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.