A day in the life: Roughs

Here are my initial rough drawings for the brief 'A day in the life'. I was given an article titled 'Can super Thursday save the UK's Bookshops?'. We were to read the article, and then illustrate it inside given dimensions, considering the tone of voice we would adopt and how best to convey what the article was about. 

At first i really struggled with this article. It's quite a long, drawn out piece of writing and touches on many events and on goings in the world of books. After a lot of thinking and reading over i decided to make illustrations that were pro books, that made you want to read, and that also touched upon other things. It talks about ebooks potentially taking over, and about the drastic drop in bookshops in the UK. I read other articles on the matter just to boost my background knowledge and to form a better opinion. I read an article about how books had an old fashioned beauty that ebooks just can't seem to mimic. That no matter how easy an ebook is, its still ugly. 

 I came up with a few ideas i was happy with, a few are just above. But after the peer feedback on friday i felt my group helped push my ideas amazingly. They were really encouraging and brought new concepts to the table that i hadn't yet considered. 

The ones i will be working on for the finals will be the book with the patterns and trees coming out, but the layout will be completely different so that you read the image from left to right as you normally would. The idea behind it being that books can take you to another world, that a book is a beautiful tool that has so much to offer.
The other will be the homeless man and the rich man, but instead of the rich man holding an ebook, I'm going to change it to a standard book, to show that books are universal, that there need not be a social status or money involved to be able to own a book. That books are part of our culture, of our history and hopefully our future. Possibly they'll be reading the same book to show more of a connection.
 The last one will be the books shouting from the rooftops, to touch on a quote from the article that says 'publishers, booksellers and authors have joined together like this to shout from the rooftops that bookshops are essential, and that they're interwoven with the culture in our country'.

I now need to experiment with colours and draw up some more ideas so that I'm ready to do some final illustrations that I'm happy with.

Cowboys and Indians.

Here are a few very rough drawings for the new 'Cowboys and Indians' brief. I have a feeling I'm going to really enjoy working on this one. Im excited to get stuck in and produce more work for it. These are simply drawings from reference to familiarise myself with what the cowboys and Indians looked like, what they wore, what they did etc. The top two are just quick rough pencil sketches. The other two are fine liners and copics. Unfortunately I'm new to using copics and i didn't realise the would come through the page, but now i know! 

Final photoshop images.

During last weeks photoshop session, we were taught how to apply colour and textures to our images. I already knew somewhat of the colour application, but i'd never thought of adding textures to my work.
Below is a simple example of how i added colour. I changed the levels of the image, and then completely painted over it with a green paintbrush, and then changed the option to multiply, which instantly brings the initial image forward and makes the green the background.

I scanned in my bag when it came to adding texture. Which i thought had a really funky pattern and would add something completely different to my images.

Here are the one's i liked best. They're pretty bright and completely different to my usual work but i think thats why i like them. I used various techniques in each of these images, adding shapes, colour, inverting screening etc. I learnt so much from these photoshop sessions and really didn't think i would enjoy it, but on the whole i thought they were great, and i know they'll be useful to my practice.

 

A-Z poster

To start i explored various themes that interested me and that i felt sparked more ideas for exploration. The one i enjoyed working on the most was the animals, but i wanted to expand this to create a more aesthetically engaging piece. Therefore i took the images of the animals, and worked with them to create something a little more humorous. After a few drawings i came up with a title for the theme, 'The unknown adventures of the animal kingdom'. My aim was to produce images of animals doing things that they would never do. Human like characteristics in the animal world.

Here are a few images of the final piece in progress. 

 I am quite pleased with the final outcome, and i feel i put a lot of effort into it and really hope it shows. The two week brief was challenging on the whole, as you couldn't just get your teeth into one theme, but it really made you work fast and efficiently. Coming up with something for each animal to do or hold or wear was slightly difficult but it really made me think outside the box, which is something i'd like to take into account when working on briefs in the future. Another problem i had was positioning the animals to do these things because its such an unnatural thing to see. For example, the dog driving a car took a good few drawings before i was happy with it. Some, i feel work better than others, but as a collective i feel i achieved what i set out to do. I think if id had a little more time on the brief i would have added more tone and shading, but i don't feel its effected the final outcome too much. I really enjoyed this brief once we started working on our themes, and i liked that my theme was inventive and could be as silly as i wanted it to be.

The feedback sheet was really encouraging. People seemed to like the concept and thought the idea was funny which is exactly what i wanted to achieve. Someone suggested using colour with i thought could have worked, maybe i need to be more adventurous with my use of media.


                            Here's the poster completely finished and on the wall in the studio.

Photoshop workshop.

 Today we learnt the basic techniques on photoshop to make an image straight, cropped to intent and also how to take out what isn't necessary, such as accidental marks or smears from the scanner.
Top image is my original scan. The second is a screenshot that shows me working on the image.
The third is my final outcome. Ive cropped the image, made it a4 size ready for printing. I then changed the levels so as to bring out the blacks     and whites in a more prominent way.

                       This is another image i worked on just to get a little more practice.

Self-Evaluation

Today we had an ideas and themes review. In groups we were asked to evaluate and give feedback on each others work. I found the session really helpful and encouraging, haven been given advice and constructive criticism, i feel positive in the direction i am now going to take this brief. Here is my self-evaluation sheet, that gives my own thoughts on how my work went last week and explains how i will be developing last weeks drawings into a final piece.

A-Z poster

 This week we started our first module. Creating an A-Z poster about ourselves or something were interested in. We were to come up with 10 themes initially, so as not to get stuck drawing the same things over and over, but rather to explore more possibilities and have more choice next week when it comes to selecting one theme.
Here are a few images from the first theme i started which was 'travelling'. Its quite a personal theme to me, and therefore i think i'll branch out and try something different, that would appeal to more people, as the poster needs to be something anyone could and would hang on their wall.

The next theme i chose was animals. I started drawing quite a lot quicker so as to get more done in the time we had. I'm pleased with a few of my animal drawing, but I'm really excited to work into them more.

Expressions and emotions was pretty fun. I took a bunch of photographs of my friends face, and worked from them. I think this could also be a good one to work with. Im really enjoying this brief. Its pretty open which i like.

Drawing from life.

This afternoon we were drawing from observation, from real life objects we brought in. We were again asked to use ink, but this time it was very different. Drawing from life connects you with the subject matter, and its all about translating 3D objects to 2D drawings. Its much more a reflection of the real world through your own eyes. I think for me, its highly important i do more of this.

Here are my drawings from this afternoon. I had a potted house plant to draw from, and at first i took the tame approach of just drawing the leaves. I need to stop being so scared of making mistakes and start being a bit more bold and confident with my work. When i drew more and added more into the image, it really wasn't that bad. I really enjoyed todays session.

Drawing from reference

This morning we were asked to draw form reference. To find a book in the library with photographs we liked, to then draw from. I learnt a lot about drawing from reference today, that its a really useful method in the illustrative world, it helps us understand and visualise things we've never seen, or things we've forgotten. Drawing from reference provides you with a blue print for your own visual discovery. However, illustration is not drawing from a photograph, there has to be more.

Our tools were ink and water today, not what I'm used to at all, so to start i found it pretty difficult. However, the more i drew the better it got. I drew this orangutang. The first few were awful, but the repetitive drawings from reference made me realise what to improve on each time and gave me more ideas of what i wanted to add to make it my own.

Look, think and draw.

 Here are a few of my drawings from the 'look, think and draw brief' we started on Tuesday. It was such an enjoyable brief, with the opportunity to get to know the city and understand what is around us, and how best to get it down on paper. I am definitely too precious with my work, and i would like to get out and do more drawing from life. I really feel i need to build on my confidence when it comes to my work. Trust the lines I'm making and go with it.

 

I think the discovery centre was the coolest place we visited, and I'm really glad we had the opportunity to draw there. I had a little more time to spend on these drawings, so they're a little more detailed. I'd love to go back to the centre and spend even more time drawing all of the incredible items they have in there. Need to draw more! 

Summer brief.

 When i received this brief in the summer, i wanted to do something slightly different, with a theme that ran throughout. I was also really enjoying drawing hands when it came through. Therefore i decided to make it into a puppet show of events and personal summer happenings, to display my summer to the people i had yet to meet.

I like experimenting with alternative media. I used photographs to draw onto, oil pastels, fine liners, posca pens etc to produce my summer project. I didn't incorporate the hands into each one of the 10 images, instead i tied them all to a piece of string, the idea being that if i held it at the top, as a whole it would resemble a puppet show.

 I received some interesting feedback from the second years and other level 4 students. One who said the image above was his favourite, which surprised me because i personally thought that was my worst. He said that i conveyed what had happened without any form of explanation being needed which i thought was really encouraging to hear.

We had to put a piece of paper with a question mark in the top corner next to our summer briefs, both first and second years. We then had the chance to walk around looking at everyones work, and were able to write on the paper what we liked and any constructive criticisms we had. It was an awesome idea. This was what i came back to. It was a really encouraging exercise.