One Week Map

Brief 

• Create a two colour screen printed map.
• Working collaboratively with groups of 4/5.
• Make drawings of journey and any discovery.

This brief is reportage illustration which involves documenting something in an illustrative way, similar to observational drawing.

Psychogeography is exploring spaces (especially cities) using senses which you wouldn't normally notice by following a way that hasn't been pre laid out.

Exploring Leeds

At first being in a group of people you don't know particularly well seemed a little nerve wracking. Although, we soon began to learn more about each other and create strong research.

We headed for the bus station which involved having to ask 10 people what bus they were getting and where they were going.

The results weren't amazing.

If I did this again I would get to know the person a lot more by asking more questions.

Would it have helped to get a photograph or drawn the person?

The market was the strongest point for the whole of the research in my opinion as we chose one colour to take photos of throughout our journey which produced a lot of photographs as research that we could possibly work with.

Choosing this colour allowed us to work as a team in an individual manner as we all took our own photographs as others noticed parts that some people may not have.

We have forgotten to record the route we took of the market as well as the route we took to get to the bus station which could potentially weaken our research when it comes to creating outcomes for the map.

The weather made it difficult to make rubbings of surfaces which could potentially be used as part of the screen print map.

We headed to the Corn Exchange to warm up which turned out to be a great place for people watching and drawing. 

I created some drawings whilst in the Corn Exchange of the people hanging about there whether they were people who work there or just visitors. 

Everyone seems to move fast.

I particular enjoyed drawing the man with long hair and glasses as I watched him walk a small distance around the Corn Exchange and guessed he worked at the barbers.

I wanted to go to a wig or glasses shop and take photographs of us wearing the items but nobody else in the group wanted to because of the horrible rain. Although this could have extended our research.

If I were to repeat this day again I would change the weather and look further into the sounds and smells of different areas that we visited or possibly visit another part of Leeds that I've never been to before.

Roughs 

We have had a discussion of our different ideas and began putting them together to work towards the final screen print.

Only being given 2 pieces of acetate to create the final response means its essential to create a lot of roughs and work as a team to produce a successful piece.

As a group we had a lot of strong ideas but seemed to struggle most with the idea of being limited to two colour as adding text into the piece to mimic the sounds of the market.

With inspiration from the artist Cupco we allowed our hand written text to overlap.

So far I have enjoyed working as a team as I am feeling a lot more productive and inspired by the other group members ideas and research. 

Photocopying the initial first layer of the screen print has allowed us to continue expanding our ideas on how the next layer should be produced.

We have been deciding whether to use solid colour or mark making to create the objects to go over the top of the diagram.

Would it look to crowded and confusing if we used mark making to produce the objects over the top of the text?

Would the objects disappear into the background?

We have decided to settle with solid colour using paper cuts to create the final layer which needs to be stuck onto the acetate and lined up with the map.

The first colour still needs to be decided on although we can't seem to decide which shade of blue we should use between us.

Would a darker shade of blue be too overpowering for the orange when it is screen printed on top of it?

Our first layer is down and ready for action.

Tomorrow the second layer needs to be added and aligned ready for printing tomorrow evening.

Final Outcomes

As  a group we split up to take on both layers of the screen print. We had the freedom to experiment with different methods of printing that I had personally never heard about before which made the whole session interesting to me as I tend to enjoy the processes. 

This allowed us to create multiple outcomes giving us an option of which to choose for our final response.

I enjoyed the session as a whole as I got to try different printing methods that I had never used myself before. However, we could have created more pieces of both layers combined so we had more final outcomes to work with as a group but we all seemed pretty distracted in trying to make our own layers.

This is the best final outcome because of the blue tone that has been used for the background layer doesn't overpower the orange tone which is the main part of the whole image.

I enjoyed create the screen prints and I am happy with the final outcomes that we created as a group.