Freya Samsa
BA (Hons) Illustration with Animation
My degree show work is a visual narration reflecting the intensity of how impactful words are to children. My research into the use of semiotics to depict evil through historical visual language, particularly influenced by Hieronymus Bosch, allowed me to create a children's book for adults focusing on the negative attributes of emotional abuse.
I work predominantly in ink and charcoal- creating ink paintings for smaller scale pieces and combining ink and charcoal for largescale drawings. My main final outcome for this project was a small publication exploring familial relationships relative to my personal experiences using multiple washes of quink to gradually build atmosphere and contrast. I scanned in my compositions and edited on photoshop, formatting my drawings into bitmaps in preparation for printing on the risograph printer. This left me with my final mock up for my zine where I arranged the pages in an order fit for bookmaking.
As for the text combined with the images, I really like the simplicity of the format I went for in the end as I think it shows the reflection and sanity of my older self’s voice. I feel it nicely contrasts the erratic and dreamlike images with a sense of stability and calmness. Whenever I look through the zine, I find it healing to see my younger distressed self contrasted with the voice of my older, more mature and knowledgeable self. It finally feels like these two parts of me are binding together in a positive nature rather than something I look back on and regretted.
I've learnt a lot about myself during this year and would like to start to focus on designing commercially. Maybe one day I'll come around to colour!
