ep: children's book research & inspirations

so for my final major project i have decided that i would like to create a children's book. i really feel like i can utilise my style, which has always been referred to as 'cute' and 'whimsical', and create really lovely children's books. i decided to do some research into children's books, publishers and find some inspiration for what i would like to do.

 the first artist who's childrens book was a huge inspiration for me was Helena Covell. Her book Jumble Wood is adorable and the colours and page layouts are immaculate. I would love to be able to create a book this full of colour and life in the future.

Hel Covell's book was published by Flying Eye books, so i decided to look into the company and see what other things they publish.

Flying eye books was created by the massive publishing house Nobrow as part of their specialised children's books. The type of books that they publish are very illustrative and if i were to produce a children's book, would be the first i would go to. Some other examples of their books which inspire me:

 each of these books has such a whimsical style, something to which i relate to a lot. it makes me feel at home when i look at them, because i can imagine myself doing it in the future.

 it's been a long journey for me to find what i think i want to become as an illustrator and i have struggled a lot with my identity, feeling like i'm not really good enough for any of the pathways. however, i think i do have some skills with children's illustration and this research has helped me to realise that.

ep: lifting tower opening night

the lifting tower animations have finally been unleashed unto the world! i was unable to make it for the first night but my teammate sent me some videos of them and it was super exciting to see them on the side of the building! i felt a real sense of accomplishment!

although the switch was a little bit off (we wanted it to be above the doorway so that the bottom part of it was covered) i'm still super super pleased.

ep: roomzzz failure

the dreaded email.

another failure. but it seems that the roomzzz people just couldn't find what they were looking for with any of the submissions, not just ours. so unfortunately this was another loss, but still i'm proud of myself for giving it a go and trying not to be too disheartened when i fail because that's life, and in the real world of being an illustrator i wont always get the jobs that i want so it's a good lesson for me to learn.

ep: final lifting tower animations

The finished animations!






I'm really glad with how both of these animations turned out, I think we worked well together in the end, my illustrator teammate and myself made sure that both of the animations were finished in time. She did most of the colouring for the red elf, whereas myself did the green elf. I'm really happy to see my designs turned into animation it's really fun! The only thing that could've been different was we had decided that the 'Merry Xmas' on the green elf would be flashing lights instead of moving side to side, which was the animator's job, but I suppose he ran out of time and went for the easier option. In my opinion, having this change without consulting the group wasn't very professional of him but i'm still happy with the outcome and it would be unprofessional of me to cause unnecessary qualms about something so little. 

ep: network rail SUCCESS!

i'm so happy right now i could cry!!! i got this email this morning and was running around my house shouting about it. i can't believe it. little old me is going to have a large piece of artwork up in the train station! i'm so happy that i decided to push the boat out and submit to this brief now, and it's made me so much more confident in my practice and who i am as an illustrator, it's given me that little push of recognition that i needed!

i can't wait for next month!!!!!

ep: network rail brief

a new competition that i've found which i thought i would give a go. they are asking for submissions for a wall piece that will go up in the train station, depicting what 'leeds means to me'. i thought this was a suitable brief for me, and if i was to win it means i can have a piece of art up in the train station! which is very exciting and i'm trying not to get too excited but, i am quite pleased with my submission.

and here is my submission! im super pleased with how it came out and think it's some of my best work yet. I haven't worked on such a big scale before so it was quite daunting at first but i tried to take it in my stride and do the best i could. i still wanted to remain true to my style though so i wanted to keep my cute characters and bright child-like colours. i hope i did well enough for the brief!

ep: roomzzz competition

from the student email, i found a competition by roomzzz hotels asking for submissions of designs that would decorate the halls of their hotel. i decided to solicit the help of a photographer for this brief, thinking that it would be more suitable to the style that the brief was asking for. i also thought it would be a good chance for me to try collaborating again, as it could be something that i have to do in the future.

here are the submissions:

we decided to go for the style of welcoming and fun, using her photography and giving me a chance to doodle over the top, giving them a more playful feel. we also added the logos and a slogan onto one of the posters, thinking that it would fit into the aesthetic that they were asking for.

im really happy with how these designs turned out because i think it is a bit different than my normal work and it is fun to see me do something different and try new things.

ep: lifting tower // first designs & collaborating struggle

for this brief, it was decided that i would do the initial character designs for the elves as someone who practices with designing characters. i was happy to do this (and quite pleased) as it gave me a chance to practice my skill and show off a little bit. i'm really happy with how they came out, bearing in mind that they needed to be simple so that the animation process wouldn't be too difficult. (something new that i learned!)

we decided to go for green/red colours to represent the christmas theme of the brief.

as someone who is perfectionist and someone who struggles with stress quite a lot, it was quite difficult for me to work collaboratively. the animator took quite a while to do the simple sketch animations, which myself and the other illustrator were supposed to colour over in photoshop. it was quite frustrating because he kept talking about needing to clean up the lines/make it perfect, and it was hard for me to reiterate that he didn't need to do that because we were going over it with colour anyway without in some way hurting his feelings. i didn't want to get annoyed, because this would be unprofessional of me, it just gave me more experience in working collaboratively and might be something that i have to tread more lightly with in the future. 

it was then decided that i was to also do the fonts for the project, which i was also fine with. here they are:

and the final one:

ep: ohhdeer pillow fight

i decided to enter the ohhdeer cushion competition 'pillow fight'. i thought i would enter this for one, further extending my practice much like the thortful competition, trying to push myself to enter a few different things just to see what happens. and i think that my designs would be quite popular as they have a 'cute' aspect and also i decided to submit my Hermione design, so i will also have the audience of harry potter fans. 

i hope that i do well in this competition, it's hard for me to be confident because i always doubt myself and my practice so i'm trying to keep a positive outlook.

ep: wuntu/thortful failure

got an email today saying that i was unsuccessful with the competition. even though i failed at getting through, i still think it was really important thing for me to do as part of understanding my practice. i really enjoyed doing the card designs and feel like it could be something that i will carry on in the future.

ep: travelling man

although this brief was technically before the module started (completed it in september) i wanted to do a little post for my travelling man poster. it was one of the first things that i submitted to which is hanging up in a shop! the theme that we chose to do was 'british pop culture' so i decided to go with harry potter. of course.

here is my hermione from harry potter poster:

ep: lifting tower

a new brief has been presented to us in the class, a project which will be a public art piece projected onto the old lifting tower building. 

i decided to do this brief as it is a good chance for me to collaborate, which is something that i might have to do in the future as a professional, so i want to try it out as much as i can whilst at university. also, as someone who is not well versed in animation, it will be a good chance for me to learn some new skills and meet some animators.

update/

an animator approached me and we have decided to work together with the help of someone else from illustration. i think that we have a good team and hopefully we will be able to create something exciting.

ep: who am i? self portrait #1

my first self portrait of the year! it feels good to be back but at the same time terrifying because i don't know what to expect. for my self portrait i decided to make myself into a little egg. it seems like it could be trying to portray the imagery of new life, like easter, and how i am becoming a new illustrator this year. however, at the same time i decided to be an egg because it's sort of a nickname for me because i have such an egg shaped head. i tried to play around with digital for this one, as i feel like it gives more of a professional feel.

ep: wuntu/thortful competition

my flatmate who is on the network '3' sent me a competition that's being held on the app wuntu from the website thortful, a seller of cards made by creators.

i thought this was a good opportunity to extend my practice as card design is something that i haven't done before but thought i would be quite good at.

here are the final designs that i submitted:

I tried to keep the designs simple, yet playful with funny slogans and some bad language as those are the cards that i usually like to buy.

illustration 2: evaluation

illustration 2: project report

illustration 2: design board

illustration 2: finished prints!

Here is a presentation of my finished prints! The colour on them isn't great, but that's the picture's fault not the actual prints. The prints look great, I'm really happy with how they turned out. I think deciding to do the square in the middle of the page is really effective and makes them look a lot more professional. I decided to go with Matte paper because I didn't want the image to shine and you not be able to see the image.

illustration 2: application

Here are some mockups for the applications that I would want to see my Zodiac project on.
I chose the following:

1. Magazine Backpage
2. T-shirts
3. Apps
4. Phone Cover

I chose these because I think it best suits my project. I wanted the horoscope pictures to be used mostly for things like magazines, books about horoscopes etc, because I think they really work for this. It's because you always have that page at the back where they tell you your horoscope for the month, and there is always a small picture or symbol to help to show which one is which. I think this is a good place to put my work and it will be seen by a wide audience.

I also chose phone covers and t-shirts because I think that the horoscopes are a very collectible item, therefore people might purchase them for everyday use too. Everyone has a star sign, it's a given, so I think this makes people very interested in them. That's why I think it will be a very collectible item as everyone will want whichever one is their star sign.

I also chose app for this reason. In the modern age of technology there is an app for everything. So, therefore, there are plenty of apps for horoscopes. They tell you everything about you and your horoscope. I think this is also a really good place for my drawings.

illustration 2: finished illustrations

Here are my final illustrations for my Zodiac brief! I am super happy with how they have all turned out and I think I have come a long way within this brief. I think the idea to turn them into squares instead of filling the whole sheet was a good idea, not only for time management but for the more professional look as well. I think that they look a lot neater this way and are all matching eachother really well. It was also more of a challenge for me, in a way, to figure out how to make each composition work within the frame of the box. 

illustration 2: looking at lighting

As my ideas grow over the course of creating them, I've decided I want to add more atmosphere to my pieces by using lighting. Lighting is an effective way to make any situation seem lifelike and without it my illustrations look kind of flat. I know I'm just taking one step at a time with the whole trying of the new things but I just think it will really help my illustrations because right now I feel like they look flat.


Minkyung Jang



Miki Montlló



Trotroy 

Looking at all these examples has been really interesting, I've never took so much time to research about lighting before I always just kind of winged it and hoped for the best. However now I feel more confident going into my drawings and doing it.

An example of where I have utilised these new skills that I have made! I think it gives the piece a much better atmosphere and tone, plus you can tell it's at nighttime now or she has her curtains closed whereas before I had no idea where the lighting was coming from.

illustration 2: the last crit

So we had the last ever crit of this year today. It was really fun (if not a little bit daunting) to see everyones work, which was so amazing. I'm really happy with how my work is turning out and I think I am taking these final steps into the right direction. There was not a lot of constructive feedback which is a bit disappointing, but it is nice to be told that people like your work. 

responsive: end of module evaluation

responsive: project report

illustration 2: a sea of faces

As practice for character design I decided to have a go drawing my characters with lots of different facial expressions. It was really fun, especially to see how each face works so differently. It's quite rewarding to know that all the faces are different and work so differently as someone who was so used to drawing the same face all the time. I've had a lot of fun working out how to make them look in response to their personalities. So their shocked, happy, angry etc faces all look different. For example, the aries 2nd face shows a more childish anger, almost as if he is being naughty, whereas the pisces 2nd face shows a more mature anger. 

responsive: collaborative practice design board

YCN BEAR

responsive: individual practice design boards

Penguin Design Awards:

Illustration Friday:

Delicious Mess:

illustration 2: the jungle

I used this piece as reference and inspiration for the background for Leo. I wanted the background to be quite simple and a lot of green, because that's really what jungles are. Plus Leo and the other animals are going to be quite bright I think if the background is more simple they will stand out more. It's helpful for me to use references because i wouldn't have known where to start otherwise.