The Word Becomes Art

Do Indexical Images Tell the Truth? “In both documentary and video journalism, the indexical power of cameras can be harnessed as weapons for truth and shine a light in the darkest of places.” — Sara Merican, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2021 During my childhood in the 1970s-1980s it was often said that a camera never lies. The assumption was that a photograph reliably recorded the subject matter as it was. Subsequently, image manipulation has become increasingly accessible, so that now anyone with a smartphone and a few apps can do it. The idea that a photograph is always true to life has rapidly become outdated. However, the appetite for objective photography remains, as evidenced by the quote above.  In its introduction to Project 5: Photography 1, the OCA introduces “…the idea that a photograph is ‘indexical’, meaning that it has a direct physical relationship to its object. An image that is excessively manipulated is no longer, strictly speaking, ‘Indexical’”. They add that many new...

Reflection on my Experience of this Unit as a Whole What does visual communications mean to me? At the beginning of this unit I wrote that “Visual Communications combines illustration and graphic design across many media to create meaningful art; images with a message.” 1 While I agree with this statement in general, I would now add that the images we create as visual communicators should convey the particular message outlined within a brief or other purposeful intent. It’s the use of visual language and dynamics to convey ideas/emotions for a particular purpose and audience. It’s the resolution of problems: how do we use our research and creative skills to most effectively communicate our intended meaning or message? Coming from a fine art background, I find visual communications to be very much focussed on problem solving and design rather than more free-flowing creative responses to personal motivations. It is no less creative, but is perhaps more useful. How did my creativ...

By morning it had snowed, so I was confronted with the need to photograph my work in the cold light of snowfall with the warm light of lightbulbs. There wasn’t enough natural light to manage without artificial light. Daylight helped a bit, but I was still concerned that the foreground elements were being overwhelmed by the background. I couldn’t help comparing it with the cleaner backgrounds from PSExpress. I wondered if I could find a digital solutions, and I went back to PSExpress to test more colours (photoshop was still offline).  After numerous iterations I ended up with these, a general feeling of dissatisfaction, and a sense of time bounding along towards an ever-closer deadline. I stopped for a break and a search for inspiration. When I came back I decided to try a different angle and to think a bit about typography. Initially I thought I wouldn’t include any, to give the hypothetical magazine editor options to use their preferred fonts and styles. As a magazine editor myse...

Having completed my previous post I was, quite literally, back to the drawing board! I wanted to see whether my drawings could be looser, more lively, and informed by me having collaged the veg. I began with coloured pencils. I was rather unimpressed with my efforts. Perhaps coloured pencils don’t lend themselves to scribble. I’m much more used to building up careful layers. The peppers were the most dismal examples - there was no sense of the third dimension and the cross hatching was hopeless for the ultra smooth surface of peppers. I liked the tomatoes and carrots more. I could develop a technique here in terms of scribbling tone. An experiment for another day. The thing to love about marker pens is they’re so quick for laying down colour. However, I was equally unimpressed with these. I think I just really like my little collaged veg so my heart wasn’t in finding an alternative.  I realised that, for all of my veg drawing, I still didn’t have a design in mind for the magazine s...

Having completed my visual research and generation of ideas, I decided to try out some different ways of drawing vegetables as a way into exploring the theme of this brief: food of the world. During this process I’ve loosely held the idea of illustrating an article on recipes of the world that use onions. For this reason, I began by drawing onions. Firstly I made some simple pencil drawings exploring line and tone. While the image below has a more ‘finished’ appearance, I keep returning to the above more scribbled and overlying drawings. They feel more alive than the more careful drawings below. Looking at them as I write this, I wonder how I might be able to recapture some of that liveliness as I make my final pieces. I then took inspiration from the project brief and made some loose drawings in felt pens on the brown paper bag the onions had been inside. I rather like these and I’m still using the bag for my onions! They were very quick sketches in which I picked up on the lined/crea...