Chloë Grace Moretz is Carolyn Stoddard.. Meet the Residents of Collinsport at bit.ly/HX981y and see DARK SHADOWS in theaters May 11
After a visit from John Powell Jones I was inspired to create a couple of screen prints. I decided that this was a grate opportunity to produce images around my pet budgie Joey. To me Joey is cheeky, funny and can understand people due to her weird bird responses. My first challenge was to capture Joey on camera. This took a number of attempts because Joey being an animal would tend to move around a lot. It was only with patients and perseverance that I managed to capture a few decent shots.
The second thing that I did was I walked around Chester capturing various shots of interesting texture, to help build up my own bank of resources. With all of the resources collected, Photoshop was used to mock up the images to be used for screen-printing. The separate layers were printed on to acetate.
I had previously don’t screen printing at my old college, but had done it a different way. The process in order to prepare the screen took longer than I first expected. It involved a lot of washing, drying and masking up. The whole process in fact involved a lot of this.
I think one of the hardest things to do was to line up the images. Each layer was placed within different sections of the Screen. Tracing paper was used to help with the lining up of layers.
When printing I found that sometimes the ink would dry up and the screen had to be washed, this may have been down to the lack of moister within the ink itself. On some of the images the ink has ether not fully gone through or has leaked and spread. This goes to show that printing can be very unpredictable but produce a unique effect every time.
I am happy with the outcome, but am uncertain about some of the colour choses I made. I also feel that the orange and purple print look slightly unfinished. Perhaps the outline of the budgie could be highlighted with a block of colour.
Project Editorial
Description The Copywriter’s Guide To Real Life
For this brief I was required to illustrate 26 images using composition and characterization to illustrate particular human activities and emotional states. This brief suited my line drawings because within the second year I tended to work with satirical illustration because it is one of my favorite forms. The unfortunate thing about this project was I was only able to produce 12 illustrations due to limited time. Due to the vast amount of other projects undertaken this disallowed sufficient time to devolve my work at this stage. The actual illustrations took longer than expected to illustrate because before anything carful consideration of characters and composition had to be planed before finding reference images to work from. One issue that arose was drawing things to scale, this could only be achieved though constant trial and error. The problem with pen is that when using a ruler they can very easily become damaged or run out. I feel that digital enhancement helps line illustration to work more efficiently and the application of colour adds interest. I think these illustrations work well as postcards and sufficient white space help the images to breath.
Kitty Cat and The Tiger (Macmillan)
The original plan was to produce a children’s 32 page picture book for the Macmillan’s Children’s book prize, but due pressure and lack of time I did not enter. You could say that I took on more than I could handle with about 5 projects on the go. In general I am pleased with the outcome but still uncertain about the composition within some of the pages because of the fold that a book would cause. The main reason for double page spreads was to reduce the amount of images that had to be produced. I still feel that my illustration skills are very limited and that I still have a long way to go. The first challenge I found with this book was identifying a narrative to work with. The first initial idea was about a Kangaroo named Joe Joe who could not jump, but found that this concept had already been used. Thinking about a character that I wanted to use, being a stripy cat, the ideas for the narrative made a natural connection to a tiger.
I feel that the use of black line makes my illustrations look untidy because they are not smooth or clear. If I have more time I think I would go over the line within illustrator. The watercolour texture helps to add depth and a handmade feel to the illustrations. I feel that the application of colour still needs to be worked on. I still find it a bit of a challenge choosing limited pallets and colours to work with.
One good thing about this project was that it enabled me to independently have a practice at InDesign and enhance my computer skills. I did however had to receive a little bit of help from tutors to make minor amendments, but in general I feel I little bit more confident with InDesign.
Pop Up
For Hannah’s pop up session we produced a number of practice techniques before created a pop up town. I found some of the techniques challenging to do and sometime required a helping hand. In general pop ups are quite interesting and done very cleverly. A good person to search if interested in pop ups is Robert Sabuda.
Paper Stock and Finishing
Hannah’s talk
Alexandra Girard works with textiles and wood. He produced House in design and died in 1993. Alison Hardcastle is a scream printer who lived with her parents on a farm. She produced a book called Knock Back. Scream printing is cheep method for producing makeshift stuff. Stock Somerset Velvet is good paper to use for screen-printing. Paperchase is good place for makeshift design. The best thing to do is to get your work out there and exhibited. Andrew Lee, works with lino block. “Woking Ford” is good paper for prints and book making. California Artist is an art and craft production company. Someone had made 26 letters out of lino or wood. Donna Wilson, a Scottish designer who graduated in 2004 and has produced every product going. Her work can be found in John Lewis. Hot Bed Press is a printmaking studio in Manchester and can be used to make Zink etching and letter press cards. The Block Shop in Liverpool is another print maker. California and America are good places to sell letterpress cards. Dutch Door Press is a 50s style letterpress and design studio. John Dilnot, a British designer started out in the book binding world and his work consists of birds. Packaging is important, so work could be handed out in a sweet bag with a logo. Lisa Jones produces prints for children’s books. Lisa Stickley produces work for bags. When the BBC holds food shows, it’s a good place for design sets and stalls. Lotter Lans Dotta is from Swedien and likes to produce potato print. Studio Fire is a letterpress printing and design service. Sukie is a good company for die cuts.Tom Frost (The boy Frost) works with screen print and works with old-fashioned toys.
I found this talk insightful and interesting. I feel there was a lot of good information on places to look into after University.
Teachersgem
For my NMP one of my projects was to produce a number of vector images to be used on a free Internet serves for teacher called Teachersgem. I chose to work on the “alien world resource pack”. For this I had to design a variety of alien characters and spaceships. These would then be used to teach children counting, shape recognition, sorting and matching. The images all had to be created within illustrator.
I found this project very time consuming because of the amount of work and amendments required. I think that I have produced a strong set of characters and space ships. I find illustrating mythical or imaginary items difficult because there is no strong reference to work from. If I had to alter anything it would be my green alien because he does not match up with the rest of the aliens. One thing that I am concerned about is that the aliens could be mistaken for monsters but then there is no fine line between the two. I found having strict guidelines and rules to follow helped to inform my design, for instance the edges had to be smooth and easy to cut around. The most time consuming aspect was laying out and setting up documents.
Random Idea
Ok so thinking about vials and stuff, but like what about something to do with “What is the secret behind your Profession?” Thinking how could involve industry.
For the C&O wine project I produced three pieces of work. The first was a digital image produced in Illustrator. I chose to incorporate the Art Nouveau style because of its curvature nature that could refer to the bottle shape and the idea of Romance. Looking at the image I think that the brown pot should be replaced with a glass of wine to make it more obvious that this is the ‘God of Wine’. The grape vines on either side should be extended.
For my second piece I wanted to incorporate Greek works by producing a sculpture from clay. One of the problems I found with this sculpture was getting it to balance and stand up on its own, I think the reason for this was disproportion. I think I have produced a comical character that could be used for a children’s TV program, rather than a wine bottle. I would of liked to have created a classic Greek sculpture.
The third piece that I crated was a basic oil painting that actually came second in the C&O wine competition. When I came up with this work, I thought about what C&O had said about what they wanted and about the previous entrants. The conclusion was they wanted something obvious using traditional art medium. I chose to paint a wine vine, because it is a classical image associated with wine and art. I personally don’t feel that it is a strong piece because the painting looks untidy and the detail is limited. I suppose painting is not my strong point.
