COP3: Changing my Essay title

I have decided to change my dissertation title. I found that having 'A Semiotic Analysis of Cats' wasnt helping me because there wasn't a question for me to answer. I think I would find things much easier if I had something to strive for, something to be able to answer. Therefore, I am changing my essay title to:

A Semiotic Analysis: How Do We 'un-knowledge' what has been taught about cats?

I am using the idea of 'un-knowledge' as influenced from Tobias Gutmann's study A House and The World because I think I found this idea of un-knowledge really interesting. I think that it also helps me to link my essay to semiotics and also to cats.

COP3: Starting To Use Ink

I have began to use ink in my sketchbook as a way to loosen myself up and I love it! I never knew that this could make me draw more freely and it is and I think I am beginning to produce some really interesting stuff. Pencil work is nice but I find myself over labouring the drawings and making them look too perfect or not knowing when to stop on the details so the ink medium is perfect for me because it's making me stop spending so much time on one drawing and begin to work more freely.

COP3: Practical Responses so far

I have been enjoying the work that I have been producing recently in COP. I feel like I am branching out from my usual way of working and trying something new. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone by working quickly and not perfectly, which I think is producing some really interesting outcomes. 

COP3: Self Evaluation 5/11/17

It has been slow going with my essay, I am not going to lie. I am struggling with motivation and depression, so getting out of bed to do work has been really difficult for me. So, as of late, I am quite dissapointed in the work that I have produced so far. For the writing part of this, I think I struggle the most, even as someone who did an English Literature A Level, I thought this would come more easily to me but it turns out it's not.

The practical side of this is coming a bit easier, as I have been quite enjoying drawing cats. I want to challenge myself to be more free with my drawings and not get so particular about how I want things to look. My tutor mentioned using ink and loosening myself up as I got myself into the headspace of all my drawings having to look 'perfect' and 'refined'. I do want to try and get out of this and become more open to different ways of working because I think that it will help me to evolve this project and enjoy working on it more.

The drawings that I have so far have been enjoyable, I am trying to work on drawing with the influence of popular idioms. For example 'scaredy-cat', however I wanted to try and not make it so obvious as to draw a scared cat but explore the ways in which I can put across this impression using my illustration. The ways in which I have done this, for example, is being quick and light handed, as if scared to draw details.

COP3: Ideas & Thoughts

27/08/17
When first thinking of what I want to do for my dissertation, I want it to be able to relate to my practice. As someone who still is not 100% sure on what their career choices are going to be, I knew that children's illustration was the way to go. I know that my work relates to this area quite well as it has been called out by my peers in the past before. I also know that I want to do something with animals as I am so passionate about this subject.

5/10/17
After having one of our first group tutorials, I decided that my essay question draft of something like 'How animals are represented within children's illustration' it is probably too broad and would be difficult to narrow down. After seeing my other peer's ideas and how they were much more defined it made me realise I wanted to change my question.

11/10/17
After having an individual tutorial with my tutor, Jamie, we discussed the idea of narrowing down my question. I mentioned how I was interested in semiotics and signs, as I had come across it in my research about animals. He mentioned maybe including this idea in my question/research. After talking some more, we came to the idea of doing the essay about one animal in particular, to help narrow down my ideas as focusing has become quite difficult for me. Cats are used quite a lot as symbols throughout the world so it makes sense for me to use this in my essay.

cop: evaluation

cop: studio brief 3 - research proposal

cop: changes

As a last minute review, I decided to talk with my tutor about my essay. I don't know why I left it so late and I know that time management should have been one of my priorities. However, there were just some last minute issues that I wanted to address.

One of the issues that was brought up in this review was my use of the first person within my essay. I don't know why I didn't realise this before but I talked a lot in the first person and in academic writing this is something that is not supposed to be done. It's quite silly of me not to notice such a simple mistake. Some of my points in my essay were backed up by my own opinion when it really should have been backed up by practicing theorists. 

I have made the changes to my essay and I think that it is much stronger and more professional now. I am glad that I went to talk to my tutor although some times this prospect scares me and gives me anxiety. I know that I need to push through this sometimes because having experts opinion is helpful with  the progression of things you have only seen with your own eyes.

cop: 10 word A2 poster

cop: webpages I used for my essay

http://www.revolve.com/lovers-friends-x-revolve-the-exclusive-bomber-in-wavy/dp/LOVF-WO89/?d=F&currency=GBP&source=google&mkwid={ifsearch:s}{ifcontent:c}_dc|pcrid|114327377411|pkw||pmt|&pdv=c&matchtype=&gclid=CIulkeiquNMCFQ-3GwodIFUMfQ

http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/uchida.htm - modern woodblock printers still working in japan

http://www.roningallery.com/exhibitions/buddhism-and-ukiyo-e

http://woodblockprint.com.au/

http://dainippon.type.org/

http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2015/11/17/dainippon-type-organization/

https://ukiyo-e.org

http://kuniyoshiproject.com/Cat%20Homophones%20%28R196%29.htm

http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/originofkana.html

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/namazu-the-earthshaker/

http://historyofgeology.fieldofscience.com/2011/01/namazu-earthshaker.html

http://what-when-how.com/religious-movements/yonaoshi-religious-movement/

https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/10172597

http://designmadeinjapan.com/magazine/graphic-design/japanese-graphic-design-not-in-production-5/

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/hokusai-s-great-wave/

http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/misc/uchida_woodblock_prints.shtml

cop: sepia tones

a lot of traditional japanese wood block prints have a sepia tone to them. here is an example:

I wanted to try and replicate this aesthetic within my own journal. At first I thought of just doing a wash over all of the pieces of paper which could have been interesting but it would have taken a long time and made a lot of the pages very crinkly. And even though this is an important aesthetic from that era, it's not the only one. There are some prints you can find with a simple white background. However, I wanted to try and recreate this look in some of my pieces which I think I did quite successfully as you can see here:

 This is an illustration that you would see mainly on a fan for decoration. I wanted to try and work within a border because I thought it was interesting how it can be recreated with woodblock print.

 Although this one doesn't have the sepia background, I wanted to try something different and just incorporate the colour. I think it worked out really well and the contrast of the blue and the yellow is really striking.

 Here I wanted to show that the back of the lantern has  the sepia tone, whereas the face is supposed to be white because it is a 'yokai' which is a Japanese mythological ghost.

 A scene from a book that I saw. I'm not sure if I like how this one came out because I think that it has more african vibes to japanese, i'm not really sure what I did wrong but I would have to revisit this again if I wanted to try and do the same scene. I think the type of tree that I used doesn't fit with the Japanese era.

The famous NAMAZU catfish. He is the earthshaker, set to destroy Japan when he wiggles. I really like how this one came out because it has the sepia toned background and the simple ink drawing aesthetic that I think I successfully captured.












All in all, i think these drawings have helped me to understand how sepia tone backgrounds can help to communicate different ideas. It looks more 'traditional' and washed out. Is this the message they want to get across? Or is it just the a type of paper that they used?

cop: study task 9

What are they?

Japanese / Traditional / Aesthetics / Floating World (Ukiyo-e) / Communication / Fineliner / Replication / Block Colour / Repurposing / Woodblock Printing

What do they mean?

I chose these words because they are key points to my essay. Japanese and Woodblock Printing are obvious, as this is the main focus of my essay. Aesthetics relates more to my journal as this is what I tried to tackle within that. Ukiyo-e is one of the types of Japanese print that I looked at the most, as it's the most interesting to me. Replication and Re-purposing are about me and others taking the traditional Japanese art and doing it again for different means. Fineliner and Block colour are about the aesthetics of the art that I want to try and replicate within my journal. 

Relate the words together in pairs and write why they relate to your project – be specific.

Japanese - Woodblock Print

Ukiyo-e - Aesthetics

Fineliner - Blockcolour

Replication - Repurposing

Aesthetics - Replication

Ukiyo-e - Woodblock Print

Woodblock Print - Communication

Communication - Aesthetics

Task 2

1. Researching Woodblock Printing Process

2. Getting certain books out of the Library that really helped me to develop my essay, i.e Japanese Popular Prints

3. Looking at Hokusai and merchandise surrounding that

4. Looked at contemporary users of woodblock print.

5. Determined how I wanted my journal to look, Aesthetics

6. Realised that woodblock printing would be a hard process for me to replicate so using aesthetics would help me to keep good time management

7. Finishing my visual journal

8. Discovered websites such as JSTOR which helped me to locate journals and theorists

9. Looked at Japanese Graphics and how it has evolved

10. Worked out how well it was all communicated

cop: hokusai re-purposing

These are some pages from my sketchbook where I tried out re-purposing Hokusai's wave, much like all the merchandise I'd been seeing. At first I was looking at using the tools for woodblock printing and how it could be applied to that, then I thought about how they use it on mugs and keyrings, sort of like collectables of Japanese culture. I wanted to do this because I thought it would be good for me to see what it's like to repurpose, and interesting to see how it would work on different products. There really is a lot of ways you can do this and make it work.

cop: study task 8

My theme that I am working on is Japanese Art. I am mostly looking into woodblock printing and the effectiveness of communication within certain eras. The visual aspect that I want to look at is mostly, colours that were used within these art pieces, and how I can replicate the aesthetic of the woodblock printing without actually doing it.

Woodblock printing is very time consuming and takes a lot of practice, therefore I think by just mimicking the aesthetics of the art will help me to time manage my project and it will be interesting for me to see how easily I can replicate this style. The materials I will be using are mostly ink, watercolours and fineliner. This is to also replicate the style of the Japanese Art as mostly they use thin lines and block colours. This is why I will not be practicing any other means such as collage etc. because I think that it will not fit the aesthetic that I am going for.

cop: first few sketchbook pages

So I finally got started on my visual journal a bit ago and I'm finally posting them on here and I'm really happy with how it's going so far. I think I am taking a step in the right direction in terms of trying to replicate the aesthetic of traditional Japanese Art and also tying in my own way of working. It's like my style and traditional japanese art has been put together. I think as I carry on with this journal I need to make sure that I keep to a certain aesthetic as I want the whole journal to be presented similarly and all have the same aesthetic. I also need to keep working with the same materials, ink, brushpen, watercolour etc. Because I really think that these are the best tools to replicate the aesthetic that I want. 

cop: kuniyoshi project - neko no ateji

In this series of prints, cats form the names of fish in kana. Which is a type of Japanese writing system. I am really interested in how the Japanese use type in their traditional prints, and these are especially playful and interesting. I think it would be beneficial to see how it could compare to a more contemporary example, and see how the growth of Japanese art using type has continued to communicate certain messages. Obviously, there is not so much of a serious message within these pieces which you sometimes see with traditional art, but I think it is a nice change to see something that is more playful.

Eel (unagi)

う

な

ぎ

Catfish (namazu)

な

ま

ず

Puffer fish (fugu)

ふ

ぐ

Octopus (tako)

た

こ

cop: woodblock printing tools

http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/misc/uchida_woodblock_prints.shtml

I found these info-graphics that depict all the tools that are used within the woodblock printing process. I think these are helpful when doing my journal and I can use these images to create my own. 

cop: contemporary woodblock printing

'The hand made paper used for these prints is called Washi and made from tree bark usually taken from mulberry trees which makes it strong and capable of being soaked in water then dried. The set of woodblocks are capable of printing a maximum of 3000 prints and the process involves soaking the Washi, painting the coloured ink pigments onto an individual carved woodblock, laying the wet Washi onto the block and rubbing the exposed back of the paper with a rounded wooden object called a Barron until the colour has been absorbed into the washi.

Once completed this partial print is dried, usually taking about a week then the process is repeated for the next woodblock until all six woodblocks have been printed and the entire picture can be seen.'

- Peter and Wivine Winch, 'http://woodblockprint.com.au/'

Here I have decided to look up some contemporary examples of Japanese woodblock printing. The reason that I decided to do this was because I wanted a section in my essay that talked about the development of woodblock printing and how it may have developed. I can also talk about the difference in types of communication, do they still use woodblock print to relay information? There are so many different types of technologies in this modern era that I don't think using woodblock is an necessary. However, I still think it would be interesting to look at examples.

Fujita Fumio

Fujita's aesthetic is a lot different then what I have been looking at. I think it's really interesting to see how the aesthetic of woodblock printing has changed so much. Fujita seems to have taken inspiration from a more graphic style, with not much linework or detail, but splodges of paint. There are similarities when it comes  to the use of bold graphic colour, however I think the styles are very different.

hirose takashi

Takashi's work is a lot more similar to the original aesthetic that I remember of the traditional prints. I think it's because there is still essence of the detail and energetic lines from the original aesthetic. However, i think there are differences in his use of colour, as it doesn't seem to be as rich as some of the original pieces were.

KATO, TERUHIDE

Teruhide's work is a even more similar to the original aesthetic. There are some pieces of his work which are very simple, however the linework is very bold and to the point. It's not quite as energetic as some of the original pieces that i have seen which would use large ink brushes which are harder to control. However I think this is leaning towards a more similar aesthetic i was looking for.

In the end, I think I want to talk about Fujita's work in my essay. This is because it's so different from the original woodblock printing aesthetic and style. I think it will be interesting to compare the styles and how it's changed, especially in terms of communication. It is used less as a means of communicating anything substantial, such as when marketing something or telling a story. Rather, it has a more decorative purpose.

cop: essay plan

Essay Plan

1.      Introduction –

What wood-block printing is
similarities to screenprinting – colour wood-block printing
carvers were regarded perhaps even more than the artists.
What It was initially used for – Buddhist
What am I going to talk about?

2.      Minimalism – picture comparison

Book that says it’s minimalist, why I think it’s not
process is very complex
backgrounds? Not used much
sepia colours, only started integrating colour in later years
ukiyo-e – just pictures of girls, same faces – marketing prostitutes – communication?
Same faces – prostitutes, character isn’t necessary, just the body and the fact they’re girls? Beauty – effective communication considering what’s being marketed
eyecatching – effective communication as people look at it

3.      Modern Day –

How is traditional aesthetic used today? – Merchandise etc – effective forms of communication for marketing japan culture to the western audience
Woodblock printing a staple of Japanese culture, recognised by western, woodblock is effective communication for japan in terms of tourism, foreign audience
Artist that still uses wood-block printing

4.      Use of words –

Artist comparison
Katakana use
Visual incorporation – words used as imagery today, traditional to go alongside
Words for the story – modern day comics etc

5.      Folk Tales

Catfish – earthquake
Imagination over Realism
Western style for devastation – Japanese style too sacred for war – JP pg.8
To research – Kabuki, did they use folk tales? – Banzuke

6.      Propaganda

Kawakami Sumio – Still life illustrations of the English alphabet – communicating the English language to a Japanese audience – incorporation of the west culture
Zukoshi – typology posters – collection of things, helped acquaint Japanese with western objects Newspapers - How most of it is just words – later incorporated imagery, No use of phonetic alphabet, meaning only literate could read it
Senso-e – helped keep Japanese people informed – communication – Russo Japanese War
Propaganda had to show Japanese in a positive light – was communicating but wasn’t communicating the truth. Was this effective or not? Both points – was shielding the truth a good thing or not? Is all propaganda posing themselves in a positive light?
To research – popular propaganda in the J/R War, public response – was it effective

cop: dainippon type organisation

I found these illustrators that call themselves the Dainippon Type Organisation. I really like how they play with words and use them to their advantage. I also think it would be interesting in my essay to talk about the repurposing of woodblock. It's interesting how this group use woodblock in their own kind of way, not just woodblock printing. It would be interesting to compare their work to some older traditional things I have seen.

cop: study task 7

In yesterday's session, we started on Study Task 7 which was like a peer review. I found that actually telling the group about my ideas was helpful and it helped me to get some perspective. For instance, what I should do next and where they think that my project is at. I think I need to make sure to do more work in my journal and blog, as I don't want them to fall behind too much, this was addressed in the crit. I also think it helped me to see where I could do things differently, like using different materials. However, there is a reason that I haven't been doing this and I think it wasn't really addressed properly, or I was confusing about it, because I don't want to use too many materials because of the aesthetic that I'm trying to achieve. I want my journal work to reflect on the Japanese style, so using lots of different materials wouldn't look right as this is not what they did. I understand that it would be confusing, but I think this is the best way for me to grasp the ideas that I have in my head.

cop: study task 6