Saturday 29 March 2014

And Another …


Another image to add to the growing collection. Finished for now but I'm sure it'll be changed or added to again at some point!

Friday 28 March 2014

Working Progress


The start … 


And when I (think) finished it … 

Putting together some more work for my finals. Here's the next one, or at least a possibility. I aim to start putting the finals together now, so that I can make changes towards the end and with plenty of time. We all know how stressful and manic deadlines can get when drawing close to the finish so I'm trying to stick to schedule, so I can avoid that stress!

Wednesday 26 March 2014

First Page


I've been working on this most of the weekend so unfortunately was off to a bit of a slow start! But the ball is rolling now and I'm looking forward to continuing the pages that will follow.

Practicing Horses







The past few images I'd attempted of drawing a horse didn't work out so well - their legs are longer and skinnier than I thought, so that's what I've been practicing. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to actually go to a farm of field etc to view them properly from observation but I was watching videos instead. I think there's a improvement, but as always, there could probably be more. ;)

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Preparation for Finals







This title sounds like I'm entered for a sports competition. Sorry to disappoint, but it is in fact my illustration. I have yet more ink drawings here and there are actually a fair few that I've already done which I can still use, but I am concentrating on improving the drawing and getting the images correct for my final spreads. This week, that's what I'm working towards - FINALS! Or at least starting them. I have a good few weeks yet before the Macmillan deadline and once my dissertation is done I believe I'll be away! There were places in my dummy books where the images weren't correct so I need to go back and redraw these, so I can then use them in my finals. Bring on the drawing - I'm loving it!

Monday 24 March 2014

It's that time again!




Back to drawing again for the moment in preparation for my final images. First watercolours now more ink - it's never ending. There is no space on the floor!

Noma Bar








Some of Noma's other work besides his faces ;) … 





We were fortunate enough to be joined by Noma Bar this week, where he treated us to a show about his work. The funniest thing about the whole experience was that towards the end when we were asked if we wanted to ask any questions, the whole room remained in silence. But I can honestly say that it was't because we didn't have any questions, I think it had more to do with the fact that we were all is awe! 

Noma Bar's work appears in the most simplistic form yet even after he explained, it is so clear that he spends hours and hours, reading and trying to understand his subject matter. As my tutors put it, 'a fantastic illustrator can make a line look effortless, but what the viewers don't see is the amount of time taken to make that mark and to understand the subject enough to produce it so accurately.' 

He showed us some of the drawings he had done from when he was younger and there was a clear theme appearing in his work before he even realised. Mainly he finds ways of incorporating more than one subject into an image. From this he simply progressed further and further, experimenting first in 2D, then attempting the same thing with an interactive paper cutting monster, putting his work into woodwork and metal, 3D and so on. He caught my interest particularly when he explained about a book he had done 'Peter and the Wolf'. I didn't ask whether it was a children's book or not but it was based on a children's story and I was fascinated because it wash;t the sort of work I expected Noma to go for. It just goes to show that even he wants to experiment and it's refreshing to know another illustrator who refuses to be stuck with one theme. 

It was also interesting how much his background had influenced his work. He was born in Israel and around his childhood there was a lot of conflict; he went to the navy for 3 years and then decided to do 4 years in graphic design so producing projects about conflicting countries seemed a personal subject. When he showed us these images they were extremely emotive. 

One thing Noma finally spoke about, which I think is gradually becoming a regular theme from the talks I've been attending, is that we should do the things we want to do in illustration. If we're not enjoying it then there's something wrong. 

"Try to be honest with yourself. Try not to be confused by the things you see around you."

Finally I'm starting to realise that I should (in a way) be worrying less about my grade at the end of this course - not that it isn't important because I firmly believe that it is, but I've come across so many illustrators now that have experienced many different things in their life before coming to their realisation about illustration. Finally I think I'm starting to realise that I should be enjoying my work, which I am at the moment, and worrying less about what anyone thinks. I know that these illustrators will continue to inspire, I hope that I can continue to let them help me believe in my own ability. 

So without sounding too cringey! I'd really like to thank … 

of course Noma Bar

and all those who inspired me x

Friday 21 March 2014

Other Image Ideas



These are just some of the extra images I've made along the way that I really quite like. Thought they were worth showing you all - I'd love your opinion. What could I use them for?

Sarah Maycock





So as you know I recently talked about Tim McDonagh 's work. After his talk at MAD fest he very kindly looked at my own work and gave me his opinion and advice and suggested I have a look at Sarah Maycock's work. 

Sarah is yet another beautiful illustrator who I can honestly say I'm a little envious of - she has some wonderful work and I can only hope that one day mine will look as stunning as hers. Her drawings are very loose and free but the actual image is without a doubt clearly what it's supposed to be. The fewer marks she seems to make the more alluring the image appears. This quality which attracts to her work is what I'd like to aim to capture in my own. A fluidity and freeness that is so comfortable and pleasing to look at and ENJOY. 

Thursday 20 March 2014

Photoshop Dummy with text













As promised I've posted a few scans of my Photoshop dummy book with the text added. I did it with and without the text because as part of the Macmillan brief we have to present the spread with the text on acetate, so it's a good idea to keep in mind what the image looks like both with and without the text. Ideally I want the images to narrate themselves if no text was required. What do you think?

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Tim McDonagh





So today it was MAD fest a chance for all the creatives around the uni to get together and put on shows, showcase their work, do talks, exhibitions, events, and loads more crazy and eventful things. I currently feel like I'm running around like a headless chicken the whole time at the moment so unfortunately I didn't have loads of time to stop and appreciate it as I would normally like to but I did however manage to squeeze in the opportunity to sit in with a talk by Tim McDonagh. 

Tim is an ex student from Westminster and he was invited back to talk to us all about his work prior uni, during and after. I also managed to ask for his advice after which was a huge help. I was fascinated from the start because just after 2 seconds into his talk he listed some of his clients since university and the list was huge! Amongst some of them were HMV, Nike, Virgin, the Sunday Times, Newsweek, Penguin and Newscientist and believe me these are just a few. What struck me most was how wide his clients were in terms of their styles and the types of illustration that are expected of them. For example some are Editorial whereas something like Penguin would suggest children's books. These are two very different ways of entering the illustration world, so Tim obviously has no limits which is hugely inspiring. To me that shows he's not healed back and hasn't been stuck in one style. Everything is OPEN! 

Another thing which hit me was how much he stressed the importance of 'enjoying the illustration', that we should only be drawing what we enjoy and the way we enjoy things. Again this is so encouraging to know that someone can go into the real world and be successful for ENJOYING something. Along the way he haves us tips on selling our work, agents, how to approach briefs and pieces of work and so on which was a brilliant insight from someone who genuinely seemed to really enjoy what he was doing but rolled with it. 

I really like Tim's style of work. Personally I have always appreciated and 'enjoyed' creating extremely detailed pieces of work so when he presented us with some of his own I was instantly engrossed. I've always been told that detail freezes a drawing but with Tim's work this is clearly not the case and instead we're given a bold but captivating and beautiful image, which is almost like a window into another world. Perhaps I'm over describing but I'll leave you with his website so you can see why I love his work so much. :) x