Fever Tree - Initial Ideas

• Using the theme of insects, focussing on mosquitos, a closeup image of the insect. 
• Maybe just focus on the wings making the design more pattern based. 
• The pattern on the wings could be linked to a map design. I could use the maps of the different countries made into the shapes of the mosquito wings.
• Continuing with the map idea, I could look at ways that the maps of different countries could be made into a more decorative design. 
• I need to select the countries I am going to focus on but it might be a good idea to use countries which some of the Fever Tree ingredients come from. This might make a stronger connection between the brand and the location. I could also use the ingredients from that location as part of the design. 
• Going with the theme of natural forms, I could study the plant which quinine comes from. I think this is a key connecting object between the tonic water and the Malaria No More UK charity. Depending on what people already knew about the topic and what was printed on the neck tag, I don’t know whether this would be clear enough as a concept. 
• Using plant life as the main focus might also span out to using fruits and other plants involved in the making of the drinks and/or native species. Maybe the mosquito could be included in a more subtle way in these designs rather than it being the main focus. 

I think having a ‘natural’ theme is the best way to go because it would work well with the company’s current tree design and would highlight the fact the drinks are made from natural ingredients. I am going to start visually investigating this brief, focussing on plants, mosquitos and maps to see where this takes me. 

Fever Tree - Continued Research

Malaria No More UK

I learnt a lot just from reading the opening page of the Malaria No More UK website, I am quite uneducated about this topic and am hoping to improve on that very quickly. Half the population of the entire world is at risk from malaria, the most vulnerable people being children under five and pregnant women. Since 2000, the number of deaths from malaria has halved which has meant 4.3million lives have been saved. Malaria No More UK believes that beating malaria entirely is within reach. Other companies are already partnered with this charity and I looked at the Jack Wills Products available in support of the charity. The product is clearly part of the Jack Will's range with just subtle additions of things relating to Malaria No More. For example the bracelet has a small tag with the map of Africa on it which is a symbol of where some of the proceeds will be going to help people. These subtle details made me think about how much of the design needs to be focussed on the Fever Tree branding identity and how much needs to link to malaria. I think the more subtle nods to the charity will be more effective because the main design needs to fit in with the rest of the fever tree products. I am also wary of glamourising the symbols of a disease by making the design really elegant and beautiful when it is actually a shocking reality.

Facts About Malaria

• Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite.
• The disease spreads to humans when they are bitten by an infected mosquito. 
• There are different types of the parasite but only five cause malaria in humans. 
• The plasmodium parasite is spread by female anopheles mosquitos which usually bite during the night time.
• Malaria cannot be spread from person to person without something being the middleman, for example blood transfusions, sharing of needles or an uninfected mosquito which then becomes infected after biting a human with malaria.
• When bitten, the parasite will travel through your bloodstream to the liver where they will then be recirculated. The parasites multiply in the red blood cells until they burst. At these intervals where the bloodless burst, the body will experience fever, chills and sweating. 
• If it gets worse, the red blood cells will not be able to carry oxygen around the body resulting in severe anaemia. Or, blood vessels leading to the brain can become blocked leading to seizures or brain damage. 

Facts About Quinine

• Quinine is a white crystalline alkaloid with a bitter taste and some healing properties. 
• It reduces fevers, relaxes muscles, is a painkiller, anti-inflammatory and antimalarial.
• Quinine was the first drug to effectively treat malaria in the west in the 1600s and had remained to be the most common treatment until the 1940s where other effective drugs were used too. 
• It also treats lupus and arthritis. 
• It is usually provided in salt form. 
• Quinine is fluorescent under UV light. 
• It is a flavour component in tonic water and bitter lemon. 
• Peruvians would take the bark of cinchona trees, grind it and mix it with sweetened water to balance the bitter taste of the quinine - the first tonic water.  

Fever Tree - Research and Moodboards

I started off my research with a simple image search on different alcoholic drinks which require tonic water and the results were quite standard. There seems so be a typical way of presenting gin and tonics or vodka tonics which is quite generic. For my other research I cut images from catalogues including Marks and Spencers Home, John Lewis Gift, Whiskeria, etc. I chose these because I thought they fitted the target audience of 35-65 year old who are willing to pay for quality. 

I found some limited edition bottles in the Whiskeria catalogue, one of which was themed around the city of Edinburgh. I found this particularly relevant because my designs will need to relate to a location too. This design used architecture which I am not sure about as a route for my project, it seems quite formal and structured as a design. Some other bottles I looked at had animals as their main feature, I like this idea especially in this context because it gives the bottle a sense of tradition and heritage. 

I picked up on the glassware in the home catalogues because cut glass seems to be coming back into fashion. It has an expensive look about it if done well and links to the classy and sophisticated style that Fever Tree are looking for. 

Natural forms were also a common theme, both plant life and insects and birds. I will need to do more research into malaria and these countries but the idea of insects triggered an idea in my mind because I immediately link malaria to mosquitos. 

I picked up on this map wallpaper design because it is another way of showing location. Although this is an obvious thing, I could maybe use this in a more subtle way. 

The geometric patterns stemmed from the shapes seen in the cut glass. To represent a country I could look into their culture and pick out any patterns or processes that are relevant and maybe incorporate this into my design. I have doubts about this because of the colours - I think that the bottle wrap design needs to be kept simple when it comes to colour, I am tempted to just stick to black and white. 

From this initial research I have realised that although the bottle needs to be appealing to both genders, it might be more favourable to make it appeal to women more. Gin and tonic especially has become very popular recently for being a 'skinny' drink which is something a lot of women seem to be conscious about. Also, I think that in a supermarket, women can be more enticed by a sophisticated and beautiful design. 

So far my favourite theme to go with is the natural forms idea with the inclusion of wildlife. I clearly need to do more research into malaria and the specific charity this is for but I think this theme would get across the idea that the drink is natural, medicinal and good for humans and the world. 

On the last page of this presentation are some fashion predictions for around the time when Fever Tree want these bottles to be released (April 2016). Although this is fashion, these trends will spread over all areas and may have an impact on people's tastes at the time. I think the delicate lace and floral patterns are a positive sign that I am thinking on the right lines with my ideas so far. 

Production of Linos

I printed some circles off the computer so they would fit into a 30x30cm square which is the size of the lino pieces I have. I selected the one on the first page of this presentation because I thought the proportions would suit the contents well. After roughing out my final images in pencil at the correct scale I then put these on the light-box and traced over them in black ink using a brush so I had a pure black and white image. This is the first colour of my print. I chose to do this process with ink and brush rather than a pen because I feel like this would allow me to capture the hand drawn quality of the brush lines. I think that doing this stage with a fineliner or black felt tip wold have made the image too structured and precise. 

After this stage I used tracing paper to draw out the shapes that needed to be cut out of lino (the white areas) and then flipped this over and pressed onto it with a pencil to transfer the image onto the surface of the lino. 

Problems I have encountered - when transferring the images onto the lino I have realised that through the process of tracing and retracing, the ovals have ended up slightly bigger than they originally were. Therefore they don’t fit perfectly onto the square so to solve this I am having to make the borders slightly thinner during the cutting process. 

I have started the process of cutting out my linos which is taking a very long time. My cutter isn't very fine so I have having to be really patient with cutting out small areas. I have managed to cut out two of my linos with no slip ups but on my third I have cut away a very small area I shouldn't have. It is around one of the pearls in the necklace draped on the chair which means that the chain is disrupted. I have tried to build it back up with a small piece of lino and double sided tape but I am not confident that this will print as it isn't exactly at the same level as the rest of the surface. 

For the lino featuring the queen, the border of the image is a string of pearls too. Because of my slip up with the other set of pearls, I tried to think of another way to cut out each circle without making a mess of it and making them uneven. I thought about a hole punch but it wouldn't reach far enough into the image and the lino was too thick. I ended up using my granddad's really old belt hole puncher, there are different sized holes so I used the biggest to punch out each pearl. This means it has cut all the way through the lino but I don't see why this would be a problem in the printing process. It also means that all the pearls are all the same size. 

All my linocuts for my five prints are finished now and thats a big relief!
Next steps - I need to print some test pieces and see if there are any changes that need to be made before my final prints. I need to find out where my second colour is going to go as well. 

Brief Analysis - Fever-Tree Limited Edition Bottles

What is the problem?

• Fever Tree need a range of designs for a set of limited edition bottles. The bottles need to help raise money for Malaria No More UK.
• 'We want you to create a series of designs for our annual limited edition bottle campaign that will be eye catching on a busy retail shelf. You can approach this graphically, illustratively; or in any other visual style you see fit. You should work to a ‘wrap’ design that adheres to the current footprint of the 500ml Tonic bottle — and that inspiringly embellishes it.'
• 'You should select at least one of the five regions detailed in the project pack and create a set of four different designs inspired by four different countries within that region that are affected by malaria.'

How do I aim to solve the problem?

• Research a variety of countries on the list provided.
• Research into Malaria No More UK and find out about them as a charity. 
• Try to think of a theme to follow which will make the bottles work as a set. 
• Do media tests to find which materials convey the theme and tone best. 
• Keep the designs subtle and simple but with deeper meaning. 
• High quality imagery - craft and care.  

What will I be aiming to communicate?

• A beautiful and sophisticated style. 
• All natural, no artificial sweeteners. 
• Products are carefully crafted.
• The wraps must incorporate the key information on the bottle and these must be clear to read. 
• The designs need to look like they are from the same family and work as a set.
• Focus on visual impact - a written explanation of the idea will be on a separate neck tag. 
• Make it visually engaging. 
• A clear sense of the continent or country the design is based on.

Who is my audience?

• 35 to 65 years old.
• Existing and potential new customers. 
• People who are prepared to pay for a quality product.
• People who usually opt for premium brands rather than own brand labels. 

Illustration Friday Week 4 - Soar

Initial Ideas
The river Soar, flying, birds, swooping, streamlined, wingspan, planes, aeroplanes, helicopters, paper planes, remote control plane toys, gliders, hand gliders, kites, skydives, skiing...

Roughs

I did a few initial roughs of three different ideas and immediately decided to go with the paper plane idea. I was pushed for time this week so wanted to make this task as time efficient as possible. I did some more compositional roughs based on the paper aeroplane drawing. I like the landscape frame the best as I think it shows the distance between the hand and the plane more effectively.

Reference
I used some photos from google images as reference for the hand. I wanted a child's hand because it looked more playful and suitable for the theme. Also, I am using ink as my medium which has a childish naïvety to it. 

Drawing
I used the first line drawing I did because I was pleased with how it turned out and it wasn't necessary to prolong the process.

Photoshop
I scanned in my line drawing and a mono printed texture from the OUIL504 module which I thought could be used as the sky to give the image a bit more of an atmosphere. I layered them on top of each other on photoshop, altered the layers and the opacity of the texture.

Colour and Cropping 
I am trying to convey the idea of innocence and freedom with this image so I thought blue was a good colour choice as it is very calming and can be used the represent freedom because it is the colour of the sky and sea which both seem to never end. I tried out a few different blues and chose the mid tone. I then used the eraser tool to make the hand and the plane pure white so it is just the sky that had texture on. Seeing as the aeroplane was tucked into the top right corner, I thought it was best if the hand was closer to the bottom left so I cropped a bit of the bottom of the image off to make it seem closer into the corner. 

Evaluation

I am really pleased with this outcome. This has been a much smoother ride than last week's Illustration Friday, it took me a lot less time and I think the outcome is of a higher standard. I think i have managed to get across the themes I was trying to, the innocence is reflected in the line quality and the by the hand being a child's hand. Freedom is represented my the main area of the frame being taken up by sky. There is a clear line of sight which directs the eye out of the frame and into the unknown. 

Mono print Tests and Concertina Book

I really wanted to do something else with the botanical drawings in my sketchbook other than just including them in my prints. Seeing as I have really enjoyed working with mono printing I decided to combine the two together. I enlarged the pictures from my sketchbook and used them to trace over on a bed of block printing ink to create some mono prints.

The first few attempts (page one of presentation) were on quite light stock, the ink transferred really well but I felt that the line work was too clean. I like mono prints when you gem smudges and accidental marks because they look more individual and you can recognise and acknowledge the process more. I them moved on to some thicker stock which gave the results I was looking for (pages two and three). I am particularly proud of the calla which has a real contrast in line weight where the ink on the plate has not been rolled perfectly evenly. 

I selected about 15 prints I was happy with and scanned these in to photoshop where I adjusted the levels a tiny bit and removed any harsh lines of ink where the edges of my paper had got ink on. From these I then selected twelve prints I was happy with and thought of an order for them. I would have set this up on InDesign but I don't have access to this on my laptop so I used Pages to measure out the necessary rectangles and make the four sections of my concertina book. I improvised with the crop marks and printed each section out. I scored, cut and stuck the sections of the book together and was really pleased with how it looked. The book is a smaller, lower quality version of what would be made if I did this properly. 

I made a simple front and back cover from one of the prints on thin stock. I wanted the cover to have a slightly different aesthetic to the internal pages so this was perfect. Also the clarity of the print meant I could print it even smaller for the back page and it is still clear what it was. 

These are just prints of flowers from my sketchbook, the same flowers that appear in my prints and have meanings relating to the themes of christie. These aren't actually poisons but it would be good to make another with poisons included if I have time. right now this isn't a priority.

Evaluation

• The print quality isn't great because this is just my home printer. It is also only A4 size which means there are more joins in the book than are really necessary. This could even be printed on a roll so there are no joins at all. 
• I think that the page with the two flowers on together (amaryllis) ruins the flow of the book. It would have been better if I had just kept it to one flower per page. 
• If I was doing this again (which I might if I have time) I would include poisonous flowers within the collection to give the book more of a meaning. It would resemble mystery and not knowing who/which plants to trust and which ones to avoid. It would also convey the message that even things with dark and deadly undertones can appear nice from the outside. 
• I would also take inspiration from old horticulture reference books for the layout and probably include the name of the plant on the page. I am undecided whether I would include a brief description or not, it would detract from the mystery of it but would probably make people understand the concept behind it better. 

I mentioned previously that Agatha Christie organised her life in many notebooks so I want to make a few books with some of these flower prints on as a nod to her. This also fits in with my PPP because I have been making notebooks during the build up to christmas to give as presents. I enjoy making actual products as well as just prints of my work because it gives the images more of a function and I feel they are more appreciated as a gift. 

I know I am not making a publication for my final outcome, I had just reached the point in the project where I needed a breath of fresh air and to try something a bit different. 

Animation Sound Test

Since my experiments on garageband a while ago, I thought it was best that I didn't tamper too much with the track so I tested out a few of the music samples I had previously downloaded with the animation mock up I have. The music was from freemusicarchive.com. 

I decided to go with 'La Rencontre' and this needed cutting down from 2 minutes 18 to 15 seconds. I realised I was going to get about 8 bars into the animation plus a fraction of a second. I played around with using different sections of the music. The start is very delicate and quiet and as it gets towards the end it gets more powerful and dramatic. I wanted to capture this transition as I thought it was relevant to the animation but not in a really dramatic way. 

I chose this section because music is quite steady, following the theme of the imagery as nothing remotely drastic is happening. The end of the piece of music sounds like it is more in a minor key (please excuse my limited musical knowledge) which fits with the growing intensity and mystery of what is happening in the animation, the chess piece is enlarging and the screen is becoming dark. 

This snippet of music consists of two lots of 4 bars and I felt that the change in the middle needed something visible to happen alongside it so I dragged the point where the king starts enlarging to this point in the music so as the second part of the music starts, the animation sort of takes a turn. Using the waveform of the music was helpful to position the keyframe in the right place. 

Sound Test from Naomi Smith on Vimeo.

Plant Meanings and Drawings

I used flowersonly.com to find out about flower meanings and selected flowers to include in each of my prints depending on their meanings. I want the flowers to be appropriate for the theme of the image as a whole, I didn't want them just to be decorative - they need to add meaning, even if this is subtle. The meanings in bold are the combined meanings for the flowers I have selected for each theme. 

Secrecy - begonias, bittersweet, jimson weed (beware, truth, beautiful yet dangerous)

Death - monkshood, orange lily, poppy, weeping willow (beware, deadly foe, hatred, oblivion, mounting)

Revenge - snapdragon, anemone, yellow hyacinth (deception, forsaken, jealousy)

Wealth - alstromeria, tiger lily, spirea, calla, amaryllis (wealth, prosperity, fortune, pride, victory, conceit, beauty)

Uninteresting yet important - allium, pansy, candytuft (unity, patience, thoughtfulness, indifference)

This covers all of my prints and I want to use some from this list to include in my sting. Because the opening frame of my animated sting is covered with flowers and plants it will be simple to compile some of these together to create a clear connection between this and my prints. 

I used books as my main point of reference imagery for this exercise although I did have to rely on the internet for the more obscure plants. These are some of my favourite drawings I have done from reference, the rest are in the black A5 sketchbook. 

I really enjoyed this. I find drawing plant life really interesting and relaxing. 

I have tried to simplify the shapes down just to line drawings so that these are easier to translate into linocuts. This is taking a different approach to how I started this sketchbook which was using hatching and crosshatching which wouldn't translate well in this method of print. The simple ones are best. 

Extra Publication Idea

I am really tempted to mono print some of these line drawings but I don't want to get distracted from completing my prints and animation because these are most important. If I do have time though I would love to make a small publication of some mono printed plant drawings, almost like a mini pocket guide, inspired by old fashioned reference books. I feel this relates well to Agatha Christie because she had a very good knowledge of plants and medicines from her experience as a nurse drawing the war. Also, most of these are plants which can be found in the British countryside which is also relevant to her life. 

I thought about combining these plants, most of which are harmless, with plants which are actually dangerous and used as poisons. The book would almost be like a 'whodunnit' because each plant would have its own page and image but you wouldn't be sure which ones were dangerous and which ones aren't. It would make the point that Christie makes in a lot of her novels, which is that it is usually the ones that you trust the most and suspect the least that turns out to be guilty and dangerous. 

Notebooks

Bookbinding is something I want to learn more about and I have been making little notebooks in my free time as gifts for people. I think this is something I can bring into this project because, from my research earlier in the project, I found out that Christie organised her stories and her life in many little notebooks which have recently been discovered and published. Maybe having a range of notebooks inspired by Agatha Christie in some way might be a nice tribute to the way she worked and potentially inspire creative thoughts amongst others. Again, this is just an idea that I am not sure I will have time to complete. 

Animated Sting - Plan

I did another storyboard taking into consideration the faults I noticed in my first attempt at my animated sting, I produced this which I am a lot more happy with. I am going to use this as the basis for creating my actual imagery which are going to be linocut prints which I then scan in. Depending on how much time I have to do this, I am thinking about just having the chess pieces and oval border as linocut pieces and adding the string as a digital element with a mrnoprinted texture overplayed onto it. This might be the same approach I take if I decide to have some subtle moving flowers in the foreground. This will fit in to my printed images because the second colour will be added to them digitally as well. 

Shape Test 2 from Naomi Smith on Vimeo.

After Effects Basic Testing for Sting

I did some very rough drawings in fine liner, scanned these in to Photoshop and arranged them in separate layers like how we learnt in the tutorials with Mike. I had the back layer of the chess pieces tangled up, the middle layer of the oval frame and numerous front layers of individual flowers and leaved which initially would cover up the oval but then move away to reveal what is behind it. 

I imported these into after effects with no problems but then I started to struggle with the different functions. It didn't help that After Effects isn't set up exactly the same on my laptop as it is on the college macs but I am going to try and sort this out so I am more familiar with where all the specific functions are on my screen. 

I got quite into the animating of the individual components and layers but when I got towards the end of my sting, I went to replay it and I had somehow deleted most of the keyframes from near the beginning which is really frustrating as I don't know what it was that made them disappear. I tried (very hard) to stay calm but decided that it was best to start again and abandon these rough sketches - I think the chaotic lifework and scribbles I had done were all confusing me on the screen. 

I drew out some new components on photoshop so they were much cleaner and simpler and I put the individual flowers to one side to focus on the main movements of my sting. I replaced the flowers that are going to cover the oval with solid shapes purely to show the transformations. This worked a lot better for me especially as it has been a while since I have used after effects. 

shape test from Naomi Smith on Vimeo.


This is what I produced today. There are many changes to be made to this. 

• I don't like the panning over the large image of the chess pieces. It looks confusing to the eye and the valuable time this takes could be used a lot more effectively. I am thinking of changing this so it only pans from the bottom to the top of the king in one movement with the other chess pieces just being silhouettes in the background. 
• The ending is too quick. I want Agatha Christie's name to be stationary on the screen for about 1 second so it doesn't give the impression that the sting is ending too abruptly. To do this, I will need to simplify the content of the middle of my sting. What I have suggested in the previous point will hopefully do this. 
• Going against my original plans, I am going to make the flowers that cover the oval in the beginning move all the way out of the frame and disappear like I have done in this test. It will keep things simpler and if I do decide that some movement can go on within the frame, I will just animate the imagery that already exists there but only very subtly. 
• Obviously this was just a very quick drawing on photoshop only using the mousepad, but I do need to put consideration into how the rope/vines tying up the chess pieces lead the eye across the image. At the moment there are some very concentrated and very sparse areas and I want it all to appear quite even. 

Next Steps

• Storyboard again taking these changes into consideration. 
• Draw out some more detailed components, to scale which I can create another test piece with. 
• Music! I haven't found a definite piece of music to use yet but I have a few potential ones. Because there are no sudden movements in my animation I don't think I need to make it fit to specific sounds in the music but I do want to try and have my movements commencing at the start of a new bar if possible. 

Animation Design and Storyboard

I designed the themes of my animation in the same way that I have done my prints but in a landscape format. I think this will help to tie them together as a set better and also make me simplify the content down so it all fits in one image. 

After doing this, I broke this down in my sketchbook and drew out the different layers and components I would need. This is still on a basic level because I won't know exactly what I need until I have experimented on after effects and designed the images properly. 

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for the animation I am aiming to make on after effects today. I will be using scanned in sketches of the individual pieces. 

Artist Research - Linocut and Woodcut

Angie Lewin

All the examples by her I have included in this blogpost are woodcuts but she also uses linocut printing and other analogue methods of printmaking and painting. I was inspired by her clear interest in nature and when I read more about her, I found out she studied horticulture as well as art and design. I felt there was a strong connection here with Agatha Christie because she too was well educated about poisons and used this information in a creative way. I am trying to educate myself about plants and poisons by reading about meanings and uses of plants and also visually studying them to work out what are the most prominent and recognisable parts of the plant. I really like how her work strays from a typical representation of a flower, it is very shape based and the plants are shown as being a lot more structured than they would be in nature. This might be an approach I could adopt to make the designing and cutting of my linos a little easier but still allowing the plants to have high visual impact. I think her colour palettes are really neutral and subtle, the images are colourful enough to catch your eye but in no way overwhelming. 

Mark Hearld

I have come across Hearld's work before but have focussed more on his collage work so looking at his print based work showed me a different side to him. I think his compositions are really strong and his limited colour palette is particularly relevant to this brief. I have been doubting whether certain colours would look okay with black ink on white stock but looking at his prints has made me realise that most colours will work. I wouldn't have said that a pale blue was particularly relevant to a farmyard scene but the image works as a whole. Similar to Angie Lewin's work, Hearld simplifies the shapes of his plant life a lot, some foliage is reduced right down to a series of sweeping lines and this is effective. 

Ralph Kiggell

I have never come across Ralph Kiggell's work before but his primary process is woodcut printing and his subject matter links closely with mine for this project. I love how his woodcut prints work alongside his textured backgrounds. The scale of them appear really impressive just from photos so I imagine in real life that these images would be stunning. I think the scale of his work has allowed him to include a lot more detail than the other two printmakers I have looked at and the textural quality of his final images make them seem even more detailed because of the marks left on the paper. On his website he talks about how he prints by hand to get across 'sensitivity and unpredictability' which I think is really nice to hear. I might try printing some of my lino prints by hand before using the press to see what difference this will make. 

Illustration Friday Week 3 - Unicorn

Initial Ideas

I didn't really feel inspired by the unicorn theme when I first read it. I know horses are really difficult to draw correctly so I was already hesitant about being too ambitious with this piece. I did some ink sketches of horses and unicorns and it confirmed to me that it was going to take a lot more practice to get right, this would take up time that I didn't have to spare! I am determined to keep these Illustration Friday briefs very quick while I am on the Christmas break because I have a lot of work to be doing for other briefs. I thought about fantasy and mythical artwork but this would most likely involve representational drawings of a unicorn. I decided to take a more fun approach and use the unicorn as fancy dress, at first I thought human but then thought animals would be better. I wanted the animal to look unimpressed by the fact it has been put in a costume and I thought the facial expression of a pug would match this well. 

Roughs

I did a few quick sketches but I want the composition to be very simple with the image as a floating spot, probably in the middle of a square frame. I may include text if I feel it is appropriate when the image is finished. This will probably be something I write by hand but then compose onto the image digitally. 

Inspiration/Reference

I have used reference imagery of pugs to practice drawing their faces and getting the proportions of their body right. When drawing the body, I tried to shorten the limbs and make it look a little more chubby to make the dog seem more childlike. 

Drawing

I drew what I had hoped to be my final ink drawing with a brush and indian ink. However, when this was finished, I felt like I had gone into too much detail to fit the humorous tone of the image so I used a lightbox to trace over this image with a finaliser to simplify it down. 

Photoshop

On Photoshop I played around with colour. I wanted to leave the drawing black and white and just have the unicorn details in colour but the pug looked strange without having the darker shade of brown around its mouth and nose. I decided to colour in the whole image and have it as a floating spot on a white square background.

Evaluation so far...

I can't say I think this image is successful. I don't like the overall aesthetic because the digital addition of colour looks very amateur. Also, even though I traced my previous ink drawing to simplify it down, I don't think I simplified it enough. In hindsight, I think this would have looked better as a naive line drawing mimicking the childishness of the subject.  

I am getting stressed about this stupid dog in a unicorn costume! 

I did this really rough sketch which I feel defeats the point of my previous work but it captures the original idea I wanted of the dog looking like it is unimpressed to be put in this costume. Seeing as this was meant to be a quick drawing, I think this is most appropriate, he looks like an angry little princess. 

Submission and Final Evaluation

I submitted this image very reluctantly. At first I thought Illustration Friday would be a fun thing to do each week but I find myself getting really stressed over it. I like taking my time with my work and trying to make something I like and when that doesn't happen in such a short amount of time I start to get frustrated. I feel like I really need to change my approach with these weekly briefs to keep the time spent on them to a minimum and hopefully make them more enjoyable. 

Oval Roughs for Prints 2

 These are the final two designs for my prints. I think the five are working well as a set now. There are some alterations I want to make, mainly adding more flowers and detail to make the enlarged image appear more full. I don't want there to be empty gaps because this will ruin the consistent density of the images. I might change this knight image so that the two horse heads are from different teams, one white and one black - I think this will have more meaning and show difference and tension between them. I also want to make the size of the chessboard squares smaller so they are more clearly recognisable as a checkerboard pattern. I also think the vine border is considerably thinner than the borders of my other images so I might make a few vines twine together to bulk this up. 

Revenge (knight)

Unimportant but Interesting (pawn) 

I dont like how the clues from the stories are floating around in the background here. I might add in some vines to connect the separate images and make them look like they are being held in place. An alternative would be to make them look like they are falling, maybe I could do this by placing them alongside falling petals and leaves to give the image some movement. I will have to see how the design looks when it is enlarged. 

The next step is to draw these designs out at the actual size my prints will be so I can have a clear idea of what is possible. I need to be careful not to go into too much detail because this will need to be cut out with a lino cutter which isn't very precise. However, I can go in to more detail with my digital layer of colour. 

I am also going to research some linocut and woodcut artists to get into the frame of mind of making imagery like this. This might also give me some pointers of how to tackle common problems with these processes. 

These are some drawings I did very early on in the project. I think these have influenced my final roughs a lot; I didn't go back through my sketchbook and decide that I wanted them to be similar to this but it just seems to have happened. I think this is a result of becoming really engrossed in my topic and the images and research are now engrained in my brain and I find myself incorporating elements of this into my work subconsciously.  

Monoprint Textures

These are some of my favourites from the mono prints I did today. The rest of them can be seen in my  A3 skecthbook labelled Prints - Book Three. I have done this prints to create some textures which I might want to use on top of some digital work to give it a printed aesthetic. I quite like the ones with the more distinct patterns which have been achieved by using embossed wallpapers in the print press. However, these might not work so well when only small parts are being shown. The more consistent textures such as in page 8 might be better for this. Overall, the textures I choose will depend on what I will be using these for, I am just glad to have a bank of my own textures which I can use at my disposal, I will have to see how my work continues to develop. 

Illustration Friday Week 2 - Wet

Initial Ideas
I did a quick brainstorm of ideas relating to wet, thinking of things like leaks, dew, baths, rain, swimming, the sea, wetsuits, fish, watering plants, etc. Stemming from the idea of rain, I thought about how this affects people and animals, such as wet socks or wet hair and then moved onto the idea of dripping wet hair as someone comes out of the shower. 

Roughs
I did roughs for this idea and a few others but decided to stick with the idea of wet hair, as I continued to rough, I became more zoomed in to the subject so the hair filled the whole frame. I wanted to show  the contrast between the tangle of wet hair and the smoothness of an area that has been combed. 

Inspiration
I used Pinterest to search images of wet hair and saw that very distinctive stripes appear in the hair as it is combed. I wanted to capture and exaggerate this in my image. 

Drawing
I sketched out my final design and was happy with how this looked in pencil. I thought about using a finaliser to produce this image but I know this is the tool I normally opt for. I thought that seeing as the theme was 'wet', I should use wet media so I chose Quink ink and a brush. I think this image went downhill from here. This sounds strange but the wetness and looseness of the media makes the hair actually look dry and flowing. When hair is wet, it has more structure and retains its shape more so maybe a pencil, pen or dip pen would have been more appropriate. 

Photoshop
I played around with the levels of the image and added a screen layer to try different colours on it. Dark brown suited the image best, especially as hair tends to look darker when it is wet. The teeth of the comb didn't look like they were that deep into the hair so I used the clone stamp tool to push the hair further up the teeth of the comb. I thought the placement of the light and dark areas of the image were misleading so I added a new layer with soft areas of black which I made transparent to make certain areas darker. I feel like this helped to subtly frame the bottom of the image. 

Submission
Yet again, the submission of my final image to the Illustration Friday website did not go smoothly - my image was replaced with a blank square and whenever I tried to open it it said there was an error. I spoke to Georgie about this and she suggested it might be the file size so I changed the resolution of my image to 150dpi and it then uploaded without a problem. This is something I will know to do in the future for this brief and others, if the file isn't able to open then there is no point in submitting anything at all. 

Evaluation

Overall, I am not entirely happy with this image because I don't feel it answers the brief strongly enough as the 'wetness' of the hair is not clear. In some ways I am glad I pushed myself to use ink in a painterly way instead of my usual line work but I think the subject of the image isn't instantly understandable and the textures I have created don't reflect what I had envisaged in my mind.