Final Zine Evaulation

The final collages I’ve been creating for my zine have been inspired by artists like Arn Gyssels, John Karbon, Sammy Slab-Binck, Rikako Nagashia, Johnny Smith and Jesse Treece which I’ve show in my sketchbook. Visually I wanted to represent the ever changing, distorted and confusing thoughts that relate t the representation of body image in the media as well as people’s personal understanding and reactions to that which has inspired the abstract and confusing imagery which is all distorted and more conceptual than creating realistic illustrations. Collage was a perfect medium for my final imagery for this very reason, you can take something that looks realistic, such as imagery from a magazine, then layer lots of realistic imagery to create a new image which is symbolic and unconventional. I’ve taken faces from magazines, newspapers and books while using some of my own old film photography of scenery and landscapes in the background to reflect the natural imagery that these collages artists used to juxtapose with and create a strange setting. I’ve played around with typography and found interesting words or phrases from newspapers to collage with making them seem more conceptual  and abstract.

 

The same concepts have inspired by the progression with my illustration to a more abstract and distorted version focusing on the methods of creating the imagery and the expressive and inventive produce that i’m creating rather than a very realistic body. My illustrations merge different techniques that i’ve played around with to create imagery such as, oil pastels with watercolour, as I enjoyed the reaction of the water on top of the oil pastel as they couldn’t combine, I’ve also created line drawings then smudged them with watercolors as well as printing the on the opposite side of the paper to create a new image in itself.

 

I’ve experimented heavily with both and used Adobe Photoshop to combine the two things together to create my own collages using imagery from my illustrations to create a hybrid of the two. I’ve shrunk some of my illustrations and layered the on top by repeating them over and over, or I’ve layered them on top using the Photoshop tools such as ‘Divide’, ‘Subtract’, and merge the images so they blend together nicely or I’ve invented the illustrations to transform the image.

 

The colour scheme seemed to happen naturally with me editing some of my other collages into a more grey/light pink/light blue colour scheme if they were too different before, filling in the colour with a shade from another college so they all link together well. I’ve also added some of the colleges with boxes of colour in the as that didn’t fit the style of the other collages so I’ve changed the backgrounds so they’re more of a texture than a solid filled colour.

 

I’ve been inspired by the tactile methods of creating layouts (my collages) from zines like Polyester, especially because they have a lot of representation of body positive themes and personal experiences, interviews and posters relating to important issues regarding the topic that haven’t been spoken about properly. I enjoyed Law magazines approach to magazines stating that they’re not  a fashion magazine, they’re a catalogue of things you didn’t know you needed, which i’ve brought to my zine as sits not fashion based, it touches on elements to do with fashion but it’s full of quotes and poems that people should hear relating to these corporate companies. I took the sentimental element of The Mushpit zines and took inspiration from their content which is, once again tactile and more conceptual than the others which i’ve tried to include within my own work too.

Another zine that fit my aesthetic really well was Carpark magazine, although not related to body image like Mushpit or Polyester, the layout was so simple yet so effective. I wanted my zine layout to be consistent all the way through because of the complexity of the designs of my collages, which is why Carpark suited my zine as the imagery they have is similar in the abstract sort of way i’m creating my work but the way they’ve laid it out doesn’t make it seem overwhelming or distracting, each image is able to be viewed correctly.

I’ve found some poems online from the likes of Lily Myers, Katie Makkai, Sierra DeMulder, Megan Falley and Melissa May to provide me with some inspiration to create my own poems based on body image, drawing from everyone’s collective experiences to provide for the written content of my zine.