Reflective Post 4

The last project I undertook this year was a sustained and self directed one which I had actually had ticking away in the back of my mind since the start of the year but only started on in earnest around January. I had originally planned to create an illustrated history of delta blues music and house it in some sort of publication, probably a book, the idea just cam from having started listening to a lot of that music towards the end of summer and making portraits the musicians for something to do when I didn't have any uni work on the go. Once I actually started properly considering the project and how I was going to work on it and quickly decided that I would have to narrow my focus considerably given the time frame I had. I decided I would instead try and create an illustrated biography of one musician from that era, choosing Son House because he had a fairly interesting life, is one of my favourite blues performers and there was a reasonable amount of information available on him to research.

I was a little worried that undertaking such a long project would cause me to get bored but actually I ended up keeping my engagement with the work throughout, and even now am still considering adding more to it or creating a similar body of work based around a different musician. The fact that I was able to divide his life up into scenes and places in a (more or less) chronological fashion meant that I was only focusing on one piece (drawing) at a time so it didn't feel like a large undertaking, it was only towards the end that I realised the amount of work I had actually amassed.

I was conscious to try and reflect the tone and age of his music in the images so worked predominantly on off white paper and newsprint in all analogue media. It was really nice avoiding Photoshop completely, because it kept my options very limited and allowed me to avoid breaking up the flow of the work. I think one of my biggest struggles is avoiding option paralysis, it always ends up clouding my judgement and slowing me down. As a result of just constantly churning stuff out I also improved at drawing a great deal (at least to myself) and became more confident, decisive and less precious. This is now very important to me and an attitude I want to continue to cultivate. I think I often used to fall into the trap of trying to save pieces of work which I didn't think were working by fiddling with them in Photoshop whereas during this project I got myself into the habit of accepting something hadn't worked much sooner and just drawing it again, or working over it/back into it.

I also enjoyed giving myself limitations in the form of colour and also using mainly paper I was able to find around the studio, which led to more interesting textural qualities and also allowed me to let images grow very organically. If, for example I drew right to the edge of a piece of paper but felt the image needed more I started just sticking extra pieces on, or sticking the whole thing onto a new piece of bigger paper. All of this helped to alleviate the pressure of staring at a blank page or planning an image. I was able to work much intuitively which was important to me, because House's music is incredibly intuitive and honest and his delivery is very visceral.

The plan is to exhibit the original drawings for my degree show, but also to house all the work chronologically in some kind of publication, which I think I may try and get printed outside of university, as a sort of artist book. I really need to carefully look into different printing/publication/binding methods carefully before making any decisions. I also haven't decided whether or not I want it to be wordless or not but if I do include words I think it will likely only be quotes from Son House and his song lyrics. I might even try and work with a graphic designer because I'm not really confident with that side of things and don't really trust myself to make it the best it could be on my own.

The title will be "The Devil beats God to you every time." 

Fourth 7x7