The freedom of the Kirkstall Forge Brief really appealed to me and seemed a great chance to supplement my creative practice. The brief was to create a piece of contemporary, colourful, innovative artwork to be hung in new Scandinavian style houses built in the Kirkstall Forge area. It also outlines that inspiration and imagery from the surrounding woodland and industrial heritage was required. The £600-1000 prize money indicated that this would be a competitive brief and therefore innovation and uniqueness was required. Therefore, after seeing the Goldfinch featured on their website I decided quickly to make one from paper as I thought this niche medium would fit the brief well. It took about three to four weeks to complete and while making the bird I encountered few problems. My paper practice evolved, I changed to a more high quality glue and acquired smaller scissors better equip for the job. The main issue I encountered was in creating the surrounding set for the shoot. I wholly underestimated how long this would take and equally how much development is required in order to achieve a design that works cohesively. I feel that in the end, this is where I fell short, ultimately resulting in a no win for this brief. I think that the Goldfinch itself works well, it is well made and the beauty of shooting, as oppose to submitting the physical model, was that I could edit out mess/ errors and rig that held the branch up. However, the set in the background appears rushed to me, the colours seem basic and it appears flat in comparison to the bird itself. If I were to improve, I would have budgeted a week rather than a day to create the set, I would have invested in a more diverse palette of colours and experimented further with lighting.
When thinking of pricing, I would estimate I spent 75 hours on this project, thus I would charge approximately £800, considering that the prize money was £600-1000 suggests I'm in the right ball park. Additionally, Lisa Lloyd sells her paper birds for approximately £1000, which is a good guide in this case.
No win from this project was a downer considering how much time I invested into the outcome. However, it was still a personal win, the final image proves a great addition to my portfolio, it received a great reception on social media and is something I’m massively proud of. Not only have I learnt valuable lessons in time management during this brief but I have also homed my abilities with paper and modelling in 3D. Off the back of this brief I will develop my colour theory and set design skills for the purpose of shooting.
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Making:
Final Image:
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