Developing Sketches in Adobe Fresco - iPad

While working on my first sketch, I decided to create a collage that represents the bustling and claustrophobic atmosphere of a city. I aimed to convey a sense of oppression and extreme surveillance on the subject. I used a selection of photographs I had taken of buildings in London, carefully choosing each image based on its potential to fit into my initial sketch.

To start, I used the ruler tool to outline some rough guidelines, which are shown in pink. I then spent some time cutting out the buildings using tools like the lasso, magic wand, and eraser. Additionally, I utilized the Transform tool to adjust the perspective, distort, and skew the buildings so that they aligned with my guidelines. Towards the end I started to redefine my guidelines in reference to my previous sketch.

Even though I tried different images to achieve the effect I wanted, I ultimately found that I couldn't convey the image I had in mind with this approach. While I did learn a lot about layering and creating a collage in Fresco, I decided to move on to my next sketch.

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As I worked on my second collage, I deviated from the original sketch. It started to feel like an infomercial, and I decided to embrace that feeling. However, I soon realized that doing so would be challenging. When I tried to create my Terms and Conditions using ChatGPT, I struggled to extend them to more than a few pages of text, which wouldn't capture the endlessness I was aiming for.

I thought about using copies of the terms and conditions from social media sites, but after downloading and saving some as PDFs, I discovered that some had up to 50 pages within their terms and conditions. I felt that this would be too limiting, as I would then need to convert these into images and connect each page together before being able to complete this image. In the future, this may be something I could explore non-digitally using printing techniques.

I also considered copying or stretching my terms but decided to play around with one of the versions of the terms I had created instead. I used an image from the photography workshop we had, and used the same cutting techniques from my last attempt. I also adjusted color settings with clipped adjustment layers.

I wanted the terms to feel confusing and hard to read, so I played with the Liquify Transform tool to distort and stretch certain areas. Then I changed the blend mode to something I was happy with, and blended the shadow into the background with a soft eraser brush.

I then layered a hand holding a phone and added a screen that I screen-grabbed from a Google search as an example of a T&C's policy pop-up.

I enjoyed the process of using real photographs to create a simplified collage. I would take this further by considering backgrounds or adding factual information, continuing with the feel of an infomercial.

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While working on my third sketch, I realized that I needed a reference photo. I decided to take a picture of myself to use as a starting point for the composition and angle. This would also add a personal touch to my work. My goal with this piece is to capture the feelings of tiredness, casual acceptance, and addiction to technology, specifically the phone in the forefront of the image.

I captured the roughness I had portrayed in my initial sketch by taking a picture of myself in the morning with wild and untamed hair. I decided to illustrate the character rather than using a collage as in my previous images. Using cartoon-like imagery will add a light-hearted element and allow me to focus only on the essential aspects of the subject, such as an empty stare, bags under the eyes and a solemn, bored expression.

I sketched over the photographed, and layered another sketch over the top to define my linework using a pencil brush. I then started to stick together different versions of my T&C's created with ChatGPT, layering these to create the base of my 'dark shadow'.

I decided to simplify the conversation bubbles, as they may confuse the audience into thinking the conversation is with another person and not the T&Cs.

Next time, I might consider using a vector layer instead of pixels to create the outline for my character. However, I liked the rough effect that the pencil line added to the subject. It reminded me of artist David Shrigley and his comedic, hand-drawn sketches. The shadow itself brought to mind a child's storybook, and I will consider continuing to combine these playful elements into my own style of digital illustration.

I could also explore this by having multiple shadows - each a different set of social media T&Cs - that could layer over each other to create a bigger, formidable force. I could use elements of the company's logos or colour themes to highlight each one.

The shadow was appearing flat, so I added some red colour adjustments using blend mode options to create eyes. I also used a white brush to cover some areas of the print in order to create a spookier shadow shape.

This ended up being my favourite of all three sketches, so I decided to develop it further to become my final Digital Artefact.

The Terms have been lost somewhat so next time I will play more with layering and blending options, as well as size and placement. I am overall happy with the illustrated subject, but will refine this using vector layers instead of pixel layers.