Christmas Coffee Cups - Inspiration

Caffe Nero

My housemate (from creative advertising) came in to the Illustration studio to say hi and showed me her coffee cup, she said the design reminded her of my work (which to be honest I was very happy to hear as its a nice design). I would love to have a go at designing my own packaging, which I may do soon if I have enough time just to see if I can!

Digital Skills

I wanted a bit of a change from my studio briefs so I decided to make some personal work today, without the pressure of having to follow the requirements of a brief.

I had a quick play around on Photoshop with shape based imagery. I chose to do a bit of fan art of Beyonce from her Lemonade album which I am obsessed with at the moment. I want to start using shape and small areas of texture more within my work. This can be particularly effective, for example - on the hat, I like the subtle areas of tone on the image.

Commission - Secret Garden

Brief

A lady who owns a local business (flower shop) in Nottingham approached me with a commission to create a design for the front banner of her shop. She was very specific about what she wanted so that made my job very easy! The oddest thing for me was having to think about type as the main focal point of the image. I didn't have much time to spend on it so I wanted to keep it simple, yet still follow the requirements of the brief - making it appropriate for a florist.

I did a couple of different versions - one with a gate and one with a key, using the same typography for each. I decided to design the logo using vectors so I could get smooth clean lines and develop my digital skills a bit more. I want to start forcing myself to use Adobe Illustrator more often, so I become less scared of it!

SWOT & PEST McDonald's

P.E.S.T - fore casting what's going to happen.

Political

- Government regulations.

- Trade.

- Environment policy.

- Employment laws.

- Shopping centres, where something is situated.

Economic

- Economic growth.

- Shifts in minimum wage.

- Inflation, etc. 

Social

- Demographic and cultural aspects of companies market.

- Population growth.

- Age distribution.

-Immigration.

- Religion.

- Ethics, lifestyle.

- Education and health.

Technological

- Delivery of service, etc.

- Role of internet.

- Self service (robots replacing people).

- Apps, etc.

SWOT

Strength

I think my strengths lie mostly in craftsmanship and being able to create an overall tone/atmosphere within my work, which is also the aspect of my practice that I enjoy most. The overall look of something and making my work look clean-cut/professional is very important to me, however I want to start to think more about how I can apply a feeling/message more clearly in my work.

Weakness

The main weakness within my practice which I identified during first year and am making an effort to work on is the generation of ideas, thinking too quickly about how I want the final image to look - the aesthetic, before I have refined my roughs properly. I think this is sometimes due to getting too excited about making things straight away so I skip a set in between. As I progress through Level 5 I want to have this in the back of my mind, exhaustively drawing out every idea I have until I am completely happy with the concept before proceeding to the final illustrations.

Opportunity

The opportunities I am interested in taking are mostly to do with books/narrative and enhancing my own digital skills, which is something I am making an effort with at the moment. I would also like to take my practice into more editorial briefs, recently I have been really interested in this and want to start creating images, working from articles. Another thing I realised recently was how much I enjoy working from literature and writing in general.

Threat

Threats to my practice could include other practitioners who are high in demand or have a similar practice. Also, taking on too much work at one time, so balancing my own time between projects is a big thing I need to remember to manage. I think the main threat to my practice is myself, I often stop myself from putting my work out there and I tend to shy away a bit when people ask to see what I do. This year I aim to change my attitude towards this and become more confident when presenting and talking about my practice.

Study Task 2

Publishing & Book Design

Editorial & Reportage

Character & Narrative

Product & Packaging

Retail & Merchandise

Object & Environment

Advertising & Promotion

Where does my work sit within the creative industries?

At the moment I think my work sits mainly within the 'Publishing & Book Design', 'Editorial & Reportage' and 'Character & Narrative' industries. I am not too sure about the specialism of my work yet, but hopefully this is something I can continue to develop and hone in on as the year unfolds.

Where do I want my work to sit within the creative industries?

I would like to focus on making my work more relevant to other industries as well as developing my skills in the ones I feel I am already attached to, especially 'Product & Packaging' which sits well with 'Retail & Merchandise'. Hopefully I will begin to visualise how my work can evolve to fit these sectors with the professionalisation of my practice. Following this, I think especially with the collaboration of other practitioners in other design courses I could develop my work so it is malleable to a variety of other industries.

Thought Bubble

Morning

As all my house mates & co. were going to Thought Bubble on Saturday I decided to go in with them to look around before my shift as Student Ambassador started at 1pm. This year worked out really well for me because I got a free wristband for the festival, last year I remember spending an awful lot of money!

sneaky photo of Richard drawing in my book

Richard Ball - Vectormania

I found this beautiful book in the royal armouries room. Richard was a very nice chap and after chatting to him for a bit he did a little drawing in the front of my copy! I am fascinated by people who can use vectors so creatively.

Afternoon

I spent the afternoon on the LCA stall working as a Student Ambassador. Me and Naomi (third year) had a chat about the course and I asked her a few questions about what I can expect next year. We also took it in turns to have a wander around the stalls where I bumped into my buddy Robbie from my Art Foundation course in Nottingham!

Louise Lockhart Guest Lecturer

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/469078117417838977/

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/195273333820790378/

Printed Peanut

I found it really interesting to learn about Louise's inspirations for her work, especially in other practitioners such as Henri Matisse Jackum Nordstorm, Jonny Hannah, Madalena Matoso and Freja Erican. Her insight into the difference of researching with books rather than entirely on-screen was also something I completely agree with - there is a richness and physicality about a book in your hand. Let's not all becoming robots whose only inspiration derives from a screen.

Textures

Textures are something I really enjoy making and want to start collecting more of. Especially against a digital process, a texture can add so much to a piece of work.

At the end of her talk I asked Louise some questions about her process. I thought it was interesting that her work was made using white paper cutouts, textures and colour are added afterwards on Photoshop. I even got a free badge!

Fabric Screen Printing - T Shirts

Fabric Screen Printing

For Halloween me and and my buddy Shelly wanted to learn to print on to t shirts, mainly to save on money but also to try something new! We never had any inductions in how to screen print onto fabric but we thought we could probably work it out by asking other people in the print room.

Working it out

I asked my old flat mate Emily, a printed textiles student, to help us with exposing the screen and sorting out the inks. However, she could only get us so far as it seems none of printed textiles know how to print on to a t shirt, they normally work with one sheet of fabric. Once we had prepped our screen we asked Mike (the print room technician) how we could do what we wanted. He was very helpful and advised us on how to pin the t shirt and to put newsprint in between the layers so the ink doesn't seep through. The rest was pretty much the same as printing on to paper!

Finishing touches

To make sure we could actually wash our tops after we printed them, Mike told us to iron each one with newsprint for 5 minutes. This meant that the ink was fully embedded into the material. I am actually incredibly surprised that it actually worked, it took us a while to know what we were doing but I am so happy it paid off. I am excited to try this process again using my own imagery.

Collaborative Workshop - Banana Magnet

This was such a crazy weird day!

#sluglife

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/524669425317764318/

Collaboration

Working with a variety of students from Graphic Design and Animation as well as illustration made a nice change, it almost felt like being back at school a little bit. I also really enjoyed the process of having to create something as a team in so little time, although I don't think it went to plan in the end!

The time limit was a bit stressful but a good exercise in delegation and splitting a work load between a group of people. I almost wish we had more time to get to know the people from the other courses as it all felt a bit rushed. Hopefully we will get more opportunities to work together in future projects, I am looking forward to collaborating for responsive. Our idea was based around a slug theme park and we came up with the slogan 'slug-life'. I had never worked from such a random idea before but the day was a lot of fun! I don't think I necessarily cared too much about the outcome of the idea, mainly because it felt so chaotic and I knew in such a short amount of time the ad probably wouldn't be conducive of all of our actual skills and qualities.

Study Task 1

Identify 5 things you have learned so far on the programme

+ Digital skills, using vectors on Adobe Illustrator and tools in Photoshop.

+ Printing, screen print, mono, etc. - Printing on fabric and paper.

+ How to work with placement of shape, cut paper, etc.

+ How to make a book on Indesign. Eg. concertina, leaflet.

+ How to make editorial images - Composition.

Identify 5 things that you want to know more about

+ How to add texture to vectors, more digital skills.

+ Hand made typography.

+ More print techniques.

+ Making moving images - GIFs

+ Creating my own websites

Identify 5 skills that you think are your strengths

+ Craftsmanship - became accustomed to using paper and shapes - detail.

+ Including a narrative within an image.

+ Roughing - the process of coming up with ideas.

+ Researching.

+ Using my sketchbook to work through and develop my ideas.

Identify 5 things that you want to improve

+ Digital skills, learn to make images entirely digitally.

+ Using colour, experiment with using brighter, more punchy colours - not being afraid of them.

+ Using visual metaphors within my work.

+ Be more open minded to different ways of working.
+ Using more interesting compositions.

Identify 5 practitioners that demonstrate your interest in Illustration
+ Lisa Perrin - book covers.
+ Andy Singleton - paper sculptures. Beci Orpin - paper shapes. Rob Ryan - paper cut.
+ Jon Klassen - funny kid's books.
+ Dieter Braun - want to learn to use vectors & print textures.
+ Eleni Kalorkoti - shape. Laura Carlin - atmosphere & technique.

Identify 5 websites/online resources that demonstrate your areas of interest within the creative industries
+ brwnpaperbag.com - illustration blog.
+ nobrow.net - books.
+ centralillustration.com - Central Illustration Agency.
+ dutchuncle.co.uk - Illustration blog.
+ www.n8w.com - illustration blog.

Mega Crit

Texture

Today I chose to take photographs of work and processes that I want to start introducing into my practice. Above are a couple of textures I found which I liked the colours of. I really want to find new ways of making texture, alongside my new found love of paper cuts to create some new and interesting designs. Using print methods and colour may also be helpful to me. There is a fearlessness to the way they were produced which I admire very much, sometimes I am a bit too careful when I produce my own work.

3D

I really want to explore 3d illustration more at some point. I always seem to forget that this is available to me and my practice. The work above is so playful and humorous.

Aesthetic

This sketchbook was beautiful. The tiny delicate drawings are so pleasing to the eye and I think this is an example of how important craftsmanship and aesthetic are, I am not sure if there was a deeper concept behind but the work but in this case I don't think that was necessary. 

 

Composition

I thought these pieces were incredible, the final outcome itself is very professional looking and well designed but what struck me most was the sketchbook work and how collage was used to play around with composition - what a brilliant idea! As I have been working with paper recently I am getting used to moving things around on a page before committing to a layout, I definitely want to try this for compositional roughs in the future.

Playing with Paper

I feel like over summer I have had the opportunity to play around with materials and drawings I enjoy. Not having to think about the reason why other than that has been nice and taken some pressure off. I think I am ready to get back into the swing of things now though, I miss having projects to work towards and research.

Pinterest and Instagram

I have been using Instagram and Pinterest a lot more during this summer. This started whilst I was in Italy, I wanted to record my travel sketchbook and I continued to do this when I got back to Nottingham. I m enjoying the process of documenting certain pieces of my work and also discovering new illustrators that make me look at my own work in a different way, my work is becoming more shape based as the use of paper has become an essential part of my practice.

Fan Art

Making a paper Gary Oldman was a bit of fun. He is my all time favourite actor so it was only a matter of time before I produced a piece of work around him. My sister also has a deep and profound love for Alan Rickman (rip) so I made one for her too, sassy Snape.

People Watching

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/493918284113468845/

This summer I have realised just how much I enjoy people watching. Thinking about people's behaviour, what they are doing and where they are going is something I want to bring in to my practice more - working from life and observation. I have thought a lot about this, especially the times in Italy when I was completely alone. I find human interaction fascinating when you don't know anything about the individual person.

Response from the Beatrix Potter Brief

To congratulate you on your highly commended artwork we would like to offer you the opportunity to select 4 events from the LICAF 2016 programme and we will send you the tickets. We do hope you can take advantage of the free tickets and attend the festival.

I am extremely happy with that! I got an email today saying that my work made it in to the exhibition. I really didn't even like it after I sent it off so I wasn't expecting anything to come of it, I will have a look at what events will be on and whether I can attend!

An evening with Jessie Burton

Jessie Burton wrote 'The Miniaturist' which is one of my favourite books, so when I saw that she was doing a talk at Waterstones for her new novel I got tickets. Listening to her talk was very insightful and I loved hearing about her process and what it took for her to become a 'successful' author.

Comparison

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/527061962624375738/

I need to stop comparing myself to other people/practitioners who I admire. I find that I work much better when I am doing my own thing with some influence from things/people that inspire me in the world. Basically I think I am spending too much time online because its summer I read a lot of articles online, I find that I like to do things - then feel guilty for not doing work. However, I have also realised (being in Italy) that doing things makes me feel a lot more inspired from life - then I feel a lot less stressed out about work I produce. A bit of a rant more than anything but just an observation about myself and my practice.

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

I want to start blogging about the books I read as I feel like the different stories have an influence on me and the way I think about things, therefore on my work too.

I started reading 'The Girl on the Train' right before and during my first week in Italy expecting it to last me through the majority of my time there. From the very beginning I was so addicted, my favourite genre of film/book is a psychological thriller (not horror), something you really have to think about to work out with lots of plot twists, so this was definitely right up my alley! I wish that I had taken my time a bit more when reading it because it was finished within a few days :( this is now my favourite book! VERY excited for the film but I hope they do the suspense and the characters justice.

Favourites

The protagonist (Rachel) is an alcoholic, not someone you can necessarily understand and who has made a lot of bad decisions. She changes her mind repeatedly which was extremely interesting and exciting for me in relation to the story and the possibilities of where it could go.

Bergamo Architecture

My daily routine of walking around Bergamo and taking the kids to the park inspired my drawings. I have always liked drawing interesting buildings and recording the detail. Italy has some of the most beautiful and unique architecture I have ever seen, even the ordinary houses were captivating to look at because of the window shutters, flower pots and balconies. 

Milan

Duomo Terraces

I went to Milan twice, my favourite part of going to the main city was going to the top of Duomo on the terraces with another Au pair I befriended, Katie. The detail was just crazy, from the ground you can't really tell but the top of the spires are carved people. Although the heat was ridiculous and we had the fantastic idea to walk up to the top instead of the lift (idiots) it was a great experience and I spent a lot of time finding details carved into the architecture.

People

Whilst here I noticed the amount of people in the main tourist areas and what they were doing, being alone means that I could people watch an awful lot which I liked and think about what they were doing or where they were going. I also spoke to a lot of people, more than I would usually if I was with someone else - I recorded some of my conversations in memos on my phone and plan to work from these.

Sforza Castle Milan

My last weekend in Italy I went back to Milan to visit the Sforza Castle. It was a crazy hot day (37 degrees) and I walked there from the station, so by the time I was there I was very happy to find some galleries and go inside where it was cooler! I liked wandering around the ins and outs of the different areas and I saw a Michelangelo (teenage mutant ninja turtle voice) sculpture. Although I enjoyed the galleries, my favourite part was the architecture of the buildings.