Sunday 13 December 2015

Thumbnail sketches for prints

I have been working on my roughs ready to make into positives to screen print. I now know that I am going to aim to do five prints focused on the neurological practices of Oliver Sacks, so have been exploring various ways to communicate the struggles of living with neurological conditions.

Typeface

Underneath the circular screen printed images there will be a line of text displaying the name of the condition; I wanted to make sure that an appropriate type face is used that will be associated with the theme of my work. I thought about using COURIER (this font) because it looks similar to the lettering produced by a typewriter, which doctors commonly used to write out prescriptions in the time that Sacks was a practicing medic. Although I realised that it might be more efficient to use a cleaner cut typeface without great attention to detail (e.g. serifs) so I decided to go with the simple font SERVAREK LIGHT.

Prosopagnosia

My second print is represents the condition 'prosopagnosia' which means face-blindness; not having the ability to recognise peoples faces. This is a really important concept because Sacks actually suffered with prosopagnosia himself, so I wanted to make this quite personal. I researched how sufferers cope with this extremely frustrating condition, and something that came up quite frequently  was getting people to wear name tags, so that they can associate that persons name with their character as opposed to their facial features. In my rough sketches I drew out some characters with blank faces, similar to those in my sting but I thought that they were a little too obvious.

I went ahead with the name tag idea as I had the most confidence in it; I traced my thumbnail sketch in vectors and discovered that it really didn't look aesthetically pleasing with my try-hard stylised pointy fingers. So I solved this by taking a photograph of my own hands and drawing those in illustrator instead (which looked a lot more efficient)

Tourette's Syndrome

I read about a patient suffering with Tourette's syndrome in Sacks' book An anthropologist on Mars. His name was Dr.Bennett and he was a surgeon. The symptoms of Tourette's include uncontrollable vocal or physical impulses, called 'tics'. What is quite remarkable about a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome is that in itself; although when Dr.Bennett is performing a procedure, the level of concentration required in such a high risk career completely eliminates his tics.

I found it really difficult to try and DRAW Tourette's syndrome without it looking too obvious and literal like it did in my previous lino prints. I came up with a few metaphors; I thought of a bow and arrow, with the tic forcing itself out of the person like a flying arrow, but then I realised that this didn't really work as there would need to be some force to draw back the arrow. I also tried to come up with a more scientific concept with the neurological receptors showing the cycle of serotonin, but it wouldn't communicate efficiently to a wider audience.

Finally I came up with a concept of a metaphorical Jack-in-a-box, bursting out of his box unexpectedly. I drew the box out to look like a brain, and then on the end of the spring I drew a set of false teeth to represent a wide-open mouth with an array of symbols/ vibrations and waves emitting from it.

Stroke

I struggled so much to come up with an illustration to represent stroke. In my earlier work, I studied a lady called Mrs.S from Sacks' book The man who mistook his wife for a hat who had suffered a stroke so severe that she had completely lost the concept of the left hand side, this included her body and her surrounding environment.

Every thumbnail that I sketched out looked really obvious despite trying really hard to come up with a good concept that communicated the symptoms clearly. I spent a lot of time going round and around in circles trying to come up with ideas, and ended up feeling disheartened. So I decided to leave the idea for now and focus on my other three prints. 

Productivity Plan

  • Produce final positives (by the end of Christmas holidays)
  • Get peer feedback on Stroke when back at college
  • Rough sketches for phantom limb

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