Wednesday 31 August 2011

WATERLOO SUNSET - COLLAGE

After I interviewed Paul Catherall, a London-based printmaker and illustrator. I did a follow-on project using Paul's work as inspiration. Not having access to printmaking equipment I wanted to use a different process to finish my artwork. Though I was inspired by Paul, I didn't want to just copy his style completely, but wanted to make the work my own and put my stamp on it. Here is the step-by-step process.

MY ORIGINAL PICTURE, ROUPELL STREET, WATERLOO SE1
IN ILLUSTRATOR I CREATED THIS USING THE IDEA LESS-IS-MORE 
ON TOP OF THIS POOR A3 COLOUR PRINT I DREW A GRID
I DOUBLED THE SIZE OF THE GRID TO FIT AN A2 LAYOUT SHEET
THEN I RE-DREW THE IMAGE BY HAND
AFTER CUTTING OUT EACH SECTION I EXPERIMENTED WITH DIFFERENT COLOURS
BUT I DECIDED TO STICK WITH MY ORIGINAL COLOURS OF CHOICE
FINISHED WORK BEFORE FRAMING
FRAMED AND ON MY WALL



Tuesday 23 August 2011

BOUNDARY STUDS-TYPESCAPES, GF SMITH

I tried taking one or two of the Boundary marker stud pictures and used them as layouts for compositions for the typescapes posters and the GFSmith Invites.





The same technique can be used with buildings to make grids and layouts. Here is a couple I have experimented with.





Sunday 21 August 2011

TYPESCAPES-GRAPHIC DESIGN THEORY

I have spent some more time this week reading Graphic Design Theory - Readings from the field. After reading the eassy of Herbert Bayer and Josef Muller-Brockman. I have tried the Typescapes poster based on samples in the the book along with one or two quotes.


"TYPOGRAPHY IS A SERVICE ART, NOT A FINE ART"
Herbert Bayer 1967





"WORKING WITH THE GRID SYSTEM MEANS SUBMITTING TO LAWS OF UNIVERSAL VALIDITY"
Josef Muller-Brockmann 1981


Thursday 11 August 2011

THE ART OF THE BOUNDARY MARKER STUD

As part of my Boundaries within Boundaries project, I have been collecting pictures of Boundary Marker Studs. These strange metal studs are popping up everywhere, especially around new buildings, in the City of London. You may have noticed them yourself and wondered what they are for. They divide areas of ownership of land. So for instance, when these studs appear around the front of a building, the owner of the building also owns the land up to the stud boundary. A piece of land may be in private ownership but it forms part of a public right of way. So certain laws or rules may be different on either side of the boundary. 

As I gathered these pictures, I received some strange looks, kneeling down on the ground in order to take them. They started to take on an abstract form and reminded me of the dot and line exercise we did at college. So I played around with them and here are the results. If you find any, yourself, that look interesting, then please send them to me. I have heard from one of the  manufacturers of these studs, that some are made with logos stamped on them, but I have yet to find any.

I came across this quote about boundary marker studs from the book ‘Stuart, A Life Backwards’, by Alexander Masters.

In London, the pavement isn’t all public: some of it belongs to them and some of it belongs to us. The brass bits is little bits put in outside all the government buildings in London, what lets you know the difference – there’s brass bits all over London.

If we sleep on the bit what belongs to them, they do us ..... and .... if we sleep on the bit that belongs to us, they still do us, only it’s not the same.