Initial Ideas

 I began just brain storming different ideas, but my main ideas at the moment is to make a zine of overheard conversations and thoughts of people in Birmingham. So to reveal what these  people spend their time thinking about sort of thing...hoping that I can come out with some amusing results. At the moment my thought is that some pages will be portraits of people and others groups sharing a conversation. Not sure about the front and back pages yet though!  The characters will probably be based the people in Birmingham, but exaggerated/altered again to add humour.

 I looked at a selection of artists - how they work and present their images on the page using collage, pattern and a range of media. Some were more relevant/useful than others.

I experimented with drawing people in a range of ways and media in an attempt to reflect the people of Birmingham. Finding artists to then give me more ideas and inspiration. I like the work of Egon Schiele as it was very gritty and this could reflect the darker side to Birmingham , using more strange characters. Also expeirmenting with more cartoon like characters- exaggerating characteristics to perhaps add to the more amusing aspect.

Moving on to a more realistic approach of drawing portraits I came across David Foldvari who uses very small lines to build up the face, creating tone and depth.

Experimenting with backgrounds and different ways of presenting my work I looked into collage, creating a scene of gossiping old women, using a previosuly overheard conversation (but altered slight).

Also tried creating characters with line drawings, as the size of the zine would perhaps restrict the ability to capture and see the detail on some of my other images. I also experimented with stitch as a form of drawing and then by photocopying the left on threads create patterns and drawing on their own.

I want to also play with print (dry point and monoprint probably), as the ink can create backgrounds and maybe experimenting with colour. My next step is gather the thoughts and conversations I want to use, which I am in the process of doing. I am just playing around with different ideas at the moment.