the very final pub sign

i've probably posted under this heading before on several occasions but this time it really is, there have been very slight changes progressing it above the former posted pub sign. I finished off the belt and added some dots of colour to the mantling, i have to say it is nice to put this one to rest

a double page spread

with the narrative project very nearly finished, just small tweaks and such to be made i thought it might be appropriate to post a double page spread and a brief outline of a progression to final.

this is one of the final double page spreads, complete with hand rendered borders type and digitally added collage, one other suggestion was to reduce the black to a true black and really brighten the white, i was quite hesitant to do this as the end result looks quite harsh and takes the warmth out of the initial mark making. However in hindsight it was probably the best thing i did as the whole story reads far clearer. 

this is some development from pencils through to inks and the final stage of adding extras, collage, text and borders. Showing the progression at each stage puts into perspective the actual changes that have been made, quite often the many steps taken are easily forgotten.

campari on newsprint

my tutor had recommended printing the Campari posters i had produced onto some newsprint, a cheap mid tone coloured piece of paper that adds a vintage aesthetic of its own, so i gave it a try.

i'm fairly happy with how the end result looks, the ink took well to the smooth grain of the paper and the mid tone adds a layer of warmth to the overall image that was much needed. 

creative CV

when we were told to produce a CV for this module i was dreading it, i think its the most tedious thing to write, selling yourself is difficult when its you writing it. Maybe modesty is to much of a factor, who knows. with the initial research in mind i let the ideas stew until i eventually came up with a format. I want to produce an 'adopt an illustration graduate pack' exactly like WWF and other animal organisations who send some pictures and a toy all in a self contained document with all the information you need to know, seemed like the perfect format in my head.

i decided to base my adoption pack on a simple net big enough to hold a portfolio of A6 prints inside, on each of the flaps i put some information about myself under a heading; education, profile, experience, skills, and contact. When opened the lucky recipient will not only receive all that they need to know about me but also a series of prints, if i have the time i would like to put my business card image on the front with some hand rendered text, and perhaps include a paper easel for propping up the prints. the rest of the piece needs to stay as clear as possible maximising legibility. 

final business card

i thought it might be good to see the finished product back and front in one post as well as the marks used to finish it.

the front of the business as featured in the past post, and below what is going to go on the back. I was quite unsure about background detail continuing the brush stroke from front to back and easing the text into the design seemed to work best after some experimentation. 

i think keeping consistency across the front and back of the design is one of the most important factors in designing a business card. 

 these are some of the loose marks i experimented with overlaying before settling on the final, much alike to he final these were brushed onto a scrap of paper and digitally overlaid until deemed useless.

 the marks that saved the day (below)!!! these two brush strokes were done with this massive hogs hair Chinese brush, i wanted there to be breaks in the stroke to give way for the image an text. it was surprising how quickly it came together once i had the right marks.

new business card

having failed at my first attempt i decided to try something clean and simple, being that it was going to promote myself i thought about a self portrait. i often draw from my face for expression or trying to get a part of an awkward pose so this was nothing new, i wanted it to be something a bit different.

one night when answering the call of nature i got a brain wave of why depict myself in night ware, not something seen often in self portraits but the what the hell, defy convention an all that. above was a very quick pencil sketch i did of myself, i am very happy with how it turned out, just a case of adding some ink.   

 once the sketch had been inked i felt that the card itself looked quite sparse, at the minute i have something of an obsession with mignola and tried using some bold shapes like the pro himself. however it really isn't as easy at is looks as is reflected by the image above which totally failed.

the above image was my second attempt at engaging the space more, just using some scanned brush strokes, it was ok more in the direction i had imagined but still not quite right, he whole image appear quite unbalanced and lacking in some background detail on the left hand side especially.  

 it wasn't until i had taken some time out to work on the narrative that i really considered my process, thinking about how i had overlaid brush strokes to complement part of an image gave me a sudden brain wave. Applying a similar brush stroke to my portrait could in effect make it appear as a very happy coincidence with a brush and ink, so with the original inks i scanned in a big brush stroke and erased and kept what information complemented the design and theme of the drawing, i am very happy with the end result and glad i persevered until i got the end result i did. Lets hope moo does a good job on printing them.

my own self promotion

when thinking about my own self promotion i was quite unsure of how to sell myself, i knew it was going to be by means of an image and not some clever gimmick. This drew my attention to a piece of work i produced a couple of years ago, i never properly finished it because time got away from me, the idea has been something that ive been keen to revisit however. It centres around a few characters one of whom is an angel or cherub with two or more others about to clip his wings, i don't know why this image has stuck in my head but it seemed like a good opportunity to develop the visual.

i started with a page of ideas exploring the kind of visual i had previously developed and imagined, i wanted it to be quite a wide image so it could also work as a landscape border for a blog or website. with this in mind i set about very loosely arranging the elements and deciding the intensity of the expressions and interactions. 

this pencil sketch above was my initial sketch after developing the ideas, i like the am dram nature of the hands on the central figure and the scissors pressed against the cheek. Although the image did appear quite static which is my only real criticism. 

 having penciled it out i attempted a couple of quick inks just with some layout paper to see the intensity of the image i would be producing, i have to say i was disappointed. The above image works a fair bit better than the one below- which is nothing short of a mess, however it still doesn't appear engaging enough. in the end i totally scrapped tis concept in favour of something more simple and reflective of me. literally.

self promotion

One of the most important parts of embracing the creative industry is promoting yourself, letting everyone know what you have to offer. This can be done countless ways in this digital age, through online portfolios Behance, Cargo Collective, Carbon Made, Blogging on Blogger, Tumblr; having business cards and or a creative CV to approach industries in person. For our final module and as part of venturing into the big wide world of design we were asked to prepare one of each; a business card, an online portfolio, and a CV- creative or just better than the existing one.
before i set about tackling this i took to the internet for some examples of self promotion. The most daunting prospect was coming up with a creative CV, shown below are a couple examples of graphic design CV's. Very clean and explanatory they display the person and all that they are good for.

 i loved the design of the one above, its very reminiscent of the old comic book or newspaper adverts, complete with tearaway enquiry form, the choice of paper stock and layout of fonts with appropriate graphics makes the whole package reflective of the designer and their own attributes. Its clean and consistent but doesn't look overly minimalist there is enough to engage the eye.

another graphic design Cv, the main reason for picking this one out of the stack was its legibility, and how fast the information can be taken in and considered. Everything a prospective employer needs to know is displayed clean and clear, the consistent diagrammatic illustrations make it all appear very clean and clinical in the best possible way. 

i think this last CV was created by an illustrator, this is probably more the route i would take if i were to design a fully creative CV, the mess and illustrations are reflective of someone who likes draw and paint with ink, and although not quite as clean as the graphic design ones above it does relay in the necessary information in a concise manner. 

 these business cards show the brilliance of design in such a small place, adding function (in the case of the above) or implying services (like the one below.) The sprouting business card instantly makes the strip of card something useful and desirable, if for nothing else the reward of sprouting your own alfalfa or cress.  

 rather than give you something physical this business card gives you a hint, the card is for a personal trainer the simple application of a perforated edge gives a whole new meaning to the card.  

the front cover

the final front cover was fairly simple to put together, with all the initial leg work of placement and composition, as well as all the necessary marks it was a simple case of dragging and dropping with a little transforming.

i am very happy with the minimalist quality of the book cover it is very close to what i had in mind, levelling it to true black gave it a texture of its own which i like very much. the only altercation yet to make is getting rid of the reinterpretation bit. 

being that the end design was only a two tone image i thought it would be fitting to experiment with inverting the final design, however it took away some of the legibility of the original so wasn't quite right. i dont normally like this stage of a design and have previously failed to produce images punchier for a front cover, however i am quite assured in thinking this piece is successful.

front cover

for the front i had only ever imagined something minimal, the idea came to me to echo some of the more abundant imagery of the text, ivy leaves was one piece of imagery that recurred quite often. i want to surround the text with ivy to try and suggest a grave without actually drawing one. my initial sketch (below) was simply an attempt to plan the space i was going to use on the final image, where to place type etc, surprising how close to the final it really is.

after i had an idea of the placement and how it was sort of going to look i started a rough sketch (below). it gave me a good idea of the kind of forms which look best and suggest the shapes i needed. 

 unfortunately it transferred to inks very poorly, there was something very unprofessional about the use of space, liked the detail of the leaves but it just didnt look how i had imagined.

my last hope was to scribble out some abstract shapes and place them together digitally. This way of working has been a staple over the course of this module and has really increased my efficiency in producing visuals, once again i tried it out with the page below and it was a relative success. 

i used the brush in a similar way to chinese brush letting the loading and application of pressure create a lifelike form, loose abstract marks can take on a life of their own when the mark making is considered.

a finished page

this is an example of one of the pages with inks altered and collaged and then text added on top, to further add to the placement of the text and try and establish a clear divide between image and text- assuring legibility. I added a ripped page from one of my old notebooks, it was a creamy slightly off white lined notebook which provided a perfect base for the dodgy type writer font.

 this page is probably the most dense with text (above), it was one of the few pages which really needed dialogue and description to set the narrative up, after that things get jolly quiet on the text front.

the slightly yellow bit in the bottom right with the stripes, thats the page i used as a background for my text having it torn really saved a lot of effort when placing the texture over an image.

text

having resolved the collage placement and general layout of things to a more final standard i could start to think about text, in hindsight this should have crossed my mind right at the beginning. To tell the truth it did, and i was quite content to keep it sparse, having researched the events of the story extensively i had managed to pull some dialogue together. I was quite unsure of what font to use so tried hand writing it out.



Below is my effort, it was written on rice paper with a biro, to recall the evening i did this i have absolutely no good reason why this would suffice, it looks terrible and was a bit of a wake up call as to how to produce text for a document or book.

with my lack of expertise in mind i took to google for some answers, a simple enquiry of 'hand lettered comics' gave me enough of an idea to start properly adding type to my story. the top image is someone using an artists assistant a rotating circle of other shapes for accurately placing marks. the image below is how i eventually lettered my story,  

 to begin with i considered which font looked best in pages, this was a simple exercise of printing the same line and seeing which font best reflected the publication and the dialogue being lettered. of the four fonts i selected american typewriter- the bottom one, there was something about the spacing and old school nature of the font that i really desired.

once this page is typed out, i printed it, laid some layout paper over the top, inked with black fine liner and then finally scanned and manipulated the excepts of text. below is one such page, the main advantage to doing it this way is purposefully text could be off centred poorly copied, smudged, all to add to the warmth of texture and over aesthetic quality.

collaging the inks

once i had the inks digitally processed and cleaned up i could begin the collaging phase, in my mind i had only imagined this part and not experimented with the sort of textures and collage to use, however i did have a fairly good idea of what aesthetic i wanted to promote. Rather than cover the document in layers of textures i wanted to use sweet wrappers and bags in place of dialogue or in supporting it, I had also planned to have a map of the town incorporated some how. My main reason for adding the college is the fore mentioned master illustrator Dave Mckean, his work especially on Violent Cases has inspired for the best part of five years i saw this as an oppourtunity to explore a similar range of texts.

 the scene above involved two of the girls who had been given money for sweets, thought the texture of the paper bag was enough to suggest what they had spent their afternoon doing. It went through a couple of altercations, below was my original idea of how to collage, in a critique my tutor suggested vertical lines with the serrated edge showing to best suggest the kind of paper it was supposed to be. looking at the two together i have to agree, the vertical lines almost suggest that they are falling into the paper bag.

i don't know why i initially thought horizontal perhaps it was because of the likeness to a picnic blanket, however i am aware of the error of my ways and far more content with the resolve it is currently at.

this was the first page i decided to add any extra marks or digital collage to, i knew that i wanted to fit the map in somehow, and although it is quite small alton is in the centre. i didn't happen to find an antique map instead i overlaid a envelop complete with masking tape to add some colour and age to the map.  i am fairly happy with the placement and how this page reads although the text has since changed ever so slightly.

narrative inks

With the majority of the story sketched out and panels considered i could begin the inking process, at the start of this module i was introduced to a brilliant paper stock found in layout pads. You can slide your pencils under the paper and it remains a strong white with a semi transparency, this made inking the book a very quick and fairly pain free exercise, any sections or panels which weren't quite right could be very quickly sketched again until the end result sufficed.

 once i had inked the full 12 pages i set about working out which bits needed touching up and trying to visualise if and how i could make collage and dialogue fit into the design.

aesthetically i was very heavily influenced by Mike Mignola's work on hellboy, the graphic chiseled quality to the tones and shadow, Michael Lark's work on Lazarus and daredevil for its oriental and impressionistic mark making qualities, and Dave Mckean's Violent Cases and The Savage, the range of mark making again was very influential as well as his use of colour for suggestion and mood

 some of the panels i took it upon myself to redraw, either because the pencil drawing was too sloppy so the inks turned out naff, or i slipped with pen when inking. This whole project came together so fast almost solely down to the Pentel GKFP, an amazing brush pen that allows for unparalleled efficency and quality of fill, i ended up draining four cartridges of ink on the whole project seemed to run out to fast.    
  

Narrative

with the two other projects fairly close to finished i have decided to turn my attention to the narrative project, with the initial storyboards complete and references of my budding models things could get underway. My first step was to pencil out the scenes again with the reference to inform the sketching further, i had been fairly thorough when considering placement and narrative progression this saved me an awful lot of time when throwing pages together.

 this opening page was an effort to introduce the town, saint Lawrence church (above) was something i knew i had to include but that gave me some difficulty when trying to reproduce it. the tankard is supposed to symbolise the breweries of which pump industry and money into the town.

 this page is suggesting the motivation of the central antagonist a truly evil man played by my friend Jolyon, his girlfriend posed alongside as the young Fanny Adams which required some mental altercations to scale and proportions. it was a something of a learning curve but one which i am now slightly better prepared for should it arise again.

 i posed for the characters on this page, when the head of the poor young girl is discovered, it was found later at night in a hop field impaled upon two spikes, quite minor considering the extent of the rest of the attack. It is said the next day the whole town and even tourists just passing through took to the hop field trying to find any remnants, picnics in toe it was seen as a morbid victorian sunday.

final sign

another project that has perhaps taken far too long is the pub sign, i have finally added text to the image and yet again redrawn the mantling, this time to a standard that is in keeping with the rest of the design.

 three very gradual stages of development, the only real change to the image above is the mantling which i cleaned up and made slightly more rounded to be a bit more aesthetically pleasing. However i found the actual mantling itself quite subtle and almost difficult to make out- perhaps because of the line quality. The solution below involved simply dropping some yellow into areas of the design which need weighting with a bit of colour and tone.

 the final font was quite simple, the colour accents again were added with colouring pencil, i quite like the rough nature of it, and how the shade ties in nicely withe reds of the shield and banner at the bottom, if i was to further improve this piece of work i think i would perhaps make the banner larger, and the colour of the flowers more pronounced.

and finish off the belt......

final campari poster

it has been close to an age working on this piece, however i can say now i am done, positioning and palette tweaks have been accounted for and i am happy with the final image. In the end i settled upon colouring pencil as the best means of adding colour and expression, thinking about how Michael Gillette used some humble felt tips made me want to get back to basics.

the end result i am very happy with, i have shown it to the subject Michael and he is happy for us to start collaborating on an album and series of promotional artworks of him and the band. 

the pencil marks i used in the end to add some more colour, i kept things fairly simple trying to block in entire areas safe in the knowledge i could take bits out or place them in accordingly.