Developing the style

Here are a few more of the original sketchbook tests for the communication series. What started as a very rough sketch (top left) became gradually more complex and involved. The second image (top right) was where the final images were crystalised in my head. This image showed me how the colours could work in tandem with the text and also how the text could be broken up and altered to play with the legibility of the message. The remaining predominantly black and brown images were heavily influenced by the graffiti style of writing seen in the 'street sketchbook'. The addition of tin foil and gesso textures in the final pieces came from the yellow and purple abstracts I'd produced in my sketchbook straight after I had completed the teddy bear series. Work in progress for the communication series in the next post...

error ready

The communication series started with a series of images in my sketchbook, playing around with how the layout of the text was going to work. I created simple word documents of text overlaid at different sizes, sticking this into my sketchbook. I then overworked the image with gesso (to add texture), coloured inks and watered down acrylic paint. When the page was dry I then overlaid thick PVA glue in simple, geometric and linear patterns. This dried clear over about 24 hours and left a cool, shiny trail across he work. The final stage in the preliminary images was to over-work elements of the now knocked-back text with biro. The idea for this came from the original Helvetica programme and the idea that the font was designed to be so highly communicative. I was keen to mess with this preconception of the font and to treat it in a completely opposite way, decomposing the message and altering its legibility. This was also in keeping with the idea of how technology removes elements of meaning and truth from modern communication. I was pleased with the results, although they lacked a little impact due to the brown paper backing (colours were deadened a little as a result). I then experimented further, playing around with the words I was using and how the text could work to relate more obviously to technology. I thought about syntax errors received as a child on my commodore 64 and the frustrations experienced as computers failed to deliver precisely what I was after. This led to the use of CTRL, ALT, DEL, and run-stop restore as themes within the pieces. I experimented with using text that had a pixelised quality, using squared pages in my sketchbook to construct old-school computer style text. I used a water soluble pen, which then had ink and glue dribbled over it. As a result, the wet medium mixed with the inks and created a really cool blurry effect, with colours within the pens separating out in a random way. Again this was effective in disguising the message. The experiments had once again galvanised me into action and I felt able to start experimenting on a larger scale. The first canvas was ready to be tackled...

Me at Modern Art Oxford

It's been a while since my last post, but here I am last August, celebrating the culmination of my course standing in the Cafe at Modern Art Oxford in front of my completed work. Although the course did not progress beyond this point (at least, not as yet! - I still hold out hope that it may at some point), I was still hugely inspired to develop my work and already had a direction to go in. I happened upon a piece of art on E-bay whilst doing a bit of research to find out if I could sell my work on there. The piece was composed of rich brown tones and had a vein of silver leaf running through it. Purely abstract and simple but I was inspired enough to produce a couple of sketchbook homages which I felt turned out pretty well. (See image on left). My artwork went on hold for a bit whilst the new term at school took over but was reinvigorated once more by a documentary I saw on the BBC about the typeface Helvetica. As a designer, I have always had a passion for typography and the documentary provided an insight into this important font. What I found particularly interesting was the fact that Helvetica had been designed to create the ultimate in legibility, or at least, it had come to symbolise that quality. I was immediately gripped with the idea of using this font, but twisting and distorting it to obscure it's legibility, and rushed off to draw a little post-it note sketch for future reference. Almost at the same time, I had bought the 'Street Sketchbook' book, full of superb, contemporary art and illustration by Graffiti artists. I loved the way they mixed design and contemporary style and was again hugely inspired by the work I saw, wanting to create a similar, cool, contemporary thread within my work. To move me away from the whimsy of the Teddy Bears. The post-it sketch kept staring back at me every time I used my computer until I was moved to develop some initial experiments in my sketchbook. These acted as the grounding for the larger scale pieces I have since been working on ...