Finding my groove with bubbles

 These are the pictures from the sketchbook I forgot to bring in.
I did the seaweed first and I was thinking it was maybe a cover or just a nice scenic shot but then I was thinking of appropriating it to go with the first verse of my poem. The main bit that stuck out was wiggle through the bubbles' So i just took that and ran with it. Like really ran. miles.
I went a bit nuts but mid way I was thinking how I would put the text on, like I could do it after and put a fade of white under to make it readable but then I figured I could just use the bubbles to frame it. Because I like using my own handwriting in my comics because I think it suits the aesthetic of my drawn work, it's so heavily line based I'd be mad not to use my own writing.

I  continued with the bubbles because those pages will probably be facing each other in one double spread so I though it would be nice if the second just carried on from the first, so I kept the main elements the same: bubbles an seaweed.

This is my towering woven building. I'm not sure about this yet because I'm considering changing/ revamping the big double spread I did in the big ideas sketch pad. And this page follows so I want there to be sythesis and flow because the text is poetry and flows from on bit to the next so my images should do the same. But I like doing the woven texture, it just looks really nice. You'll notice I also managed to squeeze some bubbles into this image as well. I was trying to exaggerate the height of th building and I already made it tiny at the top and almost off the page at the bottom to skew the line of sight. But in pictures when their trying to show a tall building often they have a little hoop of cloud to show it's so tall its touhing the clouds. I think bubbles work as an equivalent, and I think it will be read the same because it's like a known visual device for height. 

Woven city, textures are pretty

This is the page that I remembered to bring in with me today. I've drawn them all  bald at the moment because I plan to put their hair in with just colour in photoshop. Because I wanted it to be really flowing and I fell like an outline just makes it look more static. I think I'm going to fill the bits behind the merpeople in with more bubbles, like in my other pages (which I will upload when I get home).

I'm doing a lot of texture work in this swell, at this point it doesn't really seem worth mentioning because now everything I do is heavy texture because I enjoy it so much. I'm not sure on colours or anything yet because I tend to think of colours after creating the whole thing. But I think some time in the next week I might scan one in and get some potential colour pallets on the go. I'm thinking minimal colour pallet because my line work can get quite intense and if i fill it completely with colour it tends to just look busy and loud.

The more I'm looking at this double spread the more I'm thinking I don't like it. Theres something about it, the city is too clunky and not as aesthetically pleasing as I would have liked. I might give this another go, make it more symmetrical or do less of a big scene and just do abstract bits. This will make more sense when I get the other pages up because in them there isn't like a definite point of focus yet and everything overlaps and its to be taken in calmly and not straight to the point like this one.

Mermalade on toast

So I finally got down to doing more of my mermystery poem. I like working this way because the words determine what the illustrations are going to be and instead of freaking out about a whole comics worth or narrative and working sequentially, I can just think about the poem and then concentrate on a verse or so at a time and Illustrate it. I left my sketchpad at home today but I've illustrated two of the pages and I really liked how they've turned out but now I can't put them on till later. I've got one big double spread I've done, I'm going crazy on texture as per usual but it's great because its underwater so whenever something looks a bit too flat I can just draw a ton of bubbles on it.

So: Poem so far

Down through the waves
Wiggle through the bubbles
There's a place between the corals
Where you forget your troubles

Starfish lye in deep content
The clams are happy too
They cover up the modesty
Of creatures; Green an Blue

Their long and flowing locks
Dance behind their head
As they swim and play in currents
Or go to work instead

Lavish buildings tower above
Weaved in grass and weed
The mercity of Pavlovia (name subject to change)
Is the place to go and succeed

Home to many merman and maid
Living peacefully in content
But there is one that regards the peace
As something he does resent

Day in, day out he lives his life
And feels it is a bore
Nightly he travels outside of the city
Searching for something more

It's upon one of these nights that our story begins
He sees a beauty that lacks any fins
He's amazed and aghast, He stares at her in awe
He wishes he could stay and admire her more

At work in the 'morrow he rushes in
To excitedly tell his tale
But is met with mockery and disbelief
They think he's gone off the rail

He returns home in the blackest of moods
He felt the fool of the city
But he knew if he saw her but once again
He wouldn't feel so shitty

He returned to the spot where he first saw her
Almost every single night
He cherished the moments she returned
It kept his love alight

OutSTANDing

I made a stand!
So for Thought Bubble I was thinking how last year when we laid all our stuff out on our table, I made little stands to hold up comics. But they fell over a lot when people picked a comic up and I think it made people embarrassed and they'd leave our table. Also the whole overall table 'look' wasn't as professional than some others. Lots of people had card holder stands set up and that made them look much more professional.

So we were checking out ebay to see if we could go in halves to buy one. There was a wire one on bid for a fiver but it was soon up to £12 and rising which was more than we wanted to spend. Then we checked out some card ones and they were at a set price of £9. But it seemed like such a lot for something thats made of cardboard. So I decided I would make our stand.

I figured out the rough size I wanted it to be, I was using mount board so the A format limited the size I could do. This was basically the maximum size with fitting both side pieces on one sheet of mount board. I wanted to try to use the least mount board I could and be really efficient. Because its £1.40 a sheet with my student discount and there was no point making it by hand if it was going to cost me pretty much the same.

I didn't realise at the time but because I cut the sides out of the same sheet, and they were the same shape. When I put it together the coloured side is only outward facing on one side. I thought I'd really screwed up at first but then I remembered that we were going to decorate a side each to make it look like our practice, so this just helps separate the two sides. Were doing this because last year I got asked a lot about Hollie's work and I ended up spending too much of my time bigging up Hollie's work instead of my own. But this year it will be obvious who's work is who's. It'll basically look like we got a half table each except that were sharing a stand in the middle. I made it so that it's a size that would leave some table room on either side for us to put our product range on.

I made it so that all the pieces slot into one another. Because then it can be flat pack, which makes it a lot easier to bring back and forth from Thought Bubble. Cutting the little slots was the hardest part because their so fiddly and small but I had to get the sizes bang on because the closer fitting it is, the more stable the whole stand will be.

It took a lot of maths. My high school teacher was finally right. It is useful.

Figuring out where the little shelves land was the hardest bit. I had to wait until I had cut the other pieces so I knew all the measurements. I was trying to get each shelf to have a lean so that when we put the comics on it it will hold them and not just let them topple off the front. 

I had to cut a lot of those tiny slots I hated doing.

This is it all put together. Its actually a lot taller than I thought, even though I measured it all, it just looks so large when all the pieces are slotted in. The bottom part of the shelf sags down in the middle. But I think that is a minor detail to say I built it all myself. So when I put it together at the event I'm going to bring some masking tape and just put two pieces on each shelf and scute it to the back piece which doesn't bend because of the way it sits. I think this will fix the mistake and still leave it looking professional.

This is it all flat packed and folded into a very satisfying small pile. So now I can take it in a big plastic folder and there's no risk of it being ruined by rain or anything else.

 I was going to have the logo boards on the bottom panel because I ran out of room on top. But Rosie Wood pointed out that I could just as easily secure them to the top bit. Also it looks more 'open' and presenting if its up top. And can be seen from far away, which is something we wanted to do because last year the more famous practitioners there had signs with their name on. So I was thinking if we just go ahead and make signs and carry ourselves like were famous, people might just believe.

Fake it til I make it

Final Rick and Morty Poster

TEXTURE TEXTURE TEXTURE

I went back into the poster and added more of the contrasting colour texture. I just couldn't stop adding more and more, as soon as I put it on another element of the poster another looked 'too flat' by comparison. I really enjoy doing deeply textured work so this was a bit of a self indulgent texture spree.

Once all the rest of it was textured the background of dark blue just looked too flat. In texture and in colour as every other element of my poster seemed to have some variety of contrasting colours. So i went a bit nuts on the background. I used  similar texture that I was using on the hair and table but I made it longer and more wiggly. I made it all direct towards his head, I think it gives a better representation that it's all about how he feels and whats in his head. Also it draws the eyes into the centre of the piece which is good because I want people to look into his sad face. The pale cream on the dark blue kind of makes it look like space and going through a worm hole which is accidental but I really like how it turned out because it links it into the shows set out of space and travel. 

Colouring Rick

This was my starting point once I refined the line work digitally, it took quite a while to separate the text work up because there were a lot of little lines that the scanner didn't pick up clearly. I think next time I do text I'll draw it overly large so that I don't loose detail.

I started adding extra line as texture in using the colour scheme. I liked the way the contrasting colours made it stand out more and I think it looks good to have a mixture of white and red lines. It creates a much more interesting texture to the piece. I reversed the texture on the text so that it still fitted in with the background but also stood out clearly. 

I tried to stick religiously to the colour scheme but when I was trying to add a shine texture to the metal work, white was just so garish against the blue and I tried using the cream colour but there was too much contrast and it suggested a different part rather than just a shine reflection. So I have used the red on a low opacity to go over the blue. I like it because it let me make sense of where the lights coming from because since its a red overlay it would only make sense that the red is coming form the red laser. I think this small deviation from the colour scheme is ok, we agreed in a meeting that we could blend the colours along as we kept in mind that the majorative of the colour should be the proper colour scheme one so that all our work still links cohesively.

I did the laser in just colour because I think it represents the light better and you can see through it to his hair behind. I don't normally have anything in my work that isn't drowning in line work but I think it works to have a bit of undefined colour because it balances the piece and makes it less busy, like there's a focal point that's easy on the eyes.

I made the writing bigger and let it span the breadth of the page, because I decided that since I felt the song had a great deal to do with why that scene was so powerful, the words should also be an equal part of my poster. I changed the black for red simply because it made it stand out better on the blue background. Although I think it makes the letters look a bit like Victoria sponge cake. 

Rick and Morty Poster

I decided to just draw my favourite scene and include some choice lines from the song that plays at the time. I went into super detail with all the texture, especially in his face because I wanted him to look really aged and tired. Because the whole scene is about reality crashing down; he's an old, depressed alcoholic that wants to die. Pretty heavy stuff but I think it will be popular because the scene was such an amazing point in the shows development, I think it was the best scene of the entire series.

The writing I made block with a bit of 3d, the block is so that it will stand out; matt colour onto of intense texture. But I just enjoy doing it with a bit of 3d stand out. Also on the raised bit I can add little lines of texture so that it still fits in with the general aesthetic of the whole poster.

Travelling man poster

Between the group of us doing the Travelling man brief we decided to link all our pieces together by using the same colour scheme. The colour scheme was chosen because it is the colours on the travelling man logo. I suggested this in the group meeting although at the time I thought their logo was still orange and blue. But it was redesigned and it's actually a much better palette than I was originally imagining.

Because this is going to be displayed in Travelling man the Travelling man clientele is the audience. With that in mind I decided to try a bit of fan art. Because at the moment my personal work is good (or at least i think so) but it's not recognisable to me because I'm not famous enough. So I decided to piggy back on the popularity of a ongoing show. I was picking between firefly and Rick and Morty.

My first idea for a Rick and Morty piece was to do them like the Vitruvian man.

But in my thumbnail I realised that having a naked Rick behind a naked Morty made it look like some kind of weird child porn and I decided to steer clear of that. I moved on to think about doing something based on firefly because I thought it would be easier to translate real life people into my illustrations rather than trying to recreate an already drawn character in a new way. 

My plan was to have a dinosaur playing with firefly toys because one of the most popular scenes of Firefly is when Wash (the pilot) is playing with his plastic dinosaurs on the control panel; 'Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal' (herbivore to T-rex).

It took me a while to be happy with a composition because it was more of a floating spot illustration and I was trying to figure out what dinosaur I wanted to use and whether or not to include all the cast as figures. 

This is my roughs I did for the Firefly piece. It has remained unfinished because I found it really frustrating trying to make the characters recognisable and I think that took away from my usual playful drawing and they ended up much more static and awkward. I decided to abandon this idea because I was struggling with the first two characters and there's another 7 to do. This is meant to be a small brief and it wasn't worth getting overly stressed by.

So I went back to the drawing board and back to Rick and Morty fan art. I decided that I should do it based on my favourite scene from the latest season. The show is normally full of humour and jokes about serious things. Which I think gives it a light feel as a show, like it's not a heavy thing that takes a while to get into. Its more like a guilty pleasure as you laugh at people being dismembered and robots making babies. But this scene I feel was one of the best parts of Rick and Morty. Atleast the most emotive scene. It breaks the security  I felt in how this show will work and make me feel. It is paired up with a song that really makes it for me as well. The combination of the music and the animation just created such a blow of sadness, it was a shock. 

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Crit Feedback: Statement of intent and Briefs

What I've learnt from my feedback:

Rationale:
Specify HOW I will gain a more prominent presence
Who do I want to talk to and how will I be communicating with them

Brief 1: Thought bubble
Define what my narrative is
Decide now what my product range will be so I can plan my time accordingly.

Brief 2: Macmillan Prize
Time plan need to figure out when I'm going to start. Need to start planning the narrative now in the background of my other briefs so that when it comes to doing it I have my narrative sorted and I can concentrate on how to illustrate it.

Brief 3: Illustration Friday
Need to get started on this one just generally so I can see how things start to turn out and I can decide if there is any kind of theme I'd like to have. But this brief is pretty much straight forward anyway.

Brief 4: Current Stories
I need to decide where the news stories will come from because different papers deal with different issues and they combat them in a way that suites the specific audience of their paper. At this point I'm thinking the guardian because it has a good reputation and I think that the audience is one that better responds to pithy illustrations. And thats my tone of voice so it should suite the audience too.

Brief 5: Poetry Book
I just need to define the theme on this one to start working. At this point I'm pretty set on having it about depression and mental health. But I want it to be biographical rather than a self help purpose.

BRIEF 5 Current stories

Current Stories

Brief: Each week respond to a news story and then post the result to all social media pages

Product:Online catalogue of editorial illustrations

Tone of voice: Pithy

Audience: Newspaper readers, specific to the story I cover

Context: To be online/in newspapers. To be viewed alongside an article

Mandatory requirements: Weekly drawing/print and online posts

Deliverables: Online catalogue of responsive drawing

BRIEF 4 Illustration Friday

Illustration friday

Brief: Respond to illustration friday words each week and post them to all my online social media pages. Then at the end of the year compile them into a zine for submission.

Product: Online prints, Zine

Tone of voice: Dependant upon words given, Responsive

Audience: Illustration friday subscribers

Context:To be viewed online in Illustration Friday

Mandatory requirements: Weekly drawing and online posts

Deliverables:Zine of illustration friday prints

BRIEF 3 Macmillan Prize

Macmillan prize

Brief:Create a children's book 32 pages long. Roughs/sketches for all pages and writing. Complete artwork for 4 double spreads or 3 double spreads and the cover.

Product: Children's book

Tone of voice: Light, Fun, Humour

Audience: Children 8-12

Context: To be submitted as an entry to a competition, To be sold at a book store

Mandatory requirements: 4 page double spread finalised or 3 and a cover

Deliverables: Proposal for children's book

BRIEF 2 Poetry Book

Poetry Book

Brief: Create a 16 page poetry book, hand bound. There should be a strong sense of synthesis between the drawings and the words. It should all follow a singular theme.

Product: Hand bound poetry book

Tone of voice: Humorous

Audience: Adults, depends upon the theme

Context: To be sold at events and/or online. Could propose it to shops such as travelling man and colours may vary.

Mandatory requirements: 16 page poetry book
16 illustrations
16 poems (or less if spread over a double spread)

Deliverables: 1 bound book and packaging

BRIEF 1 Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

Brief: To make one narrative and then a product range relating to it. Then price and package professionally and sell at Thought Bubble

Product: Comic, stickers, badges, trinkets

Tone of voice: Humourous

Audience: 18 + adult {light adult humour}

Context: Sold at comic fair

Mandatory Requirements: 1 comic, a product range, packaging, blogging

Deliverables: Full range of work surrounding a narrative displayed on a table ready to sell

Statement of intent

https://docs.google.com/a/students.leeds-art.ac.uk/document/d/1UIKw5tvDbKOrMvNgBS1cYZRcDJ7sQ7ds2VqhIPTOy2M/edit?usp=sharing

Mermystery

So I did some of the poetry for my mermystery comic but not loads yet, I decided to make the audience adults, acceptably I think it could be enjoyed by children but I've got some jokes about boobs. So i felt it was lightly adult humour.

Down through the waves
Wiggle through the bubbles
There's a place between the corals
Where you can forget your troubles

Starfish lye in deep content
The clams are happy too
They cover up the modesty
Of creatures; green and blue

Their long and flowing locks
dance behind their head
As they swim and play in the currents
Or go to work instead

at this point i'm just setting the scene. There is a mercity, just like one of our city works.
On the story front I've been thinking that I should make it a bit more than just that there is a reverse mer-legend happening. So I think i'm going to have a merman who takes an interest in a woman swimming. And they'll meet up and grow closer and then one day she'll try to take him to her house and he'll live in a tank but it'll be bad for him and he will either die or be disfigured. I haven't decided yet because I want the final bit to be the merpeople left behind and how they view what happened and the legends that span from it. And basically they hide in deeper ocean parts to hide from humans.

MERMYSTERY

Me and Hollie applied for a table at ThoughtBubble earlier this year but we ended up not getting one, which really knocked my confidence as an illustrator. I figured it was because our table wasn't very popular and I think the set up was very messy and looked unprofessional. But we just got an email back the other day saying there's been some cancellations and would we like a table. This was super exciting, so they may have just rejected us because there we re so many applicants but I still feel we were of an unprofessional  quality. So this year were going to rock it professional style!

Since we only have a month to produce work I decided that I will make one main comic and then just make things around it to create a whole product range. I'm thinking badges, stickers, posters, postcards. There may be more as I've bought lots of arts and crafts things to keep me busy. I did have an idea to get my business card in with the comics. So last year my business card was a little slip of paper that slotted onto the corners of all my comics. I thought it was a good idea because it looked different and I thought it was quite a clever design. But there were flaws when I brought it into practice; They dropped off the corners constantly, since I didn't have bags a lot of people just dropped them, some people took it off the corner and left it when they bought something.
So this year my plan is to have regular business cards to hand out but inside my comic I'll use my 'shrinkies' paper to make mini hard plastic versions so that everyone who buys my comic has a little permanent business card. I'm going to package all my comics so that I can just have some display ones out for people to flick through but then when they buy it I can just whip out a beautifully packaged one. Also I'm going to bring bags or something to give to people with their purchase because we were asked a lot last year if we could give bags.

So my comic: The other night I was over at a friends house and we were meeting a new person there an she was talking about all these things she had done recently and she said that he had gone to a murder mystery night. But I misheard her and thought she said a mermystery night. Mermystery = Mermaid mystery. I thought it could be a fun concept to play with and that's what I'm going to do today. I think I'm going to write it in poetry because I think it really makes my comics more interesting and gives them pace and flow. Also if there's lots of words people cant just read it in seconds like last year. I might post later this evening if I manage to get a good amount done. Hopefully there's a vast sea of nautical rhyming words.