This is the first time for me to life drawing in London. When I was drawing a restaurant, a man came out and told me whether he could take a photo after I finished it. Although I was nervous at the beginning, but he lookes like my drawing. After sketching, the tutor guided some people’s works and taught us a lot of knowledge, which made me very useful. Here are some notes I took on the class.
Brainstorm
I did some initial thinking about this project. I initially had a lot of thoughts, including overeating, weight reduction, and dessert. Later, I discovered that fast food had always been a staple of my diet, therefore I want to draw on this knowledge to produce. I clarified the theme and stated that my audience consisted of youth and social professionals. The objective is to get people to care more about their eating habits
I saw that the works displayed outside the workshop made me very interested and planned to make an appointment
When mention to instant food, the first thing come to my mind is instant noodles. Instant noodles do not need complicated cooking process to become popular, but if you eat them all the time, it will affect your body. It can be one of the elements of my final outcome. I found some posters about instant noodles for reference, and let me know that the combination of three-dimensional typeface and illustrations can make more powerful.
I also plan to print my works on canvas bags. This will remind people “Have you had a good meal today?”.
With some references, I produced two sketches. The first one looks a comic more. I want to demonstrate how people’s good eating habits can be forgotten when they are busy with work. The second is the illustration style. People are too dependent on instant food and are deeply involved in it. Through one-on-one with my tutor, I was convinced that I would implement the second sketch.
Photoshop
This is the finished drawing based on the second sketch. In order to better print three different colors, I divided three different layers. I chose red and yellow because I think these two colors represent unhealthy and fast food.
Learning screen printing
Photography
I participated in the introduction of screen printing. This is a very meaningful lesson because I learned how to use the machine and a series of operations.At first, everything seemed fairly simple, but in practise, I discovered that it was incredibly tiring and that I should continually focus on avoiding mistakes.
After several days of hard work, I successfully printed the poster. I have failed several times in the middle of the process, and even started to do it again from plate making. But the final result is very satisfactory. When encountering difficulties, I actively asked the tutor for solutions that helped me grow.
Screen printing
Photograph different angle
This is the final printed effect. Although it is not perfect, I have gained good experience. I hope to make progress in the next printing. The effect of some blank spaces is also unexpected. In the middle of the way, I tried to replace the yellow pigment with a low saturation of green, because I thought it would be more comfortable to look like this.
Stop Motion by tomosteen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AU7fPr6D4k
I used to like to watch some stop motion animation, so I found some references about food to help me have a deep understanding of this topic. In this animation, I saw the relationship between food and pixels. Even if they are food composed of simple color blocks and shapes, the audience can also distinguish them well. I am interested in this simple composition, so I also want to add them to my works.
Reflection
My ability to screen print is my project’s greatest accomplishment. These procedures are incredibly fascinating and have made me more aware of the variety in art. I have learned a lot from this project, and it has also helped me improve my communication and problem-solving skills. I find the encounters fascinating, and I enjoy the procedure a lot.
And if I have more time, I will try textile printing. This time, because we didn’t manage the schedule properly, everything became very busy. So next time I will use my time more reasonably to try more things.