01. Document 1 Work

ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND / WHY WE’RE DOING THIS

As Battenfield explains in The Artist’s Guide, rarely will someone viewing your work ever have the opportunity to see it in person, let alone get the chance to sit with you one-on-one to discuss your thoughts, process and final outcome. As such, our ability to document our work through visual samples and written records is of the utmost importance. Good documentation can elevate the initial impact a work might have on its audience.

For this assignment we will be focusing on the visual aspect of documenting our work, specifically taking quality documentation photographs. Making good choices when documenting work is integral to the success of our portfolios and applications. This assignment will allow us to hone our skills.

By the time we’re done with this project, we will be able to do the following:

  1. Make informed choices about how to set up documentation.
  2. Take acceptable photographs of their works.
  3. Prepare their work samples to be presented on the web and via projection.

STEPS

\\\\ READINGS

First, read the following item:

    • ‘The How-to’s > TOOL #1: WORK SAMPLES’ in Chapter 02 of The Artist’s Guide

\\\\ CHOOSING A WORK AND DOCUMENTING IT

  1. After reviewing the section on work samples, look through your work and choose one of your best pieces to document.
  2. Next, ask yourself ‘What is necessary to show in order to get the feel of this work?’ This question will help you determine what types and how many photographs you may need to take in order to best represent not only the work, but overall concept as well. Choose at least 2–3 different shots of your piece.
  3. After planning your photographs, follow the list under ‘Work Sample Basics’ in the Artist’s Guide and take your photographs. Your photographs will be graded on the 8 bullet-points listed in this section of the book.
  4. As you are setting up your photographs, write down the title, date, medium, size and other information that is important to the piece.
  5. Once you have taken your photographs, open them in Photoshop and prep them. You should maintain three different image files: a RAW file (extensions: RAW or DNG), a working file (extension: PSD) and a low-resolution file (extensions: JPG or PNG). These files will allow you to make changes depending on the requirements of the submission or project you are using them for.
  6. For this assignment, you will need to then prep your images to send via email. Remember: You want your file sizes to be small, but you also want your images to look their best. Play around with the optimization settings until your image has an optimal balance between visual quality and file size.
  7. Label your files with your last name, the title (or shortened title) and a 2- or 3-digit number. Your file names should be in lower-case, with hyphens between each item. For example, your files might be labeled smith-sealandscape-001.jpg, smith-sealandscape-002.jpg, smith-wyldstallion-001.jpg, etc.
  8. Finally, create an image list as a separate document. The list should include the image file name, your image details and written description. For example:
    • smith-sealandscape-001.jpg – Sea Landscape from the Harbor, 2012, oil on canvas, 22” x 30”; Installation view
    • smith-sealandscape-002.jpg – Sea Landscape from the Harbor, detail, 2012, oil on canvas, 22” x 30”; Detail shot emphasizing surface texture
  9. Once you are finished, email your low-resolution images and image list (as a PDF). All emails must be received by 5:00pm to receive any credit.
  10. We will be presenting your piece. You will have two minutes to discuss the work (you can refer back to your written description — see the Jackie Battenfield’s example in The Artist’s Guide), and the presentation will be graded on the overall quality of the documentation images.

\\\\ BRING THE REST OF YOUR WORK

  1. After we present our work, we will then take the rest of class time to look at and choose 4–7 other pieces from our work samples to show in our portfolios.
  2. For this part of the assignment, you will need to bring — to class — all of your work. And I mean ALL of your work.
  3. If your work is too big or too cumbersome to carry to class, then take some basic photographs of your work and bring those to class. NOTE: You do not need to set up perfect documentation photographs of your other pieces; a simple ‘point-and-shoot’ approach will work fine for this part of the assignment; we only need references in order to choose which works will be properly documented later.

GRADING

To get credit for this assignment, you will need to submit the following:

  • Email 2-3 jpgs of your piece, along with an image list. See schedule for deadline. — 5 points
  • Bring either the actual pieces or clear photographs of ALL your other work to be critiqued and edited during class. — 5 points

///////// AUTOMATIC FAILURE

  • Documents not submitted by 5:00pm
  • Files do not open / work
  • Image list does not match submitted images
  • Missing required elements
  • No other work samples brought to class