Cropping and Fall, Crush, Echo, Happy, Jump and Sad

Over the weekend, our task was to take 20 photo graphs of our surrounding environment. I took a photo of cranes Lewisham because this area is newly developing and I like to draw cranes as they bring hope to the public and show that that area is improving and things are getting better. I am also intrigued by their skeletal, linear design and I like the way they penetrate the more pure blue and white colours of the sky. I made the photo black and white so it was purely tonal, and then created this drawing using charcoal and acrylic paint and black marker. Once we had covered the whole A1 sheet, our task was to crop the drawing using another piece of paper, to get rid of all narrative and to create a new narrative by simply cropping the picture. Below are a selection of images to show how cropping can change a narrative and how the viewer may question what they are seeing.

This picture created by the cropping process becomes more abstract, and we are unable to be sure of what we are looking at. The cranes also appear to be coming from nowhere as we can't see the ground, the foliage is also unclear what it is. This shows that all narrative has been removed from the picture and we are questioning what we are seeing which creates more interesting photography as we are lingering on the idea of the meaning of the picture.

I also cropped the picture into a triangle to create more questions. I did this as it went against the linear directions of the cranes structure and counterbalances the vertical lines, creating a new narrative. I have also made the picture 95% sky and the picture has become completely abstract as I have removed the base of the crane and therefore we are unclear as to what it is, it simply becomes geometric shapes.

I then cropped the bottom half of the picture, removing the main subject matter and the sky. We can only see the beginnings of a building and scaffolding, and there is a fear of the unknown as we cannot see above this section, we question what is being built, how it is being built and what the scale is as there is nothing to compare it to. It also becomes very linear and messier than the simplicity of the cranes. 

I enjoyed this task as it was interesting to see how a simple, unquestionable picture could have a changed narrative by simply cropping the image. It was also interesting to see what kind of questions arose from each cropped section and how some of them became completely abstract.

Our next task was to take photos and produce images that would make the viewer think of particular words that we were given. We were given the words: fall, crush, echo, happy, jump and sad. Above is the image I took for 'fall'. I took this image because I thought it could make the viewer feel suspense and feel as if they were falling from this height, I also thought it could make the viewer feel almost panicked and invigorated. 

This is the image I took for 'crush'. I found a crushed wrapper on the floor, which had been trodden on by everyone walking up the stairs. I thought it was interesting because the wrapper is very small in comparison to the whole picture and shows that it is quite insignificant. I also lined up the edge of the stairs with the picture plane to create a more balanced composition. 

This is the image I took for 'echo'. I found this word more difficult as an echo is something unseen by the human eye, but I wanted to convey 'echo' by showing the size of the building and also an echo of numbers that seem to be lingering next to the pillar. Similarly to the previous picture, I lined up the pillar with the picture plane to balance the composition and also create a counterbalancing vertical to the diagonals of the wallpaper.

This picture represents 'happy'. I thought this picture was happy because I feel that 'happy' images have high saturation and are bright and cause excitement within the viewer. I thought this bright orange light was a happy colour an it interested me that the source of the colour is lights under the table, which could represent the growth of happiness and a smiles affect on other people and how it is contagious. 

This picture shows 'jump' as it doesn't stop on the 6th and 8th floor and has 'jumped' these floors.

I thought this image represented 'sad' because it shows fire extinguishers and a list of instructions on what to do when there is a fire. I thought this was sad because I feel that fire is associated with burning, death and sadness.

I enjoyed this task because it challenged me in the way that it made me look at taking photos in a different way, and not simply because I like the way they look but I want to represent something and create a narrative in one single image.

My Personality in Pictures

Our task was to create 6 boxes to reflect ourselves. I chose the theme of 'split' because I have quite a split personality. The box above is 'obsessive' to convey that I get obsessed quite easily with people. I have censored out the eyes because the obsessions change frequently. Below is 'What We Don't See'. This box conveys what meets the eye can be very different to the reality. The thriving big city life is very appealing to people and is a perfect lifestyle, but some people aren't as lucky and are left homeless down ally ways and areas unseen to the uninterrupted city life. The left picture is a picture I took in waterloo of people going to work and going about their daily duties, the picture on the right is of a homeless man.

I then wanted to incorporate my name into one box so I combined my surname Eastwell with my love of travelling to different continents. Therefore I got a picture of an old map and placed a compass over it to convey my love for adventure as well as my own name.

In the forth box, I wanted to show more of my personality so I split two pictures of a woman crying and a woman smiling and then joined them in the centre. Again, this idea was to portray my split personality and sometimes I don't convey how I really feel, and my appearance is different to what I'm thinking. I did something similar in the fifth box using pictures of New York City in day and night and how the same place can look so different.

I wanted to carry on with the split theme in this box, and black and white are my favourite colours although they're not technically colours, so the two ideas contrast each other. I also like the simplicity of the design.

This was the first box I made to begin the theme of 'split'. This was an artists work, in a hotel called 'Art Hotel Au Viex Panier'. I liked how one side is completely covered in graffiti and mess and the other side is pure white, split but one perfectly straight line in the centre. In a way I think it conveys the brain and how one side is creative and the other is more academic. This also shows my creative side and how it is part of my personality. 

I displayed each of the boxes (I ended up making 7) on sheets of paper which I taped together which made it foldable. I arranged them so they would appear balanced. In the last square I simply wrote my own name in scribbly writing to show my messy side and how there is mess in order. I also drew over the face to make it look more cartoon-like.

I enjoyed this task very much because it was challenging because it was more difficult than I thought to be able to convey my own personality through pictures and one word. I think my result is quite successful and I am happy with it.

Photoshop

Our inspiration for this task was our own identity. Our task was to portray ourselves through a poster. We began with writing our full name onto Ai and making it curved shaped and experimenting with different fonts, sizes and colours. Once we had chosen our design, we zoomed into each letter and were able to change the format and shape of each letter using the tools down the left hand side. I wanted mine to reflect me so I chose my favourite colour (pink) and a bold font.

Then we chose a photo of ourselves, and separated it from its background so we were able to place it on another image. I chose a photo from the day time, where the sun was shining on one side of my face. I wanted the image to look realistic so I chose a sunset as my background and edited the picture of myself to become darker and the light side of my face to become more orange to mimic the colour of the sunset, I also darkened the tone so it looked more realistic and like it was an actual sunset. When I chose the position of the photoshopped picture onto the background, I made more extra adjustments to add to the realism. Once we had finished this section of the task, we then wrote 200 words reflecting us and our personality, our likes and dislike, whats unique about us and where we aspire to be in the future. This was to form this identity theme of the poster. When we had written it out, we then photoshopped the original full name we wrote out at the beginning, onto the picture, to label it as our own. 

Here is my end result. I enjoyed this task because I have never used photoshop before and it was interesting to see what the program is capable of. I enjoyed edited each picture so that they would appear more realistic and it was interesting to see the development and how a photo of me in daylight in a built up area can be completely transformed into me on a beach at dark. I think the poster was successful as I thought about the light on one side of my face and I made sure I found a picture where the sun would appear slightly to the left so I could place the next layer to the right as this was originally a corner picture. When we had finished our posters, we presented them to the class. This was useful as I am not very good at speaking in front of larger groups of people and it is one of my weaknesses, therefore it is something I need to work on more in the future. I also enjoyed seeing what other people had come up with and what backgrounds they had chosen to be their ideal place. Many people chose large cities such as New York.

Liquid

We were separated into 8 groups and each group was given a word. With this word we wrote down ideas in our mind about how we could turn this word into a service, product, charity etc. We looked at each of these sub-sections with our word 'Liquid'. Our idea for a service was a drinks shop named LiQuid, because we thought it would be clever to sell water and flavoured mineral water for 'one quid'. We thought this was a good idea because it would be appealing as it is cheap and people need drinks when they are out, therefore it satisfies peoples basic needs as well as being affordable. We also looked at a charity with the same ideas that it would be called LiQuid, because it would provide water to poorer countries with low sanitation and no easy access to water. This charity would ask for £1 from people and would supply water to the poor, but we then realised this idea is similar to WaterAid. We then thought about water parties, which involve a large venue and showers from the ceiling, like a foam party but with a rain-like atmosphere. We ventured into this idea more and thought of pool parties are venues around London and £1 for entry. We also thought of an underwater club in hot countries such as the Caribbean where the water is clear and there are tropical fish, and there would be an elevator leading underground and to the sea. We then decided this wouldn't work because building an underwater venue would be expensive and £1 entry wouldn't pay this off. We eventually came up with an idea that we all agreed on: a spa-type service that would provide square pools/hottubs of mineral water from the mineral springs in St Lucia that are good for your skin. We then thought about the design of the building and we thought it could be similar to the Greek baths, so we decided to make it Greek themed with Ionic columns and a statue of Poseidon in the centre to go with the water theme as well.

We began by drawing on the cardboard the pools and making the statue for the centre. We then decided we wanted it to be on a platform so the pools would be more obvious, so we made 4 Ionic columns from cardboard and slotted them through holes in each corner so that the base would be slightly elevated.

Here is a zoom in of one of the Ionic columns we made and how it slots into the hole.

 

We then designed a logo, which was inspired by the film logo Hercules (shown at the bottom). This logo would be outside the building but in the picture is shown hanging from white ribbon, directly above the Poseidon statue. At the top of this page is a sketch of the building, with a pathway and changing rooms either side, as well as showers you have to use before using the mineral water springs. We thought that the room could have marble decorations and be playing calming music and the centre statue could have fountains underneath it to give a soothing waterfall sound. We also drew in small streams around each pool with bridges over them, so the room would look more celestial and remind visitors of the gods and goddesses of Olympia.

Be Auto

Our first exercise was to create a selection of portrait drawings of the person in front of us. My first sketch was the one on the bottom right, this picture was made with my eyes closed and was made in 2 minutes. I found this task difficult as it tests your memory and it is difficult to remember which areas you haven't sketched in etc. The second sketch we made was on the bottom right. This was made using our alternate hand, I found this task difficult as my left hand is very weak and it took a long time to fill in very little. Although I found it difficult, I was quite pleased with the result. The next task was to create a drawing with the pencil in our mouth. This task was incredibly difficult and took a long time even though we only had 5 minutes for this drawing. The line came out very wobbly and I wasn't very pleased with the result. The last task was to draw ourselves, without looking at a mirror, only from memory. Again, I found this task difficult as I had to work from memory, although I was quite pleased with the result except it doesn't look like me. Overall I found this task interesting as it challenges you and makes you experiment new ways of drawing. I liked that I could see how each drawing differed from each other and how you can change the way in which you draw simply by not using your right hand or drawing from memory only.

Our next task was to draw our partners ear. We used an A1 sized piece of paper. Again, I found this task difficult in the way in which we had to draw something that was so small and make it huge to fill the page. In some ways it was easier than the previous tasks as  we were able to look at our subject as well as using our preferred hand. I used charcoal in this drawing as it is my preferred choice of media because you can use it for shading as well as sketching.

We were asked to bring in a photo of ourselves. I chose a picture of myself with tiger face paint as I thought it would look more interesting (pictured below). We cut our pictures into 4 pieces and swapped with the people on our table to create a new face. Once we had done this, we found words which best described ourselves and our interests. My main artistic interests include the industrial revolution and the machine age, therefore I changed the word 'beauty' from a regular magazine, to become 'be auto' as I felt it reflected the idea of human and machine working side by side in this day and age. I surrounded the face with various photos I had taken of cranes, building sites, scaffolding and robots, as well as my own added sketches. One I had done this, I used charcoal to create a polluted-like atmosphere, and orange paint to reflect graffiti. 

Once I had finished my college, I then photocopied it and put it in black and white so that it would further reflect this idea of the industrial revolution and the invention of machines from the olden day. I then went over the 'O' in fluorescent orange paint. 

Once we had finished this task, we made a view finder and used it to find a section of the painting that we found interesting. I chose a simplified section of the painting, which included scaffolding, which, again I thought reflected the idea of the industrial revolution. I then sketched this section using charcoal to carry on the idea of pollution and give it a dirty, dusty appearance. The sketch is pictured below.

I enjoyed this task and it tested us out of our comfort zones, and gave us new ideas on how to draw. It was interesting to see how a simple picture of a person could become an abstract face and have a meaning and statement behind it, as well as leading to a completely abstract drawing from the view finder. 

Coding

During this day, we learnt how to program information into a computer in code form to create websites. We began by designing comics on paper and sketching ideas, we were then instructed on how to design the site using a variety of different codes. These codes would move the pictures and text around each section of the comic, it also enables you to change the background colour of your site. The coding section was on the left of the screen and the result of the website was on the right so whenever you changed a section of it, it would immediately appear on the right so we could see what effect it had on the comic. Firstly we made the comic that Matteo had shown us on the board, using the same pictures but with our own text and positioning, allowing us to play around with the design. We also put the text in a bubble using more coding, and this also meant that we were able to change the colour of the bubble to match the background colour of the comic. When we had done the first section, it was easier to do the rest because we could just copy and paste the first section and simply change the text and the picture URL which made the whole process much easier and quicker. 

When we had finished the comic, we then changed the pictures to ones we could either draw ourselves, or get from the internet. I chose pictures from the internet because I wanted to use reaction gifs to reflect the emotions of the characters in the comics better. We also added more sections to make the comic longer as well as changing the text and the font of the text to match the comic. I enjoyed this task as it was very new to me and was also very useful as I am now able to use coding to make the appearance of my personal blog more appealing. I feel that the whole task was very successful and I didn't have any problems with the codes we were given. When we first began, it was difficult to get the hang of it, but after a while, it came quite naturally. What I disliked about it was the fact that it took a very long time to make one comic and the coding looks very complicated at first, and one slight spelling mistake or mistype could change the whole setup of the design or it wont work all together. Overall I found this task interesting and useful to my every day life, I also thought my comic was quite successful and the moving gifs added effect to the comic as a whole

Spaghetti Structures

Our task was to create a structure that would hold 3 plastic balls above the ground, without them touching. The structure had to be made of uncooked spaghetti and glued using a hot glue gun. Above are some sketches I made of how I could do this. I decided to go with the bottom sketch I made as I thought it was interesting looking and innovative. I chose this design as I thought it was decorative looking and it was repetitive so it looked nice from every angle. When building this design, I changed my idea half way through as I realised the sketch I had done would not be able to hold itself up without additional support. Therefore instead of making one plane for all 3 containers, I made a pyramid instead. I preferred this idea as well as it looked nicer and was more practical.

I began by making the containers. I made three, one for each ball. The containers were made from 4 pieces of spaghetti, each one was snapped in half so there wasn't any excess that would easily snap off. This stage was very fiddly, especially with the glue gun and it was difficult to make the container at the right size to hold the ball without it falling out, or the spaghetti snapping. Once I had made three, I glued them together in a pyramid shape, without them touching in the middle. Once I had done this, I balanced a fourth ball on the top of the pyramid to show that it was strong enough to hold more than three. It was important which colours we used in this exercise because we wanted it to be balanced and interesting to look at, especially when we photographed it with the mini tree and figure to make it look like an actual building. 

Once photographed, our next task was to remove the plastic balls, and make our structure able to without a basketball dropping on it, using only 5 sheets of paper. 

Here is a picture of all of the structures we made to contain the plastic balls. As you can see we all came up with very different ideas, but all were able to hold at least 3 balls.

To make my structure able to withstand a basketball, I crumpled up some of the paper and put it inside the structure. This idea would give it tensile strength as it would make it bouncy and the basketball would simply bounce off the surface of the construction. After doing this, I made a tripod out of curled up paper to make it stronger and to protect the outside of the spaghetti structure. I also placed some cushioning underneath, so that the bottom section wouldn't snap under pressure.
This task was also successful as the added paper meant that the structure was able to withstand the basketball being dropped on it. I was very pleased with this result as not many others managed to stay unbroken. From this task, I have learnt how to make a weak structure into a stronger one using just paper, which is also fairly weak by itself. I have learnt that scrunched up paper can create cushioning and that rolled up paper is strong enough to deflect a basketball. It was challenging to make the construction aesthetically pleasing in this part of the task as the paper had lots of dents in it and it was difficult to join the two, therefore the Sellotape became very messy. 

Constructing Bridges

Our given task was to firstly design 5 bridges and make them out of paper to see if they would hold their own weight in the design we made them in. Here is one of the designs I made, it was fairly strong due to the beam across the bridge, but it didn't have any initial support from the ground which made it not sufficient for a larger scale version. Once we had each done this, we we joined into groups and our task was to make a bridge from cardboard stretching from one table to another (roughly 10m away), and it had to touch the floor at a maximum of twice, it also had to let a boat underneath it which was roughly 1.5m. The bridge had to be strong enough to allow an electric car with a width of 21cm to cross it without falling or breaking the bridge.

We began by making strong supports at both ends of the bridge, made from cardboard and bamboo and duct tape. We eventually built the whole bridge across and added a bamboo support across the top, which we attached to the bridge with elastic bands. Once we had done this, we created one column underneath. We soon realised that the one column couldn't hold the entire bridge so we added projections either side which would hold up each end. 

We made the supports by putting the bamboo through holes we made in the cardboard and then joining 4 of the bamboo sticks at the top. To hold the sticks in place, we then taped them to the table. Above you can see how we held the cardboard in place and then taped each joining part of the cardboard with the bamboo so it would be very sturdy. 

The end result was very strong and we were very confident that the car would be able to cross it. Once we finished making the bridge itself, we made a decorative fence around it so that the car wouldn't fall off either side, and to also make it more aesthetically pleasing.

In this picture you are able to see the elastic bands, which we put around the supportive bamboo and the bridge itself. As well as it making it stronger, it also was a decorative feature.

The car was able to cross the bridge therefore I believe that this task was very successful. I think we worked well as a group and managed to work through any problems that occurred. The feedback we received about this project was mainly positive, although the elastic bands created less space for the car to go through so it did get stuck a little bit in the middle. During this task, I learnt how to construct a strong, tensile structure using weaker materials. This is an important thing to know for the future and for other 3D projects where we use materials such as wood and metal, as it means that I will have the knowledge of how to build structures that will be strong enough to hold larger things. 
Overall I was happy with our bridge as it was strong and appealing looking. I was slightly unhappy with one section of it in particular as it was wonky and the bamboo above it was bent downwards, which meant there was little room underneath it, which we thought might block the car. It was challenging building the bridge across when we didn't have a support in the middle and we all had to hold the cardboard up while others taped, until we made the support. We also only had a rough plan and didn't do many sketches of what it would look like, which turned out to be important as I feel as it would have been more symmetrical, because we would've measured it properly first. 
Overall I think this task was a success and we enjoyed building the bridge and interacting with each other as I felt we all worked well as a group and equally helped contribute.

Creating Supportive Objects From Unsupportive Materials

Today's first given task was to create a support that would hold a bottle filled with water off the ground using only one sheet of A1 paper and an arms length of masking tape. This task was difficult as paper is not strong. I decided to do this by rolling up bits of the paper to create crosses on either end, and joining them up using more rolls of paper as well as a decorated sheet of paper to make the design more aesthetically pleasing. I first tested it out using a smaller water bottle, which it managed to hold up, but when testing it with the larger bottle, it did not stand and was crushed. I have learnt that this product needed more planning and experimenting. I needed to draw more designs but I noticed that the rolls were affective as when the paper was rolled up, it became a lot stronger. We also put our design in an architectural environment as we were learning how buildings can be held up and how materials make a large difference to the design you are making.

The second task we did was to create something that would hold a person at least 30cm off the ground, using 4 sheets of cardboard (roughly 60cm by 84cm) and that would be able to be flat-packed within 30 seconds. Using rough sketches, I decided to make 4 boxes that would stand up vertically. I then taped each box together using a small amount of tape (enough that would be quickly removable but enough to hold the boxes together). I then taped this boxes onto a rectangular piece of cardboard at the bottom, and another piece at the top, which was removable. 

Once I tested the supportive object to see if it worked, I decorated the top piece of cardboard to make it look more appealing. Below is a picture to prove that the box can hold a person 30cm off the ground. Here is also another picture of all of our works together, before they were all tested (and 50%

flattened).