Studio Brief 2: Part 2 - Greetings From.....

To begin I was really nervous at the prospect of using Illustrator. I tend to avoid having to use a computer for everything. I started off by not thinking about the Illustrator side of the brief and just figure out what cities I was going to do. Here is a big brain storm of all the cities that I thought were interesting. I started off by writing down the main stereotypes into the cities and then wrote more things down as I began to research into the cities a bit more.

Then after re reading the brief I realised that the four postcards have to work as a set/series. So I did a mind map of all the themes that the postcards could have: 

I think I spent way too much time worrying about what the postcards could have in common to work as a series. As then I spoke to some people in my class and then they stated the obvious to me that they all don't have to relate as such within the content but could all have the same colour theme. So for the time being I stopped worrying about what the theme throughout would be and went back to focusing on what cities I was going to choose. 
I found it a struggle just picking four cities as I had lots of good ideas for a lot of them. So I began by just picking Brighton. I really love Brighton, I have been going there since I was born as I have family down there. These are some thumbnail sketches of some Ideas that I had for Brighton:

After the group crit, it was brought to my attention that my favourite thumbnails that I did don't nesseacily look like Brighton and could also be associated with places like Bristol which also have colourful sea side houses. Also, my group that I had for my crit said I really need to choose my other three cities. So there at the time I decided on Brighton, Dehli, Sydney and Cairo as they were the ones the always stuck out to me the most.

Next, I carried on working on my Brighton postcard and taking into consideration of what my group had said I did some more thumbnail sketches of possibilities. 

I really loved this idea the most:

Sticking with this idea I then tried out some rough colour themes for it: 

 Next I tried out some different character designs for the seagulls: 

                  

I then scanned in my colour sample piece to use as a guideline for how it would look. 

  

             

Then I removed the background image so I could see what I was now doing. 

           

I ended up re doing the barriers but it was good to do them first time to get the feel for illustrator. And I really feel like now I am starting to get the hang of it. I had a bit of a problem with some of the eys on the sea gulls because I'd mixed the layers up quite alot so for in future I need to think about how things are layered. Overall though I am really happy with my final outcome, I am actually quite proud of it seeing as I had no clue how to work Illustrator before. I think that the colour scheme works well; I've used similar colours to what they would actually be but I think that it works well. It's quite simplistic but I am going to keep all my postcards quite simple so that they work as a set well. Plus I don't want to get too complicated seeing as I am only just learning. 

The next post card I decided to do was Delhi in india. These are some thumbnails that I drew up: 

I knew that I wanted to involve the Taj Mahal as it is a very iconic building to India. Also, after researching imergery I was really drawn to the Inidian elephants. Using insperation from my Visual Language task the other week to create an illustration involving myself an elephant and a butterfly. I looked back at my thumbnails that I drew of the elephant and i had emphasized on it's trunk so thought it would be quite good to take that further and play on that. So here was my first idea: 

 However, after drawing this I'm not sure what the relivance of the heart would be towards Delhi. But I did like the idea of making the trunk into a shape. 

I also then went onto playing with the colours. Using similar colours to the Brighton postcard. 

 I then drew it up neater and bigger so I could visualise it clearer. 

 Before taking my idea onto Illustrator I used the light box to trace over my drawing of the elephants and scanned it in so I could use the pen tool to go over it and get an idea where things should be. After creating my first postcard I did find this one slightly easier. I felt like I was beginning to get the hang of illustrator. I used an image of the Taj Mahal off google to use as a basis for where I would put my lines in and used the pen tool to do so. 

I then played around with what colors I would use:

To begin I used colours to the first one but don't think it really reflected India well. I tested out with lots of different oranges and reds but really couldn't get the right combination. I then googled Indian elephants again and noticed they used quite a lot of pinks and purples. So then I played about with different colour combinations and this is the colour way that I liked them most: 

                                  




Next, I wasn't sure whether to go with Hong Kong or Cairo. So did some possible sketches going with the theme of using animals and famous icons.

I came up with more ideas for Cairo so decided to go down that path rather than Honky Kong. Once I chose my favourite composition I then started to work straight onto Illustrator. I began by drawing the camels. 

I found it quite difficult to begin with as nothing seemed to be going right. I collected a few images off the internet to work with to get the right shaped camel. It took me a while to make it look right, because of the leg positioning of the front two legs. When I first made it, it didn't look right as a silhouette so had to find another image and use that as a guideline on how to create the front legs. Then I was having a few problems with the pen tool and filling the colour in. Looking back, it was my own fault there must've been a gap in the lines somewhere as it just wasn't filling right. But at the time I ended up just completly starting it again as I was getting frustrated. I decided to make the camels bright pink, as it contrasts well against what would be a sandy background plus it emphasizes the hot weather. I then went on to creating the background on a illustrator document. This went very smoothly. I then copied and pasted the camel that I created before onto this on a new layer and repeated it two more times. And then I added the rope between them all with the pen tool. 

I then went onto doing my final postcard which was Sydney, Australia. From my thumbnails I managed to get the right composition considering a similar layout to my other three postcards. I began by making the koala bear using an image off the internet as a guideline.

I then added in the trees. And then worked on the Sydney Opera house. I quite enjoyed doing the Sydney Opera house as it has some smaller more detailed lines within it. So far everything was going pretty well. I think after doing the other three postcards I felt more confident in knowing what I was doing and to over come any problems. 

Next, I was really hating this postcard. I played around with different colours; tried added in bits of the sea, but nothing was making me really like it. So then I kind of gave up a bit of hope and left it to go back and do the Honk Kong postcard instead. 

Though after about an hour I realised I was being silly and should go back and try and work with what I have done so far. I played with the colour scheme some more and then thought maybe I should add to the trees a bit more to create more of a interesting foreground. 

I decided to have all of the koala bears eyes asleep as I found out that koala bears actually sleep to around 22 hours a day. Overall, I still don't feel fully content with this postcard, it is definatly my least favourite of the four, but I am glad that I stuck with it and tried my best to work with it. I definatly had a battle with this one. Also was quite a challenge getting the koala bears to fit on the trees too and filling in the colours of the different sections of the Sydney Opera house. Also, knowing which areas to leave and which to put lines in as I wanted to keep them all simplistic. 

Here are all four of my postcards together: 

                           

                           

Overall, I am actually really proud of myself in this brief. To begin with I was so nervous about this project as I always avoid working with computers. So I am glad that this brief forced me to use one. I actually found Illustrator quite good to use and defiantly will use it in future projects without worrying. There is still a lot for me to learn on it, but I feel that I can confidently use the basics and not worried about trying different tools out. I think that the workshops helped me learn a lot, though I felt I learnt most from just getting stuck in and trying it. I do think that the colour schemes on mine could all use a bit more work. I started off thinking that I wanted them all to be the same colour scheme however, discovered along the way that this would not working seeing as all the cities are so completely different you wouldn't necessarily associate some colours with one city but you could for another. I am happy with my compositions and ideas I defiantly put some thought into them to make them more unique than just illustrating the main landscape/ iconic buildings. I feel that all of them are clear in which city they are. Apart from Brighton might not be so obvious to a lot of people. I used the iconic mint green fencing on the promenade however, not everyone might know that. Due to being ill I missed the final crit and I was really disappointed that I couldn't be there. I was really looking forward to receiving feedback as I worked so hard on these. Also, was so excited to see what everyone else had done too. 

Studio Brief 1: That's Pants!

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” ― Harlan Ellison

First of all we were all put into groups of 4/5s. In my group there is Joe Shiels, Becky Carlton and Jamie Williams. However, Jamie wasn't here today. First of all we all put our ideas together on what we thought was 'Pants'. We all picked one of our ideas each to expand.
Joe's idea was the about the noise in student accommodation and how thin the walls were. Becky's idea was annoying people on public transport and mine was ill people coughing on you. After swapping our ideas with another group they picked which their favourite was. They chose 'Assholes on public transport'. What we mean by this is the stereotypical habits of the public on the bus which we all seem to have had a lot of experience with. So we then decided to make a big clear list of all the stereotypical things that we have come across from experience.  

                                                

After coming back together as a group the next day we all felt like this wasn't our strongest idea and decided to go back to one of our original ideas; which was Joe's about the walls in student accommodation. We also felt like this was a perfect idea to choose as we are all getting first hand experience of this now. Plus we can use our own accommodation and the people in it. So we began by making a list of the different types of groups that we could take photos of and the things that we'll need. 

                               

           

Next, we began thinking about what the composition of the final image could look like and how that would link to the Gif. We thought that if we have one person in the middle of the poster looking annoyed and then the surrounding rooms around him could have different groups of people in making various different noises. We also made a list of the people that we could use for each group. 

                                           

Me and Joe went onto experimenting with our first scenario. We did a group of girls getting ready for a night out. I think they look good to get the idea of what we want to do. But I think for our future ones we need to take them all from the exact same position and angle. As we felt like the over all image would look better if they all have the exact same composition. A good example of what we want it to look like is as if you've opened up the front of a dolls house and can see all the rooms from a front view. 

                                       

                                     

       

Next, after taking them practice photos me and Joe went onto taking the photographs for the main character that is getting annoyed by the surrounding noise. For this set of photographs we took careful consideration into the composition. Also, we thought we could include props to help emphasise his frustration. 

                                   

                                 

                                  

                                 

The lighting on this image is awful. The ones with the curtains shut were better. 

We've decided in the future photographs we are going to take them all at night so that there is no daylight getting through. We also found night was the best because everyone was home from uni then. 


                

                                

This time me and Joe decided to re shoot the photos of Aaron. These are much better; we took them all from the exact same position with no daylight affecting the quality. We got him the look frustrated and we wanted him to face the different directions so when it comes to the GIF we can go from room to room using the direction of where he's faces as a transition to the different rooms. We thought to involve props like the umbrella and the headphones to emphasise his anger. 

Next we wanted to take photos of a 'lad' we thought we'd get him to be lifting weights as this is quite a stereotypical activity for a 'lad' to be doing. However, we then thought that him just lifting weights isn't a noisy activity and wouldn't cause an annoyance. Therefore we decided to include his laptop and speakers within the frame. 

Then me and Joe thought it would be a good idea to have a completely random photograph. We thought that this would add humour to our GIF. I think that these went really successfully. We were stuck for what to use to tie him up but then found out my tights worked really well. 

For the next one we did a shoot with Hannah trying to portray a stereotypical musician practising in her room. 

I think that these set of photographs went really well. They really show the frustration in this person and that they would be creating a lot of noise playing on the game. Possibly shouting at the screen. 

We began by taking the photos of him facing that way on the floor but then we thought that it would look better if he was facing towards the camera so you can clearly see what they photo is trying to illustrate. Also, we thought we'd emphasise the fact he has come in drunk by scattering some cans around the room. 

I think that this last image worked the best as you can really see his drunken struggle to get up. 

This is our final poster. It is different to how we originally thought it would look like but editing the photos took longer than we thought and then when composing them together turned out harder than we thought. Possibly if the rest of our group were there to help us out they could have done some of the editing too. However I am happy with how the final poster looks. We played about a bit on Photoshop and came to the conclusion that the images looked great in black and white and just the main focus of where the noise is coming from left in colour to amplify them and make then stand out against everything else. Another reason we did that was because we found with the photograph of Joe his hair blended into the curtains too much so this made a good contrast too. 

Finally this is our end result GIF. I feel like given the fact there was just the 2 of us we did well. We did want the poster to have 9 different room scenes but I still think we did well with what we did. I do like our GIF and that we did the black and white with a bit of colour I think it makes the people stand out better. After seeing other groups GIFs though I like the ones that have made things out of paper to emphasise things. I think that we could've made things to amplify the noise. Definitely the photo with the headphones on or the umbrella I feel that might of looked better if we maybe have made them.