Negotiated Practice Brave New World

©Becca Paterson 2012AUCB

NEGOTIATED PRACTICE

ALDOUS HUXLEY’S BRAVE NEW WORLD

BECCA PATERSON

CONTENTS

LEARNING AGREEMENTCONCEPT BRAINSTORMINITIAL SKETCHESIDEA DEVELOPMENTTECHNIQUESWORKING IMAGE DEVELOPMENTACCUMULATION OF IDEASFINAL IMAGES

LEARNING AGREEMENT

In order to develop my illustration practice and its exposure to a public audience, I must expand the platforms in which I distribute my work in order to benefit from publicity and visibility. This is one of the

main areas in my practice that I need to improve and cultivate. One practical way that this can be accomplished, is by working on a series of promoted competitions, which will give my practice exposure and make my presence known to the public and in new business circles.

This links into my essay which is investigating the relevance of online presence and social media in regard to contemporary illustration, and

how the path is negotiated between the illustrator and the client.

Looking back over my practice, I discovered that one of the illus-tration experiences I valued the most was producing a book cover. Therefore, I have decided to pursue this niche further by aiming to produce a book cover design for Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave new world’ for the Folio society competition. I found it to be an inspiring brief

because of the futuristic, abstract themes that run throughout the text, giving plenty of room for artistic exploration and inspiration.

Additionally, this will ensure that I develop conceptual aptitude that is necessary for illustration practice, strengthening my imagery within relevant professional contexts. I will present the book cover in a proficient manner that is up to industry standards, in order to maintain a professional outlook.

I will begin Negotiated practice by undertaking prolific drawing after brainstorming the main themes. Initially, I hope to congregate numerous instigative ideas before reducing and refining the drawing and concepts towards the final idea. This is so I increase my potential options and routes from the outset, and therefore my opportunities, offering me a better chance of a successful outcome.

Alongside the aforementioned competitions, I will be projecting my illustration practice into as many social and creative platforms as possible to gain coverage for my personal illustration brand. This includes working on my evolving website, blog, Twitter, Threadless, Illustration Friday and online poetry and illustration magazines such as commas and colons.

ORIGINAL CONCEPT BRAINSTORMS

Brainstorm to explore themes and aid conceptual development.

Basis for future imagery to uphold accuracy alongside the text.

INITIAL SKETCHES

Huntarianmuseum

During the project, I built up a library of textures to bring more depth to my images. Pattern is a good medium to portray repetition and loss of individuality within the novel. The later images achieve this by depicting conformity by the use of colour scheme and reoccurrence of shapes.

IMAGE BRAINSTORM

After the initial brainstorm and imagery, I moved on to creating more detailed ink paintings. Starting early on the final imagery would mean I would have more images to work with during the editing process. This also led to a technique decision for production of the illustrations.

Having decided to use ink painting, I explored further creative avenues, such as collage, to bring new elements to the design process. This led on to extensive digital collaging that has caused my work to evolve considerably.

Ink and digital collage then led to a series of front cover ideas which informed the drawings that I produced afterwards. I also developed a new understanding of the extent to which ink is unpredictable.

Investigating Brutalist architecture was an exciting step forward in the project as it provided a basis for development in concept.

This led to some ideas that I produced through digital collage. This created a good balance between hand rendered and digital. It lent itself to recontextualising the original imagery to suit the concept.

I then explored colour schemes and composition thouroughly, which determined that the current idea would not stand alone well as a final image so I decided to read the text again and work from the most inspiring quotes.

Brain cell drawings

Themes that interested me were the battle between nature and urbanisation, and social hierarchy. So creating urban land-scapes was the first logical step, swiftly followed by pattern development to represent this.

FINAL IMAGES

After thorough experimentation, analysis and adaptation of the imagery, I feel that I have produced more than was required originally.

It has been an extremely informative creative experience which has certainly opened up new methods of working that are far more effective. I am overall very pleased indeed with the final imagery, as it is cohesive, informative and aesthetically pleasing. I gained valuable skills and progressed in use of composition and inks.

The use of pattern and repetition within my final images to depict mass production and loss of individuality seems quite effective in appearance and conceptual intent. I settled on a unified colour scheme (with the exception of the front cover) that reflects the characters caste colour within society in the novel itself.