Wednesday 16 February 2011

apache gunship over falmouth harbour























last week i went to berlin. here is some documents of said travel.

there is far, far too much to say about berlin, so there's a good selection of my week in photographs. a fantastic foray into a truly troubled city that, even from it's past it still has a grey, blok stillness to it's atmosphere evident from it's architecture, memorials and the very fact that a lot of the destruction from the battle that raged through it's street towards the end of the war is still there, embedded and chipped across wall and stone. it hasn't quite settled in my mind yet, and for the next week i am supposed to be doing some sort of cumulative project based around my week but i haven't a clue nor the desire to start anything remotely related, and not out of any negative reasons, but simply because i simply cannot think of anything fitting to apply myself to. everything i wanted to know and see is in my mind, through my eyes and - at a fairly large expense - developed upon matte prints from my camera. i am contempt with that.

anyway,

at the end of that obstacle comes, at long last, the chance for negotiated projects. no more dabbling about with briefs that the tutors know what to expect the finished outcome to look or bare resemblance to, no more pussyfooting around what we want to do and what we as illustrators are ''expected'' to do to earn ''proper'' money or lead a ''successful'' life, this is our chance to do what we want to do, though that obviously doesn't mean i'm going to run off willy-nilly and engage myself in practices i am all too familiar with. no, whilst the chance to create what i want to create in studio time is tempting, isn't that, really, what personal time is for? with this, i'll take the tutors guidance at doing a book cover or editorial, except this time i won't have to apply it to a brief they issue on a subject they can identify with, this time i'll be able to have full creative control over something i myself can get behind, so with that comes the time to yes, continue trying out new things under new guises under their supervisions, but to my own specifications.

we have dipped our feet into this slightly with the last project, information illustration (last post). there, we had full control over the subject and formatting, though it was closely monitored and relayed between tutors and ourselves to make sure we were doing what they think is best, which is understandable, it's what they are paid for and it's what we are paying them for. with choosing your own subject you actually get to dictate, if you will, the choices you make on your own terms and i believe that for my project i actually had the chance to explain my choices and actions for what i wanted to do (i.e. composition, style, imagery used) because it was a subject i could properly back and it was something that they weren't too familiar with, therefore under no expectations or any persuasions as to what it ''should'' look like to fall in line with final artwork seen from years before which is kind of how i see the attitude towards marking or criticizing yearly briefs can be like.

this is quite a ramble now, so i'll cut it short: i'm excited. i haven't fully decided on what i want to do for each project, for we now have our own deadlines to make and attend to, but a list in the back of a sketchbook notes that i'm toying with the ideas of book jackets and full colour illustrations for short stories from h.p. lovecraft and arthur conan doyle, music lyric narratives for ISIS' oceanic, pig destroyer's natasha and botch's afgamistam, packaging and graphic construction for a record(s), both self recorded and hopefully even some actual outside commission from bands, and possibly some other such narratives that i've wanted to get around to for years like making a comic, etc. either way, i'm excited for what's to come.

everything important: family/friend/loved ones contact, new photos, cheap cooking, jordan's country crisp flame raisen, comfy quiet nights sleep, new glassjaw ''colouring book'' ep, neurosis ''through silver in blood'', fake problems ''oh no!'', brave new world, soup, breaking bad season 2 (holy fuck?!), back to the wire for the first re-watch of 2011, one day less in 15

INFORMATION / 2011






final artworks from our information illustration brief. the aim of this brief was to create a series of artworks that may be found in a piece of informative media, such as a book, on a poster, in flyers, etc. i choose to create five double page spreads focusing on the battle of stalingrad by soviet and german forces. i wanted to make a book that was neither another photographic coffee table book (which are good anyway) or a static, dull book of uniforms and equipment with mannequin-esqe soldiers milling or bumbling around simply for the reason to make it easier for the reader to make out details. the way i figure it, war doesn't standstill for such reasons, so i wanted to attract the sort of reader who has that masculine interest in such things as commando comics or putting a pair of boots on and rolling around in the woods all day with sticks for guns. at least, that's what i liked when i was young anyway.

i do not support, believe or want these images to in any way say that i support the idea of warfare, no less from the past or the present war on ''terror'' - i just wanted to make something that informed readers about the horrible events of stalingrad in a little more interesting way then, as said, simply reusing photographs or illustrating soldiers showing off a winter uniform or some such. anyway, i'm happy with it at least.