Hot dog book screeen print

we were put into groups of 8 where we had to think of a subject matter to base our hot dog book on. we all decided that we would base ours on snowmen to keep in with the season. we decided to create out own style snowmen each with a different style;

hawiyan snowman

harry potter snow man 

'plastic/posh' snowman

gangster snowman

etc

we decided to use the colours blue and yellow/orange 

as i have never done a screen print before i wasn't 100% sure of how to apply the tone on two different pieces of paper. it was very difficult to imagine how the 2 toned images would look together as one. 

this is how my snow man turned out after screen printing. because i was quite like with my pen/pencil some of my lines were not bold enough to show up on the print. also if i was to do a screen print again, i would need to take more care in aligning the 2 papers and positioning the 2 illustrations in the same place on the paper. 

i think the 2 colours work well together as they are complimentary colours. 

i did not really enjoy this process, however i think that was down to the image i created. i was not happy with the image i drew which therefore made me loose enthusiasm whilst printing the piece. i think if i was to do a screen print again i would make sure to spend more time on the illustrated piece.
also i think i lacked enthusiasm as i didn't no what to expect from the screen print because it was my first time.

peer progress crit after proposal

key points to work on:

• experiment further with collage and detail 
• note concept sketches to develop potential ideas. 
• get some secondary and primary source images to work from.

proposal

talking about image references of the pigeon fanciers in the article.

the article i looked at also had really powerful images of the pigeon keepers and their birds. i found the composition and stance of the pigeon keepers are really striking. i like the images are minimalistic and are straight to the point with what they are wanted to show, something that i want to show in my illustrations. i like how the people do not have facial expressions, i ant to use these images as reference to my illustrations as i want the pictures to depict no narrative, as i want the quotes to shock the reader.

i chose to draw from the two images above because i thought they showed a good representation of the different demographic of pigeon fanciers. something that shocked me and i stereotypically presumed the majority would be older men. 

still life drawing activity

deciding on concept.

after reading the article Fancy a flutter? Meet the doomen, or pigeon-fanciers, of Edinburgh in the Guardian i was really excited about producing work about pigeon keepers as i think the facts and quotes from this article are very interesting, and some shocking. 

the article has made me want to document pigeon keepers lives, highlighting facts that you perhaps would not no about pigeon keeper/keeping. i also want to focus on pigeon keepers as individuals and use quotes, therefore making them the focal point to my book, instead of the pigeons themselves. 

pigeon fanciers

An unidentified doomen stands with one of his birds in Niddrie, Edinburgh

Anton Barclay prepares to release one of his male pigeons, in order to in entice a female pigeon back to his hut in the Lochend area of Edinburgh. Twenty-one-year-old Anton has flown doos for 12 years. Anton previously worked as a labourer but recently has been unable to find any work. He has a 18 month old daughter and currently works collecting rubbish for the council

Billy Pryde, 52, at his home in Niddrie, Edinburgh. Billy worked as a trackman for British Rail until his wife was diagnosed with MS. He is now a full time carer and flies pigeons as a means of escape

Billy Pryde, 52, at his home in Niddrie, Edinburgh. Billy worked as a trackman for British Rail until his wife was diagnosed with MS. He is now a full time carer and flies pigeons as a means of escape

Father and son Ian and Mark Wilson dye their newest pigeons yellow in Southhouse, Edinburgh. The yellow colour helps the bird attract members of the opposite sex

'You want your children to have some sort of thing, because there is nothing for children to do here.' Ian Wilson inside his hut in the Southhouse area of Edinburgh

John proudfoot, 19, stands for a portrait in his friends living room in Southhouse, Edinburgh

Paul Casment, 19, with one of his doos at his house in Niddrie, Edinburgh. Paul is a father of a six-week-old baby and trying to move out of his parents house. He admits to stealing motorbikes for fun before getting into flying doos: ' We used to steal motorbikes and take them to the police station car park so we could get a chase. The pigeons take you away from that and remind you that theres more to life.'

Dooman Paul Smith lost his love of flying pigeons after his son was stabbed to death six years ago, but it has now returned

Sinead Wilson is one of the few doowomen and girls

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/21/pigeon-fanciers-doomen-edinburgh-photography

interesting facts/quotes from article

• "When you capture somebody else's bird, you get a buzz. That's the whole point."
•   It's kidnapping as competition.
• Flying doos is a working-class sport in Scotland. 
• Doomen tend to live tough, hard-drinking, sometimes lawless lives. While flying doos does not necessarily keep them on the straight and narrow, it does keep them on a path that is a bit straighter and narrower than it might have been.
• Back then, you could buy pigeons for 50p. That's how I got hooked." The most he's paid for a pigeon is £75.
• smith's own wife tells him he cares more for his pigeons than he does for her. Is it true? "Probably 50%. The pigeons never give me grief!" He laughs.
• Photographer- Everything about them is fascinating, he says – the passion, the lifestyle, the battles, the birds themselves.
• Many doomen live unpredictable lives and are hard to track down – they might agree to a photograph one day and not want to know you the next.
•  He hopes that if Sinead becomes a fully-fledged doogirl, it will keep her out of trouble
• Mind you, he says, you can get into plenty of trouble flying doos You strive for years to get good pigeons, then if someone comes into your hut and steals them, it makes your blood boil. Once you get a good pigeon, everybody knows about it."
• "The worst thing is that it brings out emotions that it shouldn't bring out." Such as? "Anger.
• I could be sitting in the pub having a laugh. Instead, I'm standing in this garden going off my head at the pigeons." So why does he keep doo-flying? "Pure addiction. Aye, it ruins your life."

discussing ideas with Matt.

though I like the idea of  visually communicating collective nouns of group animals,  I was worried that i would  not be able to expand the idea further, or gather  much more background research,  especially when I have to be create 16 to 32 pages, I feel I may struggle to produce this many unique illustrations  which haven't been explored/ tried yet.  though I feel  that idea is visually interesting, I also fear it may have been done before, resulting in my finished book lacking interest and individuality.
 I discussed these worries with Matt,  and he agreed there was little else research,  especially primary research  I could do to support and develop this idea. he suggested incorporating figures into my research, such as pigeon keepers, something i touched upon in my initial research, but did not develop.i feel  by introducing figures into my concept, it may boost my interest into the subject matter as I have always enjoyed drawing  people.

 Matt suggested  figurative work  would definitely be the way forward for this project,  as he wants me to focus on what I enjoy doing (detailed figures)  whilst incorporating new medias,  such as collage, which i had started to experiment in in my last project.  he suggested  producing just the 16 (minimum pages)  but make these  complex pieces of work,  as this will allow me to put into practice detailed work  which will take time.

things to research into pigeon keepers/ fanciers:-

•  routines
• equipment used
• real word information
• background stories
• why they enjoy pitting keeping
• the culture

 other areas I could focus on  from research i had gathered:

•  pigeons  paired for life-  creating the narrative of a lifespan of a couple of pigeons,  showing 16 different places the pigeon visits on his journey back to the nest of he's partner. 

critical incident -concept change

though i liked the humous approach to the collective noun idea, i feel it lacks depth. i'am worried that it will be hard to develop on the idea as i am limited with the messages i would need to communicate -eg mob of emu's- how do i expand on developing and communicating this message?
also the idea is not figurative, which is a subject matter i enjoy to draw and one which may show more of my potential.
i feel this idea has also stemmed along way from our initial research starting points - (3 seats around leeds) making it hard for me to justify how i got to this idea and how it links.

social norms idea: focusing on the opposite of 'social norms' of a pigeons life.

above i have experimented with visually communicating the concept of pigeons in situations you would deem unusual  ( the opposite of 'social norms' for a pigeon.) 

i like the humours side to this idea,however like the collective nouns idea, i fear i may run out of s ideas  (unusual behaviours for a pigeon) to develop on. 

i feel it may also be hard for me to find reliable, effective reference material to work from. 

collective noun idea: developing visually communicating idea.

to experiment with the concept of animal collective nouns i picked nouns which i thought were the most particular and thought of ways i could visually communicate them. i want to make the illustrations humorous. 

mob of emu's 

i used the image of a snapback cap to visually communicate a 'mob'. i really like the technique of colour card combined with fine liner drawing, i think it gives the illustration depth and makes the different components (hat and emu) stand out. 

parliament of owls 

here i have developed the cut paper idea further by just using different colour paper to collage rather than adding pen detail. i like the fact this idea has character design and is a simpler style, however i think my strength lie better in detail.

troop of monkeys.

i reverted back to using fine liner in this experimented and adding watercolour instead of card to add the colour to the image. i like the contrast between the colour and the black fine line, like the first experiment.

knot of snake. 

types of pigeons

homing pigeons

 racing homer

 parlor roller

tippler 

strasser

utility pigeons 

racing homer
parlor roller
tippler
strasser
utility pigeons

social norms idea: courtship behaviours of pigeons

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Publications/Birdscope/Winter2001/notebook.html

puts forward the question - this intimate behaviour is deemed normal for pigeons to do in public, around other pigeons, whereas, if humans were to do this, it would be seen as abnormal and inappropriate.

value of pigeons

Their affectionate attention to their mate is sweet and romantic.

Pigeons bring life to cities

.

Feeding pigeons is well recognized by the medical community as a good means

of relaxation.  

Pigeons eat food we dispose of as litter.

 The traditional doves of love and peace, pigeons mate for life and set a good example for people by the way they care for their mate and their young, share feeding areas, and live peacefully with each other.

pigeons provide ambiance Pigeons have religious significance. They helped honor the birth of Christ They are the same birds as the pigeon that Noah released, which returned with the olive branch to signify the end of the Great Flood.

particular collective nouns of animals

mob of kangeroo's
a gaggle of geese
a troubling of fish
a troop of monkeys
a pod of whales
a shiver of sharks
a skulk of foxes
a murder of crows
a smack of jellyfish
a kaleidoscope of butterflies
a parliament of owls
an unkindness of ravens
a charm of finches
a cloud of bats 
a sloth of bears
a band of coyotes
a school of dolphins 
mob of emus
a knot of frogs or a knot of snakes 
a cackle of hyenas 
a loveliness of ladybirds
a mischief of mice

i picked these out of a list of all animal collective nouns as i thought they were quite interesting and could be visually communicated. 

social norms idea: a way to apply this concept to pigeons.

though i am leaving behind the idea of 'PDA' I have taken inspiration from certain factors of pda to develop on in my fresh ideas- such as how we find deem certain behaviours in culture to be sociably acceptable and others we don't, (e.g. sometimes extreme cases of pda is not deemed sociably acceptable ) -social norms. in my group tutorial, my group suggested a way for me to develop my idea about pigeons is maybe to look at how pigeons don't have this problem of social norms or social acceptance.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-roles.html
conformity - unwritten rules about how to behave in a particular social group or culture.
therefore to not conform to social norms, you stand out, and are deemed not normal.

however how do we know pigeons don't have social norms?
we have a stereotypical view or what pigeons do, how they behave, which as deemed as normal- one idea i could develop on would be to observe/see pigeons in a different light, or create situation you would not expect a pigeon to be in- feel this idea could be quite interesting and humorous.

if this idea did not work focusing on pigeons, i think exploring human social norms will still be interesting. eg one idea of social norms- how it is deemed normal to take your clothes off to go in the shower, but to take your clothes off in the middle of the street is not.

Ethereal Oil Paintings by Meghan Howland

i liked these painting because i felt the concept behind them could be describing the extentive amount of pigeons we are surroinded by in urban environments. 

"They are amazingly resourceful creatures, able to survive in the midst of predatory humanity"  producing a piece with this composition could be a interesting way of showing how pigeons have become so used to our presents they do not see us a threat. especially with their strength in numbers-are humans becoming more scared of them then they are of us? 

looking at body language of pigeons in videos.

this videos shows how pigeons pair for life. showing that the pigeon is a affectionate bird (to other pigeons) 

thought his video has impressive shots of pigeons in flight and also as a group. 

showing how they stay together as a 'flock'

facts about pigeons

• Most common Evans birds
• they flocked together in large numbers to protect themselves against Rats and foxes
• they cooperate with each other and readily accept outsiders into their flocks
• they have easy temperaments and  are  adaptable
• the most widespread misconception  about pigeons are that they carry disease. the truth is that the vast majority of people are at little or no health risk  and have greater risk of being struck by lightning than contracting disease from a pigeon
•  pigeon  pair for life
• both parents at an equal role in caring for the young
• the navigational abilities  of pigeon largely depend on their keen vision and memory for landmarks.

One on One tutorial with Matt-tuesday

after feeling unsuccessful in the 'PDA" research i tried to gather on monday, i talked to Matt about how i am struggling to get inspiration for this subject matter, and gather relevant/interesting visual research.

we looked at my 5 potential lines of further development again and tried to expand the pigeon body language and dialogue idea.

we discussed the idea of simp lying researching further into pigeons- starting of listed things that we know about pigeons. one idea that i found interesting was the name given to a group of pigeons -'flock' this made me think about other animals and group names given to th em. 

collective nouns of animals
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/kids/animals/groups/

collective nouns of birds
http://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2009/BirdGroupNames.htm
some of these group names are very interesting and symbolic, such as a murder of crows- this could be quite interesting to produce illustrations of the animals incorporating their group names.

another potential idea development that interested me when thinking about thinks related to pigeons was pigeon keeper and the sport behind pigeon keeping. i liked this idea as it would mean i could focus on figures in my work.

and lastly we discussed looking into 'social norms' of a flock of pigeons- behaviours which you expect to see from them- this could be interesting to develop and capture.

Group tutorial.

in preparation for the group tutorial i filled out this sheet with 5 potential lines of further development/interests from the research i gathered last week. 

the ideas i would mostly like to talk and develop on during the group tutorial are the 'PDA' (personal displays of affections) awkward situations, dirty looks, pigeons and social acceptance. 

we discussed all my ideas.

my group felt the 'pda' idea was quite strong and therefore informed me of ways i could develop this body of research further. 

visual

• train station goodbyes/hellos
• old couples
• body language
• different environments/times of day e.g.-nightclubs

factual data:

• first dates
• dating websites

books to look at: us and them-paul davies
monday afternoon:
with this in mind i went of to do some visual research, however i found the information i gathered to be very similar, and lacking in diversity. for example, i had a number of pictures of couples holding hands, but nothing else. i also found it very awkward and hard to capture couples in intimate moments.

some of the sketches i made of pda i saw around and about. 

because i also liked the idea of looking at pigeons and examining their boy language, and imagining a dialogue between them, my group suggested i could research into how animals don't care about social awkwardness/pda.