Interview with Constance - 100 years old

I am 22 what were you doing when you were 22.
Just married and living in Manchester working at Whites Ideal Dairy as a butter and cheese maker

What hobbies did you have then?
none that I remember I didn’t have time.

What do you like to do now?
One nice days, go into the garden, read, watch the TV

What did your parents do?
Ran a nursery

Do you have any siblings?
Ada (Dec) Frank (dec) Arthur (dec) Eva Jane (dec) Constance (me) Leslie (dec) Christine ( in a home in Nantwich) Dorris (in a home in Nantwich)

Where were you born
Penketh Lancs

Have you lived anywhere else?
Penketh,Nantwhich,Manchester,Nantwich,(???????)Aberystwyth,Carnforth,Sedgwick, Crooklands.

Have you been married
Yes

Have you any children
Robin (dec) Christine Wendy, Stephen

Can you tell me any of your favourite memories from your past?
Gardening, success in growing a plant that id tried with for over 40 years hard to recall

What jobs have you had in the past?
Butter and cheese maker, Dairy manager, Sub post mistress, Nursery manager

Any memorable holidays?
A trip to Denmark pre-war, holidays in Scotland, and a trip to Guernsey

Pets and friends
Many good friends sadly all long gone and many dogs my present pal is Tilly

Are there any objects which make you remember stories from the past?
Lots of our furniture was passed down to us and hold fond memories of their previous owners.

Who gave you it?
A lot came via my husband’s great aunts ,two very gentile ladies who lived their retirement at Rosedene on the promenade at Arnside.

How long have you had it?
50 years

Why do you like it
Fond memories of their previous owners

Favourite music
Nothing in particular maybe music from some of the shows.

Favourite film
Again nothing in particular maybe sound of music

logo design development

this illustration technique will be applied to the logo design.

i have experimented with different ways to bring awareness to mMarks brand and trade with a combination of the brand name and illustrations which visually communicates plastering and tiling. the illustration technique i want (and the client has mentioned he would want) to develop/ use is the pencil detail on key tools combined with line drawings to give the tools context i.e tools in a tool box

though i have emailed the client my sketches , i have had no or little response regarding which he prefers and wants to to developed into a finalised logo.

i may have to just use my own initiative - this is risky as the client may not area but i may be left with no choice.

Interview with John - 93 years old

metting with wedding brief client

today i met with Sarah (wedding brief client) and showed her my designs  printed to the correct sizes.

though this was primarily for her benefit, printing out the designs to the correct format allowed me to see if they worked and/or if their were things i needed to change with the design to make them better.

Sarah was really happy with the designs and felt they represented the theme of her day perfectly. however after discussion, we felt experimenting with the background colours to avoid the 2 separate parts of the returned invite 2 blend as one. (rsvp and menu and attached together but should be easily differentiated).

we talked about changing the background colour of one to grey and keeping the other purple, therefore tying in with the purple brides maid dresses and the grey of the wedding invites being mad by her Nana and the grey of the mens suits.

I also wanted to clarify the other merchandise sarah wanted me to produce for her (i will be proposing and designing a set of wedding merchansing for this brief along side the delivarbles for this client alone):

table names 

order of service - she liked the idea that this would be the same design as the menu. 

visiting Plumbtree hall

bright and early this morning, me and Will (3rd year photography student) got the train to the lake district to visit Plumbtree hall retirement independent living apartments in Milnthrope/Haversham to speak to the elderly residence of the house.

As i  am already collaborating with Will for his FMP (Documenting bradford) he returned the favour and offered to collaborate with me for mine by photographing the elderly people i interview and surrounding areas. 

i have worked with Will a couple of times now, our work compliments each other well as we both aim to capture elements of everyday life that may get ignored- such as people in their everyday environments. 

on arrival to Plumbtree hall there was a lot fewer residence then i expected - 6 but only 4 came to talk. however i was optimistic this would be better as it could work out as a informal chat and i would potentially have a more in-depth conversation with whoever wanted to speak to me. 

as it was a group discussion i recorded it on my phone and later listened back and made notes on each person who told me certain stories about their past. 

only 2 people really spoke, john who i have met with before and Joseph.

unfortunately Joseph didn't want a photograph or to be part of my project as he didn't like his photo being taken. this was quite annoying as i spent alot of time speaking to Joseph and although it was interesting, i could of spend the time finding more about john or another resident who was willing be get involved. 

a few pictures of john and Plumbtree hall 

thinking about composition of tools could potentially illustration to communicate clients trade

drawing tools:
ben suggested considering the composition and layout of the tools that i could draw for the branding brief, much like how Joel Penkman has done with biscuits here - simple and ordered.
by making the layout arranged and straight- this would visually communicate the tradmans organised and professional work ethic.

Pigeon man: Street photography. - deciding against adding a scene illustration

the general process of these illustration was to illustrate the figure and overlay a second illustration of the place it was taken. however, as this figure illustration has a number of detailed elements to it, i felt adding yet another element to it would over complicate it and make it less effective.
I came to realise that just because the process of drawing figures and combining them with scenes works for some illustrations, it doesn’t always work for others, and can over complicate the overall composition and the focal point it lost.
i showed this illustration to the client and shared my thoughts with him. he agreed the illustration on its own worked well and a building illustration was not needed. it still depicts he's visualisation of bradford at the time. 

All book illustrations with supporting text they were specifically visualised from. (the text is not how it would be laid out and presented in real book)

sweet shop development

though i had already illustrated this page of the book (above) my perfectionist nature got the better of me! i wasnt happy with the illustration so i wanted to attempt it again. 

though i feel it is a perfectly 'fine' illustration on its own, the more pages i have done, the more i see it doesnt fit with the style of the rest as i have used a little fine liner which i have not used in the other drawings. 

im also not 100% the compostiton of the illustration, though it shows the sweets, i wanted to image of a shop to be imagined from my drawing. 

i am happier with this illustration. again it took me a long time to produce due to the small detail i needed to add to illustrate the etc. i feel this illustration work better with the style of my other illustration pages, using a combination of watercolour and colour pencil. 

meeting with client

after will (client i am collaborating with ) had a tutorial about this project, he was more clear about how many illustrations he wanted off me and how he wanted them illustrated.
though this was good to hear, i was a bit frustrated that i had already started incase what i had done was not what he wanted anymore.

he had decided to split his documenting bradford photographs into sections;
street (candid) photography
portrait photography
place photography

and wanted me to interpret 1 from each into a illustration as well as the maps.

 luckily, he had accounted for the work (figure illustration) i have done so far and still wanted to use them. (builders)

these are the photographs he has send me over to illustrate from.

Place:

street:

portrait 

elderly awareness on instagram

https://instagram.com/p/BB2zAYnqcJx/

things i need to dicuss with Helen before visiting.

To say on phone

• The idea for me is to make portraits that tell a story, so if the residents have a photo, book, ornament etc. which brings back happy memories, it’d be very useful if they could bring it on Wednesday as I’d like to draw them with an object to help tell their story

• I’d like to record out conversation as I may use some text that they say in my sketches

• I’ll bring examples of my work for them to see so they have an idea of what I am trying to create.

• I work from photos so need to have some taken as this lets me work when I am away from here I need a point of reference to work from

• Is it ok if a friend comes who is a photographer - I’d like pictures of the inside communal areas and garden if possible as well as of the people I chat to

• The pictures won’t be published anywhere else

• I’m happy to send you copies of any of the good photos to give to the residents / put up in the care home

questions to ask the elderly people when visiting elderly residence to hopefully spark interesting conversation!

Questions to ask

Tell a bit about myself and project

Show examples of work

 Ask if they have ever done anything arty

I am 22, what were you doing when you were 22:

 What hobbies did you have then?

 What do you like to do now?

Can you tell me about any of your favourite memories from your past?

 Work

 Holidays - uk  and abroad

 Pet / friends

Are there any objects you have which make your remember stories from your past?

 Who gave you it

 How long have you had it

 Why do you like it

Favourite bits of the care home

Rankin alive in the face of death

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/rankin/

i came across rankin in the face of death fairly late on in my Cop project, and i feel it has strong relevance had inspiration for my FMP (big Kohuna) project focusing on the elderly as individuals with interesting stories and life to share.

Adding illustrated scene to visualise context the image was captured.

I was keen to develop my style of illustration i have started to develop in previous modules (505 example above) using negative space and block colours, layering portrait and scene based illustrations. this collaboration gave me the ideal opportunity to develop my style to a higher standard, especially as the technique i developed in the illustration above was created from reference of Wills previous photographs.  I hoped my illustrations would bring a depth to the images to show the mood and emotion that sometimes can be lost in a photographic image.

Saltaire

above i have played around with how to layer the different elements of the piece. i feel the last one is more effective the colour is used to separate the 3 sections - the building illustration, the figures shape and the portrait. the colour helps to make the figures and the detailed pencil work the focus of the piece. 

Adding textures digitally

for this illustration i wanted to communicate the royalty of the king, so other then using a crown i considered colours such as rich purples and blues as this are said to be royal colours. i also played around with adding textured patterns to the kings clothes. using patterns associated to royalty. i think this give the illustration depth and interesting detail. 

above i have experimented with the same technique for the princesses dress. 

Group crit

how defined do the outcomes need to be?
as long as the project keeps me excited and creative - a defined outcome will become apparent.

first decision : what i want to show in my work - that elderly people have extraordinary and interesting stories to tell.

secondary decision: Could be proposed to be used in the context off... sadlers wells, Bistro, Spare chair campaign - BUT APPLICATION IS NOT ESSENTIAL.

As long as portfolio shows a balance of applied and non applied work.

to make work different from what i am already showing in portfolio - experiment with scale?

table names development

 

i changed the background to grey as this seems to be the main colour theme my client wants, and the purple was the secondary colour to compliment the grey. 

i printed it out to size to give me a better impression of the colours and if the design worked.
though i thought the flowers lost detail a little as they are that small, i think it works well with the border an the space i had to work with.
i have added 'illustrations by rebeccawilliamsonillustration.com' to the back of the table names so people who keep there table names can keep me in mind if they get married in the future, or even if they just like my style of work, they can see what else i can o and perhaps commission me for something else. 

Phone Call from Helen

Helen rang back this morning and let me know she would inform John and other residence at Plumbtree hall (care home) of my project incase they wanted to participate. 

As John already agreed i hope he will be a definite participant.

i mentioned to Helen that i usual work from Photographs to make sure that she would pass this information onto john and other elderly people that i may take their photograph. 

i also told helen the days which would be suitable for me to travel through to meet with the elderly, wed- fri as these days are usually studio development days. 

IDEA 

as i am working with a photographer for his FMP i could potentially ask if he would come along and take the photographs for me - ensuring they would be top quality and detailed (as he works with portrait  and figure photography), taking the pressure off me. 

FINAL RESOLUTION BOARDS FOR STUDIO BRIEF 1: WINSTON CHURCHILL DESIGN COMPETITION

I did what I wanted to do with brief, which did cause me difficulties as I initially just considered the image and was stubborn with wanting to draw a portrait and using a technique i wanted to use which did not work out in my favour as i ended up having to develop on several illustrative techniques until i found one that was most effective. i also hadn’t considered or realised the emphasis on the aesthetics required for other elements such as text layout and format restrictions.


However I still want to keep adding my own spin to client/competition-based work but have to be aware of the brief restrictions, or my own artistic restrictions relating to my style and approach. This will help me decided whether the brief is appropriate before jumping straight in. However, I feel I made a strong attempt at achieving the aims of the brief- even though it was challenging!