I've set up a tumblr to use in my personal practice. So far I've just set up some blog posts that will post over the next week. Wasn't aware that was a feature seen as I'm new to tumblr but I think its a great way to have regular blog posts without it taking up too much of my time
http://rowenasharpillustration.tumblr.com/
Monday, 18 May 2015
OUIL 501 Group tutorial feedback
We had group tutorials on our essays today.
Feedback and ideas:
Talk about book to movie adaptations. What's scary in a book is very different to whats scary in a movie. Are plots changed just to justify more jumps in a film?
Books can spend paragraphs describing a mood and tension of what is actually only a split second in real time making it amost impossible for directors to achieve the same level of tension.
The question of ethics in film
Carrie was remade recently and released at a lower age rating than it first was. Our special effects have advanced since the first release so surely the new film is more realistic with gore. So the only reason it would have a lower age restriction is if what they considered inappropriate for a younger age group is no longer considered that way. Either we were over protecting before or the gore and violence has less effect on children of this generation.
Perhaps its so that more people can come and see it if there are less restrictions which comes down to a moral dilemma which is more important; boosting film ratings or properly protecting minors from violent content.
Blue and green blood can be used in movies to add more gore without it being so bad they would geet a higher age rating.
Question to be either
How has technology influenced desensitization or Has technology caused desensitization. One assumes that desensitization has happened and will discuss what factors have led to it. The second question would make an essay more into a debate over whether it has or not. I think that will make it easier to write if I can propose and argue two options.
Feedback and ideas:
Talk about book to movie adaptations. What's scary in a book is very different to whats scary in a movie. Are plots changed just to justify more jumps in a film?
Books can spend paragraphs describing a mood and tension of what is actually only a split second in real time making it amost impossible for directors to achieve the same level of tension.
The question of ethics in film
Carrie was remade recently and released at a lower age rating than it first was. Our special effects have advanced since the first release so surely the new film is more realistic with gore. So the only reason it would have a lower age restriction is if what they considered inappropriate for a younger age group is no longer considered that way. Either we were over protecting before or the gore and violence has less effect on children of this generation.
Perhaps its so that more people can come and see it if there are less restrictions which comes down to a moral dilemma which is more important; boosting film ratings or properly protecting minors from violent content.
Blue and green blood can be used in movies to add more gore without it being so bad they would geet a higher age rating.
Question to be either
How has technology influenced desensitization or Has technology caused desensitization. One assumes that desensitization has happened and will discuss what factors have led to it. The second question would make an essay more into a debate over whether it has or not. I think that will make it easier to write if I can propose and argue two options.
OUIL501 Evaluation
Strengths
I think a big strength here was the format and shape of the panels. I took the inspiration from Jesse Jacobs work and I've seen that it helps to keep looking at current work because it fuels my ideas. Another strength was the colour scheme, I spent quite a long time working on different colour pallets and using coolors to help me. Since I'd designed such full images with so much going on it became quite hard to put colour in without it looking over the top and loud. I decided then to colour all the characters/ objects in the boxes in one colour. The detail is too small to have individual colour and shadow and I want to be pushing the line work over the colouring because thats the element I've been working on.
I think that for once text didn't go horribly in my work, the writing is just my handwriting which I picked because I assumed it would work well with the drawing since shapes I draw will inherently be similar to the way I draw letters. But I think its the layout that has made it acceptable. It's well spaced and the whole thing is one thought split over lots of different characters. I think this showed that the issues are things that have affected many.
Normally when trying to name a comic, which is always the last thing I do, I struggle to think of a relevant title. But this time I think the title worked well because it gives a sense of condescending humour. It belittles and makes fun of the issues inside. Putting the lettering in little boxes really sewed the whole thing together, the continuity of the boxes made it work as a set otherwise I feel it would have looked like a mess of news stories and it wouldn't have the same affect. The uniformity is almost clinical.
The character I think I drew best is the spot illustration for female circumcision, the facial expressions worked really well. At first I was only going to draw her bottomless but the nudity adds an overwhelming sense of vulnerability. It makes the image more distressing to look at. I think that the head size to body ratio worked on showing that this is definitely a child. I felt the best way to play on peoples heart strings was to have a young girl rather than a teen/young adult. The instinct to protect plays up and the image is repulsive.
Weaknesses.
The female circumcision illustration is my favourite drawing but I feel that it was rushed because after printing I realised that all the other spot illustrations I pushed the line as texture to extenuate the gore. But in this she's smooth, I think I just forgot and the image is the most horrifying which almost makes up for it but i wanted everything to have a strong sense of continuity since the subject spanned across so many different issues.
I think that one weakness was the saturation of my colours, the digital file had quite vibrant colours. But I picked a thick cotton paper to print on and it harshly reduced the saturation, but it looks so much better this way. I think that the brighter colours looked to gaudy mixed with the large amounts of line. So a happy accident has improved my work.
Blogging has been a weakness again in this module, and that is mainly down to time management of all the different projects I've been working on. If I was to take on this again I would not do as many projects at once because I think it has reduced the quality of my ideas and drawing.
In my process I feel like I jumped a bit from my beautiful gore to the million mouths panelling. I think that shows that the beautiful gore idea wasn't really going anywhere and I had reached a wall. I think in future when proposing an idea I need to be really specific with what I want it to do and say. Because otherwise I get lost just playing under the general theme of my idea and lose sight of the task at hand.
I think my essay was weaker than my visual, written work isn't usually my forte. I tried to do more research this year so that I could back up my ideas. But I think I went into it with pre decided ideas about my subject and when I was researching I wasn't just exploring the information, I was searching for information to specifically back up my ideas and intentions. I think for next year I need to fully get into the research process and stop myself thinking about the end before I've even started.
I think a big strength here was the format and shape of the panels. I took the inspiration from Jesse Jacobs work and I've seen that it helps to keep looking at current work because it fuels my ideas. Another strength was the colour scheme, I spent quite a long time working on different colour pallets and using coolors to help me. Since I'd designed such full images with so much going on it became quite hard to put colour in without it looking over the top and loud. I decided then to colour all the characters/ objects in the boxes in one colour. The detail is too small to have individual colour and shadow and I want to be pushing the line work over the colouring because thats the element I've been working on.
I think that for once text didn't go horribly in my work, the writing is just my handwriting which I picked because I assumed it would work well with the drawing since shapes I draw will inherently be similar to the way I draw letters. But I think its the layout that has made it acceptable. It's well spaced and the whole thing is one thought split over lots of different characters. I think this showed that the issues are things that have affected many.
Normally when trying to name a comic, which is always the last thing I do, I struggle to think of a relevant title. But this time I think the title worked well because it gives a sense of condescending humour. It belittles and makes fun of the issues inside. Putting the lettering in little boxes really sewed the whole thing together, the continuity of the boxes made it work as a set otherwise I feel it would have looked like a mess of news stories and it wouldn't have the same affect. The uniformity is almost clinical.
The character I think I drew best is the spot illustration for female circumcision, the facial expressions worked really well. At first I was only going to draw her bottomless but the nudity adds an overwhelming sense of vulnerability. It makes the image more distressing to look at. I think that the head size to body ratio worked on showing that this is definitely a child. I felt the best way to play on peoples heart strings was to have a young girl rather than a teen/young adult. The instinct to protect plays up and the image is repulsive.
Weaknesses.
The female circumcision illustration is my favourite drawing but I feel that it was rushed because after printing I realised that all the other spot illustrations I pushed the line as texture to extenuate the gore. But in this she's smooth, I think I just forgot and the image is the most horrifying which almost makes up for it but i wanted everything to have a strong sense of continuity since the subject spanned across so many different issues.
I think that one weakness was the saturation of my colours, the digital file had quite vibrant colours. But I picked a thick cotton paper to print on and it harshly reduced the saturation, but it looks so much better this way. I think that the brighter colours looked to gaudy mixed with the large amounts of line. So a happy accident has improved my work.
Blogging has been a weakness again in this module, and that is mainly down to time management of all the different projects I've been working on. If I was to take on this again I would not do as many projects at once because I think it has reduced the quality of my ideas and drawing.
In my process I feel like I jumped a bit from my beautiful gore to the million mouths panelling. I think that shows that the beautiful gore idea wasn't really going anywhere and I had reached a wall. I think in future when proposing an idea I need to be really specific with what I want it to do and say. Because otherwise I get lost just playing under the general theme of my idea and lose sight of the task at hand.
I think my essay was weaker than my visual, written work isn't usually my forte. I tried to do more research this year so that I could back up my ideas. But I think I went into it with pre decided ideas about my subject and when I was researching I wasn't just exploring the information, I was searching for information to specifically back up my ideas and intentions. I think for next year I need to fully get into the research process and stop myself thinking about the end before I've even started.
Thought Bubble; an afterthought
Quantity
I think I printed too much of my prints. I was being overly optimistic with it, some sets had 20 or 30 copies. I only sold a handful of things and by printing so much I only increased my losses.
Next time I will do small set of between 5-10 copies at most, this will make transport easier and storage.
Pricing
The prices I gave my things were quite under priced I think my screen print was £5 and everything else was between £1-3. I think by giving them such low prices it made it obvious that I was not a professional or at least not up to the standards of the other people in the main room. I was pricing with myself in mind because normally when I go to thought bubble I only have a certain amount of money with me and so I'm very picky about what I buy and like to get lots of small cheap things. But I think that it's not really down to price, it's really about whether people like your work or not.
Presentation
The stands worked well on space saving but by being individual stands they were flimsy and easily knocked over, next time I would like to make a tiered stand that could hold multiple prints. Its a more sturdy design and the majority of table display stands were of a similar design. The price tags we used were just arrow shaped post its and I think that we should have used something sturdier, the post its fell off quite a lot and we had to stick them directly on the comics and it made people unsure on which they were allowed to pick up and purchase.
Student Life prints
These didn't sell well at all and they received little interest. I think the issue was that at first people thought that they were three different sets because they are packaged together. And then I put a little sign but it would have been clearer if I put individual stickers on them and packaged them properly. I think doing a project on being a student was a little cliché, most people have done something on being a student before. But I never considered it from a buying perspective, I don't tend to buy prints specifically aimed at student because they normally make sweeping generalisation. The idea of a student buying it seems weird now its more like a present you'd receive off some relation who doesn't know much more about you other than you are a student.
Jump
I think this was one of my most successful comics. It still didn't sell masses but more than most of my other products. I think the size caught a lot of peoples attention, mainly women. As a woman I am always drawn to things that are miniature versions, like travel shampoo and baby shoes. So I think the size added a lot of charm to the piece.
This was a comic I ended up trading with another person who was selling. I had been over to her table earlier and bought a comic but expressed great interest in a tiny comic she made about ant puns. She came over to our table and offered it up as a swap. I never realised that I could go round and offer up trades to other sellers. It was a good way to chat to people.
Procrastination
This was my favourite comic I did, I enjoyed making it and it was something everyone could relate to. Unfortunately my screen printing skills leave much to be desired and I think I butchered my design with it. But I sold two of them and they were my proudest sales. The first one paid £5 and I was really excited that someone would hand over note money for my work. The second one was on the second day though at which point I'd reduced the price to £4 in the hopes of encouraging more sales.
Ugly Simpsons
I think this piece didn't work because it had an unclear audience. The recognisable characters drew in children which I thought was great because I figured since it was only a pound a print it was within a child's price range. But a couple hours in I realised that I'd drawn Maggie holding the middle finger up. Children had been coming over interested in the Simpsons and then the parents would swoop in when they saw the obscenity. I think in future if I do any work aimed at kids I should have it in a separate section and obviously labelled so. If we have a tiered display stand next time then the things with adult references in can go at the top out of reach of children.
Amazon woman
I only sold one of these and it was to Hollie because she was sad no one bought one because it was her favourite. I think that having an illustration class around all the time we've started to appreciate work for different reasons and we see it in a design aspect. But to some one without any of that it was just a woman's face in green and purple for no apparent reason. I think my projects need a clear purpose and audience before I start because otherwise I end up making just a random drawing, its not illustration because it illustrates nothing.
Socialising
The event was really good for making creative acquaintances, we went round and chatted to people who were selling. One guy works in Leeds and was a recent graduate, he rested our minds on certain things and says that he doesn't really have any trouble getting illustrative jobs, which is reassuring.
Our table was next to Dilraj Mann who I ended up chatting to because Hollie was still at college printing off comics when the convention started. I had been singing to myself under the assumption that no one could hear me since no one had reacted to my noise. It turned out he could hear me. The whole time. But after the initial embarrassment we had a lovely chat. It feels encouraging to have some one like him liking my work.
Kristyna Baczynski came over to our table and bought two of my comics which I was really happy about. Because most of the day people hadn't even approached our table so I'd spent most of it chatting and eating snacks continuously.
We also chatted to these american guys who had done a load of risograph prints, the layering of colours and textures in their work was highly enviable and beautiful. We chatted to them about how they started up their own studio and got their first risograph printer.
I think going around and chatting to people was the most useful thing that I did at thought bubble. It answered a lot of questions about what happens to us after uni and how hard it is to get jobs. It was also just nice making friends in the illustrative world. I like talking to the people at similar stages in their career as me because it's a fun comparison and in 1 years or so they'll be my competition and it'd be great to already have those connections.
I think I printed too much of my prints. I was being overly optimistic with it, some sets had 20 or 30 copies. I only sold a handful of things and by printing so much I only increased my losses.
Next time I will do small set of between 5-10 copies at most, this will make transport easier and storage.
Pricing
The prices I gave my things were quite under priced I think my screen print was £5 and everything else was between £1-3. I think by giving them such low prices it made it obvious that I was not a professional or at least not up to the standards of the other people in the main room. I was pricing with myself in mind because normally when I go to thought bubble I only have a certain amount of money with me and so I'm very picky about what I buy and like to get lots of small cheap things. But I think that it's not really down to price, it's really about whether people like your work or not.
Presentation
The stands worked well on space saving but by being individual stands they were flimsy and easily knocked over, next time I would like to make a tiered stand that could hold multiple prints. Its a more sturdy design and the majority of table display stands were of a similar design. The price tags we used were just arrow shaped post its and I think that we should have used something sturdier, the post its fell off quite a lot and we had to stick them directly on the comics and it made people unsure on which they were allowed to pick up and purchase.
Student Life prints
These didn't sell well at all and they received little interest. I think the issue was that at first people thought that they were three different sets because they are packaged together. And then I put a little sign but it would have been clearer if I put individual stickers on them and packaged them properly. I think doing a project on being a student was a little cliché, most people have done something on being a student before. But I never considered it from a buying perspective, I don't tend to buy prints specifically aimed at student because they normally make sweeping generalisation. The idea of a student buying it seems weird now its more like a present you'd receive off some relation who doesn't know much more about you other than you are a student.
Jump
I think this was one of my most successful comics. It still didn't sell masses but more than most of my other products. I think the size caught a lot of peoples attention, mainly women. As a woman I am always drawn to things that are miniature versions, like travel shampoo and baby shoes. So I think the size added a lot of charm to the piece.
This was a comic I ended up trading with another person who was selling. I had been over to her table earlier and bought a comic but expressed great interest in a tiny comic she made about ant puns. She came over to our table and offered it up as a swap. I never realised that I could go round and offer up trades to other sellers. It was a good way to chat to people.
Procrastination
This was my favourite comic I did, I enjoyed making it and it was something everyone could relate to. Unfortunately my screen printing skills leave much to be desired and I think I butchered my design with it. But I sold two of them and they were my proudest sales. The first one paid £5 and I was really excited that someone would hand over note money for my work. The second one was on the second day though at which point I'd reduced the price to £4 in the hopes of encouraging more sales.
Ugly Simpsons
I think this piece didn't work because it had an unclear audience. The recognisable characters drew in children which I thought was great because I figured since it was only a pound a print it was within a child's price range. But a couple hours in I realised that I'd drawn Maggie holding the middle finger up. Children had been coming over interested in the Simpsons and then the parents would swoop in when they saw the obscenity. I think in future if I do any work aimed at kids I should have it in a separate section and obviously labelled so. If we have a tiered display stand next time then the things with adult references in can go at the top out of reach of children.
Amazon woman
I only sold one of these and it was to Hollie because she was sad no one bought one because it was her favourite. I think that having an illustration class around all the time we've started to appreciate work for different reasons and we see it in a design aspect. But to some one without any of that it was just a woman's face in green and purple for no apparent reason. I think my projects need a clear purpose and audience before I start because otherwise I end up making just a random drawing, its not illustration because it illustrates nothing.
Socialising
The event was really good for making creative acquaintances, we went round and chatted to people who were selling. One guy works in Leeds and was a recent graduate, he rested our minds on certain things and says that he doesn't really have any trouble getting illustrative jobs, which is reassuring.
Our table was next to Dilraj Mann who I ended up chatting to because Hollie was still at college printing off comics when the convention started. I had been singing to myself under the assumption that no one could hear me since no one had reacted to my noise. It turned out he could hear me. The whole time. But after the initial embarrassment we had a lovely chat. It feels encouraging to have some one like him liking my work.
Kristyna Baczynski came over to our table and bought two of my comics which I was really happy about. Because most of the day people hadn't even approached our table so I'd spent most of it chatting and eating snacks continuously.
We also chatted to these american guys who had done a load of risograph prints, the layering of colours and textures in their work was highly enviable and beautiful. We chatted to them about how they started up their own studio and got their first risograph printer.
I think going around and chatting to people was the most useful thing that I did at thought bubble. It answered a lot of questions about what happens to us after uni and how hard it is to get jobs. It was also just nice making friends in the illustrative world. I like talking to the people at similar stages in their career as me because it's a fun comparison and in 1 years or so they'll be my competition and it'd be great to already have those connections.
OUIL504 Evaluation
My biggest issue in this project was my time planning, I got way behind and I was struggling to estimate how long it would take me to do things. At the end of the project I managed to get my time together and get my stuff finished but it was a close call. I've found that having a checklist helps me because I can see the amount of work going down and also it spurs you on to stay that bit longer to finish up your check point. So something to keep in mind for the rest of my modules is that time planning is key. I will use checklists and try to always have an up to date list of the things that I need to do.
This was a project I did well with ideas though, I got lots of them this module which was helpful as I decided to redesign both projects in the last fortnight. I think the late redesign was down to a mixture of time planning and over reaching with my aims. At first I wanted to have a minute long animation but I just don't think I understood how long it was going to take. Animation was definitely a shock to the system and my timing, drawing every frame takes time and then putting it all together digitally can take just as long. Although I learnt that if you want to get your hand drawn frames onto the mac you can use dragon frame to take pictures of your frames but thats only if you want to retain just the line work. Unfortunately taking photo's meant that I lost the paper texture I wanted to keep, but with the poor time planning I didn't have any time to do them by scanning which takes a lot longer.
With these processes I found that they were both very demanding and time consuming, I've never felt so stressed for such a prolonged time before but thats the challenges of these processes. My big issue with print I think was actually mainly due to my patience or lack there of. My first screens I coated too thickly because I didn't spend enough time scraping it to a thin layer, the second time I did it one was thick because I didn't want to have to clean a second trough for my smaller screen so I just used an over sized one. Then my prints didn't expose very well because I had scanned them in and printed them, losing some of the quality. I needed them on one piece of paper each layer so they lined up and I could do the whole set of prints in 3 layers. But I think I should have just re drawn them all onto one big piece of tracing paper and then I could have kept the line and texture in the scribbling.
There were a lot of shortcuts I had to take these last couple of days due to the looming deadline but it showed me that I can do some of this work a lot faster than I thought I could, and although thats necessary at this point its nice to know for future that I can save myself time with these things.
I think something that was strong in this module was context, with each one there was a reason for it, I kept trying to think where my work would lie in the real world. I think that pushed my project on quite a lot, especially animation because I made the decision for an advert and a song straight away and then the rest of my animation grew off of that idea. I've been trying to push an element of professionalism because something I always took away from a project last year was that my work still looked like a student work and I didn't feel like it was up to standard. By packaging it, it made me think that since it could physically be sold in a shop or shown on tv then its a possibility and that was good enough for me. I really enjoyed packaging my prints the most and tried to make it as realistic as possible. It also gave me a chance to try out the sticker paper which I haven't before, although in retrospect I feel I should have gone with the opaque stickers rather than the transparent ones because they lose some of their colour and vibrancy if they're not on a white background.
Things to take forward form this module:
Time planning: Do it! Use checklists if you must but some form of planning is necessary. If I don't know how long something is going to take then work for a little while and see how far you get in the time and plan accordingly.
Patience: I've sworn at a lot of macs, while using photoshop,dragon frame and especially after effects, but most of the time the problem is simple to fix. Stop panicking go ask for help if you need it but first take a deep breath and just look at what I've done in case it's an obvious mistake.
Screen Prepping: Thin layers of emulsion only! and make positives to scale and in position to save time later.
Reference: In animation good reference is golden and the frames where I used reference turned out really good. (The panning view in the last scene I really enjoyed)
Blog: Blog regularly. Don't forget it. Just blog a little each day. I think thats a do able thing seen as I ended up blogging while I was battling photoshop trying to edit my frames.
Self evaluation: I had two late points of redesign in this module and it worked out great but it would have been less of a stressful nightmare if i'd had evaluated earlier and figured out the issue then.
Spontaneous peer review: If I need to evaluate but i'm too 'into' the project to even see anymore then just ask someone to peer review it! Getting others opinions through out can help me catch problems that start to occur before they reach nuclear.
This was a project I did well with ideas though, I got lots of them this module which was helpful as I decided to redesign both projects in the last fortnight. I think the late redesign was down to a mixture of time planning and over reaching with my aims. At first I wanted to have a minute long animation but I just don't think I understood how long it was going to take. Animation was definitely a shock to the system and my timing, drawing every frame takes time and then putting it all together digitally can take just as long. Although I learnt that if you want to get your hand drawn frames onto the mac you can use dragon frame to take pictures of your frames but thats only if you want to retain just the line work. Unfortunately taking photo's meant that I lost the paper texture I wanted to keep, but with the poor time planning I didn't have any time to do them by scanning which takes a lot longer.
With these processes I found that they were both very demanding and time consuming, I've never felt so stressed for such a prolonged time before but thats the challenges of these processes. My big issue with print I think was actually mainly due to my patience or lack there of. My first screens I coated too thickly because I didn't spend enough time scraping it to a thin layer, the second time I did it one was thick because I didn't want to have to clean a second trough for my smaller screen so I just used an over sized one. Then my prints didn't expose very well because I had scanned them in and printed them, losing some of the quality. I needed them on one piece of paper each layer so they lined up and I could do the whole set of prints in 3 layers. But I think I should have just re drawn them all onto one big piece of tracing paper and then I could have kept the line and texture in the scribbling.
There were a lot of shortcuts I had to take these last couple of days due to the looming deadline but it showed me that I can do some of this work a lot faster than I thought I could, and although thats necessary at this point its nice to know for future that I can save myself time with these things.
I think something that was strong in this module was context, with each one there was a reason for it, I kept trying to think where my work would lie in the real world. I think that pushed my project on quite a lot, especially animation because I made the decision for an advert and a song straight away and then the rest of my animation grew off of that idea. I've been trying to push an element of professionalism because something I always took away from a project last year was that my work still looked like a student work and I didn't feel like it was up to standard. By packaging it, it made me think that since it could physically be sold in a shop or shown on tv then its a possibility and that was good enough for me. I really enjoyed packaging my prints the most and tried to make it as realistic as possible. It also gave me a chance to try out the sticker paper which I haven't before, although in retrospect I feel I should have gone with the opaque stickers rather than the transparent ones because they lose some of their colour and vibrancy if they're not on a white background.
Things to take forward form this module:
Time planning: Do it! Use checklists if you must but some form of planning is necessary. If I don't know how long something is going to take then work for a little while and see how far you get in the time and plan accordingly.
Patience: I've sworn at a lot of macs, while using photoshop,dragon frame and especially after effects, but most of the time the problem is simple to fix. Stop panicking go ask for help if you need it but first take a deep breath and just look at what I've done in case it's an obvious mistake.
Screen Prepping: Thin layers of emulsion only! and make positives to scale and in position to save time later.
Reference: In animation good reference is golden and the frames where I used reference turned out really good. (The panning view in the last scene I really enjoyed)
Blog: Blog regularly. Don't forget it. Just blog a little each day. I think thats a do able thing seen as I ended up blogging while I was battling photoshop trying to edit my frames.
Self evaluation: I had two late points of redesign in this module and it worked out great but it would have been less of a stressful nightmare if i'd had evaluated earlier and figured out the issue then.
Spontaneous peer review: If I need to evaluate but i'm too 'into' the project to even see anymore then just ask someone to peer review it! Getting others opinions through out can help me catch problems that start to occur before they reach nuclear.
OUIL503 Evaluation
Strengths:
This is the module where I had a turning point with colour. Being showed programs that can generate pallets for you with a certain amount of control. This helped me with a lot of my work because I have a habit of doing all the line work and finalising my work before I've even thought about the colours I'll be using. This hasn't changed that habit yet but it's helped make the whole colour picking process less stressful. The other thing that helped was having the brief layout colours already, in the Propercorn brief I decided just to use the colours that they already had associated with their brand on their packaging. Having a colour pallet that already worked made it a lot easier to work with instead of considering every colour there was a select amount of options and it was more about balancing the colours to create an aesthetically pleasing image.
Line as texture has been a growing element in my work this year, because the competitions were almost like a break from real work where I can draw what I want, I decided to just play with what I like which is grossness. Line as texture makes the whole image seem rough and abrasive which makes it off putting straight away. Melting and drips have been a big part of this like in my Threadless brief, I'm just enjoying playing with form at the moment.
Thought bubble showed that I could get a lot of projects done quickly and to a deadline. I managed to organise a stock list and floats money. I also made stands, I think its been useful to learn how to make my own display stands because it means I can present something at a rush and on a budget. Thought bubble was most useful for talking to other illustrators. It was a new experience, we were given gold wrist bands to signify that we had a table and it was like being in a secret club. You could instantly talk to any other seller and just flash them the bracelet and your in. One of the younger guys we spoke to I'm still in touch with as he works in Leeds. But we go in to the shop and chat with him, its like seeing into what our lives might be like in a year.
Texture brushes were something I experimented with in this module. In the secret seven brief, I was trying to create a distressed aesthetic for one of the album covers I chose to illustrate. It was new and I'm not yet sure exactly how to use it, my first attempt just seemed to be a beginners luck fluke. But I used them in my tiny teepee submission as well and I think this is a technique I will try and perfect a bit more because it can more easily show intangible themes.
Weaknesses:
Thought bubble was probably filled with the most mistakes in this module, but I expected to make mistakes because the whole convention scene was very different to what I'm used to and I wasn't really sure how to present my work or what to present even. I think my main mistake was that I was just generating pointless work in a panic because I just felt like I had to have a good range of things to show but my drawing had progressed so much over the summer that I didn't want to include anything old because there would be a drastic difference in quality. My work needed to have some constraints so that it fits somewhere in the creative market, audience and purpose are something I'm going to consider more in future projects. The presentation of our stall wasn't at a professional standard I think that was partly down to not knowing how to display properly or the table dimensions but also because a lot of the things like table cloth and price tags were last minute things that I almost forgot. Also when we did sell things we hadn't thought about how to package them and therefore we had nothing, it makes it look like the piece doesn't matter and it makes people see it as less valuable. I think that overall in the thought bubble brief I undervalued my work, I didn't put enough time and effort into each piece because I valued quantity over quality, I under priced them and I didn't package to a professional standard.
Research has been a weakness in this project, I think that if I had put more research into the We Transfer I would have realised my mistake earlier and planned the comic accordingly. I think the comic leading up to the gif was the weakest part of the response and I feel its down to poor planning. I think I needed to get more interested in each project and invest the time to research but I've felt so rushed and under pressure this year that I haven't felt able to really invest in each project and research it fully.
My presentation boards were a weakness, at first I wasn't sure what information I needed to include but then it became more about the layout of the boards themselves. A lot of people's I saw looked really professional with mock ups of the products in their environment. Where as I just had a jumble of information about colours and reference images. I feel more comfortable with the presentation boards when I'm allowed to talk the group through them because without that I didn't really put a lot of text on the boards because in feedback I was told it looked too wordy. I need to work on how to communicate a project without words so that in future working with live briefs I can send back and forth my progress on the project easily and clearly.
I think my main weakness though has been my habit of planning ridiculously time consuming ideas, I never feel like something simple is enough and I end up just getting really stressed out that I won't be able to finish my project and then I'll end up changing it at the last minute to compensate for not being able to finish. I think for future projects I should start with a simple idea and build off of it. Because if I propose a pack with multiple elements I can just make the initial idea the others grew off of and then after that each extra thing I complete is a bonus and if I don't finish they can still be proposed. This way I can still have my crazy way too much work ideas but present them in a way that makes it okay that I've only actually fully made a handful of them.
Conclusion:
Overall I think this module presented a very steep learning curve, it's been a dip into the world of professional illustration. I have enjoyed doing the smaller competitions and they wee things I didn't even know run constantly. I plan to continue doing Tiny Teepee and off life regularly and when we reach the summer holidays I'm excited to go out and find competitions to do to keep the creative juices flowing. I think I've improved my ability to explain my projects, mostly down to the presentation boards. I was in a crit the other day and had to explain my project and my whole mind went jumbled and I forgot chunks and just said a load of random topics that are included without any real information like size, paper, print methods, digital/analogue etc. I think that the presentation boards weren't just for showing others what the project is about, it also helps organise your thoughts into an understandable format.
This is the module where I had a turning point with colour. Being showed programs that can generate pallets for you with a certain amount of control. This helped me with a lot of my work because I have a habit of doing all the line work and finalising my work before I've even thought about the colours I'll be using. This hasn't changed that habit yet but it's helped make the whole colour picking process less stressful. The other thing that helped was having the brief layout colours already, in the Propercorn brief I decided just to use the colours that they already had associated with their brand on their packaging. Having a colour pallet that already worked made it a lot easier to work with instead of considering every colour there was a select amount of options and it was more about balancing the colours to create an aesthetically pleasing image.
Line as texture has been a growing element in my work this year, because the competitions were almost like a break from real work where I can draw what I want, I decided to just play with what I like which is grossness. Line as texture makes the whole image seem rough and abrasive which makes it off putting straight away. Melting and drips have been a big part of this like in my Threadless brief, I'm just enjoying playing with form at the moment.
Thought bubble showed that I could get a lot of projects done quickly and to a deadline. I managed to organise a stock list and floats money. I also made stands, I think its been useful to learn how to make my own display stands because it means I can present something at a rush and on a budget. Thought bubble was most useful for talking to other illustrators. It was a new experience, we were given gold wrist bands to signify that we had a table and it was like being in a secret club. You could instantly talk to any other seller and just flash them the bracelet and your in. One of the younger guys we spoke to I'm still in touch with as he works in Leeds. But we go in to the shop and chat with him, its like seeing into what our lives might be like in a year.
Texture brushes were something I experimented with in this module. In the secret seven brief, I was trying to create a distressed aesthetic for one of the album covers I chose to illustrate. It was new and I'm not yet sure exactly how to use it, my first attempt just seemed to be a beginners luck fluke. But I used them in my tiny teepee submission as well and I think this is a technique I will try and perfect a bit more because it can more easily show intangible themes.
Weaknesses:
Thought bubble was probably filled with the most mistakes in this module, but I expected to make mistakes because the whole convention scene was very different to what I'm used to and I wasn't really sure how to present my work or what to present even. I think my main mistake was that I was just generating pointless work in a panic because I just felt like I had to have a good range of things to show but my drawing had progressed so much over the summer that I didn't want to include anything old because there would be a drastic difference in quality. My work needed to have some constraints so that it fits somewhere in the creative market, audience and purpose are something I'm going to consider more in future projects. The presentation of our stall wasn't at a professional standard I think that was partly down to not knowing how to display properly or the table dimensions but also because a lot of the things like table cloth and price tags were last minute things that I almost forgot. Also when we did sell things we hadn't thought about how to package them and therefore we had nothing, it makes it look like the piece doesn't matter and it makes people see it as less valuable. I think that overall in the thought bubble brief I undervalued my work, I didn't put enough time and effort into each piece because I valued quantity over quality, I under priced them and I didn't package to a professional standard.
Research has been a weakness in this project, I think that if I had put more research into the We Transfer I would have realised my mistake earlier and planned the comic accordingly. I think the comic leading up to the gif was the weakest part of the response and I feel its down to poor planning. I think I needed to get more interested in each project and invest the time to research but I've felt so rushed and under pressure this year that I haven't felt able to really invest in each project and research it fully.
My presentation boards were a weakness, at first I wasn't sure what information I needed to include but then it became more about the layout of the boards themselves. A lot of people's I saw looked really professional with mock ups of the products in their environment. Where as I just had a jumble of information about colours and reference images. I feel more comfortable with the presentation boards when I'm allowed to talk the group through them because without that I didn't really put a lot of text on the boards because in feedback I was told it looked too wordy. I need to work on how to communicate a project without words so that in future working with live briefs I can send back and forth my progress on the project easily and clearly.
I think my main weakness though has been my habit of planning ridiculously time consuming ideas, I never feel like something simple is enough and I end up just getting really stressed out that I won't be able to finish my project and then I'll end up changing it at the last minute to compensate for not being able to finish. I think for future projects I should start with a simple idea and build off of it. Because if I propose a pack with multiple elements I can just make the initial idea the others grew off of and then after that each extra thing I complete is a bonus and if I don't finish they can still be proposed. This way I can still have my crazy way too much work ideas but present them in a way that makes it okay that I've only actually fully made a handful of them.
Conclusion:
Overall I think this module presented a very steep learning curve, it's been a dip into the world of professional illustration. I have enjoyed doing the smaller competitions and they wee things I didn't even know run constantly. I plan to continue doing Tiny Teepee and off life regularly and when we reach the summer holidays I'm excited to go out and find competitions to do to keep the creative juices flowing. I think I've improved my ability to explain my projects, mostly down to the presentation boards. I was in a crit the other day and had to explain my project and my whole mind went jumbled and I forgot chunks and just said a load of random topics that are included without any real information like size, paper, print methods, digital/analogue etc. I think that the presentation boards weren't just for showing others what the project is about, it also helps organise your thoughts into an understandable format.
Lifes a pitch
We have decided to make our pitch about an anthology of work. It is to be filled with peoples work and distributed to get exposure.
We think this goes under the private sector because we will be taking atleast enough profit to give ourselves a comfortable wage.
The aim of the project is to get work from illustrators and designers everywhere and compile what we think is good into an anthology but we will not put their names underneath. This way the work speaks for itself with no predeterminations relying on being known or having a long line of references. We thought that the anthology could be sent out to businesses to give them a catalogue of design should they need a designer at any point. So we would include our contact details and if they are interested in a piece and want to commission the designer to do a piece for them we can pt the two in contact. This creates a reason for designers to want to get their work into the anthology; potential work.
For the presentation we've broken our business into different parts for each of us to tackle alone then we can pool our resources and create the presentation together. My slides are 'Process and production' and 'cost'. I was kind of bummed to be given both of these slides because they felt like write heavy research compared to 'our influences' and 'our competition'. But working in a group someone's got to do the boring slides.
We think this goes under the private sector because we will be taking atleast enough profit to give ourselves a comfortable wage.
The aim of the project is to get work from illustrators and designers everywhere and compile what we think is good into an anthology but we will not put their names underneath. This way the work speaks for itself with no predeterminations relying on being known or having a long line of references. We thought that the anthology could be sent out to businesses to give them a catalogue of design should they need a designer at any point. So we would include our contact details and if they are interested in a piece and want to commission the designer to do a piece for them we can pt the two in contact. This creates a reason for designers to want to get their work into the anthology; potential work.
For the presentation we've broken our business into different parts for each of us to tackle alone then we can pool our resources and create the presentation together. My slides are 'Process and production' and 'cost'. I was kind of bummed to be given both of these slides because they felt like write heavy research compared to 'our influences' and 'our competition'. But working in a group someone's got to do the boring slides.
First I compared the prices of printing in different inks and with how many pages and how many copies to try and work out the most efficient way to print. This is based off of foot prints risograph printing. We though sing a risograph would work well because it can have interesting layering options and also with only black and one colour allowed, which we dictate, the work in the book will work as a set.
We want to use the extra colour and make it dependant upon the season seen as this is a quarterly journal.
I worked out a 2 year plan with the most optimistic outlook. The plan being that if any of the years didn't hit target instead of progressing to the next level you would repeat the year plan again and use marketing to boost sales as much as possible.
I marked the point at which we can sustain ourselves financially without a second job. taking into account tax and living expenses and when we would have to pay our student loan back.
At year three I suggest, as long as everything goes to plan, to extend the book to the larger 56 pages. Monthly wage goes up and this is the point that we would have to start paying back our student loans but would still be earning a comfortable 19k yearly post tax.
Our presentation:
Off the page
Working for off the page was a challenge.
I had to make 5 more of my mobile so that I had some to sell if there was any interest. I hadn't fully thought through how to make many of them. Each one takes quite a long time to make and a lot of labour to cut through all the mount board with a knife. Safe to say after 5 I had a big blister on my hand.
I had to make 5 more of my mobile so that I had some to sell if there was any interest. I hadn't fully thought through how to make many of them. Each one takes quite a long time to make and a lot of labour to cut through all the mount board with a knife. Safe to say after 5 I had a big blister on my hand.
I packaged my work to try and achieve a professional quality. I bought cellophane seal bags and made a head board to hand it on a stand at a shop then I made stickers advertising the fact that its hand made and a quote from pratchett.
Setting up the show I was on the hang team. hanging was interesting seen as we arrived with limited hammers and we had multiple trips into town to pick up stuff we'd forgotten. I got a lot of exercise that day. We needed to get hooks that were non adhesive because there was no where to hang things except off of the furniture and we didn't want to mark any of it.
My job I was in charge of was sorting the work to go into the back for selling. We brought down two big plastic boxes and a stack of A2 folders. I arranged all of the work alphabetical by last name because that is how we were numbering the work on the walls. I made stick up tabs on each section with the letter and a short list of the illustrators under that section. On the front of each folder we wrote the name and title of each piece of work including how many copies were inside. We wanted to make finding work as easy as possible for the colours may vary staff because we wanted them to like having us exhibit so there would be chance to do it again at some point.
We got ephemera to fill some of the shelves becuase we wanted to create an atmosphere in the room. I brought lots of paper roses I'd made and a perfume bottle that we put some inside of. We had to use spirit levels to make sure all of the pictures were level and it took two days of re arranging to get everything on the wall looking good. We went through a lot of snacks, I personally bought a pack of biscuits everyday.
It was a good experience over all it taught us a lot about exhibiting our work to a professional standard. I think if I was to do it again though, to make the hanging job run more smoothly, make a to scale model of the walls and get everyone to send exact dimensions of their work so that we could pre plan were everything would go when moving the images is a lot less effort.
Study Task 1
- identify 5 things you have learned so far on the programme
1. Colour theory; instead of using bright colours in my work I should use colour theory and use contrast to create a sense of vibrancy.
2.Dynamic angles; instead of just drawing a panel however you think create it yourself and take photos from lots of angles.
3.Line quality; line affects the image like thicker lines for close up things, consider foreground, midground and background.
4.Texture; can use photoshop to layer textures in that you make or use line to create patterns that dictate texture.
5. Try different media; screen print and mono print create a classic analogue feel, its good to experiment with.
- Identify 5 things that you want to know more about
1. Screen print; the process and layering of colours.
2. Animation; I want to try making some substantial animations rather than just gifs.
3. Narrative; creating complete narratives, playing with story structure.
4. Humour; I want to make some funny things.
5. Texture; Textured brushes on photoshop and making textures by hand.
- Identify 5 skills that you think are your strengths.
1. Shape
2. Panelling
3. Facial expressions
4. playfulness
5. using different pen thicknesses together
- Identify 5 things that you want to improve.
1. Documentation skills
2. Essay writing
3. Research
4. Colouring
5. Texture
- identify 5 images that demonstrate your interest in illustration
1. I love to draw
2. I like going to comic/print fairs
3. I buy comics to read
4. I read online comics
5. I watch a lot of cartoons
studio brief 2
In our group we decided that our company would make an anonymous catalogue of design.
The catalogue would be released in the format of a thick magazine/journal and it would be a seasonal issue.
For the first issue we get ourselves sponsored through a larger company or famous designer to sponser us. If it's a publishing company or a popular designer then it will help with drawing in people
*we advertise what we're doing through social media and television adverts.
* We could use the designers name to draw in more people
*We can make a competition out of it
*use the sponsering artist/illustrator to promote
*aspect of getting a job
The purpose of the journal is to be a collection of aesthetically pleasing images, it can be used as a purely entertainment thing. But it's main use is to send out to people who require creative work done and let them use it like a catalogue of designers only they don't know who they are so the work will speak for itself.
The catalogue would be released in the format of a thick magazine/journal and it would be a seasonal issue.
For the first issue we get ourselves sponsored through a larger company or famous designer to sponser us. If it's a publishing company or a popular designer then it will help with drawing in people
*we advertise what we're doing through social media and television adverts.
* We could use the designers name to draw in more people
*We can make a competition out of it
*use the sponsering artist/illustrator to promote
*aspect of getting a job
The purpose of the journal is to be a collection of aesthetically pleasing images, it can be used as a purely entertainment thing. But it's main use is to send out to people who require creative work done and let them use it like a catalogue of designers only they don't know who they are so the work will speak for itself.
Monday, 2 March 2015
Task 1
1.What should your identity convey about you?
The way my work looks. The kind of things I like to make. What kind of work I want to do (e.g Comics, editorial, children's books etc). My ability to show my work through a range of media. (stickers, postcards, comics, zines etc)
2. Is it actually important to have an identity as an illustrator?
In one way no because then you can do any work each time, people don't expect the same things from you each time. But then its also important because with an identity can come recognition. People could recognise your work without seeing your name on it anywhere. It's also good for getting jobs as you have a recognisable way of working and that can generate commercial interest.
3. What could be included in your pack and why?
At this point I was thinking: Business card, Poster, Post cards, Stickers
4.What are you wanting to achieve by producing promotional items?
I want to be able to get interest from them. Like last year at thought bubble a guy from ok comics came round and asked for our cards because he said he might come back later and talk to us about selling some of our work in his shop. But he didn't come back and I feel had I had a promotional pack he may have come back. It just gives a broader idea of what you can achieve. Also since the promotional pack is all just stuff that I've decided to make it best shows what I want to make and do in my illustrative career.
Ways to network\contact people:
1. Email illustrators, could ask questions about work.
2. Go to studio's find out if you can visit and have a look round.
3. Comic conventions: eg thoughtbubble. Go around and talk to other exhibitioners.
4. Mailing little comics to companies\illustrators.
4. Mailing little comics to companies\illustrators.
5. Try starting a pass and draw with people. Digital on photoshop so it can be emailed.
6. Or a mailing pass and draw, encourage them to pass it on to other people that I do not know. But keeping a list of the names and details so that everyone can be sent a copy of the final piece.
7. Join a drawing/comic making club. Meet people with illustrative interest.
8. Send out links to your blog to get people to see the work you're making.
6. Or a mailing pass and draw, encourage them to pass it on to other people that I do not know. But keeping a list of the names and details so that everyone can be sent a copy of the final piece.
7. Join a drawing/comic making club. Meet people with illustrative interest.
8. Send out links to your blog to get people to see the work you're making.
9. make transfer tattoos and could hand them out, include blog details so that people will check out the blog.
10. comic trade. At thought bubble I ended up talking to a girl exhibiting and it turned out we had each made a teeny comic and so we traded so we could check out each others. I like the trade to bein tiny comics though because it looks cute and also it seems more reasonable to just trade little things e.g a post card or a sticker or a small zine.
Sunday, 16 November 2014
Studio Brief 3
Nobrow
Its similar because its a magazine that is based on their appreciation of design. Although it isn't anonymous as we planned ours to be it does focus on the visual rather than names.
Its similar because its a magazine that is based on their appreciation of design. Although it isn't anonymous as we planned ours to be it does focus on the visual rather than names.
Produced for the Private sector.
Services: Creative industries - It promotes art and design.
Wholesale and retail trade - Because its a product that is sold.
Its a succesful product as it sells lots of copies. Normally a publishing company promotes it's books but with this product it advertises the publishing company itself so that people will recognise the brand and know what kind of style to expect from it.
Varoom
This is similar because its a magazine to show up and coming designers and their work but with this magazine they open up a discussion about design. There's articles and interviews and this magazine is more of a learning experience than just an appreciation of design.
Produced for the private sector
Services: Creative industry, wholesale and retail.
Its a success because it has built its way up to being a renowned design magazine and pieces of design that are featured in it become assumed to be the 'now' thing. They have achieved desirability and that is their aim so they can sell copies.
The North Vancouver Anonymous art show.
This is a similar idea to ours, not in format, but the thought that people are choosing the art based solely on the visual without a name impacting the decision.
Produced for the Third sector as it is a fundraising event.
But also produced for private sector because the 'fundraising' is for the art council that run the event. Surely that's not fundraising its just making money?
Services: Creative industry.
I would consider this a successful event as it seems it's purpose is to finance itself. Since its advertising its 10th annual one they must have managed to fund themselves up until a tenth and feel its worth doing again so it must be a lucrative system.
But on the other hand maybe it isn't a successful venture because if they need to keep doing it every year then they have not succeeded in stabilising themselves financially.
Drawn and Quarterly seasonal editions
This is smilar because it is like an index of design. It shows some of each persons work then gives information on the artist and the work. Its like in ours except the information would be something people would have to specially request.
Produced for the Private sector
Serivces: Creative industry
Wholesale and retail
I think this is another successful example as it is now a known brand. If you hear that someone has had something published in a drawn and quarterly you assume its of a certain standard. This secures them in the market as people will seek out their name on things with the security that it will meet that standard. It works for its purpose: to advertise the designers/authors under their brand but mainly to promote the brand itself.
Girls who draw.
This is similar because its a compilation of different peoples work under a theme.
This is produced for the Private sector.
Services: Creative industry
Wholesale and retail
I think this is a successful product because the products boost the groups notoriety. The more known they become the more books/comics they can make with the knowledge of a pre existing fan base.
In Summary
I think that with the kind of product we chose, there are already established versions of, the only key difference we wanted to introduce was the aspect of anonymity; which creates an equal grounding for the work so it can be picked purely on its aesthetic. So the examples were mostly from the same sector and contributed to the same services. Also all the examples I have picked I would consider to be successful but I figure if they aren't successful I wouldn't know about them and be able to use them as examples. The main purpose of these products is to become known. Becoming desirable and a respected name is the way to be successful in the creative and wholesale industries. For most of these the primary objective is of course to make a profit and to carry on as a company, but the secondary purpose seems to be getting the art out into the world, spreading and sharing it .
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
Adults
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