Tone of voice and Visual hierarchy

Tone of voice.

Tone of voice refers to the atmosphere or mood given off of a piece of work, be it image, type or another medium.

Visual hierarchy refers to the order of importance of objects and subjects in images, and how the artist makes you focus on certain parts of a picture. this can be achieved in a variety of ways, including but not limited to colour, size, typography, weight, scale, and structure. This is very common, especially in newspapers advertising, where aim is to hold the attention of the audience. one that is good for comparison would be a The sun, a tabloid that uses bight colours, size and other such obvious techniques, where as a broadsheet such as the daily mail would use things like boldness, and typography and structure.

Research and inspiration:

Research and inspiration:

Research:

To me research was a way to back up my work, a justification for all I’ve done. the dictionary cites it as: “diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.” there are several ways of carrying out research, for example primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are those that have been gained first-hand by the artist, i.e. a questionnaire asking about famous artists work. secondary resources involve information gathering from other sources that other people have obtained, such as books, journals, etc.

Visual research is a very good example of primary research- it relates specifically to creating. Drawing, painting, illustrations, rendering, and diagrams to name but a few. i feel this is to surround yourself with inspiration, to explore through creation, what inspiration do you gain and create? I enjoyed the visual research of Paul Davis explored in the lecture. anyone could easily see that he has laid a basis of things that inspire him, opening further avenues of research. if i were to research in this way...?

 

When i carry out secondary research, it is normally into the life and times of the artist I’m studying and whether it has affected the piece I’m looking at, as well as close analysis into the piece as a work of art. this is normally useful in providing the most justification for any ideas that inspire me.

Inspiration:

Inspiration can be so many different things for so many people, but the idea of inspiration is based around something, anything, that stimulates creativity. in some ways, inspiration is the reason there is no originality. whatever inspires you was thought of, by someone else, which in turn had its own inspiration.  people find inspiration anywhere, be it in books, other artists work and in day to day life.

Mark wigan is an illustrator who has spent time in japan. while there he designed this poster for a radio station. It is quite likely, therefore that his inspiration wouldn’t be pictures as much as radio, music, and media. that would be something unexpected, as it wouldn’t be assumed that an illustrator would have these as inspirations.

“if there’s something i really like, it ends up on the wall” wigan.

this is a direct quote from wigan that i feel sums up the collective, obsessive nature of inspiration, consuming and interpreting sources and ideas to try create original work. in a way inspiration is like another form of research, surrounding ones self in different materials that stimulate a desire to continue investigating into your inspirations.

An issue with inspiration is how much you take from it. for example, this picture that Wigan is working on could be compared to Picasso’s cubism, although there are obvious differences. This again leads to the idea that inspiration can in some ways make it hard to create original works.

connectivity

Connectivity 28th september.

Notions of originality:

Originality is dependent on peoples idea’s, we learn from copying and watching others and their work, interpreting it for ourselves and making it into an individual piece of work. The notions of originality itself is rehearsing whats been forgotten and being able to see the links between influential pieces of art, and how it impacts of inspiration for other artists. The question is, is it possible to create a completely original style or effect that has not yet been created?

Originality is an idea impossible to achieve in all areas of life, not only in art. We constantly, both consciously and sub-consciously, take elements and ideas from everyday life and manipul ate it into something new. However when it comes down to it, separate the elements and ideas down into their simplest forms you will be able to see that these ideas are far from new and very often very repeated.

                Diego de Silva Velazquez - Las Meninas - (The maids of honour) - 1656

People throughout history have constantly attempted to  take something and claim it as their own, but the reality is they will have been influenced to do it in a certain way or style, adding, twisting, highlighting certain things, trying to make it unique, though something exterior must have influenced our thought process into doing so.

“What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.” William Inge.

Relationships developed from existing forms of historical culture:

The idea of art being influenced by past works immediately forms a relationship through history forged by culture. This means that because of the impossible nature of creating truly original art, all present day works have there roots in early art. A great example of this would be the analysis of a recent YSL advertisement campaign and its obvious influence, Gabrielle d'Estrées done by an unknown artist in 1594.

 The history behind this picture is based on the birth of the subject gabrielle d’estrees’ child with Henry VI. there are many symbolic fertility images such as pinching of the nipple, servant preparing baby clothing in the back of the image and the fireplace signifies the mother's furnace.

the fact that this feminist piece borrows heavily on a peace focusing on woman hood and mother hood already creates a relationship through history and culture by linking feminism and womanhood to different view points on what a woman should be according to culture.

This iconic pose has been re-created based on the first piece “gabrielle l’estrees” again with a feminist stand point but thi s time it has been used to advertise a woman's perfume, the differences in this picture such as placing the woman in a place of power further develops the relationship through time and the context of both pieces.

Both later works represent a more idealist culture, a far cry from the repressed women of 1594. this underlines once and for all the developing relationship through time based on historical culture.