10 Images 10 Words and Evaluation

Internet

Instagram

Likes

Drawing

Audience

Simulation

Creative Practitioners

Experimental

Popularity

Progression

I think overall this experiment was effective as it was a consistent and straightforward way to see what drawing style is preferred. However, social media alone is a complicated and inconsistent environment so the popularity of a piece of work cannot be judged on how many likes a post gets. Also my favourite piece was one of the lowest scoring posts meaning I could not take the project in the way I probably would have if it was up to me. This relates to the message behind this experiment, that you should not rely too much on social media for feedback and progress as it could steer you away from what you are passionate about.

Overall in this module I have learnt a lot about the effects the internet has on us, even if we are unaware, especially through Baudrillard's theories of simulation and hyper-reality. It made me realise personally and as someone who wants to wok in the creative industries that I should use the internet and social media in moderation, as it isn't real. It makes me feel positive learning that the creative industries is growing fast due to technology and that the internet is helping Illustrators especially when getting work and showing their work. I learnt a bit about what drawing style my followers prefer, however, this won't influence too heavily how I choose to make work as with every drawing I do I learn something new which will benefit me in the future.

Brush Pen Portrait 2

 

As the last brush pen portrait was originally the second from most popular, I did another drawing using a different photo to see if this affected how many likes this style would get. It got 41 in total which is high but not as much as the previous brush pen drawing, maybe this is because this style has been posted recently so the first was going to do better anyway.

Colour Pencil Portrait 2

I did another portrait using a different photoshoot to see if there's much of a fluctuation in likes. Although this is very similar to the first colour pencil portrait, I did this in a more traditional style, on mid grey paper and more neutral colours to see if my followers preference is a traditional style or a realistic portrait in a contemporary style. In total it got 52 likes which was the second from most successful but didn't get as many as the first colour pencil portrait. This may have been because the first portrait was more colourful and unique yet the detail was still in the piece.

One downside to making art based on likes is that realistic portraits were chosen which take ages to draw, this piece took around 30 hours whereas if I used that time to do sketching and development work I would have so many more drawings.

Vector Portrait

These pieces were probably my favourite outcomes as this is the style I prefer to draw portraits in right now. On Instagram it got 37 likes which is the second from lowest out of all the pieces I posted. This proves that a project lead by what followers have liked the most, is not going to agree with you and your ideas. I really like using pinks and oranges in my work as they are favourite colours of mine, but may not be so popular with a lot of others which will make it not do so well as a post online, especially with the colour palette being the main feature.

Illustrative Character Portrait

I posted this on Instagram on the 12th April at around 5:15, it got 33 likes in total. The fact that this drawing got less than half the likes than the previous post suggests that my followers definitely have a preference to how I draw. This does look more like an experimental sketchbook page instead of a finished piece, yet it is currently my preferred way to draw characters. On the whole my more traditional, realistic work does far better than my illustration work, and maybe that makes me doubt my illustration work without really noticing. I associate more likes with being more popular and likely to sell.

I find that when I draw characters in this way, they are very basic and they don't usually have a likeness to a specific individual even when I try to base them off of someone, I would have thought that this would make it more appealing to a wide audience as it doesn't matter that they don't know who I'm trying to draw.

Colour Pencil Portrait

I posted this drawing on Instagram on the 10th April at around 5:05 and it reached 68 likes. I am not surprised that it got more likes than the previous post as realistic drawings always take me a very long time and I think people on the whole do appreciate realism and the level of detail it requires. I think this is because everyone knows what real looks like, so they can see what I am trying to do. With my more illustration based work I think its for a more niche audience as it is very feminine, colourful and simple so only someone who likes those styles will like my post possibly.

A main issue with realism is that it takes so long to do, this one piece took around 20 hours, mainly from building up layers of colours and blending them. I personally think you can create just as much of a likeness with simplistic approaches than you can with a piece as detailed as this so it isn't in my interest to spend that long on a single piece.

Brush Pen Portrait

The first piece I posted to Instagram was the brush pen portrait, I posted this on the 8th April at 5:25pm and it got 49 likes in total. I was genuinely surprised that it got this many, my art account on average gets 40 likes and considering this did not take very long at all (around 30mins), I was expecting the audience to see it as more of a sketch and would only get around 30. 

Study Task 9- Reflective Writing

1. Photoshoots based on portraits and bright colours

2. Drawing from photos using colour pencil

3. Instagram as a tool to test popularity

4. Survey to be informed of the opinions from students and new professionals

5. Drawing from photos using brush pen

6. Drawing from photos using vectors

7. Graphs from screenshots of Instagram posts to conclude the most successful

8. Blog reflecting on how and why the outcome was what it was

9. Abby McCartin inspired colour palette

10. Abby McCartin inspired vector portrait composition

Study Task 8- Peer review action plan

Name ➜ Lauren Davey

I intend to visually and practically investigate ➜ 

The influence of Instagram on Creative Practitioners

In order to do this I will:

(complete the following sections with specific examples,

and a brief explanation of how you have made these decisions)

Primary Research	Identify, collect, record and evaluate visual material from the following sources: A 10 question survey including multiple choice and answer box questions for creatives based on their experience with social media. Instagram
Secondary research	Draw, photograph, record and develop my own visual material through the following activities: Portrait photoshoots with a focus on colour and composition Colour pencil portraits Brush pen portraits Illustrative character style portraits Vector portraits Biro and graphite portraits although they would not be in colour
Media & Processes	Visually and practically explore my subject using the following media and processes: Colour pencil, brush pen, vectors, biro, graphite
Context	Contextualise, reference, analyse my work in relation to the following practitioners/disciplines: Abby McCartin inspired vector portraits Hyper-realism movement Impressionist movement

Study Task 5- Practical Approaches

I intend to investigate the influence social media users can have on creative practitioners and the way they make their work. I have chose to do this as my essay is based on how technology and the internet impacts creative practitioners and think that this will be a social media experiment which will clearly and accurately show the effects from Instagram. My project plan is to do some portrait photoshoots which are colourful and adventurous as it is relevant to my own practice. From the photoshoots, I will draw in contrasting styles using the same images, so that the image isnt something that affects how successful the outcome is. Next I will post on social media, specifically Instagram as it has been proven to be the most used social media amongst artists. The piece of art that has gained the most likes will be the drawing style I will take forward and then draw from a different image, the most successful overall will be the piece that has got the most likes and will act as my final piece.

I have always enjoyed drawing in a variety of ways and regularly try and think through and narrow down the ways I make my work. Leaving all choice of my progression with this project on 'likes' on Instagram will be interesting when seeing where it ends up. I think social media affects what I think of a piece of my work at times, along with other artists too so emphasising this and the results of this will be important.

I will carry out a questionnaire to inform my essay and practical work which will be about how students feel about social media. I also plan to use a variation of drawing materials which will be colour pencils, pencils, pens, paint and vectors to experiment with different drawing styles. The drawings I choose to post will have a screenshot of the post with the amount of likes it has on it. To make sure that the experiment is as accurate as possible, I will aim to post each drawing every day or every other day within the same hour time frame.