Logo comission

I got asked to do a logo design for a new merging band, Cherry Bomb. I did some rough sketch ideas and then adapted from there.

It was my first time using Illustrator and my graphics tablet because I wanted the logo to be vector based. I will definitely try Illustrator out again because the vector paintbrush is like a blessing! I also need to increase my Illustrator skills so that I can work in a more broad job! I'm pretty happy with how it came out and can't wait to play around some more with the paint brush.

Florence Cathedral prints

I did a few experimental prints for my Florence Catherdral building a few weeks ago, just got around to photographing them as they were large scale and hard to get home on a bike! I was playing around with paper textures, sizes and printing different amount of layers and colours. They are A2 with the last image being A1. I still don't really enjoy doing silk screening at large scale as the process is quite stressful but it does produce some really nice prints!

I tried using this triangular paper, it was kind of pre-scored paper and I thought it suited architecture well in relation to trigonometry. Although you can see the triangles through the print.  I also tried a yellow background on white paper.

 Lightening up the grey, making it less purple gave the building quite a nice feel.

 I used some antique white card, so it is slightly more cream than white. I also made this print four layers adding a white outline underneath the black to sort of add an element of highlights. I really like how this print came out.

 These last two prints were more experimental adding in mixed media scraps of paper that didn't work quite well. The last image didn't come out at all and I can only put that down to the paper type, it was thick and heavy water colour paper and no matter how many times I'd go over the screen it wouldn't come through!

The development progress has come on well since these prints and I'm currently producing the last large scale! Will get photographs of those as I produce them. 

 

My "process"

Thought as I was creating some illustrations I'd document the journey and show my favourite way of creating art work. I started out with drawing in pencil and then outlining in fine liners, 0.3 and 0.1. These sketches were some ideas for my business card. I couldn't decide whether I wanted it a portrait of me or show off my historical passion.

 Next I scanned the outline into Photoshop and clean up the image removing any specs that manage to show up in the final image. 

 Adding the clothing is probably my favourite part of the process, I find images or fabrics online or those I've scanned in myself and add them into the drawing. For the tudor dress I found a dress online that I liked the pattern of, using layer masks I select the area I want the dress to display in.

 Using Liqufiy I then manipulate the dress to fit into the drawn outline to make it fit my character. Sometimes (like I had to do for this image) I create multiples of the same layer but tweak them to fit each element separately. For example the top half of the dress is in three layers, the bust and two arms. This way I can make the outfit fit much better.

One all of the outfit is fitted into place I just use Dodge and Burn to add highlights and shadows to the dress where it matches on my outline or perhaps where shadows should be that aren't on the fabric. On this specific dress I added highlights and shadows to the pleats, shadows to the inner sleeve, under the arms and highlights to the chest.

 The same principle applies to the other character!

Then I print the images onto 90gms paper on High setting. Sometimes I print on thicker paper depending on what I need the characters for. I colour the hair and skin with pencils and anything black I also colour with pencil. Printing black fabric just consumes more ink and comes out quite dark, whereas with pencil I can create shadows and textures without the ink usage. 

Using a scalpel I cut them out!

 

I use a black felt tip  to go around all the edges of the characters, this is a tip I learned from Terry Gilliam. The black takes away the sharp white paper edge and makes the characters seem more realistic and less paper like. 

 

These characters then were posed in sets, I have a small set pre-made for tudor settings with doll furniture and having my dad be a gardener means there's always colour and flowers in our garden anytime of the year which gives me free sets (if the weather is good!)

 The photos I take then go through the adjustment process in Lightroom. Small adjustments to make the colours correct or more vibrant. Moving back into Photoshop with the final images I played around until I got some card designs I quite liked. The tudor design went through a bigger process of highlighting and shadowing and adding in the fireplace. The photos could also be used for images, stories or anything else I like. I take a huge range of photos at different angles to make a bigger range to choose from.

Artists I Like #11

I have been trying to find some large scale prints similar to my buildings, so A2, and seeing how artists present them. I was trying to find some simple image searches on Google by searching "A2 fine art prints" when I saw some limited edition fashion prints. They caught my eye immediately because of the content being Disney, anyone who knows me knows I love Disney. Not only were these Disney prints but they were beautifully hand drawn fashion sketches. I've always loved fashion sketches, although I'm not particularly interested in fashion, the sketches themselves are always beautiful and creative drawings.

On top of them being drawn, coloured and styled so well they are also photographed in a setting that matched. The artist is Kelly Smith and she does even more wonderful fashion sketches beside just these prints! Sometimes you find inspiration even when you aren't looking for it.

Southsea Rock and Gift Brief

I was set two briefs, one to create a greetings card and the other to create a gift that would be given to international students when our University travels. Both of these had to represent Portsmouth and they could both be of the same design. So I created a greetings card featuring the HMS Victory made in the same way I create my Renaissance buildings, in type. I then screen printed 4 layers to build up the colours and outline of the ship. I enlarged the ship to A3 and printed the same four layers and colours which I then made into an informational fact book about Victory that worked as a 4 fold booklet that could be unfolded into a poster . 

Mail Art Project - Renaissance Pasta

Influenced by my current project, taking a classic symbol of Italy and making a small response book with collage, stamps, pen and ink. The idea is this small booklet is then posted to the Mail Art Project and any work posted will be stored in a catalog and exhibition. Just a small self promotion project that was a quick item to produce. Also a nice break from the architype. Inside features a range of pages with different elements, two pages are Renaissance recipes, one written in Latin. All pages include cut and paste from magazines.

 

Florence Cathedral - Architype

Designing my next piece of Architype was the Florence Cathedral. It was a pretty tough challenge, it took me many many hours over a course of 2 weeks. The high detail in the decor is amazing and hard to illustrate in pure type. It is a big step up from the building of St. Pauls purely because the scale is 3x bigger and more detailed. 

 I then tried printing out across 9 A4 pieces of paper, to resemble A1 size (purely because I don't have an A1 printer.) There are some slightly inconsistencies between the panels because of slight cropping errors but I think it is one of my most successful graphical pieces of work. I think the image is also quite appealing because it works in the rule of thirds!