Presentation Document Briefing

            Today we had a guest speaker named Alexandra, who came in to tell us about a project that will run parallel with our FMP. She explained to us that we will have to create a workbook or blog in which we record our work for the Final Major Project and all the background work that went into it. This sounds a lot like the way we were meant to record our work during my time in the International Baccalaureate. Though somewhat tedious I do see the point and the benefits of running this while working on our FMP. Not only as a means of recording our work, but also as a way of looking back and reflecting on why we are doing well... what we are doing for our FMP.

Scan of the Presentation Document Brief

     
My first response to the this talk was something along the lines of this:

Doodle taken from my sketch book, on the day.

Surprisingly the talk did not focuse on plagiarism, as I suspect the presentation document is a means of preventing... which is fair enough. Rather it was more about creating a work book to detail our progress in the Final Major Project.

Note taken from my first attempt at a Presentation Document

                Alexandra mentioned that a further talk would be given in about 2 weeks time giving us some time to prepare some of our Presentation Document (PD), and to further explaing the finer points of what we need to include. We have been instructed to use our last project (negotiated study) as a practise for the PD. We have been asked to show this in two weeks as a means for Alexandra to give us some feedback and catch any mistakes or issues that may arrise... in other words give us a better understanding of what the presentation document is all about.

Self Promotion Brief

                  Today we were told about another brief that would be running during our FMP (Final Major Project). The project is to produce a small body of work to be sent off to several art directors.

Self Promotion Brief  Scan               

                As part of the self promotion we will be having a number of website tutorials in the following weeks, We did have this in the first year, but only very brieftly... not something I have really been working of for quite some time. Anyway I will deal with that once I have my tutorial in the coming weeks.

               Off the top of my head I would like to do a small series of boxes with some rolled up images to send off as my self promotion. The box would be about the size of a cigarette box. I remember seeing this idea as part of a promotional campaign for the Danish National Gallery years ago when I visited it with my old art class. I was impressed with the idea, as it was something unexpected, and that the act of opening the box built some excitement. I will have to think of some changes later on, just to make sure I am just copying something. The main change I could image would be having the images inside flat, instead of rolled up.

Doodle from my sketch book of a basic design

Schedule

After the Final Major Project was presented to us, the tutors began explaining our schedule. It was an outline of all the week days starting now all the way up until the 22nd of June. The impression it left was that despite this being our final major project and it being immensely important for our final mark we would be having a lot of extra appointments. For example almost every week we would be having a guest speaker and atleast 1-2 teaching sessions. This struck me as rather strange as we should be focusing on our work, so why do we have all this extra stuff that should have been taught in the last 6 months, especially since the months between the end of our dissertation and Christmas were very quiet. It is not helped by the fact that we already have to devote our energy to an exhibition in the local Bargate gallery at some point in February, something which is stressing me out quite a bit.

The Final Major Project Introduction

Today we were given the brief for our Final Major Project. The last push in our Illustration BA. We were told that there would be and estimated 13 “teaching” weeks where lectures and other projects would run along side the FMP. There is a further 3 weeks of the Easter holiday, so we have about 16 weeks to get this done.

Scan of the Final Major Project Brief

 

A new cirteria that cropped up was that of "participation" meaning that the tutors would be monitoring our time spent in the studios and events more closely as it will somehow affect our mark. Though attendance has been an issue with our course in the past, I will have to make sure they notice me whenever I am in.

 Another point was to choose a topic that would keep our interest satisfied for 13 weeks, as in the past "students have gotten bored and tried to change their topic around Easter" - Peter Lloyd (tutor)

 Random doodle taken fomr my sketch book, on the day.

 Surprisingly the area of plagiarism was not given much focus, if any, when the tutors gave us a rundown of all the criteria. This has not been done much in the past, but I did suspect that they would do so for this our final project.

The final point was to maintain an effective work schedule. This is particuarly important for me as my last project proved very difficult, with me having to go home over the Christmas break to deal with some messed up family business.

Who am I Part

                Hi my name is Christian Gregersen. I am a half Danish/English illustration student at Southampton Solent University. I am currently in my third year working on my final major project. Moving beyond the dry scope of this CV-escue introduction, I will have to give you the reader a general idea of who I am and what I do.

 Picture of Christian Bent Elmann Gregersen (me), posted into one of my workbooks and then scanned.

                  I have always loved drawing, ever since I was a kid and painted the entire living room with my crayons. While doing the International Baccalaureate in Copenhagen, I realized that if I wanted to work as an artist my best chance was to return to my mother’s homeland England. I visited Solent University and being impressed with the facilities and town I decided to apply. The last 3 years have been great, in the sense that they have allowed me to combine my passion with education, and even some work.
The way I treat my art and life in general is with humour. Almost all my work contains some form of humour, as I was brought up on the phrase “du har kun det sjov du selv laver” translating into “the only fun you have, is that you create for yourself”. I try to embody this phrase and I feel that it somehow shows through most of the things I do.

How this works

I at first chose to do the presentation document as a book. However it was later revealed that the book did not go into enough description as to why I made my decisions. To correct my mistake I began making this blog (it being too difficult to add new pages into an already crowded book). The blog will (with some exceptions) consist of the scanned pages of this book, and then typed comments clarifying anything that is unclear, or just going into a bit more depth.

FMP - A Quick Summary

The Subject:

The subject will be a collection of screenprints produced in thematically opposing pairs. The prints will be in A1 format, but connect together to form a grid of 3x2, connecting to a large single image. The theme will be human concepts or inventions, uniquely human and not found in any natural sense, such as mathematics/science, art/culture, love and war. The idea is to 

The Medium:

Screenprints. I will create the images on drafting film, which will then later be exposed onto silk screens. I am planning on having 2 layers, one in black and another in colour.

The Style:

The style will be that of pen line drawing in a mismatch of images, as demonstrated below:

 Photograph of a poster I made in December 2011

 

However the images will be more developed in terms of theme (as the above is just a mismatch of doodles) and of style, including brushwork.

What's all this then?

The presentation document (this, which you are currently reading) is a journal/work log of my experiences working on my final major project, in my last year of studying Illustration. It is meant to cover day to day events, my thoughts and work process and how all these things will influence my final major project.