music poster

My son's friend is in a band called Rescue so I chose to do a poster for them and a mythical gig at our local music pub The Horn (it was the Horn of Plenty in my day but everything is subject to cuts at the moment)
I did my brainstorming in my sketchbook forgetting that it would be difficult to read when photographed (I'm still having computer problems) so I've inked over my writing to try and make it clearer. Henry the dog was posing for me at the same time and crept in too......

I looked online for ideas for my moodboard

and on the way discovered Waldemar Swierzy who is truly amazing

I did some reference drawings of suitable musicians

and some ideas on the theme of Rescue

My thumbnails were done in an old scrapbook, I like the cheap coloured paper. I find it difficult to do small meaningful thumbnails, working larger makes me free-er and more inventive

 I thought about a graphic based idea with The Horn being Rescued or The Horn rescuing Rescue (if you see what I mean) Or ideas based around a Horn                        (I'm having some technical difficulties with the blog layout here please bear with me)

What I liked was the band grouped together like the cartoon characters The Rescuers combined with a lifebelt

I had to do some reference drawings to get the right image for the reaching hand

I like the energy of the charcoal and coloured pencil sketch but it wasn't clear enough for the finished poster so I did another more careful layout

to which I added colour

 

Our scanner still won't work with the main computer but my daughter Lisa came to my rescue and scanned my poster properly :-)

which meant I could add proper computer generated lettering and play around a bit with the colour scheme

 one of the band members always wears a green cap which I included to make it Rescue rather than a generic band however the green is out on it's own in the colour scheme. I don't like the green background

and black lacks punch so I'm sticking with a white background

This is my final poster (please don't turn up on the 29th July I made it up!)

Making a mock up (after a cock up)

I've got computer problems so this is my second go at this. I'd entered everything (and saved it) but not uploaded for publication when we were struck by a nasty virus. Although the computer is back online I can't get the scanner or drawing/editing software to work and I've lost the original images so I've revisited the initial idea, worked it up again and photographed it on my phone. Not sure how this will work but here goes.....

The book I chose was "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" which I read as a teenager. Those who know it will be aware that it's a road journey with philosophy. The book I have has a cover which I never felt gave the casual book browser a clue as to what they were buying

I found a photo of Robert Pirsig and his son on their bike which I reversed and drew from.

Originally I layered this on top of a map of the USA but without computer imput that is beyond me so I roughed out the design again.

Sorry it's not very clear but you get the gist. I used acrylic paint to rough out the map which means you can see it a bit clearer

 I then painted in the lettering, it's not as fancy as I would like but I guess this is just a mock up? I've used Pthalo Blue, Pthalo Green, Raw Umber, Buff Titanium and White to try and be coherant with colour. I tried to keep the figures quite "blocky" so that they will make sense when reduced in size for the actual book

One of the reasons I used the map was because I think the USA looks a bit like a brain (humour me I'm a veterinary nurse working with brain scanning technology...) I felt the book is realy about a journey through the author's head so I added the outline of the head. Part of me wants to make the map a bit more detailed and add a line to show the route of the journey which was from about where the front wheel is to California in the west but reason tells me this will be a bit too fussy. 

I found I could crop the original in Paint so you get;

Which looks a bit more finished. I think my choice of colours may be too muted to attract casual buyers but maybe proper lettering would add punch. The green is brighter in my original, with proper software I think I would like to liven things up a bit, can I have some embossing  on my cover or is this to be a budget publication?

Client visuals - examples

1) The brief is to create an image that feels futuristic, bold, fairly simple and slightly unnerving. The album looks into a future that is not entirely golden, rather sterile, impersonal and automated where humans are a little afraid of the machines that were built to serve them.

This is brilliant. He's a singer, he looks scared. The colours are simple, slightly brutal. The lines are reminiscent of those on the screen of an old computer, this is the future as imagined in the 1960's, Flash Gordon and Star Trek. It fits the album perfectly. (artist not named on album)

2) This is a tribute album. It feeds on nostalgia and affection but must not be sentimental. The target audience are probably over 30 many 40-50+ they need something that is sophisticated but doesn't remind them that they are ageing themselves.

Sir Peter Blake is brilliant. This is a lovely, respectful portrait of a man who is older but doesn't feel it. It's attractive to it's target audience (so much that I bought the album, having never listened to John Peel, because I love the picture - and like a few if the songs)

3) The target audience are late teenagers and their parents. The subject is important to them but not exciting. The illustration is to be used to lighten the subject matter, and to grab their attention when they are leafing through a lot of papers filled with information.

Clear, simple bright and eyecatching. The message is finance and the illustration makes it clear. Not too many colours to keep it cheap, but the choice of colours doesn't look cheap. Doesn't take attention away from the text, you feel you need to read the message to understand what is important about it. (original artist not named)

Exercise - Client Visuals

It's taken me a while to do this exercise as I struggled to find suitable images that weren't too big so that I could enlarge them 2.5 times. Luckily my daughters Guide magazine came to the rescue.

becomes....

Which I sort of like. Then to simplify the image:

Which I think is reasonably clear. (Am I allowed to say that I prefer the design in black (or grey) and white?)
Second attempt is:

I really like the original image, it's simple, it has punch, and it makes sense with the story though I guess it is a bit stereotypical and maybe not entirely appropriate for a young audience. I think that because I like the original I haven't simplified it enough in my rough which looks like an illustration in it's own right.

Further simplification gives me this which may be a bit sketchy. If I was a client I might be a bit wary of commissioning an image on the basis of this, it would need to be an established illustrator that I trusted.

Note
I'm really sorry, but if you produced these pictures I can't credit whoever you are because you are not named in the magazine. This makes me really cross, I use other peoples work here to understand what they have done and to learn from them, they should take credit for what they have created. If anyone looks at work that has been produced it should be possible for them to find out who the artist was so that they can commission work of their own if they so choose. It is unthinkable that an author of a written piece is not credited or the musicians on a record and film credits list everyone. What is the problem with illustrators?

Viewpoint - Workshop

It's funny how some projects almost draw themselves and for others I hit a wall. This exercise looked great. I chose the workshop theme, I enjoy drawing engine bits and I wanted to include a really old vice that we have in the shed which I think is beautiful.

I think the problem is that the objects I chose cannot be easily moved around, its very cold in our shed at the moment and taking photos has never been a strong point of mine. Somehow the camera stole the beauty from the scene.

There are more pictures like this. These are the best. I did some drawings to try and get back some interest but I'm struggling to take them further. 

Back to basics
Define workshop:

dictionary.com says:

workshop

/ˈwɜrkˌʃɒp/ Show S[wurk-shop]

–noun

1.

a room, group of rooms, or building in which work,  especially mechanical work,  is carried on.

2.

a seminar, discussion group, or the like, that emphasizes exchange of ideas and the demonstration and application of techniques, skills, etc.: a theater workshop; opera workshop.

 

That's interesting, could I work from the seminar/discussion group aspect? It would be nice to include figures but I don't think it would be easy to fulfil the brief of this exercise.

I think you can have a craft workshop or a sewing workshop which means I can have a fresh start without completely changing the task.

 

the photo's aren't very imaginative

but I could get carried away with the thumbnails

 I think I like 1, 2, and 3 best, difficult to choose between them but Lisa strongly prefers 1

Without backgrounds they don't illustrate workshop so I will try to add some to my final rough. Maybe 2 has more of a workshop feeling to it but it's not as visually appealing.

 This has more of a workshop feel to it so the photos were worthwhile after all.

I tried to give a sense of the window behind. This changes the dynamics as the light will need careful consideration. Maybe a hint of tools or equipment behind would be more successful. Maybe the rough makes the window too obvious and in the final image it could be softened or blurred.

What have I learned?

 I had trouble finding a viewpoint that was original, interesting and still representative of a workshop but I found that the more thumbnails I did the more potential ideas I found. I also found that doing light simple sketches made me focus on the necessary attributes of the items which would be helpful for producing a final image that is representative and uncluttered. The changing viewpoints made me realise that the obvious image did not give the best view of my chosen subject matter.

Giving Instructions - Making a cup of tea

Surprised at how few references I found to help with this, but luckily I have plenty of references in my kitchen!

I did some sketchbook studies, then tried a layout I wanted to see the mug as a clock face and the tea getting darker as the invisible clock hands moved around but it hasn't really worked

It's simple but it lacks the liveliness of the sketches.

I liked the feel of the second sketch so I shuffled it around on the computer

I think this has some potential but I want colour so I tried adding it with pencil;

which was a bit weak so I painted a printout with acrylic

Then coloured the background with the computer

Maybe the black and white image was the best? They all float in space which was a valid criticism from Jo my tutor. Also my sons thought that the tea was being made in a bowl or bucket but the addition of a mug handle doesn't fit in the picture.