Exercise - Your Own Work

Ahh this one's difficult because I'm naturally adverse to making decisions and I can always see where I could have done better but there are some images that stick out

Collage has given me some interesting outcomes. I think this cat is quite decorative, might look nice on a card or a mug? I think he could become a character in his own right if he had a story to go with.

Journey looks far better than anything I thought I could create. I could see this as an editorial image.

The fish, were another pleasant surprise because they look like someone else's work. They're a bit delicate and might like some fine china to swim on.

The fruit on coloured paper really worked well. I like coloured pencil on a toned background. I can express myself without having to think too hard about the media I'm using but I don't know what to do with it. I guess decorative illustration or an artists print but I've never had much success in selling pictures, I suppose it depends on where it's marketed.

I like doing careful detailed drawings. Andrea Joseph produces similar work and makes lovely zines.
I guess when I review my sketchbooks I'm pretty obsessed with figures human or animal. These are some fairly typical pages from my current sketchbook

I need to improve my skills at telling a story and build my confidence to sketch in public. I am very attracted to reportage/documentary illustration, Matthew Cook, George Butler, Veronica Lawlor, Danny Gregory  www.urbansketchers.org
When I pluck up the courage I enjoy myself.  This one drawing from a series I did at a local steam fair, see the rest on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/43484815@N08/sets/72157626768206023

 and I'm not sure how to get my work noticed. I suppose the local paper might be interested especially if I tried to do a short story about the event to go with it. Or maybe I need to be more proactive with my blog

Lost Revisited

I wasn't happy with my last effort but I liked the figures. Taking them to an extreem you get;

 or

which could go across the top of an A4 page or a double spread. It doesn't fill the brief to include still life but it's not as busy and I think gives a better interpretation of being lost

Happy Christmas Everyone

I love collage especially from wasted materials. The green for this was torn from an unwanted flyer that came with the paper but had lovely rich colours. The presents are newspaper. The red streaks were added by the computer.

Assignment 4 - Magazine Illustration - Lost

For the still life I chose a selection of items that get lost. I could have chosen items within which you could get lost, buildings streets etc. but I'm not sure that they would count as a still life? 

I did a collage to try and get some ideas going. The drawn in figures are looking for the things that they lost..... (the dog has nothing to do with this brief - he crept in when I was wondering about this years Christmas card design)

I thought of an item lost because it was burried by brambles

or lots of missing items swirling around or dropping out of reach. Maybe a remote control to bring them back? Following the swirling around idea I thought of a coloured background and had several  failed attempts at mono printing.

So I went back to my trusty pastels

and had a little play with the effects program on the computer

Didn't like that so I smudged the pastels with my fingers and drew over them with charcoal

There are elements of this that I like but the phone is very badly drawn. So I drew some more items in a different arangement while I thought. This was supposed to be a more dense pile of objects, you can just about make out the hat and sock behind them. The glasses don't make sense at this angle and I was getting bored with the drawing

I drew my favourite bag because I liked the way it hung on the door and bags get lost too but I'm not sure where it was going. Maybe a bag spilling out the lost items? The brief does say that a character can be added to suggest a narrative. Maybe the person who lost the items could wonder where they were? How do people look when they've lost something? I pulled faces in the mirror (but the face isn't me just a made up person!)  

Could the person have the lost items swirling around her head? 

So reviewing what I've done so far I think the pink swirly idea with charcoal drawings is the strongest idea and I'm heartened by The Times this week which has a whole 2 page spread on the resurgence of drawing, could I be ahead of my time?

I could just add the face but it doesn't work. However charcoal is very forgiving and can be rubbed out.....

I searched for fonts and was very taken by scott yoshinaga grunge 1995 and Cage.gif so I used a fusion of the two

and added a pair of glasses and some scissors. Does this work? I'm not sure. Part of me feels that my first attempt was actually the strongest image and that I haven't developed from there.

Character development 2 Eliza

Eliza is loud bold confident glamerous everything I would like to be if I had the time and the energy and the personality....

Studies from similar characters in the paper.
Then studies from my imagination

Her feet were her weak spot so I did some practice

Then did the 360degree mock up using pastel pencils because I think they worked well for Superdad,

Finally Eliza in action....

The scanner has changed her hair colour each time!

The problem with Eliza was she was supposed to be a real, believable character not a spoof like Superdad and that gave me less to work with. Because she's so "perfect" she's boring and doesn't get up to much that I could draw. Or maybe I just didn't have the imagination/inspiration with her..

Character Development "Super Dad"

I have a problem with decision making, so give me a free choice (of characters) and I am stopped in my tracks with indecision. To break the creative block I started with Superdad who was an idea I had ages ago but never followed through.

Superdad is balding and a little overweight, he wears a white shirt and suit trousers. In my head he's always just got in from work, his briefcase is always close by. He's managed to put on a chefs stripy apron and is permanently holding a baby and/or toddler

He looks a bit neanderthal here

 studies for his face

I felt I needed to explore how he works in action so here he is in the kitchen

Needs some colour

but this looks weak. I'm not good at colour

so I tried to be bolder

and had a go with acrylics

but I think I'm better with pastel on coloured paper. It is a bit wishy-washy

though it improves with a bit of computer manipulation

Character Development

It doesn't look impressive but it's taken me ages to assemble this crowd...