Recently, I spent the day at Strete Gate Beach with my family while on holiday in Devon. I decided to document this day in a variety of different ways. I was unable to get blank postcards so I decided to use envelopes as my starting point. I was challenged by a lack of materials and stimuli. Therefore, it was a fun challenge! Below are the outcomes and the challenges I set myself.

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Challenges

1. Beach textures collected and adhered to the envelope
2. Beach smudges (sun cream/charcoal etc.) and soaked in the sea
3. Beach smudges (sun cream/charcoal etc.) and soaked in the sea
4. Portraits of myself and my sister, by myself and my sister (continuous line/blind drawn etc.)
5. Handdrawn map of surroundings (Inspired by “From Here to There: A Curious Collection from the Hand Drawn Map Association”)
6. Journey bumps and bends (put pen to paper and see what happens!)
7. Journey bumps and bends (put pen to paper and see what happens!)
8. A collection of beach objects to create a mini beach in an envelope (one of these is making its way to Beckie in the post! We will see how it survives.)
9. Continuous writing for 2 minutes
10. Blind drawn picture of my dog Rocky

I think my favourite outcome of these mini exercises was the pen journeys. They really reflect the uneven and unexpected pleasure of driving in the countryside. Furthermore, looking at them now they look almost like coastlines. And we were travelling to a beach! They are a loose form of map. I think I could continue to use this practice to record a range of journeys. It might also be interesting to layer a more formal representation of the journey over the top (eg. traced off google maps).

In a continuation from my post on labels, I will be examining another area of my practice…

Instagram 

Instagram is a social media platform where users share images and short videos with their followers. There are around 500 million active users. It is therefore a perfect place for businesses, artists and influencers to access a global (often millennial) audience. However, with an average of 95 million photos and videos being uploaded every day, the curation of content has never been more important.

How I use Instagram now

Date Started: 18/07/15

Date Now: 08/08/17

Number of days used: 752

Post Regularity : post on average every 3.9 days

Followers: 271

Following: 1,207

Findings: I post on a wide variety of subjects and this does lead to a lack of professionalism and continuity on my feed. I post far more often when I am away from home. Therefore, I need to go to more effort to create beautiful images while at home. I feel that my art/design work is lost amongst other images, of my dog for example. I don’t want to lose the fun in posting so I think a separate more design focussed account is what I need. I will keep my personal account active too.

Inspiration and Ideas

Flat Lays

I would love to experiment with taking some flat lays. I first started thinking about this at the Natural History Museum in Oxford (I discuss this trip more in this post). I was taking images of exhibits in cases from above and finding the combination of objects and drawings very aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, the camera angle seemed an effective one for taking a clean, shadow free image.  Flat lays are images that are taken from above and are often of beautifully curated objects. They are popular on Instagram among fashion and lifestyle bloggers. Experimenting with this would fuse two of my interests: photography and objects. It would be a great way to photograph the tools I use in my work and my favourite things. Below are some inspirational images.

Mood Board

I have always enjoyed collage as an art form and being asked to create a mood board at the start of a project is a dream! I have been looking for some more unusual Instagram layouts and came across the fashion designer Roberi Parra. His feed when looked at as a whole resembles a mood board. It is a well curated collage of images and text. This sort of layout appeals to me in several ways Firstly, because it would ensure that there was a lot of thought put into each post. Despite the mood board effect only being visible when you view his entire page, each post is still beautiful. Secondly, as we begin to digitalise everything, creating a tactile and physical mood board before uploading it to Instagram would ensure I still have a physical connection to my work.

Time Lapse and Work in Progress

Inspired especially by printmaker Aftyn Shah I thought it would be good to try and include more of my work in progress. This is not something I have considered doing before but it would give my followers more of an insight into my practice. Furthermore, it would mean I could use my feed to look at how work has progressed. Shah is also very good at including objects (such as plants and tools) around her work in images that don’t detract but complemeant. I would like to also take inspiration from this.

A bold colour scheme

One of the best ways to catch a person’s eye and to inject some joy into the world in my opinion is through colour! I am hoping to develop a bold colour scheme for my new design feed perhaps using some turquoise and pink (one of my favourite colour combinations). Art Director Andoni Beristain has an Instagram feed that makes me happy to look at. It is cohesive and professional but also joyful! It is important to inject a bit of personality into any platform that is showing your work.

That’s all for now. I will post again once I have started to implement some of the above ideas.

It has been a busy few weeks! I have just returned from Budapest and am starting to gather the photos/ephemera/drawings I collected and have made on this trip. I thought I would share some of the most interesting pieces with you here.

Architecture

Budapest has a wealth of beautiful architecture. I took so many pictures of it all! I also did the below blind drawing. I am planning to do some more from the photos I took as I am pleased with how this one came out. Blind drawing has allowed me to enjoy drawing again. It is a loose and fun way of recording what you see. It often leads to an interesting abstraction of your subject. I highly recommend it. I was also able to pick up a couple of postcards to add to my inspiration hoard (which I am creating to take to university with me). The one below is by the illustrator Agnes Bogar.

Souvenirs

I was very pleased with the souvenirs I was able to pick up on this trip. I was looking for something more authentic and truly Hungarian. I found in a bookshop and in a market several old Hungarian passports. Aesthetically they appeal to me in several ways. Firstly, they are full of old stamps, labels and handwritten sections! The vintage photos make them so personal. Finally, this could be the beginning of a new collection for me. I am going to have fun translating them and using them as inspiration for my work.

Mapping 

Mapping was something I planned to do a lot of on holiday. In reality, I had little time for this with all of the touristing we did. I did however, pick up postcards by several Hungarian artists who explore mapping in their work, below is one of my favourites. It is by the artist who goes by the name Urban Sidewalker. It was a struggle to choose which of the beautiful postcards to bring home. I hope the postcards I collected will continue to inspire my work in the future and remind me of my wonderful trip.

Once I got home I was able to design my own postcard in response to the artwork and architecture I saw. I hope to produce more soon. I find the postcard the perfect size and shape for everything! It has become a motif in my work. There will be a blog post in the future all about postcards.