‘Twas the week before Christmas…

If you have read my previous post, you will know how stressed I was trying to achieve my deadline for one of my projects, it wasn’t my real deadline, but it was the one I had set myself for that specific project. So, with this week, as it is probably the last week I can do work before getting lost in festivities, and having to clear my workspace away so that, to my mother’s delight, the dining table would be free again for the week between Christmas and New Years. Yes, I work at the dining table as my room is currently under construction and has been for a while, so I don’t really have elsewhere to work. So with these factors, I wanted to put all hands on deck to create 2 covers for the Penguin competition. This included sketching ideas, creating thumbnails for potential covers, then designing them digitally and refining them further.

I have surprised myself during this week, as I have managed to create 3 possible designs for the story Wonder by R. J. Palacio, technically 2 with the 3rd being a combination of both concepts, and I have created 2 possible designs for Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I did start the process with 4 concepts for each book but have narrowed down my options when it came to creating them digitally. This was due to either time or lack of enthusiasm with the concept, but I do believe I have still given options within designs which would be more beneficial if I were working one to one with the client, but as I am not, and I am only allowed to submit one design per category, I will end up choosing the piece myself or my peers find most interesting or best advertise the stories.

During this week, I feel I have been confident when illustrating and coming up with concepts, however, when it came to adding in the text, I have found a lot of issues with the type getting lost within the illustrations and trying to find ways in which to make them stand out more. When talking to my peers, this was the biggest issue they had spotted, and luckily, one had given me suggestions about how I could improve on this.

From sending my friend all of the pieces shown above, she had circled both of the designs with eye patterns for the Wonder book, then the tree piece for Norwegian Wood and said that these were the pieces that would need to be worked on more as you wouldn’t be able to read them. With the designs for Wonder, she had suggested I remove some of the eyes so that they would be more of a border for the text as opposed to a background. As the pattern was somewhat uniform though, when doing this I felt it looked quite messy in a sense, the design no longer had a flow within the pattern and the eyes just looked more random in their positioning. She had not made any suggestions for the Norwegian Wood design, but she had liked the other option I had made for it, although she did spot a typo so I immediately corrected that. Another friend had suggested that the barcode on the back may not be readable from the design, so I also added in a white box over the design but under the information, so that it would be easier for a machine to read it. The white box was the same colour as the text, so did not look too obscure in the design as a whole, and sort of kept it cohesive.

After making the changes, probably even before then, I knew I had liked the more simple designs better, as they were more solid and there was less to question, for instance, it wouldn’t be a question of “what am I looking at”, “is the text readable”, etc. So the ones shown below are the ones I believe I will be submitting to the competition.

Template - Wonder.indd

The Wonder design

For this design, I did like the idea of people WONDERing (ha get it) why there was a duck on the cover when the story is about a little boy named August, but it does link to a section in where the boy is in the Principles office and notices his artwork on the wall. This artwork was for a class project in which the students had to make a self-portrait of themselves if they were an animal, and August had drawn a duck. When the Principle asks him “why a duck?” expecting a meaningful and in-depth answer, August just replies with “Its because I think I look like a duck.” I loved this section when I had read it and although I thought I was not going to try drawing the child, as the blurb of the book specifically says that he doesn’t want to describe himself as “whatever you’re thinking, its probably worse”, I thought this would be a fun way of representing the little boy, without trying to draw the accurate description.

Template - Norwegian Wood.indd

The Norwegian Wood design

There is a section within the book where the character is working at a record store and cuts himself on “one of the glass partitions in a record shelf” that was cracked, he then goes on to mention how the floor is covered in blood etc, so at the time this had made me think of this cover design. Although it had not exactly mentioned a broken record, this is what I had imagined when I had read the section, a record in shards, with a red background which would be the character’s blood.

This may not have been someones first thought of imagery after reading the book, but I felt since the title of the story is inspired by a song by The Beatles, ‘Norwegian Wood’, I felt the imagery was still valid to the story, and in a sense, it could be symbolic to the characters emotions and relationships throughout the story? (Potential spoiler? I’m sorry!) So I do like this design and concept, as I believe it is not an obvious choice and it is somewhat out of the box, but not too far as it still relates.

So still to do, as I have slightly worked backwards during this project, just trying to churn out the final designs as quick as I could with the time I have, I do have a lot of writing up to do. When working, I did have the artists and styles in mind that I wanted to use, but I just need to write this research up properly, discuss all of the choices I made throughout the process, etc, and I will need to make a final evaluation (which I will also post on here). This, however, will probably be done after Christmas, maybe pushing towards after New Years as well, as I had mentioned before, my working space is at the dining table, and during this time, my Mam does like it to be clear. I will keep my progression updated, but if I don’t post during that time, you now know why, so you can just imagine me living my best life, stuffing my face with festive food!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! OR HAPPY HOLIDAYS, WHATEVER YOU CELEBRATE! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bibliography

Murakami, H. and Rubin, J. (2001). Norwegian wood. London: Harvill, p.263.

Palacio, R. (2013). Wonder. United Kingdom: Penguin Books Ltd, p.287.

The week from Hell.

Due to my incapability to follow my own timetable, which I had even reorganised after not managing to follow it the first time, this week was supposed to be the last week I had given myself to work on the House of Illustration, Book Illustration Competition, in which I had to create 3 illustrations and a book cover for the story ‘Howls Moving Castle’ by Diana Wynne Jones.

Instead, for the majority of this 3-week project, I spent a lot of time trying to catch up or finish off previous projects that I had fallen behind on. I also decided to work on an illustration which would be a gift for my boyfriends mum. This was supposed to be completed and printed for her birthday in September, but as we all know by now, I can’t follow my own time plans! So I said I would give it to her for Christmas instead, not that she knows (a blog post for this piece will be coming soon). So, the time I should have been spending on this project had been spent on others, but I refused to fall behind on the project starting next week, so I decided I had to finish this one by today!

In what should have been one week of researching, one week of creating concepts and experimenting and the final week creating the final design, I have basically had to do all of this in the space of a week.

When creating my pieces, I didn’t really have an idea of styles or techniques I was going to use, I had thought about artists, but I hadn’t thought about potential ways in which I could apply the styles or techniques to my own work, so basically in the process of creating my pieces, I have just been winging it, seeing “does this thing work? No, not really, scrap it! Does this? Okay, we’ll just roll with it”. I had kept doing right up until now.

I am currently happy with these designs, but I would say I do still need critique and outsiders perspectives so that I can potentially make further improvements. At this moment in time, however, I still have a lot of work to complete within other projects so this one may have to fall to the back of the pack. Because of this, I may not end up submitting my designs to the competition, as I’m not sure if it fits the standards of previous entries in the years before, especially not without further refinement. And since the competition does have a fee to enter, I feel it could be a waste of my money.

Even if I don’t submit these design to the competition, I will still include them in my portfolio, as through this project, I have been able to show more skills with narrative, and I have created more landscape designs, two areas of which I felt were lacking in my portfolio.

SO, what have we learnt from this post? I am my own worst enemy and I only have myself to blame! From this experience, I will strive to keep myself more organised and actually follow my own set time plans. I believe this information will be very important for when starting next semester, as I will try to plan out my time better, using my experience from this first semester, as I feel I will have more knowledge of my pace of working and what I am capable of doing in specific timeframes.

Norweigan Wood – Review

For the Penguin Student Design Awards, I have been reading two books, one for the children fiction category and one for the adult’s fiction. The one I am about to review (or attempt to) is called Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami, and it is the adult fiction book.

Just a bit of pre-warning, I don’t know how to review books properly, as I don’t know how to give my opinion and explain what the story is about without giving away too much information or potential spoilers. Technically, I don’t know why I keep writing these reviews, but hey ho, here we go! POTENTIAL SPOILERS WARNING AHEAD!

Norweigan Wood is a story about a character named Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his younger/student days in Tokyo in the late 1960s. I believe the story is based on romance, but as opposed to a typical ‘boy meets girl’ scenario, the story does go more into depth with the complexities of relationships and life itself, discussing emotions and struggles between the characters etc. The story does contain some very sexual moments, but this was not my take away from the book as I feel it was more about the main characters daily life, his struggles, his connections between characters and things like that, as opposed to it just being an erotic novel, it had more of a storyline which by the end, I did feel quite invested in.

My initial thought about this book, as it is fictional, I had thought it was going to have more fictional themes, like fantasy or sci-fi, or anything along those lines, so whilst reading through the book, I could feel myself making assumptions of the direction I thought it could take. At one point, I did think that the girl he was interested in was going to turn out be a robot, but this was not the case and I do kind of feel bad for thinking so. Instead, the book was based on reality, set in the real world with characters you would think were real at some point, a world without robots, at least not ones that were mentioned? or any fantasy creatures, or ghosts or aliens or anything or the sort.

At the end of the story, there was a section which had explained that although the author Haruki Murakami has made more fantasy inspired books in his time, parts of this story were autobiographical in a way, as the author would be taking inspiration from his own days as a student. But although this story had some fans of his previous work questioning the more realistic themes of this one, he had explained that it was a challenge for himself, as real life is so complex but does have a simplicity to it, it has so many emotions and integrating parts to it, so I would imagine that it would be hard to make all of those elements seem simple, like ‘yes this book is based on the realities of life’ to the reader. So, in comparison to writing one of his other books, Murakami had found Norweigan Wood was the most challenging.

As I had mentioned, I did end up becoming quite emotionally invested in this book, with the characters day to day life, the emotions, experiences, thought process etc, so when I had finished, like with Howls Moving Castle, you can read my review of that here, I felt lost, it couldn’t end like that! I wanted to know more, what else happened to the character after the story finished, I did feel frustrated that I couldn’t follow him on his journey through life anymore.

I would recommend this book to a friend. If they don’t like the idea of the sexual themes and moments within the story, I would just tell them that I felt the actual story was worth the read. I feel the author has done an amazing job at capturing the reality and complexities of life, and he was able to explain them in such a way that was easy, readable and understandable. In a way that sucks you in and makes you feel emotionally invested to the characters journey.

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.

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.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – Review

As a personal project, I wanted to illustrate the story of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C. S. Lewis, as on screen it was a childhood favourite, and I always had the chronicles of Narnia in my cupboard but never actually read it (or don’t recall ever reading it, it did seem to be bigger when I was little so probably scared me). But as I had never read it, I wanted to see if there were any differences from book to the screen adaptation like there is in many book adaptations nowadays, and I planned to illustrate the original story as opposed to the imagery I already knew from the movies or the very dated BBC version.

When actually reading the book, I was surprised but not in a good way. The story is very brief in its descriptions and I was disappointed in the lack of detail that was given, because since I didn’t want to work with the imagery I already knew, I was leaning on the details to give me a better vision of the scenery or characters so that I could interpret them in my own way.

In this case, for once, I had felt the movie and even the BBC program adaptation of the story was more detailed than the book and did give better visuals.

It was, however, an easy read, so would be better suited to a younger reader, so I could possibly be overanalysing it due to my age and level of reading.

When I think about other adventure/fantasy books that I have read, I like to compare this book against J. R. R. Tolkiens Lord of the Ring series, as where C. S. Lewis has next to no detail, on the other side of the spectrum Tolkien almost goes too much into detail in his descriptions, to the point where I did get a bit bored when reading. In C. S. Lewis’s case, it was an easy read but I feel the visuals it gave were basic and it almost seemed too fast-paced in a way.

With this book, I will try to take as much from the descriptions as possible, but I will probably illustrate more from my imagination or create a mood board to help me flesh out the visuals to my ideas.

In conclusion, ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ is probably better suited to a younger reader, but I still feel it definitely lacks in detail and the movie, for once, was better than the book.

Competition Briefs

Both briefs for the competitions I have planned to participate in during the first semester have now been announced.

House of Illustration – Book Illustration Competition

They have announced that the book in which you have to illustrate and make a cover for, will be Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I am excited about this, as I had loved the Studio Ghibli adaptation of the story, and never actually knew that it was originally a book, so I am excited that I can read it and possibly see the differences from book to movie.

My only issue with this brief, I feel, will be trying to forget the imagery I already know from the movie. I feel Studio Ghibli makes the most beautiful movies with incredible scenery and amazing characters, so as the imagery I already know is so strong, I feel I might struggle when it comes to making the story my own, forgetting the visuals I already associate to the story.

bic2019

For the Penguin Student Design Awards, 3 books have been announced, one for Adult fiction, one for Adult non-fiction and one for a Children’s book.

Adult fiction cover Award – The Establishment – Owen Jones

From a brief read of the description, this seems like a political based book, which is something I am not really interested in. Although it would get me out of my comfort zone, working with themes I have never explored before, its not something I feel excited about, or something that I want to get involved in. Yes politics are important, and I do vote, and I’m all for other people getting involved and I respect their passion towards it, but its just not something I’m personally interested in. So, I think I’ll be choosing to go with another book instead.

Adult non-fiction cover Award – Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami

This I believe is a love story, based on a character who is reflecting back on his student days, in the 60’s, in Tokyo.

When reading through this brief I kind of got excited, as I feel it could be a chance for me to create more oriental themed work, which I had enjoyed doing at the end of Level 5, but also possibly include styles or themes from the 60’s.

Children’s cover Award – Wonder – R. J. Palacio

This is a story which has recently been turned into a movie, which I have not seen yet, slightly because I thought it would potentially make me cry, (I’m a wuss with emotional movies). It is about a young boy with facial deformities, who I believe just wants to be an ordinary boy, being able to go to school and have friends, without being stared at.

I am currently torn between choosing the Children’s book or the Adult fiction book. On one hand, I don’t want to create too much child based work over the year, as I do want to cover more audiences within my portfolio this year, however, I don’t necessarily think Wonder is anything like the other children’s books I am planning to work with over the year, as I believe it has a deeper themes which are more based on real life as opposed to a fantasy world, so if I did choose to work with this brief, I don’t think it would resemble any other work I create this year.

With the adult’s fiction brief, however, I do feel it is well suited to me, as I do love creating oriental based designs, and I would enjoy working exploring 60’s themes, colours, etc. However, this may be a con, as I would not be challenging myself and could potentially end up creating work similar to previous designs.

So my dilemma is, do I create yet another childrens book, even if it’s not like the others have planned and could potentially take me out of my comfort zone, or do I work with an adults book with themes that I know I would enjoy working with, but would be settling into my comforts.

After talking to my friend, who had told me more about Wonder, and actually made it an option, as I initially I was adamant about not doing the children’s category, I discussed my dilemma and she had suggested that I just get both, (she’s going to send me Wonder to borrow, and I’ll purchase Norwegian Wood) then she said “read them both, come up with 3 concepts each, then choose your favourite from there”, which is the best advice I have been given so far this year, and is why she is my best friend. She has solved my issue and made my path much clearer for this specific project.

Psda

Bibliography

House of Illustration (2018) Book Illustration Competiton [Online] Available from: https://houseofillustration.org.uk/get_involved/bic-2019 [Accessed on 17 Oct. 2018]

Penguin (2018) Student Design Awards [Online] Available from: https://www.penguin.co.uk/company/work-with-us/student-design-award/student-design-award-2019.html [Accessed on 17 Oct. 2018]