One Word: Final Piece Development

This is a brief run down of the development process of my final piece for the one word project.  It took me roughly 26 hours in total to get this done on an A2 sheet with Staedtler felt pens. It was great practice trying to emulate such an interesting style and I will definitely be carrying this over into other projects,

First port of call was drawing in all the patterns using pencil. It was suggested to use bristol board paper and this made a huge difference - far less smudging. The hair pattern underneath the chin caused me a few problems as this was a large area to fill with patterns. Took me a while but i sorted it eventually by using the flow of the hair to divide the pattern up. 

I was a little afraid here the pattern on the glasses would look 'fly like' with the squares but i ended up being really pleased with the look. A success!

First major error was the hat. i tried too heavily to get the same look as Nikki with this pattern but tried a different colour that didn't work - it looks like Kat is wearing the earth on her head!

The pattern for the hair took ages but I think it was well worth it. i also like the blend of red colours here - works well with the glasses imo!

Hard to tell from this image but the hair is made up of two different shades of red. Very pleased with the pattern and colour chose here. :)

Well, it's done but i'll be honest i'm quite disappointed with the results. the patterns are fine imo, but the colours just don't work together - i went absolutely over the top with my new pens!

The background also isn't very affective and I feel it's lost the 'warping' effect as it's hidden behind Kats head. 

I will be carrying this image over into hazzels lesson for use as my front cover as i'll be able to better balance the colours and get rid of a ton of parts i dislike. 

Patterns, Patterns, and more Patterns!

Nicki has put me onto a pop art artist called Bridget Riley.

Man alive!

 

I think with a touch of colour in the vein of Nikki Farquharson this could end up being quite a visually pleasing piece> :)

 

 

Just need to get on with the photoshoot now. Kat from fashion is in today so I should be able to get some fun pictures to base my work on.

80's Pattern, yo!

This is an 80's inspired pattern I created at the start of the project using card before I got ill. I am determined to use it in my final design this week as I think it's pretty cool and I don't want to let it to go to waste.

Not sure whether to split the pattern in two or use the whole thing. We'll see, but one thing is for sure I don't really have the time to be indecisive!

Still think my original idea of using the pattern to cover an area where clothing or hair would be on my final piece is my best bet. :)

Excellent, helpful guide :)

I've been trying desperately to get my drawing skills up to par over the last year or so with mixed success. During the week while practicing I happened upon a really cool guide for drawing heads from different angles.

The basis of this practice is to draw an oval inside the shape of the head and using that to navigate to different features. Holy shit is this helpful. Honestly, highly recommend checking this out for anyone like me struggling with the basics. :)

holy cow!

Still completely unsure as to how I came across this artist but my mind has been well and truly blown!

 

http://www.nikkifarquharson.com/

 

Remember this name!!!!!

 

Nikki is a London based illustrator who has a background in graphic design (an area I'd like to pursue) and uses interesting shapes and patterns in her illustrations. A seriously talented lady who has made my project come together - in the end anyway!

 

Thinking a shoot like this with a few of the fashion girls where I draw in the background after the fact would be excellent for my final piece. I can finally put my 80's patterns I created at the start of the project to use!

 

May try and get in contact with Nikki for some insight into the process. :)

 



long time no post! ;p

So, i've ended up getting a bit behind as i've been pretty ill recently. it's not been anything serious just loads of little things which has been quite frustrating as i felt like i was making good progress before this happened - i blame the unusually cold weather!

Anyway!

The One word project!

My word: Woman

i've not posted regularly for this project but somehow I've managed to do loads of work - i literally have no idea how this has happened as i feel so behind!

i'll post up some illustrations ive drawn, but to summarise, i went quite far afield originally looking at film noire and 80's fashion and patterns of all things, but this work hasn't gone to waste as i've managed to make each of these avenues relevant to my final outcome.

How? well, Hazel showed me one of the blogs from last year created by a student called mark. i've took huge inspiration from his work and his influences and am currently thinking of ways to best execute my final piece in a similar fashion to an artist he highlighted - so stay tuned! ;p

i'll try and get some of my sketches posted a little later as i feel i've made surprising progress in this area in such a short period of time.

Magazine cover - first try

In todays lesson Hazzel has taken us through a tutorial on how to create a magazine cover and shown us a few ways to manipulate different layers:

Here was my attempt. To break it down, I first cut out the image of Amy using the lasso tool. Then started a new a4 document. After this i imported the picture of amy and my background and resized both to fit the a4 format. The next process just involved experimenting with the various different filters in the window on the far right  and adjusting them. i know this part is particularly important so i'm hoping it has all gone in!

"Said the spider to the fly, how do you wish to die?"

For the second half of my Tale of Two Prints project I have decided to focus on the themes poetry and literature as they're areas I don't normally explore.  A few poems that have really stuck with me over the years are The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt - for which I found this rather lovely illustration:

And another that's really struck a cord with me while researching is this war poem by James A. Donahue. 

"And When he gets to heaven,

To Saint Peter he will tell;

One more Marine reporting, sir.

I've served my time in Hell!"

I'm going to try and experiment a fair bit with this theme as it can be taken in many different directions. I'm also really keen to try a woodcut as having seen some of the results online, I've really had my eyes opened to what's possibly with the media. 

A Tale of Two Prints: Part III

Here are a few samples of my final design based on the architecture theme for the first half of the Tale of Two Prints project.

                                    

Relatively pleased with the final outcome but I definitely would have change the background if I could do it over again; I don't like the circle shaped cut in the top right of the image.

                                        

This is perhaps my favourite print. The brown paper I use is the sort of old, rustic image we have of Cathedrals in our head so I thought the colour worked well with the print.

                                      

I did a few two colour prints with this and possibly the orange being the best of the bunch. This involved first printing a block colour using the back of the linocut, waiting for it to dry, then using the designed side of the linocut to print over the block colour that was laid down. 

Salford Cathedral: Part II

I've decided to use the Salford Cathedral as the foundation of my print project as I can see a lot of potential in the photographs I took:

Step 1:

Here I have drawn the design onto lino with the focus being to highlight the shadowed areas of the Cathedral; looking at other designs this seems to be the best method to use when creating designing something for a linocut.

Step 2:

With the design complete it's time to cut into the lino. I tried to have all the marks going vertically with the only exceptions being the roof - where I went horizontal.

Step 3:

With the printing plate finished it's time to get on with some printing. : )

I should mention I decided to stylize the clouds and sky mainly just to make the print more interesting. I'm already having reservations but will see how it turns out when it goes under the printing press!

Practice Linocut Attempts

Here is my first attempt at a one colour linocut which was really just done to get used to using the knife again.  This is a one colour print I found while browsing which was created by Carl Eugen Keel titled 'bar'.

Even though I just redrew the image onto lino I was actually quite pleased with the end result and its certainly broadened my ideas in terms of what i can achieve with lino.