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Evaluation

Brief one

For my first brief I decided to choose a Brothers Grimm short story and turn it into a contemporary zine. I wanted to do this brief to make me think about narrative within my illustration work, because I thought that was something I struggled with in the past. I also thought that creating a zine would allow me to experiment and explore different styles of illustration.

I tried experimenting with card and paper collage combined with watercolour for most of this brief, however by the end of it I really did not enjoy the process, so I didn’t want to continue working in that style. I do think that what I was creating did look nice, but they were lacking something (probably my passion).  

I also tried watercolour paint, pencil, fine liner, lino print and stamp making during this project. Out of all these techniques I think I found myself using watercolour and fine liner since that is what I found most comfortable, this is something I need to change about my attitude towards my work; I don’t need to be comfortable, I need to experiment with things I do not usually use. I believe I should have tried lots of different printing methods within this project, and that is something I will have to do within the next project.

For my final piece I printed a small copy of a ‘throw away zine’ however I believe I should have tried other printing methods since my ‘final piece’ doesn’t look very professional. However, I did have much more fun creating the small zine, then creating the more professional looking collages. This is something I need to work on, finding something that looks professional and is fun for me to do. This might be something as simple as scanning my work in on the correct scanners and spending time in the photography studio taking decent pictures of my work for my online presence.

I believe that I have developed and learnt from different aspects of this brief, and that is what is important. For example, I know it Is good to have a style however I think a lot of my character designs looked like my pink forest work, I need to separate my projects slightly, and add more variety to my work.

Brief two

For my secondary brief I decided to do a quick one-day brief from a website called brief box. I thought this would be a good idea to refresh my creativity and to just think about something different for a day. The brief that I chose was to create an illustration for an organic Greek soap company. They were asking for the illustration on a mock-up of a shampoo bottle, and a pattern for a soap wrapping paper. I immediately started researching fashion trends of ancient Greece and what types of plans and flowers grew on the Greek islands. I believe it is because I did this research that I was able to create a quick meaningful illustration that was good and made sense according to the research that I did.

I wanted to do this brief to learn some new digital skills. I followed a couple of good YouTube tutorials, doing this has really made me want to learn some more digital skills, since the video walkthroughs were helpful, and it was useful to know how to do these things. This brief gave me a breath of fresh air, I learnt something new and created something that I thought represented the brief well. I don’t think I particularly want to get into packaging design however I am glad that I tried to do some.

 Brief three

Pink forest is an idea I have had in my mind since the first year of university. I want to create and develop my own imaginary world; however, it hasn’t been as easy as I thought. I doubted myself loads within this project, and I lost sight of why I was doing it in the first place (because it is creative, and I love the world I am making). I kept doubting my work, thinking no one would understand it, or like it. However, at the end of the project I have realised that this is only a personal project, and no one needs to understand it since I am still developing it. However, I feel I am at the stage now where I want to start sharing it with the world and through this next step of showing Pink Forest through Instagram or a website, I can find out what people think about it. I also have realised that I work better when I am just having fun and creating for the sake of it, and I need to not forget that when I get stuck again in the future.

One of the reasons why I lost sight of what I was doing with pink forest is because I stopped doing research. Research is key to learn and develop within my work, and I need to keep on taking inspiration from other illustrators, artist, gamer designers and lots of other places within the creative world. Now I have assessed what I did wrong within this project, I want to carry it on to my FMP. I know what I need to do to push myself in the right direction, to make my work better. I need to do more research, and to focus on learning and developing new techniques and skills within my work. I thought my ideas were not good enough, but I believe I need to learn how to make better illustration work, as my ideas are quite unique and different.

What I did right

I didn’t like a lot of the things I did in this project, since I had started to doubt myself. However, I do believe that my ideas are still good, and my storytelling/narrative within my work is interesting. I have also learnt a few good techniques; digital pattern making, using photoshop to make mock-ups, lino printing and stamp making. I think the narrative for pink forest is interesting, and I feel like I have developed my characters and the actual island well.

What I did wrong

I believe I made many different mistakes throughout this project, however now I have realised what these problems are I can learn and grow from my mistakes.

I didn’t conduct enough research throughout my project, and not all my research was massively relevant, just included because I knew I needed to add illustrator/artists for research. Research shouldn’t be something I feel like I must do, but something that I enjoy doing and am happy to do, since it informs my practice and gives me new inspiration. I need to make sure I remember this for when I finish university, since I will still need to learn, grow and be inspired.

I am also going to start using the facilities that university has to offer, to learn a wide range of different illustration methods and skills. I know I do not work well in university, and most of my work will be done at home however to learn new things I have to push myself out of my comfort zone, and that needs to be happening. I need to be more present in university since that way I can receive more guidance and, so I can also meet new people and develop better connections with people in the creative industry.

What needs to change

I do not believe I need to just try out new things, and do more research, this is not all that needs to change. I need to change my attitude towards my work. I need to start planning out my projects properly and giving myself lists of things to try out. I need to be avidly researching the things that I find interesting and talking about them, networking. I need to take myself seriously as an illustrator, including creating a website and using Instagram in a more professional way. When I start something new I need to tackle it with an open mind, and stick with a project even when It becomes tedious (as long as it is going somewhere and is good). I have already set up my workspace at home to create a more creative and inspiring setting. I know this seems like a small change, but it has quite a bit impact on the way I work and the ideas I have.

I also need to stop ignoring my other interests, and viewing all my interests in a creative way. I have many different interests and I need to bring them into my work, like gaming, witches, tea, plants and reading. These things inspire me, and I should work with them in some way.

Another thing I need to do is start taking Instagram and my online presence more seriously. People should see my work, so I can see what people like about it, it is so important to get my work out there, for without an audience, what is an illustrator really?

My plan for FMP

This plan is just a brief list of things that I am thinking of doing for my FMP;

·        Colour/texture/experiment sketchbook

·        Start taking Instagram seriously

·        Pink forest survival guide

·        Website set up

·        Poster/zine/infographic for plastic oceans

·        Business cards

·        Something to do with my dissertation topic (witches)

·        Sketch a day book.  

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I have already mentioned this illustrator at the beginning of the project, and i felt like it was necessary to bring her back into the mix. Here are some illustrations that are inspiring me to try different things, yet keep on developing my own world. these images are from Aya Kakeda’s own personal worlds that she has created, and it is refreshing to see other illustrators trying to accomplish something similar. 

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luiza kwiatkowska is an illustrator and character designer, I really like her work and it has inspired me to also create something to try and help save the oceans. I think her work is so creative and strange, and i feel like it is a bit similar to the style i have been trying. It would be interesting to get my illustrations printed onto something different, like a skateboard. Maybe this is something I can consider for my FMP. 

on her Behance she states; 

‘My head is full of creatures so I have to make them alive if I don't want to go crazy. I'm illustrator, graphic & character designer. My job is my hobby and makes me happy. I work for varieties of clients and brands. I like new challenges. I don't like stuck in one place. I'm happy without getting bored so constantly develop my skills, explore new places, peoples and get new passions.’

I feel like the way she talks about bringing character designs to life is quite similar to how i work. 

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Harris Fagotto - bring me back to reality. 

‘About

I’m an artist who likes to make people smile. As we grow older the weight of more and more responsibilities are piled on top of us, and while I don’t believe in shirking on work I do believe we’re allowed breaths of air once in awhile. I make art because I want to bring that lost feeling of childish wonder and fantasy back to people. I find it fun to make art and I also want to bring the fun around back to anyone willing to let it in.

I work primarily with digital media. I have whole worlds with casts of characters I want bring down from my head into a physical, view able form, and my preferred way to do it is with as much freedom as possible.’ - here

I stumbled upon this artist and realized the my approach to this fantasy work I am creating needs to be slightly different. I should be creating finished images and sharing them with the world, as well as writing about everything that I am creating. When it comes to my FMP I will approach Pink Forest in a more professional way like this Harris Fagotto is. I will also want to start making a book for my World, not just a zine but something illustrated, just like that guide that I made. 

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Steven Joy is an artist and an avid gamer. I stumbled upon his work because I also love gaming. I realize that I should bring my interests into my work more often, because if i am illustrating things that i like then i will like my illustrations more. 

Steven Joy creates maps and villages for table top games like dungeon and dragons, even tho these games are different to those that I like, it doesn't mean that i should separate my illustration work and my love of gaming... you never know where my work will take me, and therefore i shouldn't ignore my interests because they could take me towards a job in the gaming industry, or to somewhere different. I believe this is something i should take upon myself to do more in my next project, as this project is drawing to an end. 

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Large experiment using pink ink outline, watercolor and pencil. I think this is a good experiment to see what my work looks like on a larger scale. I think it would be quite good if i started doing a lot more larger pieces since i can get more detail into a scene. There are some things I do not like about this piece, however i think it ended up being better than i thought.

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Tommy, sitting on a shroom. 

I did this piece using the same water color and pencil crayon technique that I used on the last image, and i think it works really well. the added crayon on top adds just a bit more detail, something more interesting to look at.

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Watercolor, colored pencil and pink ink outline. 

I think these illustrations really worked well, because of the pink line I have used instead of a black fine liner, the resulting image looks a lot softer. I also enjoyed doing extra shading with the pencil crayon, and the color within the image stands out more. 

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trial with acrylic paint, purple ink outline and pencil crayon.

I believe i need to try and bring together many of the different experiments i have done to see what happens when they are together, here i combined paint with pencil crayon, and it was good adding detail with the crayon. 

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I have decided that i need to change my work space at home into something a bit more inspiring and motivational, since this is where i usually sit and do my work i thought it would be way better if i could look around and actually see things that inspire me. I have a couple of different aspects that i like about what I've done. I have put a poster up from an exhibition i did with University last year, to remind me that i am an illustrator. I also have my first clay character design for Pink forest sitting in a plant. My collection of strange shaped erasers and my printer, so i can easily scan something once ive drawn it and then edit it and take it further digitally. I think this will help with getting my work onto Instagram and behance since i will have a digital copy that i can edit, rather than having everything just sitting in a pile doing nothing. 

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Narrative Development

Pink forest – Emma and the Face Stealing Smoke.

The secret land of Pink Forest inhabits a magical island. This place is filled with colour; green, purple, yellow, blue and every shade of pink under the sun. The trees of the forest are pink (which is where it gets its name), and the grass is multicoloured. The sky is blue. Why blue? Because it is the same sky everyone on this planet can see. This magical land used to be the epitome of perfect. The animals were in harmony with those that decided to live on the island, they would help each other out and many of them became friends. But even the animals on this island were strange, sheep covered in purple wool, deer whose antlers can grow flowers and birds who can teleport an object with just a single tweet.

That was all before The Wizard came to Pink Forest. He built himself a tower on the highest hill of the island, and that’s where he started his experiments. He created monsters. Towering dark shadows that patrol the Island at night, small sprites that dash about in daylight; trying to search and spy for The Wizard. But worst of all is the black smoke with a dozen white peering eyes that weaves his way around the trees, using his black tendrils to steal the face of whoever comes across is, friend or foe. Only the Wizard can control these monsters, which means everyone living on the island has either left, or has gone into hiding.

Out of everyone that stayed on the island, little Emma just couldn’t leave; she wanted to help, to stop the evil that is spreading through her perfect world. She had made close friends with the creatures that lived here, and she didn’t want to leave them. Emma lived in a small hut on the east side of the island and she would go gathering for fruit and nuts in the day. She would visit the sheep on the way, stroking his purple fur and feeding him treats from her bag. Sometimes the deer would come along, showing her the best spots for berries and nuts. She liked her life her, for it is all she has ever known… yet it was becoming dangerous and she wasn’t sure how to stop it, or help the animals.

Since the Wizard came everyone that stayed on the island had to start wearing masks, including the animals. The face stealing smoke did not care what face to take, but devours all in its path leaving just an empty husk of a being.  Emma made many of the masks for the creatures, as many as she could. She did not know if anyone had stayed on the island and feared that she was the only one to help them, as she had not seen another soul since the monsters started roaming. But if you were wearing a mask, the smoke could not detect you; although when it does arrive and is creeping across the forest floor Emma would still freeze in fear, praying for it to pass and not detect her.

The other monsters were harder to hide from. Small sprite like creatures would flit about acting as a spy for its master. They look very similar to the fairies on the island but created for evil.  

One day when looking for berries… she came across a fairy burrow. They whispered into her soul and asked her to reach deep within the hollow and take what she would find there. So she did as they asked since fairies are very intelligent, more so than her. She reached her little hand inside the hollow and pulled out a mirror. The handle was made from a branch from a particular tree which grew to resemble a hand. The fingers cupping the mirror allowing Emma to look into it, although she did not see her face, she saw the mask she wore and within to two holes cut there, were her eyes. She looked deep within the mirror and a vision came to her. A vision of her facing the Face Stealing Smoke and then ripping her mask of in victory of its defeat.

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I have printed the zine of on a smaller scale, and i really like the result of it. the story is weird but cute and the purple looks like with just black line. i am wondering where else i can take this, what other paper i could print it on and what other colors i could incorporate. 

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I have edited the zine so the pink is now purple, I prefer it like this. I am glad i have learnt how to do simple things on Photoshop now. 

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I decided to do another little zine, but with a short story from pink world, I’ve done it with watercolor and fine liner. I really like how it turned out, I think the story is interesting and the imagery is good.  I am not sure of the color, I kind of wish it was purple. 

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‘Thank you’ notes ideas for if i were to sell any art online. I am really happy with these and think they work well. 

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Here are some more character designs! 

The bottom image is the Evil Wizard, I wanted him to look quite different to the other characters, plus there is an evil curse upon him that turned his skin into the bark of a tree. 

I have tried editing these on Photoshop to make the colors stand out a bit more, however i think i tip for the future would be to work on a larger scale, and then there will be more detail within the image.