What is yellow?

I figured I may aswell update my blog.. even though this is currently offline on word.. I have an hour to kill on the train when I go see my friend Anna Sangha in Lincoln at Uni, so I figured I’d do the draft version now. Her blog (even though she probably hasn’t updated it in ages) its www.annacanvas.blogspot.com

Anyway.. the recent brief we had was ‘What is yellow?’ Since the beginning of the course, we had a pack of materials and a few random items.. one of my random items was a yellow toothpaste and was later used for numerous briefs and tasks since then (the colour theory work, placing colours into groups) For the new brief, from the work we had on that chosen colour, we had to answer the question, what is yellow in 10 resolutions A5 squared (150mm x 150mm)

I began by describing words, objects, context and phrases all to do with yellow, as shown by Fred Bates breaking down the brief to truly understand what was being asked for. It was a really good way of working, giving you the ability of putting down your ideas fluidly about such a vast subject, from there you can make some creative links (see my a2 sheet below..)

From there, as we are told time and time again to be visual with our ideas, I drew some simple ideas and created a few concepts for what can be achieved  (7 in total I think) Although illustration isn’t my strong point, I really wanted to create something bold and fun with some doodles.. My drawing style of characters is very basic shapes and smiles formed which I though would work really well witha brief like this. My original concept was going to be ‘Yellow in situation’ creating 10 resolutions of yellow characters made out of yellow objects in yellow situations. I found our while researching in groups that in certain areas a football is yellow when played in winter, so to add more yellow, I featured players made from yellow rubber gloves to make the image a little more fun J from there I created a few more examples and progressed with the production.

Originally when experimenting the concept I really wanted to create the characters as vector formed graphics, bold colours, clean lines and subtle shading and gradients.. (similar to the work of the Gavin Strange –  www.jam-factory.com ) until I truly realised my skills on illustrator.. terrible. Instead, I went for a more low-tech approach of recreating my sketches in greater detail and rendering with good marker pens instead.. the results weren’t as good as I wanted, but Iam pleased with some of the outcomes. Maybe something to investigate into with some more induction sessions and practice with illustrator in my own time.

Just to keep on the right track, I booked myself into a ‘student surgery sessions’ (who writes this stuff? ..really) on the Thursday and had some more guidance with Jo. It turned out really useful and put me more in a direction with my work, answering the brief a little better. The original concept although good, didn’t really answer what was yellow, just showed yellow.. so back to the drawing board so to speak the concept changed to ‘Yellow is visability’ It didn’t really take more modification, I was more placing the imagery in the correct order and emphasising the look of visibility. The resolutions now included, traffic lights, vehicle recovery, bouncers at a nightclub, a nightlight and a taxi.

Below are the finished articles, placed in order and on the board for the harsh views from the interim crit from Friday afternoon. In a crude way of ‘judging’ work that had been created the work was removed from the wall in order and leaving the most successful piece on the wall. Apparently from the work, the links weren’t as clear as others, but although I think they were, and some feedback I got from friends. I think it was probably me spending all week with the work that made it obvious to me, quite a bad habit to be in..

*image coming soon*