Final Piece development

As a development for this topic, I have illustrated more flowers, closer together. The thorns around my hand and wrist, I have made more bold using my fine liner compared to the illustrated flowers to show the contrast between the bad aspect and the good aspect of this. The flowers are more compact, and in further development I plan to illustrate more flowers around the wrist to make this piece more detailed. I will not cover the whole area with illustration as I think it will then overpower the photograph, also, I have made sure that I have not illustrated with a thicker liner as it could also overpower the Photograph. 

For my final piece, I have developed the original ideas for the illustration element and started refining them. I have placed the chosen images on an A3 scale as that is the size I would like them to be. Currently I have stuck the Photographs temporarily so then I can complete the illustrations. I then plan on removing the Photographs to scan the illustration onto the computer. Lastly, I will use photo shop to integrate the Photograph onto the illustration.
Developing on this Photograph from the original idea, I have got rid of the newspaper cuttings that I put in before. I have kept in the illustration of my hand reaching out to my mum. I placed this in the corner where in my first illustration there was an illustration of me with the speech bubble coming out of my mouth. The words I have written in the bubble are still the things I wish I could have told my mum at that time, written in a broken/jagged way representing my feelings. 

The self harm topic, I have changed a few elements from the original version. Firstly, the Photograph I have used in this composition is a different one. I have used the Photograph that I took in the studio as there is a clear difference in quality. I chose to have this in black and white to reflect the whole concept of self harm and it being a negative thing that occurs in many individuals. Again I used the method of illustrating over tracing paper. I used acrylic paint for the blood and I think this adds a different texture compared to any of the other compositions, as it adds colour. I drew scars in black fine liner to emphasise the reality of self harm. I then placed this illustration over the photograph on the wrist area so it looks like the blood is dripping off my arm. 

Developing on the idea of using all illustration as the base for mixed media, this particular topic was quite difficult to show. In the original A4 piece, there were pieces of paper stuck around the Biology book showing my grades last year and other various exam elements. These elements are really important to this composition, therefore I have decided to draw out the grade tables instead of sticking them on. As this development is on a larger scale to the previous experiment, I found that there was more spacing in the composition when I placed the majority of the elements that were in the piece before. I decided to illustrate two versions of me instead of one (like before) so that it comes across as more busy. At the halfway point of this one, I am pleased with how it is coming along, and even though it is all illustration, I have made sure that I took care when I was illustrating so that it looks realistic yet innovative.

I decided to experiment more with the self harm topic as I had my sketchbook illustrations to use. Using the new Photograph of my hand taken in the studio, I scanned in the illustration and using photo shop, I created several layers, placing each one within each other. I bleached out the background of the illustration using the 'darken' option which then gave me a wide range of experimenting to do as I could then place it anywhere and on top of other layers. This was the first experiment I produced. Comparing to the others, this composition is much busier as I varied the sizes with the different layers. Personally I think this goes well with the topic as it suggests I am being overwhelmed by good things around me, yet because my hand/wrist is clean, in reality it is not how I think and this positivity is not getting to me. 

The next experiment, I used the same method, yet changed the size and composition of the illustration. I chose to make the flowers a little bigger this time, with less layers than the previous experiment. Again, I get the feeling of being overwhelmed by the flowers and their different meanings, yet there is not as much detail in this composition. As I chose to make these bigger, it was difficult to make sure I got the different elements of my illustration in, and as you can tell the thorns in the composition are quite minimal.

Lastly, I combined 2 experiments together. I wanted to see what it would look like with the scars on, and the flowers. It took me a while to find a balance within the composition, and because I have a different element in the composition with the scars, I didn't want to overpower this element with the flowers, therefore I kept the flowers minimal. Also, I chose to use larger versions of the illustration so it didn't complicate the composition. As this has the colour from the red 'blood' this is more interesting to the eye. Also because there are more elements within this composition, you are more intrigued to look further into the Photograph.  

Talking with my teacher, we both discussed and decided that the previous experiments with the topic of the Biology book was not as affective as once thought. Originally the book was closed and the illustrations are around the book. It did not seem to link together and compliment each other as they both seemed separate elements rather than showing the link. I then decided to take new pictures using the studio which shows me holding open the Biology book with the camera looking down upon the book. This instantly shows more of a link as it includes me in the composition. I then used a different method with my illustrations. Wanting to make the illustrations part of the Photograph, I used tracing paper to place over a printed version of the Photograph. I then began to draw the appropriate Illustrations onto the tracing paper. Once this was completed, I scanned in the tracing paper onto the computer. I used Photoshop to place the scanned illustrations over the chosen Photograph. As the background was white, I needed to blend that into the background yet leave the illustration present in the Photograph. I used the effect Linear Burn which got rid of the background. Once this was done, I then rearranged the illustration so that it fits with the Photograph. In this composition, I used similar ideas to the illustrations that I had done before, however there were some changes due the the method that was used, it let me roam free a little more with the placing of the illustrations. 

Using one of my first shoots of myself looking into the mirror, I decided to use the same technique with the tracing paper. This makes the Photograph more intimate between the Photograph and illustration. As I used the tracing paper, I illustrated cracks onto the mirror, which would have been difficult to do if I chose a different method. This is to represent the cracks that I see in myself when I look in the mirror. It also shows the thoughts within myself and that I am not pleased with my appearance, hence the cracks that would link to '7 years bad luck.' Personally, I think this particular composition shows the effect of the illustrations with the Photograph. The writing at the side of the mirror represents my thoughts, and is written in the style that I would write a diary. 

Looking back on my experiments with 'over thinking,' originally I tried with using colour acrylic, ink and a mixture of both. Analysing these, I decided using the ink looked much better than the others as it follows on the theme of the illustration being in boac and white, therefore it would compliment the rest of the pieces a lot more than if it were in colour. The ink being black,white and grey reflects the negative mind that I carried in the past, rather than the colour could have given off a more positive feel. This piece was quite simple to do therefore this would need no more development. It was mainly about transferring the same idea onto a larger scale, which I have done. I think the simplicity of this piece contrasts the rest as they are more detailed, therefore I think it will be good to have this contrast in my final piece as even though it is simple, it portrays the same message within the piece.

I used my illustrations that I produced in my sketchbook and scanned these in. For this composition I decided to use both the illustrations from my sketchbook and the tracing paper. As previously explained, the tracing paper illustration is to emphasise how oblivious my mum was to the problems I was facing, therefore I felt I was being blocked out like someone would block everything out when listening to music. I placed the sketchbook illustration as a layer over the previous Photograph I composed with the tracing paper Illustration using Photoshop. The reason I mainly used the sketchbook illustration was because the others are intertwining with the Photograph so that it expresses my emotions more, however, this topic is more about avoidance to the subject. I then carefully scaled up and placed this illustration around the subject of my mum trying to make it similar to how I composed it in my sketchbook. 

Using the tracing paper, I decided to add another illustration to this composition. I have already produced an illustration for this topic in my xketchbook, however I feel that something else could be added to my mum to try and emphasise the message being portrayed. I drew headphones over my mothers ears and head and then drew music notes on one side as there was more spacing on that side of the composition. Lastly, I outlined my mothers smile to almost exaggerated how oblivious she is to what I was going through. I chose to draw the headphones, as along with the sketchbook illustration, they compliment each other. The headphones, in everyday life, when listening to music are a distraction to the outside world, therefore in this case I felt blocked out by my mum as I felt I couldn't speak to her about my emotions that will be expressed in the sketchbook illustration I will add in later.

I have decided that for this topic, the composition will be solely done by using the tracing paper method so that it interacts more with the Photograph. The illustrations are doodles to represent my thoughts about my weight and if and when I weighed myself. The illustrations are randomly placed in the composition, and for example, the tape measure looks as if it is hanging on the scales, whereas there is writing at either side of the composition not necessarily needing to be drawn as part of the photograph.The fact that it looks as if I have drawn over the Photograph, creates an intimate side to not only this Photograph but the others, in that I am spilling out my emotions.  

Not much development has been done on this composition as I was pretty happy with how it came out on my sketchbook, however scanned the sketchbook version, and used Photoshop to cut and paste the Photograph of my neck and chest on top of the Illustration. This is because, previously the quality of the image was not the best as it was scanned in, therefore by placing the actual image onto the illustration, it refines the composition as a whole.