PPP Prep: The Queen's Speech

With the Queen's Speech occurring yesterday in which she announced some of the new government's pledges I decided to create an illustration to coincide with it. I personally feel the Queen no longer serves a purpose other than being a glorified tourist attraction. Her announcing the government's pledges means nothing in my eyes. She is effectively the mouthpiece of the Tory agenda at this point.

Here is my final outcome for the idea and the development process I went through to create it:



I feel it important that I keep up to date with politics as this is an area of illustration I'm looking to move into. Additionally politics is potentially going to play a large role in my dissertation over the next year.

PPP Prep: Level 5 Presentation - Reflection

Yesterday was my Level 5 PPP presentation, which I feel went rather well. I made a point of making eye contact with my audience, whilst casually looking at my script to remind myself of oncoming points etc. I had rehearsed my presentation several times already so felt quite confident in that regard. This also allowed me to trust which slide I was on without having to check frequently. I also applied some humour into my presentation which I feel helped cover up the odd stumbling of my words.

However it wasn't all well - I feel that perhaps my presentation was at times a bit cynical and I may have scared the current first year students with the prospect of a relentless second year. I don't think I discussed my process enough, which was something Matt also picked up on. This in some regards was a very important part of my year as I became more directed towards a digital process after playing around with textures and such throughout the year. My next task will be to see how I can go beyond my current process that is entirely digital. How can I bring the analogue elements from this year into my digital process? Can this be done effectively?

Finally I regret the final slide of my presentation. It was far too silly and didn't create the sort of humour I had initially planned for it. Needless to say I was very embarrassed by it and quickly closed the presentation after clicking on said slide.

Here are my presentation slides:

Donya Todd Email

Last week I sent out several emails to illustrators asking there a range of things about their practice, today - shortly after my hand in for OUIL502 I received a reply from Donya Todd.

Hello,

I'm Tom, a 2nd year Illustration student at Leeds College of Art. I'm going to be attending Thought Bubble this year to sell things, and frankly I'm not to sure how to present myself at the festival in terms of conversation etc. I attended your Big Heads discussion with Matt and spoke to you last year briefly at Thought Bubble; you're a really nice person, but I'm concerned that I don't really give off a friendly vibe myself. Do you have any advice on how to converse with people that approach my table etc?

Many Thanks,

Tom

She replied with this fantastic advice!

Creative Strategy: Presentation

Here is my presentation for my experience throughout Level 5:

Creative Presence: Promo Pack Final Outcomes

Here are the final outcomes for my Promo Pack:



Ideally I would have liked to have done more for this, but unfortunately due to how busy I've been this work has suffered. For example I would have liked to have made a mug. This would have been done using water slide transfer sheets.

Additionally, I would have made a proper method of packaging the promo stuff, unfortunately I'm going to have to settle for putting them in an envelope for the hand in.

Creative Strategy: OUIL505 Evaluation

Here is my Project Report for OUIL505: Applied Illustration:



I found OUIL505 difficult largely due to how many modules we have been juggling, I never felt I was able to give it the attention it deserved. Unfortunately something had to suffer due to the heavy work load and it was this module.

Creative Presence: Dan Berry Email

Today I returned home to find I had an email from Dan Berry, illustrator, cartoonist and designer! I sent several emails out last Saturday and had given up hope on receiving replies! Here is what I emailed him:

Hello,

Firstly, I'm a huge fan of your work (Nicholas and Edith being my favourite)!

I'm led to believe that you are a big pen enthusiast and was wondering if you had any suggestions on a nice beginners fountain pen for inking?

Many Thanks,

Tom

And here is his response!

I could have asked him about promo packs, but felt that for this module it would be too create anything new considering how busy I am. Instead I chose to ask him about inking pens as I had read an article in which he spoke about them before. Now I have a footing to approach my search for a good inking pen.

Creative Presence: Promo Pack Printing

Today was a long day to say the least. I spent a whopping four hours in the print room, firstly to get my remaining OUIL505 stuff printed. But also to get my promo pack items printed.

The reason for my time in the print room being so long was due to neither myself, James or Harrison (the new print guy) knowing how to correctly lay out my calendar in inDesign to print it correctly. This took many, many attempts but we finally cracked it! We relied on printing on cheaper stock to spare my wallet until we found the current printing layout. However, when it came to the final print I didn't have enough from quality stock with a high gsm. This was both a frustrating and informative experience. Frustrating in the sense that I will have to submit my calendar on a stock that I feel is inferior, but informative in how I now have a file with the correct layout for future use.

Alongside my calendar I have; a business card, a book mark and a table standee for festivals (something that I felt would have helped at Thought Bubble last year). The bookmark and standee we made during my time in the print room as I waited for my OUIL505 work to print.

Creative Strategy: Print Room Booking

Today I had a print booking for OUIL505 and OUIL502 (which I will discuss in my next post). Before the Easter break Becky Firth and I both arranged several bookings with James in advance knowing that they would be crucial in completing our module work without having to become slaves to drop-in times (as some of my peers have). This was both a highly intelligent move and a display of professionalism at its finest. Knowing that I had these bookings relieved much stress, and gave me a goal to work for. This is something that I'm definitely going to do in third year.

Creative Presence: Calendar Work Complete

The weekend was long and arduous for me, with my OUIL505 deadline next week I've focused on that to make sure I have everything ready for the hand in. That means I've only had sporadic time to deal with my promo pack stuff. This is frustrating as I've quite enjoyed creating my calendar etc thus far.

However the imagery and dates are all completed now and ready to be printed tomorrow thankfully! I have tried to add a sense of my personality throughout the calendar with Zoom Facts and Zoom Tips below each month. They are all silly comments that hopefully convey that I am fun person, without being offensive or unprofessional.

The work can be seen below:

Creative Strategy: Brinham Rocks

My girlfriend and I today went to Brinham Rocks. I don't really have the time at present due to my work load but my girlfriend has been ignored for quite some time and I feel bad. Luckily Brigham Rocks was a very unique place and I managed to take lots of reference imagery for a zine I'm planning on creating in the summer! It's gotten me excited!

It was also a very enjoyable day out too with much walking, climbing and educational talks involved.

Creative Presence: Calendar Imagery

Over the past few weeks I been making imagery for the Calendar in my promo pack. I've taken to thinking that the whole promo pack idea is in a way a self indulgence piece so have decided to create a calendar with me in every month.

I've been thinking about month specific imagery to include but there have been a few months where I haven't had a clue what to put so have simply drawn myself working in one way or another.


To create these images I've been using the digital tracing technique Matt Taylor informed us of. However I have ended the similarities there. To shade I have gave each colour three layers of shading and have tried my hardest to stick to a colour theme of about 5-6 colours for the entire piece. This may unfortunately change with the remaining images but I hope to continue using it for consistency.

Chris Sasaki Lecture

I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by animator Chris Sasaki today and boy howdy did I learn a lot.

Inspired by Monsters Inc he initially had trouble getting into the animation scene due to a lack of experience but was lucky enough to work on Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends.

He then went on to make the animation for the DVD extras of the 2006 film Beerfest. It was small jobs such as these that led to bigger jobs. Eventually he landed a job at Pixar with his first job being Monsters University.

Notes from the lecture:

- Make things believable

Who is the character and what am I trying to sell in my project. How do I relate to the characters I'm making. There has to be a reason why.

- Walk people through my process

What is my method and why do I think something should work the way it does? Generally he spends about 3 weeks creating a 'research bible' for a job before he even gets to the drawing aspect. 70% research, 30% drawing. A lot of our work is basically problem solving and showing how we've done so is a large part of that.

- "Who should I be looking at?"

Chris informed us that most of his time spent at university was wondering who he should be drawing like etc. I feel that this year I have transcended that and am producing work in a style I enjoy and is hopefully going to become synonymous with my practice. He also works analogue as long as possible before going over to digital. As my practise becomes more digital is there a way I can incorporate analogue into my work? He also said computers are good for speed when deadlines are due. Don't be afraid to rely on them to get the job done. 

- Concerning character design

Clarity, gesture and silhouette are important to character design. Can the character be instantly recognisable by their silhouette alone? Think about a characters colour palette. How can I make them seem threatening, timid etc. Study my own face to understand facial gestures!