Friday

Everybody seemed quite miserable and subdued on Friday, so I decided to come home and do the following...

Step 1: Tea

Step 2: Big jumper

Step 3: Soup

It made me feel much, much better!

Graphic Surgery

GRAPHIC SURGERY - Between the lines by sofarida from SOFARIDA on Vimeo.


Browsing through Twitter and found this on a tweeeet

Elvis

Illustration of Elvis Presley with the printmaking module in mind, but it occurred to me halfway through that I could use it for the America brief as well. I love pencil drawings and shading and smudging for the effect of light and shape. When compared to the original, there are some faults such as the right-hand eye being too high. I did alter this once but I decided I couldn't keep rubbing it out as I was using a 5B pencil and I would end up with dark smudges in all the wrong places. I tried to get his opening, friendly sneery smile. It looks better from an angle, probably because I drew it from an angle and it was only when I stood up that I noticed where I was going wrong.

Today's moral? Don't just stand back, STAND UP!!

Books

I won this on an eBay bid on Sunday night and I was impressed when it arrived on Tuesday afternoon! It doesn't explain how to use paper in different ways but it shows people who have pushed the medium of paper with a few folding and paper stock examples within. It is helping to provide me with ideas for materials and processes.

Paperwork: The Potential of Paper in Graphic Design, written by Nancy Williams, designed by Williams & Phoa

I like these off-set examples from the book. They are similar to some of the work being produced by the class for the children's book project.

More books..! I found these in the library on Wednesday - Illustration Now 3 and American Illustration. I have the Illustration Now desk calender so I recognise a lot of the illustrators in it already but it contains more of their work and a small bio about each illustrator. American Illustration has inspired me to want to change my approach for the project (yet again), even though some of the illustrations seem quite strange to me. A lot of it reminds me of the artwork in Beautiful Losers. It might be interesting to look at American art and illustration in a social context on buildings etc.

An end paper from American Illustration. It looks as if the work in the book was printed with the library stamp.

Coming to America

Initial ideas for the fast food approach. I used typical 'fast' food to make USA after seeing a similar style in Little White Lies magazine (I should be borrowing a copy later so I will include it on here) The colours that appear in fast food are usually yellow and brown with the odd splash of red and green for sauces. I could use this by using only these colours or by using all different colours and seeing what goes together and what makes the food look different.

Using a photograph by Craig Holden-Feinberg for reference, I drew the person with their mouth open with a collage pizza going towards their mouth. Is this how we are fed in our modern society? We lay back and let it come to us and ingest it without thinking twice. This could be said about information, too.

This is in response to 'Jamie's American Food Revolution'. When asked what certain foods were (fruits and vegetables) many primary school children from a town in West Virginia did not know their names. For example, they didn't know the names of potatoes or tomatoes, even though they happily ate chips with ketchup at most meals! It's not clear from this photograph, but I used wax crayons to imitate a child matching up foods to their origins.

New York City Subway

Found this in Kemistry gallery. I've never been to New York but I want to one day and hopefully I won't leave this at home when I do!

Inside is the City Subway Map with some little stickers which you can mark your favourite places with.

Without the map and stickers - compartments for pass card and ticket.

The stickers!!

One side of the map. Excuse my feet, I needed to hold it flat while I took the photo!! It blurred when I held it up.

The other side.

A better photograph of the cover with a cut-out hole so you can see the map through it.



Children's Book Project

As part of a mini group project we are designing children's books. I am in a group Abi, Adam B, Katie and Hannah Y and we decided to make the main character a puppy who is looking for a home (sad, isn't it?)

Puppy started out life, as many puppies do, as a line drawing. I previously uploaded a version I had applied textures to on Photoshop. I drew out the line drawings and separate ink layers for the rest of the puppy images in the book, but this morning I decided on a different direction.

Hannah brought in the children's book 'Wild Animals' by Bettina Paterson. She tears coloured paper and arranges it into animal forms. It's such a simple procedure but it also provides a lot of texture to work with. The sugar paper has a grainy look and the torn edges look like fluffy fur.

                                    
I was immediately drawn to this technique because of the layers and textures. It allowed me complete control without having to rely too much on Photoshop (I didn't end up using for the illustrations) because I used blu tack to each component so it could be moved, angled and replaced if necessary.

Here is the puppy I created. I think it has been moved a few times since I first constructed it but I will post images of the puppy on the pages. I made this from the line drawing I did. This was a freehand version that was originally going to be a mock-up, but we were pleased with the outcome and it has a hand-done feel in both an adult and child-like way.

The bird!! I had in mind to do mock-ups for all the animals but the rest of the group were happy with them. I made this one without a template or line drawing. Looking back, I should have made a line drawing first but this is natural and spontaneous.

Again, I made this without a template which I probably should have made but I liked getting a feel for the paper and making the curvy lines. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed making these and I like the amount of control one can have over paper. It so often dictates what we do as designers, but every now and then we need to get our hands around it.



Paul Willoughby

Check out Paul Willoughby. If I could ever draw like this, I would die happy. He does a lot of Little White Lies covers. They are gorgeous magazines about film but there is a lot of graphic influence within them. Ever since I found a copy from the market stall in Colchester I have been hooked.

Our Next Mural Project..?

If we ever do another mural in the classroom space, it should definitely be this. It's so beautiful! The colours make their own little dance and make patterns and lines that I wish I could make myself without having to think about it too much. It looks really simple to do - it just requires floorspace and large pieces of paper.

Because I rarely have a favourite (and because I LOVE IT)

I found 'The Bumper Book of Marmite' in WH Smith while I was looking for a cookery book (buy 1 get 1 half price!) and I found this. I looked through it for laughs at first but I found it to be so gorgeous and inspiring inside that I decided to buy it. It is playful and covers all areas of illustration, photography, typography, parody, fashion, recipes etc all done with a very generous amount of humour.

I love this type! It feels like handwriting - when I create something like this, I write it out and then add different weights where I think it's appropriate. This shade of pink also really satisfies me. It's crazy to think that I might like this less if there had been a different choice made in the design process.

This could be handy to use for my America project - taking a pre-existing concept and adapting it. This is a popular thing to do in graphic design. A lot of this book is based around adapting works of art, album covers etc.

I like this because it is just FUN! More things should be fun like this.

A very homely, chucked-together piece using notes and poetry and illustrations with tea-stained colourings and infatuated doodles.

The jars of Marmite become little people here. It is inventive and messes around with the idea of 'You either love it or you hate it'.

Again, love vs hate. A bit like with playing cards, the jars are strategically placed to show people both worshipping and outing it.

Changing the logo so it says what you want. It works because it used part of the word and the round, dark shape of the jar.

And finally, a ransom note. This book is so gorgeous. It's what I want my sketchbooks to look like!! Just fun, experimental with lots of ideas and processes.



http://www.marmiteshop.co.uk/productdetail.jsp?productPK=unittest-mic2fe7VeLy2rgEyqN3IEb-1

With colour

The hummingbird, now with colour. It needs it so you can see how exotic it is but I like having the halfway stage to reflect upon. For some reason this reminds me of making 'stained glass' biscuits in primary school!! That was a very long time ago. In terms of application to printmaking, I couldn't think what to do with it but then I realised I forgot about monoprint. It already has a monoprint-like quality but the lines would come out differently and it would have various shading. It also gives me the option once again to leave it black, colour it in with watercolours, offset it with different colours or print a negative from it.

Slow Loris with a tiny umbrella

This makes me smile and laugh every time I watch it!! It's quite ridiculously cute.

Hummingbird on a heartbreak mission

I decided to play with the idea of how delicate the heart is, in terms of both love and physicality. The hummingbird is so tiny and fragile itself, yet it is heading straight for our heart. We see it a split second before it bursts - after all, this thousands-of-a-second view is the only way we can see the hummingbird remaining still during flight. I used black acrylic paint applied with the 'wrong' end of a match stick and the heart is just done with red ink. I'm deciding whether to colour in the hummingbird, so here is a plain version. It works well seeing as red and black are the traditional playing card colours.

The Lion CMYKing

An obvious King for the playing cards project while I'm on the subject of animals. The bright flowing colours are a celebration of such a powerful, majestic creature. Like all animals, the lion plays an important part in the balance of nature. I started by sketching this out and then drawing over it with inks. I love the freedom I feel when I use inks!! I can do a long, thick, expressive line followed by a short, thin, controlled one. They are so fun to use whether I'm illustrating or creating my own text. As this is part of the illustration with printmaking module, I imagine this working as a lino cut.

Shhh...

A photograph of a puppy sleeping under a US soldier's hat in Iraq. These two themes of war and a sleeping pet are ones that should not be mixed. Of course, it's terrible that so many people have to be out there as well but we are so used to seeing these images now. This photograph gives us hope and reminds us that there is still peace somewhere in the world.

Thursday

Listening to this album while I work. I highly recommend this song, which is from the film 10 Things I Hate About You, which I also recommend

99 Helium Balloons

Someone let go of some letter-shaped balloons at Liverpool St station

Tuesday

I found this in the shop last week. Pentagames by Pentagram. It is a collection of classic games with a mix of modern and woodcut style illustrations on colourful pages. It ranges from hopscotch to a variety of card games.

Napkin

This was on a napkin in a restaurant (my favourite - the goats cheese ravioli is divine). I suppose I could link it with the America project, but I like the quote and the limited range of colours in this photo.

Yawn yawn

Late night - first draft/experiment for the children's book illustration, hence the horrendous quailty. I would still like to try a few different styles and textures.