In this post, I am going to be looking at and evaluating my final outcomes for this project. I think that my work fulfils the exam brief of’ Environment’ innovating upon the word in order to create something original and unique. My work for this exam is entirely focused upon my travels around the Mediterranean and the different environments I visited. There is a specific emphasis on location which is reflected through the photography produced throughout my project. I was very motivated in ensuring that the individual styles and personalities of each city was accurately portrayed through the work so that we, as an audience, are forced to study and investigate the environment showcased. This project has undergone a series of transformations before finding its final balance and identity. The project originally started at a direct narrative surrounding tourism and disposable cameras. I was certain that I would be studying tourism history and that disposable cameras would be the primary focus of the whole project, due to their popularity in the 90’s and presence within my childhood. Nevertheless, I soon found the concept uninspired and began to look into illustration and digital drawing. I discovered that this would be an excellent way to weave a narrative or message into the environments present from my holidays. Nevertheless, I could not predict the satirical, comedic tone that came to fruition as I began producing some work. The resulting visuals are truly interesting, and quite successful in my mind. We see these goofy, almost childish drawings merging with typical tourist images, generating a very unique aesthetic. I am very happy with the project.

If I was to try and describe my project, I have received the theme of ‘Environment’ and manually manipulated these European environments in a comedic, humorous fashion, almost mocking the serious perspective we are expected to hold. My project is about poking fun and demoting large scale tourism, using visual sarcasm to parody these locations. I have tried to integrate modern culture and the lifestyles of me and my friends in order to evoke a more personal message. 

This piece is very important, as it is the first response I created for this project. It set the tone for the remaining project, which I think has worked successfully. This is the only response that I took from my shoot in Pompeii, Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. This was a fantastic location to visit, and provided me with lots of photographic opportunities that I did not expect. This photograph was taken within the Quadriportico dei Teatri, also known as the Barracks of the Gladiators. This part of the city was initially used for the audience to stroll and converse during intervals between acts and later as a barracks for gladiators. The portico of the Theater was built in the early first century BC, as a recreational area or shelter from the rain for the  spectators within the Great and small theatres. Nevertheless, after an Earthquake, it was completely renovated and expanded,  changing its function into a school for gladiators. I like the shot I have taken here as there is an appealing palette of colours and interesting lighting composition. The photograph features a warm set of colours, the greens and oranges of the field and blue of the sky creating a summery, positive atmosphere. The large head statue within the foreground, incorporates some interesting textures, as generating from the rusty, cracked metal. I like how we only see one side of the statues face as this produces a sense of mystery and intrigue.  In addition to this, some vivid shadows are being casted from the sunlight as we see one surface of the ruin in the background masked in darkness. Nevertheless, a contrast is made as the highlight of the sky and pillars work nicely in juxtaposition with the shadows. These pillars are a pivotal component of the photograph working extremely effectively to generate a sense of perspective. The pillars start in the foreground and as they follow the natural flow of the courtyard they lead the eye of the viewer towards to the background. Instinctively, our eyes follow the positioning of the pillars and directing us towards the arch in the background and eventually the sky. This left a perfect spot to add an illustration. I thought about Pompeii history and how the city was almost destroyed from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This led me into drawing a cartoonish volcano in the background, allowing us to visualise, in a funny kind of way, what happened on that very day. This photograph stands out from the rest in that I am actually telling history through the illustrations.  

These next two photographs come from my visit to Pisa, Italy. As shown, I have tried to incorporate imagery, from an everyday lifestyle. I wanted to continue this comedic visual style and have hence demoted these significant and historic sites into regular, boring objects. There is a sense of irony surrounding this, which is great as it triggers discussion regarding your work. For example, I have transformed the Tower of Pisa, one of the architectural wonders of the world into a fire extinguisher. I like the cheeky, almost controversial nature of the transformation as it forces the audience to think. In the second image I have  captured The Baptistery of St. John. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Square of Miracles. The building is the largest baptistery in Italy and an example of the transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style.  The lower section is in the Romanesque style, with rounded arches, while the upper sections are in the Gothic style, with pointed arches. The Baptistery is constructed of marble, as is common in Italian architecture. I found this baptistery really beautiful and am happy with the photo I have taken of it. There is an attractive sense of light and dark as we the find  details of the architecture pop into the foreground. I really like how the light source is coming from the left side and it consequently casts one side of the baptistery in light and the other in darkness. The sky works in cooperation with the image here as an absence of clouds and colourful blue tone makes the building more prominent within the landscape. Here, I identified the curvature and shape of the baptistery and turned it into a mug of hot tea. Again, this is a very boring, ordinary object that we see frequently and pay little attention to. I was inspired by Michael Craig Martin in the incorporation of mundane objects like these. 

In these three images, I have tried my best to try and incorporate contemporary and modern culture, illustrating key components of the society I am invested in. This involves visual cues associated with teenage and student lifestyle. This can be seen within the first photograph, which is probably my favourite image from the whole project. This photo depicts the statue of St Agnes within The Pantheon in Rome. I like the way the lighting submerges the statues top half in shadow and the way in which the smooth, folds within the cloth of the gown has been highlighted by the soft light. With the top half of the statue shrouded in darkness, the opportunity to use crisp white-line drawing was available. I began to fill in where the details of the statue start to disappear around the waistline, working upwards towards the head. At this point I noticed the gesture of the subjects right hand, which visually looks like she is grasping a small, thin object. Yet on the statue, no object is present within her fingers. As a result, I identified the opportunity to implement a joint/spliff. This is something largely present and associated with teen culture, as drugs are consistently an active force within the life of a student. Visually, I think this creates a very striking juxtaposition, following the irony that I have been enforces so far. We see a historical piece of art within an extremely catholic building. This is an environment where a joint could not feel any more unnatural. There is a powerful contrast of ideologies and lifestyles. I continued this theme of teenage culture with the next photo, where in which I have photographed my sisters phone capturing my reflection in the front-camera. The image itself is not very interesting, but I thought I could create something unusual with additional illustrations. The phone surface presents me with a canvas that is in direct view of the audience. With this in mind, I decided to outline my silhouette within the phone screen which creates quite a cool, stylistic effect. In the final image of this set, I have produced an aesthetic that is synonymous with the photograph of St Agnes. I have decorated this statue within the city of Heraklion, Greece with a very urban and modern set of clothing. Inspired by the outfits of teenagers and students I know, I have equipped this statue with an Adidas tracksuit and cap. This evokes a youthful visual message that clashes with the heritage and history associated with statues.

In these three photographs, I have payed specific attention to the environment and architectural clues provided. I have tried to weave my illustrations within the photographs so that they feel natural and organic. The first photo was taken in Athens. the capital of Greece. I captured an old, stone archway in the distance, peaking over the shrubbery and tree-line. I was quite interested in the crisp arch shape that had been created, intrigued by its position in the center of the composition. I saw the opportunity to include two parallel, vertical running lines that I eventually transformed into a tree-swing. I like the resulting outcome as we again see this juxtaposition of age. Youth and childhood is being pitched against maturity and age. The next photo was captures the Colonnades that enclose St. Peters Square. The colonnades define the piazza. I like this image, the lighting working very effectively to create a domino-like effect. We see the large, marble columns spiral around the corner out of sight which leads the eye throughout the composition of the photo. There is a great balance of light and dark here, splitting the image into separate segments. Furthermore, another beautiful lighting display is presented on the clean brick floor as a zebra-crossing effect is created. The shadow of each pillar generates a striped pattern which is quite intriguing. Here, I integrated a clothing line, again following this concept of mundane and regularity. I like its natural integration within the composition as the line crosses across the pathway to connect to the pillars. The final photo of this set was taken in Knossos, Greece. I have tried to reconstruct this destroyed, ancient temple filling in where the structure has collapsed. In addition to this, I have improvised upon the upper layers, creating a floor of my own and a large sign upon the roof that reads ‘Tourism Office’. I thought this was a witty way of enforcing this theme of visual satire, almost mocking this ancient city and essentially labelling it as just a tourist attraction. 

These three photographs all possess specific emphasis on lighting, hence working well as a set. Moving away from monuments, churches and ruins, for the first two photographs I have directed my attention towards ordinary streets and alleys. I wanted to capture average lifestyle as oppose to the landmarks and tourist attractions that we are accustomed to viewing in these popular cities. The first photo was taken in Rome and features an appealing colour palette, the oranges and cream-painted walls evoking a warm and European ambience. We get a summery feel from this image which I like. In the first photo, the uniform, organised layout of windows creates a sense of satisfaction, as we see the blinders, open and closed, line the walls of the street. I like the texture of the wall, the paint beginning to fade and crack suggesting a sense of imperfection. I thought that the first photo would provide a fantastic opportunity to draw something within the open window in the foreground. Perhaps a resident within the room or a romantic balcony interaction. I decided to pursue this and am quite happy with the final result. The seconf photograph is probably my favourite from the Monaco collection due to the lighting. The shadows being casted are uniform and organised as correlated with the architecture of the building. The railing at the top of the image creates a crisp, lined shadow that disperses down to the bottom of the composition. I like the blocky, box form of the photograph as almost all shapes are made from sharp connecting lines. For this image, I transformed it into black and white in order to ensure focus on lighting rather than colour. Additionally, I  drew someone peeping out of the door in the foreground. I thought it would be interesting to transform this cold, industrial building into a home. The final image of this set was taken within the Pantheon in Rome. The highlight of the site is the hole in the center of the domed ceiling, otherwise known as an oculus. This was an engineering gem of the Roman world. No oculus had even dared come close in size to the one in the Pantheon. It is still lined with the original Roman bronze and is the main source of light for the whole building. This was one of my favourite sites within the city and I wanted to include this magnificent oculus within my project.  I have stood directly below the hole in the ceiling and pointed my camera upwards, capturing the leaking light. The resulting image was quite abstract and I decided to illustrate the face of a sun upon the hole of light. Furthermore, I drew shines of light emitted by the sun, that were uniform with the inner architecture of the dome. I like this photo as it is very different from the remaining portfolio.

These final three photographs are all portraits, hence their grouping together. In these images, I tried to create something different that stood out from the remaining photos. These images are intended to retain the youthful, fun and cool vibe that is popular within student art and illustration. As a consequence, you can identify the clear use of powerful and vibrant colours that pop away from the surrounding environment. In the first photo, I have decorated the glasses of my sister with a series of parallel, thin lines that sit upon the lens. I selected a gradient of yellow and purple to evoke this cheerful, holiday-esque colour palette. The youthful, free-spirited visuals are supported by the facial expression of the subject who is sticking her tongue out at the viewer. This enforces a sense of casual, easy-going informality. Similar styles are conjured in the following two images as the black and white works as an effective backdrop to these colourful illustrations. The subject holds up the hand gesture for ‘peace’ invoking thoughts of the hippy movement and love. This is fortified by the choice of colours, a sequence of rainbow that transpires across the image. We of course associate rainbows with equality, LGBT and freedom.

My next shoot, was located in Pisa, Italy. Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno river. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city of over 90,834 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces and various bridges across the Arno. Pisa is a very popular tourist attraction, but I was excited to see the site for myself and compare how the location conflicted with my expectations. The leaning tower is constantly talked about and remains as one the most special architectural wonders in the world. I had an expectation that perhaps the tilt was exaggerated or enhanced in photographs and was consequently keen to investigate with the naked eye.  Below is a contact sheet that presents all the photographs taken on the shoot. 

Pisa was a very small town and I was surprised by its casual and mundane appearance. Besides the Tower and main cathedral, the town is largely narrow and regular streets equipped with shops and houses. Nevertheless, in summary I really liked the town. It felt cosy and clean but filled with history and culture. There were almost no modern or out of place buildings, securing a consistent Tuscan, countryside atmosphere.

— Its important to note that these images have been selectedwith the intention to develop with illustrations. They are not individually the best photographs from the shoot, but provide the best opportunities for overlaid drawings. —

In these three photographs I have tried to capture the attractions and sites surrounding the notorious leaning tower. All these sites are located within The Square or Miracles. The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex in Pisa, Italy, called Campo dei Miracoli, which means Square of Miracles. The square is not located in the center of the city as you might imagine but to the north-west of the fortified wall, almost out of the town. The square is surrounded by a beautiful green lawn where tourists and university students can lie down and relax in this setting. The square is recognized as an important center of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. In the first photo I have captured a statue lying beside the leaning tower. This is a fallen angel, created by the Polish artist Igor Mitoraj. Though the statue is part of a temporary exhibit, it demonstrates the square’s abilities to showpiece art work from contemporary artists across the world. The reason I have selected this image is because I believe it will be perfect for illustration and drawing. Due to the fact that the fallen angels limbs and other body components are missing, I am provided with the opportunity to implement new ones. I can draw my own arms or perhaps implement some religious imagery throughout the background.  In the second photo, I have captured a tiled dome peaking over the top of the square walls. I discovered that this dome is situated within the square graveyard, otherwise known as the Camposanto. The graveyard is an ancient monumental cemetery set on the north side of the Square of Miracles. Begun in 1277 by the architect Giovanni de Simone, it is a rectangular structure with an inner cloister with Gothic arcades. As ancient tradition would have it, the graveyard was built on dirt carried back from the Holy Land, in particular from the place where Jesus was crucified. Within the cloister you’ll find many sarcophaguses and Roman graves, used exclusively for the burial of prestigious men, while beneath the floor are graves of the nobles of Pisa. I really like this photo, and I think its simplicity works to an advantage.  Nevertheless, I do think the exposure could be reduced a little in the editing stage and this will be executed if I decide to utilise this image in further stages of the project. The photo has a very minimalistic aesthetic as the clean and crisp sky dominates the composition. This will be ideal as it provides a blank canvas for me to illustrate upon. I really like the way that the graveyard dome is only just peaking over the square walls. Its almost a reminder that death is always a part of life and that it cannot be ignored nor forgotten. Despite the beauty and life symbolised through the inner square, death lingers within the background, watching. 

In the final photo of the set, I have captured The Baptistery of St. John. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Square of Miracles. The building is the largest baptistery in Italy and an example of the transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style.  The lower section is in the Romanesque style, with rounded arches, while the upper sections are in the Gothic style, with pointed arches. The Baptistery is constructed of marble, as is common in Italian architecture. As it shares the same unstable ground as the tower, the baptistery also has a slight lean of 0.6 degrees towards the cathedral. I found this baptistery really beautiful and am happy with the photo I have taken of it. There is an attractive sense of light and dark as we the find  details of the architecture pop into the foreground. I really like how the light source is coming from the left side and it consequently casts one side of the baptistery in light and the other in darkness. The sky works in cooperation with the image here as an absence of clouds and colourful blue tone makes the building more prominent within the landscape. 

Next, we have the images that focus primarily and almost entirely on the famous Leaning Tower. Tower of Pisa is more accurately referred to simply as the bell tower, or campanile. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the piazza’s crowning glory. Although only a third as high as the Washington Monument, it was a miracle of medieval engineering, probably the tallest bell towers in Europe. With the spiralling exterior columns ranged around eight stories, I found that the tower of Pisa looks like a massive wedding cake. The construction of Tower of Pisa began in August 1173 and continued for about 200 years due to the onset of a series of wars.The top of the leaning tower of Pisa is about 17 feet off the vertical and the tower is also slightly curved from the attempts by various architects to keep it from leaning more or falling over.Many ideas have been suggested to straighten the Tower of Pisa, including taking it apart stone by stone and rebuilding it at a different location. In the 1920s the foundations of the tower were injected with cement grouting that has stabilized the tower to some extent. In the first image, I have tried to capture the tower individually. Although the horizon line needs to be straightened, I like the image and think it would be suitable for illustration. The tower holds a cylindrical shape that exists frequently in everyday life and ordinary objects. This will make it easy to transform the tower into something mundane. The next two photos share a nice sense of depth and perspective. There is a clear perception of dimension with immerses the viewer. Both photos are essentially the same, except one is landscape in orientation and the other is portrait. The benefit of the portrait is that we can get a complete spectacle of the tower, allowing us to see its peak. As a result, I prefer this version of the image. In addition to this, there is also a small pigeon sat upon the statue that is more identifiable within the first photo. In the final photograph, I have tried to capture both the Tower and the Cathedral. Pisa Cathedral is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Square of Miracles in Pisa.  It is a notable example of Romanesque architecture. Construction on the cathedral began in 1063 by the architect Buscheto, and expenses were paid using the spoils received fighting against the Muslims in Sicily in 1063. The church was erected outside Pisa’s high middle age-era walls, to show that Pisa that was so powerful, it had no fear of being attacked. I like this photo and feel like it a complete overview of the square and what to expect from Pisa. The marble of both buildings beautifully reflects the natural sunlight rendering both sites as bright and powerful in lighting.

For my second day travelling, I visited Pompeii, an ancient-roman city near modern day Naples. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Pompeii is one of the most significant proofs of Roman civilisation and, like a book, provides outstanding information on the art, customs, trades and everyday life of the past. The city has remained intact until the present day, not only as far as its buildings are concerned, but also as regards the contents inside the houses and shops, providing a fascinating picture of daily life.

This was a fantastic location to visit, and provided me with lots of photographic opportunities that I did not expect. I was extremely surprised by the scale of the ancient city, as I had previously believed that it was just a couple dozen ruins and small houses. Nevertheless, I was blown away by the site, confronted by intact theatres, roads, mansions and shops. This truly enables you to visualise what this city would have looked and functioned like before the disaster. The sky was clear and the sun was high in the sky, generating some beautiful shadows across the town that made excellent photograph opportunities. The goal on this shoot was to capture interesting backdrops and environments for my digital illustrations. This would involve trying to take pictures with basic compositions that are not too crowded nor hectic. Its incredibly important that the lines and marks i overlay upon these images stand out to the audience, and they must therefore not clash with the details of the photograph. In addition to this, I focused a lot on shadows and lighting. Some excellent silhouettes were being casted from the peculiar and rustic shapes of the ruins, and this is something special that I wanted to draw attention to. I believe this is evident through the images seen within the contact sheet below, which presents the photographs taken on the shoot.

Next, I will be going through a few of the best images from this shoot. These are photographs that are essentially on the shortlist for the next stage in the process, which is the drawing part. Its worth noting that these photographs are not edited and therefore do not meet their complete visual potential. I have not done this yet, as the editing should be dependant upon the nature of the overlaid artwork. I will complete this part during the illustration part.

This photograph was taken within the Quadriportico dei Teatri, also known as the Barracks of the Gladiators. This part of the city was initially used for the audience to stroll and converse during intervals between acts and later as a barracks for gladiators. The portico of the Theater was built in the early first century BC, as a recreational area or shelter from the rain for the  spectators within the Great and small theatres. Nevertheless, after an Earthquake, it was completely renovated and expanded,  changing its function into a school for gladiators. I like the shot I have taken here as there is an appealing palette of colours and interesting lighting composition. The photograph features a warm set of colours, the greens and oranges of the field and blue of the sky creating a summery, positive atmosphere. The large head statue within the foreground, incorporates some interesting textures, as generating from the rusty, cracked metal. I like how we only see one side of the statues face as this produces a sense of mystery and intrigue.  In addition to this, some vivid shadows are being casted from the sunlight as we see one surface of the ruin in the background masked in darkness. Nevertheless, a contrast is made as the highlight of the sky and pillars work nicely in juxtaposition with the shadows. These pillars are a pivotal component of the photograph working extremely effectively to generate a sense of perspective. The pillars start in the foreground and as they follow the natural flow of the courtyard they lead the eye of the viewer towards to the background. Instinctively, our eyes follow the positioning of the pillars and directing us towards the arch in the background and eventually the sky. This would be a perfect place to include an illustration. 

In this photograph, I have tried to capture some of the wall art within the Forum Baths. There were two separate bathing areas, one for men and one for women and there were two separate entrances. After the earthquake in 62 AD, the baths were restored and were being used again when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. This picture shows the tepidarium or warm room of the Forum baths. The warm room was heated with hot air provided by a brazier which is at the back of the room. The walls are covered with a series of alcoves which would have been used for storing oils and other bathing accessories. These alcoves are decorated with terracotta giants holding up the architrave. You can see these sculpted figures within the photograph, lining the walls of the room. The focal point of this image is the lighting, which is dynamic and atmospheric. The room is casted in darkness, but a small leak of light that shines from the ceiling illuminates this segment of the wall, revealing the Terracotta figures. This ray of light glows upon the surface of the sculptures, highlighting the intricacies in texture as we see the powerful, carved torsos of the giants. There is an intense and compelling contrast created from this as the golden highlights clash violently with the surrounding blacks. It almost produces a heightened sense of scale as these tiny wall sculptures look like gigantic, powerful men. The fact that a lot of the content of image is shrouded in darkness, constructs a sense of mystery and fear. We see the strong muscular figures fade into the darkness as the escape the vision of the audience and camera. We are left wondering how many more live within the shadows. I really like this photograph and although it may be quite difficult, I would love to try and impose some form of illustration upon it.

This final photograph is quite basic, but I do really like it. It is very successful in providing a response to my primary intentions, which was to capture simple and minimal environments to draw on. This part of the city is called the Forum. A huge grassy rectangle flanked by limestone columns, the Forum was ancient Pompeii’s main piazza, as well as the site of gladiatoral battles before the Anfiteatro was constructed. The buildings surrounding the forum are testament to its role as the city’s hub of civic, commercial, political and religious activity. One thing I really like about this photograph is that you can see Mount Vesuvius in the background. This was of course the volcano that erupted and destroyed the ancient city. The large cloud that is present within the photograph almost makes it look as if the volcano is erupting as it is positioned directly above the volcano peak. This creates a really though-provoking background. In the foreground we again see a clever use of pillars, as these columns lead our eye throughout the composition of the image. There is a lot of empty space for me to work with here, which is why I its a perfect photograph for my idea.