Fiona

My friend Fiona had a birthday recently and as she's the one who's been helping me with Hallmark, I decided that she should be one of my character portraits so I can give it to her as a present. It was much harder to draw her as the past few times I've done these I've been with the person I've been drawing and have been able to get first hand reference. When  I can't do that I turn to photo's on Facebook but Fiona only has 3 or 4 so I had to really try and capture the things that I remember about her and her face shape and smile lines. Hopefully she'll like it and it'll be an accurate illustration of her. 

Athas

So as I'd mentioned before, I'd like to do some of my character portraits as the staff of Athas (the coffee shop I frequent) and since I've gone down there three times this week for cop reading I've also managed to get some good progress in this. This is mainly because my brain gives out after about two hours of notes and quotes but also because I managed to ask one of them if she'd be okay if I drew her. This made me feel a lot better as she was pretty positive about it (I feel like less of a creep now). after getting her approval I decided to go forward with lee (though apparently she spells it with an i so li? I'll have to ask how to spell everyone's names) and after showing her the sketch version, she was also really positive. Everyone who saw it recognised it as her without me having to tell them and I was told that the stance was just like hers. This made me really happy as its the more subtle aspects like this that I'm wanting to get down. Though Lauren has since told me that her tea towel in the apron pocket looks like a baby's coming out so I'll probably have to change the colour of that before I print. With renewed confidence I did some sketches of Sarah but didn't finish them, though I have been thinking that it'd be good to draw her with her hands covering her face as she seems to do this for every photo they put up to Instagram and it'd be good to continue the them for the exhibition. I then did a sketch of Joel that was pretty decent and as I'm bad at drawing men I decided to improve that one and use it as the one to be penned and coloured. There were a couple of tweaks I had to make in photoshop, like the hairline and his bun but I think the end result is pretty good. I'm particularly pleased with the beard as I don't think I've actually done a beard before and it took some work. I wanted to do an oval around him instead of them all having a rectangle but this was a lot more difficult to do and may need reworking before I print them for the exhibition. By the third day I was there word had got around that I was drawing them and I received quite a lot of positive views about it to various extents. Though as every member of staff seems to know now it seems I'll have to draw all of them instead of just a few. It seems really harsh now to pick and choose who I draw from the staff, so I guess I'll draw less other people or it'll be a really big brief.

Adventure

I had to do this weeks word pretty quickly as I need to focus on cop but I think, aside from it being a bit more rushed than normal, it's pretty good. I think its the colours that bring it together, particularly the shrubs on the cliffside/mountainside.

Stuffed

For this weeks word I drew a little girl holding the stuffed toy I had as a child. The hair is based on a photo of my aunt I saw and you can see my doodles of this idea on my sheet of doodles for my children's book character. 

Song of the Sea

Last night I watched this beautiful film, it covered a lot of themes that I was interested in for my children's book and has helped me think more about where I want my book to go and has been very inspirational both visually and for storytelling.

Dens

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/may/11/secret-hideouts-the-best-dens-in-childrens-books

Another article I found while looking at cop sources, I think I'd like to bring in dens to my children's book as they were so important to me as a child and I think they should be shown more often. I was thinking that she could build herself a den on the turtle island and stay there for "months" while they journey and then make it home in time for tea.

Girls in trousers

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jun/15/childrens-books-girls-in-trousers

I found this article while looking for some cop material, I just thought it tied in with what I was doing anyway. Though it seems that dungerees get worn more often than flat out trousers but I think they still count as not being overly girly.

Colour tests

I drew up a proper version of my doodles to do these colour tests. I think I've reached what her colours should be as I want this to be more of a Autumn/Winter book. I got all the colours on the side so I could text several different ones that I was interested in trying. Also I seem to have made the issuu document backwards but I'm sure you can still tell what I was doing. I think I should talk to Zara again about how to do freckles properly, as hers are always really good.

Character doodles

While writing notes for several other briefs/modules I've been background thinking and doodling about my children's book. She's pretty autumn based and dresses a lot like me but with a big comfy scarf that covers half of her face. I've also been thinking about having a moving island that is a great sea turtle. I'm not sure if he's a small part or a large part yet but I'm trying to be background thinking abut it until I can fully concentrate on it later. The bottom page also features some notes on what I should do/consider  in 603.

Lee

While sat in Atha's doing some reading for cop I started doing some sketches of one of the barista's as I'd really like to do one of her. I had been thinking that it would be really nice to have some of these characters to be from Atha's so that my mini exhibition could be Atha's in Atha's. However I felt guilty drawing this as I didn't have permission and I'm not as close to her as I am the other people I'm drawing. I think I'm going to go ask the people if I can do a drawing of them for it and if they'd be comfortable being up in their place of work. Or I could just do friends and family and not feel like such a creepy obsessive, this would also mean that non-Atha's people could be up in the exhibition. 

children's book

Follow Rosie's board Big kahuna on Pinterest. I'm vaguely thinking that I would like my children,s book to be set in cornwall or somewhere similar. I've also been thinking about it maybe having a disappearing island plot line but I'm not quite sure yet.

Star

This weeks word was star and after doing more doodles where I wasn't quite sure what I was doing, I saw a photo on reddit of a tent view. It gave me the idea of making this and I then went on pinterest for some reference. It was a fairly quick drawing and unfortunately you can tell in a couple of places. As I've been working with a limited colour palette on my traveling man project I thought I'd try it for this one as well and while you mightn't be able to tell that that's what it is but I think it worked quite well. I rather ran out of time on this one and I had to do my shading much quicker than I would've liked, this is visible as I only used the one colour to shade with and it doesn't really work on the grey.

Fantasy background reference

Follow Rosie's board Fantasy background reference on Pinterest. So far I've been looking at this type of fantasy reference that has a ethereal theme but so far there is no line work which is part of my work so I'll have to think of how to combine them.

Background reference

Follow Rosie's board background reference on Pinterest.

Becky

This is my illustration of Becky, I posted the line work this already. I think I've actually managed to draw her pretty recognisably and I'm very proud of the hair fade (informed by ink). The other thing that's new to this is that I started using a wacom from when I was on the shading stage and the lines of her t shirt are drawn from that. However I think this could be improved as while accurate the arm looks a little odd, even after I widened it a little and the baggy part of the top on her drawing arm side mainly looks like she has lopsided boobs.

Wacom

Hollie did me a great favour by practically forcing me to try a wacom again, I've had a grudge against them for a long time as it's felt like I needed to learn how to draw again. I drew this free hand which and its kind of terrible but I'm not very good at drawing without sketching first anyway. I discovered every thing that I'd been doing with a mouse before (mainly colouring and shading) was pretty much the same if not easier ( shading is easier for sure) and from now on I'm going to use a wacom regularly.

Ink

last weeks word was ink so after doing some doodling of what I can do, I settled on this idea. From there I drew her in dip pen and ink, as it seemed fitting. I also made some coloured ink pages to work with. I then put them together on photoshop which required some moving about and perspective changes. I also had to learn how to do the proper fade, which Hollie taught me how to use and has come in useful since. I posted this to my professional social media accounts as well and it got more attention than any other of my illustrations. I think this is because of the clear concept and the contrast between such bright ink and the lack of colour elsewhere. Personally I think it could still use work, the start of the fade is still visible if you know where to look and I'm not a big fan of the paper texture where the ink isn't on it but I still don't know how I could remove it without ruining the ink.

Statement of intent

This is what I have so far for my statement of intent, I'm not quite sure if this is right but if I'm still not sure after tomorrows work shop I'll ask to have a chat with Fred.

Brief 5 Macmillan Prize

Brief 4 Character Portraits

Brief 3 Sculptors Daughter

Brief 2 Backgrounds

Brief 1 Illustration Friday

6 Briefs

Macmillan Prize:

This year I would really like to enter the Macmillan Prize. As its a competition for creating a children's book I think it would be the most useful to my practice and as its a students only competition this will be my last year to try. This is a competition that I have been excited to enter since I first heard about it 3 or 4 years ago and would like to put a lot of my focus on to hopefully produce a good book. I've put the brief below.

Illustration Friday:

For one of my live/competition briefs I'd like to do an Illustration Friday every week or every other week depending on how busy I am. Illustration Friday was one of my favourite parts of Responsive last year and this year I'd like to make it into a substantial brief that I can continue to be working on all year.  As the year goes on I am most likely to get stressed about a great many things but IllFri was something I always enjoyed doing and has a quick turnover. so I'm hoping to keep a brief that'll keep the joy in creating while I get stressed. It also is good practice that I won't be able to sit on anything for more than a week.

D&AD/YCN:

I'd also like to do a D&AD or YCN as they have good briefs and good exposure. I'm hoping there will be another children's book one I can do but I can't see what there is yet. If there are no book illustration briefs I think I'll do the penguin brief but I'm not sure if that would be substantial enough. I'll need advice on this brief in particular.

Backgrounds:

I have spent too long ignoring the backgrounds in my work and focusing on individual characters, in level 6 I'd like to change this and do a brief dedicated to them. I'm proposing doing 3-5 illustrations for 3 certain types of background (city/town, forrest/nature, fantasy/sci-fi etc.). While this might sound a little vague I think this is one of the things that I really need to do to improve my work, particularly in preparation for creating another children's book as my last one had a clear difference in the skill, when it came to my characters compared to my backgrounds. I also think some scenes without characters would be good for my portfolio and would be applicable to a great range of practices.

Character/portraits:

This brief, like the last, is mostly for furthering my skills and creating lovely portfolio work. However it also is a direction that I stated moving towards in the summer when I created a few different pieces for friends and family and is something I am interested in investigating further. I find it incredibly interesting to take what you know about someone and to try and convey that while also re-imagining them into a character.  I would like to create 10 - 20 illustration of people I know and interact with on a regular basis. If possible it would be best to have each illustration be tied to a story they've told me but I'd also be happy with getting their personality into the character. I've also been thinking about how the coffee shop I draw in a lot puts up artists work and if I could put my work up there then I would quite like to do a mini exhibition of this, preferably with the portraits being of those who work there but I'm not sure yet.

The sculptors daughter:

For my cop research I started reading and making sketches of the sculptors daughter (see cop blog) by Tove Jansson. It's a slightly altered story view of her childhood seen through the child's eyes and mindset. This book has the most beautiful imagery that I really wanted to illustrate and I think it could make a good brief and good practice to illustrate a more grown up book. I would like to create at least one illustration for each story within the book and a wrap around cover. I think it would be good for my portfolio to show that while children's book illustration is my focus I don't only illustrate picture books.

Analog

I started following someone on Instagram who works in dip pen and inks, her work is so beautiful it really made me want to go back to analog. So I created this using a mix of dip pen, ink and Promarkers. I'm really happy with her, she's loosely based on the illustration word of the week which was nature but I never actually submitted her. One thing I would do differently though would be to do the plant lines after the ink as the green circle faded the plant line significantly. it seems obvious to do it that way but I wanted to be able to rub out all the pencil lines before I put any of the proper ink down.

Underwater comic

This is the only comic idea that got to the inking stage but I's my favourite. It's a personal comic about processing my own feelings and about how nice it'd would be to be able to take a little break. I think I've managed to get the calmness that I was looking for and it has the right amount of detail for what I want in my work.Some of the lines could be better but overall I'm pretty pleased with it and hope to have the time to finish it some time soon.

Sketch dump

To me this sketchbook work from the second half of my summer seem to show a vast leap from earlier. I'm not sure what changed exactly but there seems to be a bigger improvement in most things (drawing men, drawing people in general, comics, fantasy characters etc.). It's from this that I got the idea for a portrait brief as I realised how many people I've been drawing and how good it's been for my practice.

Land of the Scots

During the summer I went up to the Edinburgh Festival and to see my sister who lives in Glasgow. It was a great experience, it also made me more comfortable talking to strangers as everyone wanted to chat (mainly to get you to their shows). I was also better at talking to people my sisters introduced me to. I did some travel sketches and learnt that I'm terrible at drawing straight with a pen but it got the ideas down. I also did a drawing of my sister which I managed to get pretty close to how she looks and got some extra practice with glasses. Which is especially good as I'd been trying to draw glasses at the start of the year.