To start off exam preparation and experimentation I was given four briefs, illustration, advertising, typography and packaging so made four mind maps focusing on both the briefs and the exam theme of covert and obscure. I find that with using mindmaps I am able to jot down all the ideas, make illustrations, write about techniques and materials and look at the artists that I like which could inspire me on my final piece. Using the mindmap shows what inspires me the most as I want to be able to create plenty of experimentation in this case it was illustration. On this brief I was told to use portraits, illustration and collage in my final piece and experimentation so naturally I started with illustration and went into collage to then use them both together. I think using collage and illustration allows the person control over what they draw, what they see and what they actually reveal to the audience relating to the theme of covert and obscure, revealing the unknown.
Recording observations
For my primary research I first drew objects on post it notes, using continuous line drawing with materials like charcoal, felt pen, watercolour and biro. Continuous line draeings only reveal lines in the object that the drawer see's as I am not focusing on detail when I use one minute continuous line drawings. I then continued with this but drawing more objects and portraits on collages and photographs. I collected photographs of children, females, males, certain features of the face and household appliances. For my secondary source material I went to two exhibitions these were the photographers gallery and the pick me up exhibition. The Photographers gallery proved most useful as it introduced me to the exquisite corpse idea which is the main theme running through my final piece.
Idea development
I have made a lot of development for my experiements and the only idea that I didn't take forward was the original design for the layout of my zine. I didn't take the first idea for the exquisite corpses forward because I wanted something that the reader could interact with more and was different to other zines. The zine I originally cretaed did allow the reader to mix the corpses around but not as much as the idea I have now changed it to.
Materials, Techniques and Processes
The main techniques that I have used are illustration and collage made digitally and by hand. From my brief I knew that this was going to take up the majority of the development process and would have to combine these two techniques together. The main process that I used for illustration was continuous line and for Collage it was the distortion of the faces that I took with me all through my exam preparation. These techniques and the visit to the Photographers Gallery helped me realise that my final idea was going to continue with the theme of distortion. Problems came with this idea when I was thinking about the layout of my final piece because I wanted something that the readers could interact with like a childrens book, ideas were adapted by finding a better material to attach the pages with making it easier for the reader to interact with.
Influences
If I was to chose four main influences to link all my exam preparation and final piece it would have to be Julie Cockburn, Linder Sterling, Hattie Stewart and Ashkan Honavar. My main influences would have to be Julie Cockburn and Linder Sterling they both used collage, feminism and the distortion of the body and face in very different ways. Linder Sterling was the artist who helped me with a theme that went with covert and obscure, this was feminism. My own work relates to this as I have added feminist items onto women's faces and taken photos of little girls play with toy kitchens and saucepans, putting them in their place before they are even adults. The drawing on top of photographs to add explicit images is also relates to the them of feminism.
Final Piece
For my final piece I intend to make three zines consisting of the head, torso, legs and feet. These zines will then be placed in another book which has pockets to them in to keep them altogether. I created plenty of experimentation based on illustration and collage to get a grasp on the exam theme and was able to explain how they related to eachother, I always had a meaning for doing something to my experimentation and this is why my ideas have been resolved. Just like my experimentation, in my exam I intend to use lots of materials so each corpse looks slightly different in some way. For example the use of the sauce pan collage will be linked with Julie Cockburn and the drawing of explicit images on top of the photograph will be inspired by Hattie Stewart.
Conclusion
At first I thought this exam theme was going to be difficult as I liked the idea of collage when I saw the brief but it was the zine that I didn't think I was going to like but overally I really liked this exam theme and found it quite interesting as I had so many ideas that I could go on to develop more of. I think this final piece is going to be one of the best that I have made as I have done so much preparation for it, it is probably one of the best units for all my art work.
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