Category: Unit 2+3

To begin this unit, I initially researched some timelines. This was to get an idea of how I could set out my timeline in the future and also to get an understanding of the different ways that you can design a timeline. I used this research to sketch some initial design ideas for my own timeline. From my research I preferred the simpler timelines and I didn’t like the designs with a vertical style or the ones that followed the style of a bar chart. This is because I felt as if these were much more difficult to understand and it is a lot harder to fit information and pictures on these types of designs. After this, I began to research some artists and their work. The aim was to find some artists which I could relate to and liked parts of their work. I created a case study for each artist. I’m not the biggest art enthusiast so I did have to research and try and find some artists which interested me. However, I did have a few in mind which I were familiar with and even liked some of their work. For example, I looked at L.S. Lowry and Virgil Abloh. I first looked at L.S. Lowry back in high school and I always enjoyed his detailed style and how much was going on in his work. Virgil Abloh’s work is more focused around fashion design but he has worked with some music artists to create album covers for some albums I enjoy. I became familiar with his fashion designs through watching the NBA and his clothing is very popular with the players and culture surrounding it.

The final subject I had to research, was art movements from the 1960s to the present day. I began researching this using the internet and various websites which had timelines for the history of art. I also had to use a library and books to gather some information. This is because I struggle in some decades to find specific art movements with enough information to use.

 One of the first problems I encountered was researching for my case studies and finding artists which I could write about. I struggled sometimes to find interest in certain artists and found it difficult to find an artist which I could relate to. To solve this, I started to look at modern artists and artists surrounding things which I am familiar with. This is how I came across Virgil Abloh and Saul Bass. I could relate to their work because I enjoyed the things which it surrounded, for example, Saul Bass created posters for The Shining and other famous movies and Virgin Abloh designed album covers for some of my favourite music artists. Other than this, I also struggled to find motivation to research artists but as mentioned I just began to research artists I could relate to.

Another problem I came across was designing my timeline and coming up with a design that allowed me to separate information and images in an aesthetic style. I went back to my initial timeline sketches and tried to create a simple timeline design which I was happy with. I created a first timeline design and actually added information which would be on my final timeline. This was to see how it may look once it is finished. I showed this to my tutor and she thought it could be improved by adding more events from the time range. I agreed and felt as if there was a lot of empty space. To improve this, I did some more research on each art movement and also some major events that happened in each time frame. I also began to add my opinions to the timeline and some more detail about the art movements and the people involved.

As mentioned before, I first began my planning the layout of my timeline using some basic sketches. I’m not the best at planning and documenting my planning and I prefer to work as I go. Because of the lack of motivation and passion for art I sometimes struggled to get much done in the time spent at college. Another factor was, the computers and servers at college were sometimes too slow to even use and this really made it difficult to get work done during the college time. I did however make up for this in my own time and found it a bit easier to gather the information I needed. I didn’t have many problems with production and I could find time to use the repo graphics facilities to print the pieces of my timeline in A3 colour.

 A lot of this unit involved research which doesn’t require much in term of digital skills. However, I did use techniques I have learnt in previous sessions. For example I used mainly Photoshop for this project and used it to create my timeline. This involved using different tools and my own creativity to set out the timeline and making sure it looked good. Some of the skills I have used are effects and filters on some images which I have learnt at college and also at work. Other than this I have used all of the basic tools on Photoshop to put this timeline together.

Overall, I feel as if I well in creating and gathering the information for my timeline as most of it was done in my own time.  I also feel as if I found more than enough information for my timeline and each individual art movement and event. However, I feel as if I could have improved the creative side and layout of my timeline to make it look more aesthetic and professional. I could have also used my time at college more effectively when researching and designing.

I now began to create my timeline after compiling enough research and coming up with a design for my timeline. I had to do some research while creating the timeline to add some information and some important events which happened during each decade.

To fill the research aspect of these units we had to pick 5 artists of our choice and write up a case study for each artist. The aim was to pick some artists which I could relate to and explain why I like their work or their style.

The first artist I looked at was Andy Warhol. I chose him because I was already familiar with his work and his work was also a large part of the 1960 – 1970s. I thought this research could help me to add some information to my timeline. One thing I appreciate about his work is how unique it was for the time and how influential it was for at during this decade.

The next artist I looked at was Saul Bass. The thing that drew me to his work was the pieces for famous movies such as The Shining. He also uses a very similar colour style to my employers at Totally Wicked. I could relate to his work and also draw inspiration from it for my pieces at work.

The third artist I looked at was Georgia O’Keeffe. I looked at her work because we had already discussed and looked at some of her work in class. I appreciate her style and the detail in some of her pieces. I have always been attracted to realistic pieces because of the difficulty to create them.

The fourth artist I looked at was Virgil Abloh. I picked this artist because I was already familiar with his work because of my interests in music and the NBA. He has created some album covers for some of my favourite artists. He has also created some shoes which are very popular around the NBA culture and I like the style of his shoes and brand.

The last artist I looked at was L.S. Lowry. I chose Lowry because he was the first artist I looked at when I was in high school and I always liked his style. This is because there is so much detail in his work and there is always things happening in the background of his work. His work always inspired me and I tried to create pieces in a similar style when I was younger.

To finalise this I create a bibliography and used Harvard referencing to give some sources of where I found some of my research. For example: books and website.

I now began to come up with some initial ideas for my timeline design based off of the research and some quick sketches I drew up. I sketched a few initial layout designs for my timeline and I also created a design in Photoshop which I could use. This was just to see what it may look like when it’s finished.

After this, I created a moodboard for the first decade of 1960 – 1970. This was to get an idea of the art style and some of the more famous pieces from this time frame.

A large area of these units is based around research, so firstly, I thought about different ways in which you can research and why you would use each of these methods. I thought about things such as: internet, books, textbooks, libraries, museums and art gallery. Each of these research methods have their own advantages, uses and disadvantages.

We looked at the timeline for which we are going to be researching and we looked at some famous artists. I looked at Dennis Calvert who specialises in light drawing photography. The detail and way he used light is different to every other artist I’ve seen and he used peoples silhouettes frequently in his work.

Firstly, went over the health and safety rules for the room we were working in. Obviously, covered the lights and the fact it would be dark. This meant there were trip hazards so all chairs and tables must be out of the way and all personal belongings had to also be moved.

Neil helped set up the cameras, including: tripod, frame of shot, ISO 100 and aperture.  The shutter speed was set to 20 seconds so we had 20 seconds to create the light drawing. I enjoyed creating the light drawings and liked the creative side and coming up with a design on the spot. I created some designs like a boat and a tree. There was a lot of trial and error too to see how the light worked and how to create lines.