The Ravensbourne Big Draw

The first activity as part of The Ravensbourne Big Draw was a series of small tasks that were completed within 15 minutes. It was fast paced and designed to give us a feel for making multiple, small caricatures.

I tried to use lino for the first time as a quick drawing of a friend. This task was fast so I didn't get the opportunity to spend as long on it as I would have liked which meant it came out rushed, although this could arguably give it character. I tried a variety of different knives to cut the lino as I found the different sizes each gave a slightly different effect that I applied to different areas of the face and hair. Sadly I didn't purchase any of the lino ink or a roller because of costs, so I couldn't see how this would look printed. I realised after I did it that when creating a lino print, the result is an inverted image which meant that this print would be inverted on the page - in other words, Emily's skin would be the darkened area instead of the other way round. I will remember to take this into account when using lino to create images in the future. 

The morning was spent creating small or large caricatures of people around the room. My favourite illustrations were the ones in the third image which were created using a scrunched up piece of paper dipped in watercolour to add a colourful background and then illustrated with coloured fine liner over the top of that. The drawings were rough and didn't much resemble the person, but this isn't what matters in illustration - it is instead the process and unique nature of the drawings to give flair.

In the first image I tried to pay attention only to the shadows whilst using watercolour. It was difficult to ignore the highlights completely and create an image that was in proportion with large chunks of space missing. The final image was full of neutral colours and when completed, looked minimalist and different from my normal illustrative style. 

This experiment was an example of my trying 3D and it speaks for itself. I find it hard to work in 3D which is largely due to my inexperience. I have only worked with clay a handful of times and I found it very hard to translate the visualisation of a person in my head into fimo clay. This exercise made me realise that caricatures don't always have to be flat but that by making something 3D adds another dimension to something  as it becomes tactile and real. This can also be applied to 2D work by simply adding texture to something to stimulate the senses as an alternative to working in 3D completely. 

When asked to draw our families, I took to cutting out strips of paper in relation to the heights of our family members and placed them on the page in order from oldest to youngest. This was a more abstract approach to a concept I would usually use my illustration skills in and it definitely took me away from my usual way of thinking. If I was to re-do this task then I would have spent more time cutting out the strips of paper and measuring them up so they were accurate heights and placed in the middle of the page. 

These images below show the development pages for my final stamp as part of The Ravensbourne Big Draw.

The size of the stamp we were designing was really small which meant I didn't need to use a lot of space as part of the design process. I found that three pages were sufficient enough for me to design the stamp by varying the materials I used to make it. The materials included inks, markers, acrylic paint, watercolour, fine liner, papers and coloured pencil. The grid idea as part of the design process was quick to construct and allowed a lot of quick experimentations with aesthetics and colour. I had the idea to use my fingers as a stamp for the acrylic paint which ended up creating a comical representation of Rafayel Sdanewitsch who was the graphic design degree student we had found to represent within the stamp. Initially I wanted to do a really impressive, tiny drawing of Rafayel but after a few practices, I found this simply too hard as the size of the stamp was simply too small. I began to take the image of his glasses and use that as a more simple representation of him. I applied these to different backgrounds of various colours in order to come to a final image I was happy with.  I ended up creating a small stencil of Rafayel, filled in with a gradient of acrylic paint over a pastel purple background. I finished it off by adding his glasses in a black fine liner. 

Above is my final stamp as it was presented on the board. I think that presentation is key when showing off work, no matter how small it is and I found that I was one of the only people who did this. I was very pleased with my final stamp and thought that the lengthy process gone through in order to create something so small was worth it. Working so small was definitely a challenge and this brief was one that piqued my interest. The most daunting task was approaching the third year students, but it wasn't too bad in the end after finding out that they're human too and actually quite friendly.