Assignment 4: Magazine illustration

Brief: 

A magazine wants an illustration on one of the following topics:
Lost Disaster Discovery Guilty secret

They want an illustration based on a still life. You have the freedom to select the items for the still life and are given creative free rein. The rest of the content, the method you use to produce it and the colours you use are all for you to decide. 

After a bit of a brainstorming, moodboard session, I decided to work with the topic "Lost". I think because I was feeling a little overwhelmed by my inadequacies with technology, I decided to search for articles that centred around being lost in the digital world or lost in technology. 

When I googled this I came across three articles of interest: one in the Guardian online and one in the New York Times online. In the end I decided to combine one of the articles in the Guardian with the article in the New York times as they dealt with very similar issues but I preferred the way the NYT article presented the content but I preferred the title of the Guardian's article. Thus came the (combo) article:
The Lost art of Communication. This article resonated with me not only because I feel a little like oil and water when it comes to relating to the virtual/technological world on ALL levels, but also because since I have been doing the course and therefore challenged to keep a sketch book and I am amazed at how often I am drawing people on some sought of tablet or mobile's touch screen, posture stooped, thumbs doing the talking, so when I saw the article I knew this was the article I wanted to use. 

I did however get a little enthusiastic about the idea that I left out the step of doing the still life and launched into using the objects that I thought were guilty of the above. I decided to follow the woodcut theme that I seemed to be using for this section of work and do a woodcut version and a collage version....unfortunately I ran out of time and therefore could only do the woodcut version! 

 

 

Roughs and rough colour study.

Half-carved wood

Photo of prints

Unused monoprint

Unused print: white on black

I found this print too busy and difficult to 'read'.

Unused print on white paper with neon-green painted background 

I didn't finish this print because the neon paint was simply spreading and dirtying the black ink and for all the effort it seemed less effective then the prints on tissue paper. 

I decided to introduce white into the image but vacillated between the amount of white to include and where it should be included:

Print on green tissue paper

print on pink tissue paper experimenting with white gouache and collage

Green tissue with alternative white gouache on maze 

experiment with pink tissue paper collage on green tissue print

I chose to add the text which poses the question : "Dinner anyone?" I chose to add this because this question challenges us to return to communicating around the dinner table- a place often considered the foundation of family and friendship and authentic conversation across cultures internationally.
                                                      

When I was ready to work on the layout and had a look at what type of magazine my image might potentially feature in....and suddenly I realised that having not completely considered the layout prior to doing the image. Especially as after having a good look at a number of magazines, the images were predominantly portrait in layout as opposed to mine which was landscape.

I was quite frustrated with myself for not considering this earlier especially as I have had this issue with other images. Hopefully this time I will learn from it.

To finish it off I added the image to the article in a way to create a double page spread and make the most of the landscape image. It was a learning curve on using the tech bits that I constantly find a challenge but I persevered and felt that I made progress, even adding a drop quote on one of the attempts.

Exe 4.7: Character Development

Brief: 

Collect as many examples as possible of different characters – newspapers and magazines are a particular good source. Catalogue these characters as types – babies, children, sportsmen, old women – create your own category headings.
Decide upon a character you would like to create. This might be one from a book or story, or based on an archetype such as a businessman or vicar’s wife.
Begin to brainstorm around your character – perhaps there are characters from the media or your own life you would like to focus on. 

Draw your character over and over and then try another, different, character. 
Make sure you come up with someone completely different, not just the same person in different clothes. 

This was a challenge but again I really enjoyed it. I have a long way to go in character development both from an 'imagination/idea-generation perspective as well as from understanding the movement of both the human body or animals' bodies which can then be adapted to characters. 

I also failed to take any photos of the characters produced thus will update this post when my tutor is finished with the work! 

Exe: 4.5: Tattoo based on the word 'mum'

Brief: 

A friend has asked you to design a tattoo for them based on the word Mum. He would also like you to make it into a greeting card that he can send his mother. (What a good idea for Mother’s Day). 

I struggled with this exercise because I found myself vetting STUCK! I researched the history of the art of tattoos and their meanings in different cultures. Then I tried to think of what kind of male friend would request such a tattoo which got my thoughts into a little bit of a quandary! This on top of the fact that it needed to then be turned into a mothers day card also seemed to push me further into quicksand! I grappled with deciding whether the tattoo should include typography or symbols; whether it should be masculine or whether that mattered?; how not to make it a stereotypical tattoo design..... so I stopped thinking about it altogether and returned last minute! 

Not sure if this was the entirely best approach but it meant that I did finally actually come up with something!! 


I will however only be able to put the images of the tattoo on when I have my work returned because I unfortunately forgot to take any pictures! SO until then....

Exe 4.6: Visual Distortion

Brief:
This exercise is designed to push you through a deliberate process of stylisation. Tackle it with an open mind and be prepared to adapt or adopt some of the approaches you discover.
Begin by drawing a cat or dog. Use reference from any source – life, photos or images from the internet. Draw the animal in a way that makes it ‘real’. Remember to describe some aspect of its appearance or personality.
Do a second drawing using no more than five lines. These lines can join up with each other and overlap or can be less connected; they can be straight or fluid.
Now make a collage from bits cut from a magazines and printouts. Let the texture of a tree be the fur for example. Have fun introducing surreal elements. Deliberately distort. How far can you bend reality?
Produce a drawn version (not a tracing) of your collage. When drawing, edit and select from the collage being aware of the properties you want to create a strong character. Review the distorted version and decide how you can refine the image. 

I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise! Partly because I am a tad obsessed with dogs and it gave me and excuse to draw them! But also, I found that it really stretched me to see an image quite differently and I hope to try use this method of collage and single line drawing and intentional distortion more often because I find it brings out the personality of characters and naturally adds a sense of humour to the image. 

Collage version sketch above

Ink version of the collage, done with dip pen.

Final image black and white

final image

I didn't quite get the effect that I wanted from the painted colour version but I had fun throughout the whole process!

Exe 4.4: Menu Card

Brief:

For this exercise you are asked to provide an illustration for use on the menu of a sophisticated, quality fish restaurant – one in a chain sited in major European cities. The card will be reproduced at a menu that uses fresh ingredients and the ambience of the restaurant is modern, bright and contemporary in design.

In all honesty I left this exercise till the last minute and therefore wasn't completely convinced about the end result. 

I only managed to do a few sketches in my sketchbook and then tried to work on these on Pixelmator: 

  

 

These are some of the doodles/prep drawings that I did in my sketch book. Ultimately I adapted the tissue-paper 'mosaic' image to put together a final draft of the menu card. 

Final menu card: first draft

I decided to go for a black background to enable the yellow and blue to stand out but I'm not sure if this detracts from the 'freshness' of the ingredients or the sea that I usually think of in terms of whites and blues and turquoises...so this is a little different! I like the mosaic effect and decided on an italian fish restaurant (although couldn't come up with the actual menu! ;) lol) 

I like the mosaic itself and perhaps I need to try and make another on white to see if stands out too. 

Exe 4.3: Children's book cover for a reference book

BRIEF: You are asked to produce a cover illustration for a natural history book for children (age 7–11) entitled Animals from Around the World. The image is to be used as a full colour front jacket to encourage children to choose this book from the library shelf. 

I started by researching current reference books for ages 7-11 yrs. Many of the covers have photographs on but a handful of them were illustrated:

As this was for a cover for a reference book I was unsure of how realistic/naturalistic the image should be, so I decided to experiment with three styles. 

a.) I decided to try my hand at a woodcut again.

b.) I tried a version inspired by the method that Alexis Deacon uses.

c.) I decided to do a version in watercolours and gouache.

a.) Woodcut Version: 

I printed the woodcut on a number of two types of paper i.e.  white sketch paper which I then painted yellow with gouache and green tissue paper. I used Gouache to paint the in-between bits of the animals on all the prints.

In the end I decided to use the yellow one for the final cover: 

2.) A more naturalist approach: 

For the next experiment I decided to research the methods used by Alexis Deacon. I read a small interview in which Alexis reported that in order to maintain the freedom of his initial sketches and studies, he photocopies his images onto sketch paper and then paints on the sketches using gouache + linseed oil. I decided to give this a go:

Rough sketch, photocopied and painted with gouache+linseed oil

Additional animals added to adjust composition. Pencil crayon vs gouache

               

My only problem was that I hadn't really planned to do this until after the drawing was done and therefore hadn't really thought about composition or even leaving myself enough space on the page which meant that I had less flexibility when it came to adjusting the image. 
Then I started to experiment with putting the animals in context and adding text and it was all going HORRIBLY WRONG!!! In theory I like the fact that I was using a rough image and basically using it to literally develop the final image by photocopying and enlarging the image BUT because it was a rough drawing and I hadn't been thinking of things like composition closely or thinking about a colour pallet in really I found that I was working around these thinks and getting myself into a bit of a sticky position! Nothing seemed to be working! The animals I chose only because I thought they sort of covered the big continents and so although I think they worked alright in black and white, I don't think they are as effective in colour ESPECIALLY with the background. Perhaps a unicolour, flat-colour background would have been better but I'm not sure if even this would be right! : ( 

I finished in inspite of my reservations:

I still managed to miss out on cropping the image as well which is an error and because of the lack of planning (and digital skills) I wasn't quite able to ensure that the image took up half of the double spread and it therefore seems to take up more then it should....mistake!

I decided to go crazy and choose a bit of a retro 70's-type font because I sort of felt that the image reminded me a little of something done in the 70's for seem weird reason....

On the whole, I was disappointed with the final image outcome but still enjoyed the photocopy,gouache-linseed technique so perhaps more practise is needed and perhaps I need a bit of balance between planning preparatory images before if I am thinking of using this technique! 

3.) The 'in-betweener'! 

For the final experiment I decided to use more 'traditional' media i.e.: gouache and watercolours and create an image that was 'in-between' being naturalistic or realistic and slightly personalising the animals. 

                 

        

           
These are the preparatory studies above. I still had a bit of a struggle working out the composition, colour combination and how to incorporate the text. In the end I decided to collage handwritten text on.

Photo of final image

I feel that it may have needed a dash of a light-orangey colour, perhaps from one more bird on the monkey's head but I ran out of time to include this.  I also didn't quite get the facial expression of the monkey as I envisaged because initially I drew it as is from the internet image and then when I was painting it I decided to try make her look like she was smiling....and this didn't quite work alas! 

I tried to use my very basic digital skills and managed to add a few sparkles! big steps for me I tell ya! ; ) Part of me thinks the image works and then part of me is concerned that maybe it's a little boring. I didn't personalise the animals' expressions as I'd hoped because I had wanted this to be subtle but perhaps they're a little too subtle?...I haven't quite decided myself! I do like the tissue paper to add the text because I was just NOT winning on this front. I would welcome feedback and advice!