Reflective statement for Subject Level 5

Although this is the second year of our illustration course, it is my first year to study illustration.  This year, everything here looks new to me. Including the whole circumstances, all the people around me, the things I need to learn and try, are totally brand new to me. However, I love change, the challenge is learning, and I enjoyed all the things I met and experienced.

We had three modules. The Subject one is the normal illustration project. The field is a module for us to explore the world outside illustration or how they link back with our illustration work. We can work in a transdisciplinary way, use different ways to create our artwork. Besides, it’s quite nice that we can meet new peers outside our course. The constellation is a module for reading, writing, improving our researching way. They are all looking separate from each other but they have a very strong connection with one another. There are six main projects within the subject module. They are Illustr-Ted, Word as Image, Penguin Project, Creative Conscience, Creative Products and Drawing from Observation.

At first, I was so stressed and struggled with everything. Especially the Ted-talk Project, which was the first illustration project I got and it was a nightmare to me. At that time I couldn’t totally understand what is the submission requirement, the deliverable format, the way how we hand on the final work. Besides, Ted-talk project is an open and free project and it lasted nearly more than a month. Because I had no experience before and had no idea of what was my strength or my preference. I didn’t have much strong work which can represent and express myself(maybe I had but I didn’t realize). So I had to try, think and research a lot. However, I spent lots of time doing useless research and then time passed by. I could only keep working while worrying and do nothing. But later, with time passed by, I gradually adapted to not only studying but also normal life in Cardiff. Now I can arrange myself much better than before.

I like to do my work in quiet studio and I really enjoy the vibe we working together. The most valuable and important treasures I got this year are my friends. We are always together during the long independence studying time. We can help and learn from each other. I am so appreciate that they all gave me so much patience. They are willing to listen to me, chat with me and explain everything in a clear and simple way. So both my oral English and my English listening are making great progress. I become more confident with my work and more calm with my life. I felt more settled down. I started to enjoy the course.

I was confused about the drawing style before. I don’t have a specific preference and I can work in many different ways. And now I realized that after I created more artworks and looked back to them, I can summerise or classify them. I can see my working way. It’s slow but precise, so I need to spend more time and concentration. I need to be patient and do more work.

I made an animation, some small comics, some gifs and editorail illustration this year. For the future pathway I will absulutly go for narrative one. I really want to create children’s books and editorail illustration in the future.

Photoshop workshop+ Easter Sketch

We had a nice Photoshop workshop with Jo. She showed us some of her work and how she created them. It is really simple and useful. Sometimes we may not 1oo% satisfied with all of our sketches on the sketchbook or we may only want to use some fantastic part of them, we can use PHOTOSHOP to edit! Previously, I couldn’t totally understand how can some artists make their works. But now everything makes sense! According to my mixed media working way, I believe that this skill will be widely used in my work. So that I can combine them much more easily. Besides, we got some reference illustrators to look for and they really have very strong work. For example, Luke Best, Hannah Buckman, Martin Haake, Lara Harwood.

Here are my works from the digital workshop:

During the Easter Holiday, I did some sketches by using different tools. Some of them are doodling with the fountain pen during waiting for the flight, some of them are playing around with Apple pencil and drawing on the iPad. And I found that Apple pencil is a very handy and convenient tool, especially on traveling. However they are quite patchy and separate from different places, I edited them with some digital skills I got from the Photoshop workshop.

 

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Research for Easter Project -Observation

The brief of the Easter project is to do sketches and observe our daily life. It’s an opportunity for us to develop our drawing skills and enrich our visual language. We can take this chance to note down everything around us and combine reality and imagination. We are suggested using different tools and materials to do the drawing.

-Chris Orr.

Chris Orr is one of my favorite English artists and printmakers. He did lots of fantastic drawing and printmaking. Once I saw his works in the library. A book called The Multitude Diaries. It’s a whole collection of his drawing from the last twenty years. It shows the progress of how he creates works and the experience of exploring different materials. He uses bright colors with simple line drawings. He likes to use strong contrast but he can still keep the pictures away from messy.

I want to create a book like this one day. With full of the flexible and spontaneous drawing in my life. And it really reminds me to work hard and do more work to enrich my illustration life.

(His work reminds me of Grayson Perry, one of Britain’s best-known contemporary artists as well.    https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/grayson-perry-ra  )   Here are some of his works from not only The Multitude Diaries but also his recent exhibitions.

 

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-Graham Clarke

I found his books in the library as well. The fonts on the book cover are quite interesting. The way he(maybe the editor of the published books) using the sketches as patterns shows me another potential to making the pattern page of my portfolio. Besides, I really like the way he doing sketches and using color.

Graham Clarke is an artist, author, illustrator, and humorist. He is one of Britain’s most popular and best-selling printmakers. He has created some five hundred images of English rural life and history, of the Bible and of the Englishman’s view of Europe. Born in 1941, Clarke’s upbringing in the austerity of war-time and post-war Britain, made him reliant on his own imaginative resources. Responding to the comedy of everyday life, he brings his own unique brand of humor to his interpretation of past and present history through the eyes of the common man.

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Research for Illustrators’ website

I’m so glad that we are going to make our own Portfolio Website. It is a public platform for people outside the illustration world to get to know our illustrators more easily. It’s a strong way to introduce ourselves through visual language.

–Lisk Feng

Lisk Feng is an award-winning illustrator who is initially from China, and now a New York-based freelance illustrator. I started to follow her Instagram, her works, her news since a few years ago. I can see how she has grown and developed over these years. I thought she set a great example for illustrators who initially from China and studied illustration courses abroad. I think I’ve learned a lot from the way she creates her work, the way she thinks and exposes herself to the world.

 

I like the form she set with her website. We can see the newest or strongest work at first sight, on the home page. It’s very simple and clear. The audience can get the most important information as soon as possible. And the column beside can be folded and spread. So people can easy to find more details about the parts they are interested in. However, there’s a problem I’m always thinking about, what if as the time passes by, the column will be too long to read? (But till now, I don’t have much work to consider this issue, I really enjoy browsing through her website)

–Martin Haake

This is an illustrator I knew from the Photoshop workshop with Jo. First of all, I really in love with his work. The way he works with mixed media, such as combine both collage, different handwriting, and textures, impressed me a lot.

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One of the most special reasons why I like his website is that he has not only the column on the top right corner with texts but also has the pictures with texts at the bottom. Even though it repeats twice, I reckon it’s to emphasize his work in this way. People who get the connection with his works will never lose any part because of the website setting. Besides, when we go through the second ‘layer’ of the website, we can know each project’s name by moving the mouse, no need to open a new tab. What’s more, he also shows the news about him and the serious Site Notice & Privacy Policy. It shows how his work applies in real contexts and remind people again that everybody must respect his copyright. So we can know that he is a professional and mature illustrator in this way.

 

Gif for Creative Conscience(Part 2)

Research for Creative Conscience

When the time we greeting to each other in our daily life, the classic answer to ‘How are you’ will always be ‘Fine, thank you.’ However, are people really fine and happy with their lives? For different reasons, people get used to putting on a ‘mask’ to hide their real feelings. More and more people look positive on the outside but negative on the inside. Some of them even live in two lives. One is the life that everyone can see, and the other is life only seeing by themselves.

-A song called Laughing on the Outside. It’s the soundtrack of the TV series called The End of the F**king World. The lyrics make me reflective thinking about myself. And if someone can’t deal with their mood may cause a mental problem. For example Robin Willians. So I start to get interested in the mental health problem of the comedians.

-Lots of comedians suffer from depression. One of the comedians who successfully manage his depression found a podcast called The Hilarious World of Depression. It’s a platform for people to speak out and share their experience of depression. In order to encourage people who suffer from serious mental health problems to face life bravely.

-During the group tutorial and extending research, I start to look around different artists. They are Eric Carle, Ezra Jack Keats, and Hannah Höch.

-Kevin Breel, a writer, comedian, and activist.   (http://kevinbreel.com)

The most important thing is that he let me know, real depression isn’t being sad when something in your life goes wrong. Real depression is being sad when everything in your life is going right.

-Then I look for the extream example of an Italian opera Pagliacci. It’s a tragedy that an actor who plays the role of the clown on stage, found his wife cheated at him. During the show, he suddenly can’t distinguish the fiction and reality and kill the betrayers.

-Because I want to do animation, I start to search for background music. And I found The Second Waltz from Dmitri Shostakovich. So I start to think about the visual scenario of people dancing with masks. And Chris suggest me to watch some movie by Yuri Norstein. For example The Tale of Tales(1979).

 

Formative Assessment Presentation of Creative Conscience.pdf

 

Presentation CC

Gif for Creative Conscience(Part 1)

Project statement and 3 key images

Real is not bad is a series of gifs showing the progress of a panic woman taking off her mask and her real face is not bad.

These gifs are for people who’re struggling with depression, anxiety or ‘hidden depression’. The project aims to raise people’s awareness to take good care of their mental health. It’s okay to be depressed and anxious and it’s not a shame to admit your true self. They’re just some parts of life. We should learn to love ourselves, accept ourselves and be ourselves.

The gifs can be linked to animation and used as an advertisement. The unique shape and motion can easily attract people’s attention. It can help people to reflect themselves through these few seconds to realize that ‘Real is not bad’.

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Creative Conscience Brief Template

Creative Conscience Brief Template 2019

Name: Vicky Yang

Brief Category: Mental health 

Project Title:  All for the depression.

1. Background / Overview:

My starter is our daily greeting. When we meet someone we always ask ‘How are you?’ or ‘Are you alright?’, but are we really wonder how is the other’s feeling? The answer is ‘no’. And people’s classic answer will always be ‘Fine’ ‘I’m fine’.So we will never know someone well if they always wear a mask. There are too many people always laughing on the outside but crying on the inside. The people who can bring positive thoughts may unable to make themselves happy and feels depressed. So my research keywords will be comedian and depression.
2. Objective. What is the CALL TO ACTION?

My intention is to tell people ‘it’s okay to be not okay’, to raise awareness to accept themselves, to care more about their real mood, their own mental health. And also tell some basic knowledge to let them know more about ‘depression. Last but not least, bring some positive vibe to the audience through my whole work.
3. Target audience: who are we talking to?

My target audiences are the older teenager and all age adults.
4. What’s the most important thing to say or show?

“Embracing your light doesn’t mean ignoring your dark.”
5. What are the most compelling reasons to engage with your work?

Some people always play positive roles in their daily lives. It’s a kind of hurt to their mental health. I will use a humor way to encourage them to be braver to express themselves.
6. Phases of creative development over the four weeks

I would like to make an animation or graphic novel. (I prefer to trying animation but..I’m not sure) I may use stop-motion and collage. I also need to learn new software for example. I will try to find some existing stories of well-known people so don’t need to consider much about Ethics.

I hope I can start my work in the second week.