In order to interpret the exam theme Covert and Obscured I had to research what the words meant. I found the words concealed, secret, disguised associated with the word Covert and ambiguous, vague, uncertain associated with Obscured. Both words to me meant to create disguised and secret piece of work maybe in the materials I use or the way I represent my work. I chose the Illustration Brief which was "to create a series of hand drawn/collaged illustrations of people presented as a 'Zine'.
With this Illustration brief I would have to create a portrait of someone with a hidden meaning or message/ secret. My ideas for my final piece at the beginning of this project was to take photos of people and edit those photos and add hand illustrations manipulating the original features and face of the person. To relate to the theme Covert and Obscured I planned to manipulate, draw and create collages to change someones face to create a disguise. I had to do multiple observational drawings using continuous line and contour drawing using my face. I took pictures of myself and traced the photos adding different details, using shading and layering. These two observational drawings I did was layering using different scales and colours to show the difference, this also added a motion to it I think. The drawing below I traced onto paper and to create shading I used lines to highlight the darker areas.
Analysing artists such as Askhkan Honarvar inspired me to create collages in his style of work but developed the collages adding my ideas, to create this collages I used secondary images from magazines and newspapers. I recorded this illustrations and collages in my sketch book, some I developed digitally such as the Honarvar collage which I added filter effects to on Photoshop. Other artists that influenced my work were Geraldine Georges, Quentin Jones, Laura McKellar and Izziyana Suhaimi which were the final two artists that influenced my work most of all. McKellar and Suhaimi the two who inspired me with the feminine embroidery detail added to their Illustration.
Askhkan Honarvar
Izziyana Suhaimi
Laura McKellar
At first I started experimenting with collages by hand layering cut outs from magazines, newspapers, old photos extra and cutting out sections to create a whole new image, I found trying to create collages digitally difficult which is why I experimented by hand more. The main type of collage I created was Exquisite collages which was to create a new image by adding different cut outs of body parts to folded paper and when opened seeing a the combination made by the different cut outs, it looked unusual by was creative illustration design. The embroidery processes was developed on card first to see how long stitching would take and get used to the process which I then got a hand of and stared experimenting on fabric.
For my final piece I planned to make a A3 size heat press onto fabric and start adding stitching into that, and to make my final piece into a 'Zine' fold the fabric into a little square only the eye visible and ironing that pressing it down. But the zine design did not really work well, so I decided to create four A4 size fabrics with my embroidery illustration which I would connect as a quilt and fold.
Over all I understood the exam theme well I think but found it difficult creating a Zine for my chosen brief. I like experimenting with making collages and the embroidery work, I enjoyed developing my final piece design style the best combining textiles with my graphics work. I think that I will be pleased with my final outcome but I dont think that my final outcome will look like a zine.
