In my final year I have learnt so much about my practice and how I enjoy image making. One element that coming into my final year i wanted to improve on was giving my image making and work much more context. To achieve this effectively i decided to do a few collaborative projects this year see how my illustrations would sit if involved them with animators, graphic designers and other illustrators. This is such an important skill in the real creative world and i wanted good experience of it so i feel more set up for life as a creative when i leave.
Collaborating on an animation:
this was a live brief for Hostelworld i did with Christopher Hore on animation. I have known Christopher for a while and knew that his animation style was fun, lively and he too was also interested in involving humour within his work. Therefore, i knew he would bring my drawings to life effectively.
In order for Christopher to animate my work easily and well i knew that my quick line drawings would be the most flexible to work with. I filled 2 sketchbooks full of characters and narrative concepts as a base for him to go off in terms of the characters. When it came to working out the idea it was much easier to do this collaboratively as ideas flow much better when you discuss them.
While he was busy animating my chosen characters, I got to drawing the backgrounds. The backgrounds i drew and then coloured them in digitally as this was easier for the fun aesthetic of the animation and better to work with for the animator.
This was one of my first big collaborations and i am very happy with how it went both my illustration style and Christopher's loose and lively animation style came together fittingly in an animation. To make a final outcome that is a fun fluid and amusing advert for Hostelworld.
Collaborating on a magazine:
This project excited me as it was a perfect opportunity to work with graphic designers who are strangers from a different country. This experience was something that really made me realise how a team of creatives can really come together on a project. Working with graphic designers was great as they did all the elements i usually didn't like such as the arrangement and text.
This collaboration really helped see my work work within a publication to which was rewarding to see. I was worried that my messy child like drawings wouldn't fit with the clean graphic design but thanks to the graphic designers they arranged my drawings throughout tastefully and even let me do my own comic on a narrative of someone falling in the puddle outside the broadcasting tower.
Collaborating with an illustrator:
This project started very casually with my friend and housemate Jack Grieve posted illustrations on A4 paper under my door daily for me to finish off. Even though this collaboration at the start didn't feel like a project after we did about 20 we realised how charming, amusing and original these drawings look. The 2 different illustration styles meeting on a page to create a narrative makes it look ridiculous and fun. we've now done nearly 50 and plan to colour them and craft them into a collaborative publication.
This project is one that i enjoyed the most as it really let me be playful with the narrative of the drawing which is something i like to think strongly about in my image making.
From doing A few collaborative projects i see the benefits in other creatives using their skills to help give my work more context and life within the future of my practice.
Saturday, 4 May 2019
7x7 No.1
Reflective 2
Following on from the gross studios banner my love of drawing has increased. With a new approach of a more developed version of my line drawings I had confidence in trying to put this into practice with some live briefs. When choosing live briefs I always look for ones that i will find most fun. If no fun ideas come to me when i brainstorm then i scrap the brief. Usually the breifs i like to chose may involve character design and naivety so anything for children always caught my eye more then an editorial or book cover for example.
Some of the live briefs i did:
- Children's Tennis clothing company (lion mascot)
this brief i knew would be easy for me to come up with an outcome as i draw lions on the regular and the mane gives me a lot to play with in terms of texture. I sketched out so many lions until i got one that felt like it had a sporty aesthetic and from what i learnt earlier in the year with the orgy that a analogue drawing coloured in digitally can make it look more professional and finished. For a logo especially a sports one it's important to have strong bold sporty colours.
I was happy with the final outcome as it was a sporty naive looking lion with bold colours and nice playful textures. However, I'm not sure if it works well as a mascot as the texture may be hard to transfer onto a lot of different products. This is something that in the future i would like to team up with a graphic designer to help me out with making a mascot more versitile for products.
- t shirt LAU T SHIRT
this was a brief for the new student union t shirt at LAU. For this brief i wanted to design something with limited colour and a simple design. Doing something very immediate seemed like the best option. I did this very lazily but ended up enjoying the image. It was a product of me just testing out brushes on photoshop but it ended up creating a character with some charm. This design came as a happy accident and although contained little thought sometimes a quick idea can be the most effective choice. Especially when i feel like i am spending too much time thinking about the process of making the image i have in my head. It's fun to go in with no intentions and let the work create itself sometimes.
- Lau tote bag
For this one i just wanted to do a very simple design of loads of small things involved within the courses at LAU and put happy faces on them all. small faces is the easiest way to make your work look fun. This design does the job but it doesn't excite me as i don't feel like it's anything original however, it works well commercially.
- Nest submission
For nest i had an idea of a genderless person looking scared and knew that paint would of been perfect for this as recently I had been getting into paint more. Painting is a fun way to show immediacy as the brush strokes offer lots of texture in the colour. I was happy with the submission and glad that it made it within the magazine however, when i look back at my submission it works really well in the context of the magazine but if i had to critic it myself i personally think i can do better humour wise. The joke feels to "Shrigley" to me and this is something i want to avoid at all costs even if i do consider David Shrigley as an influencer I think it's important as a Humorous illustrator to keep my jokes and drawings as original as possible and this piece feels too similar to me even if i never intended it to be originally.
from doing live briefs this year it made me realise a very important thing and that is that i much prefer my own set briefs. A brief that is already set gives me to much limitations even if the brief isn't limited. Perhaps it's more that i feel less confident to approach a serious live brief in a completely silly and stupid way therefore i keep it commercial with less effort and fun as i would if set it myself.
Some of the live briefs i did:
- Children's Tennis clothing company (lion mascot)
this brief i knew would be easy for me to come up with an outcome as i draw lions on the regular and the mane gives me a lot to play with in terms of texture. I sketched out so many lions until i got one that felt like it had a sporty aesthetic and from what i learnt earlier in the year with the orgy that a analogue drawing coloured in digitally can make it look more professional and finished. For a logo especially a sports one it's important to have strong bold sporty colours.
I was happy with the final outcome as it was a sporty naive looking lion with bold colours and nice playful textures. However, I'm not sure if it works well as a mascot as the texture may be hard to transfer onto a lot of different products. This is something that in the future i would like to team up with a graphic designer to help me out with making a mascot more versitile for products.
- t shirt LAU T SHIRT
this was a brief for the new student union t shirt at LAU. For this brief i wanted to design something with limited colour and a simple design. Doing something very immediate seemed like the best option. I did this very lazily but ended up enjoying the image. It was a product of me just testing out brushes on photoshop but it ended up creating a character with some charm. This design came as a happy accident and although contained little thought sometimes a quick idea can be the most effective choice. Especially when i feel like i am spending too much time thinking about the process of making the image i have in my head. It's fun to go in with no intentions and let the work create itself sometimes.
- Lau tote bag
For this one i just wanted to do a very simple design of loads of small things involved within the courses at LAU and put happy faces on them all. small faces is the easiest way to make your work look fun. This design does the job but it doesn't excite me as i don't feel like it's anything original however, it works well commercially.
- Nest submission
For nest i had an idea of a genderless person looking scared and knew that paint would of been perfect for this as recently I had been getting into paint more. Painting is a fun way to show immediacy as the brush strokes offer lots of texture in the colour. I was happy with the submission and glad that it made it within the magazine however, when i look back at my submission it works really well in the context of the magazine but if i had to critic it myself i personally think i can do better humour wise. The joke feels to "Shrigley" to me and this is something i want to avoid at all costs even if i do consider David Shrigley as an influencer I think it's important as a Humorous illustrator to keep my jokes and drawings as original as possible and this piece feels too similar to me even if i never intended it to be originally.
from doing live briefs this year it made me realise a very important thing and that is that i much prefer my own set briefs. A brief that is already set gives me to much limitations even if the brief isn't limited. Perhaps it's more that i feel less confident to approach a serious live brief in a completely silly and stupid way therefore i keep it commercial with less effort and fun as i would if set it myself.
Friday, 3 May 2019
Reflection 1
From starting the year again I have been looking for new ways to develop my image making. I have been experimenting through cop with cakes and this has really left me wanting to explore on making fun and naive work in different ways. The development of this is early as I feel like i need necessary briefs and ideas in order to achieve this.
One thing i wanted to develop from the start was how i developed my illustrations, i felt confident in my quick line drawings as they weren't seen as final images to me more like early ideas. However, the process from the original drawing to the finished product can always be challenging as i can't decide on the best process on taking the drawing further. A brief came a long that gave me the opportunity on to expand my practice. It was from a student initiated group called GROSS studios in which a couple of students in our class help organise an exhibition at Hyde Park book club. The theme was 'gross' so, obviously I had a lot of fun thinking of ideas for this project and naturally i settled on the idea of making a large orgy involving pretty much everything in order for it to be more humorous then erotic.
I wanted this large orgy to be more then just a line drawing I thought for a playful charm it would work well if it was all brightly coloured (again trying to further it from being serious and erotic). Therefore, i wanted to experiment different ways on colouring it.
I tried screen printing it first but realised that this didn't create the boldness i needed maybe it was within my registration or the colours chose but i decided that hand printing it didn't bring any charm to it if anything it just made the image more distorted. One thing that got really lost within hand printing it, was the textures on the characters. This is something i recently developed to helpt make the image look stronger then just from a line drawing.
I chose do this Digitally instead as I had more control with the textures and more freedom with the colours. I decided at this point that the piece would be more presentable large at the exhibition therefore, i needed to figure out a way to print it large scale. I came to the conclusion that fabric would work better than paper as I have always wanted to test printing on fabric plus it would give it a more tapestry feel which i think fits the aesthetic and theme of the image. from earlier experience with colouring i decided that printing it digitally on fabric would be a wiser move as my registration was bad with paper therefore, i had little confidence with screen printing large on fabric, a process i haven't yet tried.
Printing it digitally again gave me a more safer bet that the final outcome would be safe and with the deadline of the exhibition around the corner i needed this design secured.
I was really happy with the final outcome of the banner I think it represents a nice development within my illustration practice and shows the more complex details i'm putting into my immediate drawings. Giving the characters a wobbly and naive look making the sexual theme of the banner feel obviously like a joke. I think the colouring of this helped I used the colour schemes of doctor Seuss to help me decide this as i wanted it to have a similar FUN, bold and erratic style.
The banner got some good feedback from the exhibition and it was lots of fun showing it off.
I think the struggles involved within this project has helped me learn that the right process can achieve the right out come.
One thing i wanted to develop from the start was how i developed my illustrations, i felt confident in my quick line drawings as they weren't seen as final images to me more like early ideas. However, the process from the original drawing to the finished product can always be challenging as i can't decide on the best process on taking the drawing further. A brief came a long that gave me the opportunity on to expand my practice. It was from a student initiated group called GROSS studios in which a couple of students in our class help organise an exhibition at Hyde Park book club. The theme was 'gross' so, obviously I had a lot of fun thinking of ideas for this project and naturally i settled on the idea of making a large orgy involving pretty much everything in order for it to be more humorous then erotic.
I wanted this large orgy to be more then just a line drawing I thought for a playful charm it would work well if it was all brightly coloured (again trying to further it from being serious and erotic). Therefore, i wanted to experiment different ways on colouring it.
I tried screen printing it first but realised that this didn't create the boldness i needed maybe it was within my registration or the colours chose but i decided that hand printing it didn't bring any charm to it if anything it just made the image more distorted. One thing that got really lost within hand printing it, was the textures on the characters. This is something i recently developed to helpt make the image look stronger then just from a line drawing.
I chose do this Digitally instead as I had more control with the textures and more freedom with the colours. I decided at this point that the piece would be more presentable large at the exhibition therefore, i needed to figure out a way to print it large scale. I came to the conclusion that fabric would work better than paper as I have always wanted to test printing on fabric plus it would give it a more tapestry feel which i think fits the aesthetic and theme of the image. from earlier experience with colouring i decided that printing it digitally on fabric would be a wiser move as my registration was bad with paper therefore, i had little confidence with screen printing large on fabric, a process i haven't yet tried.
Printing it digitally again gave me a more safer bet that the final outcome would be safe and with the deadline of the exhibition around the corner i needed this design secured.
I was really happy with the final outcome of the banner I think it represents a nice development within my illustration practice and shows the more complex details i'm putting into my immediate drawings. Giving the characters a wobbly and naive look making the sexual theme of the banner feel obviously like a joke. I think the colouring of this helped I used the colour schemes of doctor Seuss to help me decide this as i wanted it to have a similar FUN, bold and erratic style.
The banner got some good feedback from the exhibition and it was lots of fun showing it off.
I think the struggles involved within this project has helped me learn that the right process can achieve the right out come.
Thursday, 2 May 2019
WHO AM I ?
for my presentation i wanted to highlight my humour within my practice and how i would like to develop my illustrations and image making to make fun creative work that everyone can laugh at and understand.
I talked about how my main focus is making people smile with my work and how i want to try new and creative ways to make people smile through image making.
For example i show my cake at the end which is a start in 3d image making which i hope to develop more.
I talk about how i am influenced on most things outside of illustration. Humour is obviously a big inspiration to my practice so i look for anything that makes me laugh to help me create work.
I have recently been getting into filling as many sketchbooks as possible in order to store ideas for later, i have alos been trying to develop these drawings digitally however I am still deciding on effectively doing this.
Monday, 22 October 2018
Reflective Reflections
Reflections from past works. What worked for you in the past and what did not?
I've dropped paper craft to focus on printing and 3D work paper craft help me realise the importance of shape and colour and gave the humour a simple and naive way to display my ideas but i'm ready to expand into new realms. I have filled many sketchbooks of silly ideas to then hopefully develop them furhter
- Contextual inspiration. This can include works of others from all disciplines.
hard to pin down
wonder showzen (tv) trash art, general sad life
- External interests that have an impact on your practice.
-Your aspirations and goals.
i want to go big
big 3d sculptures
big 3d paintings
kind of a fine art edge to my work and humour
make big jokes
-The audience of your work.
anyone up for a laugh
-What do you want to say with your work?
i only out here to bring smiles to even the most ugliest of faces
-Finish your pitch with an image that you have already produced that you feel captures your current aspirations with a one liner that underpins your creative practice.
I've dropped paper craft to focus on printing and 3D work paper craft help me realise the importance of shape and colour and gave the humour a simple and naive way to display my ideas but i'm ready to expand into new realms. I have filled many sketchbooks of silly ideas to then hopefully develop them furhter
- Contextual inspiration. This can include works of others from all disciplines.
hard to pin down
wonder showzen (tv) trash art, general sad life
- External interests that have an impact on your practice.
-Your aspirations and goals.
i want to go big
big 3d sculptures
big 3d paintings
kind of a fine art edge to my work and humour
make big jokes
-The audience of your work.
anyone up for a laugh
-What do you want to say with your work?
i only out here to bring smiles to even the most ugliest of faces
-Finish your pitch with an image that you have already produced that you feel captures your current aspirations with a one liner that underpins your creative practice.
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