Visual Development

I have focused on a range of subjects drawing from my theme results, looking at nature and colourful inspiration. I have a focus on plants specifically bonsai’s and bamboo but I wanted to further work with an idea of minimalism, peace, zen and nature so I went on a few trips. I decided to focus on water as it links in with the idea of continuous change and waves, flow etc so I visited the seaside in southport and a lake in bartington. I referenced my artist research here channeling the inspiration and drive into producing my own material to work from.

Photoshop

I’ve been using photography in photoshop to expand on my experimentation, using my plant photography, I was able to find a cut out tool and remove its background, using layers I then repeated the image changing the hue, exposure and saturation in each. I then played around with using the word Kaizen in Japanese, using colour blocking to further a graphic design aesthetic. I was pleasantly surprised with this as it started from a picture of bamboo and looks like a design flyer. I like the finish of this however I don’t think it is minimal enough, however I feel if I was to place blank boxes over the leaves this could be a beautiful activity page.

Zen Focus

I decided to use the same effects frommy pop art digital illustration here and in my later work, I found this added such a modern air to a modern image, almost as though it was black and white and has been brought to life and recoloured, I could perhaps use this approach in my activities, giving them a photography to colour in with some examples.

 

Southport Beach – Photography

I have been exploring the potential of photography by capturing light scenes of people in nature, combining my initial thoughts of portraying people in pop surrealist styles. I wanted to explore this as I have been using the same effects with my illustrations, i feel this holds a better quality in that they are cleaner, brighter yet just as creative.

After I had played around with hues, I decided to add a filter, I found I could almost digitalise my photography to the point where it could look hand drawn or painted, I had used the glowing edges here and it seems to have added a quirky surrealist feel, I want to try out exploring animating photography, I feel using the cut-out filter will do this as it breaks forms down into shape and colour, portraying the style of a painting, I will begin exploring this further with other photography.

 

Pattern exploration

Using the idea of patterns from a suggestion in my questionnaire results, I decided to play around with repeating nature, using plants and colour to produce a variety of visual exploration. I found that this repeatition creates an almost snake skin effect, I really like the outcome as it embodies nature, structure and contemporary style, the black and white is my favourite though I must go in a colourful direction and less busy as these are highlighted in my visual feedback.