Visual Narrative - Style Conflict

Why is it so difficult to work in new ways, and so easy to fall back on what you know you can do, the way you've always worked? Is it fear of failure? Is it simply not knowing how to make that change? Is it lack of confidence in your ability to change?

I have been very conscious recently when creating my book that the work I am making is somewhat very similar to the work I have always made; black fine liner, intricate detail. It's how I know how to work, and despite it being technically tiring and difficult, I am comfortable with this way of working, a reason perhaps why I find it so difficult to not work in this way.

HOWEVER,
I do feel that for this specific project, this approach was appropriate and considered. My book's aesthetics aim to reflect that of the map I found at Ferrybridge, which is all black, detailed mechanical drawings. It would not have been appropriate to use loose brush work for example.
Also the work that I was making for this project was an attempt to challenge myself, to tell a story of a place in an abstract and subtle way and to devise a diagrammatic system for a narrative. Although I may not have fully exhausted this idea or succeeded totally in what I set out to do, the intention for challenge was there.

Change

Something I am very keen to change is my approach to image making, that is why I am here and that is what I am ultimately keen to learn, explore and develop throughout this course. I am going to make a concentrated effort to push this and stick to this with all further projects.

To do this, in the next brief I am going to:

• NOT touch a fine liner,
• NOT pencil out drawings before I execute them,
• use techniques other than drawing, 
• approach the work and the ideas abstractly, visually and conceptually, in a way that I have never before.

I need to stick to my rules and make a change. I need to excite myself again in image making and really push what I am doing.

I NEED to hear 'that's not very you' more and more and more.