Life's a Pitch: Who Are We?

Having discussed our rival competition recently, we set about today applying the same criteria to our own proposed business model.

At home I went about typing up a business plan including roles for everyone and applying the SWOT analysis to our company. This documentation can be seen here:

Creative Strategy: Lecture - Drew Millward

The illustrator Drew Millward gave a lecture today and discussed his history of what is largely screen printed poster design. It was good to have him come in at a time when I am quite unsure about my skill of screen printing (with OUIL504). He told us that screen printing can be an arduous process but the key is to just keep going with it. It seems like an easy thing to do but can take years to become good at.

This has given me a renewed hope in screen printing and I feel ready to go down to print (which I have been putting off) and actually get some work produced!

Additionally, he seems like a really nice guy who would be great to go down the pub with. This seems like the opposite of myself, I sometimes fear that I'm quite unapproachable to strangers - maybe this is something for me to work on.

Here are a few examples of Drew Millward's work:

Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Drew MIllward on Pinterest.

Life's a Pitch: Pest Workshop

Using the PEST analysis et al that I formed for a current business model (Leeds Zine Fair) we today applied this analysis to our own proposed company model.

Pest is broken down like so -
Political Factors:
Funding allocated to small businesses
Vat and exchange rates
Trade issues

Economical:
Vat and exchange rates
Pricing
Recessions
Increased competition during non-austerity times

Social Factors:
Trends
People less inclined to high street shopping

Technology:
Social media
Online shopping
Production methods

These are all factors that we'll have to consider in our presentation.

Creative Strategy: Hyde Park Picture House

Recently I entered a competition for Hyde Park Picture House - to create a poster for a showing of the film Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

I want to say, I honestly didn't expect to win. My work looked good, but only took me a day or so to complete; it wasn't deserving. But the entry that did win - what a load of garbage! It is literally text on a background that looks like it was knocked up in a few minutes. Horrendous.

Word is that the winning entry was chosen as they are a friend on the staff. Personally I feel that it was a bit silly running a competition if that is the case.

As I said, mine isn't amazing, but it's certainly better than the above image.

Who are They?

Product

Zines

Anthology Book

T-shirts

Postcards

Mugs

Badges

Stickers

Screen Printed Posters

Tea Towels

Book Marks

Digitally Printed poster

Price

Affordable

Dependant on process

Time investment

Resource cost
Zines radically cheaper than Anthology Book
Interest in products

Promotion

Social networks
Website
Posters within city
-- In social venues such as bars
-- On advertisement boards
Radio advertisement
Leaflets
Within localised magazines/newspapers

Place

Somewhere out of the way
Yet easy to find
Internet services such as Etsy etc for zines


Leeds Zine Fair

What are their strengths?
They are well known within the creative areas of Leeds. They welcome guests to participate in producing a zine during the event which can be brought for a small price. Creative types can sell their products there by getting a table. This also creates free advertisement for the event via those participating being vocal of it.

What are their weaknesses?
Small venue which is somewhat out of the way. Can appear to be unapproachable by those outside of the creative community. Not very well advertised. Not much there other than to purchase zines or eat vegan food.

What opportunities have they taken?
They've built an event around zines and look to appeal to those that like to read/create them. They have also incorporated food into the event that jumps on the hipster band wagon. The initiative to produce a zine with contributors is also a neat idea.

What threats do they face?
Overshadowed by Thought Bubble where people also have zines and such to sell. Not very well known outside of creative industry, maybe even just Leeds creative industry. Not a strong location, can be difficult to find. Other than a point of sale method there isn't much else to it.

Political
Individual sellers will have to consider their own VAT etc. There will be additional VAT for renting the property.

Economic
See political concerning VAT.
Was on during a period of austerity and seemed to run okay.
Food was high priced, possibly because of economy, possibly because it was hipster food.
Based around zines, cheap - easy to make etc.

Social
A hidden away place, I only really saw ads on social media/via email.
About zines, a current market trend.
Had a risograph printer, a trend at the moment.

Technology
Had a risograph printer.
Zines varied in quality due to use of differing technologies.

Creative Strategy: Anthony Gormly Ink Drawings

Recently I have been researching the work of Anthony Gormly for OUIL504. His work generally plays upon the intangible, something that I don't feel I'm very good at. I may push forward with this theme, however it seems unlikely that I will make it a pathway for my illustrative career. I'm just not trip enough.

Creative Strategy: Flip Books

I discovered this on Tumblr today.

The idea of making a flip book from animation frames in an interesting one and ties into the ideas we've been exploring in PPP in which illustration can be placed into different categories of use.

For example, this work could be used for television or made into book.

Creative Strategy: Thought Bubble 2014

Soooo… Thought Bubble came and went. Didn't sell much but to be honest I wasn’t expecting to. Some people may be disheartened by this but I’m not. I’ve come to realise that I’ve lost focus with what I enjoy about drawing (and Illustration as a whole).

I tried hard to get stuff ready for Thought Bubble when honestly I don’t think I was or am ready, and that’s not a bad thing necessarily. It just means I have to take a step back to refocus. I need to remember what I love about my work. But most importantly I need to spend more time on my work rather than hurrying to have something in my hand.

A few positive points to point out though. From a networking point of view it was good. I spoke to a gentleman that works for Gosh! Comics who showed interest in me making a zine to sell there and told me to get in touch when I have something I want to sell. I also found I have a few more followers on social networks nearly all of whom attended Thought Bubble. I'm putting their interest down to seeing my work. Finally I spoke to Phillipa Rice about her Soft Spot animations. She was really nice about discussing them with me and informed a large part of her process was finding ways to cheat (this is relevant as I'm currently creating animations for OUIL504). I'm really struggling with my animation brief at the moment so am happy to take on as much advice as possible!

Creative Strategy: Glasses

I purchased glasses on Friday. I've attributed frequent headaches, tiredness and overall lack of focus on my need to wear glasses. I'll now see whether having these improves my productivity and practise.

The glasses I brought came with anti-glare, heightened intelligence and x-ray vision, all of which work rather well.

Sectors and Services

There are two main avenues of production:

The Industry Sector which consists of:
The Primary Sector - Raw materials etc.
The Secondary Sector - Manufacture, turning these materials into goods etc.
The Tertiary Sector - The Service Industry, retail and distribution.
Quaternary Sector - Intellectual activities such as eduction and libraries.

The Service industry consists of:
The Public Sector - providing public services, such as the NHS, libraries etc.
The Private Sector - run by businesses for profit.
Third Sector - voluntary, such as charities etc.

When taking into consideration with other products we can see what the result is:



When we think about tea cups there are generally for profit. I cant think of a circumstance in which they aren't. To that effect they would be part of the Tertiary Sector of Industry and the Private Sector of the Service Industry.

Creative Strategy: Big Heads - Jon Burgerman

I really enjoyed todays Big Heads with Jon Burgerman. What I found most interesting about him was that didn't want the discussion to be put online as he is concerned about his 'brand image' so to speak. I can understand why, his work generally looks very child like in aesthetic, but Burgerman himself came off as quite cynical (which is quite refreshing in all honesty).

I need to start thinking of how I brand myself. I'm aware I can be quite cynical myself, but I also want people to like me. How can I toe this line as Burgerman does?

Here are a few examples of Jon Bargeman's work:

Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Jon Burgerman on Pinterest.

Creative Strategy: Tutorial

After today's tutorial I've come to realise I need to be more concise with my blogging, what I'm thinking isn't being conveyed well in my blog. I also need to be more vocal in my ideas, thoughts, proposals and evaluation within this space.

I'm also starting to manage my workload more effectively due to the use of time management forms. This has benefited me as it has allowed me to pin point what work needs to be done and when I'm going to do it.

Creative Strategy: Turtles Imagery

Now I'm not one to watch cartoons and then read reviews about them... but I did happen across this imagery today whilst (not) reading a review for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode (that I didn't watch).

The image is clearly composed of several layers to create a foreground, mid-ground and background. In the foreground we have the turtle and in the the background we have the city. But it is the mid ground that caught my eye. There is an interesting use of halftone that makes the background look grittier and a bold spatter technique that could suggest either splashed paint or even blood.

I may play around with these techniques myself in the future.

Life's a Pitch: Proposal

During this session we were asked to get into our pre-arranged groups (mine consisting of; myself, Hollie, Rowena, Joe S., and Sophie W.). The purpose of this was so that we could think of a proposal for an imaginary product or event etc as a collective group.

After a bit of thought our group came up with the idea to create a limited run quarterly zine/book that would use the work of up and coming artists/illustrators/designers etc. The best received works of the four zines throughout the year would be collected together and included into an annual anthology book. This book would be released at an event in which the participants could come to and sell there works similar to the Leeds Zine Fair or a small Thought Bubble event.

Creative Strategy: Product and Packaging - Point of Sale

This morning I went to Morrisons and made note of some of the point of sale illustrations I saw there. I found it quite interesting to see the different ways illustration can be used to sell a product. How can I explore this? If I was making a zine, could I make a standee for example?

Creative Strategy: Categories

Today we made categories to better understand where illustration can be used such as; Packaging, Children's Books, etc. In these categories we made exhaustive lists of illustrations such as children's toys, T-shirts and billboards. It was quite interesting to see how much crossover there was between the categories. If we take zines for example: they could be classed as Character and Narrative work, yet also fall into Product & Packaging and Publishing & Book Design among others.

After the session I went onto Pintrest to search for examples of illustration within these categories. I noticed how a lot of the images could be placed within different boards, just as had been suggested in the session. Here are several of the boards created from the categories we made today:

Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Editorial and Repotage on Pinterest.


Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Publishing and Book Design on Pinterest.


Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Character and Narrative on Pinterest.

Audiences

The primary role of a mug is to drink tea, coffee and other hot drinks however they can also have an aesthetical quality. Here are a series of mugs aimed at different audiences.

These are targeted at fans of the horror genre:

These are targeted at children/fans of cartoons:

These are targeted at a more humorous audience:

These mugs are for for people who follow politics:

And these for people who enjoy flowers/gardening:

Creative Strategy: Big Heads - Jack Teagle and Donya Todd

It's always weird when you meet your heroes. Since beginning this course Jack Teagle has been a great source of encouragement for me during my moments of "I don't have what it takes". Thats why I was so excited by today.

Big Heads was interesting for several reasons; firstly, we got to discuss Jack's process for making his own action figures which was really cool! This is something I'd like to do when I have self-made characters in the future! His process involves clay and ovens etc, but I feel there is a better process out there, but costing would be an issue.

Secondly, it was interesting to listen to Jack, his negative viewpoint on things that comes across sometimes on Twitter also showed itself slightly here too. I suffer from this problem myself, I let negativity overwhelm me sometimes but its something I'm working hard to change.

Finally, it was great to hear from Donya Todd how women are becoming more prevalent in comics, and how she has positioned herself as someone actively looking to change that. I wish there were more women involved with this industry and its great to see people encouraging women to join up!

Here are some examples of both Jack and Donya's work:

Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Jack Teagle on Pinterest.

Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Donya Todd on Pinterest.

Where Am I Now?

After reviewing my Level 4 PPP blog entries I've come up with a few points to understand where I am and what I need to do to move forward as a practising professional.

5 things I've learnt from last year
- How to create halftone in Photoshop
- Understanding composition to a greater degree
- To have fun with my work
- Illustration is more than just drawing, it must communicate a message.
- How to create my own books.

5 things I want to know
- I want to learn about the business side of illustration
- It would be cool to know how to put my illustrations on different items i.e. stationary.
- I'd love to know how to create my own website
- Where will I fit into the illustration world
-

5 strengths of mine
- I've got quite a good knowledge of Photoshop
- I'm enthusiastic about my practice
- I have good time management
- My documentation is extremely thorough
- I am quite vocal about illustration both critically and personally

5 things I want to improve upon
- I need to improve on my ability to draw figures and detailed environments
- What I consider a strong quantity of research needs to be reassessed
- I need to improve upon my attitude towards others
- My skills with Photoshop
- Experimentation is also something that I need to improve

5 illustrations that define my interests

Comic Books

 

Zines

Children's Books

Political Satire

Book Cover Illustration

Personal Professional Practice - End of Module Self Evaluation

Going into Level 4 I was initially a bit skeptical about PPP and the role it would play within the year, however I have found it to be the backbone of my practice and an integral part of my learning. This module, although feeling like somewhat of a burden, encouraged me to broaden my horizons in terms of artist and process research. It has also allowed me to draw a good understanding of the path I have travelled so far and where I plan to go through Level 5 and into my professional career. 

Despite the praise I give myself in these areas, I am not entirely happy with all of my work from within this module. I feel that the practical brief (Studio Brief 2) was my weakest aspect which is ironic as it was supposed to be the culmination of a years development. Whilst I feel the piece isn’t terrible, as it shows a marked improvement from my early work from within the year, I feel there is a lot that could be done to improve it. I never quite grasped the purpose of the brief, which hampered me. I failed to pick, in my eyes, a worthy topic. To improve the work I made a conscious effort to enforce skills and processes I have learnt this year, but without a strong narrative or point to be made I ultimately feel that this brief is one of my weakest of the year. I would like to go back into this pice and rework it, in the hopes of giving it a stronger purpose.

On a more positive note, I feel that my presentation (Studio Brief 3) went very well. My previous presentation in my Context of Practice module was not delivered as I intended - I rushed through my presentation for fear of overrunning the time constraints and failed to make suitable connections with my audience. With this presentation I ordered my slides more effectively and streamlined my notes. This allowed me to make much more eye contact with my peers and deliver a more engaging presentation.

As I head into Level 5 I want to continue the professional attitude I have displayed in recent months by spending more time within the studio, and discussing my work as articulately with my peers as I have been of late. I want to find more purpose within my work other than the imagery looking nice. I feel that I have touched upon this lately by considering what format my work will be displayed in ie zine etc. However my final practical brief, despite finding a format, failed largely due to a weak research base. I can’t let this be the case in future briefs. It is only through continual investigation and research into practitioners and processes that I will be able to create work that will make an impact both visually and with purpose.

Presentation: Creative Strategy

My presentation depicting the evolution of my illustrative work throughout Level 4:

Ping Zhu: Big Heads

Wow, so Ping Zhu was pretty cool (most likely due to her American accent). I found her to be quite interesting. Personally, her illustrations aren't that amazing in my eyes. I can, however, understand why she gets work. She has a great understanding of process, composition and colour. What interested me the most though was her sketchbook work. It looks terrible! And thats great! I've always disliked how awful my sketchbook work is compared to others, but seeing hers has really made me feel better about how I use my sketchbooks.

The Illustrated Self: Power Rangers Vs Hollywood

Here's my final outcome for PPP, a comment on how unoriginal Hollywood has become:

There are several things I would change however, for starters I feel the zine is far to short. The jokes don't have time to pay off. I also feel that more time could have been spent developing the piece. It in some areas feels cluttered and perhaps to rich in black etc.

The Illustrated Self: Zine Development

Today I spent 10 hours in the studio (exhaustive but rewarding) working on a zine for PPP. I feel that the poster just wouldn't work well on a large scale format but downsized looked okay. It got me thinking that I should push forward with my original zine idea.

By taking screen grabs of several Power Rangers episodes last night (and realising how truly dated that program is) I had enough stock images to create a zine using collage. I wanted to incorporate the defining aspects of my year into this piece, so I used collage, halftone, shape and thought greatly about the colour of the piece. I also added a bit of satirical humour into it as well as created a front and back cover (made from my unused poster). I used the Cintiq's to write the speech within the zine as I have terrible handwriting and was able to write over digital text to create a personal typeface of sorts.

I then printed it out.

The Illustrated Self: Poster Development

I decided to push forward with my poster development yesterday and sketched out a few ideas.

I spent the day developing my strongest ideas on Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I began by cutting a figure of the red Power Ranger together which I then traced over using the light box. This was then transferred on Photoshop. I felt my line quality wasn't very strong though so transferred it to Illustrator to make stronger lines, however I ended up focusing more on shape. After playing around for a while I then move the image over to Photoshop again to add some texture to it.

I'm really not feeling this piece. It displays some of the qualities I've learnt over this year but I don't think it works well as a final piece of work. However it's been a long day and I need to rest.

The Illustrated Self: Sketchbook Development

Over the past few days I've been working in my sketchbook formulating ideas and visually investigating the subject of Power Rangers through repetitive drawing and media.

Whilst doing additional research I also came across these images from recent movie posters. There is a trend with poster designs at the moment (especially superhero films) where a character has his back the audience, a hero's mask is broken or there is a monster towering above a city.  thought about how I could present my work as a movie poster and looked at the Mondo movie posters created by Jock.

Here are the posters I found:

Could I make a series of Posters instead? I decided to draw out a few concept ideas  for these posters. (Insert photo of posters)

The Illustrated Self: Planning and Research

Unfortunately due to financial circumstances I can't afford to get to college this week so have worked from home. I dislike working from home as my neighbours are noisy and there are many more distractions than in the studio. I made a plan for the week but unfortunately it hasn't worked out as such, largely due to sorting out my accommodation next year outside of student accommodation which means an excessive amount of paperwork!

However I have managed to get a bit of research done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTXUD6YH-5A

Photo from new Godzilla film

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/man-of-steel/27096/zack-snyder-defends-the-mass-destruction-of-man-of-steel

http://comicsalliance.com/man-of-steel-destruction-estimate-750-billion-dollars-humor/

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-30/entertainment/ct-ent-0630-transformers-destruction-20110701_1_robot-hotel-monaco-appraiser

http://www.film.com/movies/cities-that-have-been-destroyed-the-most-onscreen

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/avengers-damage-manhattan-would-cost-160-billion-322486

I'm forming the idea to maybe make a small zine which would consist of the Power Rangers fighting off a Hollywood sized threat of some sort. I want it to display some humour which I like my pieces to have as I have shown in earlier pieces such as my Dracula piece from Visual Language. I'm thinking that there should be a joke of some sort about them saving a demolished city - much like in many current action films.

Emily Hughes: Big Heads

Today we were spoke to Emily Hughes who is a children's book illustrator. I'll be honest her work doesn't grab me too much (despite my interest in possible doing children's book work at some point). However, her repetitive sketches really stood out to me. This is an area in which I really need to improve upon…

The Illustrated Self: Tutorial

Today I had a tutorial with Matt. My ideas so far have only been around three possibilities; resting, tea drinking and television.

I don't feel too passionately about any of them in all honesty, however on the weekend I found out that Hollywood is going to ruin another of my cherished childhood TV programmes by releasing an rebooted Power Rangers movie!

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/07/new-power-rangers-movie-announced

I'm now waiting for a typical 'giant robot vs alien explosive popcorn movie' that is the trend in Hollywood to appear.

I explained my idea to Matt and he warned me of the limitations of my subject. I have to ask myself, 'is there enough substance here'? If this was an editorial piece for which I was making an illustration for then maybe, but beyond that? I'm going to have to give this some thought,and soon. I have just two weeks to prepare my work for hand in which is not much time at all.

The Illustrated Self

Our latest brief I feel I'm going to struggle with. We must create a piece of work based on something that we are passionate or excited about, and well I don't generally get excited or passionate about many things. I am quite bland. I like to relax, read, watch TV and films, and drink tea. Not very exciting!

Here is an A1 sheet of paper with idea generation and questions to ask myself.

Maybe I could make my subject interesting via the process in which I create it rather than having an exciting subject itself?

Context of Practice - End of Module Self Evaluation

Context of Practise was initially a difficult module for me; I found it hard to get my head around denotation and connotation among other semiotic theories. However once I did I began to really enjoy the module.

For the most part my daily commute from Leeds to York has been somewhat of a pain, however it greatly benefited me when it came time to prepare for my essay. My journey roughly takes about half an hour so each day I withdrew several books and spent the travel time formulating ideas and reading extracts that may have been important to my essay writing. This early research was integral as my laptop unfortunately died. I had failed to back up my work and my completed essay was lost. I had to hurriedly rewrite the entire thing and without my early planning and note taking I would not have completed my essay before the hand in date.

After my essay I did not look forward to continuing to study the area of female degradation as it made me feel horrible as a man. However as my research evolved I came to understand that men were being victimised just as much as women. I am glad that I pushed further with my visual research in my development sketchbook as this realisation would not have occurred if I hadn’t.

I feel that while my development work is strong it fails in the final steps somewhat. The characters within my book were not as refined as I’d have liked. This was down to a lack of investigation into body shape, which is quite an integral part of my final piece.  Given more time I would have gone back and reworked these characters, refining them and perhaps making there later body shapes more exaggerated. I was against doing this but feel that ultimately doing so would have added an extra element of humour towards what is actually a very sad subject. In the final stages however I feel that my experimentation with colour really benefitted my work. By developing a greater understanding of colour I was able to take my work to a high professional level. Unfortunately technology again failed me when I came to printing the work out; from InDesign I some how printed the pages in the wrong order. In the future I’ll have to take extra care to make sure I understand the printing process so my work is presented in the best possible way.

Going forward I’m going to have be more prepared for unforeseen events such as these. Technology hampered me in several instances throughout this module. By thoroughly researching and making backups of my work I’ll hopefully be able to prevent instances like this happening to me again in later modules. I also hope to take my research and development further going into Level 5 by thinking about the context my study has within society. 

Roman Muradov: Big Heads

Roman Muradov is brilliantly awkward person. As is the norm with these Skype conversations Roman showed us his work whilst detailing his process - but what interested me the most was the fact that he doesn't seem to be too well off financially. He lives in a small (messy) apartment where he also works. Despite of this he has won several awards. This raises an interesting point, do I want to illustrate for money or acclaim? Or do I just want to make work for myself and see if it sells?

Deth. P. Sun

Today I nipped in to visit the Deth. P. Sun exhibit in the college and quite enjoyed what I saw! By (what looks like) painting on wood, the artist has created a series of pieces concern a collection of characters. He uses colour and shape extremely well within his easy to view pieces. However, I was left wondering whether this is illustration or fine art. Perhaps if the images with the room were part an obviously sequential narrative then they could definitely be considered illustration. Without meaning or purpose and lack a cohesive narrative, I believe that these pieces should be considered fine art.

InDesign Refresher

Today I went about putting Perception together. Although I took part in the inDesign tutorials, I couldn't quite remember the process of layout in inDesign so went on youtube to find a how to.



I also used youtube to remind me how to import images into inDesign.

Telegramme Studios

Today whilst working on my poster for OUIL406 Studio Brief 3 I spoke to Matt about the worn effect texture I was creating for the poster. He pointed me to a creative studio known as Telegramme which is an ongoing series of collaborations with works inspired by music, people, unique ideas etc.

The textures in the illustrations are immense. I need to figure out how to do that.

Matt Sewell: Big Heads

Today we spoke to Matt Sewell. I wasn't a big fan of his work when I'd researched him earlier in the week however after today I appreciate his work much more. He appears to have a good understanding of shape but what impressed me was the large scale graffiti pieces that he makes. These are prepared early in sketch form but when he comes to create the final piece he draws with no guidelines or prior markings. He works straight onto the wall. I like his certainty and would like to trust my own ability in such a way. As Ralph Steadman said - there are no mistakes!

Visual Communication - End of Module Self Evaluation

I found Visual Communication to be a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand my technical skills and professional attitude improved drastically but on the other I really didn't enjoy the group work aspect of Studio Brief 1, which I felt harmed my input somewhat. 

The group became somewhat fractured half way through Studio Brief 1 due to differing opinions and didn’t fully recover from it. I felt this was quite unprofessional of us all in the group and we should have tried harder to prevent disagreements from affecting our work. However, it happened and we’ve since moved on. In the future I must work harder to prevent things such as this from happening as it reflects poorly on us all and was unprofessional.

On the positive side of things, my digital skills improved within the timespan of this module. We were introduced to Adobe Illustrator in Studio Brief 2 and I’ve quickly grown to love it. I really appreciate  how smooth line work can be within it. I don’t have a smooth drawing ability so to have a tool that can produce this for me is fantastic. Using Illustrator has also allowed me to work more with shape. I am beginning to really see the beauty in imagery created using shape alone. In the concept stages, by concentrating more on shape and less on finer details I was also able to produce work quicker and more confidently. This carried over into my digital process where my production rate increased greatly, largely due to a focused decision to use shape rather than worry about texture.

My increased work rate can’t be entirely put down to the technique I was using though. I made a conscious choice to work harder and have a more professional attitude after the Easter Break. This meant staying later and getting distracted less. I was able to produce finer, better-executed outcomes for Studio Brief 3 as I’d allowed myself the time and thought to do it. My improved time management also allowed me to blog more often. I feel that my documentation was already strong for this module but after Easter my blog posts increased as more work was being produced, perhaps to the point of excess. In the future I will try to limit my blog posts and work to make them more refined.

Going forward into Level 5 I intend to maintain the professional attitude that has benefitted me so greatly in the past few weeks. I also plan on continuing my work with shape - however I need to research further into different illustrators who work with shape for ideas and inspiration. It is research that is possibly the area in which I need to improve upon the most. I’ve come to find that work I produce without the foundations of strong research is my weakest. A solid research base will result in work that is well informed and more impactful. This will help me greatly in Level 5 as I begin to think more about the purpose of my work. 

Visual Language - End of Module Self Evaluation

Personally I’ve found Visual Language to be the most difficult module I’ve faced this year. This is because I’ve been pushed to discover different methods of Illustration and question the way in which I work. It is due to this questioning of my work that at times, I found this to be the least enjoyable module of the year. However I have also had some of my most defining moments within the briefs.

I now have a greater understanding of shape, collage and composition. I previously felt collage to be cheating somewhat, and shape work too simplistic and easy. I don’t feel that way now; both have altered my working process and have allowed me to grow as an illustrator. It is important that I continue to investigate these processes further and use them to take my work to the next level. 

My attitude towards Visual Language was, admittedly, at times relaxed. It was only with the introduction of Collage, Photoshop and Illustrator that I felt my attitude towards image making really hit a turning point. I tried to refine my analogue work but I feel that digital process is where my skill truly lies.

I found studio brief 2 to be the most interesting part of Visual Language. I’ve always been subconsciously aware of the many aspects concerning composition, however, its only through studio brief 2 that I’ve come to appreciate them. I can now critically analyse my work (and others) on a much more professional scale.

Going forward I need to maintain a committed attitude towards my work. I feel that the areas that appealed to me least were also the areas where I failed to commit myself to. I need to take a more professional attitude towards my practice as I wont always be working on projects that interest me. Now I know what processes I work best with, the only thing getting in my way is myself.

Bjorn Rue Lie: Big Heads

We spoke to Bjorn Rue Lie today (who didn't feel comfortable showing his face) he discussed his process and showed us some of his work whist doing so. I don't really like Bjorn's style but he has got a good eye for colour. I would like to improve on my understanding of colour use, so maybe viewing more of his work will help.

Noma Bar Guardian Article

Here's an article on Nora Bar detailing his illustration of a language book:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/mar/26/chineasy-learn-chinese-characters-book-design

Photoshop: Worn Effect Practice

Today I learnt how to make a worn effect in Photoshop. I simply asked Google and found this page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCZ2cl0CjMk

The process is actually incredibly simply.

- I found a stock image of worn paper on the Internet and opened it up in Photoshop.
- I then altered its Curves before changing it to Grayscale.
- Then I selected it all and copied it over to a new channel in my Postcard image (also opened in Photoshop).
- After this I went to Select and chose Colour Range.
- I played around with the field of selection somewhat and chose an area of the image to select.
- Then I went to my image layer and inverted the selection so as not to delete the majority of my image.
- Finally I pressed select and removed parts of the image to make it look worn.

Although I've had a bit of practice with this process I feel I can do it better. I may attempt to create the worn effect for these images again at some point.

Kiss Kiss Kill Kill

This morning before I came to the studio I went to the College's Kiss Kiss Kill Kill exhibition. The posters within displayed an array of women in different provocative poses. This will tie in well with my Context of Practice work in which I am examining how women have been objectified throughout modern times.

Thomas Flaherty Illustrator Portrait

I'm starting to play around with Adobe Illustrator. To get a bit more experience with the software I made an illustration of a lad I used to work with called Thomas Flaherty. I'm quite happy with the piece however there are some issues. For example I tried making my own swatch for it but it doesn't seem to have worked well making him look somewhat fat, I need to look at a way to suggest depth within vector imagery. I am however quite happy with the texture overall - specifically his hair and beard inspired by the work of Kristyna Baczinski.

Leeds Zine-Fest

I went to Leeds Zine fest today with Adam, Holly and Roweena and it was such an informative day! We first walked around and had a look at the wide array of different zones and such on sale. Then we went and spoke to Kristyna Baczynski who visited us a few days before in the studio. I asked her about a few of her processes (which I didn't have time to during the studio visit).

We later found out that the chaps running the Zine-fest were asking for participants to create work for a zine they were making on the day using Risoprinting. We jumped at the chance to learn this new process which turned out to be similar to screen printing in some aspects, however more technology based.

I really enjoyed today and hope to get some work ready for next year so I can attend the Zinefest as a selling rather than buying.

What is Illustration For?

What is Illustration for? When I was asked this during my interview I think I responded with something along the lines of 'to communicate an idea via imagery'. This is correct, but is also rather vague, there is so much more to illustration. Illustration IS a method of communication, but it can be done with a variety of tools and be displayed in an extensive number of ways. Illustration isn't just pencil on paper.

It can be used on food packaging, or be an image on a website and it can also be the front cover to a book among other countless things. What is important is that it serves a function - in that it communicates visually not necessarily with the aid of text. For example: illustration on a food product should communicate what that item is without the need for text.

It can also be used on book covers to give the reader a brief idea of what the context of the book is about without the need to read the blurb.

You can also find illustration within magazines. Here illustration is usually used to reinforce a piece of text or to promote it's contents similar to a book.

Although generally considered to be targeted at children, illustration is in fact targeted at everyone (or rather a specific audience for that product).

http://www.kristyna.co.uk/NME-Last-Christmas

http://www.jackteagle.co.uk

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/unlimited/howitworks

https://www.nintendo.co.uk

http://harrypotter.bloomsbury.com

Jackie Chan Adventures: Backgrounds

Whilst watching Jackie Chan Adventures today on Netflix (because I am a man child) I noticed how cool the background designs look with the colour rarely aligning with the line work itself.

It reminded me of Eiffel Tower design I made in Visual Communication. I may use this method for the rest of my work within the current studio brief: Greetings From….

Illustrator Tutorial: Isolated Selection

While I haven't learnt too much yet in the Illustrator tutorials that I don't already know this far, today I discovered the 'Isolation Mode'. This is a very useful time saving method of selecting a certain object within a grouped area of my Illustrator image.

If I have many objects grouped together in a layer and need to alter one specific object I can simply double click on the group. This opens 'Isolation Mode' where I can then select the exact object I want to alter. Once this is done I can close 'Isolation Mode' by simply pressing the back arrow at the top left of the window.

Vector Illustration

Publishing

Vintage Bond Collection Suzanne Dean (Vintage Books)

Coralie Bickford-Smith

Jason Levesque

Jen Wang

Michael Chabon

Promotion

Bonedaddy

Collaps09

Roberlan

Sebdesign

Strongstuff

Packaging

Kamila Mitka

Peter Gregson

Postler Ferguson

R Design

Studio H

Victor Branding Corp

Editorial

Daniel Hertburg

Daniel Teran

Jessica Hische

Zozu Edzech

Christina Sicoli