Introduction

The module consisted of multiple tasks, each with a different time allocated to do them. They were 7 different tasks to be done of which I completed 6. The tasks were as follows:

• Making Blind Drawings
• A quick interview with a portrait
• A conductive ink drawing
• A visual layered drawing of a person
• The Reading week assignment
  • Observational drawings
  • Map of the day
• Journey map and visual CV
• And an Arduino character

The only one which I did not complete was the conductive ink drawing.

Blind Drawings

The Blind drawings were given to us at the beginning of the module, they consisted of doing the same drawing 3 times using different coloured markers in 30 seconds without looking at the paper. Additinally, the drawings were drawn on top of each other.

When I was given this task, I did not expect to do well because I know that I am not the best at drawing people, but to add to that, I could not look at the paper. I tried my best during the drawing whilst being quite apologetic towards the person I was drawing for what I considered at the time to be butchering their faces. After I finished each drawing we compared them to each other and I realised,they  were not as bad as I imagined. When I finished each drawing, I also realised that the aim of the drawing were not to be perfectly accurate but more to teach us to do quick sketches and to learn to keep even the bad drawings as they also teach a valuable lesson.

These are the said drawings that I have done.

Quick Interview/ Portrait

The Quick Interview and drawing were given to us as a task to draw a face as well as answer/ask question about the person we were drawing.

At the beginning of the task, I did not like the idea of drawing another face, because I still had not massively improved from an hour prior when I did the blind drawings. I did not prepare my questions at all so they ended up being mostly questions relating to subjects which I am fond about.During the questionnaire I felt relaxed when I was needed to answer questions but when I had to draw the other person then I hated my drawing. The more I drew it the more I felt it became worse, I felt like it looked like a 6-year-old had drawn it. When I was done drawing I just wanted to throw the drawing but then reminded myself that The worst drawings are the most valuable ones.

This is the questionnaire as well as the drawing.

The conductive Ink Drawing

For the conductive ink drawing, we were given a paint like gel which could conduct electricity, it would be used to light up a LED that we were given.

I do not have a conductive drawing due to the fact that the first one that I have done was lost when tidying up the desks in DJCAD. The other drawing which I have done was supposed to incorporate the paint into a drawing that we would have done. I took so long to do the said drawing that I never got the chance to put the paint on it, I was so self-conscious about trying to draw the face of the person I was trying perfectly right that I ran out of time, I did not even finish that drawing. The thing I learned from this is that I should keep track of time when drawing because if not then I do not have time to finish my things on time.

I do not have a conductive drawing to show, but I do have the incompleted drawing of the person.

A visual layered drawing of a person

For this peculiar drawing we were given the task to draw a drawing of a person and creating an overlay using tracing paper over the person. This overlay would be part of the person’s personality. The questionnaire that I asked this time was more thought out, the question were elaborate and I tried to ask question which could be visually represented.

To begin this, we both asked each other 16 questions in total then began drawing each other. I took my time to draw her and I think I had improved from the day before. I began drawing her and when I finished the base drawing I felt happy about it. The second drawing was just an outline of the 1st drawing made using a black marker, this made the drawing more cartoony. The second overlay is that of the Joker, I did this because she said that he was her favourite movie villain. The 3rd overlay was of a Purple Jumper, this was the case because when asked if she had any unusual ticks she said that she always bought a purple jumper with her name when she goes abroad. The 4th Overlay is of a spring view with Stitch, Scooby and daisies scattered about. These all correlate to multiple answer she gave during the questionnaire. The final overlay is of crime scene police tape which was inspired from crime solving tv series.

This drawing is one of my favourite done in this module due to how it turned out and the details that were put into it. I think it could do with more improvement by adding more overlay which correlate with her answers.

These are the multiple overlays and the final drawing.

Reading week

Observational Drawings

The task was to create a drawing of an item, someone or a scenery seen during the day, it could range from something of major significance to something minor which affected the day.

Every day I drew an item which correlated to the main action of the day. I think this told a story of what I did during the week.

The first drawing is of a cleaning product, the reason for this was that during that day, my flatmates and I did a massive cleanup of the kitchen and common area in my flat.

The second day, I drew a very minimalistic drawing f the shapes of the dices used in the game Dungeons and Dragons which I had played that day.

The Third drawing is of a card in the game “Secret Hitler” which my flatmates and I played that day.

The fourth day, I drew Nerf darts because I had a Nerf fight that day.

The final drawings were of Vodka Bottles, The first was done when I had consumed no alcohol and the second drawing is one done when I was drunk.

Map of my day

The maps drawn were a representation of my day-to-day movement for that day. Each map that I drew was done in a different layout to create some diversity.

The first map was drawn in the shape of a comic strip

The second one was drawn from a top down view of my flat. The drawing had coloured lines spanning from mostly my bedroom to the kitchen area depicting my movement.

The third one was drawn in the shape of the clock where the outside of the clock is the morning and the inside is the afternoon.

The fourth map was drawn inspired by the drawing by Sarah Fanelli “Map of my day”

The final map was drawn in the shape of a treasure map.

Conclusion to the reading week assignment

The drawings were hard to keep up to everyday due to the fact that I always tried to make them perfect when in fact a drawing could be made in less than a minute. Another problem is that I procrastinated quite a bit on my drawing which is why they were always done so late. I think it was a good task to do these drawing because I improved my skills.

Journey Map and Visual CV

The Journey map and Visual CV is a drawing which should be interactive and show their progress through time to how I happened to go to DJCAD.

The drawing that I have done is multi-layered, each layer corresponds to a different meaning.

The base is supposed to represent a city from a top down view, the city is a metaphor for my mind where each building corresponds to a different experience and skill acquired which shaped me to become what I am. The left of the city is my past experience whilst the right of the city is the present and future aspirations.

The first and seventh layer make the city transform into a 3 dimensional one, the beginning of the city is flat whilst the further your progress the more developed and 3D the city becomes. This is a metaphor for my mind progressing, acquiring new skills and ultimately becoming older.

The second to the fifth layer are all coloured to represent each different type of memories/skills acquired. The Red signifies obstacles that I have or had to go through. The green represent skills acquired through education, the lighter green is High School whilst the dark green is University. Yellow is for people who have inspired me to do design. The Purple is skills acquired through self-improvement or through my Hobbies. The Orange buildings are for communication skills learned through various activity. Pink is for goals that I want to achieved or wanted in the past.

The sixth layer signifies the path I took throughout the city to show where I started to where I will be in the future.

The 8th Layer just compiles all of the colours in one layer to give the map a more vibrant look.

The Last Layer are the memories and skills themselves shown through Words, Drawings and images.

These are the Images of the Layers and the final map.

Conclusion to the map

I enjoyed doing this task because it made me realise of all the different influences in my life which made want to do design. I went quite ambitious with the map as it was a complicated idea which required a lot of different step.

Arduino Character

The Arduino Character task was a task given to us to make a character which could fold back into the sketchbook which would be interactive via LED programmed through an Arduino Board.

The task seemed quite fun as we were able to create our own little character. I came up with various idea and decided to go with the most challenging one I could find which was to do the Headless Horseman. The Horseman would be lit up through the neck with a green LED which faltered every so often and through the head.

I started to make the character and encountered various problems and eventually found counter-measures around them.

After making each part, I started to program the LED and encountered even more problems as I had to deal with random numbers generator to create the flickering in the LED, but eventually I managed to make it work.

I learned through this task to program and Arduino board but also learned to step out of my comfort zone with making a project which to me was quite complex.

These are images of the Horseman.

After making the horseman, I had to create a small storyboard about him, I decided to go with a storyboard of how I made him instead of making one of his story as he already has one, this is the story board itself.

Conclusion to the Module

The module itself was quite fun and enjoyable to make, I learned multiple things from it such as that not all of my drawings are going to be of the quality that I want them to be but that it is also fine. I learned to step out of my comfort zone regarding some drawings. I also learned that I should always jot down any ideas that I have no matter how ridiculous they may be.

I also made a video of the entire sketchbook which is shown here.

https://youtu.be/_Jh3e7BTzkw