The Unseen Christmas

Here are 6 of my favourite stills that I've taken so far. The top 2 are the ones that I referred to in my proposal and took before then. The contrast of both black/white and the components of each shot go together very well, emphasising the idea that what reinforces the joy of Christmas is the hard and daunting work building up to it, the vehicle components in particular since they are very structural and manufactured.

Unseen Christmas Project Proposal

For the Unseen Christmas project, I aim to produce a series of photographs that explore the dark side of the festive season. When I went out Christmas shopping on Tuesday, I passed two things that caught my eye. The first was a Victorian house with black and white walls and support beams and a green mesh over the window on the top floor. I associated these things with feeling trapped and feeling bogged down by Christmas, green being a common colour around this time of year, as if there was somebody who didn't enjoy Christmas and felt like they couldn't get away from the darkness underneath.

The second thing I happened to pass was a broken down motorbike. The main chassis was black but the other components were white. I took note of this recurring contrast between black and white and thought to myself "If the front white bit of the motorbike is broken, the black looks as if it's slowly consuming and eating it up". I associated black with darkness and pain, while the white reflected the joy of snow and Winter; it's as if in order for people to enjoy Christmas for what it truly is, some people out there must go through lots of pain to make it that way.

My idea for the Unseen Christmas is to show through real-life everyday objects how one person's joy is another person's pain. This is the reality of the world that we live in, since without pain, we'd never get to experience pleasure, and I wish to make everybody aware of that through the power of photography as well as make them aware of the trouble that people go through to make the world a properly functioning place.

Drawing Tutorial Website

I've found another website which is home to many amazing tutorials, only this time it's about physically drawing rather than PhotoShop techniques. howtodrawmangas.com has all sorts of amazing tips on drawing convincing figures and bringing some diversity into designing.

RSA Animation Project: Dec 11 Crit with Seb

Today I got some really awesome feedback from Seb, even though he was slightly ill. He acknowledged that my final animation was pure awful, and his future advice included trying out a broader variety of facial expressions, and that while going over-the-top is okay, it's best to always rashen it down from there. Also if I want to make any more animation projects in the future, unless I want the style to be jittery, I need to draw out more frames.

RSA Animation Project: Building Possible Futures

Here is the finished animation for the RSA Animation project and Progression Week. I think I failed to portray the narrator in the right/appropriate manner and I have decided to try and remake this as a comic strip. I feel like animation is a weak point for me because practically every time I fail to get the proportions or scale consistent and it just ends up looking wrong to me.

Friday 4th December Crit: Notes To Future Self

Today at the Somerset House we all looked at each of our final outcomes for the Transcription project, and all together we gave our own feedback. Having got involved in this group discussion, I took down two notes that will be useful for future projects:

1. Think about your ideas more clearly. Most of the time, they are vague and simplistic, and you must consider how you want your audience to react.

2. Consider the colours you use a lot more. A certain colour will always give off a certain emphasis or put the viewer in a specific mood.