More Pens!

scan of the week schedule

I went into the studios today, to get some more of the ZIG pens. Though I was able to get some, I was told by the print room technical that they would not be getting any more for at least another week. Hopefully the 8 or so pens I currently have will last until then.

The rest of the day was spent telephoning the Danish tax ministry (SKAT) and student loans office (SU) to work out some confusing as to me somehow still working in Denmark while studying here, and to confirm that i like in the UK and not the US... which makes logical sense that you can confuse someone living registered in the UK to somehow also spending all 3 years in the US. Ah government bureaucracy. When I got home, I spent the rest of the evening doing a bit more research for the science poster and finding a few more relevant topics. I have not had any real interest in science for a good few years so it was tough to get the research done. Thankfully a Channel 4 program "Genius of Britain" helped me find inspiration. As (briefly) it outlines some of the greater contribution of British scientists to the world in through the ages, ie. Darwin's theory of evolution, the steam train, the computer and penicillin.

 chemical structure of penicillin (wikipedia.org - penicillin)

FMP IV - science

Today I worked late into the night, on my next poster, the theme of which is science. I started around 4 o-clock and worked late into the wee hours of the morning.

photograph of my science poster

Now to the trained eye it might look like I am working from a kitchen and not from a studio... to this I have to say that not only are you correct, but you also have a keen eye for kitchen table tops. The main body of my FMP drawing is done in my kitchen, this is for a number of reasons. One being that I like to work into the night (something I cannot do as our studios close at 19:00, though that has now been changed to 21:00). The second reason is that if I were to work in the studios at this point I would get too distracted by my peers, a bit antisocial yes, but! this way I get more work done. The last reason is that there is a coffee machine and fridge in my kitchen, making it possible for me to eat/drink while working. I would have gone broke a long time ago if I had to buy from Costa everytime I fancied a tea of coffee.

6 hours later my poster looked like this:

photograph of my science poster

All in all I am quite happy with my progress today... though I am quite a bit sleep deprived.

Jonny WIP

Today I had a work in progress session (WIP) with Jonny Hannah. We were about 7 people in total for the group, all waiting for assessment. Before we began Jonny updated us on our schedule next week.

Scan from my sketchbook

The meeting began, where we would each in our own words present our work, why we did it, and what we still had left to complete. With the exception of one student in the room, who seemed to have quite  a lot of work and research, everyone had either the same as or less than I did. Which came as a strange surprise, as I consider myself to be cripplingly behind at the moment. I do not know what to say as I cannot think that all 6 of my peers had a good reason not to work over Easter. It was clear that Jonny did not take this news well, which all things considered is understandable, what I did not understand was why he chose to have a go at me. What I did not appreciate from Jonny was his response to my saying "well I did loose Easter due to my family and my grandmothers death" and him trying to tell me how to feel, and to just keep working after seeing her die. I was very angry at him, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt as it is clear he has been under a lot of stress lately... that and so few of us having a decent amount of work must also have added quite a bit. Nevertheless he did like my work and where I was going with it, though saying that when printing the war poster again, to use a paler background colour, and perhaps considering to use another foreground colour than black.

Afterwards I was able to have a quick meeting with Alexandra, where I showed her a quick preview of this blog. She said that my PD seemed to be going in the right direction now, and that I should continue with it, following these guidelines:

STRUCTURE HELP FOR THE PRESENTATION DOCUMENT
Make sure you have the following sections in your presentation document


1. Cover ( in case that you have a bog that would be your header)

2. Content page (page numbers of the different sections 3-7)

3. About the presentation Document

4. About yourself /about the author (connect your project with yourself as a person – talk about the connection between you and your references-artists theorists)

5. Reflective journal (write and show visually your process)
Consider having a small summary in the beginning of every week with3-4 bullet points.

6. Conclusion (summarize your experience and your thoughts overall- look back at your work and tell us how you feel about the descisons you have made, talk about the presentation document and if the visual and writing process helped you to rationalise your thoughts and processes.)

7. Bibliography (references of artists)



Tips and suggestions

Visual journey: Make sure that you showcase visually your process including your sketches, visual progress of your work, visual references.
Make sure you annotate your visuals and clearly connect them with the text.

Written Journey: Make sure you clearly describe the narrative of your project, be critical about your work and your references.


Submission type: blog form, word doc, or physical books 

Guest Speaker - Tozzy Bridger

The day started with another degree show meeting, I dont honestly know why though (Pete already demonstrated how to hand our work, what else could be left?) though this time it was with Jonny.

Scans from my sketchbook

The meeting started off with Jonny telling us about some events which are going to happen after the FMP hand in deadline on the 18th of May. For example there will be an illustration day out to the Isle of Wight on the on 19th, as a chance for all of us to enjoy the end of our project. There was also some practical advice for the degree show, which can be seen above. Jonny also mentioned that we needed to fill out a brief form stating what our degree show is, and what we will require if anything.

Our tutor Derek also introduced to us the concept of a identity for our degree show. The last years one was "VIVA" Illustration. They showed us the cover they intend to use for our degree show catalogue. They had chosen a painting of the earth seen from space, done by fellow student Simon. Personally I do not exactly like this image, but at this point I do not want to bring it up. The tutors also mentioned that we should think of something to use as a title, and that at a follow up meeting where we will vote on a title.

We were also visited by print maker Tozzy Bridger

Tozzy Bridger (aa2a.biz)

scan from my sketchbook (and a doodle of Tozzy)

Tozzy's talk focused mainly on her implementation of nature in her work, how she would use found objects (such as leaves) as texture and layering tools. She was particularly keen on explaining to us how she has begun using photoshop in combination with her physical prints, and how when combined it makes previewing techniques and colours easier.

After her meeting I went to the print room and tried to print the poster I drew yesterday (see last post). The result was pleasing as it proved that the ZIG pens work like a charm, and that if I use them I will be able to cut my work time in half (as I no longer need to retrace the images I draw). I did a little dance of joy as I saw the print work and specifically how clear the thin lines were. I need to get my hand on as many of these pens as possible because with these I can actually see myself being able to complete all my posters.

just making sure you know this image is mine... I need to write this for PD reasons

FMP III

I was able to get my hands on the new pens I mentioned yesterday (here). They are named ZIG opaque pens and fabricated by Kuretake.

 Photograph of opaque pens on my desk.

I threw together a quick design, just to test whether the pens would be able to come out well in the printroom. My main concern was if the fine lines would come out well (see design below)

my quick design using the ZIG pens.

Tomorrow I will go into the print room, and after the guest speaker, and try seeing how the print comes out. I feel that these pens are too good to be true, a way to cut my work time practically in half with no loss of quality, that just seems too wonderful to happen. But the technicians assure me they work, well tomorrow we shall see.