Wind in the Willows

              My entry for The Wind in the Willows book cover design (Puffin book competition)

More competitions

Entries for the 'Male Pattern Design' competition from Tigerprint.

Greeting card designs

Competition

I've spent some time focusing on competitions a little more over the past couple of weeks, as I feel I've neglected them a bit recently. These are some designs for a t-shirt competition for a band's upcoming tour. I was undecided on whether to use colour so I've created one with and one without.

Final Major Project

As I'm beginning to work more on my final major project now, i've produced some preliminary sketches for illustrations relating to the Beatles song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.' I'm focusing on anthropomorphism and using the strange descriptions within the lyrics to create playful, character-based illustrations. These sketches show: marmalade skies, tangerine trees, marshmallow pies and the actual Lucy character.

Christmas Card Competition

A competition supplied by the Uni Alliance to create a front cover, displaying the theme of futures.

Revisited projects

Several pieces of work, I felt weren't as good as I wanted them to be, in particular the editorials. I have edited a few, which show similarities to the originals but that I feel now, are much more complete.

The character on this image was a little static before, as the figure didn't have a specific pose. So this new pose shows the person actually decorating. This gives the editorial a lot more connection to the article.

This image originally showed a head, with the holiday related images within it, showing the thoughts of illness and holidays alike. This seemed quite confusing, so I simplified it, now showing pills overflowing out of a deckchair.

The only issue with this was the contrast between the silhouettes and the background. I have just lightened the background so the image is more distinguishable.

I had several problems with this image: with composition, text, and colours. I eventually found a selection of books to photograph, in which you couldn't see the titles of the books. I then used photoshop to add the text. This image looks much clearer than the previous ones.

The only problem with the advertisement was the contrast between the text, the monkey and the background. I painted a background and added it onto the image. This appears much clearer and each area is now distinguishable. 

The social gathering looked a little flat when I edited it on photoshop, so I decided to create a decoupage style image, so that the image has its own shadows, rather than creating them digitally. 

Children's Book

These are my visuals and final pieces for a children's book, involving an evil woman who likes to eat children. Both are painted using gouache, then edited on photoshop. I'm quite happy with them as I've tried to include a lot of expression within the characters.

Pocky

This is my final piece for an advertisement for the chocolate 'Pocky.' I've created several different paintings using gouache, then arranged and edited them on photoshop/illustrator. 

All the hands had to be painted separately as there was too much detail to put in such a small space.

This is the original visual, however it's quite dull and the composition isn't very eye catching, so I decided to make Frankenstein's monster more scary and made him have several arms instead.

Madness of Crowds

A editorial focussing on the deterioration of what Vegas stands for (gambling, drink, drugs etc) and becoming a more family friendly environment; as a result of the recession. The image shows gambling chips,  breaking away, to emphasise the downfall of Vegas. I am happy with the image, in particular the colour contrasts.

Sun, Sea, Sand and Sniffles

Another editorial. I think this needs resolving a little more, especially as the contrasts between the different images within the brain are not really strong enough. Also, I may play around a bit with the composition, possibly making separate heads for each theme.

This Column will change your life

This article explains the notion of small victories, making people happier than trying to succeed in bigger challenges. It shows how people are taking smaller pieces of a pie chart and getting further than people who are trying to deal with larger pieces.

How to... decorate

For the next several weeks, we will be given one Guardian editorial project a week, for which to create an new illustration for. The concept of this article was how we, as humans, decorate ourselves so much that it can become a significant part of our lives. My idea was to use the baroque style (mentioned in the article) and camouflage a figure into the wallpaper, so that it appears as if the person has somewhat become the actual decoration. I have two slightly different images, as I was unsure about what pose to have the figure in.

Social Gathering

This is my final version for the 'Social Gathering' of the 7 characters created during the summer break. It also includes the self portrait character, shown second from the left, in the foreground of the image. The idea shows a chaotic circus scene, in which all the characters are a little unusual and either performing or watching to some degree. I have added other related objects into the background, such as   a tightrope, a fish tank and several rabbits. I'm a little unsure as to the colours of the characters compared with the background as certain areas seem to blend together a little.

Children's illustration competition

These are illustrations for a competition for a Swedish children's story. The images show Gustav, the Swedish mouse: 

Ist image: He is a fat mouse

2nd image: He is with his Elkhound friend, who is watching him with wide eyes

3rd image: Gustav is opening a Christmas present

4th image: Gustav's signature

A Bouquet of Pheasants....

As a year group, we are producing an Artbook, consisting of illustrations, based upon collective nouns. The phrase I chose was 'A Bouquet of Pheasants' and this is what I came up with. Not sure whether to add more of each of the heads/feathers/legs etc...

               

            

7 Characters

For part of our summer work, we were asked to create 7 different illustrations, influenced by artists and illustrators, which will then become one image combined.

Inspired by the work of Quentin Blake, in particular the illustrations of The Twits and The Witches

This piece is influenced by the work of Janet Woolley. I like her use of collage and how she distorts the form of the body, such as the bigger heads and elongated limbs whilst still keeping the basic form of a human body. The specific pose of the people is also interesting as it gives them more character. All the aspects of this collage were cut out and put together and edited on Illustrator. I'm very unfamiliar with producing collage, but I feel that this first attempt worked out quite well.

A piece inspired by Oliver Jeffer's children's book characters..

This piece shows aspects from the Art Nouveau Period, in particular to the techniques (inspired by Japanese woodcuts) of Aubrey Beardsley. The use of only black to illustrate, but often the use of patterns and elongated and exaggerated outfits to put detail to his characters.

This unusual, quite scary looking character is influenced by Phil Wrigglesworth, and his creation of illustrations of people, with limbs replaced by a none living objects, such as an aeroplane. Here I have combined the character with a windmill.

Influenced by Jim Flora's angular and geometric style of characters, combined with the techniques of Tadioma Shibuya, where by creating many different sections of flat colour to indicate tone.

I have attempted at collage again, to decipher whether it would be a good material to continue using. This time I looked at the work of Jason Mecier, where he would use everyday objects to create a collage of a person. Here, I mainly used imagery of posters, stationary and food.

My first attempt at clay in years!! I created a creature, based upon the anthropomorphic characters of Alice in Wonderland. The owl, dressed in a top hat and tails, is supposed show a wise and sophisticated character. I like him, as a first attempt, but I don't think I'd like to continue using clay...

Pet problems

Playful drawings, depicting problems for pets. These are a sample of some of my favourites.