Development on Ellen MacArthur SB3

An idea for the four stamps that I have to create is to show four portraits of Ellen, but with different aspects to her/backgrounds in each. 

This drawing had some nice soft grey/green pencil work that helped to define the face and make this image a bit successful in my opinion, however they must have been too pale for the scanner to detect, so they haven't really come through which is a shame. I tried to rescan it but there is not a massive difference. Also made a rookie, drew this at a roughly right angle which means that when you look directly onto it as one would when scanning it is too elongated. But all hail every artists biggest fan, I sent a picture of this to my mum and she recognised her as Ellen MacArthur so woo!

 I compiled this research page of portraits of Ellen to help me create my own.  I find that in all of them her expression doesn't change so much, she always seems to have that determined look and outlook to her. This is what I am really hoping to convey by creating the stamps of her face, how through all the different aspects of her life, she keeps the same determined focus, she has the same conscientious and competitive drive. 

Above are some further research pages which I compiled to allow to to have a period where I can just sit down and draw and explore how to achieve my ideas for my outcomes through drawing.

Testing out and noting down potential concepts/ideas:

Some Sketches, I'm trying to get at how she has often described sailing as her dream. Although these drawings all pile on top of each other and its hard to decipher or analyse them at all. Need to let my drawings and sketchbooks breath a little more in the future.

Above is me trying to test out how I could show the story of how she saved up for her first boat by for years saving her lunch money, and putting it into a box in her bedroom once it reached a pound. Then she would colour in a square of a chart that she made and kept pinned to her wall. I find this imagery reflects what kind of a person she really is. It shows her patience, determination, how she is hard working and will make sacrifices (such as living of mask and backed beans everyday for years!) to work towards her goals or in this case dreams. Its this same determination, and perhaps even courage that got her around the world, in record breaking time.

Below, I condensed my research down into this list of fairly key or inspiration moments of Ellen MacArthur's life, to both other people and for her. These are moments that I am interested in trying to draw and use to create a sense of who she is and what perhaps made her who she is?

Pre Holiday Person of Note Crits!

Talking through my ideas helped me gain some focus for what I think I would like to do for my posters. I am concerned that they may not work very successfully as a set, but if I work on keeping he aesthetics if them similar then it I could pull it off! 

Peer Feedback

Sophie:

Abby:

The Photoshop Breakthrough

At the start of this course I could not work photoshop. I battled with it in early studio briefs, and slowly began to pick up skills.

This was the first project that I used photoshop to produce my final images. It was actually one of my more successful works of that time. Just by cropping and adjusting levels I could change rough sketches to finished looking pieces.

I then used photoshop again to produce some artwork for Christmas!

Finally it really came into its own in the 0UIL 405 Visual Narratives module, I used photoshop to finish off all of my artwork. This allowed me to produce final works that were all in keeping with each other, it meant that I didn't worry about trying to produce a perfect finished image each time, and it meant the colours look so much more vibrant and successful. 

End of January 2014, Photoshop and I finally became friends. 

Further Ellen MacArthur Research

Ellen MacArthur has now founded a trust that is all to do with creating a 'circular economy', a more sustainable approach to living, where one day we can hope to become independent of fossil fuels, and reduce landfill use, by changing the way we design, using Cradle to Cradle approaches with regards to the materials and components of products.

She used to save up her lunch money, and once it got up to a pound she would drop it in a box and cross off a square in a chart she had made. 

Her boat became her world. In her record breaking circumnavigation of the world, she later describes it as having control over everything except from the weather. 

Persons of Note crit

An initial idea's review session where we had to finally decide the person that we would take forward and fulfil the brief about.

I think the person that I will choose is Ellen MacArthur.

We filled in these sheets with what we were thinking thus far, our ideas and potential aims, then put them forward to the rest of a group. My given feedback is in the black pen.

Key points to take away from this:

• I need to identify and decide how I feel about her, and this will then come through in my work about her and they way I depict her and her life and achievements. (This is no hard thing, she's quite an amazing person to me and has been since I was young.)
• Focus in on details, or visual imagery of sorts to her. Although I must approach this with caution, as this may not be recognisable enough to successfully illustrate her.

A very valid reminder given to us all at the end was if you are getting stuck or lost, just illustrate the person. Its so easy to overcomplicate these things, but to create the most successful outcomes perhaps the best option just to focus on the person, their achievements and what they really stand for and represent.

Depth

Techniques of Creating Depth

Character development/testing for three figure composition that will be used for the etching workshop

I like the idea of trying to capture an angle that looks up at the figures more. I am trying it here with the idea of someone sitting crossed legged on the floor, and the other two figures arguing in the background. Its proving so tricky to get the angle right though.

Visual Language - Figure and object - Colour

These are the final drawings of birds that I would like to use to create my final piece on photoshop

I drew them onto tracing paper so that I could feel comfortable drawing them and not fear making a mistake and wanting to draw all three again. This also allows me a lot more control with regards to fine tuning my composition.

Creation

Initial laying it out, I realise that the branches will not work in pencil, so Im going to re do them in fine liner.

Below I am, trying to work out compositionally which works better, this one with less branches...

This first image is more flowing, but more branches add more depth, but the lower image at the moment feels to unbalanced as there is a lot of empty space in the bottom left hand corner which stands out so much as it contrasts with the bottom right corner that has branches filling it.

Using Colour

At the moment I am using a photograph of these birds as reference for the colour. 

Initial attempts, also above is the colour palate that I have restricted myself to at the moment. I picked it trying to achieve as accurate colours as possible to the original bird feathers etc, but perhaps I should pick the colours with more regards as to how they interact and sit with each other to make a more interesting piece.

Second attempt

(Second bird from the left) I started colouring in the second bird, this time using a much more limited palate. I was original planning to add a further darker colour, but at the moment I think this works as it is. I also think that I prefer the first bird, with these reduced colours too. 

Here is the third rendered bird with the swatches of the colours that I used. I'm going to work more on the tail, its too heavy and the shape stands out against the rest of the image.

 Using another layer, with the white paintbrush I faded the Bluethroat a little bit, but still his solid blocks of colour make him stand out more from the other two. I might try to play around with the opacity some more.

This is still just a screen shot, but I do quite lie the composition of it, but as the branches are still not complete, and this is a much closer angle, the sense of depth/viewpoint I was trying to achieve is lost somewhat. And the colours of the birds do make it feel quite unbalanced to me still.

Here I have tidied up the background a bit, evening out the scanners shadows, I've also added in some more branches to attempt to address the composition of it. At the moment this isn't proving particularly successful. I'll shuffle them around some more, and probably edit the opacity of the image, as actually before in its rougher version I feel that it was more successful. 

Finished for now?

Tried to use darker colour/tone in the top section of this image, as compositionally it is rather bottom heavy. Still not that keen about the background, and the objects.