Self Directed Project: Capture Brighton’s Personality

In this project, I was asked to do a self-directed project. I have always loved the wonderful characteristic of Brighton. I was really intrigued by the colors, shapes, and how they were against each other or leaning forward. Hence, I want to capture the personalities of Brighton, this is the story of how I started.

Soon I started to gather information and found some inspired artists online. First of all, I watched the movie ‘Brighton’. The movie is really important for me, it shows me different points of view of Brighton, such as sounds, images, moving images, and the main cultural features. After that, I started collecting ideas from different artists. I would like to try different materials but limited my color palette at the same time. I would start by going out with a sketchbook and documenting my own color palette while doing some sketches of everything I saw. In my following journey, I would like to focus on drawing houses that look representative to me. According to some including Royal Pavillion, Brighton Pier, i360, bandstand, bars, clubs, coffee shops, vintage shops, and churches. I’ve attached a presentation file below.

Please click the link to access…

Presentation file 1> https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1c5nD84BimXz8zMUrSFCP0cy-INqG6JlVRow4ZnBnFhY/edit?usp=sharing

Presentation file 2> https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FQDWBMjZQXzVeLnMaP–fT_b-p9Dm7aDM63jCiLrKsM/edit?usp=sharing

I used 3 sketchbooks, to document my visual art of Brighton. They included color palettes and documented my experiences.

Sketchbook 1 – Color Palette

After choosing a certain color palette, I would bring these colors out, and do some drawings.

Sketchbook 2 & 3

Besides that, I always bring a camera with me and take photos of what I saw and enjoyed. These photos were used as references for my drawings and colors.

 

I’ve also tried cyanotype, creating some interesting shapes of plants and shells.

I found this challenging for me because Shells don’t have a clear effect on the cyanotype paper. That’s also the reason why I changed to collecting more plants and feathers in my journey. This project made me expect sunny days more than usual, and it was a fun experience.

After 3 months of producing, I would like to turn my pieces into an accordion book. In order to make the book, I went to the bookbinding workshop several times. Except for an accordion book, I’ve also developed more book formats. Here is the photo of the process and my final products.

I started by putting pictures into Photoshop and tried different combinations. Here are some examples of them.

I didn’t like any of them because I don’t want to lose too much of the looseness of my drawings. Then I decided to use a mock-up, because it shows a simple, clear expression, and also it has some loose and compact structures. I would like to print my pieces in a smaller size because all of the images still contain the details when they turn smaller. I also feel it is good to let my audience focus more on the shape, color, and textures.

In this project, I had some happy experiences and memories. This final book is based on my journey and it presents my own visual story. If I have more time, I will definitely make my journey involve more cultural things, such as food, tea, and coffee cultures. Besides that, I want to experiment with moving images.