Areas of Interest

Having read what 505 will entail, it seems like it could be a very interesting albeit challenging module. One thing I am having trouble with is narrowing down my choices to just one area where illustration can fit. So far I am interested in aspects of a few different ones.

Although I don't think getting involved in multiple industry areas is a bad thing, for the sake of this brief I will have to choose just one.

Publishing for Children and Adults

With this area I would be interested in publishing for adults, not so much for children. This could involve book design (including anniversary and limited editions, as well as accompanying printed material)...

Editorial & Reportage

What I like about this section is the idea of responding to contexts and ideas. There is purpose and meaning to the image. Whether this is based on an article in a newspaper or magazine or website, or responding to observations and sights. There is a level of thought and interpretation involved.

Character & Narrative

Although the main reason I am drawn to character and narrative is due to comics/graphic novels and storytelling, there could also be a lot more scope with this topic. A character could be designed for a product, or brand. Narrative would go hand-in-hand with publishing, too. There is some overlap, which is why I'm stuck on which to choose.

Beginning 505

One thing to take forward from 504:

I want to take forward the playful, experimental nature of making work as I did in this module. Also I think that process was a big driving force behind my project in the last module, so may continue doing this too.

One way to go outside of your comfort zone:

I would like to try and be less hesitant with ideas and how they look, I would like to be more decisive and say "yep, that's done". I want to use different methods and media to create work.

One thing you want to accomplish by May:

Make more self-initiated work, further my knowledge of comics/alt-comics, narrative, and sequential illustration, invest time and effort into a project of my own that results in the creation of a finished, tangible item.

Pitcha Pitcha Slides

Batsford - Completed Mockups?

I'm thinking of making this into a 2 colour screenprint, a greeny-yellow with black linework.

Here I made a mockup of what it would look like on a cream-coloured stock.

Stock colour is something I may think about to make the overall image look more interesting. I have finished making the print positives also, so I will just need to allocate time to using the print room.

Positives

Batsford Drawings & Mockups

Here are some more refined sketchbook drawings of my earlier ideas, as well as images where I begin to take pencil drawings and ink washes into photoshop.

I'm thinking of screenprinting the piece, as a double-sided screenprint which will act as both a small pamphlet/publication as well as a fold-out poster (around A3?)

However I will have to think out the technicalities to see if it will work. I'm not entirely convinced that this piece is good enough to be turned into a competition submission.

I'm sort of stuck on the overall look of it as well as the colour scheme (if it does end up being a 2 colour print that is). Not feeling too confident with it but maybe that's because I've been messing around in photoshop for a while now. I may ask what some others think, to see if anything needs amending.

Part of the reason I want to take this to screenprint eventually is I'm hoping that going through this print process will add an element of craft to it, which is part of what Batsford said they were looking for. But so far I think it looks childish.

OUIL504 End of Module Evaluation

Project Proposals

Printed Pictures

Moving Pictures

SB1 Idea Pictures | Finals

SB2 Printed Pictures | Final

SB3 Moving Pictures | Final

Visual Journal | Selected Pages

Key moments from the sketchbook work I carried out within my visual journal.

1. turning ideas into pictures

2. looking at quotes and texts

3. thumbnailing

4. collage

5. the use of language

6. compositions for print

7. storyboarding

Final Megacrit

The crit session from this morning was the last chance to get any feedback and display our work to-date to the rest of the class. There was some really amazing work out on the tables, so I was worried to show what I've been doing.

As for the presentation of things, because of the breadth of the printed material I have, I've just used bulldog clips with printed labels. As for the publication, that has been hand-sewn, a belly band has been created, and I plan on creating a cellophane cover for it too.

I really like the look of the mountboard folios that have been used to present prints, however the stacks of prints I have are too high, and it doesn't suit my final outcome of the publication which is a shame.

The feedback I received was positive, the form is useful because it got others to identify my strengths and what I should continue to develop - things I don't always see myself. Here are some of the comments:

Overall quality and presentation of work (organisation, professionalism, craft):

• Nicely organised

• Book is professional-looking (the print quality and handmade binding)

• Drawings are simple, textural, spontaneous, atmospheric

Progression shown in work. Changes, strengths, and new approaches:

• The use of monoprint and monotype - worked well with existing skillset and processes.

• Taking the printed material into digital software, assembling a book

• The naivety of the work, combined with crafting

• Screenprint process

Recommendations for future work. Key approaches they should build on:

• Loosely drawn characters

• Rough, handmade textures

• Monotype drawings

• More publications

Belly Bands

As I was dissatisfied with the first belly band I had made, I decided to try it again but with some different colour combinations.

Both of these are an improvement on the first one, however I prefer the pink version. It ties in with the thread I've used to bind the book, and isn't as bland as the monochrome version.

SB3 | Nearly Finished

Very nearly finished my sting, I've sorted the problem with the rectangle shape too. Although it isn't perfect, at the start of this week I didn't think I was even going to have a completed animation. So I suppose that's a small achievement.

I've asked a few people to watch the clip, and the only possible improvement mentioned is to change the author name/title card from 'WSB' to his full name. I liked the mystery of the initials, however to an audience unfamiliar with his work or my project it could be unclear.

I will ask about this during the crit on Friday, and I can make any last changes then. Here is the finished animation as it is:

SB3 | Last thing

This is the last thing I need to sort. When the face is zoomed in, I want the background to become blacked out. But I don't want it to be a really sharp rectangle coming out of the eye.

I need to figure out if I can either fade or adjust the shape of the rectangle to make the transition from face to black background much smoother.

Jay said that as a possibility, instead of adjusting the shape of the rectangle (with either photoshop or a layer mask), I could have the background box sweep across and fade in over the face from one of the sides. This may be an easier option to solve this problem.

I tried using a layer/shape mask, tracing the outline of the eye with the pen tool but this looked really clunky. In the end I just decided to create a simple fade-in where the face disappears against the darker background. I prefer how this looks, however I do wish that the zoom worked as I had originally wanted.

SB3 | Goodbye Peggy

Before I had properly started my after effects work I had found this piece of music which I had really liked. But because it was around 28 minutes long, it would have been very time consuming to sit and sift through the whole piece of audio for any good bits.

This is a shame because the atmosphere of the music was very fitting. Instead, I've gathered a collection of individual sound clips hoping that they would be much easier to work with and layer on top of each other.

This part of the process has actually been pretty fun for me, selecting combinations of audio to set the scene, and matching them up to certain parts of my animation. The result is definitely more dynamic and is tailored to the movement in my sting.

Another plus of hand picking lots of small sounds is that I have been more involved in applying them to my animation. I have been using this website, and it's really interesting to see the variety of sounds available, and how different sounds conjure different moods.

The sounds I thought worked best were electronic or very subtle sounds that had an otherworldly feel when taken out of their original context. The hum of machinery, vinyl cracking and scratching, the low buzzing of a lightbulb, even the sounds of food and mud squelching.

I feel like a sound artist.

The book is ready

I've had the final pages of my publication ready since last week, but I've been hunting down the perfect shade of magenta embroidery thread before think about putting anything together. So after finding it, I hand stitched and cropped my book today.

I'm fairly pleased with the outcome, the stitching gives the dark covers a little hint of colour, and using the guillotine gave the pages a crisp, even edge. I practised both sewing and cutting on a dummy book which I'm glad of, because it went a bit wrong.

Here is the finished version of the publication:

Before printing last week I had also created a belly band to hold the book together and add a final touch. However after trimming it to size, I realised that it's not that great. The lighter colour looks very odd sat next to the book.

I had initially thought that this design for the band would provide some texture to the blank covers, and contrast against the black. But I think it's too severe. I plan to invert/darken this template and reprint the band.

Despite this hiccup, I do think the finished thing looks quite professional - a good quality print on a heavy paper type. A fancy zine.

SB3 | After Effects Progress

Today I attended the after effects support sessions and they were really beneficial. I was able to work on putting my animation together with the reassurance that help was there if I needed it.

I'm glad that I went to the session as I was very hesitant to begin my sting. After today, I've completed most of my animation. Having prepared the photoshop assets previously, it was just a matter of importing them and adjusting the movement types and timing. Once I had started, it didn't seem as daunting.

So for instance, to make this skin texture pan across I used a combination of the scale and position key frames.

I found that just placing the elements I needed one after the other, and refining the transitions and movements later to be helpful. That way, everything was in it's place before I went on to sorting the finer details later.

These assets lead on to one another. So I had to consider how to get from one scene to another smoothly (using zooms, fade-ins, etc)...

Like this!

Focusing on one thing at a time helped me to not think of it as a big overwhelming task.

SB3 | Looking for Sounds

A while ago I was looking through audio on the Free Music Archive to potentially use in my animation. I was browsing through genres like experimental, to try and find something a bit weird and atmospheric.

I found this and I think parts of it really fit with the feeling of my prints, and the types of movements I want them to hopefully have.

Dear Peggy by Dead Peoples Records

If I do go on to use this piece of audio, I will link/credit on the vimeo post when I come to uploading the final thing. However, I'm not sure if I will have to contact the artist themselves to make them aware that their music is being used.

SB3 | Rewriting Proposal

As I have changed my aims for the moving pictures project (now doing a 30 second sting), I've rewritten my original proposal form from earlier in the brief...

SB3 | Preparing Assets

Ahead of the support session on Monday I have been preparing some assets in photoshop for me to use in after effects; such as backgrounds, and transparent shapes and figures.

Examples of assets

Earlier in the week I went back to the print room to make some mono prints to provide extra material that I would need for my animated stings. For example I needed more single figures and skin textures, which were featured in my storyboards.

I've been testing out small bits of motion with these prepared images, but the software still feels really alien to me.

SB3 | Revised Storyboards

Here are some revised storyboards based on earlier ideas. I have tried to simplify them down, and consider what types of movement would be involved for each frame and element within that frame.

1.

2. 

3. 

These were initially made to be used for three different 10 second stings. However after talking to tutors I realised that a lot is going on in each of these for the short amount of time available, and 10 seconds really isn't that long.

Now I am thinking of doing one single 30 second sting, deviating from my original proposal.

Out of them all, I think 1 and 2 are the strongest. I will either try to do one or the other for the 30 second sting, or attempt to merge the best parts of both into one.

I'm not feeling confident at all with after effects, I feel my idea is much better than my skills in the software which will probably let it down. I've signed up for after effects support so I'm hoping this will be beneficial to me.

Batsford Idea Development

Some developmental sketchbook work on my ideas for the Batsford prize. Starting to narrow down the ideas I have, and imagine them in their finished format(s).

Next I will go on to doing digital mockups to see a similar sort of thing but on a much more refined level, bringing in potential colours, textures, and type if necessary.