Scale - Small

Robert Crumb's "Short History of America" - 1979

Scale can be shown on a small scale in many different ways, Time can be difference scales but our everyday small time scales can be setting our alarms in the mornings, checking out phones through the day or measuring the time it takes to prepare or cook our food. But how do we show the passing of time through art?

Robert Crumb's comic panels focus on a view of a patch of land, each panel having either a major or minor change, based around what could of happened with in what time frames he's wanted to show us. Many of his pieces have one large jump in showing time were a road or path my pop up, followed by smaller changes like lampposts or gas stations; and yet that is a small enough feature to show a rough time setting for just one panel.

Another example was Martin Creed's short film/music video "Thinking// Not Thinking" in which 2 dogs, one small and one medium walk back and forth, sometimes overlapping sometimes alone in different directions but always ending from one side of the screen to another. The small dog in this piece was to represent thinking, how it can be quicker to pass everything around it. However in this case, it also showed how scale can change through out, in moments the smaller dog is closer to the screen than the bigger dog, making the small dog, bigger and changing its state and scale. (You could also take it further and if you were to ad another animal next to the larger dog, the large dog would then become the small/medium animal in the piece.)


Other examples of scale within art we was shown was things like scale with in a space using balloon's as 'sculpture' that takes on the shape of the room, the small scale balloon's them self become a large scale piece by taking the shape. This can mess with a persons emotions and vision when viewed from within, scary? Weird? Disorientating? Fun?

Chris Ware's Building Stories also explores people within scale, the stories of many people living within a apartment complex, The largest drawing in this series happens to be the smallest character; a baby. (Related note - The Walled City 'Kowloon', houses built and built up again)


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Pop culture can use scale for comedy, most noted through the famous Father Ted joke of "small or far away", Showing a small toy of a Cow vs the cow's in a near by field that just happen to look small because of where we are. This also happens to us in everyday life, all around us and often running in the background.

We also looked at the music video from Talking Head's Psycho Killer, in which was rather strange with messing with scale. It starts with the lead singer on a large stage, making him appear small in context but as the song carries on you hear a audience that seems to a large one at that, making you envision that the stage is in a larger area than we think, which in turn then makes the singer smaller again. The set behind him also is being built as the song goes on, which makes it strange as the stage is literally growing around the singer. Many of Talking Head's music videos play with the idea of scale, either them travelling in places (small or large) or a smaller scale thing again such as wearing oversized shirts or jackets.

Scale in terms of production value could be used as another example with two different versions of "Much Ado About Nothing". Joss Weden made a modern day version with actors he had worked with previously, asking them to take part for a favor and filmed entirely in his mansion within 12 days. Then we can look at a large budge movie, like the 1993 version which had many actors, customs and actors. The scale had be changed completely through almost every way possible, The location, The budget etc.

Some other things that were look at -
Venice Carnival - Anyone can be anyone for the day by wearing a mask
Cosplay - A modern-ish version (becoming someone different for the day through outfits)
Powers of Ten (1977)
Zoom out from the earth - Couple having a picnic seems medium/small scale untill you zoom out and see the town, city, nation, Earth, universe - Quick scale change until all people are small.

"The scale of the universe shows how quickly it changes"
       

                                                          Ways of Measuring Scale 

    Ladder of  Scale :

   Global
   National
   Regional
   Urban
   Body/Person

   Small - Page
   Medium - Stage
   Large - Region
   X Large - Nation/World




A Brief look at the Fibonacci sequence : 

The Fibonacci sequence or the Golden Spiral is the idea that everything fits in a pleasing way to the eye, within this geological spiral.

Almost everything seems to fit this sequence; Nature, Art and photography. Many artists use this when either painting or setting up a photograph to make sure the final outcome has a naturally pleasing composition. 

~ Zoetrope and GIF Workshop ~

A post of the examples of my GIF's in motion as well as a video of the Zoetrope :)

Know Your Meme referencing and history of the 'Caramelldensen'http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/caramelldansen

Original 'Caramelldensen' from YouTube ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_DV9b0x7v4

Reading the Spatial - Approaches to What

The lecture part of this task was a really interesting look at spacing and what space is, how it can be used and how important it can be.

A good example of spacing used in art was the 1533 Painting "The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein. The painting as been the subject of many debates due to the items involved in the work. Aside from the spacing of the two characters involved, the most eye catching piece of the painting has to be the 'squashed' skull in the middle bottom of the piece. The spacing factor of the skull isn't the way it is placed in the painting, But how you are placed when you view it. From the photograph the skull has the stretched look to it, But if you were to move the skull becomes in focus. The major debate of this piece is the idea that it pictures everything to do with wealth: Globes, nice clothes, books. However the hidden skull seems to be a underlying message of no matter how different life is for some, how rich or how poor, we all face death and that it's always there wherever we may be ourselves. 


The next part of the lecture was looking at the 'Spatial'. What is Spatial? What is space?

The Spatial is the relating to or involving of having the nature of space existing or happening in space. Space on the other hand is distance between points, objects or events. 

It was really insightful to think of the spacing of art through thing like comic panels, how the spaces between other panels, speech bubbles and placing of the characters can change the over all mood and tone of the story or moment. 

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TASK :
Approaches to What?
Create a sketch/drawing/comic page based on your interpretation of Georges Perec's 'Approaches to What'

These were sketches alongside quotes from the extract of Approaches to What. I wanted to focus on doing sketches rather than a full drawing, as there were so many different quotes that gave me funny little ideas. I think my favourite ones are the "Question your spoons" just because I had an image of a guy staring at cutlery confused or someone surrounded by floating spoons as well as the one about "Our lives in a dreamless sleep" as it made me think of the movie Inception and to do some kind of panel thing with thought bubbles within thought bubbles. 

                  (The images can be enlarged by clicking on them to read my notes/ideas) 

References :

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spatial

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/space

Cubism Presentation - BCOP

Presentation cubism from Lucy Anne Nutt



The final Powerpoint from Group D on Cubism :) 

Reading the Temporal - Time and Art

Robert Crumb - "A Short History of America"

The lecture of Reading the Temporal started with asking firstly, what is 'temporal'? I had to admit, I hadn't really heard this word outside of a medical term such as the temporal parts of the brain, so looking up the definition was interesting to find out, how this word can be applied to different things. Temporal is to be related to time, lasting a short period of time or alternatively 'temporary'.

Looking at the comics of Robert Crumb was a good example of time shown in an art form, his series of 'A Short History of America' shows areas in different time periods, showing how a landscape can change with time, things being constantly removed, replaced or  built up. 

Comic's are probably the best example of how time can be seen in art, as multiple panels, pages or volumes allow the artist to show change based around a story and the progression of characters and where they are. Naturally, using the aging of characters are a easy way of showing the progression of time. 


The best example I can think of with this is the character of Carl Grimes from The Walking Dead comics. 

(The Walking Dead) Carl Grimes aging progression - 7 - 13/14 years old
Tony Moore (1st Panel) / Charlie Adlard (2nd and 3rd panel)

Christian Marclay's 'The Clock' stills

When thinking of Time used in film, most of us thought of Christian Marclay's 24 hour long film "The Clock", made up entirely from movie and TV show clips where any device showing the time is put into a day long compilation. 

It's quite an amazing idea that this film can last 24 showing the exact time of day while it's being watched (Example -  if the movie shows a clock with 3:00pm on it, If the film was started at mid day, then the correct time would also be 3:00pm real time) 

La Jetee Poster

The other film that we were shown was a short by Chris Marker called 'La Jetee'. It was really bizarre and from the notes I took at the time the film followed a man captured and used for scientific experiences in the aftermath of a fictional World War Three bombing in France. 

The man was being used to tap into his memories and past in hope that he could also tap into the future in further experiments. The use of time in this film was more Science Fiction themed, Involving time travel. The main conclusion is only seen at the very end of the film, where the man's first memory of a man being shot was actually his own death.  

Rather than a traditional movie, La Jetee is made from photographs to create a sense of movement and time flow. I think the use of the photograph slideshow style is really effective in creating a dramatic mood to fit the theme of the story. It's also not something many people will be used to seeing, so it becomes instantly quite eye catching for many people. 

"Glued to an image of his past, If we can handle the past then we can live in the future"




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Looking at other uses of time in art? 

Random thought when thinking of ways to show a passing of time was from The Walking Dead TV show, the shot-for-shot pan up on the city of Atlanta from Season 1 and shown again half way through season 5. (I do apologise for the heavy use of Walking Dead references in this post) 

The Walking Dead season 1 and season 5 screen caps / Episodes - Days Gone Bye // Consumed (c) AMC

Screencap from The Clock Puzzle in Silent Hill Downpour (c) Konami

Another quick thought I had was the use of clocks in the design and puzzles of the video game Silent Hill Downpour, that are used throughout the game as a reference to the main character's time being constantly pushed or always missed through his story, such as time he wasted in prison, how he was too late to save his son from being murdered, the time spent planning how to be imprisoned to get revenge on his son's murderer, etc. 



When thinking of other uses of time in art, I was kind of stumped for things I could think of asides from movies or TV shows that feature time travel or have heavy emphasis on timekeeping i.e Lost, The Time Travelers Wife, Doctor Who. So I wanted to get the description of the word 'Temporal' (As shown at the start of this post)  

What is temporal art?
Art that ceases to exist, examples  - Performance Art, Ice Sculptures, etc

Seen as a new and modern art movement that is still to really be widely recognized, many of us would have seen or experienced some form of temporal art in our life, Street performers using chalk on pavements, watching plays at the theater or watching a fireworks display. The fun of temporal art is that it encourages people to experience these things first hand, 
however the major downfall of the movement, is many people would share the art as photos or recordings online rather than first hand. 

Don Chapelle working on an ice sculpture

It's still a cool way to spread a piece of art that can't be replicated or seen at the time, but it does take away some of the magic if people prefer to view such pieces through screens. Some of my favourite examples of temporal art are the works of Don Chapelle. 

He makes his ice sculptures using a chainsaw to create both fine and simple details. Naturally, due to the nature of ice, his works are only able to viewed in the flesh on display for about a day depending on where his work is being displayed and stored.

Andy Goldsworthy's piece "Cairn" from 1997,
made and displaced in Herring Island, Australia 

The works of Andy Goldsworthy are fairly similar also. I came across his work while googling Temporal Art. He works with any kind of natural materials, such as stones, leaves and feathers that he displays is patterns in the wilderness of woods and such. Some of his works may last much longer than others, for instances feathers in a pond will only likely last in place moments where as twigs weaved together have a chance to last for a fair while. His work is something truly unique and I can't think of anyone who uses nature or art in such a way. 

I really struggled to find artists who fit into a temporal movement, and illustration/illustrators don't really seem to be the people found within the movement itself. Time can be found in many different subjects, mostly in film and television and the art work seems to be working it's way to incorporate more time-based works in the modern day. 

Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory

A classic example of a form of temporal art, could be Salvador Dali's 'The Persistence of Memory'. Seen as probably his most famous work, the dripping clock imagery is familiar to everyone, but yet it's still quite a mystery as to what Dali's meanings behind it could be.

Most would agree that the clock's in this piece would be about reminding us about death, the inevitability of time ending. The 'figure' in the bottom center of the painting could be also been seen as a dead creature, making the idea much more solid. However, I think the air of mystery surrounding this piece is a great addition in itself, making it a timeless image that people will be talking about for many years to come. 

Piece from 'Annabelle's Illustration' depicting fashion
from 1900 to 2000

Fashion is also another way of looking at time. Although this is another form of reading time that may not be completely illustration based, There are many ways to depict fashion. It can be seen through TV and movies but also through fashion clothing itself or fashion illustration all based on era's, What was popular at the time can be widely pinpointed to a decade or era, such as when most people think of neon colours in clothes we think of the 1980's. 

                             

                            
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References : 

http://artstalks.tumblr.com/post/25038332771

http://www.brillianticesculpture.com/about.html Don Chapelle's website

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/temporal 

http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/1168-2

My own knowledge of Silent Hill/The Walking Dead 

http://totallyhistory.com/the-persistence-of-memory/




Bonus ref (?) / Theorist?

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2393807?sid=21105917279981&uid=2&uid=3738032&uid=4

(Book preview) All though this book preview really isn’t about art and time, but the art of the passing of time, it was interesting to think about how time can effect things just by passing. It made me think of previous lessons where we’ve looked at renaissance art, thinking about how at the time science was the focus of peoples minds rather than religion, which affected the subject matters of the paintings.  Movements still appear to this day based around a societal way of thinking, such as the rise of graffiti as a ‘style’ or ‘movement’ to go with modern day rebellion and thought of an oppression many feel from governments. The ‘pop art’ movement that appeared shortly after World War II to give new life and fun to people using bright colours and popular images or things at the time to bring the country together.  

Stage Two - Visual Communication - Why Collect Dolls? Editorial

For Stage Two of the Visual Communication module I chose to illustrate the article about Sophie Ellis-Bector and Doll collecting :  http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/07/why-collect-dolls-grew-out-stamps-sophie-ellis-bextor                                                                                                                                                                                                                               This is my finished piece alongside the edited article layout. The piece was made completely on Photoshop with scanned images from my sketchbook.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Andy's Workshop - Katagelophobe Outcome

When I had my final idea, I then wanted to make it digital to be able to copy and paste my image as I had the idea to call my collective noun a "Mimic" of Katagelophobes. After all, a mimic being a copy of something, it made sense to have the final piece be a copy of the same image to go with the title. 

This was my finished piece with just the one person being Ridiculed. I went for something simple as for the most part of this project I was quite stuck for ideas and with simple expressions, I think it ended up being more obvious as to what the phobia could be compared to if it was more detailed. I also added a small outer shadow to the figures to make the colours pop more.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Then I copy and pasted the image and moved it around to create my final image. The frame around it, I felt, closed it in more and looked much better than just being left without.

~       A mimic of Katagelophobes     ~

Ben's Workshop - Digital Vignette

For the Digital Vignette, I decided to use my other piece for the Obsession project, as I really wanted to use this piece for something other than just an example of what ideas I had for a final piece.

It was quite difficult to work with this piece I found, but I did enjoy learning about the Drop Shadow effect in photoshop to create depth. Also, adding in dull opacity layers of colour between each layer was really interesting to use, seeing how each layer gets darker with every new layer added.

I choose to use blue as the colours in-between to go with the blue dots of watercolour from the original piece. I think it also complimented the red/pink of the lips as well. 

I would really like to use this style and these technqiues again, maybe when I have characters to use, as that would make for a much more interesting outcome. Also, characters would probably have a less busy look. However I do like the outcome from this piece too. I think it worked best on the bubbles in the corners and the black splashes with "Eyes shout what the lips fear to say". 

A total of  layers were used to create the image :

- Bubbles in the corner
- Lips and quotation in the splashes
- The eye-like pattern with repeated text
- Boarders hovering above the eye-like patterns
- The film reel-like pieces with the text and lip drawings 

Ben's Workshop - Obsessive Personalities

This was my outcome with playing around on photoshop using Ben's online tutorials. All images are from google and taken from the section for fair use. To find them I googled simple things such as "eyes", "victorian" and "dogs".

The pink of the girls dress was changed using the screen layer technique, which is really useful to know. I can definitely see myself screen layers in future pieces. The eye-mask thing over the dog and the patterns in the paracol were used by using the clipping mask technique, which I found to be quite time consuming but fun to know how to do, as you could make so many weird pieces with the clipping masks.

I think I am happy with the outcome, as I wasn't 100% sure what to do with my images once I had found them. Either way, it was a interesting task and at least I learnt some more photoshop techniques that were completely new to me. 




These are the images I found and used to edit : 

Obsession - Final Piece

 For the start of the Obsession final piece, I originally wanted to do the piece on canvas and make the most of painting. However when I started, I realised I hadn't primed the canvas and effects I had tried out in my sketchbook didn't work as well on the canvas either. So I opted to use paper instead, as I had a rougher type of paper from a sketchbook that picked up much better than the canvas.

So starting slowly with just a large eye in the centre, I used acrylic paints to outline it for a block colour finish. I then used the dried out brush a few minutes later to drag around the eye to create a messy web-like effect that I had tried in my sketchbook that I thought looked really effective. Then I  dragged a green pencil over it a few times for colour and texture before working on the 'colourful' corner of the piece.

This corner was started with a yellow highlighter, Gold acrylic paint and a fine liner.


 When completely filled, Copic Markers were also used and a few watercolours within the larger eyes. I also started using a silver paint marker too for outlines and boarders within the patterns. 

 Then I started on the 'Alan Doyle'/Eyes Shout What The Lips Fear To Say section. Asides from the watercolour on the lips and the brown copic marker in the middle, the rest of materials used was the black fineliner, Grey Copic Marker and the silver paint marker. This took much longer than you would think and was actually a good few hours work here. (It seemed to take forever as well!) 

I also added the different languages "Eyes" part around the middle eye here as a frame for it.

After filling in the black around the different languages, It still felt quick plain to me so I used the silver and gold paint markers to add a boarder. I liked that it didn't circle around the whole of the eye either, as I like the crazy ways the layers are now starting to end and begin. 
From here I started my Madoka Kinshita inspired eye at the top left corner with acrylic paints and watercolours.

Beside the Madoka styled eye, I felt it would be best to put the Occult inspired piece next to it as this corner would now become a spiritual/night themed corner. Watercolours, Acyrlics and the fineliner were used to create the yellow (sun) and blue (moon) eyes piece.

I also thought from here it would be quite cool to mirror the sort of wheel of different coloured eyes on the left bottom corner too. 

More black and white pieces added as well as the "Stars in my eyes" quote for the Madoka eye because I felt it the style matched that quote well with the dotting effects.


All things added from here were drawn with the fineliner, Grey copic marker and silver paint marker again. 

I wasn't 100% sure how to finish up the piece so I added much more black and white pieces as I didn't feel more colour would be the way to go. So many more busy yet small 'Alan Doyle' like sections where added. All with the fineliner this time as it was the only tool I had that could get such small areas done smoothly. 






After filling in the last few tiny sections, I was finally done! Really happy with the outcome of this piece as well! 

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This was a small piece I did before getting the final brief. As a tester for a Alan Doyle inspiration piece but using the quote "Eyes shout what the lips fear to say". The materials used were watercolour paints, fineliners and black poster paint. This small piece definitely helped me with my final idea and I felt i should add it at the end of the write up to show were a large part of my idea came from. Using the fineliner to create small, detailed patterns was time consuming put effective and I knew I wanted to add this in my final piece somehow. 

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Write up final evaluation : 

For my final piece, I knew I wanted to have a heavy influence of outsider art. After studying outsider artists and watching documentaries, I really enjoyed seeing how art can be so inspiring for people and a way to truly express themselves. I wanted to have an outsider-y feel as I think it matches well with obsession in a way too. Watching ‘Outsiders’ draw showed them truly lost in what they were doing and obsessing over making sure each line was as they wanted it, even if it wasn’t perfect. So I wanted to try something similar.

I started by drawing a large eye in the centre of the page and from there, I would draw anything that came to my mind or inspired me at that moment. I also had my sketchbook open to flick though every now and then for extra inspiration. Asides from that, I wanted to be quite free with whatever I would draw next. Seeing  as many outside artists don’t have a set ‘plan’ or ‘sketch’ to ink, that is what I wanted to do by only having eyes as my focus and  limiting myself to using only a few watercolours and Acrylics, Copic Markers, a fineliner and a silver paint marker.

I really liked what I saw of artist Alan Doyle and made most sections of my piece much like his style with use of black and white with sections of text here and there.  The sections of writing are either quotes I wanted to add relating to eyes or random thoughts that came to my mind when thinking of eyes or opening eyes. I really enjoyed working with limited colours as well, as it’s not really something I’ve done before. Simple mark-making and patterns with black, white and grey looked so busy but I liked having an at first busy and messy style but when you look, there is much more detail than first thought.

The splashes of colour were mostly influenced by another Outsider Artist, Angela Rogers. I found her style really unique and loved that most of her works were flooded with colours. To add a bit of life to the piece, I dedicated a corner to colour to break up much of the black and white. Other influences were from quotes such as “Stars in your eyes” and “Eyes shout what the lips fear to say” as when researching, I found these to be two of the most interesting quotes about eyes. Adding in quotes also gave me more ideas for things to draw within the piece. For instance the lips parting to show an eye or using a Madoka Kinoshita style eye to go with a starry eyed theme. The other influence then came from an occult meaning of eyes I found really fascinating. The left eye is often associated with Lunar traits and Northern direction and the right eye with Solar traits and Southern direction.  The image of eyes with day and night themes instantly came to mind and I wanted to add that in too. A final idea that came to me was to add in the word “eyes” in different languages as reading a person expression through their eyes is a universal language that we can all understand.

I enjoyed doing this piece as it was something very different to what I would normally do, the outsider art style was a refreshing change that will probably influence or feature in other works I might do in the future. However, If I were to do this piece again, I think the only thing I would change would be adding more symmetry, however I am still happy with the overall outcome.