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Evaluation

For this brief titled ‘Issue Based Documentary’ we were tasked to create a printed publication based on the findings of an issue of our groups choice. It would also feature everyones work contributed to produce the final publication using a mix of graphic design, illustration and photography. 

Our chosen issue was livestock agriculture and its effects on the planet. Our project was first influenced and largely based on the findings of the documentary and like-wise titled website ‘Cowspiracy.’  This documentary investigates the livestock agriculture industry and goes into detail about how it is the number one cause of pollution in the world (a somewhat largely unknown fact) as well as the number one case of global warming, water scarcity, species extinction, Amazon destruction, depletion of oceans and world hunger. Due to the nature of the topic of our publication a target audience isn't specified, it is aimed at the public in general young and old, men and women. 

I think some of the best ideas we came up with was choosing many aspects of livestock agriculture and the the livestock trade to showcase in our publication, such as the animals themselves, the feed for animals, factories for livestock processing and the meat process. I also think our choice to use an ‘accordion’ style book was effective. We also had to have our publication printed by our company due to the dimensions and it being double sided which did bring some complications.

I first decided to sketch a variety of livestock animals from images online so I had a resource for future work, in which we then focused mainly on cows as well as chickens and pigs. I drew pencil sketches and then experimented with colour later on. I also used pigment liner a lot as I found it was very visually effective. I also managed to use my own photographs taken form the Birmingham animal conservatory as well as some of my group members photographs. 

I looked at several artists work such as Robert Weaver and George Butler for their use of documentation as a form of illustration. I was also influenced by the photography of  Hendrik Zeikler especially his use of portraiture for animals which influenced one of my oil pastel pieces. 

In terms of illustrations featured in the book, many were pencil sketches alongside a black liner piece and an oil pastel piece. However, the pencil sketches were too faded when scanned in so I had to go over them in pigment liner and edit them on Photoshop by changing the contrast and brightness so they could be featured in the book. Due to the colouring of the book all my illustrations had to be black and white, so some were then edited to monochrome to fit into the colour scheme.

I used traditional mediums for my illustrations mostly as I am most comfortable using them though digital art is something I intend on getting better at and using more in the future. I used pencil, pigment liner, coloured pencil and oil pastels. I think my most successful work was my watercolour pieces as I think they turned out really well and the photographs I used of Katies turned out pretty well themselves. I particularly think  the painting with two cows and pigment liner turned out very well and is the piece I myself would have chosen to use in a printed publication or print. I also think that my oil crayon pieces were quite successful too and lend well to an expression-ate use of colour. 

I think that my photos I took of livestock animals were somewhat unsuccessful. There weren't many livestock animals at the conservatory anyway and I went there initially as after hours of searching, I couldn't find the Old Refectory Farm. The photos I took of exotic animals actually turned out quite well. 

It was regrettable that I couldn't visit more locations but as they cannot be accessed directly by train (and I do not drive) , it was difficult to find locations to take pictures. Although our group did meet up a number of times to discuss the project and Jack and Katie went to the livestock market and managed to take some excellent photographs.

 I also regret not drawing on location, at my visit to the conservatory it was raining and I was in a rush and my camera had low battery, so that was somewhat poor planning on my part.  If I did this project again I would like to draw on location and take more pictures that I could use for illustrations, it would also be nice to improve on my photography! In terms of printing I would next time like to hand print my illustrations and bind them to create a kind of art book. Perhaps it would also be nice to pick a more positive topic for another project as well, I initially thought looking into sub cultures in Birmingham would make for interesting project and publication. 

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This is the prototype of our book and it is an 'accordion' type folded publication (picture taken by Katie)

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One more artist I looked at is George Butler. He is an ‘in situ’ artist and his drawing are often documentation of current events. I think he is a great choice for documentary illustration and he has that incomplete yet detailed reportage style which I think is very effective with life drawing and getting as much visual data as quick as you can on the page and then using the paint or ink to produce a beautiful piece. I also really like his loose painting style combined with a use of bold and grey tones. 

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More photos of animals at the conservatory, though I don't think capybaras count as livestock..

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Photos I took of livestock at the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation park (some better than others..) There weren't many livestock animals at the park as most were exotic. I couldn't find the Old refectory farm after driving with my dad for over 2 hours so this had to do. However, it was a good opportunity to see and photograph exotic animals.

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Another artist I have looked at is Ronald Searle who was a British artist and satirical cartoonist, though I especially like his work depicting anthropomorphised animals! I really like his loose, sketchy markings which are brought alive by impressive painting skills. The animals he depicts are often full of personality and whimsy which I like, of course, in my project the animals would likely be depicted in a more serious context due to the nature of the publication our group is designing. 

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Research for Documentary issue

Our project is largely based on the documentary ‘Cowspiracy’ and explores the often overlooked issue of livestock agriculture and the effects on our planet and its inhabitants. This documentary outlines many facts about the process of livestock production, rearing and slaughtering. They also ‘expose’ the fact that livestock agriculture is the number one cause of global warming as well as destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the worlds forests in general to then be used as grazing for livestock. It is also largely responsible for many ocean dead zones and destruction of animal habitat and species extinction. I have also watched a number of documentaries detailing with the effects of animal agriculture on the planet.

The production of greenhouse gasses and methane is also something that is somewhat central to our project and why cows will likely be central as they are known to give off excess amounts of methane gas but other livestock animals and possibly the slaughter process will be featured in our publication.

For an example of pollutants, according to the cowspiracy website, ‘livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.’ As well as this it is said that methane is 25-100 times more destructive compared to CO2 on a 20 year time frame. This shows the devastating effects livestock agriculture is having on the planet.

Water scarcity (of consumable water), which is a growing problem, is also attributed to livestock agriculture. For example 1000 gallons of water are required to produce 1 gallon of milk according to the Water Footprint network. Furthermore, according to the conspiracy website 2500 gallons of water are needed to produce only 1 pound of beef.

Finally another shocking point is that livestock feed occupies a third of the earths ice free land and livestock ‘covers 45% of the earths total land.’ For this fact it is also argued that livestock agriculture is also a major factor towards world hunger!

Many of these facts will feature on our publication alongside photography and illustrations of the livestock agriculture industry.

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Another artist I looked at the is the American illustrator Robert Weaver. He was a pioneer of working ‘in the field’ sketching events from life, usually in somewhat mundane or everyday situations. I really like his loose and rough approach to his sketches which lends well to getting as much visual data on a page as quickly as possible. His works are a good example of documentation where sometimes the bare minimum of detail is shown yet the drawings are still full and striking.

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A photographer I looked at for this project is the Sweden based photographer Hendrik Zeitler. I looked at this photographer mainly for his collection ‘The Chosen Ones’ which is a collection of portraits of livestock, particularly cows. These images are very striking and are possibly meant to represent the animals in a more human-like manner with a headshot composition and the animals facing the viewer.

 The closeness of the animals to the viewers viewpoint also makes the photos more intimate to the viewer which also adds to the impact as many people do not see livestock animals so close. I also thought the composition of the portraits would lend well to an illustration.

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An artist I looked at initially is Josette Basly-Terlaud, particularly her works about pollution. I really like the the thickly applied paint and use of collage which helps portray the pollution in our world.  This type of almost three dimensional painting is something I would like to try.

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Initial Ideas

For the collaboration module I chose the documentation brief. My team has chosen pollution as a category of documentation focusing on the effect of live stocking farming around the world and the effects it has on the environment. For the end on the module we are tasked to produce a printed publication which we initially considered will be a binded or folded informational zine