The illustrated self

Because I was so unsure about how to link together all the stuff on that list I made, and it seemed actually unrealistic to attempt to somehow connect everything together, I decided I would focus on the creative aims which have begun to surface most frequently in my practice and try to create a piece of work which illustrated them. i started drawing some self portraits first, pretty uninspired I know, but I had to start doing something. 

Seeing as the trait of my practice which currently seems the most essential, is translating information into something which is surreal, or difficult to understand contextually, through choosing obscure perspectives in image making, I started with a drawing of myself looking through my legs to represent this. I quite like the drawing, and in a way it works very well, in a simplistic way, but it is a bit too literal and representational, which actually clashes with the point of a lot of my work.

Fun fact: My cousin told me that when I was really little I had a habit of running into the room and looking at people through my legs like this. That anecdote does lend a bit more weight to the drawing.

   

Again, here, I've just drawn a very representational picture of an unusual view of myself but it still isn't quite strange enough. I then simplified it and used cut paper to impose further abstraction upon it, which made it more interesting as an image maybe, but I wasn't actually too keen on the last image and this whole process is pretty much exactly what I did for the picture book brief.

This is a caricature, in which I've tried to warp the perspective on myself and just generally make a little weird. I just drew this really because I was getting sick of thinking about stuff and it's pretty mindless, but, I do actually really like it as just a drawing. I don't think I'm going to use it because it isn't really saying anything significant. But it is a bit of laugh.

     























I thought this was quite a nice, tidy way of expressing the way I look at things and attempt to translate information through my drawing and think it has potential. It would also look quite good as a large poster I think. The design is clear and simple enough and rendering it in colour would make it bolder and more dramatic.

   























I decided that I was getting sick of drawing myself, and also that actually it probably wasn't the best way of expressing my conceptual methodology because recently I haven't actually been creating very figurative images. These two drawings are a closer representation of the way I think about what i look at, and how I am trying to disguise things through drawing them. They are drawings of Liberty Park, where I have been living for the year. It seems fitting perhaps, to choose a subject which has such a literal connection to a 'first year at university'.

However, these images aren't very dramatic or striking and they don't have much presence. They probably wouldn't translate very well to a large poster.


I am somewhat torn at the moment with regards to where I want to go. I like different things about several of the approaches I have tried. I think that I can work reasonably effectively in lot's of different ways, particularly drawing in lot's of different 'styles', for want of a better word, and whilst that is hugely useful and I'm glad I am afforded so much choice in the way I work as a result, it can also prove difficult as restrictions can often be a great aid in the creative process.