Month: February 2022

zine

photoshoot one – pre production

For my photoshoot one I am focusing my photos on male gender norms to achieve this I am having my male model wear drag makeup. For this photoshoot I collaborated with Evan (my model) I let him take most control in what style he wanted to do and what he felt most confident in. before the shoot I did some research into the kind of make up I want to have and worked with Evan to see if he had ideas to add or if he felt we could improve the look.

when researching I was mainly inspired by 90’s glam as well as editorial looks. some artists I looked at were Alexa Demie and  Donna Davy, I was mostly inspired by their extravagant looks of sharp eyeliner and deep colours. Alexa Demie is a well known actor but inspires me mostly for her courageous make up, she mostly uses dark colours but can be occasionally seen adding colour or glitter to her looks. I wanted to focus on Demie’s neutral looks as I feel those colours will look best when I edit my photos, which I’m planning on doing in black and white.

 

               

(images from Alexa Demie’s instagram)

Donna Davy is well known for working as a make up artist on the show Euphoria, I took a lot of inspiration from this show as I love the aesthetic and the make up is always different and out going. I think Donna Davy’s looks are a lot more colourful than I want to attempt but a lot of the structure was inspired by her work.

                                      

(images from Donna Davy’s instagram)

another makeup artist me and Evan looked at was Crystal, Crystal is known from the season 1 of RuPauls drag race uk- season 1. I felt it was important we looked at a drag queens make up look as that is what I am inspiring to do. We are planning on making the look extremely extravagant by gluing Evans eyebrows and making them longer to completely transform his face.

                         

(images from Crystals instagram)

 

 

 

Zine

Typography 

In today’s workshop we worked on typography, we first used an example to copy the layout to get an idea of where the letters should be starting and ending as you can see in (figure one). As typography is something I want to include in my own Zine I tried experimenting with more styles. Although I enjoyed the work we did in the workshop I feel that I want to work with a different style of typography, I feel that the example is quite elegant which is not the atheistic I want to achieve in this part of my zine.

(figure 1)

When looking at different fonts I wanted the end result to be eye-catching. I first looked on Pinterest to get a better idea of the kind of thing I liked this could be colour, shape, size, patterns, and so on. From this I found that I was more interested in bold, colourful typography, I also felt that by using colour I could link this in with my topic of gender and how there are stereotypes around colour towards different gender. When looking on Pinterest I found different examples that I wanted to copy just to get an idea of what I felt I was good at and what I struggled with.

The first example I used (figure 2) I thought was successful I really liked the idea that the letters curved to fit into the shape of the box. when doing this I changed the colours from the example from Pinterest to get an idea of different colour pallets I could use in my end results. I liked this colour combination but feel that it didn’t have enough colour for what I was imagining.

(figure 2)

The second typography I did was like my first as I liked the idea of the letters curving with each other so did a similar design (figure 3). I started by drawing the letters normally the over the top made a wave effect. To finish I filled in the letters in a bold pink. After completing these two designs I found that I like the look of the letters curving with each other but still feel that there could be a range of more colours in the final design.

(figure 3)

The next two designs we’re in my opinion unsuccessful, in the first design (figure 4) I felt that the end result was too boring. I tried looking away from colour and more into the structure in this design, meaning where the letters were placed and how they worked around each other. I think this is something I want to bring into my final design, I like the idea of the letters overlapping instead of around each other. The second design (figure 5) I wanted to try something different, I tried printing the letters by using card and cutting into my letters, adding paint and pressing it onto the paper. I wanted the letters to look un finished so I made the paint thin and didn’t add too much. I also added some darker paint along the corners to make the letters standout more. I don’t want this to be the design I use on my typography page but like the idea of using it on other pages of my zine.

 

(figure 4)

(figure 5)

After looking at more designs online and seeing what I liked and disliked from my designs I came up with the idea of doing graffiti. (figure 6) I thought this design looked the most interesting and I was able to add a lot more colour into my design unlike the others. I also like the idea I was able to add layers, I think this gives the design a lot more texture and give of a 3D effect. I took inspiration from my other designs with colour combinations and the structure of where my letters were placed. I think this would look interesting within my female shoot as graffiti is stereotyped as a male art style, and this links in with my theme of crossing gender norms. I also took inspiration from my art page in my sketch book, I really liked my distract piece (figure 7) and wanted to combine that into my typography work somehow. I think this adds more to the final design and makes it a lot more eye catching.

(figure 6)

(figure 7)

(full sketch book page)

 

zine

Flat lays 

In today’s lecture we looked at flat lays, I think this is a really easy way to organise the plan of the zine and a way I can put what I’m imagining and completed in an order. By doing the flat lay I was also able to get an idea of how I’m imagining the final editing would look.

As I have done one of my photoshoots already, I was able to plan how many photos I’m planning on adding and how I what them placed in the Zine. I am planning on adding six pages based on my photoshoot one, the crosses in the boxes represent a photo this also gives me a better idea of where I am planning all my photos to go. This method is also very helpful while I’ve been working on InDesign due to the fact the set out is similar.

 

 

 

Zine

workshop

In today’s workshop we worked we worked with an A3 sheet of paper. We started by cutting a hole into the paper that would fit our faces. The aim of this workshop was to create a character that would at the end look like it is our body. I decided to take a comedic attempt to this workshop and turn myself into a mermaid character. To do this a first drew out my character I then added hair, to make the character appear like it is in water I drew it going upwards. I wanted to add more detail to my hair so I drew lots of fine lines to make it look like the hair is moving in the water. I then added colour to my characters body and made it look more animated by adding scales to the tail. I like how my end design looked, I think the colours and drawing was accurate and would be able tell it is a mermaid. I think if I wanted to improve I would add some sea life characters or bubbles just to add to the scene and make it so there is more to look at in the background.

 

zine

workshop – closure 

In this workshop I explored working with experimenting with different designs. This could be used in logo or art pieces. For my own work I experimented with closure (figure 1), To achieve this I found a magazine with a picture I liked the look of, and thought would look interesting. I then used the lid of a glue stick to draw circles over all of the photo. I next cut out all the circles and glued them in the same order in my sketchbook. The aim of this is to create an unfinished photo as you should be able to still see the picture even though it is not fully finished. I thought my first attempt was successful, but I still felt I could improve the end result. In my second attempt I made the circles a lot smaller this way you could see more detail. I think my second attempt was much better and you could see the photo a lot clearer. Although this method is very time consuming I think it creates a really interesting final outcome.

(figure 1)

(figure 2)

 

(full sketch book page)

 

Zine

My topic

The topic we have been given to base our Zine on is body image, within this theme I wanted to concentrate on “gender norms”. The definition of gender norms is the “social principles that govern the behaviour of girls, boys, women and men in society and restrict their gender identity into what is considered to be appropriate”. To link this to “body image” I want to focus the photography side of my zine to my models clothing, make up, personal style and so on. I feel that in this generation gender norms are becoming more open and are allowing audiences to open up about feeling different to what we’re ‘supposed’ to whether that is within clothing, sexuality or so on. I feel that a zine concentrating on this would allow this audience to have more representation. There are plenty of magazines that represent a certain way of looking so a zine that showcase more unique characters would make people feel less alone. Although my topic is important and would be the main facture of my zine I also would want my zine to be a place where people could look for inspiration for clothing styles, makeup, art, music and photography.

To achieve my topic, I am planning on having my zine in two parts. The first part is based of male gender norms, I am planning on doing a photoshoot with a male model wearing dramatic drag make up. I feel that this fits in well with the theme and breaks tradition of men having to be seen as masculine. I also think this would show great representation of a queer male. In between the photos I also want to add art that links to my photoshoot and the subtopic of males in drag make up. In the second part of the zine, I am going to base it of female gender norms. I didn’t want the zine to come across too repetitive so I want to focus the second photo on my model as a character herself. To achieve this I focused on the fact my model has tattoos and piercings, which can be seen as not feminine for a female but have her wearing a pink dress and flowers and different props that associate to being feminine. I also want to try having this model wearing a few different outfits such as blazers or things that associate to male social constructs. Again a want to include art in between this shoot that would stereotypically appeal to a male audience.

zine

Zine Research 

Before starting my own zine I wanted to research a variety of other Zines, this way I could get more ideas on the way I want my own Zine to look or a topic I want to concentrate on. Some examples of zines I looked into were “Mondo Karaoke” by Lily Hudson, “I wish I was an artist” by Gabino Azuela, “Plastic comb” by Thomas Schostock and Aaron Beebe and “Girl” by Maren Karlson. After doing my research I found two Zines that I thought looked really eye catching and found looked the most like how I imagine I want my zine to look these zines are called; ‘Polyester’ and ‘off the rails’.

(an example of one of polyesters’ pages)

The first zine I looked at was Polyester, I really liked the aesthetic polyester has through out their zine. I think the zines’ look relates a lot to the topic of feminism and gender identity, by the colour pallet and illustrations. I also really liked how they included photography that is able to be cut out of the magazine so the customer is able to have a poster after reading he magazine. I think this zine is really interesting by allowing the customer to get involved with the magazine. This can be by contacting them and expressing their feelings or even by how interactive the zine is with pages that can be cut into (figure 1) and son on.

Polyester Zine was created Ione Gamble she started this zine to reach out to audiences that don’t get enough representation, the zine talks about issues in today’s generation, feminism, oppression, or anything they feel deserves to be talked about. The zine was first created in London in 2014 and showcased feminism through clothing, photography, art, and so on.

(an example of one of polyesters’ pages)

As well as a zine they have also created a podcast which was released January 31st, 2019, this is another platform for the magazine to talk about issues they feel need to be raised. They also hold events for fans of the zine to come and see the creators talk about their own personal issues they’ve faced being women of colour.

I feel Polyester was an important zine for its time, body image, feminism, gender identity, etc didn’t get a lot of recognition when polyester launched. This made the zine a lot more interesting than others as they talked about issues more people were afraid to. also allowing people to become more comfortable raising these issues.

(an example of one of polyesters’ pages)

I chose to look at polyester as it had a similar topic as my own, I felt the zine had an outgoing style that I hadn’t seen before. I also felt the zine always keeps up with its 90’s atheistic without becoming boring or seen as repetitive.

(an example of one of polyesters’ pages) – figure 1

The second magazine I looked at is called ‘Off The Rails’ I chose to look at this magazine as I really liked the atheistic of the magazine. I think the style is really unique and I really liked the photography included in the magazine, and how it is organised on the magazine pages. this is something I want to take into my own zine.

Off The Rails was first foundered in 2014 by Matthew Comer, Lee Barber and Mike King, from the magazines success they were able to start Off the rails clothing Co. the aim off the magazine is to create platforms and showcase “artists, musicians and youth culture” this is something I want to also include in my zine as I am aiming my audience to a similar target audience.

I want to take a lot from these zines into my own work, I really like the photography style from Off the rails and the illustrations from Polyester. these are things I want to look into more when I start putting together my own zine.

(an example of one of Off The Rails’ pages- issue 10)

(an example of one of Off The Rails’ pages- issue 10)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zine

Mind map

 

For the start of my research on my zine I have made a mind map. In this mind map I have written down all my thoughts and ideas I want to include in my own zine, As well as inspiration I have collected though other zines. In the mind map I included some people I have used to inspire my own zine this includes; Euphoria magazine, polyester, girl, plastic comb, I wish I was artist I looked at these zines and magazines as they all included some thing I want to contribute into my own style. I also looked at people that I think inspire my topic such as Rose Brown, Ellie Harmann, Doniella Davy and so on. I want to use all these people to inspire my photography, art, makeup, fashion and more. I think this mind map has given me an idea of where I want my zine to go, as well as the aesthetic I want it to follow.