Studio Brief 2: A Book of...

Here is my project proposal. After talking to my peers about my ideas and showing them my photographs from the first task; I have decided to focus on people in queues. I want to illustrate peoples annoying habits and thoughts they come across when queuing, therefore I want people to be able to relate when looking through my book. 

These are pages from my sketchbook of work I've done either based on life observation or from photographs that I have taken. I have tested out different tools and materials to use so I can see what gives the best effects. 

In this above I collected receipts to create the background. I used a cocktail stick and black inks to draw with. 

In this I just used a simple black biro pen. 

I decided to make a mind map of the different places where people would usually form a queue. 

Thought I would try this background out as I thought this graph like paper could connote timetables. Also, I tested out using red felt tips as I thought red might suggest the frustration of waiting. 

I drew this using inks and lollypop sticks, I really like this the best out of all the techniques that I have tried I think the thicker line looks a lot better. Though its hard to try and draw in the smaller details like facial expressions with this method. However, if i drew on a large scale then made smaller on Photoshop that could work? 

Next, using my books I made in the book binding workshop I went out and did some observational drawing of people and wrote down things I came across. These are some photographs of some of the pages within the books:

Just tested out different colours for possible colour schemes. 

Next, in my sketchbook I then repeated drawing some of the people I came across when I was out drawing. 

Using the concertina book that I made in book binding I made a book up of what I would possibly hope my book to look like. I defiantly think that a concertina is the best method of book binding to use for what I want to achieve. Which is to illustrate a really overly long exaggerated queue with all sorts of different people in it. 

I think that its really given me a feel of what my book could look like. I began with illustrating the entire body of a person though I prefer the illustrations of the people with only half of their bodies as I don't think it needs the whole body in, I think you can get just as much information out of half the body. I'm not too sure about using the colour blue as I think it suggests calmness and ease which is the opposite of what I want to portray. 

Next I made another mini concertina book with 16 pages in it which is the amount of pages I would like my book to contain. Hopefully maybe even more if I can. I decided to use the colour green this time as could suggest and give a feel of frustration and impatience from the people. 

I've now made another mock up book the size of half of A5 which I think is the size I would like my actual book. This time I have tried out using the colour red. Which personally I think works best to create the best mood for my book. 

After having our group crit I found it really helpful finding out peoples thoughts and opinions about my research and mock up books. Though first we began by doing a crit on ourselves. 

           

 

To sum up what I wrote in my crit I wrote that I was please with the different variety of media I tested out in the beginning process. I put that I need to not be afraid to put my work onto the computer and see what I could do. I just don't have to confidence of patience to use Photoshop. I think that my concept for my book is very simple though I found it quite interesting to research and think that it could look quite effective keeping it simple in the end. I found it very useful working out of them little books that I made in the book binding sessions. I could've done more artist research and kept more up to date with my blogging. 

           

 

I found the feedback really helpful. I was told that they really like my idea however I should work more on my characters plus draw some other things that you would see in the background like birds flying by just to give the audience more too look at and make more interesting. She also agreed that I should go for the colour red as it really enhances the feel of impatience. It was brought up that I should consider more ideas for my front cover.  

                

 

Both put in the feedback that they like the idea of the facial expressions of the people getting more and more impatient the further you get down the queue. In the second feedback I was told that they prefer me using the fine liner that I used in my first mock up book (blue pen). Which I think I do actually agree with so I shall try out using the fine liner again. Also, that I need to exaggerate the expressions of the faces further.. In both of the feed backs they both agree that choosing to make a concertina book was the best option. 

I have now made a plan of everyday working up until the deadline of everything that I need to be doing so that I can be organised with my time. 

These are a some of Lizzy Stewart's illustrations which I think can really help me with me own book as she's illustrated her characters in a similar style to how I have done mine; a side profile view and similar nose/face shape. As I do want to go back and improve the way I'm drawing my characters so I think that these would be great inspiration.

                                

Next I had my one to one with Matt. I found this helpful in finding out what I need to write about in my blog and we talked about how I need to make a plan to stop myself from procrastinating. 

I then made a timetable of exact times and days. Within these timetables I wrote down everything I plan on doing, including non related uni activities. I felt a lot better after making these so I had a clear structure of what I am going to do. 

Here are drawings I've done in preparation for my final book. 

Mr Bingo talk today was really great to hear what he had to say. I really enjoyed it; he was very funny and easy going. Find it such a great opportunity to be able to hear experiences from people that have a career in illustration and how they managed to get to where they are. And Mr. Bingo really showed well different jobs he has had and kind of showed the journey he had gone through. It made me feel a lot better and actually really excited to have a job within illustration, sounds a lot more exciting that a regular job. I especially liked his ‘hate mail’ which what started out to be a random drunken idea and developed and ended up becoming a book; which made me think it’s important to also keep drawing for myself and do what I want. From listening to him I’ve learnt it’s good to illustrate with a message behind it and to have a voice within my work. 

I was so pleased to present and show my final book off after the months of hard work that was put into it.  I thought it was a great experience to not only be critted on my by class mates but by Mr. bingo and foundation students from down the road some that want to take illustration themselves and hope that our class were an inspiration to them; I thought everybody’s books looked great and you can see the time and effort everyone has put in. And to be able to see the variety within everybody’s. It also gave me a boost of confidence receiving good feedback, and made me think I need to have more faith in my own work. 

Final Evaluation

I have really enjoyed this project I thought it gave us so much freedom and time to really explore our topic. I feel I have defiantly improved in this project and made me actually realise how important using reference. I could really tell the difference between the drawing I had done from my head than the ones I had drawn from life or from pictures. Also made me realise how important to do all my research before jumping into something as it really does come in helpful to get as much knowledge about my subject as possible. It’s given me more confidence to take photos and draw in public after about 10 minutes of taking photos I just stopped caring about what other people thought. I did like some of the media techniques I used in the beginning like using receipts in the background and maybe should of developed on that a bit more but I am happy with the simplicity of how my final book was. In addition I found it extremely helpful making mock ups of the book so I could fully see what it was going to look like before the final and could keep improving until I was happy. Having crits throughout I found helpful and really took on board the feedback and used it to improve. I do need to blog more constantly as I tend to blog in a few big chunks rather than regularly as I go along. I think it’s helpful to take as many photos along the way as possible is helpful as it does the talking for you when on the blog. After talking to matt in the one on one session it helped me realise how I need to improve when writing on my blog as I kept talking about unnecessary things like describing the image rather than writing what I've learnt from it and criticise myself more. I found the final crit such a great experience to show off my work to people that I don’t know and to was really pleased with the feedback which was such a great confidence boost. I feel that my final book could be improved though in a few ways. Such as, the quality of the paper which was mentioned in my feedback. I feel that the actual final book could've been stuck together better and drawn on better paper as it would've given it that professional look.