Week Two

This week I did the look book, trend and styling tasks. Over the weekend I had to take a photo booth styled portrait of myself, in preparation for this I looked at some of Andy Warhol's Polaroid portraits and portraits from Tim Walker. As I wanted my portraits to represent myself I chose four key images that I felt best represented me, these was a variety that portrayed my fun, cheeky side and more serious and thoughtful parts of my personality, I believe that the mood in these images reflect against my mood board well. Then on Monday morning the whole group presented their portraits and gave feedback, I enjoyed looking at others work and understanding their thought processes and final outcomes.

After this we were briefed on the photo shoot we had to prepare for and do for the end of the week, we then looked at some of the work that Susie has been involved with, I found it very interesting finding out the different processes and contributions that all make up a photo shoot, this allowed me to think more in depth about the mise-en-scene of my shoot. I worked on my concept boards exploring; location, props, styling and hair/makeup. Overall these boards greatly aided the success of my photo shoot as I was able to express my ideas to myself clearer as well as to others allowing an overall understanding.

Then on Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday I went to oxford circus to conduct a shop report I went into Topshop, Urban Outfitters and Monki. I gathered a variety of information about the current trends including the styles, shapes, colours and textures. After collecting this information I bought it in on Wednesday to share with my group we then after collecting everyone's findings created several different trend boards, one illustrating the use of sherbet colours and textures, like the use of PVC and furs such as cashmere and mohair. Then another board showing the mod rocker, grunge style which uses boxy boyish shapes, dark colours plaids/tartans, denims and drain pipe styled trousers, then the last board showed the variety of prints in season at the moment and the colours of these prints. Our findings came from a variety of shops from designer, department store and high street shops. I liked working in a group as I was able to gain feedback from different people and take note from their different styles of working. Then as a group we presented our boards which I found helpful because its good practice at gaining confidence in explain my work which will help to explain my ideas clearer.

On Thursday for my Self directed study I did my photo shoot, I enjoyed doing the photo shoot task greatly. So on Thursday my friend Nicole was my model and I styled her in a white t-shirt and mini skirt then with long straight hair and very rough and powdery make up, then throughout the shoot I added to her look by covering her face in cellophane, wrapping her up in cling film and putting a flower crown on her head. Then doing my photo shoot in my garden in front of my shed, my mum through crushed up chalk at her then with the camera on the sport capture setting in order to get the fast moving shots of the chalk blowing up in the air.  

 

Then on Friday with my photos taken and the best ones selected I started to print them out this took longer than I had expected however I was able to do this task successfully it was just the printer part too longer than I had thought, however I printed my six images on high glossy paper in order to get the bright colours and have the images presented in a high quality, this was due to the editing on photoshop I did which was only to crop certain images and adjust the levels of the images in order to get a darker bolder image, I also printed my two

This image was printed on acetate
 

favourite images out on acetate this was an experiment to see what the colours would come out like, which I am pleased with the final outcome as I believe it expresses my identity and reflects well against my mood board and Polaroid portraits.

Overall I enjoyed this week greatly especially the photo shoot as I believe this task enable me to express my main ideas related to this project, as the photo shoot has given me a lot of inspiration in relation to colours, materials and textures that my final product may look like.