SB2 - The Illustrated Self - ROUGHS & TESTING

Following on from the group crit and peer crit I had, I've started to realise some of my new ideas through roughs and sketches. Encompassing the issues of nostalgia, restricted ways of living, play and character, I have been working with the visual devices of building blocks and a book, aiming to demonstrate an emerging practice, developing towards a children's context. I felt that although the brass band character is illustrative of myself, it is perhaps too specific and not immediate within the image. In place of this, I have developed an approach to character taken within the gif brief, using blocky shapes to create comical and clumsy characters that enhance the humorous and playful tone of voice I want my work to be concerned with.

Through roughs I have considered various scenarios and compositions in which the building blocks could operate but I think physical play with wooden blocks would aid the development of this towards a more playful and organic outcome. Further to this is the issue of components, I would like my poster to incorporate 3D elements alongside the hand-drawn so it may be useful to explore working into photographs of 3D constructs. 

Testing these roughs in cut paper, I have started to realise the aesthetic I would like to channel in my final outcome. Primary colours are key to children's cultures and so I think working around this and other bright colours would compliment the context I want to operate in, enhancing also the intended playful tone of voice. 

 Furthering the idea of the multitude of elements that inform my practice, I felt that a book was the perfect vehicle to demonstrate this within the context of my intent for practice, to illustrate children's books. I am very much concerned with the importance of books and reading and so these seems like an appropriate vehicle to communicate several aspects of my practice in an image that is immediate yet full of narrative. Starting to consider the elements that might pop out of the book, I now need to play with cut paper and other 3D media as a means of exploring how this image might operate outside of the sketchbook. With reference to Ed Cheverton, I am keen to channel a mix of the hand-drawn with the 3D to achieve a sense of layering and craft, something central to my practice across media. 

Moving forward, I now need to invest some time in playing with these ideas as physical constructs, working with paper and wood to explore material qualities and the interplay of 3D components.