https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey Twelve Key Moments en-us 2021-07-31 09:24:34 UTC 2023-01-23 15:29:18 UTC hello@padlet.com zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665479905 From early teenage
My earliest influences were from Japanese, and also Chinese traditions of landscape art and meditation and Islamic calligraphy:

- Mindful practice 'being in the moment' performing spontaneous brush strokes built on disciplined experiment.

- Abstraction and work in black and white.

- Humility in relationship between people and place.

- Creative perspective.

I took a course in Eastern ink painting in 2018 with Peter Cavaciutti starting to learn how to control and work with sumi-e ink.



]]> 2021-07-31 09:37:31 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665479905 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665480048 I never enjoyed art at school - my best friend and also my mother were much better than me. Our daughter was also exceptionally good at drawing from an early age.

My interest in drawing started in 2005 when our daughter decided she would rather go shopping with friends than go to an art class we had paid for. So, rather than waste the money, I decided to give it a try. I had an inspiring teacher call Zoe who introduced me to lots of new ideas about perspective, selective drawing and negative space. So I started to take more classes in life drawing and basic drawing at our local White House Arts.

The real push came in 2009-2010 as I was recovering from breast cancer and had to take 6 months out from work. Someone suggested I sign up for a degree with OCA to take my mind off immediate concerns.

OCA Painting Certificate 2010-2011 I studied drawing, watercolour and painting with Jim Unsworth and Jan Malascek.

- Exploring mark-making
- Working in different dry and paint media
- Composition, negative space and leading lines
- Colour theory
- Embracing 'happy accidents' and learning from unhappy ones.
- History of art theory and movements.

After the Certificate I continued to take practical classes, but once my health was normal again  it was professionally difficult to justify time out of work for painting, so I switched to Photography and video which had more practical use in consultancy.]]> 2021-07-31 09:38:13 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665480048 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483041 I started the Visual Communications degree in 2012 with a clear aim to improve my graphic design skills related to my consultancy in pictorial methodologies.

OCA Book Design Module with Christian Lloyd
encouraged me to:
- explore different global visual cultures, particularly Islamic and African traditions
- think creatively about typography and layout
- experiment with different physical media
- experiment with different types of papers and surfaces
- start to think about narrative
- start to think about marketing and audience.

]]> 2021-07-31 09:50:29 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483041 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483087 I started an OCA Photography degree with tutors Jesse Alexander and Simon Barber. This gave me much more technical confidence, understanding of documentary narrative and introduced me to many sources of photography inspiration. But I found the amount of pc work difficult with RSI on top of work. So I just continued for personal development, focusing on documentary.

My most formative module was Landscape Photography In 2016  with Jesse Alexander. This introduced me to:
- political theory of landscape, including Edgelands and psychogeography.
- Blurb self-publishing
- different forms of visual narrative: single-image, sequential, time-based and interactive.]]> 2021-07-31 09:50:42 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483087 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483146 I started working with video for my professional work around 2005. More recently I have been particularly interested in possibilities of textless animation as a means of communicating concepts and experiences globally, avoiding the need for translation or literacy.

2019 - 2021 my Visual Research with Emma Powell focused on animation of drawings from workshops I facilitated in communities in Africa and Asia. This research introduced me to:
- different pc and iPad animation software
- different global traditions of animation
- combining multiple animation techniques for documentary animation.
This was supplemented by a period of mentoring by 2D animator Howard Wimshurst. This helped me really understand the animation process, and also introduced me to the professional animation software TVPaint which enables very painterly animation styles and linking different media, particularly when combined with After Effects or Premiere.

2020 Moving Image: animation with Ruth McLennan
Introduced me to:
- underlying principles of animation like 'boil' and 'eye trace'
- stop motion animation
- animation using physical media
- storyboarding and narrative
- many new sources of animation inspiration.]]> 2021-07-31 09:50:57 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483146 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483178 Sketchbooks have been an important part of all my OCA courses.

I have also taken weekend and on-line sketchbook courses with Cambridge-based artist Karen Stamper. These introduced me to many new techniques, and also concertina sketchbooks.

2020 OCA Illustration Sketchbooks personal development course with India Ritchie
Introduced me to:
- incorporating objects into my sketchbooks
- being much more iconoclastic and playful with pages
- using drawing implements and substances from a location to illustrate it.- ]]> 2021-07-31 09:51:06 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665483178 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665499296 From early teenage
My father was a semi-professional photographer and I loved helping him in his darkroom. Watching images slowly emerge from black sheet of paper was magical. He also experimented a lot with inverted, more abstract images and 'puzzle pictures'. 

I started taking my own photographs more seriously during travels for doctoral and post doctoral anthropological research. Then consultancy with development agencies in Africa, Asia and Latin America to record landscapes, people and training workshops.]]> 2021-07-31 11:07:41 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665499296 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665501981 2014 - 2021 OCA Illustration degree modules with Christian Lloyd and Emma Powell. These enabled me to continue to improve my drawing and painting skills. I also worked more digitally. Particularly important parts of my visual journey were:

• starting to draw from memory
• understanding visual hierarchy
• experimentation with hybrid media
• experimentation with iPad software like Procreate
• further work with visual narrative.

]]> 2021-07-31 11:19:38 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665501981 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665502011 I decided to take OCA Printmaking modules as part of my Visual Communications degree because I wanted to continue with my earlier interest in art and physical media alongside my digital work - partly because of RSI. This has now become a key part of my practice, working in many different printmaking media, taking practical courses at St Barnabas Press and Curwen Print Studios in Cambridge.]]> 2021-07-31 11:19:47 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665502011 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665502148 I joined Cambridge Camera Club in 2016. But started to be much more active in 2020 during Lockdown.

The Digital Techniques sessions introduced me to new Lightroom and Photoshop techniques, and also new software like NikFX and Topal Lab that are now key parts of my Photography practice, and also for digitising and manipulating illustrations and artwork.

The Apertures Critique Sessions are a very good audience for feedback from both a traditional photographic technical perspective and more creative ideas. This has given me more confidence, and also awareness of different reactions from different audiences.

The image above was one of three photographs accepted for the CCC Annual Exhibition in 2021.]]> 2021-07-31 11:20:27 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665502148 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665543206 My pictorial visual communications work was prompted by necessity as a means of reducing my dependence on writing and pc for consultancy work. I started working a lot more with systems mapping, concept diagramming and participatory pictorial methodologies. And using shorthand sketchnotes, photography and video to document my work. This included learning digital diagram software like Inspiration, Mindjet and graphics software like Adobe, Corel and Premiere and Flash. ]]> 2021-07-31 13:36:31 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665543206 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665550472 My current Visual Communications practice with tutor James Pyman brings together the different aspects of my work: illustration, photography, printmaking and moving image.

What I found particularly useful in VCAP was the creative processes and prompts to help me experiment with very different approaches to an image. Before deciding exactly how to proceed.]]> 2021-07-31 13:56:16 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1665550472 zemniimages https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1672072321 OCA short course with Garry Clarkson - private internal view for OCA only.

Provided a framework of derive methodologies that I could work with to introduce some randomness, and also multiple perspectives to my initial documentary work.

Introduced me to Eco-poetry as a possible narrative for that could be interesting even for more conservative readers, and provide a way of saying things that are potentially somewhat provocative to a wider audience.

Introduced me to padlets as an interesting interactive addition to my presentation process.

]]> 2021-08-08 14:57:43 UTC https://padlet.com/zemniimages/zemni_visual_journey/wish/1672072321