Vistaprint Review

In May/June of this year, for my end of year exhibition, through Vistaprint, I had created a portfolio book and a set of business cards.

Although I have had a change of heart with the design/pattern of the original business cards and the cover of the portfolio book, I do not believe that was the fault of Vistaprint, as I actually loved the quality of my products, and the time in which it took to deliver the items was quite efficient. Vistaprint are specific on their website about their delivery times and for me, the estimated delivery dates were spot on.

It was from my experience with this company, (and the enticing black Friday sales) that I had wanted to use the site again, as to order new business cards. I had also checked out a company called ‘Moo’, as suggested by one of my tutors, but when comparing prices, at that current time, Vistaprint was cheaper for the quantity of product I was getting. I believe with Moo, I could get 50 for the price of £15, whereas on Vistaprint I could get 100 for the same price, this including the extra price for the design on both sides.

If anything, when designing the product on the layout of the website, I wish you could zoom in to see for yourself if the quality of your image is good or not, rather than the site just saying ‘this image is good quality’. I believe if I was able to do this, I would have been able to see that the original business cards I had created in May/June, were a bit blurry in the text, and I may have been able to make changes at that time, as opposed to ordering them then noticing the problem after it was too late. However, I probably still would have fallen out of love with the overall design, so it’s all good.

Review of the product.

My business cards have arrived, 3 business days after ordering them; I had ordered them on Friday night, the 23rd, and the delivery date was estimated to be for the 30th, but they have come today on Wednesday the 28th, so I have had good experiences with their deliveries, both with this order and my previous. I believe the delivery times do change depending on the item you’re expecting, for instance with my last order, I had ordered both my cards and book at the same time, but the cards had arrived well before my book, but I do feel they are good with their estimated times, if not better as shown by my early delivery today.

I was so nervous to receive these cards after my previous experience, but when opening the box, the quality is SOOOO much better than my last business cards! This just proves to me that it was just a problem on my side, with the quality of the image within my last set of business cards, as opposed to the problem coming from the companies end.

Now looking over the card, if I can nitpick at anything, I would say that the black and grey tones have come out a bit warmer than I had intended, but its not a huge problem in my eyes, it would have been more annoying if it had only happened in a specific area, or only on one side, however as it is the same throughout and on both sides, there is more cohesion to it so it is less noticeable.

46846058_1167626096721170_7102332171783766016_n

46963817_603634426760857_5125651405981351936_n

Personal opinions (Not concerning the company)

I am absolutely IN LOVE with the results of these prints! I feel in comparison to my previous business cards, it is much more simple, minimal and professional, but still shows my work and what a potential client can expect from me. I feel with my old business cards, they were a bit too overpowering and did not really show my work within the design. Although yes, I did create the pattern, I do not feel it was visible enough for someone to say ‘ooh yes, I like this person’s work’, so I do like these new cards, as it is almost like a product in itself.

In the past, I have collected other artists business cards, as it is still a piece of their artwork, so I feel in a similar way, if someone were to take my business card, they could potentially want to keep it, as it is a piece of my artwork in itself, even if it is smaller than my average print.

I feel I will be much more confident to give people my business cards now, as I am more happy with the design and quality of the imagery, whereas I was a bit more embarrassed to give away my cards previously, as I was less proud of the design and the text did have a slight blur, so I did not feel as if it were the best representation of myself.

Online Stores

In this blog post, as I have recently been in the search for places online where I could potentially open my own shop and sell any product I make over the year, I thought others could potentially benefit from what I have learnt and my opinions on certain cites. I plan to keep these descriptions fairly brief, but knowing myself, I may babble, so we shall see!

If you are following along with this blog for your own research into online stores, I would recommend that you do your own research as well, as this information is just from what I have heard or found, and have formed my own opinions on, so they might not be exactly accurate as I have not worked with any forms of an online store before. For me, this will just be a learning process, hopefully learning, developing and expanding my business as I go.

Redbubble

This is a site in which I know one of my friends has used in the past (I’m not exactly sure if he still uses it though), it is a company which allows you to create your own products through their facilities. I believe you submit your design, then choose the products that you would want it printed on, then through redbubble’s marketplace, they are able to sell your work. The company does everything for you, from printing the product to shipping it out to the customer. For its services, I believe they do take a small cut from each of the purchases you make.

I believe I would have considered this as an option, however, I feel it does lose some of the personal factors by the company doing everything for you. One time, I had ordered a couple of Zines from an artist named Nil, or @Badwitches on Instagram, and I did love the pieces I had ordered, but I looooved the personal touches she had added within her packaging. The way she had written the address in pink, and had written ‘Thank you’ on the back, and inside there was a lot of loose heart confetti (which was a bit messy, but such a cute addition), I have even kept the envelope because of how cute I thought these additions were.

It is things like this that I feel I want to do when sending out my own work in my own packaging, adding in little details that could feel more personal for the buyer. I feel that by solely working through the company, it would feel cold in a sense, as I would not be connecting with my buyer in any way, other than them owning a piece of my work, but something that I have not personally put time into creating (yes I would have put time into creating the design, but I would not have spent the time working with the product itself.)

Etsy

From multiple artists I follow on social media, who had sold their work on Etsy, they have ended up moving and using other platforms to sell their work, in places such as Big Cartel, or with their own personalised online stores. I believe this was due to the percentage cut in which Etsy was taking from them. Although yes, I do understand that the company want to be paid a certain percentage, as they are allowing you to sell your through their site, however, I feel for smaller businesses, this cut would have a bigger dint to them as opposed to a company that is getting a lot of regular business.

As I myself will be starting up a small business, with quite a small following, I don’t think this is necessarily the best option for myself.

Big Cartel

This site can potentially cost, but it offers a tier like system, offering more for more money or less for none. If you did not want to spend money on this site, you would only be able to sell 5 products, with one image per item. However I believe through this site, you would still be able to have full control of production, posting and packing etc, making the item as personal as you desired for your buyer.

If I were making more consistent money from my art, enough to pay a monthly fee, I would find that this would be a potential option. However, as I am just starting, and do not know how my work will sell on an online platform, this is not something I would want to spend too much money on right now until I have more information/knowledge of running a business.

Depop

This is typically an app which people sell clothing and accessories through, however over the years, I have seen that someone who I had known from my previous course had started selling her own artwork on it. After a little look, I had found that it almost works like Instagram, as you are able to add tags to the items that you are selling, making it easier for people with similar interests to find your work. You are also able to like items, which allows a person to come back to the post later on, possibly if they weren’t so sure, or if they didn’t have money at the time, etc. But the likes from an item may also boost your post so that it is higher in the search results, I do not know this for sure, but this is the way that Instagram has recently been working.

I do believe that the company takes a cut from your payment when someone purchases your item, but I believe it is small, so I could potentially counteract the cut by pushing up the price a little more. I feel my products are already a lower price within the market, so I believe by pushing it up by 30p or something, it would not make too much of a difference to the buyer.

Another reason why I like this option, again, is that I feel I can connect more with my audience/buyers. I can make the packaging more personal, adding little touches here and there, but the customers are also able to give their feedback as well, reviewing the products or delivery time etc. Although I do think this common on all of the platforms I have mentioned, I feel people may check the reviews of sellers on depop more, as I feel the customer wants to know that they can trust the person they are buying from, so from the reviews, they can see what they can potentially expect from them, whether the quality was good or not, or whether the delivery had taken a long time or short. I believe as with other websites, the more good reviews you get, the more people will trust and want to buy from you too (only if they want too though, obviously).

Own Online Website

I have not done a lot of research into this field as of yet, as I feel there would be a lot of ways you could potentially go about doing it. You could essentially form your own site, which I assume you would have to pay a monthly fee for, then you would have to have a place that could take transactions, allowing your customer to pay and for you to get that money smoothly, but I’m not sure of the ways in which you could do this? I have recently seen advertisements for a site called Shopify, but I believe you have to pay a monthly fee for that too. I would definitely need to do much more research if I were to chose this option.

However, by selling your work through your own site, it would mean that you have full control over your business, the production, packaging, shipping, etc. It could potentially help in all of your business efficiently being in one place, for instance, as well as a shop, the site could have your portfolio of work, a creative cv, links to any of your other social platforms, and information about you.

Final thoughts.

Currently, I have chosen to create a shop through Depop, as it does seem the best option for me at this point in my career, as I am just a small business starting up. But hopefully, as I grow and expand my knowledge of business, one day, if I do gain a bigger following and do have a good regular income from my business, I do hope to run my own website, selling my products on my own, as opposed to working on a third parties platform, potentially paying them some of my profit. I believe by having my own website, my whole business will be accessible within one place, as it will contain my store for potential customers, my links to other social platforms, such as Instagram, or even my blog, both of which I am quite active on, and for any potential clients, I will include my portfolio of work, possibly categorised for easier access, a creative cv, general information about myself, and an enquiry page in which they can email me directly from the site.

Please, if you have any thoughts or your own experiences with these websites or apps, feel free to comment them. As I am only starting up myself and have not had a lot of experience selling my own work before, (no experience at all with any of the sites mentioned so far), I would love to hear from others who have and I will happily accept any advice I can get, thank you!

Melon and Lime Comics – Biggest Fan

This comic is based on a recent event, in which I had gone to see Liam in a play called ‘Education, Education, Education’. He had performed so well in this play, making everyone laugh, there were even moments when myself and his sister couldn’t stop laughing, sometimes at inappropriate moments, which we had apologised afterwards, but I was so proud of him and said so in detail after the play, in which he replied with a simple ‘Thank you’.

It has been a concept of ours for a while to create a comic about our talents, but we could never think of a way in which best to design it so that it was not too cringy or too braggy about ourselves.

So, with this comic, I had shown my experience with his show, then compared it to when Liam had come to my exhibition, which I believe was a similar experience but roles were reversed, him being proud of me, and my response of a modest ‘thank you’.

I did have worries if this comic would fit within our work, as it is not as humorous as our previous comics have been. However, Liam had reassured me that our comics our about relatability, and shows that as a couple we do support one another, we are essentially each other’s biggest fans, which I agree that other couples would be able to relate to.

When designing this comic, I did have struggles with anatomy. Although our characters are more cartoony and not exactly anatomically correct, I did struggle with certain poses, especially in the 3rd and 6th frame, trying to express the emotion of excitement and modesty/shyness of the characters. I believe I did get the characters to a place that I’m ok with, but anatomy and poses will definitely be something that I will have to work on whilst producing these comics, as I do want my characters to be able to communicate a specific emotion from their poses, as well as their expressions.

If you enjoy this comic and would like to see more, please have a look at our Instagram @MelonandLimeComics, we appreciate any likes or follows that we get! I have also made a couple of blog posts about some of the newer comics, so if you would like to know more about the thought processes behind them, and how they have come to life, feel free to check those out too. Thank you!

Business Cards

From the pressures of Black Friday, and with the desire to make new business cards, as I can’t find or remember where the last ones are, and the fact that I had ended up not really liking them when comparing them to the rest of my classes, they did match my portfolio book, however by themselves, the pattern was a bit busy and over overpowering in a sense, I decided to take this opportunity to design new business cards, and potentially get a good deal for them.

Recently, I had seen an artist I follow on Instagram, by the name of @Imzeferino post an image of her new business cards, and I had really enjoyed the layout of them. As shown in the images below, she had created a character, which may be a representation of herself, on the front of her card and had put all of her information on the back. I like the idea of this, as her business card is so beautiful that it is almost a print in itself, so when people receive her work, they would also receive the business card, which in my mind, would be like getting two prints for the price of one, even if the second is smaller.

Isadora Zeferino – Business Card Front

Isadora Zeferino – Business Card Back

business cards woman

So taking inspiration from this layout, I tried choosing one of my own designs, that could be the best representation of my work. I had initially planned to use one of my queens, click here to see which, but I could not seem to fit her correctly into the template I was using, and I had started to lose faith in her, whether she was, in fact, the best representation of myself and my work. So back to the drawing board, I decided that I would use a different design, one which I am quite proud of, which I have not seemed to get sick of as of yet. I am talking about the piece to the right, which I had initially designed to go on the window inside of my classroom, using a vinyl, but as that was a representation of my work during the exhibition and will be until it is taken down, and as I have not fallen out of love with it yet, after seeing it in class for the past however many weeks I have been back at college for, I decided it will be a good motif to use for my business card.

When first designing this, using the templates on Vistaprint, (review possibly coming when the business cards arrive?) due to pressures of the Black Friday sales, as I had started this process on Wednesday night, I did partially rush the process, basically only using sources available to hand, as opposed to putting some actual time and effort into the design, which I do regret now looking back, but I have gone back into the design and refined it further, putting the actual time and effort into it, as I should have done in the beginning, so, as the woman did not need much work, other than positioning her on the layout, I tried taking shortcuts with the back of the card, using the fonts available from the website for the titles, and for the social links I had tried to take the ones I had hand-drawn for my inktober zine, which were pretty rough but at that time, I just thought ‘it’ll do’.

46831027_589688568133279_6959219235801268224_n

46891338_197131074554339_1224298552486789120_n

I am so glad that I had decided to get a second opinion the following day, however, as there was a lack of effort within the design, and I believe it would have been visible if I had sent them off, which would not have been a good selling point to potential clients, for them to see that if I can not put the effort into my own branding, why would they want to hire me. So, my second opinion had come from my tutor Laura during a one to one, who had suggested that I have look on google fonts. This suggestion was mostly directed at the font I had used for the social links as the one I had drawn is very common and quite ‘indie/hipster’ these days, (if the term hipster is still even used nowadays?). So once home, I had searched google fonts and found a couple which could work. The sans serif ones were more directed at the titles, as my tutor said that since I create more fantasy inspired pieces, I would be more able to get away with this type of font, but personally sans serif fonts are my favourite, as I feel they are more historical or fantasy inspired than serif fonts? The serif fonts I had selected were more directed at the social links. Taking inspiration from the original (but rough) layout, I still wanted to use a thin and slightly elongated text. Again when talking to Laura, I had found this was another preference of mine, as I do tend to like tall and slim things, like models or illustrations of women with elongated necks, or creepy hands with long thin fingers, (I’m trying my hardest not to make this sound weird).

So I had decided to work with both types of fonts, but from a list of options, I had asked my friend Kellie if she thought the fonts would work together or whether she thought I should keep looking. My friend is currently studying Graphic Design at Lincoln University but has more knowledge, more love and a better eye for typography so her opinion was very valuable to me! From the options I had shown her, she had selected two fonts that she felt would work together, one being a serif and the other being sans serif, and I had very much agreed with her choices beforehand, but I did want her genuine opinion so did not tell her until afterwards.

So getting back to my design, using the two new fonts, I had redesigned the information side of my business cards, and I had also created new social icons by using a watercolour brush in photoshop, taking a swatch from the red on the woman, then I painted it into a selected area that I had made from a specific icon.

From Laura’s advice, once I had recreated my business card, (with more effort this time) she had told me to ask one of my other tutors, Sarah, who teaches graphic design, and will have a better idea about layout, typography and so on, so I had asked her the following day. Although we were both somewhat sidetracked at that time, more focused on creating zines with the risograph, she had explained to me the improvements I could make, one being making more difference between each set of words, my name, job title, then the social links, and she had drawn me a diagram which did help in showing her view, but as I had gotten sidetracked for a while then came back to it, I was more confused than I originally was, wondering whether I had actually gotten the layout correct and so on. At this point of the day, Sarah had already gone home, so it was too late to get her opinion again.

So, I had rallied up a few classmates, Katie and Grant, to try to get their opinion and potentially make any more improvements. From this, I had moved together with the spacing between my forename and surname, I had resized the job title and had repositioned the social media links. Then, with the help and suggestion of Grant, I had added in a line between my name and job title, so that they would be more separate from one another, this did make it look more professional, but also helped in tying the design together, especially as Grant was experimenting with the line, and had turned it into a textured brush stroke instead. This again made my business card look more professional, but also gave a hint to my job with the brush stroke.

For a final nod of approval, I sent the design back to my friend Kellie to get her opinion of the design, and all she had suggested was centring the design so that there was the same amount of white space above as there was below, but other than that, she loved it. So after making this final adjustment, I uploaded the designs to Vistaprint and have now sent them off. From my email, the expected delivery date will be on the 30th, so next Friday, so I will potentially review the company and the quality of my business cards then.

I would like to say a great big thank you to all of the people who had helped me through this process, two of my tutors, Laura and Sarah, who I believe read my blogs because they have to (I’m sorry, but thank you for your input) and I would like to thank my fellow classmates Katie Marshall, otherwise known as NosticArt on both Instagram and WordPress, and Grant Oliphant who goes by his name on both Instagram and WordPress. I don’t believe either will probably read this post or get this far if they do, let’s be honest. And lastly my friend Kel, who again, probably won’t read this blog, but she is the most amazing and valued adviser, and she is amazing at what she does, so if anyone is still reading at this point, you should definitely have a look at her work on Instagram @Kxllixdesign.

business cards

Edit/Addition – 18/04/2019

Since creating a website for myself, I felt this would be a key link missing from my business card so I decided to redo the information side. In this second attempt, I had downloaded free vector social media icons from iconfinder.com, a group which was named ‘Social Media (Solid) Icons created by Bagus Kusnadar, click here to download them yourself. By downloading the icons from the same group, this made them more uniform than the previous ones I used, as they are all square, as opposed to a mixture of circles and squares. I still applied the same colours and textures to the icons, however since there are now more links, the layout has changed slightly so below is shown the new information.

List of Illustrations

Figure 1 and 2 – Zeferino, I. (17 Nov. 2018) Instagram. [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/BqSkrJllskE/ [Accessed on 23 Nov 2018]

Icons Downloaded – [Online] Available from: https://www.iconfinder.com/iconsets/social-media-solid-2 [Accessed on 18 Apr 2019]

All of the other imagery used is my own.

The Timeplan

9 weeks into the first semester and I’m already not following the timetable I had originally planned within my proposal for the year.

I believe this is due to multiple confusing factors from the beginning till now, one of them being that I have chosen to read all of the books. After finishing The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and realising how long it had taken, (which wasn’t exactly long, but longer than I had initially expected) I decided to start reading ‘Howls Moving Castle’ for the House of Illustration competition, then after I finished that, I started and am currently reading Norwegian Wood, but I still have to read Wonder, both books being apart of the Penguin competition.

Another factor to my confusion is that my tutor has been wanting specific things done by a certain point, such as a statement of intents or the research for the projects, so instead of working at my own pace, following my set timetable, I have been trying to complete them all at once which has not done me very well.

So, with these factors, I feel I have just gotten confused in which project I should be working on, so probably have not done as much as I could have if I were specifically concentrating on one.

SO, with 9 weeks left, (8 now that I am posting this) I am going to replan my timetable so that I can properly concentrate on one project at a time.

newtime — New and Improved Timetable, Starting 12/11/18

Inktober – I have spent wayyyy too long on this project, so this week (and possibly a bit of next) I am going to try round off this project, getting the zines printed, making sure that everything is fully annotated, making an evaluation, and just getting this project out of the way so that I can concentrate on the others properly.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – I know I need time to work within the college, using the facilities available, so I believe I am going to work on this project next week, then break off for a month or so to do the competitions, then during the last 2 weeks before deadline, I will print my final designs and round off the project

House of Illustration – 3 (now 2) weeks from now, I plan to focus on my House of Illustration project, creating a book cover and set of illustrations for the book ‘Howls Moving Castle, over a 3-week time period. This time will be spent on researching, sketching, experimenting, then producing the final designs.

Penguin Student Design Awards – 6 (now 5) weeks from now, I will start working on yet another competition, which again I plan to do within a 3-week timeframe. Again, I will be working in a similar routine/method to the previous project, researching, sketching, experimenting, then producing the final designs, however, this time I will be doing this process with two books, one being Wonder by R. J. Palacio, and Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami.

I hope that with this new timetable, that there will be less confusion, I will be able to focus on one project at a time, and inevitably, I will be able to get more work done.

Melon and Lime Comics – Meet Arya!

Following from last weeks comic, ‘Meeting Tilly’, we had wanted to introduce our other cat, Arya.

When coming up with a concept for this comic, we had so many different stories about Arya and her typical habits, so instead of just focusing on one story (as we had done for Tilly) we decided to incorporate all of our ideas into one, working in a similar style as to the comic we had created based on mine and Liam’s ‘Artist Quirks’ when that subject was trending amongst the artist community on Instagram.

arya

Although I did not have many technical difficulties with this comic, I believe because they were all designed on one page and opposed to designing the frames one by one which would be on a bigger scale, looking at the piece now, I do think I should have made the text within the frames bigger, so that they could be more readable. So this will be something that I will consider more in future comics.

If you enjoy this comic and would like to see more of our work, feel free to have a look at our Instagram page @MelonandLimeComics. We hope you enjoy!

Melon and Lime Comics – Meet Tilly!

Back again with a new comic!

This one is about Liam’s cat named Tilly, who I have practically adopted since first ever meeting her, seeing that she OBVIOUSLY loves me more!

Me and Liam were talking about the comics and how Wednesday (my kitten) has been a main character in most of the comics so far, but Liam also has two other cats that live in his room, who I also class as my children, so we wanted to introduce these characters into our comics too. This week we decided to start with Tilly.

Tilly is the type of cat that you have to be patient with, she pretty much hates everyone, including me when we first met (she’d just run and hide from me), but once she got to know me better, and I learned more about her tendencies, she let me cuddle her (at her specific times only) and has ended up sleeping on me most nights.

Liam and Tilly, on the other hand, have more of a love-hate relationship, I guess because he has to live with her all the time, and I’m just blinded by heart goggles, but she tends to do things that anger him more, such as jumping onto his PC, knocking things over, etc, but I seem to be more patient with her, which is why I believe she loves me more, other than the fact I feed her meat.

So, me and Liam had wanted to express this relationship and introduce Tilly into our comics, and to our audience, expressing her personality as best as we could.

I did have similar struggles when it came to producing these comics as I had last week, (i.e. my computer running slower, especially when it came to colouring) but since I knew this would be an issue again, I was somewhat more prepared, in the sense that I knew what was to come, so I would say that I got slightly less stressed than I had in the previous week.

If you are enjoying our comics and would like to see more, please check out our Instagram @Melonandlimecomics. We do hope to make and post at least one comic per week. We hope you enjoy!

Howls Moving Castle – Review

SPOILER WARNING! Possibly? If you have not read the story or have not seen the movie, there could potentially be spoilers within this blog. There may not be, but the warning is there just in case!

After finishing this book I have found that I have personal issues with letting go. I loved this story so much that I just wanted it to keep going, I wanted to know what else happened, even if it was just following the characters day to day life. This book had me well and truly hooked, and I’m sad that it is over and I can’t read onwards.

I had also come across this issue when watching Bohemian Rhapsody, I have become so drawn in by the people and the story, that I want to find out more about Queen and the members, especially Freddie, I just want to know more of their story, I want to know everything! I went to see the movie on Halloween, and since, I have been watching old interviews or documentaries, or interviews from the cast of Bohemian Rhapsody, etc, pretty much on a daily basis, it’s becoming a problem. If you haven’t seen the movie, I would definitely recommend!

Anyways, moving away from my tangent and getting back to the review at hand, I loved this story. I was going to try explaining the story, but I could not find the words to do so, to do it justice, or not give away too much of the story, so quoting from the book’s blurb by Diana Wynne Jones:

“In the land of Ingary, where seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist. Sophie Hatter attracts the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste, who puts a curse on her. Determined to make the best of things, Sophie Travels to the one place where she might get help – the moving castle which hovers on the nearby hills.

But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the hearts of young girls” (Diana Wynne Jones, 2009)

The book managed to suck me in, not with the battles between Howl and the Witch or Sophie and the Witch, but more within the simplicities of the everyday happenings within Sophie’s life, because there was always something new happening, whether it was her conversations with Michael, Calcifer or even her disputes with Howl, there would always be a new interest within that day, whether Sophie was (SPOILERS?) jumping from place to place with seven-league boots, accidentally growing Howls suit too long, getting lost around Kingsbury, the list just goes on and it is what I believe made the book so much fun to read, the battling with the Witch was just a bonus.

The book is different from Studio Ghiblis adaptation, although I did personally enjoy the book more, as I felt I learnt more about the characters than the movie had given, I do believe they are both amazing in their own rights.

DEFINITE SPOILERS AHEAD!

There have been changes made in the process of turning the story into a movie, some more obvious than others such as:

Studio Ghibli have definitely added their overall aesthetic to the movie, such as
- the appearance of the characters and the castle. In the book, I believe Michael is supposed to be older, whereas, in the movie, Markl seems quite young, but does disguise himself as an older wizard a lot.
- the castle is a lot more creature looking within the movie, with elements that could suggest eyes, a mouth and possibly wings, whereas the author had described a more typical castle, which is blockier with turrets and chimneys etc.
- the Witches henchmen have a more blob-like appearance, they do not have faces so it is quite creepy.
The theme of war is more present within the movie. According to an interview at the end of the book, the author had said that this was Miyazaki’s influence as he “crammed the story full of flying machines and war scenes” which was based on a brief mention of war from the king in the story. This explains why:
- Howl is more part of the war. He is more heroic in this adaptation, as he did seem quite cowardly within the book, not really wanting to work with the king.
- Although the witch is still a threat in the movie and does still kind of do what she had intended within the book, I believe the King is more of a threat that the characters worry about, as the king wants Howl so that he will turn into a beast and fight in his war.
There was also a change with where the black door led. In the movie, it was to a memory of Howls childhood, whereas in the book, the door led to Howls family’s home in modern-day Wales, which REALLY took me by surprise. From the movie, I was not expecting it at all, and actually enjoyed discovering more about Howls life and his family.
Sophie’s magic in the book was not really present in the movie? She had the ability to talk to objects to give them power, for instance, her cane had a protection charm which had kept her safe and helped her in defeating the witch.
The girls family wasn’t really a big part, although you briefly met Lettie within the bake shop, it did not really go into depth, talking about how she had two sisters, Lettie and Martha, who were both sent to do different apprenticeships, one in a bakery, the other being trained in magic, but they swapped places, so that Martha was the one in the Bakery, and she was actually in love with Michael.
The scarecrow was waaaay more friendly in the movie, whereas, in the book, he terrified the characters, and even made Sophie’s old heart shiver.
As I have mentioned, the Witch was not as much of a threat, but Howl was not being chased or running away from a curse sent by the Witch that would potentially catch up with him. The Witch actually seems more weak within the movie, so it makes sense when Sophie takes pity on her and takes her in, not due to better judgment.

These are just some of the many changes from the book to Studio Ghiblis adaptation of it, but I am in no way saying that one is better than the other, because although you may have more information from the book, Studio Ghibli has given such a beautiful visualisation of the characters and scenery etc, for instance, you are actually able to see Sophie’s age changing throughout, and see what howl can see, whereas, in the book, you just find out that he has known about her curse the whole time.

If you have not read the book or have not seen the movie or both, after reading all of my spoiler warnings, I definitely would recommend doing both. If you have read the book but not watched the movie, do it! If you have seen the movie but have not read the book, do it! Both are so amazing in their own right so I would not recommend one above the other, you should just watch and read both!

Bibliography

Howls Moving Castle. (2004). [Film] Directed by H. Miyazaki. Japan: Studio Ghibli.

Jones, D. W. (2009) Howls Moving Castle. London: HarperCollins. Blurb.

Jones, D. W. (2009) Howls Moving Castle. London: HarperCollins. Anime and Author.

Melon and Lime Comics – The Routine

One week later and we’re still going, are you amazed? I’m amazed!

This comic is based on my love for my new kitten Wednesday. My partner made a comment that we were basically the same, just constantly eating and sleeping, so he had suggested that be the bases for our next comic, so HERE WE ARE!

routine-f5

I did have struggles with this piece, not necessarily with the content, but more with the process of creating it, I found it took waaaaaaay too long to create this piece, as my photoshop file would have too many glitches or would buffer a lot, especially when I was trying to colour. Ideally I think this piece should have taken 20 minutes per frame at maximum, but instead, it had taken me 5 hours to finish the whole piece. I was not pleased in the slightest.

I don’t know if this had meant that the file was too large, or whether I need a new computer, but I don’t believe I could have done much else to make the document smaller, and I probably have attachment issues to my laptop, I’m scared to get rid of it and get a new one, which I probably should do, but probably won’t, not until its very much dead.

So, this may be a recurring issue in weeks to come, when I work on the comics once again. Soooo, FUN TIMES AHEAD!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Inktober: Days 29-31

Day 29: Double – Azalea

43914922_317761805672640_5597004542500540936_n

For this piece, I had chosen a flower that grows in bunches but decided to only draw two, as to fit the theme of the prompt, and with it, create two sisters.

These sisters were initially planned to be twins, however when it came to drawing them at different angles, I seemed to struggle with the features, so they look more like sisters as opposed to twins.

On one hand there is an older sister who protects her younger sibling, but on the other hand, the younger sister is quite mischevious and gets her self into trouble. So, the older sister often has to look after the younger one, and often has to apologise for her sister’s actions.

Day 30: Jolt – Dianthus

43778462_302329973703316_9113760141124284977_n

For this piece, similar to previous ones, I had wanted to create an afro silhouette with the petals from the flower I had taken inspiration from. With the Dianthus flower, it has a ‘jolt’ of colour going in an almost circular pattern around the petals, and I had wanted to incorporate this element, but when I have done so, the petals almost look more like butterfly wings, which as our Lord and Saviour, Bob Ross says, is a happy little accident that I had came across, as I feel it makes the character look sweeter in a sense.

I feel this character would be very caring and gentle, with an almost healing and calming essence to her.

Day 31: Slice – Calibrachoa Lemon Slice

43242319_2198183530421814_4379516291604802399_n

As this is my final piece for inktober, and it falls upon the day of Halloween, other than the already given pattern of the flower, I decided to keep the colours black and white, in a stripe pattern, which I believe also fits well with a Halloween theme and style. The style also reminds me of Beetlejuice, which is one of my favourite Tim Burton movies, especially for Halloween.

I really like how this character turned out, and feel she is a good ending to the challenge. I feel I may have had good and bad pieces during the month, however, I am very happy to end with this character.

As of her backstory, I feel she would be an entertainer of some sorts, possibly the ringleader of a circus, as she is very upright and I feel she could command an audience.

My opinion on the experience as a whole.

OH MY GOD! I can’t believe I’ve actually made it to this point! I have managed to complete every design within the time frames, posting one to social media each day, and not missing one!

Although there have been some pieces where I have struggled with shaky lines, bleeding ink or positioning of features, I believe this challenge has made me more confident with working traditionally, especially with ink, and I would like to do more linework by hand in future projects.

I have worked quite small during this project, so maybe in future, I will try to work a bit bigger, as this may have given me more issues than necessary, as the little mistakes would be more noticeable on a smaller illustration.

But I am excited to work traditionally again in the future, as I have gained more confidence and would like to see how the techniques and process I have learnt would work when applied to different imagery.

I have missed working digitally though so I may give myself a little break from ink, just for a little while, once this project is out of the way and the zine has been created.

Future plans.

As I have stated throughout these blog posts, especially with some pieces in particular, when it comes to putting all of these characters into a zine, I will be returning to some of the pieces to refine them further, whether it be by doing so digitally, or by redrawing the whole piece.

I also wish to add in items that would go along with these characters. Not for each of them, maybe just for the ones who have a stronger backstory, as I don’t want to be spending another 31 days on this challenge, and I feel 62 pages may be a bit too much for a zine?

I do still plan to make the zine, possibly by using the risograph available in college. Once I have refined all of the characters to my standard, I will scan them all in digitally, edit them properly so that the colours are richer, and the white background of the sheet will not be visible, then I will lay them out into pages for the zine, ready print out and to make masters with on the risograph. I believe I will only be using the black ink on the riso, as I want to keep the designs as similar to the original pieces as I can, keeping the theme of inktober very apparent.

I’m so happy to be done but so excited to start the next steps of the process, creating my first professional zine! If you have been reading my blogs and have enjoyed my inktober posts, if the zine is something that you would be interested in purchasing, please let me know.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MELON.R!!🎃