Studio Brief 1 Evaluation

Overall I really struggled during this brief and I'm not happy with my outcomes. I definitely took the wrong approach when I was tackling this brief, in my head I connected black and white motifs to something graphic and neat/polished which isn't my way of working and so naturally I struggled. I was pleased with my idea generation during this brief but I struggled to progress from these initial sketches and brain vomits and make more detailed roughs that I was happy with.

I really enjoyed creating the zine, that process of working is something that I enjoy and do regularly in my personal practice, visceral imagery is what I want to create and so forcing myself into making flat, shape based work wasn't a good move. I initially chose Arundhati Roy for her beautiful descriptions and rich image-dense ways of setting the scene and describing the world. I strayed too far away from this and got very bogged down focusing on the dark and morbid themes which occur in the book like the Indian Caste System, Forbidden Love and Child Molestation. For studio brief 2 I need to work on combining these dark elements with the beauty and vibrancy of Arundhati Roy's writing style, I think this juxtaposition will result in more successful work.

Lateral thinking is not something I think is necessarily my strong point, so it was good to have the space to explore this way of thinking and making.

I narrowed myself down to themes of:
-The river
- The Caste system / untouchables
- Forbidden Love
- History House
- Frozen in time
- Silence
- Childhood trauma

I was very concerned about wanting to illustrate these motifs sensitively and I wanted to combine both the reportage and the ethereal but instead I got sucked into to the idea that black and white = polished graphic image which is stupid considering most of the rough sketching I do is always in black and white and never appears too clinical. For some of the motifs I experimented with creating a scene, for example a forest to represent childhood trauma, I ended up ditching this idea but I wish I had continued as more reportage style/scene building illustration is more my cup of tea. I also think a let down was the fact I was attempting to make my images full a4 bleed. I became too constricted by the idea of a flat rectangular space, when looking through my sketchbooks and scraps I'm very much drawn to the ripped edge or the wonkily drawn box. This is something I should embrace and take forward into Studio Brief 2.

My time management during this brief was poor also. I tried to juggle too many commissions whilst being ill and in a rut which is never a good idea. The feeling of being in a rut but having no free time to get yourself out of it and instead forcing yourself to make sub-par work you're not proud of is the worst. Felt a bit bummed out and was in a negative head space during and when finishing Studio Brief 1 but I also think its a good learning curve in learning how to balance my uni and personal work and get stuck into briefs which I don't initially think I'm suited to. I need to not let that be a thought and instead work out how I can mould briefs to fit my style of working.

I want to make emotive, raw, cathartic imagery and this is what I should be doing (and will!). Onwards and upwards!!