Side Project - Tin Completed

Below are some pictures of the tin:

My army tin artifact.

Now that this has been completed, I feel that the first concrete step has been taken for my FMP. I can now begin my research in earnest and move on to create the posters, which will form the base of my FMP. On a personal note I was very happy with the result, that feeling of a completed work you are happy with cannot be beat. I had no real plan when I first started drawing and the way all the elements work together surprised me. I do hope that the tutors respond well to it, as this style will be at the core of my FMP. I celebrated by baking cookies and watching QI, Did you know that  man named Mr. Bean tried to shoot queen victoria with tobacco instead of a bullet? Ah the things you learn(?) on QI. In the morning I brought the tin with me to show whichever tutor happens to be about, just to get some feedback and show them the only real FMP work I have so far.

 scan from my old PD book.

Negotiated Study Revisited

Scans taken from my old PD book (to see images larger simply click on it)

Though not entirely related to my FMP, I felt that easing into the process of drawing on drafting film would be best. Furthermore I needed to test out some drawing techniques while painting with acrylic on drafting film, for example my silkscreen prints always come out very crisp and looked a bit too well planned. Peter Lloyd has commented on this in the past, expressing that he would like to see me loosen up a bit, which is something I will try by revisiting these posters.. Though I do not plan on printing these just yet, I did find it a good way to not only end my Negotiated Study project for good, but also a means of easing into the next one. If these prints turn out well I will follow through with this technique for my FMP.

Pointless Poster

Scan from my old PD book

Final Pointless Poster

This poster was actually taken a few days later from the print room where a few of my peers (Kelvin, Ken and Nate) did the printing, however for the purposes of continuity I have inserted it here. After coming back from the print room I spent the rest of the day drawing on my army tin (see Side Project - Tin 1). I did not finish it, but I was happy with the little work I did get done. As far as the pointless posters go, there again has been very low support by our peers. There seem to be a few dedicated ones that always show up in the studios, help with side projects and you actually recognize. I sometimes feel that it sums up our course, a lot of students working together, but only a select few with any sense of community. I never quite worked out why this is, but I have always noted that most of my peers, including myself, never really go out and do things together. This makes me a bit melancholy as I feel that when I leave the course I won't see many of them ever again.

Tutorial - Jonny

 

Sketch of my Pointless Poster 

For the final image see next post.

I was glad to see how positive Jonny was for my self promotion idea. It was a nice little pick up that keep me smiling for the rest of the day. I began my research for my FMP today. I started out by doing some research for the WAR poster. Looking for different iconic images or objects which I feel that I could use to represent war without using words.

The first thing I stumbled across when I put in war in google was the list of the worlds 10 most bloody conflicts.

 wikipedia.org - war

Looking at this and from my memory of doing history, I felt that instead of taking the whole concept of war throughout the ages, I would focus on more modern ones. This was partly because the topic of war would have been too broad to do in just 1 poster, and that most people (including myself) would be more familiar with the modern conflicts. I began by searching through the internet for iconic images I associated with war. For example:

Lord Kitcheners iconic I want you poster, I chose this because it is an image recognizable by almost everyone, as it has a been referenced a lot in popular culture in the last few years.

www.iwmshop.org.uk

or Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. I chose this one as it is one of the most memorable and most published pictures that came out of the Second World War.

buffalopost.net

These were but two examples of the images I compiled, the rest I will write down as a list to save memory.

The Hiroshima Atomic Bomb, it being the first time an atomic bomb was ever actively used as a weapon.

Raising a flag over the Reichstag, the iconic image of a soviet flag being raised over German parliament nearing the end of World War II


The Fat Man atom bomb, the first military grade atom bomb, and iconically remembered in popular culture.

The Cenotaph London Whitehall, as I am in England I felt that I should have Brtiain's most famous war memorial (specifically modern war though).

The clenched revolutionary fist, a popular symbol of opposition and often connected with communist uprisings in South American and Africa.

An image of Coalition tanks driving through the Swords of Qādisīyah، and Hands of Victory. a symbol of Coalition victory against Saddam Hussein.


I chose not to include the September 11, 2001 attack on the world trade center, as I did not want the poster to have the connotation of terrorism, but rather just that of war. I suspect that if I were to add this image people would think of war, see the picture of the world trade center and then suggest terrorism.

Image of a Bell Huey helicopter dropping down troops in the Vietnam war, where it became one of the worlds most recognized flying machines.

These were the images I selected and that I will incorporate into the poster. All need to do now is create a few sketches and once that is done I can start drawing them down on drafting film.

I found doing the research rather tedious, as I would rather put pen to paper... eh plastic and get cracking, but since this is my FMP I have to be sure that I know what I am drawing.

Side Project - Pointless Advert

Scan from my old PD book

First sketch of my pointless advert

On a side note the Kr, on the label is the Danish currency the Crown. 

Scan from my old PD book

 Final submission for the pointless advert.

This was a fun side project done as part of one of my course mate Will's drive to promote our London trip fundraiser. He had asked us all in the studios if we wanted to create a pointless advert and submit it to him, the idea being to create a small booklet.  Apparently peer response for this one was low, which although disappointing, is not that surprising since there seems to be a lot of "missing students" who we rarely see these days. Then again it was something that only required a few hours effort and in the end looked quite good. I have not seen the final yet, but Will did show me the Photoshop file where what he had so far was laid out.

There is another project bouncing around called pointless posters, a similar concept, but where we create pointless posters to try and sell at a local night club. All in all a great way to try and push our degree show and FMP beyond Southampton and into London. I have to present my Self Promotion project idea to Jonny tomorrow, hopefully he will like my box idea. It does frustrate me that I cannot find a picture from the Danish National Gallery where I got the box idea from (mentioned here).