Shape portraits

For this task we are to design and create a series of three portraits made only of shape using no line and with the opportunity to explore any media. I like the idea of hand crafting shapes out of cut paper, but this could also be a good time for me to explore some digital process. 

To start this task I have been trying to create a simple face out of minimal shapes and no intricate detail. Creating illustrations is proving to be quite difficult for me as my drawing style is very line driven.

 More faces and portraits made from shape.

 Seeing as we have to produce three portraits I may choose to do one in the style of these fruit heads, I want to make people laugh when they look at this shape portrait.

 I could possibly include a high detail portrait of shapes like the one in the image above, but I like the idea of keeping them more simple and minimal.

I want to include a character in this shape project, a character who has some sort of an accessory.

Final shape portraits

 These images have all been hand crafted using a range of coloured card and paper. At first I thought I would really struggle with creating these final outcomes but it actually went quite well and I'm happy with what I have made. I like this use of media and will use more of it in the future. I do wish I created a portrait using digital media but I prefer to produce my work by hand and will visit digital media in the next tasks.

Visual Narrative group project

For this project, we were put into groups at a random selection and within our groups we had to go out into Leeds for an adventure/experience. We had a list of things that we could do during the day in order to gain a wide spread of experience. When we got back we had to define our day with three words and create a narrative surrounding these words that symbolise the entire day. The narrative hotdog book had to be screen printed using only 2 colours.

Here are some photos that I took during the day. These are from the crystal healing store Global tribe and a market stand and the Leeds German market. This was our favourite part of the day so we decided to create a narritive surrounding this experience.

 We decided to create a story around our day trip so I started to sketch down some ideas of everything that went off, but with a slight twist such as turning the shop keeper of the crystal store into a witch. We decided to take a fantasy route with our narrative.

We all agreed as a group to create a character to be shown throughout our story, so we all pulled in ideas until we had a final design. We also decided to keep the character quite simple as the project is only 4 days long and the final outcome will be a screen print so we didn't want to over complicate it.

Because the project is only 1 week long we each only had 2 mini pages to design for the screen print. Here are some rough versions of one of my pages. The page includes the character we created and he is carrying a crystal through some dark woods. 

More roughs and further development of my scene of the narrative . As our colour pallet could only consist of two colours, we decided to choose black and purple. The purple is the colour of the crystal and a few other subtle objects.

Final designs for my two scenes ready to be drawn onto acitate and then screen printed.

This is the final screen printed version of my pages in our group narrative project. I am quite pleased with the outcome and I think that i was able to capture the lighting well in the woods scene as the crystal looks like it is glowing and that is the only light source.

This is the final version of the entire screen printed book. The title is "Adventures through the Lost Epic Eternal Dimensional Society" which is and acronym for Leeds. The story is of a character who stumbles upon a strange cottage where an old witch gives him a glowing crystal and he must travel across the lands and take the crystal to the top of a sacred mountain where he will find peace and enlightenment. 

Overall I think this has been a really good short project and I have enjoyed designing and creating this mini booklet. Although, this is the first time I have been made to work in groups and that proved to be slightly difficult at times, simply because people have different ideas and different ways of working, but everything worked out in the end. Also this was my first time screen printing so this was an experience in itself for me. I did enjoy the printing process but I also think it was quite long winded. I am not in any rush to be screen printing in my next project but could visit it again at a later date when the time is right. I think if I was to screen print any work it would be a poster or a simple piece of illustration and not something that is figurative. Also the sleeked media for this project was to use a china graph pencil which is very waxy and is hard to get crisp clean lines so next time I screen print I will use media that can create bolder colours to make the piece look more professional.

End of module self evaluation

End of module self-evaluation

Firstly I believe that my practical drawing skills have increased in quality over the course of this module, this is due to the way in which I have been using my sketchbooks with sketches and roughs. These methods of working quickly has really elevated my final outcomes. Also this module has really helped me think about my drawings in more depth in terms of how my work can translate a message or meaning in an effective way. Each brief within this module has encouraged me to think outside the box and this has impacted my own practice which has made me think more about the meaning of an illustration and not just its aesthetics.

One of the most helpful and fundamental theories of image making that I have learned during this module (especially in the second brief) is the power of minimalism. Stripping an image down and excluding all of the unnecessary features can create a simple but functional illustration and can also translate a powerful message that many people across different cultures can understand. I aim to try and create some of my own work around this idea of simple and effective.

Over this module it is clear that my strengths are working with traditional media such as pen and pencil. They are my preferred choice of producing illustration and I have used this method throughout the module as I know it is my strongest attribute. The areas I have identified for further development is that I need to start to widen my colour pallet, at the moment all of my pieces have been monochrome. Although I do really enjoy working in this way I have to also consider other possibilities of mark-making. I also feel that for future projects I need to be able to produce more digital work, at least learn digital skills so I can digitally manipulate a drawing to enhance the line quality or add colour. After seeing how some classmate’s work I have realised that I do need to step outside the box with my use of media, this will really help me on my path of becoming a more professional illustrator.

This module has really given me a good introduction to the course and how I will be producing work over the next three years. I know I will also develop a much deeper understanding of illustration and how it can have an impact on people across the world whilst preparing myself for the competitive industry. The briefs that were set over this module have already put me into a better way of thinking and producing illustration so this can only continue to happen and will be shown throughout my work.

Do judge a book by its cover (Final and Evaluation)

Completed design of wrap around book cover

This is the unedited version of my final book cover design.

This is the Photoshopped version of my book cover with type included and adjustments to the levels and contrast to make a more professional and convincing outcome.

Final book cover design wrapped around existing book, edited and printed.

EVALUATION

In my opinion this has been the best project so far. I think I made a good decision on which book to design a cover for as it gave me the opportunity to draw a wide range of characters in the realm of monsters. The core concept of the book 'On Monsters' is about the fears and monsters that we create in our own mind and how society and culture can shape and manipulate our perception of the unknown. This as a concept is quite abstract and at first was difficult to imagine a book cover that represents this idea, however through the process of producing roughs and research I was able to bring together my own ideas. I have found that sketching as many roughs as possible is a very effective way to work out the best design composition for any piece of illustration. I was very pleased with my final design and I enjoyed every moment of producing it. For this design I think it was best for me to stick to my most comfortable media and used a range of pens to complete this cover. I did however in my last evaluation suggest experimenting different media but I think the black and white represents the concept well. If i were to go back and change any part of my final design I think it would be to use a brush pen and not fine-liners when adding ink to the drawing, this is because I have found that using fine-liners it is easy to make a drawing look quite flat and static as the line thickness does not vary where as using a brush the lines become more unique and organic.

Do judge a book by its cover (Further development)

Character research and development

Out of all the roughs I designed for the book cover, this concept was my favourite. I feel like it represents the book in the best way and had the most positive responses from peers during a group critique session of our initial ideas. That session was particularly helpful for me as the idea of the history of monsters in a police line up was a good idea, but it diverted from the core concept of the book. I then developed the ideas of the police line up and the concept that shows that monsters are all in your head and merged them together, so the monsters will all be inside a thought bubble. The outcome was the rough in the image above. After doing this I knew this was going to be the idea I will finalise and resolve.

Satan/The Devil

The character satan is mentioned in the book I am illustrating as one of the most iconic and infamous monsters of all time. For this reason I thought it would be appropriate to include him in my line up of the history of monsters. I then decided to sketch out a few different designs to try and figure out which style of the Devil will look best in my cover. 

Clown Image

After drawing so many clown in my visual language tasks, I thought it would be quite suited that I included one in my monster line up. A clown may not be the stereotypical monster but a section of the book 'On Monsters' is all about serial killers. Over time the idea of a clown has changed and due to the clown serial killers that occurred in America, clowns now have very dark and sinister connotations and because of this, I I'm including a clown to my line up of monsters.

Jack the Ripper

Speaking of serial killers, this is one of the most famous due to the fact that he was never caught. As there is a large section of real life human monsters (serial killers) in my book, I think Jack the Ripper is the perfect character to include. I really like the way he has been portraid with the top hat and blade as it created a very sinister atmosphere on the page. I have sketched down a few concepts for his design to see which angle and shape will work best in my line up.

Grim Reaper

The Grim Reaper. He is the image of death. In my opinion he is the ultimate monster. From the second I has the idea of the monster line up, the Grim Reaper had a guaranteed place. I really like the sense of mysteriousness you get from looking at the reaper, the hooded figure and a scythe is known throughout  the world and therefore makes a perfect character for my book cover. Again I have explored  few different shapes and designs to find the best outcome for the cover.  

I have also chosen to include some classic pop culture monsters to my line up such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Zombies. I have done this because the book is about the history of monsters and how they have changed throughout time. Pop culture classic monsters have had a big impact on our view of monsters so I thought it would be a good idea to include iconic characters that people can relate to, because if an illustration is relatable, more people will generally like it.

Do judge a book by its cover (Roughs)

 For this brief, we were told to select a book from a specific section of the library, briefly analyse its content and design/illustrate a wrap around cover in any way we can communicate the content of the book in an illustrated form. The book I chose is called 'On Monsters, An unnatural history of our worst fears' by Steven T. Asma. "Real or imagined, literal or metaphorical, monsters have exerted a dread fascination on the human mind for centuries, we cannot help looking under the bed and in the closet, equally compelled and repelled by what we most fear to find lurking there." I was immediately drawn to this book and have been very excited about creating images based on its context. After reading a couple of pages I have realised that the word monster can be interprated in many different ways and is not just seen as the iconic hairy beast with big teeth and claws. No, the idea of a monster can actually go much deeper than that, such as real life monsters like serial killers. Monsters even go back to biblical times with Satan and his demons, and can even be touched on the idea that many monsters that exist, only exist within our own minds and are a representation of our deepest anxieties and vulnerabilities. 

John kenn's Sticky Monsters. I have found this artist who produces illustrations of monsters but is done within the concept of children's nightmares. I really like the way in which these sinister characters are created, they are quite simple but very effective, I will consider this artist when producing my own monsters.

SKETCHBOOK ROUGHS

 I quite like the idea of using pop culture monsters within the book cover as main point in the book 'On Monsters' is about how the idea of monsters have changed throughout time and how certain cultures can creates its own monsters in society. Classic pop culture monsters such as Dracula and Frankenstein have had a big impact on the westernised view of the iconic monster, and as a visual communicator it is always good to produce illustrations that people can relate to.

The aim of the first week of this brief was to design and create five roughs to scale of the book cover, all being approached in different ways. This for me has been a good week because I like having the freedom to be able to generate lots of ideas and its also good to see how each idea can really develop just buy continuing to draw and experiment.

ROUGHS TO SCALE

 This rough design was generated within the idea that monsters are just a figment of our imagination (nightmares). There is a lot that can be done with this concept and I will continue to explore it though the duration of this brief.

Iconic hairy monster with big claws and teeth. 

There is a big section on the book about the future of human fears and the apocalypse. From this I created a zombie scene that runs full bleed over the whole double spread. I honestly do like this design as the zombies have been built in layers of perspective which gives a good sense of depth. But this idea doesn't represent the book as a concept so I may not develop this idea further.

 This is my favourite design so far. I have taken the same layout as the zombie scene and changed the characters to existing monsters throughout time, including Satan, Dracula, Jack the Ripper, Jigsaw and even a monster from John Kenns Sticky monsters that I have mentioned previously. I think this idea represents the book a lot better although I do need to develop this idea further and maybe add more layers and characters to it.

 For my last rough I decided to take a minimal approach, stripping down all of the unnecessary features and keeping it simple and functional. I actually do like this design and I love producing minimalistic work as I like to be able to communicate and idea in an instant, but for this book I am illustrating, I think the design above will be more effective.