Developing Illustration Concepts

On a Thursday I have my illustration lesson, we get taught new ways to draw and build on our existing knowledge.
Lesson 1.
Inaction Man
We were given a template of a man standing with a list of emotions which we had to make the man show, for example if he was happy we would do him jumping, or cheering. This was to make us understand how emotion of a person or character is shown is very powerful in illustration, it can make the audience connect with the emotion immediately.

Lesson 2.

Brainstorming Session (Superhero)

This lesson got us working in groups, brainstorming ideas to help us create a new superhero. The brainstorming was to help us generate new ideas, and expand our initial thoughts.

These are my first rough drawings, as you can see I have tired different things and positioning of the girl, I used these ideas to design my final superhero, Ipod girl.

Flying Ipod Girl.

Standing Ipod Girl.

Lesson 3.

Political and Satirical Cartoon.

We were asked to research political and satirical newspaper comic illustrations, then pick a newspaper story from that week and come up with our own illustration for it.

I picked the article about there being talks of whether prisoners should have the right to vote or not.

Week 4

Photo Montage- When the Oil Runs Out.

We were asked to create a photo montage of what we think the world will be like once oil runs out. We could use text and images we found from various magazines and newspapers.

We then had to create a simplified version which shows the same message but using as little imagery/text possible.

Simplified version.

My message is that without oil the world will be turned upside down.

Week 5

Movie Poster Project.

Our lecturer Francis taught us a way to generate ideas for the purposes of narrative, without the use of clichés.The movies we had to design a poster for were  called Cirque Dent Soleil, which involved an old man going to the dentist at the circus, and The Last Christmas a story which was about terrorists attacking Christmas.For Cirque Dent Soleil we ruled out all clichés such as an old man, a circus tent etc, and for the last Christmas Ruled things to do with Christmas such as trees, lights, snow, father Christmas etc, and bombs, guns, fighting and anything else we associated with terrorist. Cirque Dent Soleil

Image 1.

Image 2.

The Last Christmas

I found creating these posters hard as you had to avoid using the things you would usually think of doing first, but it was very useful as it helped me come up with new ways to create original ideas, instead of just recreating things which other people will have already have done previously. 

Week 6

Perspective and Foreshortening.

Week 7

Editorial/ Magazine Illustration

This week we were asked to look through magazines and newspapers to find an article which we could then design a an illustration which could go along side it.

I found an article in the News Of The World, which suggested that we should now be eating a minimum of 8 fruit and veg a day if we want to stay healthy.

It came from a recent study done at a University, but the editor suggested that 8 (3 more up from the already suggested amount) is unrealistic and would be hard for people to keep up with.

I used this when designing my ideas.

A woman trying to juggle all the fruit and veg she is expected to be eating!

Another woman struggling to carry all her shopping filled with fruit and veg.

Week 8.
Advertising Campaign

We were given a list of really dull items which we had to try and make attractive to the buyer, to do this we had to come up with a product name, slogan, poster and packaging.

I first chose to do a packet of nails, I called the product 'Fancy Fingers', and the slogan was 'The only thing you need to wear to get noticed''.

Poster design

Front packaging design

After completing my first product, I decided to have a go at designing the advertisement for another one of the products - a bottle of water.

I named the water Funky Fresh.

Here is the bottle design along with the slogan.

First poster design.

Second poster design.

Third poster design.

I wanted to try and make my designs quite quirky which I think I have achieved. I named the water 'Funky Fresh' to try to appeal to the younger generation, and tried to make the designs colourful and eye catching, rather than them being plain and maybe a little boring like water products usually are.

Overall I am pleased with both outcomes of the advertisement campaign and hopefully this first attempt at doing something like this will help me if i'm asked to do something like this again in the future.

Week 9

Comic Strip
 We spent the lesson looking at different  styles of comic strips and were then asked to think of a personal experience that we could turn in to our own comic strip using only 3 panels.
To make our stories more interesting we were allowed to exaggerate them or add little things on here and there, I decided that my comic strip was going to be of when I went to a zoo in Australia and was feeding the kangaroo's, I was feeding all the smaller one's fine until one really big one came over and snatched the whole bag of food out of my hand!

I thought to add a bit of a funny twist I would make it so the kangaroo dropped the bag of food and ate me instead, 

I struggled to get ideas for how to lay my comic out and thought it was hard to fit a story in to only three panels, I kept putting it off and finding other work to get on with until the deadline was almost due, after worrying about doing so much I am actually quite please with how it turned out, they are simple images but I think that it tells the story well.

Week 10

Life Drawing

This week as a class we did life drawing, it was something I had never done before so I was looking forward to having the opportunity to do so, however I thought that I was really going to struggle.

The man that we were drawing was asked to pose in a number of different positions for us and we were given different amounts of time to draw him for each position.
The first few drawings I did I really struggled with, I couldn't get the perspective of the body right and he looked out of proportion, but towards the end I felt that I was improving.

  Drawing 1 - Front on.

Drawing 2 - Sitting behind

Drawing 3 - Side shadow lines only.

Drawing 4 - Behind.

I hope that with more practice my life drawing will improve.

Week 11.
Artist collective

An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the needs of the artist, this can range from purchasing bulk materials, sharing equipment, space or materials, through to following sharedideologies, aesthetic and political views or even living and working together as an extended family. Sharing of ownership, risk, benefits, and status is implied, as opposed to other, more common business structures with an explicit hierarchy of ownership such as an association or a company.

For illustration, we were put in groups to make an artist collective, and design a 12 page book, including 2 of our on illustrations. Our group decided to create a book around the nursery rhyme 'Hey Diddle Diddle'. 

Drawing 1 -  Dish ran away with the spoon.

Drawing 2 - Cat playing the fiddle.

This is the front cover of our book. We each drew part of a cat and combined them together.

We designed the book in such a way that we had to cut our illustrations into thirds. Like a puzzle, once you piece the books together, you would get the whole image. We felt it made our books more of a limited edition.

Images of our book.

Week 12.

100 Drawings

We were all asked to bring in an object of our choice, it had to be something we liked or found interesting as we would be drawing the same object 100 times! We had to draw it in as many different materials, angles, perspectives etc as we could think of. It was to help us think of new and different ways of drawing things rather than just sticking to the obvious of what were used to.

I decided that I was going to draw a peacock feather that I had at home, I really love animal prints and patterns so thought that I would enjoy drawing the feather. I found the first 20 or so pretty easy, but it got much harder as I went on, especially the last 30ish! Here are a few examples of what I did.... 

Mark & Reflection 

151DVA Developing Illustration Concepts 

Coursework (Cw) - 60
Module Mark (Mm) - 60
Grade (Gd) - PASS
Credits (Cr) - 40

I got 60 for my Illustration module, I am quite pleased with this as I don't think my drawing is as strong as the others in the group so I wasn't expecting a very high mark, I think that I may have made my mark higher by having good ideas that fit to the brief each week.
I hope that my illustration work continues to improve as obviously it is an important part of design, I will do this by lots of practice and trying different styles of drawing until I find my own style which I am most comfortable and confident with!