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