'Feel Something' is an ongoing open-ended project I've been working on for a couple of years adding cinematic elements to portraits to add a emotional narrative to the images. The Project was inspired by the band Movements and their album Feel Something hence the name.​

Over the years I have worked with multiple models from varied backgrounds who were interested in visual storytelling this led to a large selection of images creating multiple narratives that all intertwine, some of the images are candid, behind the scenes, sports fashion and some general portraits, however all these images together have brought together with a hidden narrative and cinematic aesthetic ​

Miro Board

Using Miro, I collated all my images I shortlisted for the publication and started to pair them up to add a extra layer of narrative, after testing out multiple pairings and orderings i decided to have each image as a standalone and focus the concept of my publication of breaking down the image as you red through the book, I experimented with cropping the immage and as you turn the page a part of the image was removed but it seemed extremely unnatural and didnt fit my theme and aesthetic so I looked at other ways to break down the image.

Colour separation

I decided the concept of breaking down the colour channels was the best way to express my concept, from this I looked into screen printing and other print methods that would let me achieve splitting the colour channels but being able to keep them as a full image that could be taken apart, this was a lot more difficult than i had expected and it took me a while to figure out how to do this, at this point i got lost in process, different ways to split channels, halftoning and preparing for print in multiple ways and I tested out my concept using tracing paper with the half tone screen print

Materials

after testing on translucent paper like tracing paper and very thin Vellum I decided that I wanted thicker more rigid material to print on and decided i wanted to print on glass, however with that not being a viable option for a published book, i went with acetate with its clear and rigid quality, the strength of acetate will allow it to retain its integrity whilst being moved a lot whilt having the see-through quality i needed to be able to build and break my images how I had planned. I compared my original test on the acetate next to a actual print on 270gsm superfine paper to compare the quality side by side, i was extremely happy with the first test and continued to print my prototype on standard copier paper

I treated my digital files as they were being sent to screen print and used half toning to create my final imaged that would be printed in ink on the acetate in the individual colour channels of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

Binding

For binding, I was immediately drawn towards ring binding as its stability and brutal look really worked with my images and publication, with rind binding the imaged will always be lines up and easy to break down the image page by page without any distortion that a usual paper book gutter would have, on my prototype I tested out a very simple 2 point saddle binding

Artist's Statement

Feel something has been my only continuous project I've shot for the last 3 years and the opportunity to self-publish any of my work really have my work a home and a physicality I hadn't previously considered being a possibility, the concept of breaking down emotions in a physical form gave me the avenue to expand my work after a point where i thought it was at its peak,

As the title reads, I want viewers to 'feel something' and break down the images to make their own narrative from these images, no context, no help, just emotion on the page.

Evaluation

This project really gave me the opportunity to let loose and just run with my own ideas and work instead of using my usual peer network i went on my own and just played with the process until I was happy. This was the first time in a long time i have made work that i am proud of and still want to continue on with, it really resonated with me that when i have my freedom i can create work well about my usual expectation and standard, working digitally really is my home within the creative industry and the majority of this project just let me flourish.

If i was to re-do the project i would like to bind my work myself and change the layout a little bit to make it a little easier to digest as a viewer

Screen Printing

CMYK screen printing is where a image is separated and made into a stencil to then be printed on the desired materials in 4 stencils (CMYK) I used this process to get my images ready for print and made my images into dummy screen print stencils before applying the colour and printing onto acetate instead of the screens that would normally be used, using this method gave me the ability to offset my colour channels to make the full image be as true to original as possible (as seen in the pictures above) a black and white variation of the split colour channels. I have experience with screen printing in the past with my own clothing brand i once tried to create and was comfortable using this technique as it is something ive already dove into in the past both personally and in the design world.