FMP FINAL eVALUATION

Looking back at this project there are lots of things I would do the same but some I would do differently.

One of the things I would do differently is sticking to my original ideas. By listening to other people’s opinions I looked at other aspects of mythology, myths and legends and lost about ten days. Looking back if this is a difficult area to research and develop why are so many stories, poems, films and TV series spanning over a thousand years?

I selected my theme by looking at different interpretations of Arthur and Merlin and realised that one of my favourite shows of all time was about this story.

Primary research took the form of visits to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds for photographs and notes about knights, armour and weaponry. I got lots of photos and ideas which I could relate to some of the stories in Merlin.

I also visited York with my mum and looked at buildings such as the ruins in Castle Museum Gardens and Mickelgate with its Sigel and banners on display. This really helped put a Medieval perspective on my theme and also helped with a lot of basics such as seeing chainmail and armour close up.

My dad and brother also helped out with primary research. My brother did some poses as Merlin with his palm outstretched (as on poster one) and my dad took some photos of me and my brother posed as Lancelot/Arthur and Guinevere (poster two). I then did observational drawings in my sketchbook.

There was a lot of secondary research available which included watching the TV Show Merlin (my favourite bit) to watching the film Excalibur (1981) and then making comparisons. I also looked at my mum’s collection of The Enchanted World series of books and I found a major influence in the work of Yvonne Gilbert.

I looked at the work of Osvaldo Venturi, Yvonne Gilbert, Boris Grinsson, Mark Langeneckert and John Louis Rhead. All of them played an influence in my work but Gilbert and Rhead were the main influences on poster two and three. Poster one was an influence of Venturi but also Grinsson (image of Merlin) played a part.

I did critical studies in my sketchbook and on lots of artist research and development boards. I annotated them and found lots of things. For example, for poster two I did a pastel drawing on velour with pastel sticks. Velour was absolutely brilliant to work on but I found as my drawing developed it was hard to ‘fix’ the pastel to prevent it from smudging. I also found that just because I am confident at using pastel pencils this does not necessarily carry through to other forms of pastel (sticks).

I also identified what media I needed to work with more (watercolours) to favourite people who I would use as an influence in the future (Gilbert).

I did experimentation on various things such as gold leaf and embroidery (see technical file) and some of this influenced my designs such as Gold Leaf (which I used on my titles). Some helped me decide what not to do such as an idea for poster three was silk painting but after trying this out at college I decided against this because of the time constraints.

My problem was time management and planning so I had to plan a list with targets and timings but I found it difficult. I think this is always going to be an issue so I need to develop strategies as I go along.

Another one was knowing when I needed to focus on my main projects as I did lots of research but then needed to narrow it down to the final project.

I do not know if I would do everything different because doing the technical file helped me a lot and I found out lots of good techniques such as gold leaf which I put to good effect in my work. It also helped me decide what not to do. Using the time management sheets did not help as I could not predict how my work would go, particularly if I was unwell. I would not meet my targets and this would have a knock on negative effect. Doing the worksheet and the blog seemed a repeat of work when the time would have been better spent on my actual FMP. I think the students should have been allowed to choose which one they liked as doing both took up a lot of time.

I think I would have handled my time better on my FMP if there had not been so many unnecessary add-ons. Doing a CV again seemed strange when doing my FMP. We did CVs last year and I did one when doing my UCAS unit. I already have my university place so perhaps this should have been optional rather than mandatory.

Overall my work went well and I am really pleased with my final posters and outcomes. I have done a lot of work and I can see this in my folders and technical file. One thing I would do differently is try and do my CV and business cards early on but as it has to be linked to my FMP it was a bit difficult.

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Photos - posters

Photos - critical studies and mood boards

Research and Work in Progress for Final Major Piece

The initial idea for this project was mythology; looking at different myths and legends. Mine was originally on Welsh, Irish and Celtic mythology but after talking to my tutors I looked at other different cultures and beliefs such as the Ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. However, I kept going back to my original idea and then this narrowed down to Arthurian Legends. This kept cropping up as I was looking at various stories but I kept going back to Merlin and Arthur as this is something I know well and adore. While looking at this legend and thinking of ways to try and take it forward, I kept looking at the different stories which are part of the legend such as Guinevere and Lancelot, The Knights of the Round Table and how everyone Arthur holds dear betrays him somehow. I realised how tragic the stories were and how they could be turned into movie posters so I decided to have a go at this for my Final Major Piece (FMP).

Studying different interpretations led me to realise that the TV Show Merlin is my favourite retelling and the one I relate to most and this soon became the idea for the movie posters.

To get started I wrote down the main events of the TV series to try and see which could be incorporated/turned into a movie poster; however, there are five series and there are a lot of key moments, characters and events to try and narrow down. Looking at it, it seems that it comes down to roughly the same as the traditional legend, the only difference is that Merlin as a main character is a young boy instead of an old wizard, and there is an area about Merlin finding himself and becoming his own person which does not seem to appear in the original telling. Going on the fact that it is mostly the same as the original legend I narrowed the posters down to a trilogy.

I had to do a lot of research and while there is a lot of material for secondary research there is not much for primary. On discussion with my tutors I identified visits to museums, photographs and critical studies/observational drawings were the best way forward.

Two places that I identified as places to visit were the Royal Armouries in Leeds and the City of York. In the Armouries I had plenty of raw material for primary research.

In York I took photos of the old buildings and scenes in Castle Museum grounds which I did observational drawings of in my sketchbook.

My secondary research led to the development of my first ideas board which was of the characters in Merlin (as on the TV Series). It was hard to see who was important but I picked who I thought was and did drawings of them. At this stage I was not sure if they would feature in the final posters but this is part of research development. One that I was particularly proud of but did not end up using was of Morgana using pencil and then building up tone.

I also did a research board on typography and also collected some samples and put them in a booklet format. The typography included is a mixture of 40s/50s movie poster style titles. I wrote out ‘Merlin’ in a few of them to try and get a rough idea of what it would look like as the title on a poster; next time I wrote out other related words to try and get a look at the fonts potential as a title. Tracing the letters also seemed a good idea, to ensure they are correctly sized and placed as some of the letters are bigger sized and slanted compared to the others. Examples can be seen on my board and in the booklet.

The artists I looked at for poster one was Osvaldo Venturi and Yvonne Anne Gilbert. Venturi’s was watercolour based and mainly film posters. I looked through a 50s film poster book. His work is blocky but bright. It does not look blended but he manages to achieve a soft but dramatic effect. I did a quick drawing and watercolour painting.

Personally I think it was okay but could have gone better. I don’t think I used the right colours.

I also looked at Yvonne Gilbert; I came across her work in The Enchanted World series of books. I am a fan of both artists for very different reasons. I enjoy Venturi’s illustrations and posters due to the dramatic portraits and blocky realism, and the way the paints don’t blend and run together was something I wanted to try and recreate. For Gilbert I saw the elegant and detailed work and wanted to attempt the same amount of detail and patience. No area of her work is lazy; it all as the same amount of attention and I hope one day to be an Illustrator influenced by her work.

At this point I was unsure who’s style to follow onto the posters but for the first one I believe it will be Venturi’s style of bright colours and blocked out brush strokes as it is more suited to my final design for poster one. I have practised drawing Merlin in his style and found it better for my poster due to the size; Gilberts style will be too long and possibly fiddly at this stage.

For both artist research sheets I painted the text which took longer than anticipated, but I feel it was worth the time as it looks smarter. There are two studies on each sheet, one on Venturi’s is a painting of Merlin and a critical study of one of his posters (see above). 

Both of Gilberts are critical studies, one of Lancelot and Guinevere and one of the Lady of the Lake.

For this I had to build up the detail very carefully and I was pleased with the end result, particularly on the folds of the cloak and dress.

My second study of the Lady of the Lake has less colour but still did a lot of time and and effort for the dramatic effect. I built the tones and shade up very carefully over a few days.

So far out of the artists research I feel that Venturi work was hardest to recreate as I am still not too confident in using watercolour and need some practice with some of his techniques, especially with stopping the paint from running together.

Using colour pencil is something I am more comfortable with so Gilberts work was more familiar, but still something of a challenge because of the amount of detail and the sharpness to it.

For poster one I did one design, one development sheet and one final design.

When I had been writing my ideas down for the trilogy to me Merlin was the main character with Arthur and Nimueh as important secondary characters against the backdrop of Camelot.

 I planned my work out in sections with Merlin been the largest and central image. I was happy with the outcome but was glad I researched typography. As finishing details, I completed the title in gold leaf (see technical file).

For Poster two I originally looked at the work of Mark Langeneckert (pastels artist) and did a picture on velour with pastels. However, I was not use pastel as I could not set the work so it would not smudge; researching velour told me that the pastel fell off of the paper. I did portraits of Merlin and Arthur on my research board but in the end Gilberts influence won out on pencil.

I did use the pastel image of Arthur as an influence on poster one.

For poster two I did some sketches of characters and as this was the middle of the trilogy I looked at how that linked in with the stories and episode of Arthur and Merlin. At this stage it was the Golden Age of Camelot when Arthur and Guinevere were in love so these are the characters on this board.

I did mixed media for this of watercolour and coloured pencil.

For poster three there were so many characters I could have chosen but did not know what to do. However, a key theme of the legends is Arthur’s name or doom (another word used for destiny in the stories) was as the Once and Future King.

 I did research and looked at Mucha as one of my ideas was to do poster 3 as a silk painting but after experimenting at college (see technical file) I decided this was not an option.

I looked at Louis John Rhead and really liked his work. His was one of the five artist boards I did (the other one Boris Grinsson).  I decided Arthur would be the only character on my last poster but would try and achieve a stained glass effect.

I have done a lot of other work around my FMP and am very pleased with the end result.

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