JAWS

Research into the effect of Jaws on the relationships and attitudes of humans and sharks.

Oliver Crimmen, who's been the fish curator at the Natural History Museum in London for more than 40 years

The calls for their protection are getting louder and although most people find it hard to love them, sharks are garnering more respect. We are less likely to criminalise them and more prone to accept their presence. It is a trend that would have delighted Peter Benchley.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33049099

The author of Jaws, Peter Benchley, was deeply perturbed by this. "Knowing what I know now, I could never write that book today," he said, years later. "Sharks don't target human beings, and they certainly don't hold grudges." He spent much of the rest of his life campaigning for the protection of sharks.

And research by biologist Dr Julia Baum suggests that between 1986 and 2000, in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, there was a population decline of 89% in hammerhead sharks, 79% in great white sharks and 65% in tiger sharks.

shark research and drawing exploration

Shark Research

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Whale_shark#p009cpqk]

There are a great number of lovely little information clips on this site that I enjoyed watching.

23rd Fed Individual Tutorials

I accidentally signed up to two tutorials today, which I feel bad about as I would dislike to take slots intended for other people. But they were both really excellent so I'm also quite pleased.

Patrick

We discussed my Big K idea, as for the last week I have been quite lost and unsure about it. 

• Revisit the original Shark idea and apply the thinking discussed in previous group tutorial with Fred. 
• Shouldn't let go of original enthusiasm, just work around problems.
• Re think the audience, what I am proposing is aimed at what an be called a broader audience, which includes children and adults. I can explore these areas further as I research.
• Less of an issue/conservation book and more of a discussion around the relationship between humankind/man and animals.

The key thing I took from that last point is that previously I was proposing to make a project as if I were a scientist, or at least a very science driven conservation campaign. What I should really do is be an illustrator about it, so explore the situation and research with an illustrators lens and focus. I can comment and interpret what I find this way. This also opens me up to much more broad research (ha name pun) so i can look at fascinating things like how sharks have been represented in art, and what I can discover about man's relationship through that.

Suggested a trip to Hull to visit these places:

• Maritime Museum
• Aquarium
• Fruit Market

Jamie Mills

In this tutorial I discussed some of my other briefs especially the Arctic Tern children's book brief, Secret 7, big k, illustrating information and very briefly creatures.

• Children's book? Invest time into environment. was good to brain storm. gave some good suggestions of illustrators to look up. - Focus on journey and view point. Part documentary/part fictional - tone?
• Secret 7 gestural marks  directness of communication, focus on simplicity of marks - keep following on process from COP.
• Kahuna - research interests! Holistic practice and interests. Some  similarities between this and arctic tern brief.

Suggested the book - The Web of Life. 

The Deep - Potential Research Visits

My tutor suggested I go and visit the Aquarium in Hull, in advance of that I thought I would see if I could find a relevant contact and speak to them before hand.

On their team page of the conservation and research section I discovered who is the senior curator, Katy. The website didn't offer anything other than a very general contact. I looked up up on linked in and could send her an in-mail. She studied in Scotland.

https://www.thedeep.co.uk/research-conservation/meet-the-team


Maritime Museum

http://www.visithullandeastyorkshire.com/Hull-Maritime-Museum/details/?dms=3&venue=2175790

Hull Fruit Market

http://www.hull.co.uk/websitefiles/Fruit%20Market%20Flyer.pdf

Secret7

Some early record cover ideas

I'm not sure how best to make use of the size and scale, and if the backgrounds should be more interesting. At the moment most of them are too dull.

Development of Secret 7 Imagery

Here is my development for the John Lennon Imagine cover. I tested out lots of different variations, adding in the purple background in the end to give it a more thoughtful calming vibe as opposed to harsh white. Although I think something of the lifework is lost when it is removed from the plain paper textured background and I think this detracts from the overall tender quality of the drawing. 

I added the ink textures into the background as I felt it need something to unite the colour in the background and give the design  bigger overall sense of fluidity. It definitely doesn't work on the reddish background, the cooer is flat and harsh and entirely out of line with the entirety of the cover. The white horses on the lilac also did not seem to work, 

I tried to soften the black lifework of the horses, and while I like the results to an certain extent their over all impact and emotion is lost in some of the designs where the lifework is that bit too compatible/the same as the background. The design needs to be striking from further away as records are designed to sit amongst an array of other vibrant and competitive colours.

Here is the rest of my development:

I played around a lot with the size and scale of the whale on the record sleeve. Whales are very large as well we all know, so I made it come off the edge - making the most of scale!

I drew so many horses trying to achieve the perfect galloping horse, and alas I don't think I achieved it, I ran out of time before the deadline.

I am still not satisfied with the quality of the horse design for Dream 3, I have drawn so many horses for this and I cannot seem to get the right one. I want to create a peaceful horse galloping, getting across the sense of rhythm and power in the music, and also the calm and melodic nature of it too. Conceptually I like this and think it answers it well, however I can't make it the perfect reality that I want, these versions are mediocre/bad but I had to leave at this to make the deadline.

TAME IMPALA:

These horses were originally created with this idea in mind, to encapsulate the dance like, chasing and avoiding feeling that is created by the song, and in particular the music video for The less I know the better.

Since then I have evolved them out and refined them into other sleeve designs which I think would actually work better for other Songs.

Endangered Birds

http://www.birdlife.org/americas/projects/preventing-extinctions-araripe-manakin

I consulted this list of endangered species:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world%27s_100_most_threatened_species

Araripe Manakin

This was the first bird I came across on the list, I can't pronounce it's name. But I did these paintings of it. The first was about an hour long water colour study. I always shy away from painting like this on the course, as spending so long on a drawing (although an hour isn't that long but it was an intense concentrating hour, which don't come easy.) that is a realistic type replica doesn't seem productive or relevant. I worry that there is not enough interesting visual language in these pieces.

I cleaned the regional drawing up a bit by putting it through photoshop.

I found that the process of carefully drawing out in pencil then rendering in watercolour got my eye in, and this very informed understanding of the bird allowed me to draw some other very quick paintings that combined accuracy of form, detail and shading. They were expressive and quick as the pressure was off creating one perfect lovely piece and so they benefit from my drawing at it's best, when I am being totally carefree and experimental.

Areas of success:

- Use of blue as line work and in dots, these make it a more interesting piece and give it a more dynamic element.

- The bleeding of the rich brown paint. this was accidental, but the results give a very successful shading effect that gives the birds some more life like quality.

Areas to Improve on:

- Do more!

- The branch painting in the first initial watercolour is totally overworked, need a more carefree approach to it, to be careful not to overwork pieces.

I also drew this endangered bird a week later:

This one felt a lot less successful and sits much more uncomfortably on the page. I ought to reevaluate the way I paint the brown coloured wing texture. This took me an hour or more to draw and paint.

Progress Tutorial

We had a very helpful session digging up everyone's big k briefs and making sure an appropriate level of ambition and scope was invested into each. And that they would produce viable outcomes and projects for us all to work towards.

The idea I have at the moment is threatening to get too specific.

Problems with Sharks briefs:

• Who is it for, fishermen don't care so much as they want and need the money to sustain their lives.
• People can't help but be very afraid of sharks, the symbol of a fin is one of fear - especially to divers.
• How then can you make people love sharks - you (I) see them as being beautiful, share this how?
• Drawing process needs more scope than just sharks (sort of).
• Whole project may become too focused on the end campaign and in the graphic design of it, detracting of beautiful exploration of drawing. 

Get facts. Start to illustrate facts.

Alternative suggestions from group crit:

• Try and do beautiful drawings of top 100 endangered animals, from this a simple campaign can be sprung just be attaching a small link to WWF at the bottom. etc. - could then consider formats, create beautiful prints.
• This could allow for more scope of pushing drawing abilities.
• Forget about campaign for now as this is limiting my work.
• At least get more diverse than just sharks.

My fears with this new suggestion are:

1. This is potentially boring and not pushing myself enough - just drawing lots of beautiful animals, what am I trying to communicate, where is the problem solving to this? 
2. I know what the end result ought to look like, this for me is scary and bad as generally when I try to create/realise a perfect drawing that I have in my mind or try to make my drawing look good they go flat and and are not at my best. My drawings are most successful when I am being playful and free.
3. It feels like the self informing, big exploration project element is now gone with this, and I'm not sure where that leaves me.

I will need to keep working and further reflect on all of this and figure out in a week where I am going with this.

Clockwork Orange - Penguin Design Awards

http://penguinrandomhousedesignaward.co.uk/adult_fiction_brief.php


9th March Deadline.

Media Testing

Endangered Sea life - Research

http://earthtrust.org/endangered/endangered-fish-species/

endangered marine creatures, protected by CITE include:

To date, the Working Group has successfully lobbied for the listing of the great white shark, whale shark, basking shark, Napoleon wrasse and seahorses on CITES Appendix II.

EarthTrust
Windward Environmental Center
1118 Maunawili Road
Kailua, HI 96734 USA

ENDANGERED MARINE SPECIES

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Endangered Fish Species

The human assault on the seas have left most fisheries hugely overfished, bottom communities turned to rubble, and most large old marine creatures gone.  The seas are very different from what they were even a decade ago, as a “tragedy of the ocean commons” plays out.

A single bluefin tuna can be auctioned for over a million dollars on Japan’s sushi fish exchanges. Because humans really do seem to think that they should eat some species at any price.

How to promote the conservation of them:

• Money incentives
• Ecosystem service provided by the species in hand. (Their importance in maintaining the structure of their ecosystems.)
• Cultural value of the species.

Arctic Tern - Book Brief

Song selection and Research

These are the songs that I want to design covers for:

 Tame Impala, The Less I Know the Better.

Key themes and things I want to communicate with my design:

• Young relationships
• Playfulness
• Vibrant
•  and psychedelic colours and imagery associated with this band's music videos
• Avoiding, and temptation - like a dance. 
• Their video 'Feels like we only go backwards' sums up the bands classic use of rhythm and colour in their music videos.

John Lennon - Imagine

• Tenderness
• Reaching out to one another
• unite the world

Max Ritcher - Dream 3

• Beautiful
• slowly expanding
• growth, like that of a flower opening, or the sun slowly setting
• Calm
• Big
• Methodical
• Steady

Chvrches - Clearest Blue

• Melodic and funky?
• Contemporary 
• Mythical

Jack Garret - Worry

• bold and bare feel to song
• Funky
• Electric
• Tender

Sharks- Book aesthetic

I went onto Folio Society's site as my aim for this brief is to produce a beautiful book. I discovered their version of Charles Darwin's groundbreaking 'Origin of Species'. This sort of level of artistic celebration of fact is what I am aiming for with my book. The information is important and must be factually correct, but what makes this book different and its chief aim is too look stunning.

I think I want my book to be a lot more simple than this, but this sort of quality is what I had in mind.

WWF Green List

http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/green_books/

I think this is essentially what I am aiming to make, a book that can be certified onto the WWF Green list. (There doesn't seem to be any other shark books on there atm.)

I had a look to discover the price of this book, to see if it would be realistic to produce more expensive book on shark conservation/endangered sharks. This one is marketed at about £28. So it is more up market with regards to price range.

I tried to discover more about the content.

It appears very illustrated, with the main focus on the overall aesthetic of the book.

I actually have this book at home, I won it in a school competition for raising awareness on carbon footprints or something. I though I had submitted a poem to the writing section, but I somehow won the poster section lol. I think it had something to do with the clip art I put at the bottom of it. I felt a bit of a fraud but I had entered the right section and everything.