made and achievable by the audience which I will be exhibiting to.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]

Patch making techniques

I started experimenting with different patch making techniques in order to provide examples of my own work as visual stimuli for exhibition visitors and help me acquire the knowledge I need to explain the processes which can be used to achieve different patch styles. I started experimenting with stencils by drawing out a design onto paper then laminating it and double side taping the back to prevent the paint from bleeding. Next I cut out the stencil with a Stanley knife and stuck it to a piece of jean material after this I applied five to ten layers of acrylic paint and ironed it slowly to finish. After this I tried out baticking in combination with tie dye, I melted candle wax and added oil which I then used to draw onto my material after this I tie dyed the material and let both dry before washing off the excess dye and wax. Next I tried fusing fabric using a soldering iron, I worked with a felt base and used the heated iron to fuse synthetic materials to the felt as well as experimenting with mark making. Finally I drew and painted directly onto jean material in fabric pens and paints.

[callumritchie1styearillustration]