1

Four Seasons and Environment Protection

FMP Yuli Huang

2

Contents

FMP Proposal...................................................................................4Model research and reflection...................................................6Material choosing............................................................................8Colour research..............................................................................10Concept developing........................................................................14Experiment of hand made works...........................................18Colouring,Researching, Drawing, Cutting........................22Pick Me Up.......................................................................................34Research and experiment for Spring....................................36Summer..............................................................................................50Autumn...............................................................................................54Winter.................................................................................................56Spring..................................................................................................58Fonts Test...........................................................................................64Final Outcome.................................................................................68Evaluation..........................................................................................80Bibliography......................................................................................82

3

4

This is my final outcome of Spring book for the Independent Practice project. It is a book cut into a frame and has layers of paper that have been cut into different sections. In the background, there is a poem about spring. I put the whole poem at the back of the book, in order to let the children understand more about it.My final major project is going to be a set of four three dimensional books about the four seasons which are represented by layers of visual language paper cutting with a poem for each season. These books could be a decorative collection, but mainly they are a set of children’s books. The intended audience is children and parents also could be interested. It would sell at an Art bookstore. What I am going to do next is do some research about children’s books and some 3D art works to help me layout the book in an appropriate format.

FMP Proposal

5

6

*2

19 FebruaryI was thinking about how to present the season in a new way instead of inside a book, which is cut into a frame. The reason I wanted to change the format was because the book has restricted space and it takes long time to make it into a frame.

26 FebruaryI thought about how to represent these four seasons in a different way, and this is the model that I was going to make. It is slotted by two pieces of cardboards (each one is 40cm*25cm) together and becomes a cylinder shape divided into four spaces, which are going to be four scenes of seasons. The top and bottom of the model is covered by two foam boards and the side is wrapped by transparent paper.

Model research and reflection

7

10 AprilEven though I had the idea of what the model was going to be, I was still worried about how it was going to work with the paper. It was hard to fit into the model when I tried to put some paper trees into it.

I kept researching the new concept of what can the model be? I found these very detailed three-dimensional works at the flicker website, which showing different hand made articles. Sarah Morpeth created a piece of work called “Torquil’s book” (Figure 1.), which shows the trees and birds perfectly in different angles. It is very a detailed three-dimensional work and it gave me inspiration, but I didn’t think I had enough time to do such a complicated work.

Crafterall’s made a “Brown Bubble Shadow” box (Figure 2.), which contains layers of paper works, with cut outs of many different sizes of circles. The box is very simple which appeals to me, and emphasises the work immediately, just like the photo frames beautify the pictures.

I thought it would be good to frame the seasons of the book I made in the last unit, because it is very simple, and shows the important parts of the work clearly.

Figure 1. Figure 2.

8

19 FebruaryI considered how to use the paper in a better way to express the atmosphere of the seasons. There is a very inspirational book I had read called Graphic Alive 2.

Kiyoshi Kuroda (Figure 3.), a Japanese Illustrator is mostly inspired by nature. He has made a lot of elegant paper work. I did some research of this article and found that most of his works are created by paper with illustration on them. This was very helpful to my project as my theme is also about nature.

This richly embellished sideboard is a model made by plastic whiteboard by the French graphic designers: Antoine + Manuel. (Figure 4.)While I was choosing what materials I was going to use, I saw this work that gave me the idea of using a foam board. This could be the best way to explore three dimensions due to the foam board, which could build up any thing easily rather than paper which is flexible and hard to stand.

Material choosing

9

Figure 3.Figure 4.

10

-How does colour express the season without words?Colour is the most importance element of my project. I read the Chinese book, Principles of Colour Design, which teaches you how to use the colour. There is a page that discusses the relationship between seasons and colours. Spring: use pastel tone to express the soft sunlight and blooming flowers.Summer: use warm tone like red, orange and yellow that can express the strong sunshine.Autumn: use brown, gloomy red/orange/ yellow to display the defoliation.Winter: use blue, grey, white to represent the cold weather.

21 MarchTim recommended me researching some illustrations that relating to the season’s colour while we had meeting. So I collected some images online, which helped my project.

Spring: Soft warm colour and mixed pale colour is a good way to express the atmosphere.Summer: Fruity colours remind me of freshness, the activity of summer and sunshine, also the bright colour .Autumn: Golden, brown and orange colour are the best choice for autumn, sometime, mixing with creamy soft warm colour also can express the effect.Winter: Blue or grey is belonging to cold colour, which is very nice to represent the cold weather of winter.

Colour research

Figure 5.

11

Jiggery Pokery & Sophie Alda

Spring

Figure 6.

Figure 7.

12

Jiggery Pokery & Lesley Barnes

Summer Sophie Alda

Winter

Figure 8.

13

Jiggery Pokery & Lesley Barnes

Summer

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Jiggery Pokery & Sophie Alda & Julie Duell & Yoko Furusho & Owen

Autumn

Figure 11. Figure 12. Figure 13.

Figure 14.

Figure 15.

14

21 FebruaryThis was a draft of Spring. It was quite different to the last project. The liner drawing is my favorite illustration style, so it would be good to use my strength to create a work. This illustration looks very fantastic with the human fish. I wanted to draw the style like Alice in Wonderland, with many strange animals or planets.

22 FebruaryI translated the illustration into the cut foam board with black drawing, which was inspired by Antoine + Manuel and Kiyoshi Kuroda. The black line drawing was melted when I try to colour them, so I had to paint on the foam-board first to avoid the lines dissolving. It looks nice together, but I need to do more experiments to getting better and better.

24 FebruaryI had a meeting with Mike. He told me if this is going to be a story, maybe I could create different characters in different countries, or maybe shows the culture from different country via the four seasons. The storyboard is an important part if I want to make a narrative. I should be able to tell where are they, who are they and what is happening?

Reflection: While I was thinking about how the story would be told through using the human fish as a main character, I got writer’s block and didn’t think I would be able to tell the story in four scenes without explanation by writing lots of sentences. This would mean creating more than four scenes to tell an in-depth story. However, I had two months left, and I didn’t want to lose myself again in such a short time. So I still stuck in my original plan, which are four seasons four scenes. I came up with the idea of a caterpillar, living through four seasons and developing into a butterfly. What’s more, I found a website called

“World Wild Fund” by accident, which leaded me to the new idea of using these endangered species as different seasonal characters, such as the polar bear, which is associated with winter, and crane which are reminders of spring. It was an other way to tell the children these animals are going to become extinct if their living environment getting worse.

The theme is: Global Warming and the changing of the seasons and the weather could lead to endangered animals becoming extinct because (The sentence of the image):

Spring: Crane might not be able to fly in high windsSummer: Dolphin is dying in the polluted waterAutumn: Tiger won’t be able to hunt their prey if it gets too hot or cold.Winter: There will be no ice or snow left for the polar bears to inhabit.

28 FebruaryI talked the idea with Luke about what I thought. He said the animal I used were very rare like crane, which can only see in Japan or China and some people don’t even know what is it. Also I was not concentrated on the season topic rather endangered species. So I came up with the other idea, it is similar concept, but used the other animals such as deer and elephant and it was not about the animals being extinct. It is about the environmental destroy is effecting their life.

Concept developing

15

16

17

18

2,3,4 MarchThis was an experiment of the Spring story. All of them were made by using foam board. One side is a whole green tree and another is a tree branch with a robin standing there. However, I felt it didn’t look right. I couldn’t tell what was wrong when all the single objects were put together. Maybe it was the shape of model, which is not very convenient to create a scene; maybe it was the colour that looks awful.

Experiment of hand made works

19

20

10.11 March I kept relying on the foam board and had forgotten to use other mediums to experiment more. It was a mistake that I forgot the more important things such as how to position the layout with a fantasy theme. This is one of the problems I have. I always develop the details first rather to build up the structure of the concept.This is an experiment of comparing two different materials, one is all made by foam board, and the other is used from recycled paper to make it into flowers. Both of them are laid on a piece of foam board drawn by watercolour and black line illustration. The colour are reminiscent of spring colour.

21

22

15 MarchI went to the Natural History Museum and Tate Modern in order to refresh my mind and gather inspiration, and I bought two books. One of them is called “Water Paper paint” (Figure 16.) which is very helpful for my project. I was not used to working with watercolours and colour mix, so this could be a chance for me to practice how to mix the colours and paint water colour.

17 March: Meeting with MikeMike told me my progress is very slow, I should be faster and make a time management table, which I have been not doing.. He told me that for the watercolour paintings, I should be able to do ten pages in each season, and practices making animals and make more than one structure drafts.

Colouring,Researching, Drawing, Cutting

Figure 16.

23

24

18,19 March: Colour practiceI started to make some tasks on my schedule, and stuck to my time management table. It was very useful after I followed these tasks, my progress was faster than before which helped me to achieve the goals.These are the colouring of four seasons with animal illustration, all of them were painted by watercolour and used the element of season’s colour, it was a good experiment, which showed what kind of colour would be nice to mix together.

25

26

21 March: animals researchAs well as experimental colouring, I did some research on animal figures in order to get inspiration to create a new style of illustration. I like how the animals are portrayed in a strange way. This can be seen in Karolin Schnoor’s work (Figure 17.) . She added the natural pattern on the fox and duck’s body, and used blue colour to fill them, which is not their original colour, but they are not tasteless.Kate Sutton (Figure 21.) drew a set of animals in black and white as well as colour. She drew them in very little detail but caught the features of the animals.

Figure 17.

27Figure 20.

Figure 18. Figure 19.

Figure 21.

28

20,22 March: drawingAfter this, I started to practice the illustration of animals. I tried to draw them in different position and see which one would be the best, meanwhile, I thought would be good to put some pattern on the animal rather just draw a normal figure with eyes and mouth. I drew flowers on the bird’s body and drew leaves on the deer’s figure. However, I felt I would like to draw some patterns and made it more abstract. I illustrated the square on the polar bear’s body, which looks like he is wearing clothes. Then I started to apply the pattern on the others. They looks very interesting, seems there are something weir growing on there body. I associated the destruction of the environment with the issues that are affecting the animals.

29

30

22 March: CuttingThese practices improved my skills of illustration and watercolour, which also speed up my progress. I like the painting combined with the illustration, which was much better than I expected, then I photocopy the image and stuck on the foam board that already had the cut out the shape of deer. However, the paper antlers didn’t match the foam board one. I told Tim about my situation, and he said I need to stick the paper of the animal’s shape on the foam board first, and it would be the same figure when I cut it along the edge of its outline.

31

32

23 MarchThese are the illustrations of four animals facing different environmental damage in the four seasons. Spring- bird- tree cut down.Summer- elephant- polluted water.Autumn- deer- hunting.Winter- polar bear- ice melting.

33

34

25 MarchIt was such a good opportunity of visiting this exhibition. I was lucky that can see Owen Gildersleeve’s works, which I noticed his work since last year, and most of his hand made works are very inspiration. There were many articles who having the unique illustration styles and some of them were very helpful for my animal illustrations and colouring.

Very detailed work from “Owen”, it is a different shape of letter paper stuck together to make into a rugged effect. (Figure 23.)

Nigel Peake does very detailed illustrations and it inspired the pattern in my work of the animals. (Figure 22.)

Pick Me Up

35

Figure 23. Figure 22.

36

26 March: Paper ArtistsAndersen M studio(Figure 24.) did many fantasy movies by paper cutting. I was interested with how they make the cut paper movie, which made me want to try to do the paper cutting again.Jo Lynn Alcorn(Figure 25.) is a master of making paper flowers, and it is very simple image that has just one colour. This was related to my project- Spring that gave me inspiration to help me express the flower in a different way.

Research and experiment for Spring

37

Figure 24. Figure 25.

38

26 March: Paper worksThese were the tests of paper trees shown in different ways. Inspired by Andersen M studio. I like how the branch pops out from the paper. It was a branch spreading in Spring.

39

40

27 MarchAfter the paper branch I made, I thought maybe I could try to repeat the layers of branches to make it becoming livelier. This was the image of testing my thought, it is made by book pages that are cut into branches. It looks a little bit messy. I thought it would be good to cut pages in similar shapes.The smallest branch is at the front and the ones behind each get bigger.You can see the progress, which is drawn from the layout first on the page, it was painted in a different colour in order to divide them, and then I cut it page by page. The effect of putting them together looks very clean and is a good graphic visual.

41

42

Figure 26.

28 MarchTim recommended the artists who do the paper works to me such as James Taylor(Figure 26.), whose work is very interesting. It’s not just illustration but the photo images as well, which is like collage but in three dimension. Tim said that for the complicated paper flower I have made, I can photograph them and print them out, similar to what James does.I tried to print the photo of birds and stuck them on the hard paper, then put on the branches. It seems work, but because the birds are too heavy, cause the paper branches fell down a little bit. I didn’t think it would be the works I want to make, so this could be a little new experiment.

Moving to the next, the thought of making something that could be shown in 360 degrees was still in my mind. So I tried to fold a few layers of paper together and sew on the fold line and make it three dimensional. However, the paper didn’t spread out very well, so I thought gluing them could be a good idea, and it worked at last. There are many different tests to make the best paper flowers and the result was that none of them looked that good. It also lacked the spring atmosphere when they were put together, which means the colour still needed to be emphasized.

43

Figure 26.

44

4-7 AprilHere is the new vision with better quality paper of the layers of paper branches I have created. There was a foam board in between each layer in order so it doesn’t look too flat. However, it became flat again after a few hours, which means the paper is not thick enough to stay in shape. I drew the colour liner on the branches for expressing the spring atmosphere, but it didn’t work so I used watercolour with black liner.

There are few kinds of flowers that I made for Spring, and I thought the flowers made by book pages would be the best, as it is related to environmental protection, so using a recycled source is the best way to present.

45

46

This is a bird standing on the tree stump that is made by layers of foam board covered by brown crepe paper with line drawing, and the bird is made by watercolour paper stuck on the foam board. This time, I made a perfect shape of a bird figure, and used the method that Tim told me, which is to stick paper on a foam board first and cut along the outline.

The branches, flowers and bird were put together, but the outcome was not as good as the styles were different, which I need to improve.

47

48

The experimentation of making polar bear and deer, the colour of bear was green and blue, which could tell they live in icy place and winter all the year. For the deer, I chose the warm colour such as orange and red to represent the colour of shatter in autumn. The antler of deer was by soft wire that wrapped by brown crepe paper, it looked better than the old one which used foam board cut into antler shape.

So there was a collection of four animals in four seasons. I like the effect that they put together, they look colourful with detailed illustration and abstract which is the style I like.

49

50

So this is the rainbow that was inspired by the website electric elephant, it is a rainbow for summer; one side in black line and the other is watercolour. I would have preferred watercolour if the colour could have been be brighter, but not red and pinkish. With regards to how to position the look of the rainbow, I was thinking it would be good not arranged in an ordered way, but actually it worked out better to put them in order.

I made a black rainbow on a black background and a white rainbow on a white one, to compare which would look best. It was clear that the white was livelier. Using coloured dots to make rainbow, looked a little bit tacky, I think because it was hand-drawn. However, I still used it while I put the layout together. Because the picture is about the elephant drinking polluted water, I used black paper with the painting and cut it into a wave shape. I liked the positioning but I didn’t think I was going to use watercolour to draw any patterns so it would not look tacky.

Summer

I found the website electric elephant by accidently. I felt the lively atmosphere when I first time looked at it. The bright and colourful paint is matched the summer festival very well. Also the activity elephants looked very happy with their legs lift, it reminded me my project and inspired me the relationship between elephant and rainbow.

Figure 27.

51

52

As you see, these are the processes of how to make Summer. I remade the elephant again due to the original one not being as colourful and too rough. Using watercolour and combining the black line drawing, is the style that I want to create. It looks very nice in layers.

53

54

First of all, I painted the mixture of orange colours on white card and cut it into tree shapes, but it didn’t match the theme at all. Then I chose watercolour paper and painted the autumn colour, drawing the black lines on each tree, and it looks totally different from the previous one. In order not to make the scenes look tedious, I put the “withered grass” into the box as well.

Autumn

55

56

Because the other animals were all having parts made from soft wire, I thought I needed to add something to the polar bear in order to link the four of them together, so I decided to make the bear’s claws from wire to make the image livelier.

The picture of the sea is similar to the water in Summer. The theme is about the ice melting that I tried to paint something associated with it. I looked at the book “water paper paint”, and found out there is a lesson that teaches you how to splash paint. I did two layers, cut it into pieces and stuck them on the foam board, which looks better than I expected.

Winter

57

58

I recorded every single process in order to explain how I made the model.From the beginning, I painted in light and warm colour on paper, cut it out, drew the pattern, then stuck the picture on the foam board and cut it out.

Using soft wire twisted into a claw shape, wrapped with brown crepe paper, I used a glue gun to stick the claws and the bird together.

Spring

59

60

The tree stump I made the first time was from layers of foam board covered by brown crepe paper with line drawing. It looked quite real, which is in a different style from the bird. Rather than having two different ones, I decided to make a new stump in a similar style to the bird. To paint it, I used a drinking straw and blew into the watercolour to produce a line.

61

62

I cut the images of four tree branches. The smallest branch is at the front and the ones behind each get bigger in order to make them look in dimension. So you can see the branches becoming thicker and thicker.

I was going to make the flowers with book pages and glue them on, however it might have looked too crowded, so I drew the flowers on the branches instead.

I also made the grass and painted it in green with black liner to enhance the atmosphere of spring.

And so Spring was coming together.

63

64

Optima

Garamond

Cochin, Bold

Cochin, Regular

Bookman Old Style

Big Caslon

Times

Bodoni

After the models are done, I need to add the text to the box.

I talked to Tim on 11 April about the fonts for the “Book”. I said I might choose “Times” as it links to the time-seasons. He recommended “Big Caslon”, “Garamond” or “Bodoni” these kinds of Serif fonts. I tried these different typefaces on Winter, and besides the fonts that Tim recommended, I experimented with some others which included Optima (non serif), Bookman old style, Cochin (bold and regular), and Times.

After comparing all of them, I got rid of the bold type first as it looked rather chunky and ruined the balance between letter and image. Garamond and Optima caught my eye rather than the Big Caslon and Times, as both of them are look clean and elegant. On balance, Garamond better matches the background and its serif font looks steadier than Optima.

I photocopy Big Caslon, Garamond, Cochin Bold and Bodoni on transparent in order to see how does it effect. It was very clear to see that Bodoni is the best one. The result of testing on the real subjects are better than on computer, which I realized the fonts showing in the boxes were not as easy to read compared to the images in computer, but Bodoni is easy to read and matches the background very well.

Fonts Test

65

Big Caslon

Bodoni

Garamond

Cochin, Bold

66

After I decided to use Bodoni, I photocopied the texts and stuck into the boxes. Then I completed the whole box by stuck the rest of foam board on the side and top. It was quite hard because the glue is easy pulled into silk when I moved away after I put the glue on the box (like the image showed). The silk stuck on the transparent paper, and I had to clean via the layer of papers, which was hard and worried the paper would get damage. Final, I finished all the steps carefully and luckily there wasn’t any damage that might happen.

The introduction at the side is:The world is changing because human beings damage Nature. These four seasons are representing the animals suffer from the environmental destroy. These changes are affecting their bodies and people need to know they should stop.

Complete the box

67

68

Final Outcome

69

Final Outcome

70

71

72

In Spring, birds are singing in their sweet houses, but the trees are being cut down and they don’t have many places to live.

73

Spring, branches are layered one by one in different light colours and little flowers are blooming on the tree. A tree stump is positioned among grass with the bird standing above. It represents the bird singing on a tree and making their “house” happily during spring. However, trees keep being cut down, and birds keep moving house. They might lose their house if people don’t stop it.

74

There are layers of rainbow painted in bright summer colours. It connects with the elephant playing in the water during summer. However, the water is getting dirty and it can only drink this water.

75

In Summer, elephants like drinking fresh water and playing near the river, but they only have bad tasting water to drink.

76

In Autumn, the deer are enjoying walking on the grass and leaves, but they don’t know the danger they face.

77

The trees in orange and brown colour are showing the autumn atmosphere. This season would be the best time for people hunting. However, deer don’t know they are in danger and might be killed in next minute.

78

The North Pole is cold and icy. But these layers of water are showing the weather getting warm and the ice keeps melting. The polar bear is watching the ice getting thinner and they might be extinct in the future.

79

In Winter, polar bears are playing in their “playground”, but the ice keeps melting and melting.

80

This is a set of four three-dimensional boxes about the four seasons(size: 25*25*15cm), which are represented by layers of cut paper that are painted in each season’s colour with black line illustration. There are detailed animals made by foam board and a poem that is printed on transparent paper in the front of boxes. An introduction is written on the side with the title, “Four seasons and environment protection”. These boxes could be a decorative collection, but mainly they are a set of children’s “books”. The intended audience is children and parents also could be interested.The contents are not children’s fairy tales, they are about the truth of animals in different seasons suffering from the environmental destruction because of human beings damaging nature and these changes are affecting their bodies.

This project was the most satisfying project I have done. It has such a huge amount of credits, which gave me a responsibility to develop my best work. I worked very hard, learnt to manage the time, and added the tasks of what I needed to do everyday. I had group meetings with classmates and listened to my peers carefully. I tried to get involved in the sign up meeting to keep me working harder in order to get the feedback and improve it. I had done the most reflection in this unit, which is a good start of learning to listen to other people and understand my problems. The outcome of the FMP really moved me. Because I know the best things come if I work hard!

Evaluation

81

82

Bibliography

83

WEBSITEs:Antoine + Manuel, Plastic whiteboard: http://www.antoineetmanuel.com/ (Figure 4.)

Autumn painting: http://artintegrity.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/11-your-art-stories-here/ (Figure 11.)

Andersen M studio: http://www.andersenm.com/ (Figure 24.)

Crafteralli, Brown Bubble Shadow box: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23961325@N07/favorites/page48/?view=lg (Figure 2.)

Electicelepahnt: http://www.electricelephant.co.uk/ (Figure 27.)

Geninne’s art blog: http://www.geninne.com/ (Figure 19.)

Kiyoshi Kuroda: http://www.kiyoshikuroda.jp/ (Figure 3.)

Jiggery Pokery: http://www.jiggerypokery.biz/selected/project/the-compleate-history-of-food/ (Figure 6.)

Jiggery Pokery: http://www.jiggerypokery.biz/selected/project/androgyny-magazine/ (Figure 9,12.)

Jo-lynn Alcorn: http://ua-net.com/taiko-en/artists_paperartists/jo-lynn-alcon/ (Figure 25.)

James Taylor: http://www.debutart.com/artist/james-taylor (Figure 26.)

Karolin Schnoorís: http://www.karolinschnoor.com/Illustration.html (Figure 17.)

Kyoko Okubo: http://www.booooooom.com/tag/animal/ (Figure 20.)

Kate Sutton: http://www.handsomefrank.com/illustrators/kate-sutton/ (Figure 21.)

Lesley Barnes: http://www.handsomefrank.com/illustrators/lesley-barnes/ (Figure 10.)

Owen: http://www.owengildersleeve.com/work_pages/poolga.html (Figure 14.)

Sophie Alda: http://www.handsomefrank.com/illustrators/sophie-alda/ (Figure 7,8,13.)

Torquil’s book by Sarah Morpeth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23961325@N07/favorites/page47/?view=lg (Figure 1.)

Toby Triumph: http://www.tobytriumph.co.uk/ (Figure 18.)

World wild fund: http://wwf.org.uk/

Yoko Furusho: http://yokofurusho.com/illustration/editorial/ (Figure 15.)

BOOKS Principles of Color Design- Chinese book (Figure 5.)Water Paper Paint by Heather smith Jones (Figure 16.)

PHOTOS:Photograph by Yuli Huang at Pick Me Up (Figure 22,23.)

PLACES:Natural History MuseumTate ModernPick Me Up