09 - 12/01/17: Precious

For this week, I have been given a brief for a three week project, which involves producing a book under the theme precious. I have been considering creating a book for grieving family's because I want my book to be personal as well as practical for my target audience. My target audience is young adults because it is easier for them to relate to the author. I haven't been doing as much research as I would have liked to due to the preparation of my university interviews. I am pleased to say however that I have successfully completed my project brief that Coventry has set me, which took me three hours to complete. The task was to create imagery for a poem, which needed to be suitable for other books as well. I decided to draw a picture of an elderly resident gazing longingly outside because the poem is under the theme 'fleeting youth' and I wanted to interpret the feeling of distance and create the same mood within the poem. I like this bookmark because the tree on the left balances the imagery as a whole and creates unity. The imagery also has direction because the viewer's eyes are first focused on the detail on the old man and then moves towards the curtains and the tree, and it carries on into a cycle that keeps the viewer interested. One thing that I could have improved however was the writing on the left, if I had more time to produce this work,  would have scanned my imagery digitally and layer it with Waterston's typography. I would have also created a template in the scale given to me; my final piece was too big, and when I tried to scale it with the photocopier, the image was too small in width.
My life drawing session focused on emphasising the light on the model, which I achieved using black paper and white chalk. I found it difficult at first because I didn't ignore the light coming from the window above the model. My second piece was more successful because I only drew the concentrated areas of light, which gives the viewer a vague impression of the light. I found it more difficult to draw because I was unable to see what I was doing and it is difficult to keep track of the correct composition, so I spent longer than I should have on my drawing. In order to improve, I could increase the speed I draw by drawing faint lines of the model and then rubbing out any areas that wasn't concentrated with light.
Next, I am going to start researching artists for my project and gain ideas on what I am going to produce.