ArtAndDesignWithMatthewButcher

FMP Foundation

Statement of Intent

For my final major project I will work to a brief called “my way” in which I will make a series of logos, graphics and designs to base my artwork under separate from commissions. The artwork will consist of prints and posters that show my artwork. I will be able to use many of the techniques and processes I have learned over the time of my studies and will be able to see where I can fit my work into the creative industry and how I can turn a profit on my design work. Come the end of the project I aim to have a wide variety of images that show my own personal take on illustration placed upon a range of products. I believe this project will yield the best artwork I can create as this has always been a huge interest for me and is where I see myself in the creative industry.

For this project I have already looked at a number of artists and printmakers such as Craig Gleason who works very similarly to how I want my project to turn out, I have also looked into Tom.J.Newell, TittyBats and TallBoy who’s very unique style has become easily recognisable in his community as well as much of the graphics world. I am also looking into other illustrators that can help me further my influences to get a good look into the current market for independent illustrators. As well as them I will also be looking at print work in galleries especially the Sheffield print fair where I will be able to get the most inspiration due to the sheer amount of artwork there and the variety in different techniques used by the artists. As a starting point I plan to look into different artists that show their work in this way. I also want to look into the initial inspiration for these brands and find out what mate them want to begin printing. The relevance of my research is very clear, as it will be my main place to go when I look at creating my own artwork.

For my project I will be using many of the techniques I have learned over the years as well as some new ones, I want to experiment with a lot of new techniques I am yet to use as well to see how well their given effect and efficiency is. For the project I will be using a huge variety in media constantly switching between traditional methods and digital methods to get the best quality in my artwork. I plan to spend my time on the project at the beginning looking into the work of others, I will continue to do so for the rest of the project however I will be creating my own artwork for the majority of the project as well as practicing design methods and styles before printing my final pieces. In all I believe I will have an adequate amount of time to complete the project under the aims I have.

When evaluating my work I believe it should be based on the quality of my work as well as the variety, the amount of design work gone into it and the variety of methods I have used when creating my prints. Come the end there should be a very clear time line that shows where my designs have come from and the reason for the choices I have made for it.

Stage one

To begin with, I looked into what it would take to get my artwork out to the public, where I would need to go to sell my name. When deciding upon the name I would go under for my artwork I looked at words that have almost gone out of use, I decided to use 80s slang as it is still recognised but I could avoid any problems of having a name that somebody else had. I stuck with "Crunk Wizard" translating to cool cool, I found the name was pretty cool in a lame kind of way which is exactly how I want my artwork to be seen, just like a little joke. The name was great, it was easy to remember, it just sticks in your head. I made a social media account that I could display all of my development and finished work on. This helped to spread my name throughout the public quite easily. When thinking of how I display my artwork, I thought that it would be cool to see somebody to wear my artwork on a shirt, like a walking poster, advertisement that I could be payed for. This lead to my design work being extended into something that could be use for a shirt design. I worked the design over till it was as I saw perfect. Then I sent them off for print. A lot of the comments I received were pretty negative towards my lack of colour (ether they don't know how much print costs or they think Im made of money) I lack the funding to create high quality print with multiple colours. Why people didn't know was that I planned to tie dye the garments to create a large number of unique shirts that had a variety of colour. The finished garments were exactly as I wished and I began to make a few sales that helped to create more people that began to look at 'Crunk Wizards' artwork, I then gave a few away to band members this helped create a pretty big boost on my social media account and spreading my name. Along side my FMP I also set up a Crunk Wizard stall for a local music festival that helped to spread the name. I began to feel as though I was forgetting what my original aim was though. I wasn't generating as much artwork as I was. I began to play with grey board as my canvas, and I fell in love with it as a material, it was perfect, it held my inks and was a solid sturdy material. I created a series of original pieces to go along side my clothing, just to set me aside from any clothing brands, I wanted to reenforce the fact that Crunk was my artwork. I started to look into how I could display my work on a stall. I created a few 'props' to fill out my spot and make it a little more interesting, I had a lot of fun with these. I created a huge cut out of a Crunk Wizard and a few creeps (some weird creature things that stated as a sketch some months back) these seemed to work well waitpeople as they wanted to have a photo with 'the big green wizard' and then ended up looking through my rail and making a purchase. in the past month I feel Ive learnt a lot about how I can find a place for my artwork in the creative industry and turn it into a living.