Over the past three weeks, we have recieved multiple tasks that have stretched my ability in a variety of ways. I’ve been challenged a lot because this module is orientated around sketching, which is something I’m comfortable with in only a few areas such as sketching still objects, however, I’ve been challenged to stray from my comfort zone.
First Task
We were randomly assigned into groups of four, and after making our sketchbooks, we were instucted to fold our A3 paper into halves to then draw on each side. Without looking down at the paper, we (the class) had to draw the person opposite us using a red coloured sharpie. To say the least, it was truly aweful which was no surprise, but next we had to draw the same person, over the same drawing using a green sharpie and then finally one last time with a blue sharpie. And to add to all the stress, each time we had roughly 30 seconds which hightened the panic in the room.
Evaluation
The use of space isn’t too great and the drawing could be a lot larger. Because there was less space to cover, there were fewer margins for extreme errors where the three pen drawing don’t allign at all. However, when I tried to go larger (far left image/nightmare one) it did not work out as my hand had to move off the page which made me lose my bearings. I also found that the sketches where the person wasn’t facing straight were a lot easier because there was no symmetry which made it a lot harder for an unknown reason.
The second task was the same process but instead of A4 it is A3 which was harder for me as I now had to draw even larger. I was beginning to get the hang of it, since I had tips of making sure my hand stayed in one place each time and just remembered how far to reach/stretch out to get the far parts of the drawing.
Second Task
The second task we were allowed to look down at the page, so the drawing was at least alligned this time. We had to use a pen (I stuck to using a sharpie but just black this time) and draw a more detailed portrait of a person this time while carrying out an interview and jotting down a few notes about the person. For fergus, once again it was easier to draw him since i was facing him from an angle which I’ve discovered is my strong point. Portraits of people are the weakest part of my drawing as I struggle with spotting definitive lines in a live portrait, and I prefer something thats a lot clearer and distinguished. For sophie, we had to include electronics so I places two LED’s where her earings would be and made two simple series circuis using wire and a battery. I tried to use a thinner pen for some detailed shadowing but it didn’t work out as well.
Third Task
Our third task was in a group, we were to experiment with the conductive ink provided and try to create a working circuit. There were a lot of dificulties even with laying down an even amount on the paper and it did get quite messy. When using the ink to connect a battery to a bulb, there were not many effective results. Eventually we figured out the ink had to be completely dry and because of its very high resistance, the path drawn could not be long. To get the bulb to light up the smallest bit, four batteries were needed to be stacked so to conclude, the ink was not that effective.
Fourth Task
I had to create another portrait but this time much more detailed and make sure is provides a visual display of their personality but with layers.
The way I planned this worked out very nicely as I edited the image of Nathan, then sketched out the main lighting outlines to create the non-layered version. Next the alterations I did were the chef hat (as he wanted to become a chef at one point and wanted to open up a cafe in retirement), the joker smile (because he is very dark and satirical with his jokes and humour), the small quotes from real incidents that have happened at drum chappel (that is where he grew up), and finally the ripped news articles represent what Nathan aspires to be: a fututre designer, comes back to help Drumchapel, then retire to run his cafe.
Fith Task
This task was set over the reading week. We had to create ten pieces of A3 drawings which was two a day during the week days. One of the drawings on the day had to consist of a item or visual image that respresented that day or was a key part of your memory (pictures in the left column). The other drawing had to represent your day-to-day movements, so your actions either as a map, or something that showed one stage of your day going onto the next. (pictures on the right column).
The task was a lot of fun as there was not a lot of pressure on how long you had to spend on a piece so some days where I did not have a lot of time, I could do a rough drawing but still be creative such as the navigating onto the trampoline, doing a little flip, then back off.
Day 1 – Travelling
The first piece to show my journey on the first day was a simple normal map that showed the specific details of where i went but only the beggining and end sections. This was I only had three journeys that day but over a long distance and I couldn’t create a detailed map of all the way from Dundee to the west of Glasgow.
They are both still orientated to facing north and the circles are roughly where they should be in Scotland. For example the Dundee circle is north east of the Glagow one which is roughly the direction of travel.
I only used a pencil as I like simple sketches that don’t worry about too much colour and I didn’t have anything else available at the time.
Day 1 – View of the Tay Bridge from Broughty Ferry
Once again a pencil was all I had at the time but I could quickly sketch out the image roughly, then I lated used a photo to add in the detail later.
The drawing has a two vanishing points to the right, one in the distance with the bridge and the other being the pavement, but both go to the same point despite being miles away.
Day 2 – Navigating the skies
This was a small fun one to do of my friends back garden. We didn’t do much that day as I arrived late, but other than catching up I went out onto the trampoline for one little flip.
I thought of this as I wanted to show a 3D map that wasn’t from a birds high view and from a normal perspective as if my movement was tracked from the ground and only over a short distance.
I had my pens but not a lot of time, so I drew the main objects in a simplistic way so that a rough image of the garden was given.
Day 2 – Arriving to see my old friend
This image always has a strong presence in my memory as it was a house that I’d constantly be at playing Lego with my friend and spending a lot of my days there, so walking down the driveway is one of my favourite things. The majority of this is from memory but i went outside every now and then to check i did something correctly.
I wanted to keep it simple and only include the detailed brickwork instead of individually drawing out each normal brick on the house.
Day 3 – Navigating the designer outlet
I originally was going to create a heat map that spelt out shopping as i went around the shops, but I wanted to make it more artistic and represent how so many people would come from locally and far away to this one centre.
The dots are the paths of me, and other people coming towards the buildings are just a simple 2D view from above like a floor plan. This is one of my favourites as it has a lot of geometric shapes and how the word fits perfectly into the floor plan.
Day 3 – A successful days shopping
I decided to visualise my hand holding the range of different coloured bags that I had.
I used my pens so I could make it look vibrant and a lot more simple to contrast my detailed pencil sketches i had done previously.
Day 4 – Travelling home on a gloomy day
I was drawing in the car and collaborated a few visually interesting things that i had seen, the sky was dark so there were a lot of sillhouetes in the distance that were made simple to draw.
The main colours I noticed were the blur of red lights ahead of us and the yellow lights coming towards us as there was not much other colour that stood out around.
To point out, I accidentally drew two memories/images for one day so the next day will consist of two pieces of navigation.
Day 4 – Packed and ready to head ‘home’
It was late when i got back so i decided to do another quick sketch of the pile of luggage that I had to drag back to dundee the next day.
All the bags had different shapes so I thought it would be interesting to draw.
Day 5 – Tiredness in correlation with distance
I decided to draw a detailed outline of scotland this time and not show too much detail.
This time though, I played with the general direction as if it was a map and related two main things on my day: how tired I was by the time i got to dundee in correlation with how much distance I had to travel.
I outlined my drawing in pen to make the map look even sharper and then went over with a rough brush of blue pen to represent scotland.
Day 5 – How i travelled home
The sketch showed the different steps in how I made it back to Dundee. The images were generic modes of transport and not the exact thing i took to get back.
I used the same stensil like style to show a side profile of each one then an arrow to make it seem like it was passing through the page back and forth.
Sixth Task
Our sixth task was to create a CV for ourselves in the form of a journey or timeline.
Throughout the journey of my life, I never knew what exactly I wanted to become, and I never had my life planned for the next few steps so i took it one thing at a time. This was my inspiration for the flip map as only one thing is discovered at a time and you can’t see ahead until you move along to that point then you can look back at what you have discovered and achieved. I also like the theme of a journey map with icons or scenery representing something such as the bridges being me moving over onto a new school or university (big pond metaphor).
Seventh Task
The final task was that we had to combine an arduino circuit into a flatpack model made out of paper and construct a storyboard for our character.
My inspiration was that i struggle to get out of bed in the morning, but i have a lovely peace of mind when i press the snooze button, so i decided to create my two expressions and ended up making up this incredibly cute and happy fellow. He gets incredibly angry however…
The arduino programming was very challenging as I had never done it but i managed to get a good grasp of it and convert a few of the things I’ve learnt into a program that has two buttons which makes the RGB led turn red (for angry) and green (for happy).
So this is the wee angry guy and he does not look happy whatsoever! Thankfully. if you turn his head around the other way and press the green light button he will be happy and glowing again.
The bed is made using origami and is a simple 20x20cm sheet then the cover is a rectangle folded for the angles on the covers.
