Final Major Project

Project proposal - Final major project

For the final major Project I wanted to make something that relates to my interests and also captures this time in my life and in my art journey. I often struggle to come up with ideas when it comes to setting my own brief, so I want to make something that can capture more than one subject relating to my interests. I think a big part of my life is music, films and things such as books and musical theatre, so that is something that always ends up influencing my work . After working on the other projects for the course I feel as though I have an idea of what my strengths are and in which areas I thrive in the most. Especially after the book Project I feel as though my ability to create and build new things has improved and expanded andI want that to be reflected in the final major project and whatever I end up doing. My main sources of research and inspiration usually comes from books, films and also the artists that I enjoy looking at, whether that be in our contextual studies classes or from YouTube videos and books that I read. Artists such as Quentin Blake and Raymond Briggs who are illustrators inspire me, including their processes that I have been able to read about online. Because of the current restrictions with coronavirus, we are limited in terms of the places we could go to do first-hand research,therefore my sources of inspiration and research comes from my life at home and college as well as my research that I'm able to do online and also books that I borrow from the library. I also like to see if I can find inspirations from the world around me, like maybe working with friends that I can collaborate with and get the world around me involved in my work as well.

I am going to be working towards making a collection of books capturing different interests and elements of my life during this time. I'm going to allow myself to be open-minded in doing whatever I feel like doing as anything can become an interest or inspiration at any time. I'm aiming to create at least 5 books that will be filled and with illustrations that I have made, that reflects the research that I plan to do for each one. I was inspired by the book brief that we did to make the books myself and make different kinds of books following a lot of techniques that we learnt while learning about book making. I think that giving myself this broad self brief will help me in my creativity and motivation as I won't feel stuck in one idea or one kind of subject.

Update - the 5 books that I will be making are all based on different subjects. The first will be a book about the film Forrest Gump, which will be laid out as a sort of storyboard capturing the story of the film. The second will be a book about lambs. I live on a farm and help my dad take care of the Lambs so that has been a big part of my life in the last 3 months and something that I would like to capture with my art in a book. I would also like to redesign the cover for Carole King's tapestry album which will be turning 50 years old this year. It's an album that holds a special place in my heart and something that I feel I could make personal but also general to the album itself. I will also be making a book about myself and my life. I really enjoy using my art to capture moments in time and what my life is like in different periods so I would like to make a book concentrating on that. I would also like to make a book about Welsh politics as the election is happening during the creation of our final major project. I am often inspired by American politics and therefore like to combine my interested in that with the Welsh side of politics.

The main technique that I'll be using for all the books and project will be my typical style of illustration while also combining that with new techniques that we learnt throughout the year such as book making and printmaking. For example, when bookmaking, everyday household materials are essential such as cardboard from cereal boxes to use as hard covers as well as different sorts of paper that I can find around the house. I usually use a lot of my sketchbook to make work and plan things out before I actually make them and that is something that I intend on doing for this project as well. I like to be hands on with things, therefore I won't be using much technology except for research and references for my work. Most of the work that I'll be doing can be done at my studio space at home or in college so I'll be working between those places. I will be using the facilities that we have in our print making corner in the studio to make prints. The box will probably be different sizes so beforehand I'm not sure what size they will be, but I'm confident that the spaces I have at home and in college will be suitable for this. I plan on working on more than one thing at once, which is something that I usually do to keep things interesting and not get overwhelmed with one thing at once. The research will also be combined into this, so I will be taking out books from the library, watching films and doing a lot of research online.

FORREST GUMP

For this first book, I wanted to make something simple as a starting point for my book project. I decided to make a book capturing the story of Forrest Gump after I recently watched the film with my Dad. The film is packed with countless storylines and spans through a large period of the main character's life, so I felt that a concertina book capturing the scenes that I consider to be most crucial and emotive would be best in conveying the story. I collected stills and pictures from the film and arranged them in the way that I wanted to present.

Before making the book, I made a spread in my sketchbook exploring elements and moments from the film. I started the book off by drawing each still directly with a black fineliner. I created the pages before putting the book together so I could change any element of the layout if I needed to. I then used winsor and newton alcohol markers and watercolours to add colour to each panel. I think that the bold colour palette, featuring a lot of green, blue, black and white is effective in conveying a complete story, even though the story spans over decades, the characters, the themes, the tone and the warmth of the films stays consistent from beginning to end.

These are the front and back covers for the book that I added later, made with cereal cardboard and paper, with the pictures being drawn with markers and fine liners.

LLYFR YR WYN / LAMB BOOK

In the spring of this year (2021), I helped my Dad on the farm for lambing season over around two months. I went to the sheep shed at least twice a day, in the morning and in the afternoon, (and sometimes at 11 at night) to feed the pet lambs. While spending so much time with the animals and with my Dad on the farm, I was inspired to make a book inspired by the experience. My Dad and I named many of the lambs, most of them named after tv characters and country singers. I decided to make a sort of yearbook to commemorate the lambs that my Dad and I particularly bonded with during this time, with their names giving them extra character.

Below are pictures I took during the months of lambing season-

I wanted to make this book personal and specific to the experience of helping on our farm, so as one of the kinds of paper used for the book (mainly the orange parts that can be seen), I decided to use the paper from the sacks holding the milk powder for the lambs. I cut the bag up and used it for each page in one way or another.

This page is about Spencer. He was the first lamb that I really got attached to and named, as I looked after him from the day he was born since he was rejected by his mother. He was named after one of my favourite tv characters Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds, which follows a team of fbi detectives. I have been watching a lot of criminal minds since the lockdown started a year ago so I felt that it was a relevant name for him. I included an Fbi logo in the back as a reference to this. I used the paper from the milk powder sack in the background.

This page is about Daisy, who is my lamb that I will get to keep here on the farm. She is a Texel and is named after Daisy Duke from the 80s tv show The Dukes of hazzard. My Dad picked the name because the programme was one of his favourites as a child, and also because we both love the southern, country culture in the US, which we feel the name fit quite well with. On the page I have once again used the orange paper from the powder bag, and have included a drawing of Daisy, and also a drawing of me holding her. The number one logo is a reference to the car from Dukes of hazzard, which my Dad used to paint onto his own little toy cars when he was small.

This page is about Tiny Tim, probably the smallest lamb I've ever seen. We named her Tiny Tim before realising she's a girl, but we decided to keep the name anyway. Tim was hurt a few days after she was born and was thrown against the side of the pen by her mother, so she broke her leg. Because of her tiny size and broken leg, I was reminded of the character from the Christmas carol by Charles Dickens. Tim in the christmas carol is also really small and struggles to walk, like our Tim. I decided to draw The characters bob cratchett and Tiny Tim from the Muppets version of the chrismas carol, as this is the family favourite that we all watch every christmas eve. Once again the page uses the paper from the powder bag. The muppets drawing is on masking tape and all the drawings are done using fineliners and markers.

These pages are about two lambs, Dolly and Patsy. Both of these lambs are named after two country music icons - Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline. During the beginning of lambing season, I was making a book for the book project about the country music hall of fame, and the company Hatch show print, both Parton and Cline were included in the book, therefore I named the lambs after them. Once again, I used the paper from the powder bag and drew with fineliners and markers. On the Dolly side, I included a butterfly, which is Dolly Parton's symbol.

Carole King - Tapestry

For the third book, I wanted to make something based on one of my main interests, music. I decided to make something based on the album Tapestry by Carole King (1971). This is an album that holds a special place in my heart, and holds a lot of special memories of spending time with friends during the summer. The album is also turning 50 years old in 2021, so I decided to re design the album in my own style.

To start the process I took a few books that I felt were relevant from the library. The first book is 1000 record covers by Michael Ochs. I was really inspired by the artwork in the book, and how designers and artists in the past have created artwork to represent the music in the records.

The second book that I looked at was the book Graphic - Inside the sketchbooks of the world's great graphic designers by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico. I'm very enthusiastic about working and completing sketchbooks, so this book was of a big interest to me. I love seeing into other artists' creative processes and the way they work. Below are pictures from the pages that I love the most, and the ones that I think are most relevant to me.

Another source of research for me was this issue that I bought of Mojo magazine, which is all about music. The pages in the magazine included hundreds of black and white, and coloured pictures of iconic musicians, and made me think of ways that I could include Carole King's own pictures into this record that I was designing

These are images that also inspired the project, including King writing songs with her husband Gerald Goffin during her early years as a songwriter, as well as the recording process for Tapestry itself.

For the album sleeve that I was designing, i wanted to include elements that are a nod to the name of the record, while also making it personal. I asked my good friend Ceiri for pictures of the rugs that he makes by hand in his home. I really love the patterns included in these rugs, and feel that they could tie in well with the things that I wanted to convey for this record cover. The patterns used by Ceiri for the rugs derive from ancient greek and asian traditions.

I also included patterns inspired by welsh tapestries and quilts.

I was also inspired by the book Natural Woman by Carole King, as well as the designs from the original record, which I own.

These are sketchbook pages for this book.

I made prints with the lino to test the image out and experiment before making the final cover.

And this is what it looked like afterwards -

I used a special K cereal box to make the record sleeve. For the inside of the record I used coloured paper, markers, paint pens, acrylic paint and sticker paper with fineliners to create the images. I used many of the same patterns seen on the cover for the inside as well, as well as relevant pictures from Carole King.

A BOOK ABOUT ME

For the fourth book, I wanted to make something that would capture this moment in time in my life. I was inspired by the book project that we completed before the fmp to make something unique. I decided to make an 'explosion book', with images inside capturing different elements of my life.

For the covers of the book on both sides, I covered a piece of cereal cardboard with coloured paper and drew on them. The green cover includes a drawing of my favourite top and jacket, while the pink cover includes a drawing of myself. In the book, I included all sorts of details about my life, and what that looks like nowadays. I included two self portraits, drawn from my mirror, as well as things like, a view from our farm, my perfume, my vaccination card, my anxiety medication and my favourite bottle of gin. I always feel as though time is fleeting, and I want to capture periods of time in my life as a kind of documentation, which is what I tried to achieve here. The drawings are all made using fineliners, gouache, markers and paint pens.

Here are a few pictures which are of objects that is included in the book, and the deja vu music video by Olivia Rodrigo, which I have included with the single cover.

After making the book, I was inspired to make a bigger paintings exploring these same things as the book.

ELECTION STICKER BOOK

For the fifth book, I was inspired by the recent elections in Wales to create Welsh 'I voted stickers'. In the US, during their elections, citizens receive an 'i voted' sticker at the polling station, which are usually specialised for the location that you vote in.

Below are pictures from my sketchbooks showing the research and recreations I did of the stickers that they get in the US when they go to vote -

Below are the designs I did in my sketchbook of the stickers, each sticker is inspired by a different element of Welsh culture.

Below are pictures I took on a walk with my Mum, putting the stickers in different places all around the neighbourhood. (I included some of these photos in the book itself)

Yn anffodus, ar ol i mi roi i stickers mewn llyfr gyda rhai o'r llynia, mi wnes i anghofio tynnu lluniau ohonynt cyn i mi eu gadael yn y coleg ar gyfer ein asesiad, ond mae'r llyfr (yr un melyn) wedi ei gynnwys yn y lluniau yma o'r gwaith o'r final major project wedi eu gosod allan -