Communication Worklog *COMPLETE*

Word 4; Communication.

When I began working on the word of communication I started with the idea that modern communication is a contradiction - as it isn't really "communication" as we know it. Everybody can wear a mask of ambiguity. Who do we know who we're talking to, how can we react to stoic text on black and white, and not have any feeling or facial expression put behind it?

This sketch is of one man, communicating as we know it.

For this sketch I wanted to convey the power both the users have in modern communication, the person on the giving end can say anything and get away with it - a free pass to becoming whomever you want to be. But with that, the person on the receiving end also has power to subconsciously control what they read. As the text is black and white, without any hint of tone, character or a face to read - he reader need to fill in the gaps and can interoperate what they see fit to be the message given to them.

Here I was working on a character design for the one wearing the mask of ambiguity. (see above)

In this sketch I was working with the idea how we take communication for granted - not thinking about all of the back-breaking work and evolution of technology that allowed us to communicate this way. Because of this, I gave this picture and "eye-hole" sight view to give a tunnelled-vision impression. And the poles, slightly leaning different ways to show the strain they've taken - representing communication as a whole.

I began to juggle idea of having this final a politically charged piece of art. Still working with the theme of the mask of ambiguity, what if I take one form of communication and turn on it's head with this idea? I chose graffiti as the form of communication I will use, as it and the mask of ambiguity go hand-in-hand. As graffiti artists use aliases, this theme is perfect. But to turn it on it's head - I needed to take it away from the norm, to do this I sketched out a person in power (police officer) graffitiing a question related to himself.
"Who will guard the guardians?" The guardians in question, being him. The subject of his own question -  posing it anonymously

Beginning with a blank slate, I cut out an image of a man on a ladder and gave him a make-shift policeman's hat using the lasso tool and just filling it black. The same technique was used to give him an outstretched arm and bucket of paint (below) 

A mono-chromic colour scheme was used to give the piece an almost newspaper-print feel - used for the sake of being a politically charged piece. To give the man the police logo on his back, I used the magic tool on a front view of the logo - cut it out and skewed it until it was in line with the angle of his back. Below I used the downloaded paint and splatter pack to give life to the grafitti'd phrase - using comic sans as almost a parody, as the font is normally used to convey a sense of carefree-ness and humour. 

It's okay, we've got the police on the matter.