Studio Brief 3 - Play, Play, Play: Ideas & Development

FLY

Definition Research

verb

verb: fly; 3rd person present: flies; past tense: flew; gerund or present participle: flying; past participle: flown

1. 1.

   (of a bird, bat, or insect) move through the air using wings.

   "close the door or the moths will fly in"

   • (of an aircraft or its occupants) travel through the air.

     "I fly back to London this evening"
   • control the flight of (an aircraft).

     "he flew Hurricanes in the war"
   • transport in an aircraft.

     "helicopters flew the injured to hospital"
   • accomplish (a purpose) in an aircraft.

     "pilots trained to fly combat missions"
   • release (a bird) to fly, especially a hawk for hunting or a pigeon for racing.
2. 2.

   move or be hurled quickly through the air.

   "balls kept flying over her hedge"

   • hit a ball high into the air.

     "he flied out to the left field"
3. 3.

   wave or flutter in the wind.

   "she ran after him, her hair flying behind her"

   • (with reference to a flag) display or be displayed on a flagpole.

     "vessels which flew the Spanish flag"
4. 4.

   go or move quickly.

   "she flew along the path"

   • informal

     depart hastily.

     "I must fly!"
   • (of time) pass swiftly.

     "the evening had just flown by"

     "doesn't time fly when you're having fun?"

   • (of accusations or insults) be exchanged swiftly and heatedly.

     "the accusations flew thick and fast"
   • (of a report) be circulated swiftly and widely.

     "rumours were flying around Manchester"
     run away.

     "those that fly may fight again"
     escape from in haste.

     "you must fly the country for a while"
5. 5.

   be successful.

   "that idea didn't fly with most other council members"

noun

noun: fly; plural noun: flies; plural noun: the flies; plural noun: flys

1. 1.

   an opening at the crotch of a pair of trousers, closed with a zip or buttons and typically covered with a flap.

   • a flap of material covering the opening or fastening of a garment or of a tent.
2. 2.

   the space over the stage in a theatre.
3. 3.

   BASEBALLshort for fly ball.
4. 5.

   AUSTRALIAN/NZinformal

   an attempt. "we decided to give it a fly"

noun

noun: fly; plural noun: flies

1. a flying insect of a large order characterised by a single pair of transparent wings and sucking (and often also piercing) mouthparts. Flies are of great importance as vectors of disease.

   • used in names of flying insects of other orders, e.g. butterfly, dragonfly, firefly.
     an infestation of flying insects on a plant or animal.

     "cattle to be treated for warble fly"
     a natural or artificial flying insect used as bait in fishing, especially a mayfly.

   
   

adjective

informal

adjective: fly; comparative adjective: flyer; superlative adjective: flyest

1. 1.

   BRITISH

   knowing and clever.

   "she's fly enough not to get tricked out of it"
2. 2.

   NORTH AMERICAN

   fashionably attractive and impressive.

   "a fly dude"

Roughs and initial ideas

I found researching the definition of my given word 'FLY' really helpful as I have really struggled to be inspired by it at first. In response to what I found, I was able to come up with the following ideas and roughs:

fly - insect varieties
to fly - plane, helicopter, hot air balloon, rocket etc
fly - lookin' fly - cool
flying high - successful, "high flyer'
fly - zipper
fly - go fast, speed by
fly - fly on the wall, spy
fly - to leave, dash

I really wanted to be unique with my ideas for this brief and wanted to try and steer clear of the obvious. 

When I think of flying/flight in general, I think of all the crazy old-school pilots with their flying goggles blowing in the wind and wool-lined bomber jackets and also the mechanical/engineering side to our pursuit of flying. These thoughts lead me to a style I have been wanting to try to incorporate into my own work for a while and that is steampunk. I am such a sucker for detail and multiple layers of it, as I feel it draws the eye and makes your mind work to see the image as a whole and its message. The amount of detail incorporated into the world of steampunk with its crazy fantastical contraptions and inner workings are amazing, and they have such a real, dark, intricate, mechanical feel to them which I feel really lends itself well to this brief. This is something I have never tried before, but it really excites me so I will give it a go and hope it helps link my 3 final pieces together as a set. Here are some examples of artwork I have come across which have helped inspire me with this brief:

Vladimir Gvozdev

http://gvozdariki.ru/gvzd/mech.htm

Kerby Rosaines

Terry Miranda

Michal Kus

Chosen ideas

Some of my composition ideas were stronger and more successful than others and after generating some roughs and pushing my ideas, I have decided that I want to go forward with the following:

A3 Portrait Image: "Lookin' Fly" image with no text. A cool looking steampunk style fly

A3 Portrait Image & Text: "Time Flies' - Mechanical island in the sky with moving parts

A3 Portrait Text as Image: "Fly" - Typography made up of mechanical parts from planes/contraptions...wings, propeller, engine, hydraulic systems, landing gear, wheels etc.

These ideas aren't too generic and give me scope to experiment with media and the way I deliver the different meanings of my chosen word. I am inspired by the concept and looking forward to creating intricate, detailed typographical imagery.

Experimentation with media

Taking on board previous feedback from other briefs and from my progress review, I really want to be experimental with this brief and use media that I am not so confident in and haven't used much in the past. I have done a lot of paper cut for SB1 & SB2 so this time I want my images to be different. Keeping in mind my ideas for the different pieces and the steampunk style that I want to create, I had the idea of using tea/coffee for the background/base colour of the images.

Painting with tea, coffee and bicarbonate of soda

The different textures and effects created when painting with tea and coffee I thought were really successful. I instantly preferred the colour that the tea left in comparison to the coffee as it was a lot more subtle and less dark/intense. Because I am wanting to use the tea as a background and have drawn images over the top, I feel the tea is a better choice of media as it wont interfere too much with the detail of the subject matter. The depth of colour depended on how strong the tea was and wether or not I blotted it after making the marks or left the tea to dry naturally. I also experimented with bicarbonate of soda as I had researched that this can create different patterns in the tea when mixed with it. This process unfortunately wasn't as successful as using just the tea on its own because it left a powdery residue with little/no added pattern. The powder also made it difficult to draw over top.

Media experiments: Water-based ink brush pens, pain markers, metallic markers, watercolour pencils

Spitfire plane study. Media: Paint marker, fine liner pen & watercolour pencil

Once the tea had dried, I experimented drawing on it which gave a really unique effect and added age to the drawing. To pick out details and add colour to the image, I experimented with paint markers and watercolour pencil. Both worked really well alongside the tea and I want to incorporate this media into the final pieces. I also tried out water-based paint pens but unfortunately this media wasn't so successful as the colour tended to mix with the tea background and fade. 

Whilst experimenting, I also found that working with a large amount of wet media tended to warp and dapple the stock paper I was working on, no matter how heavy-weight it was. As a result of this, I have decided to work on mount-board which should take the media well and not crease.


Additional thoughts

How easily have I tackled the first part of this brief?
I have so far found this brief to be the most difficult. Being given a specific word that you have to respond too has been quite limiting for me in terms of my ideas and inspiration. I quite like the ideas I have managed to come up with after researching my word and I am happy that I could be a bit more obscure with the messages they convey instead of doing the obvious.

How do I intent to deliver my final artwork?
This artwork is all about exploring a variety of different media for me. Working with watercolour pencil and tea is something I have never attempted along with giving the images a steampunk/mechanical style. I do plan on incorporating a little bit of paper-cut/engineering into the images (especially in the "Time Flies" piece) as I feel moving parts will help add another interactive dimension which could be fun for the audience.