Join me as I talk through the journey that was the Ways of Seeing module. This module was introduced to me as being about drawing. I first thought that it would be about working drawings or learning to draw with different perspectives. Oh, how wrong I was. It was more about how can drawing be used to show information. To understand that there are different ways of drawing.
Click the link to see SketchBook Tour: https://vimeo.com/298911567
One-Line Blind Drawings
When told about this task I was apprehensive as it was something that I had done before and I didn’t like it. While doing the drawings I was slightly uncomfortable because I was having to stare at these people. As an artist I usually like the things I draw to be as perfect as possible and I knew that with this task they weren’t going to be perfect. I decided that I would also do portraits of the people I drew as I wanted to see what the difference was between not being able to see the paper and being able to watch what I was actually drawing. Once I completed them, I could see the humour in the drawing, being not perfect seemed to be the point. Other people’s comments made me realise that it all depends on the person and their perspective on things, although I may have not liked them, they did.
Quick Interview Portraits
The interview was the simple part as I was able to ask standard questions that would give me general information about Isla. When I moved onto the portrait part I once again withheld slightly as I didn’t want to draw another portrait. This time I could spend more time on the drawing but this meant that I was putting more pressure on myself to get it perfect. I decided to go straight in and do the drawing in pen. This made me try and make as few mistakes as I could because I didn’t want random lines through her face. When the drawing was done, I knew it wasn’t perfect and didn’t resemble Isla 100% but you can still tell that it is her. This tasked helped me to realise that drawing doesn’t always have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough that you get the idea across.
Conductive Ink/Circuit Drawings
When I first heard about this task, I was confused how it could be classed as drawing. Once I was shown examples I understood why. Drawing the circuit allows for less equipment to be used and the circuit get to be kept. The conductive ink was a bit of a hassle to use as it went everywhere and took a while to dry. I had to make sure that there were no gaps in the ink or it wouldn’t work. During this task we hit a hurdle as one single battery wasn’t enough to light the LED’s. We tried using up to four batteries but the light was still faint. To test that the LED was actually working we used a wire from the battery straight to the LED, it lit up so bright compared to just the conductive ink.
Visual Personality Profiles-Layered Portrait-Interview
This time I partnered up with Alistair.
Trying to think of interview questions this time was harder as we were tasked to ask more open questions that the interviewee can expand on more. We also had to think about how we asked the question. The way we word a question can change the way a person will answer it. Next was the portrait, I remembered that it was okay if it wasn’t perfect so I started straight away. When I finished the portrait, I was happy enough with it as you could tell that it was him. Trying to think of drawings to correctly represent the interview questions was a slight struggle and some of the answers were easier than others. Layering allowed for me to change how different parts are seen on the page.
Reading Week, Observation Drawings and Mapping Task
For reading week, I went home. When I was first told about this, I worried what I would draw as I thought that the week would consist of me watching tv and never leaving the house. I decided to draw for Friday 12th, Saturday 13th, Monday 15th, Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th October as each of these days had something different that I could focus my observation drawing on. Since I knew what I wanted to draw I knew the quality I wanted it to be, this was an issue as I spent a lot longer on them than I maybe should have. The mapping task is where I struggled as I didn’t know how to represent each place correctly without it looking a mess. Each time I tried something different, the one I liked the most was Tuesday 16th as the pictures represented each part of my day, the shape created a flow that that easy to follow. Using layering from the task before allowed me to put writing on another sheet but still be seen when overlapped. This meant that a person would be able to understand my steps of that day by the pictures but the writing gave extra information to help the person understand the day better.
Journey Map/Visual CV
When I was first given the brief and told about this task I got confused, things on the brief eg, struggles, wouldn’t be something you would find on a CV. Understanding what was totally being asked of me took a while. Using my CV and personal statement helped me to have things to put on this.
The next hurdle I came across was thinking of the visuals for each aspect that would be going on it. For the skills parts I used google images to find common images that represent them hoping that if this CV was to be sent away that the employer would easily recognise what it meant. This task took me a lot longer than I thought it would. I drew all the images to make sure I had them all ready.
I then had to think about how I wanted it to be laid out, I always like the idea of a swirl/spiral as it shows all these individual things coming together to this one point in the centre. I was worried about spacing, how much would have to be left between each row?
I though having the images ready would shorten the amount of time needed to draw them on the final piece. I liked the original drawings so much I decided I would just trace them, this was not a good idea as it meant I was drawing them a further four times; to trace, put lead on other side, press through onto the paper and to darken the actual drawing. Although it took longer, I was happy that I used the original images as I don’t think I would have got them as good a second time. 
I then thought about the medium I would use to apply the colour. The first time I used pencil, I liked this as it allowed me to shade the drawings and overlap colour. I also tried pen, I didn’t like this because the colours were to blocked and harsh.
Since deciding to use pencil to colour I was just copying the original drawings. This decreased the time it would have taken to think up colours there and then. I included arrows as they help to lead the viewers eye in the right direction.
Paper Character and Arduino Board
When presented this task I was excited as I enjoy making things out of paper. By making the example at the start I started thinking of shapes/ characters that I could make that would be of a similar build.
When I was told that light(s) had to be introduced I also had to think about how that would change the character. My initial thought was a rabbit, I first drew it as it would look made from the rectangular boxes, this showed that it didn’t totally resemble a rabbit.
Sticking with the rabbit I tried two origami techniques but both were unsuccessful.
I realised that I had to change my idea, taking into consideration the need for a light I decided to try making a firefly, this way the reason for the light was already there. I had no idea how I was going to create a firefly so I got the help of a trusty friend; google images.
Here I found multiple ways to make one but they were mostly all flat, until I found one.
The shape was perfect as I could visualise how to make it.
I made a small prototype to make sure it would work. Due to being a prototype I put lots of tape on it to hold it together. This meant if I was to put it in my sketch book then it would be flattened and ruined.
The next thing I worried about was getting it to be flatpack. Making it flatpack was surprisingly easy all I had to do was make it fold out the way, when you want to remake it you just fold sides back under and the top will curve back up. The sides cannot be joined permanently or it will not be able to fold flat that it why a clip has to be used when it is made to be 3D.
For this task we had to attend an Arduino Board Workshop. This taught us the basics we would need to use the Arduino Boards. Arduino allows a person to code what happens in an electric circuit. I was able to control what my LED does. Getting this to work was a struggle as I knew what I wanted the code to do just not how to actually type it. I wanted my LED to flash and every time it did it would get brighter until it reached the highest brightness then it would just stay at that. We were using RGB LED’s but I wanted to have my LED be the colour yellow, I had to find the corresponding colour values that would make yellow.
When attaching the LED to the firefly I stuck it to the bottom on the inside and the colour spread evenly through the character.
The last part of this task was to create the storyboard. I decided that the whole storyboard would be the narrative of the firefly. Drawing in the small boxes was hard as I could hardly add any real detail.
Through this module I have learned that drawing can be used to record quick ideas that comes to a person’s mind. It does not always have to be done by a pen or pencil, there are many different ways and types of drawing. I have come to understand that some drawing does not always need to be perfect as long as you can understand what it is and it shows the information you are trying to show.