For the ‘Worlds Collide’ project we were presented with a task which had a list of words A) and a list of words B), where it was our own job to decide on two of these words and make 2 differing worlds clash and collide in our own way. I decided A) Architecture and B) Botanical as my two words/worlds.

I decided upon these words, 1) mainly because I have always had a particular love for drawing buildings in an abstract way, and I thought botanical may be a nice contrast with architecture due to the unnatural meets natural/ manmade meets nature concept.

I had the idea of the term ‘Concrete Jungle’ where I thought about where buildings and plant life meet. Continuing the idea of where you see plants meet architecture and nature take over in the city.

I thought that collaging some of the elements may make it easier to bring 2 worlds together visually, and more aesthetically. I thought of layering A and B together. I did this in a variety of different ways, including different types of drawing materials, such as pen, felt tips and paint. I also used card, tracing paper, my own existing prints, objects such as buttons and masking tape as collage options.

When researching, I found artist and illustrator, Holly Wales and was inspired by her work. Some of the subject matter she has explored was relevant to my project also, where she uses plant and leaf shapes. Holly uses quite simple shapes in her work, but layers with different colours and transparencies on top of each other. I have tried to mimic this in my own way, where I have found the tracing paper a really useful tool. It is a nice way to layer because it can gradually be built up, by 3D such as card but also by flat, linear, hand drawn elements.

Reflecting back on the project, I am definitely happy with it visually. This may be because of the subject matter in hand, where I particularly loved drawing flowers and buildings in an abstract way. Although from the start, my style and composition direction was quite clear, I think it has definitely developed, where I have made good choices of what works best aesthetically and should be taken further. I am pleased I decided to be experimental and move away from just ‘drawing’ on a page, where I think the collage leant itself really well to this project too, where both buildings and flowers are quite 3D objects. It was nice to work again with colour, however I could have possibly considered a colour palette further and improved this part of my project; some compositions were more carefully carried out than others.

Before starting this project, I did some research both into pictograms and composition.

Pictograms – what are they? A pictogram is a pictorial symbol for a word or a phrase. They are ideograms that convoy their meaning through their pictorial resemblance to a physical object.

So I decided to create my 30 pictograms in a particularly stylised and graphic way, as this is what I saw from research. This is not how I would have drawn them in my own style necessarily, but I wanted to be experimental with my approach and I wanted to fit my research. Also, whilst working ‘The Art of Composition’ project alongside, I decided to keep my linear, graphic style where I have joint up objects by using lines with geometric and abstract shapes.

Using collage to create composition: I had an idea that I could scan in or photograph my 30 images and print them off so I could play about with the size and scale of them easily. Given such a short amount of time to complete a large volume of work, I think visually I rushed it. I worked in a much more graphic style, but this was mostly due to the nature of pictograms when I came to research them.

I think my original 30 pictograms, which I have placed at the front of my sketchbook (and you can see amongst these compositions but are manipulated) are nicely stylised and so therefore, successful, however I don’t think I used them to their best advantage in all compositions.

I decided to use collage because, as noticeable, it has always been something I have enjoyed using as a technique in my work, but I also used it in this case in order to try and create a large amount of compositions more quickly (however it may have actually taken me longer, due to scanning, manipulating, printing,cutting, sticking, drawing)

I decided to use many of my pictograms randomly together within my compositions, where reflecting, I think maybe some look to busy or a bit random, however I just did this to try and include as many as my original 30 pictograms as possible. I think those that use repeats or show a theme work better than those that don’t, and that if I was to change this in the future I could have thought through themes for each composition more carefully.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work portrays five nude female prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyó in Barcelona

When researching and creating options for the composition project, I decided to use the idea of the human figure and much of my life drawing as a theme. When I looked at some of my life drawings, I decided they were quite abstract and after recently enjoying using geometric shapes and lines in my drawings, I decided to tie the two together.

I had previously studied/analysed Picasso’s Les Demoiselle’s d’Avignon and recognized the geometric shapes within his forms.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon marks a radical break from traditional composition and perspective in painting. It depicts five naked women with figures composed of flat, splintered planes and faces inspired by Iberian sculpture and African masks. The compressed space the figures inhabit appears to project forward in jagged shards; a fiercely pointed slice of melon in the still life of fruit at the bottom of the composition teeters on an impossibly upturned tabletop

The art of composition project was definitely a challenge to me due to it being set alongside the compositional awareness project. For my research and visual elements I decided to pick ‘reconfigured human’ as my theme from the list. I decided upon this theme because I had been to several life drawing classes and wanted to put some of my drawings to use into my project work.

Amongst the criteria list, I decided I could use the human body, where I referenced Picasso who uses abstract shapes and forms to present the human figure. To carry on the theme of Picasso, I decided to research some Picasso quotes to use as possible text in my compositions.

I started to play about with line and geometric and abstract shapes and got quite carried away with it in my sketchbook, so I decided to take this further. I think this worked nicely because as well as creating an overall graphic style in my project, it joint elements together in my compositions, which helped create the compositions (if that makes sense.)

I stuck a variety of my life drawing elements into my sketchbook and decided which I wanted to scan in and use as collage in my pieces. I often use collage as a way of working, and in my 8 outcomes you can see a lot of this, where I have collaged text, materials and imagery onto my paper.

Graphic shapes and linear drawn – I tried to use a large amount of line in my work against many geometric shapes, which was inspired by Picasso but also illustrator Lizzie Finn.

Quote – for my quote (s) I carried on my theme of the human form and Picasso’s work, where in some compositions I wrote this out playing about with type, and others I used letters from the quote

Something old/aged – I incorporated newspaper as another method of collage in my work

Processed typography – I saw a professional practice lecture at uni, by Lizzie Finn and was inspired by her work. Something she uses frequently in her work is textiles and stitch, so I decided to play about stitching some words into paper.

Processed imagery – I have used both some of my life drawings, which I have scanned in and manipulated and also an image of a mono print I created during process rotations.

3D and assemblage – For 3D, I started to experiment with ways I could continue my theme but make it sculptured/3D. I have used card throughout, so I decided to continue to create abstract shapes again out of coloured card, but by folding it in different ways to make sections stick up and be 3D.

From my sketchbook, you can see my research and the beginnings of my collections of my elements. I then decided on what I wanted in each individual 8th composition. I laid out my elements on my A3 paper and played about with positions and space before I stuck things down. I cut elements up and moved them around. Once I had stuck the foundations down, I worked on top with pen in a linear manner to finish each piece.