Project I: The Comic

What I've Learnt
  • Communication is key:​
​​When working in a group, it is important to keep up contact through every stage of the process. I now know how much more smoothly projects will work if everyone shares their progress, especially including their colour palettes and style. This means that you can check if everyone is on schedule and not struggling with any aspects of the project. By sharing these things, working becomes more efficient and the final product more cohesive.

  • ​The importance of panels:
​The shape and size of each panel plays a part in guiding the viewers eyes while reading. When working on a double page spread, you must take into account both pages when working on the layout.


​In my original sketch for the right page, the panel with the woman holding money was on the left instead. When paired with the left page I quickly realised that it disrupted the directions of the other panels, all of which were diagonal. The perspective of the shop in the background meant that the foreground was on the right, so I moved the panel to that side instead. I think that this vastly improved the direction of the double page.
  • Direction in illustrations:
The position and direction of items in each panel are a vital part in the flow of a comic and help the reader understand what you are trying to convey.


​For this specific piece, the direction of the hands were very import for guiding the viewers eyes. In my original sketch for the left page I drew the woman using her right hand, but when paired with the page on the right the movement didn't flow. Flipping the hands helped the illustrations match up with the panels which gave a sense of realistic movement as the hand swoops forward and transitions into the next scene.
  • Colour creates atmosphere:
​Each of these images are different colour palettes I chose when working on the opening page to the comic. I learnt how important it is that the first page sets the tone for the rest of the story in order to be cohesive and less jarring by experimenting with multiple variations.
I first began with realistic colours, both blue and grey. My initial thoughts were to set a melancholic tone that paralleled the misery of poverty in the Victorian era that the comic is set. While the blue would match the front cover, I decided against using it as it felt too dark of an opening and didn't fit with the naivety of the children in the story. Moving on from this, I took a more abstract approach by using red for the building. The red creates a sense of danger and alarm, unsettling to the reader. Making the sky grey created a bleak dreariness that I imagined to be common in Victorian England. 
Despite this, after seeing the colour used for the background on page three, I changed it to a yellow tone that is reminiscent of paper yellowed with age to match as it would be a double page spread. The colour yellow has connotations with danger as demonstrated by warning signs as well as in art with the first edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. I think that the yellow contrasting with the red works best to unsettle the reader, adding tension from the very beginning. By further experimenting with these colour palettes, I realised how important colour really is in creating atmosphere in an illustration and that you need to further experiment even when you think you've reached your desired outcome.

​View the full book here.

Project II: Technical Skills

​Books


​Creating the books proved to be quite tedious in trying to get everything to align correctly. The stab-stitched book was difficult to make as pushing the needle through the paper could be a rather painful struggle. Nevertheless, this task educated me on the different ways in which books can be made and presented with their own individual style. ​


​Creating the square design proved difficult to achieve as the size of it made it quite fiddly. Designing a template to use helped me align each page so that everything was central and even. I think that it turned out alright in the end.
Presentation


​From the presentation tasks I learnt about placement and how important accuracy is. The most difficult task was window mounting a postcard which resulted in angling the bevel too much. I enjoyed the embossing task as it was something I had never done before and could be quite useful to know how in order to incorporate it into future illustrations.
Cutting


​​I quite enjoy paper cutting, but for these three tasks it proved difficult to get a clean edge as my knife seemed to blunt incredibly quickly. For task eleven I should have picked to create a design that was less delicate and easily ripped. Cutting out the word 'shop' was a lot easier as it was much larger in size. Paper cutting is something I want to experiment with more to improve my skills.
​The Third Dimension

​Creating the 'R' was probably the trickiest task as the double-sided tape didn't want to hold the card together, resulting in me having to use masking tape on top. Despite this I think it turned out well and resulted in a clean look along the edges.

Creating the three shapes was fun as it felt more mathematical creating the net. In order to make the pyramid exactly 70mm high I used the Pythagorean Theorem which allowed me to work out the correct length to use for the equal sides of the isosceles triangles in the net.
Creating the hand for my pop-up book took multiple tries in order to get the best, working result which I think turned out good in the end as it swoops down and crushes the car when you close the book like I intended it to. The car model was something I initially thought would be difficult but wasn't so much when I get my head around how it would work. I think that having the front two buildings pop out slightly helped add to the depth of the book and included a sense of perspective. ​
Master Forger
Henry Lamb
My pencil copy
For this piece I found it difficult to replicate the texture of the pencil that Lamb was able to create. I was too heavy-handed for some of the more distinctive pencil strokes and wasn't quite able to capture the softness of it. My usual style is quite angular so my initial practice sketches were able to rid that from the structure of the face but the softness is something I wasn't able to perfectly balance with the boldness of Lamb's lines.
Mervyn Peake
My pen and ink copy
This pen and ink piece was the most enjoyable to do out of the three as I like how detailed it was, making use of every pen stroke. It was also the most time-consuming piece as it took me around 10 hours to replicate as I wanted to take my time with it and really focus on the directions and placement of each line. By using a printed out copy of Peake's piece to work from, I think that I lost some detail that was not as visible on paper than it is a screen such as on the sleeve of the cloak. I was able to practice before hand with different nibs of the pen in order to find what worked best for both me and this piece as well as practicing the different types of strokes and techniques he uses. ​The swirling lines of the background should have been much more tightly compact, while avoiding the thick clumps of black from having too much ink on the nib.
Clare Leighton
My scraperboard copy
Replicating Leighton's work was difficult at first since the colour was inverted, but I soon got used to that way of working. The problem I had with this piece was achieving the grey mid-tones of the shading as it didn't seem possible using the scraperboard since Leighton engraved on wood. To get around this and achieved the look that she had created, I used a black fineliner to fill in over the white and used my finger to lift it slightly to create the grey look I was after. Creating the white background by scratching off all of the ink was very time consuming but rewarding when I achieved the final piece.

Project III: Drawing & Visual

​Basic Perspective
I enjoyed learning about perspective again because it is vital to all illustrative compositions. Using the ladder technique for one-point perspective is incredibly helpful in order to make proportions accurate so you're not just guessing where to place things. Using different coloured pencils made the drawings easier to understand while making them, as well as when viewing them afterwards. ​
Advanced Perspective
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Learning how to add shadow to my perspective drawings was especially useful due to it adding further depth and realism. After several drawings, I was able to understand how to properly use the guidance lines that produce accurate shadows which is an important skill when trying to make realistic illustrations.
Understanding Perspective
Putting the techniques I had learnt into action was the most interesting to me as I was able to discover how much perspective is involved in what I would normally draw without really considering it. Playing with lighting on the face allowed me to be more confident with dramatic shading and inspired me to focus on it more in my own personal work. Furthermore, using a box grid perspective for the figures sitting down also helped with the perspective and proportion of the human figure. I enjoyed drawing the figures the most, attempting my own sitting piece from memory using two-point perspective, shown above left middle, which was challenging but fun.
Quick Visuals
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​The speed of this task was quite challenging as I usually like to take my time when I work. Despite this, it helped me produce different ideas quickly and get them onto the page without dwelling too much on them.  I think that the thumbnails with coloured backgrounds worked the best as they allowed the chair to stand out, making it the primary focus. It has been helpful as I can now work much quicker, but I have to be mindful of the quality of my work if I am applying this to a real project.
Thumbnail Visuals
Creating a selection of thumbnails for a final piece means that you don't just decide on the first idea you come up with. Coming up with so many ideas for one piece was quite challenging for me as it isn't something I am accustomed to doing and ended up taking a lot of time. Using marker pens allowed me to quickly put colour down, but also limited my colour palette to what I owned which resulted in some colours being more saturated than I would have liked. By completing this task, it pushed me to become more creative with how to portrayed my chosen play in the poster designs. ​
Refining my five chosen thumbnail ideas allowed me to play with the text placement, colour, and overall layout of the thumbnail. This further refining process is a very important step as it can alter the whole look of the design. I will definitely be going further into detail for future projects that allow me the time frame to do so. This project taught me a lot about time management as the workload seemed never ending despite the amount of time I put into it, and I will be moving on from each idea much more quickly.
I used marker pens for the base colours of the client visuals, adding detail and shading with coloured pencils on top. In retrospect, I think that the off-centre version of my second design would have been more visually appealing but overall this project definitely helped me learn a lot when it comes to producing and selecting my ideas for a final piece.

Project IV: Colour, Composition and Linear Narrative

Week I
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​Colour Theory
For these colour tasks I used gouache on watercolour paper. I found the grey scale and tone scale quite difficult to create each gradual tone within a set amount of steps. My first attempt was far too dark but with patience I was able to get a decent result of a gradual scale. Learning that in order to make a colour darker you mix it was it's complimentary colour has been a great help in my work.
I think that the colours I chose as visually appealing represent me well as they are quite vivid and varied. The majority of them are warm toned, which I am mainly drawn to throughout my work and isn't surprising since blue is my least favourite colour.
I enjoyed this task of using colours to represent words as it forces you to think about how to visually represent something with just colour and nothing else. I love using colour so I really enjoyed these tasks and it made me think more in depth that I might normally about my choice of palette. ​
Composition Warm-up
I have never made an abstract collage before so this helped me think more about colour and composition without having to worry about any other factors involved in an illustration. It was helpful to think about how to represent ideas in an abstract way, yet still be distinguishable to the viewer.
Designing With Type
I enjoyed playing with different type faces and using them in a way best fit for each category. Not only the type face, but also colour plays a large part in how it comes across so it was interesting to look into it more in depth that I have before.
Week II

Composition
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Anne Yvonne Gilbert

Gilbert uses very vibrant colours throughout her work, maily when it comes to flesh tones. I chose to use this artist for the children's book because I think that the colour scheme and style work best for the genre. Her use of pencil marks creates a sketch-like feel to her pieces which is reminiscent of children's colouring in.
When creating my thumbnails I wanted a simple composition that draws focus to the tree as the main focal point. I liked the concept of the apple and branches the best, finding that having the arm come out at an angle rather than the centre of the page made it more interesting.
Charles Keeping

​For the science-fiction cover I chose Charles Keeping because I think that his vibrant colours and loose style of brushstrokes works well with the style of the genre.
For my final piece I chose to layer two different patterns, that of bark and that of a circuit board. The red and the green contrast well with each other since they are complimentary colours.
I kept the title simple due to the rest of the composition being rather complex, making sure that it can be clearly read. I chose black as the text colour so it could contrast withe the white background.
Brad Holland

I chose Brad Holland for the psychological horror cover as his style has an unnerving quality and a dream-like sense.
For my thumbnails for this cover, I wanted to focus mainly on the branches of the tree and their jagged nature.
For my final design I ended up choosing the pointing tree as the authoritative stance creates an uncomfortable atmosphere.
I made the background a mix of dark red, orange, and yellow as they are colours most associated with anger.
Children's Book
Science-fiction Book
Psychological Horror Book
Week III

Telling Stories
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For my book I wanted to illustrate in a story book/concept art style, showing the short story of a lineman making his boring job of fixing power lines more interesting by imagining he is having his own adventure taking down monsters to save the area.

I decided to create this book digitally since my materials were limited due to most of my stuff having to be left at uni halls and because with the limited time frame of just 5 days, I knew I would be able to complete it on time this way.
The colour scheme starts of with very warm tone colours, that transition into more blue toned when the power lines are introduced. I wanted to focus mainly on lighting for this book as it is something I want to improve on and experiment more with.
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​The back cover links with the front cover, showing the lineman now working on the power line.
For pages 2 and 3, I wanted to create an opening shot that sets the scene of the lineman driving in the sunset in the middle of nowhere. This conveys the loneliness he feels.
​On page 4, the power lines are slowly included, creeping into the frame and introducing new blue hues that contrast greatly with the previous warm tones of the introductory pages. This adds a sense unease as blue is generally a cold colour.
Page 6 introduces the power line monster, withe the lineman silhouetted in the foreground, the stance and hat reminiscent of Indiana Jones on one of his adventures. This is to convey how the man views himself in his own world.
​Page 7 shows the man concurring the beast by destroying it's glowing heart. 
The final back cover shows the lineman as he truly is, simply doing his job and fixing the power line, still on the line. ​
I decided that the best composition for the front cover would be to have the title sitting on the actual structure of the power line as shown in the thumbnail on the right. The bushes at the bottom add a sense of setting and spacial awareness.
See the finished book here.
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If I had more time to complete this, I would have added more detail to my illustrations as well more time spent on lighting. Irritatingly the version I uploaded to Issuu doesn't have the glow from the monster's heart reflected onto the lineman as I accidentally had the layer turned off when exporting it, despite how much time I spent trying to avoid forgetting anything. Overall this was my favourite project so far as it has helped improve how I approach my work and has furthered my understanding of colour, composition, and narrative.