Assignment 2: Visual Poster complete and review

 

This is the finished Visual Poster, using some of the visual elements that distinguish my work already as well as some new ones which I hope to use more. 

I enjoyed making this, and it’s good to see again something that looks like it was me who made it. I’m pleased with how it’s turned out, with the one exception that I don’t think the brush pen was the right choice of medium for the border as it has come out a bit streaky. I should have taken the bull by the horns and got out the acrylics and the dreaded paint brush!

The reason I didn’t break out the acrylics is shown here. I wanted to incorporate influences from Art Nouveau and so I had to get out the ruler, set square and pair of compasses! I’m sure that all this measuring and precision is not good for my soul! By the time I had drawn it all out and rubbed out the marks and mistakes, I didn’t want to spoil it and have to do all that measuring again! As I’m not very confident with the paintbrush I went for the safer option of using one of my brush pens. On reflection, I think I should have overcome my nerves and just get on with the painting  I will not get better at it unless I practice. 

For the future, I have a couple of ideas. I don’t want to have to draw out this kind of grid too often, so I could make some templates of different layouts and then copy and print a layout when I want to use it again. Alternatively, I could investigate using the format of divided pages but drawing less precise borders freehand, as I have been doing in my sketchbook. Much in the way that Mary Fleeson has taken traditional Celtic knotwork and made it curvy, I could adapt the Art Nouveau style towards more curvy borders. I think it’s worth following up both of these ideas to see what works and what feels most ‘me’  

I particularly enjoyed incorporating some fabric and stitch into my poster - perhaps not the most obvious choice of medium for a poster, but anything can be used really, now that we can take it all into digital  I like the feeling that my hands have worked that fabric  I am also pleased with the difference it has made to use a cream substrate  it helps to achieve something of the glow of Art Nouveau oils  I’m really happy with the way my coloured pencils worked on cream paper and am now thinking of using cream and warm coloured substrates more  

One of my frustrations is how much my sketchbook is filling up with contextual references  Do I need to copy, print, cut and stick everything I look at in my sketchbook? I tend to do quite a lot of visual research as part of my creative process and do a lot of visual thinking along the way. Documenting all of this is impossible, but I’ve been trying to write a bit about why I’ve chosen to include each image  This is entirely for my tutor. For myself, the image itself is the holder of the ideas that are forming as I meander through image searches  it’s not unusual for me to save 20-50 images as part of my thinking towards each piece I create. Do I need to reproduce and reference them all and translate visual thought into written language for every one of the images that has helped shape my ideas? It takes up so much time that I don’t have enough time left to pursue a few different ideas on the way to the final image  Looking ahead to Assignment 3, I really need to find a way to work with this issue if I’m to have time to do the exercises described on an ongoing basis  

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed this assignment, much more so than Assignment 1. I feel that I’ve learnt a lot both conceptually and in terms of creative approaches and ways of working. The three posters are each very different, but each one represents a piece of new learning which I’m sure will have a positive effect on my own practice.