ASS2 - Project 1 - The Brief

Write A Brief

      For this exercise I have decided to use the below illustration. I have chosen this illustration because I admire the art that has been created with a metaphor:

   Here is my brief for the above image:

Dear Illustrator,

  This illustration we require is to advertise a new fish burger. We would like the advertisement to be a rectangle size to fit in some of our windows.

    In the illustration we would like to show a fish in the image to advertise the burger. We want to make it look fun and pleasing to the eye our fish comes from the oceans so we would like a sea theme.

    We would also like a metaphor in the illustration. We have thought of one which makes people think of hunger 'Whales eat Boatloads' We want our customers to have a connection with the writing and the image that they can relate to.

   We would like our logo on here and also the name of the actual burger we would also like an image of a burger implemented into the illustration somehow. The promotion of this fish burger is to give our customers a feel good idea to promote a burger that is healthy. Our audience is for a wide range from children to adults so it must appeal to all ages.

For colours we want a sea theme so greens blues, sands are ideal.As this is an illustration for fish and water we would like the illustration to be done in perhaps watercolour and then tidied up using Photoshop. For the text the front needs to be a pirate kind of style a bit jumpy so it stands out on the poster and people can understand it clearly.

Kind regards

Macdonald

My opinion to my brief

 I think the brief I have made above, clearly indicates to the illustrator what the company want from their advertisement. I looked at the illustration and went through identifying the product, what we want to get from the product, who we want to aim for and using the metaphor to advertise the burger. I think the actual illustration made is quirky, eye catching and makes you think of a tasty fish burger.

Exercise spider diagrams

      In this exercise I have got to create four spider diagrams and list many words and ideas I can think of. I am not going to begin and see how I get on.

     Here above are my spider diagrams I created in my sketch book. Our of the four words I found that angry was the most difficult to think about. This is because it is an emotion not an object or a place, it is a feeling and there are only so many words you can think of and ideas that go with an adjective than an object, you are describing and adjective which is a lot harder.

   The strategy in which I used, was to think of an object in my head imagine I was there or how I felt or look back in my memory, in my past and think of things that remind me of those places, feelings or pastime. I think from memory you then realise you actually know a lot when digging deeper in to your memory bank, certain places, feelings of past come back to you.

Event: City  of colours

     Today I went to a festival in Birmingham Custard Factory called the City of Colours. It was a two day event where 140 graffiti artists were free to spray on every wall they can around that area in Birmingham. There were all different art types from graffiti, dancers, entertainers, painters and music artists. Here are a few photos which I took when I was there I had an amazing day and got great inspiration.

Above - Members of the public were able to get involved and draw on a wall.

Above - I really liked this one because of its colours and the idea of the woman's head being a planet.

Above - This artist was really cool. We saw this wall at the start of the day, which was basic and his are work looked really amazing. I really liked his characters.

Above - Unfinished spray painting

Above - Carmen, my partners sister who lives with us, shes in to art so its really cool to have her around.

 Above - I love this graffiti. The colours are vibrant and I like the illustration created.

 Above- Here was saw some stencils on the floor to which some graffiti artists used to do their art.

   We also found that most before this event sketched in their sketchbooks of what they wanted to create on the walls before hand. We got to see some cool sketch books with there work in.

Above - We also saw artists using scaffolding to reach higher places for there art.

Above - Here is myself with one of my favourite graffiti art from the event. I love the slick lines and the bright bold blue background that makes the characters stand out.

Above- A graffiti Artist using a stencil on his geometric idea.

Above - My favourite painter Durer's Famous rhino which I admire a lot.

Above - there was a giant tree man, which has been there for years. He is great to look at and very inspiring.

Above - A man sprayed on the giant chimney

I met a few of the graffiti artists, one was from America who did a graffiti art of some rabbits. Graffiti is great. They are illustrators in a way who which do their work on a larger scale. Some include meaning and opinions to make people see and try to understand.

Most people find graffiti an annoyance or a mess but actually it was really something brilliant!

We had a fab day. there was also a market area with people selling their craft items. Here are some below:


Here below is a lady who painted but also melted crayons and let them drip down her canvas. She was really in to marble effects and her style was very quirky.

Above - A lady had an idea to make bags with ugly faces on them. I asked here about them and she had actually made the teeth from wax and hardened it. They were really fun to look at. 

Below - Another lady we met had a thing for mushrooms and she created with what ever she found to do art ideas from mushroom inspiration. I really liked the bark with the mushrooms clinging on to them, like they would in a forest. She also covered bowel with lots of her own illustrations which was effective.

Above - 3D images made with paper and layers.

Bellow - A man illustrated this, he was really good at capturing celebrities personalities and faces in his work.

Above - Me and Carmen finishing our lovely day off with a reflection snap on the bull ring.

Custard Factory sector in Birmingham is a really great place.It used to be an actual custard factory but it closed down many years ago. A man came along and brought the area and said that this area is to be used for creative people in any aspect and they are free to use the space. It is a great place to be and all artist gather there to get creative and meet other artist from dance, graffiti, digital and painters, you name it theirs a bit of everything. we are defiantly going to keep looking for upcoming events to go to and get involved.

ASS1 - Feedback From Tutor

Feedback from tutor

     My feed back form my tutor was really great! I felt she really looked at my work and gave me a good understanding of further development.

      Judy pointed out that I had mentioned drawing in illustration was old fashioned. I love drawing and it made me realise how important it is, even to those who create illustrations with technology.

Drawing always comes first!

She mentioned for me to look at Jim Flora form the 50s and Warner bro cartoons form the 50s and 60s.

She also mentioned sketching more from life which I will start to now. It will help me to get my proportions correct and get more of a correct visualisation on things around me. I know I some times have a Disney feel to them. This is a bit of a bad habit I have picked up over the years as Disney really inspired me to create illustrations.

My tutor thought my sketch book start was good and my blog was very informative which I will continue to do so.

She has also told me to look more at contemporary artists and illustrators to help me with my own, Seeing how illustration is moving forward and different ways how other illustrators work.

She has given me a few links, journals and books to look at to help me move forward and improve. I will check these out and bookmark them for future reference.

I am also learning Photoshop and Judy has advised me on a website which will help me learn.

For then next assignment I am going to take my tutors comments on board and focus on improving and learning more about becoming an illustrator. I am looking forward to starting assignment 2!

Quick look at Jim Flora form the 50s and Warner bro cartoons from the 50s and 60s.

Jim Flora

http://www.jimflora.com/

     As I can see from the few images I have picked out of his illustrations the are very bold and bright. They are simple and easy on the eye. 

      The first two are retro looking and clearly can understand there are informing the viewer about music. His characters are fun and looking at his illustrations makes you think a rather that they may be playing. 

     The bottom image is of a city. It's quite hard to make out but you can see two people on the top of the buildings. I am not too sure what they ate up to. 

 Warner Bros Cartoons
http://animationresources.org/category/warner-bros/

       Above are some images I came across whist researching Warner Bros. I used to love watching their cartoons back in the day and I have just watched a few now on you tube which brought back happy memories of my childhood.

      I like some of the sketch work I found where they sketched different angles in various ways of their characters. This was there starting point for making them come to life in the cartoons on TV.

    There are a lot of sketches involved and layering of tracing paper until they are happy with the final image of the character.  They show the personality in the creatures and it works really well. 

    There colours are bright and proportions are about right too. This has shown me the more I sketch the better I shall become in my illustrations, such as proportions, personalities and lines of my characters.

Now I have  looked at these illustrations, I now feel ready to begin assignment 2.

ASS1 - Final - Say Hello

Say Hello

   For assignment 1 this exercise is to create a greeting card for the tutor to understand more about myself and introduce me to her.

   I used to do a lot of greeting cards before I started doing my dergee, so I was quite excited to start this assignment.

    First of all I brainstormed in my sketchbook my ideas such as my favourite things, what I like to do, what I want to aim for in my life and what I enjoy doing most. I then decided on what I want to say in the card, to my tutor. 

 I have just done a few examples of layout of my card:

     I like number 3 the best because it's more an ideal layout for my idea and also it opens up upwards instead of from the right to the left, which gives a different aspect to it then just a normal card. I also have decided that I want to create my card as a pop-up. I want my tutor to open it and be surprised with me standing out of the card.

    When I was younger I remembered about a game called 'who am I?' that I used to play it at school and decided this would be a great idea to put on the front of my card, with illustrations around the question of things I like.

       I am now going to do some sketches of what I want to do and scanner in the computer and work on them to see what I can come up with.

Ive now decided what I really need to do is understand how my popup in my card is going to work. I decided that I wanted my name in there too and in just behind that I want myself. I decided that I needed two tabs on top of each other, to create depth in my popout. I then  looked and decided on the final things I want to share about myself in my card which is: 

• My love of animals
• Going to the cinema
• My friends
• Travel
• Nature and the sun 
• Gaming 
• Disney 
• My fiance
• My pet rabbits

Those are the images that I want on front of the card surrounding the who am I question. I  have been sketching and decided that I wanted the text 'Who am I?' in Cloud forms, just like thinking bubbles. If you look in my sketchbook you can see my cloud layout that I created. I have scanned it into the computer and added colour to it and I added some images I found off the Internet to go in the bubbles.

 I decided that this was wrong because they are someone else's work and not my own so on the next page in my sketchbook you will see again the same clouds, but this time with my illustrations for the items that I wanted people to see on the front of the card:

     I also left two of the clouds blank as I wanted to add photos, one of my friends and one of my fiance. 

    Now I'm happy with what I'm going to do on the front the next part is the inside of the card. I decided that I wanted to illustrate my body and hair but then use a photo of me for my face area, so I am mixing them both together. Also in this area, on the background, I want to put a profile just of certain facts, such as where I live, what I like, what I dislike and my inspirations in life.

       I decided on my message I wanted to give to my tutor and also the background of my card just to add some extra illustrations onto it. I have tonight put all this into the computer and played about with each area to come out with a good design for a card.

As you can see below I have now done my final idea of my card:

 I am now going to print this off and put it together to create my pop-ups who am I greeting card to my tutor

          As you can see I have finished my card I am really happy with the way it has come out and my pop-up works just great. Some issues with the glue, such as causing wrinkles in the paper but I think this is the trouble with creating a pop-up card because you can't just print it, there is some crafting areas for this to be made.

        I think this card definitely hit the assignment 1 objectives which was to introduce me to my tutor. I have also made a unique idea where I am asking who am I on the front with illustrations and photos of things about me and then when you open the card I pop out from it. There are extra facts and a bit of a profile about myself to understand me better and relate to the images on the front of the card.

      I think overall I have created a really good card and a good first assignment in illustration. I don't know much about Photoshop illustration or InDesign, but whilst doing this course I am also training and researching for myself to get to grips with these programs a lot better and understand their abilities more to help me create work and improve on my illustrations. I am looking forward to carrying on with the next part of this course.

ASS1 - Project 1 - The Key Is Communication

Exercise: Getting the gist

    For this exercise I have to look at an article read it, highlight the main words in the article and look over it again. Then take the words I have chosen as my brief, to create an illustration.

      I decided on an article which is to introduce a new Zoo into the area:

   Whilst reading it, it informed me that the animals weren't in cages. It told me about the types of animals that were there and some mishaps about a wallaby in a broken down car and a hornbill that flew away and was flying around the area.

     I decided that an illustration would be quite fun too do towards this brief. I decided that I wanted to make the illustration with the animals and humans in an open area together as there were no cages. 

     Also decided to include as many animals as I could off the list in the article and to add some humour to my illustration such as the Wallaby fixing a broken down car and holding the traffic up that are trying to get into the zoo. I want to put the hornbill flying away and also showing animals just enjoying themselves and relaxing.

    I did a few sketches in my sketchbook as you can see below:

     I decided to create some funny sketches such as a kangaroo playing football, a crocodile drinking a soda, Wallabies flying a kite. This helps giving personalities to the creatures.

      I am now going to do a rough sketch of my illustration and see how it turns out:

      As you can see above, I have done it really quickly and just got in the basics of the figures and animals in my illustration. I am now going to use promarkers and fineliners to create my final illustration I am going to make it quite colourful to capture the humour in the illustration. I just want to have a go at colouring it in by hand rather than the computer.

    Here is my final illustration:

      I think it turned out really well. I feel that I included all the main key points in my illustration from the brief that I chose. I also scaned this image in and sent it to the zoo just to show them and offer my support. They really liked it and said if they ever needed any hand drawn illustrations they will be in touch which I thought was nice.

     I really enjoyed this exercise, I liked that I had a brief to work with and it was exciting to see what I could come up with and create, based on the brief that I had given myself. This really helps in helping you to use your imagination and understand the brief to create an illustration that is appealing and truthful to the text.

 In some spare time

I decided I wanted to have a go at making a poster, I decided I could look at jokes and use them as a brief toward an illustration.

     As you can see I drawed my illustration, scanned it in to the computer and used text and edited the image to create my simple poster. I think it is really funny and I enjoyed giving myself this task. I may try to do some more illustrations for some jokes in the future.