Moving forward in my personal study

Throughout my personal study during my A2 Graphics course I have researched and responded to a range of different artists such as Alberto Cerriteno, Dr Seuss, Ernest Howard Shepard, Edward Gorey, Tim Burton and Michael Rosen. I have experimented with materials and processes like screen-printing, pen and ink drawings, etching, Adobe Illustrator, painting and pencil drawings.

I have discovered a great interest in Children's Books such as Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrmb Tinies and Michael Rosen's Sad Book, both very different from each other but they have one big similarity; they're both written about real issues. In The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Gorey tells a tale of the deaths of 26 children, who each represent a letter of the alphabet. These deaths could all happen at any point to anyone, for example, ''A is for Amy who fell down the stairs'', ''E is for Ernest who choked on a peach'' and ''H is for Hector done in by a thug''. Gorey is not being cold nor heartless, he is writing and illustrating real scenarios that may have happened or could very easily happen.

Rosen's Sad Book is also a sincere story about how sad he is, how this sadness affects him and how he tries to cope with it due to the death of his son. He explains how he is feeling very openly and easily for children to be able to comprehend efficiently. The way in which he has wrote this book and how subtle yet strong the words are have inspired me to write and illustrate a book which means something and helps children to understand certain issues which would normally be very hard to explain to them, or not explained at all.

As there is only a few weeks left on my course, it would be very hard to write and illustrate a whole book and I don't want it to be rushed, therefore, I am going to plan what I am going to write about and how I am going to illustrate it, which I will then design and create samples of pages for the book.

I believe that mental health illnesses are illnesses which no one talks about unless you have it or know someone with it and it is usually quite a taboo theme to explore. I want to explain how it feels to be depressed and socially anxious to children and adults also. People are diagnosed with mental disorders at different points of their lives. They may have it for a short period of time or it might continue to affect them every day of their lives. It is quite a big issue to try and explain to young children but I think that it is worth the challenge.

Here is a link to a brainstorm that I created about my personal study using wisemapping.com:
http://app.wisemapping.com/c/maps/166796/public

Artist Analysis: Michael Rosen's Sad Book

My favourite children’s books are ones which have a meaning and a purpose; ones which tackle real issues such as death and mental health issues.

Michael Rosen’s ‘Sad Book’ is a very personal story in which Rosen writes about his sadness, how it affects him and some of the things he does to cope with it. He is most sad when he thinks about his second son Eddie, who died at 18 from meningitis on April 26 1999.

There is a specific part in the book which I think is very, very powerful. ‘’This last bit means that I don’t want to be here. I just want to disappear.’’ The illustration, by Quentin Blake, beside this shows Rosen sitting on his bed, looking very sad, and the colours are all monochrome, creating a very dull, depressed mood. Colour has a huge impact on an illustration, for example, if the illustration is about love and happiness, you would use colours such as red, which represents passion, love and lust, and yellow, which represents happiness and cheer. You wouldn't use these colours for an illustration which is about death and unhappiness. Colours associated with death and unhappiness would be very monochrome colours like blacks and greys.

This book is so strong and effective. The illustrations work so well and show what the words mean perfectly. It is going to be a big influence on my work.

Artist Analysis: Tim Burton

Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton (born August 25, 1958), an American film director, film producer, writer, poet, and stop motion artist, is known for his dark, macabre, quirky horror and fantasy films. He has directed and produced films such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Frankenweenie.

This illustration is from one of Burton’s most famous films, The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is an American stop motion musical fantasy film. The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982 but wasn't released as a film until 1993. This is one of my favourite films and I find his work fascinating and curious because his characters are quite unique.

The illustration is of his main character in the film, Jack Skellington, holding a jack-o-lantern. There is a large, bright yellow moon behind Jack’s head, which makes him stand out and become the focal point of the illustration. There is a tall gate to the right, with a strange, purple-black swirly hill behind it. Jack is standing within that area, surrounded by grass and jack-o-lanterns around his feet.

The formal elements used within this illustration are line, tone/form, texture, pattern/shape and colour. There is a range of line being used from smooth to sharp. The lines made to create Jack’s body and suit are very sharp and noticeable, whereas the lines to create grass are more transparent and have very little opacity, which makes the colour and texture of the grass stand out more.

Shape is being used quite a lot in this illustration along with repetition, especially circles; there is the moon, Jack’s head and all of the jack-o-lanterns. The swirly hill is quite an irregular shape which is what makes it more interesting as a piece of artwork. Repetition is being demonstrated with the jack-o-lanterns and the gate/fences.

The colours in this illustration are mostly natural; grass, jack-o-lanterns, skeleton, gate/fences, suit; and the moon is yellow, which is sometimes how the moon may look. Although, there are two parts of the illustration where the colours are quite strange – the swirly hill in purple and most of the sky is black but towards the bottom there is some purple/red/orange.

What I like about this illustration is the composition and especially the character, Jack. I like how he has been dressed in a very formal suit, although he is a skeleton. The build of his body is very long and skinny and his hands are very detailed in bone structure.

For my work, I will use the way that Burton has built his characters body – long, skinny and dead-like.

Artist Analysis: Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer and artist. He was most known for his illustrated books such as The Doubtful Guest (1957) and The Gashlycrumb Tinies (1963). His drawings often showed unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings.

This piece of work is an illustration from The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Published in 1963, The Gashlycrumb Tinies is an abecedarian book. The book tells a tale of the deaths of 26 children, who each represent a letter of the alphabet. He tells their deaths in rhyming dactylic couplets. It has been described as a "sarcastic rebellion against a view of childhood that is sunny, idyllic, and instructive". This book really is so peculiar. I have never come across anything like it before.

The illustration that I have chosen to analyse is the last illustration in the book. I thought that this illustration was the most haunting as the text reads ‘’Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin’’. We wouldn’t associate children with alcohol as they are far too young to consume it, let alone dying from drinking too much of it.

The illustration shows two girls sitting at a table. On the table there is a big bottle, which, evidently must be a bottle of gin. The girl on the right is sitting upright, with a glass in her hand staring at the girl opposite her. The young girl on the left, which I presume is Zillah, has sunk into her chair and her body is a skeleton.

I am highly fond of the way the artist has used the formal elements. The whole illustration has been created by using line which has added tone, texture and pattern to the illustration. The tone is darker in some areas which create shadow and the line creates an excellent wooden texture on the walls, floor, table and chairs. There is pattern being used towards the top of the wall in the background; there is a strip of wallpaper with a swirly pattern on it stretching from the left to the right. The walls and floor are also using pattern and repetition with the use of wood.

As the stories are quite dark and dramatic, I think that the black and white colours used are very strong and have great contrast. The book is very humorous, although may be quite worrying for parents. Nevertheless it is a unique take on the usual children’s alphabet books and it includes some very distinguished illustrations.

Gorey’s use of pen and ink drawings, formal elements and dark theme will inspire me to create a successful response to his work.

Artist Analysis: Ernest Howard Shepard

Ernest Howard Shepard (1879 – 1976) was an English artist and book illustrator. He was mostly known for his human-like animals in illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. I have a particular interest in his illustrations for The Wind in the Willows. I chose this illustration, The Valiant Friends, to analyse because I felt that it was a good example of his human-like animals and I think that I will enjoy responding to it.

Shepard created this illustration sometime in 1933. During the year 1933, in England, there were quite a few big events that happened which may or may not have inspired Shepard’s work. For example, on 28th March 1933, the Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth Argosy biplane airliner catches fire in the air over Belgium and crashes. This resulted in killing the crew of three and all 12 passengers. This incident is said to be the deadliest accident in the history of British civil aviation up to this date. Many people say that the fire on-board may have been started deliberately.

However, this illustration that I have chosen to illustrator doesn’t look as if it was inspired by the biplane incident. In this illustration, there are four animals dressed in human clothing, holding weapons in their hands and around their waist. The main weapons that I can see are swords and pistols. The two animals on the right hand side look as though they are in a conversation, which shows another human feature that Shepard is incorporating to his human-like animals.

It looks as though they’re in quite a confined area with not a lot of space, like a cave. There is a light in the middle of the photo which adds a lot of tone, although, the light doesn’t look that big but it seems to light up the entire area that they’re in which means that this area must be small.

Shepard’s use of line is exquisite. It adds so much texture to the animals, their clothing and the surroundings. It makes the animals look very realistic, as does the natural colours that he has used. There is also some pattern being used on the two animals clothing to the right.

I am looking forward to responding to Shepard’s work as it really interests me. I will use Shepard’s lines and texture technique to create a successful illustration in response to this piece of work. To do this, I am going to take primary images of animals such as dogs, cats and humans. I will then use the images to create my own character by using processes such as water-colour painting and the computer program Illustrator.

Etching Workshop with UEL Students

On Thursday 24th October my A2 Graphics class took part in an etching workshop led by students from the University of East London. The workshop was to introduce us to a new technique, etching, that we could then use in our own work after the workshop. The etching process is quite long and you have to be patient. Below is a step to step guide on how I made my print.

Process:

1) Using a pointed etching needle, scratch your design onto a metal plate (unfortunately, we did not have metal plates so we used silver mirror board card instead). Make sure that the lines are deep enough so that the print is dark enough.

2) Once you have finished scratching your design onto the metal plate, you must push ink into the etched grooves.

3) When your design on the metal plate is covered in ink, you need to wipe the surface clean leaving only the etched areas retaining ink. If you want some places to be darker than others, you should leave some ink in that particular surface. If there are areas which you are afraid of wiping the ink completely, use a cotton bud in that area.

4) The actual impression is made with a copper plate press (similar to an old washing mangle with a large plank between the rollers). The plate is placed on the plank, covered with dampened paper and backed with three or four felt blankets. These are then passed through the press under high pressure so your design can be transferred onto the dampened paper to create your print.

5) Peel the paper off to reveal your etched drawing.

6) Repeat the inking procedure for each print.

Below are the images from my design during this workshop.

My etched drawing didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but I am still happy with the outcome. I would like to continue experimenting with this technique to improve my prints. The lines that I scratched weren't as deep as I'd like them to be, the ink is quite light; I think that this print would be more successful if the lines were darker.

I think that this workshop was useful for my A2 Graphics class as it introduced us to a new technique that we can use in our coursework. Although my design that I did using this technique was a response to Ernest Howard Shepard, the black and white nature of the etching fits with the work of Edward Gorey as Gorey's work is black and white lines using pen and ink drawings, which would look amazing in a technique like etching or mono-printing. 

A process like etching and/or mono-printing would help me to develop my ideas as it links to dark themes and it looks quite gritty and adds to the dark theme that I want to illustrate. 

Artist Response: Alberto Cerriteno

Continuing from my analysis of Alberto Cerriteno's 'Bear Illustration', I responded to his piece of work by using aspects of his illustration to create my own character.

Alberto Cerriteno used a lot of the formal elements in his piece of work, such as colour, line, pattern and texture; I have tried to include each of these things in my response.

I think that this response is successful as I have taken certain aspects from the artists work to incorporate them into my piece of work using my own style. I have used a limited colour scheme of three colours (yellow, blue and orange); line to create texture (the characters body); pattern (the clue circles in the orange outline around the character's body); shapes (the features of the characters face).

Below is a close up of the lines and texture.





To refine my idea further, I could experiment with doing my character using the screen-printing technique as the colour scheme is perfect for that particular process.

My character could be improved by adding lines to create texture to the legs; experimenting with different colour schemes; using different shapes.

Artist Analysis: Alberto Cerriteno

Alberto Cerriteno is a Mexican illustrator and designer. He is strongly inspired by urban vinyl toys, alternative cartoons and the pop surrealism movement.

This piece of work is a bear illustration that he has done. I am unaware of the purpose of why he made this piece of work, but it looks like it could be used in a children’s book or a children’s animation which is what I am focusing on.

I read on his website (http://albertocerriteno.com/profile.html) that he is strongly inspired by urban vinyl toys, alternative cartoons, pop surrealism movement and traditional Mexican artistic influences in his management of rich textures and decorative patterns. This piece of work is definitely a great example of all of those aspects.

Cerriteno uses a great amount of the formal elements and he makes them work very successfully together with his alternative pieces of work. There is a lot of pattern being used; circles, lines, spikes. I especially like the lines because it makes the bear look as though he has a furry, hairy texture. I also think that the lines underneath the bear’s eyes are admirable because they show that the bear has mood- we get lines, or ‘’bags’’, underneath our eyes when we’re tired. The bear’s right eye is also bigger than his left, which shows that he might be quite drained too. There are similar lines to the ones underneath his eyes beside his mouth, which shows movement of his mouth as if he is speaking or making a noise with his mouth.

The spikes on the bear also show a sense of texture, but a different texture to the rest of his body. These spikes on the outline of the bear’s body make it look as though if you touched him, it would hurt. If this is the case, other animals wouldn’t want to get close to him as they would be scared that he would hurt them.

The bear has a few circles on his body; the symbol of a circle means unity, wholeness, infinity, the goddess, female power and the sun. This could mean that the bear is female or ‘’whole’’.

The colours used are quite warm and neutral, also relating to the natural colours that a bear usually has (browns). The colour red is usually associated with anger, violence and love. Orange is known to be quite a stimulating colour, along with brown, and it stimulates these emotions of red. Additionally, white is said to represent cleanliness, purity and softness.

Looking deeper into each aspect of this illustration has given me a better understanding of what the purpose or message Cerriteno might have wanted to get across with this. The bear has a mix of both inviting an uninviting manners about it. Although most of his fur looks soft, the spikes on the outline make it look quite risky to approach. Its eyes look tired and drained. Both of these things together make me think that the bear is a kind (soft fur) person on the inside, but people see it as something scary and unapproachable (spikes). This makes the bear get tired of trying to show other animals that it actually is a nice creature, which causes it’s eyes to produce ‘’bags’’ (lines). It has the circles on its body to try to convince itself that it is ‘’whole’’ and loved (colour red) and the colour orange shows that it is stimulating itself to feel these emotions. The circle also symbolizes female power, which may suggest that this bear is a female.

As a result, my perception of this illustration is that the bear is a female, who is a kind, warm animal but other animals perceive her as a monster or a pain. She tries to prove to herself that she is whole, that nothing can get her down because she is already very happy, but her eyes prove the opposite. Her eyes show that she is tired and drained. She’s alone.

Although my approach to this illustration may be completely inaccurate, I believe that this is a very successful piece of work. Analysing this piece of work is going to help me when creating my own characters in response to Alberto Cerriteno because I have looked at each aspect of his work deeply and I can now base my characters around a certain story which I can portray through my illustrations effectively.

Feedback from Peers

As I stated in the previous blog post, my class peer assessed each others work in order for us to explore how to respond to set backs and constructive criticism and use them to improve our work which would also give us a wider understanding of the A2 assessment objectives. This post is to show what constructive criticism and feedback my peers gave to me.

Develop by Victor

Molly's work is good when looking at the technical aspect. Original ideas may be consolidated too early and a tendency to reiterate ideas is present. With her development it gets to a point where the ideas are stuck in one space and a new way of developing and refining should be found. She also uses the same materials so she should try and go outside her comfort zone.

Experiment by Mustafa

Experimentation is presented in different media such sketches, paintings and digitally. When doing primary research, Molly could extend the materials used because most of it is done using acrylic paint and pencil.

Record by Stephanie

With Molly's work she uses a broad range of formal elements such as line, shape and colour with some of her work correlating together. She focuses mainly on colour for every piece of work since it seems that is her main focus of her children book character. It would be in her favour if she used a broader range of formal elements such as pattern and shape.

Overall feedback

Molly, find a new way of developing and refining ideas; Go outside of your comfort zone and take risks. You should extend the materials used – more paint, graphics software and printing techniques. Also use a broader range of the formal elements such as pattern and shape.

Thoughts about the lesson

I think that this lesson was beneficial for all students as it helped us get a much wider understanding of what we need to achieve in order to meet the A2 assessment objectives. It also enlightened us of what our peers thought we needed to do in order to improve our work and our grade.

I will think and act on this criticism in my future responses.

Peer Assesments

For our lesson on Tuesday 15th October we peer assessed each other's work in order for us to explore how to respond to set backs and constructive criticism and use them to improve our work. This would also give us a wider understanding of the A2 assessment objectives. 

We focused on one particular assessment objective for each peer to asses their work. I focused on 'develop' for Mustafa's work, 'experimentation' for Stephanie's work and 'record' for Victor's work. This post is to show what constructive criticism I gave to my peers.

Develop: Mustafa's work

Mustafa's work is purposeful and he explores different ideas relating to his main theme of video game characters. He chooses one specific thing about a character that has already been made, and he focuses on it and creates it using his own style while doing it in much more detail than he would by creating a whole character and not adding as much detail. I think that this is very successful as it improves his techniques further. To develop his work, I think that he should bring all of the aspects that he thought were most successful of each response he has done to create his own video game character.

Experimentation: Stephanie's work

Although Stephanie has only used two materials, paint and pencil, her responses are still quite successful. To develop her work further, she should experiment with a range of materials and processes such as Illustrator and screen-printing. She has done a lot of work on Typography and experimenting with colour and pattern, but her overall theme is relating around the concept of interior design, to link all of her work together, she could create a few different typography designs which have been made using different colours and patterns.

Record: Victor's work

Victor has used a good use of the formal elements, especially tone and colour. He develops his characters using pencil, paint and Illustrator. Mostly, his work responds to Marvel characters such as Superman. I think that to develop his work further he should experiment and take risks with creating his own character and using different materials and techniques (such as screen printing) to develop these. Screen printing works well and helps to make the colours on a character stand out more, so I think that this technique would be very beneficial to him.

Artist Response: Alberto Cerriteno

I wanted to experiment with materials such as screen printing, so I decided to use my Alberto Cerriteno response to do so as in that response I had only used three colours (orange, dark blue and light blue), which I knew would work very well with screen printing.

Here are my responses using the screen printing process:

As there are three colours, I had to use three different layers for each colour. Here are the layers that I used:

I think that the screen printing was a successful experiment as the final designs came out really nicely. The most successful design, in my opinion, is the design displayed below. I think that it is the most successful out of all of the designs I did because it isn't perfect. It wasn't lined up in the exact place it should have been when putting the last layer on. The white parts in the design which are the paper give it a nice effect and I believe that it is more successful than the original design.

Artist Response: Dr Seuss

I chose to do a response to the film cover of the movie 'The Lorax', combining both typography and children's Illustrations.

The Lorax is one of my favourite films as not only does it have a great story line, but it is full of bright, bold colours and fantastic illustrations.

The first thing I did was draw The Lorax on an A3 piece of paper and thought of where I could place the typography so that it would be balanced. Once I did this, I painted my design using gouache paint. I chose to use gouache paint because it is very bold and makes the colours look block which makes the character stand out more.

Once I did this, I photographed my work and put it into Illustrator.

I used a graphics tablet to create my piece on Illustrator, as I do with all of my designs created on Illustrator. I used the 'Paintbrush Tool' to draw and colour The Lorax. I have the same colours on Illustrator as I do in the painting because I used the 'Eye Dropper' tool to select the colours on the painting and then draw the design.

For the typography, I changed the style of the 'Paintbrush Tool' to a calligraphy style and then drew the writing onto it.

I think that this was a successful response as I combined both typography and children's illustrations very well and the illustration stands out because the colours and bold and attractive. I would like to do another response to this image using this style and creating my own character that I can then develop further using a range of different materials such as screen printing.

Typography Response: King of Hearts and Queen of Clubs

In lesson with Mr Cousland we were given a task. Our task was to create our own design for a playing card (King of Hearts, Queen of Clubs, Jack of Spades, etc) using only typography. At first, I was a bit uncomfortable with this task as I had no idea how I could possibly complete this task. I started by looking at photos of playing cards and breaking them down by looking at all the small details. Each King/Queen/Jack of a sui
t are quite different from each other, which I had never noticed before because I had never looked at them closely enough. For example, the Queen of Clubs is holding a flower in her h
and, but the Queen of Spades is holding a flower and a spear in the opposite hand.

The cards that I chose to respond to were the King of Hearts and the Queen of Clubs. I choose these cards because they were both different and I would gain more experience by doing two very different designs.

Sketch Queen design

Illustrator Queen design



Illustrator King design

Sketch King design

I created my designs by looking carefully at the certain details and aspects of the playing cards. I described what I could visually see and then I used the main words to create my piece. For the King of Hearts, I used less words than I used with the Queen of Clubs. The King was a more simple design compared to the Queen. With the Queen, there is a lot more detail added using typography. It outlines the details of her face, whereas with the King, I used typography to fill the silhouette of the King.

I experimented with colour with the King design as it is the King of Hearts, so I used the colours red and black - the main colours on the King of Hearts card. With the Queen of Clubs I just used black as it is the only main colour used on the original cards.

I think that the Queen of Clubs was the most successful as it is a lot more detailed, but still simple, which is a great combination. I think that this task was very creative and got me to think of new ways that I could design using only typography.

Artist Response: Ernest Howard Shepard

I decided to do a second response to Ernest H. Shepard's 'Mr Toad' because I like the aspects of his work, particularly drawing animals in human clothing. My second response is of an owl. Again, like the first response, I searched on Google to find an image of an owl and then drew it in my sketch book in the style of Ernest Shepard.

Owl response in sketch book

This is the owl response that I did in my sketch book. I think that this is successful because it responds to Shepard's work well; it is an animal drawn in black, wearing formal human clothing, standing upright. I drew the same suit on the owl that is on the frog.

Owl response on Illustrator

This first version of the owl character that I did on Illustrator was an experiment with fast, scruffy lines. I did this because I thought that it might have given it a unique look, but unfortunately it wasn't successful and it looks very rushed and unprofessional. Because this response was so unsuccessful, I designed another version on Illustrator.

 

Owl response on Illustrator

As you can see, this is a very different response to the first, in terms of line and colour. This version is more successful than the first because it is more recognizable as an owl and as a character. The first one looks too messy and distracts you from the fact that it is an owl because you're focusing too much on trying to figure out what it is and why the lines are like that. This response has block colours, making it more attractive to the viewer because there isn't a lot going on and you can see distinctive detail whereas you cannot in the first response. 

My next step is going to be drawing more characters in the style of Ernest Howard Shepard and then experimenting with processes, techniques and materials as I have done most of my work Illustrator-based so far. 

Artist Response: Ernest Howard Shepard

 

Mr Toad by Ernest H. Shepard

Ernest H. Shepard's work is very interesting; I like the fact that he has drawn animals wearing smart, formal human clothing. This piece of work in response to his 'Mr Toad' piece.

I did this by searching on Google to find images of my chosen animal (a dog) and then drawing it in my sketch book in the style of Ernest Shepard. 

 

Dog response in sketch book 

This is the dog response that I did in my sketch book. I think that it is successful because it responds to Shepard's work well; it is an animal drawn in black, wearing formal human clothing, standing upright on two feet and smoking a cigar. Although you cannot see the dog's legs, you can see that he is not in a position which a dog usually is. A drew a similar suit on the dog that is on the frog, but changed the type of tie that he is wearing.







Dog response on Illustrator

Once I was finished sketching my character, I scanned it into my computer and then developed it on Illustrator.

The fact that the colours are not perfect is intentional. I like that they're messy and overlap into the different sections that they're not supposed to.

Artist Response: John Kenn and Gianni De Conno

John Kenn's work

I wanted to respond to both of these artists as I liked different aspects of both of their works.

John Kenn's work is intriguing as it has been done on a post-it note. The amount of detail and lines is exceptional for such a small canvas.

What I like about Gianni De Conno's work is the idea of animals and that the animals are hidden behind the trees. The colours are vibrant.

In my responses I used certain aspects of both of these artists work. I used the post-it note canvas and the lines from John Kenn's work and the idea of animals from Gianni De Conno's work.

The processes and aspects of these responses were interesting but I don't think that I succeeded in them. The lines are very messy and rushed. I think that to improve this I would have to repeat the processes over and over and take my time with them.





Gianni De Conno's work

My response





Artist Response: Alberto Cerriteno

Illustration

A while ago I posted a response to Alberto Cerriteno, which I had painted. I have used that painting and experimented further with it by creating it on Illustrator.

In my opinion, the illustrated version is a lot more successful that the painting. The colours are a lot bolder and bright, which I particularly like about this piece because it stands out and it's simple. There are only two colours used, orange and blue (two different hues of blue have been used).



Painting

Artist Anaylsis (Visual): Simon Walker

Simon Walker's work

This piece of work created by Simon Walker is very simple - which is why I like it. I like that only one colour has been used, the layout is simple, the writing it attractive and the way that he has drawn objects similar to the letter which are similar to what the typography says.

This piece of work looks like it has been made using screen-printing. As I am not in college at the moment because it is the summer holidays, I have no access to those materials. Thus, I used watercolour paint instead. When I return to college I will do another response to this piece of work using screen printing.

I think that the watercolour paint worked well with this design as it made the typography bold .I think that screen-printing will work a lot more effectively compared to watercolour paint because it will give the same effect that it has done in this piece of work - it is bold, but the letters are not completely covered in bold black colour.

My response

By creating this piece of work, I have realized that using simple typography designs and techniques makes the design stand out and look sophisticated.

Artist Anaylsis (Visual): Juliaon Roels

Juliaon Roels's work

My visual analysis

I wanted to visually analyse this piece of work as I think it is a very nice children's illustration. I particularly like the lines and colour scheme. The lines are quite messy which is what I really like about them and the colours are very similar to each other; they aren't too bright, nor too dark.

In the original image, it looks like the materials used to make it were watercolour paints - I wanted to use a different material. I chose Illustrator to help improve my skills with it and to see what the outcome would be like and if it works well.

I think that Illustrator did work well with this piece of work because I like the effect that it gives the image - the lines are a lot messier than the original image, although I think that it works better with watercolour paint in the original image rather than Illustrator.

I would like to respond to this piece of work in watercolour paint to see the difference that it shows in materials and which material works best for this image.

Artist Analysis (Visual): Unknown




Artist's work

I found this piece of work on Pinterest and decided to do a response to it because it caught my eye. I like the simplicity of it and the way the text has been made to fit inside the shape of the whale. The artist has used only two colours, which is an aspect that I admire with a range of works as I think that it always makes the design stand out more. The fact that a lot of different typography designs have been used in the one design is not something that I usually like but I think that it works very well in this design and it helped me to practice creating different typography.
It looks as though this design was created by a design software such as Illustrator, however, I decided to visually analyse this using coloured pencils. My anticipations were that it would be a very effective material for this design as the colours aren't too bold and bright, although I think that my judgments were wrong in this case. The design doesn't stand out as much as it should, it doesn't look professional and the typography doesn't look good.


My response

My typography hasn't been drawn very well because I was more focused on getting the correct size of it so that it would fit inside the whale-like shape rather than how it actually looked. To make my next design more successful, I will focus equally on the typography and how it is laid out.

By creating this piece of work I learned that designs look much better when using bolder coloured materials such as gouache paint, acrylic paint and Illustrator. For my next typography design, I will use one or several of these materials to enhance my design. 

Areas Of Interest

The areas in Graphics that I am most interested in are:

• Children's Illustrations
• Collage
• Typography

When I start my personal project for A2 Graphics in September, these are going to be the key areas that I will be focusing on.

I am interested in children's illustrations as there is no limit to what you can create - your imagination can be as free as you allow it to be. Although you can do this with other areas too, I feel that it is most interesting in this particular area as your audience is the next generation. Children are attracted to a lot of bright colours and fascinating creatures. They're learning new things each day that they will never forget and they will build on to become better at. Their imagination is the wildest thing that they posses in their lives at this time, which is why my imagination must match theirs to help not only their imagination grow, but themselves grow. The types of children's illustrations that I am interested in are shown on my Pinterest board.

Jim Field is one artist in-particular that I find very inspiring. His work is full of bright, beautiful colours and ideas.

Collage fascinates me. The work that you can produce with collage is so intriguing. One of my ideas for my personal project is using collage and children's illustrations together. For example, I will photograph a person (possibly a friend or family member) and I will photography an animal (possibly a pet that a friend or family member owns). I will then collage them and create a children's character using Illustrator. I will experiment with this over the summer to see if it is a successful idea.

I have created a board on Pinterest to show examples of collages that I find impressive and unusual. I will use these as inspiration when creating collages of my own. A very famous collage artist, Richard Hamilton, is one of my inspirations. His ''Just what is it that makes today's homes so different?'' collage is a very riveting piece of work. If you would like to know more about that particular piece of work, the Tate have written about it on their website here.

I am excited to start my personal project in September as I feel that I will have a lot of potential to create a compelling piece of work.

16th July 2013: Food Typography Lesson

The A2 Graphics lesson on July 16th 2013 with Mr. Cousland was based around food typography. Our first task was to find images on Pinterest of food typography designs and re-pin them onto our Graphics A2 personal study board. Afterwards, we discussed the designs that we found and gave feedback on what we liked about them. I found this task interesting as the different designs were very fascinating and inspiring.

Our second task was to find four pictures of four of our favourite foods on Google images. We printed these images full size on an A4 size piece of paper. We had to write on the photos, trying to find how we could make typography in the shape of the food that we had chosen. For example, I chose stuffed pasta, fish and chips, roast potatoes and strawberries. I tried to design typography around the stuffed paste to create the word ‘’stuffed pasta’’, which was a very challenging but engaging task.

Our third task was to create our own piece of food typography design. My piece of work was a strawberry, with the words ‘Red & Sweet’ written inside of it.

I think that this lesson was captivating for all students as it was slightly different to what we usually do (normal typography designs) and it was fascinating to see how anything can be inspired for typography art.