The 7 Galaxseas Project

This blog is for archiving and tracking the development of my UAL Unit 4: Consolidation project

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Here I will keep track of the development of my project through until May, starting on March 12th.

Posts will involve written self-reflection, photographs of my work and notes, discussing inspiration and any other things that I feel are relevant.

List of featured tags:

visual inspiration

research

practical development

self-reflection

sketchbook photos

miscellaneous

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50 things to make!!

Tuesday 23rd May - last day in studio

- all work for the show is put somewhere safe

- non related work is taken away

- life drawing needs to be given to Sam

Wednesday 24th in at 9am clearing studio and curating

29th May-2nd June half term

Complete final evaluation against proposal

Monday 5th June Installation

- plinths allocated

- hang exhibition

Tuesday 6th June final day

Include:

Exhibited work

Sketchbooks

Reflective diary

Bibliography

Portfolio of work

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First designs for Saturn and SW33T :)

I’ve got the majority of Saturn’s colour palette down because it coincides with the colours of lunar moths in real life. White fur coat = white fluffy abdomen, wine vinyl pants = wine coloured legs etc. He’s also got the features of a lunar moth such as the wings, antennae, and I gave him two pairs of arms instead of one. Some elements of his design are taken from 70s disco culture e.g. platform shoes Saturday Night Fever inspired.

SW33T’s outfit is more simple wherein it mostly draws from casual street styles. Their heavyweight body type means lots of oversized and loose-fitting clothes. The more unique part of their design is their head, which can be switched out with lots of kinds of devices e.g. traffic light, boombox, computer monitor etc. The head changes are juxtaposed by the persistence of the beanie.

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I’ve altered Captain’s design slightly so the translucent flares are now one long skirt. I did this because it makes her legs easier to see underneath the translucency . Also instead of her coat draping off her arms I’ve now made so it’s slightly off shoulder instead because it’ll be much easier to draw. It’s still mostly unzipped so the leotard underneath is still visible. I’m still not 100% certain on her shoes but I know I want to incorporate the skates.

Next to that I’ve got my first design for Fluora! :) I gave Captian’s baggy trousers to her because I like them but they’re not translucent this time. She’s also wearing a high collared jacket without sleeves because she doesn’t need sleeves ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I’m thinking a racing jacket sort of style but maybe I’ll make the pattern on it match her trousers? Cause then it’ll almost be like a two piece outfit which I think would be nice. I also decided to give her cute leg warmers as a retro accessory.

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So this is my first shot using the textures I took pictures of and putting them into the drawing. I’m happy with the outfit overall so I’m gonna keep it as it is and maybe tweak some minor things but idk. I’m not that happy with the colour palette but that’s probably because I was working with a limited number of textures in the blue spectrum and I couldn’t get colours that I was 100% with without just colouring them myself. I’ll have to see if there’s a way to change the hue/saturation of inserted images like there is on Photoshop but I doubt there is a way.

I also want to work on reducing the stiffness of my drawings so next time I’ll probably try to go for a more less anatomically accurate style and make the characters more shaped. I think that would also help it look more styled even if it ends up looking more abstract that way. I think my drawings would look better if I stop trying to make it look perfect and just try to have more fun with it.

One thing I do really like however is that I learned what the liquify tool is and I used that for the jacket. I think it looks pretty cool! Tutorial credit goes to @bridgetmichelledesign on TikTok.

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*Long post incoming* pt.4

The final artist that I read about was Italian illustrator Sara Fanelli. Her art style is experimental with text and collage techniques by using different types of papers, photos, fabric, print cuts, music sheets, global newsprints and historical typeface. Much of her inspiration is drawn from childhood influences e.g. sweet wrappers, kitchen utensils, buttons, the night sky and old pets. 

Using influences from childhood as sources of inspiration is particular to me because it’s prevalent to the themes of this project. My love for sci-fi, retro aesthetics, and illustration originate from my childhood where I grew up with watching cartoons and anime, outdated tech, experimental music videos, weird fashion and the early internet. The overarching themes of my project are both bred from nostalgia and an appreciation for present media that involve these aspects. 

In a journal written in 2018 by Alison Swan about Fenelli’s work, she wrote “It is a chaotic world and the experience of leafing through the pages is similar to embarking on an unplanned trip to new territory without a map – a haphazard, eye-opening, stimulating and rewarding journey into a personal and imaginative realm.”. This statement reminded me of my work due to the fact that I’ve also created my own ‘personal and imaginative realm’ so to speak. The characters I’m creating exist in their own world which I want to bring to life when drawing or writing about them. 

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*Long post incoming* pt.3

More about Lauren Child, in a transcript of a 2003 interview from Good Reading Magazine, she talks about illustration and drawing in general in a way that I find relatable. A few of the quotes I’m referencing specifically are: 

“That’s the funny thing about illustration. Sometimes it really happens exactly how you want it to, sometimes it doesn’t, you can’t get it across and I would change things,” & “And you think, yeah, I sort of know how I want that to look. You have something in your mind’s eye, and you kind of think, it’s going to work, and then sometimes just getting down on paper is just impossible.”. 

I remember feeling vindicated when I read this, because that’s exactly how I feel towards my own work. Especially when I’m drawing something traditionally and I can’t immediately press the undo button if I make a mistake or if something doesn’t look right to me - I find that very frustrating. That’s why when I sketch, I want to try and go for a more ‘loose’ approach and just use general shapes instead of defaulting to trying to make everything look anatomically correct. I also think that this will help my drawings look less rigid if I challenge myself to illustrate in a way that embraces imperfection and abstraction. 

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*Long post incoming* pt.2

Another artist I looked at was English author and illustrator Lauren Child. Her style is characterised by a combination of different media such as photographs, magazines, cuttings of physical materials and scanned materials. Her work has long since been familiar to me because I used to read her books when I was a kid, particularly Charlie and Lola, so I’ve known about the technique of using real life elements alongside or within illustration for a while. 

In the past, the creative influences for her work have come from her love of doll houses, patterned textiles, interior design, American films and comic strips. When creating illustrated stories for children, she doesn’t shy away from allowing her own art to be influenced by all kinds of different media. 

In a 2017 interview with Claire Armitstead, she talks about going to see Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands and how the combination of lighting, costume and set design felt like a collage in of itself, becoming a great inspiration to her. She follows this up by saying “That’s why I’m convinced that ideas shouldn’t be compartmentalised and one should allow oneself to be inspired by film or TV.”.

To me this statement is very fitting when it comes to my project and the inspirations behind it. All the aesthetics I’m trying to get across in my illustrations have roots in lots of kinds of media that I’m heavily inspired by, including lots of different artists. Examples of these include Jamie Hewlett, Seita Inoue, Atsushi Ohkubo, Freddy Carrasco, Toma Ngyuen, Jean Giraud and Shoichi Aoki. Other than artists, I’m also drawing lots of inspiration from media such as Splatoon, Gorillaz, Soul Eater, Jet Set Radio, Daft Punk, Redline, Treasure Planet, DC and more. Finally I’m also inspired by certain fashion and web aesthetics in general such as Y2K, cybercore, retrowave, harajuku, atompunk and sci-fi. TLDR lots of sources of inspiration. 

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*Long post incoming* pt.1

 My goal for including mixed media into my project is that I want to incorporate real textures from photos I have taken into my illustrations. The patterns on my characters’ outfits will come from real life objects instead of just being coloured digitally; a method that’s similar to the collage technique. 

One artist that I’ve looked at that pioneered the collage and photomontage method is Hannah Höch, who is a notable German artist that belonged to the Dada art movement. She used cut-outs from magazines, illustrated journals, fashion publications and newspapers in her work; often using surreal and grotesque imagery to help drive the political and social commentaries she wanted to make. Her work was very stylistically diverse compared to her male peers at the time, and I feel like I want to be able to achieve this in my own work as well. Since my project is strongly influenced by science fiction and alt fashion subcultures, I want my illustrations to give those themes justice by having that eclectic visual style that’s unique to me. 

As well as having stylistic diversity, Höch’s art also critiqued themes of social norms and traditional gender roles throughout the 20th Century. An example of this is a piece from 1930 titled Tamer, which expresses themes of androgyny. An article from 1986 by VDT, Wylder stated that “She dared to make the items from women’s common pursuits the subject and elements of a fine art experience”, which was referring to her use of textile sampling within her work. I feel like these themes tie loosely to my project, because the four characters that I’ve been creating don’t necessarily fit into traditional gender roles either; e.g. Saturn leaning more towards androgynous than masculine, Sweet being non-binary etc. Additionally I’m also going to be using textile samples in my work for the characters’ clothes and such, linking to Höch’s method of collage.

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Some examples of the textures that I’ve gathered and would like to use in my work. I want to use these for the characters’ outfits so the illustrations have less flat colours and look more collage like.

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Remember to gather materials for texture samples I want to use in my drawings to combine digital and traditional mediums. ✅

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Need to practice feeling more confident doing quicker sketches also analogue sketches so now most sketches will be directly into sketchbook instead of Procreate.

+ easier to jot down notes alongside drawings in situ.