Working with collage 2 workshops with Darren and David

 Drawing exercise with Darren.  Chose an interesting object from your bag and draw it within a time limit.  This was my first attempt.

After doing the exercise we walked around the room to look at others work.  This was quite intimidating because i don't really draw much (unfortunately) so I put extra pressure on myself and it shows in the drawing.  We were then set the same task only this time we had a rule.  We weren't allowed to look at the paper.  If we did look at the paper we had to stop and start a new drawing.  We were given the same amount of time as before.

The first attempt is quite scruffy but that's because it felt really unnatural to draw this way and I was still in the mid set that it had to be good, I didn't want people to think I wasn't very good.  As I got used to this way of drawing I began to care less about what i was producing and just focus on the object.  It's when the doubt in myself goes that the drawings begin to get better.

We then went on to produce some A6 collages using scrap newspaper.  We had to pick a theme, keep it secret and see if our collages showed what theme they could be.  The only problem with this was that most of the themes easily interlinked.  I found this task hard especially when we only had a small amount of time.  I found it hard to think of a good collage idea, find the images and words I needed to make the message I chose.

These are a couple of the collages I made.  The first is supposed to be quite comedic.  And the second is more of a social statement.  I wasn't very happy with them.  They were rushed and not exactly well thought out so when we were set the task to produce 100 A6 collages through out the term I've made it my aim to try and think them through as much as possible.

The workshop we did with David was all about the relationship between image and text.  And ways in which stories are told.  We had to reappropriate images from newspapers and magazines.  The problem with this is that images in newspapers have already been altered/cropped by the newspapers s the image your using isn't in it's original form.  This means that you have to think a lot more about how to edit it down because as far as the image is concerned all the information you need is there.  This is my favourite of the collages I made that day.  I just like how the slogan relates to the 1950's view on women.  Even though she's clearly in distress it suggests she is waiting for permission to truly show it.