Summer Assignment 2014

Yanghuan Hu 0537

My visit to The National Portrait Gallery

During the summer holidays I made a visit to The National Portrait Gallery. I did a few observational drawings while I was there and I did a study of one of my favourite painting at The National Portrait Gallery.

Geoffrey Beasley

Craig Wylie

Alessandro Raho Jason Brooks

A study of a portrait painting – Paul Wright• This painting was created by Paul Wright

• The painting is of Simon Armitage

• Its Oil on canvas

• Dimension -100cm x 90cm

• This painting was painted in 2013, the portrait itself looks modern.

The rich tone of colours also suggest its modern form.

• Paul Wright created this by using discontinuous brush strokes,

he use spatula to paint his work. The colours looks more layered on top

of each other rather than blended.

. Practical studyThe portrait below were created by Paul Wright and they’re the paintings that inspired me with my own art work. Paul Wright was trained as an illustrator but he spent last 14 years painting, he often works on large, potentially imposing scale, and uses a rich palette on his work.

My self portraits inspired by Paul Wright:

My self portraits

My opinion of the projectI think this self portrait project was really interesting but it was also very challenging. From the quick sketches I did in The National Portrait Gallery to the detailed study of my chosen painting, it really has helped me to create my own diptych self portrait as it helped me to build up my confidence becoming more accustomed to draw our facial features.If I would able to this project again I would make some changes on my diptych self portrait. I would change the colour palette of my self portraits as the artist I studied on used rich and bright type of palette and I don’t think I have used enough of brighter colours on mine. Another thing I would do if I was able to do this again, I would use spatula to paint instead of a normal large brush as it would make my portrait look more like Paul Wright style as the colours would be over lapping each other to create the thickness and three dimension rather than blending it in and looking two dimension. Overall I am happy with my final outcome as it I did portrait myself successfully and managed to do it in the style of Paul Wright.

Professional Case Study

For the professional case study I decided to do mine on Rowena Oven, who is a London based freelance graphic designer working in the film and TV industry. •How they clarify and negotiate a brief, interpret the requirements of the brief and the needs of the client

Rowena find that highlighting the bits that apply to her and then almost rewriting a clarified brief that is more focused to her area helps. From there research and producing mood/ concept boards can really help to clarify things to herself and often the client too.

• How they organize and manage a project plan

When organizing a plan she will always start at the delivery date and work backwards. Taking into account design hours, production and delivery and budget. Where possible she will always build in contingency days/ money as it's important to be ready to make changes. When planning it is a good idea to discuss the project with other people that may be involved- with her work it often involves printers so their lead times are also important to consider.

• How they liaise with clients, customers and the general public

On a lot of jobs she work remotely in her own studio so then she would be really heavily on email and phone calls. However, when in a client facing position normally on a film or TV job they will hold meetings with the director, production designer and set decorator to look at in progress designs. This can help focus and develop ideas.

• Their attitude and approach to their specialism

It is always important to take advice and listen to people in other specialisms. It can also help to develop as a designer- looking and something from another angle can lead the design down a different route and can mean you learn something new. It is important in film design to make sure that there is continuity in the design so that the graphics work with the set design and props, without taking into account others specialisms the continuity could be jeopardized and overall design can be confusing.

Professional Case Practice Study

• How they modify and develop initial ideas to produce a final outcome

All ideas start with research, if producing a map for example she will look at lots of real ones and then she will discuss them with the production designer to select which looks they like. Then using the references she will start to mock up her designs. The design will then be discussed with other members of the team before the final design is signed off and can be produced.

• How they choose materials, techniques and technology and the processes they use to produce the work

It is important that the technique fits with the setting of the film. So if it's a film set in 1910, the techniques used for producing graphics are very different to those used in a contemporary setting. A lot of techniques are trial and error- she work very closely with specialist printers and painters in the film industry who are always full of ideas for making something produced in a modern manner look old, worn or dirty. she learn new techniques on every job and it's important to learn from the experience of other people around you.

• How they respond to constraints that affect their work (these will vary according to the situation but could include costs, scale, resources, time)

If you make a clear plan of timescales and budgets then most problems can be avoided. However, it is not always the case. It's is important to be realistic though, taking on extra help if needed and being honest with a client though if you always building in contingency it can save a lot of stress.

• How the commercial viability of the work has been considered.

It can sometimes be a struggle when working independently to make work viable. When heavily involved and passionate about a project you can end up spending more time than it's worth financially to you. It's important to be clear on the cost of your time and always be aware of your bottom line- a job should never end up costing you more than you make.