Project Evaluation Unit 2

My self project on human form and expression was an exciting and challenging journey, I focused on human health, something i am familiar with in terms of fitness and diet. The original focus was to convey fitness and health in a manner of branding , it was suggested by my tutor to explore, I guess because it was out of my comfort zone and is a good body of work for my portfolio which I agree with but for this unit I decided to look at a health awareness campaign surrounding food. I titled the project Lifestyle Or Deathstyle a juxtaposition between the foods we choose to eat which in turn affect our mental state, physical body and life longevity.
This work is an offspring of a personal project  I developed a few years ago it based around the same subject matter, it  started due to a conscious awakening which made me aware of what I ate and the affects certain food had on my body and mind.
My work was mainly influenced by illustration, graphics and 1980's typography. Illustrator Patrick Nagel was my first study, his work is bold, clean, minimal and is a good example of poster design. My look at 1980's typography was quite a dig I viewed many old VHS tape covers, magazines, blogs and modern reincarnations.
Before I came to the decision to use graphics I had created various textile samples with my tutor Donna, she taught us a technique called reverse applique which I used to make font but I felt it didn't fit my project.
The process of creating my own font was satisfying, I found two style commonly used in 80's typo, brush calligraphy and bold font. The brush influence came from a movie named Drive, the design aesthetic is what moved me to using this style.The bold font in part come from a movie called MegaForce, I took influence for its headline element and letter manipulation, the other was artists Rodchenko and Popova their shapes and colour schemes took to my eye. I used various pens, pencils and measurement to build my font samples, once I had the rough drafts i scanned them to computer where i fine tuned my work. Creating my font on illustrator has endless possibilities, I created custom brushes, shapes and colour palates which resulted in a great outcome of graphics work.
One  of the foundations to creating my work was understanding body dynamics a very important study for any artist, I found shapes a very good guide to understanding the body and have made this evident in my sketchbook. The key focus is looking at communication and expression in art and what better way to do this than to study artists who express this. Patrick Nagel is an example of this, his illustrations of the female form showcase expression in their posture and communication in their style and look. Nagels work was produced in the 1980's a pinnacle of female empowerment and his illustrations showed that.
Schiele and Mucha also lent great knowledge on understanding the human form. Schiele's work to me is like a blueprint of the human form, he was not completely accurate in his paintings but made light of the shapes that the human body encompasses. In my opinion Mucha's work was elegant and accurate in how he depicted the female form, details such as the hands and face struck me in Muchas Work and i definitely took some tips while doing my sketch study.
Considering the various sketches that I have done my final work is minimal in movement but still projects life, that's not to say i wont explore more movement in future projects. My Lifestyle poster focuses on facial expression, the character smiles arms stretched out as to convey the message of embracing good health and life. The deathstyle poster blatantly projects bad health, the character is static with cigarette in hand which communicates the junk that we fill our bodies with, also the smoke blending into her hair  is a reference to mood.
Colours are a very important element in art, they communicate a mood, place, culture and many other things. I looked to achieve a very minimal palate with my project, I did add more colours than planned. Harmony and simplicity was something I learned looking at artists and their  palates. I experimented with acrylics, pencils, markers and paint pens mixing and matching various colours figuring what worked and what didn't, the palate I used for my finals definitely reflected the imagery and message.
I chose to work with layers for my final project, Stephanie  Dotson was my study for this chosen medium as she utilizes layers into her work. Materials i looked to use were acetate, textile, trace paper and graphics, I had not explored any other layer variations at the time so feel that i need to extend my research on that. The materials that formed my work consisted of laminate sheets, in between them I placed canvas paper painted with acrylic, a printed graphics border, images drawn to acetate with a high quality permanent marker, sugar paper and clear sticker paper.
Giving my work an element of life was something I had explained earlier on in my writing's, I took to Alphonse Mucha for  this study as he was famous for his theatrical poster paintings. Besides the elegant flowing females in his art Mucha created amazing borders for his work which gave his 2D painting an almost 3D element. I tried to figure a way in which I could achieve this but was not successful in my practice, I used layers of acetate to build my work up. Included in my layers were a border and an image of my Lifestyle character whose arms were supposed to extend outside of the borders but due to some mishaps and short time the arms had to stay in. I think graphics and print would have been a good choices to achieve this and will definitely experiment with these mediums in the future.
I mentioned Stephanie Dotson earlier on in my work and how she influenced my use of layers, she also led me to experiment with some of her processes. Dotson is  a mixed media artist, her work spans from painting, drawing, installation and printing, she inspired me to try a technique she used in her work called impasto in which you use  a thick layer of paint to create texture. I tried the impasto technique using acrylic paint not necessarily looking for a thick texture but instead creating patterns where I applied a continuous brush stroke, i used this technique on various materials such as fabriano, canvas paper and acetate. I used this discovered technique on my final awareness posters, it was painted to acetate which I thought would show well beneath various layers but the patterns were not very clear in the end. Another lesson is to be learned in my study and that is to apply extensive experimentation to each technique used.
The background designs for my work were very minimal as not to take anything away from the rest, I did this from simple research. The Reebok flash store in NewYork had some say in my choice of design, in 2008 their store was designed with colourful geometric shapes which was inspired by vorticsim an early 20th century English arts movement which was partly inspired by cubism. I created many samples on foamboard and canvas paper using spraypaint, brusho, acrylic and printing paint. I made a decision and used acrylic on canvas paper which turned out good but when coupling all of my layers and finishing my finals I found the background was slightly hidden amongst the other layers. To solve this I could scale down the layers above or amend the background so that it stands out more, i have done a graphics versions of my backgrounds which i definatley will make use of.
whilst prepping my layers I did get some insight on various poster styles and layouts. The mental illness campaign stood out for me, it's subject matter, simplicity, installation and font placement was in some way what I aimed for.
Through my project I have learned that the ideal vision or sketch that you have of your final piece does not always suffice as I learned with one piece. I explained earlier that my work is layer based and that I am using laminate to compress my layers. So I prep and head to staples to get my work laminated, but there's a problem it hasn't sealed properly plus a few layers have moved inside, my only guess is that first layer caused this as it was textured canvas it left air pockets. I didn't let this bother me as there are alternatives to this problem such using a flatter surface or using graphics.
I grew on the idea of laminating to much which made me loose sight of other alternatives processes but all in all I am happy with the outcome of my finals, I only learn from this and and I look forward to the next unit.