Tag: Cheltenham Illustration Awards

Cheltenham Concepts

For the Cheltenham Illustration Awards, with the theme of ‘unity’, I wanted to create an illustration with a deeper meaning and a stronger message behind it. I had not created a lot of illustrations like this in the past, so had wanted to gain more experience with that type of illustration in this project. A lot of these ideas were thought from the perspective of a group of people coming together to fix certain issues, showing the theme of unity through group efforts.

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Concept 1 – This concept was a little basic in a sense, I feel like it would be expected from the theme of unity. I had sketched a silhouette of two people holding hands and inside the shape would be layers of people of all different backgrounds and walks of life, differentiating by their gender, ethnicity, job role, sexuality, etc.

I did like the idea behind this concept but did not feel the message was the direction that I wanted to go with as I did want to look even deeper into worldly issues, bringing light to them through my illustrations.

Concept 2 – This idea was inspired by an illustration I had found on Pinterest of a figure trapped within a glass dome, so I felt this would be a good representation of what it may feel like to be trapped within your own mind, and for my piece, to better express the theme of unity, I wanted the piece to be sequential, showing the figure getting help from others in the end, whether it be from professionals or just his friends. When putting more thought into the specific type of glass, as that could have more symbolisation in itself, it had made me think of a campaign called ‘Be in your Mates Corner’ ran by Time to change, in which they had made beer mats with the message:

“Is there a mate missing around this table? Reach out to him.” – (Time to Change, 2019)

This campaign was directed at a male audience as suicide is the main cause of death in men under 50, and this campaign was directed to fight the stigma behind mental health in men as some may feel that they shouldn’t talk about their problems as it may make them weaker. This advertisement was fighting the stigma and opening the conversation about male mental health issues, so with my own illustrations, I wanted to try to do this too, carrying on that conversation and potentially showing that there is light at the end of the tunnel if you allow others in, whether it is from professional help or just from friends.

Concept 3 – This concept was inspired by an artist named Lauren Carney, or DizzyLittleDotty on Instagram, who had formed a portrait of a character made from multiple characters of different backgrounds, ethnicities, etc. The artist had created this piece to celebrate international women’s day of 2018, so the piece had consisted purely of female figures, so with my own piece, I wanted to take her concept and try to be even more inclusive, having male representation as well as women, showing unity through all people.

In my version, the character had ended up looking similar to Frankenstein’s monster, so scarier than I had intended, as opposed to empowering as I feel Carney’s piece is. I did decide that I would not be taking this concept any further as I believe the illustration shown below is already a great representation and is uplifting as opposed to a horror show like my version.

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Concept 4 – Is based on another illustration I had found on Pinterest, which was of a woman in a social setting, but inside of her was a curled up figure who seemed to be scared of being within that setting and had anxiety that she would have to communicate with others or potentially feared that everyone was looking at her or talking about her.

With my own piece, I had the idea to show multiple people holding hands, people of all different shapes and sizes, but within them, all was a scared little version of themselves. This was supposed to symbolise that no matter what you may look like on the outside, whether you’re a big buff guy like Terry Cruise or have the figure of McLovin (I know he’s a fictional character but that is the only name I will use for that actor), all of us have that person within us that is scared, maybe who has anxiety, problems with overthinking, depression and so on. Despite these versions of us, however, we still need to overcome them, no matter how long or hard that challenge may be, and together we stand in union ready to help one another through our struggles.

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Concept 5 – This concept was suggested by my partner when I had asked him for ideas of illustrations that I could make with deeper meanings to them. He had suggested that I draw a beach with the waves gently washing inwards and back out, but as they would do this, they would wash up children’s toys. This was to symbolise the children that may not have made the journey when escaping Syria on the boats/rafts, the toys having belonged to those children.

This concept is very deep and it does make me sad when thinking about it. Before my partner had mentioned this idea, I do think that I was blissfully unaware of this issue, but by creating the visuals, it has given me more perspective on the situation and more realisation as to the horrible problems going on within the world.

Although this was a strong concept, I did not feel it had a lot of connection to the theme of unity, (which was solely my fault as I had not mentioned the theme to my partner, I had just asked for ideas for an illustration with a deeper meaning, which he had come through on) so, I had not decided to carry this concept onwards. I do however want to potentially come back to it at a later date, as I do believe that by illustrating this piece, I could bring more light to the topic, making more people aware of the issue.

ugh

With these concepts, I had chosen to take concept 2 further, illustrating the piece in more detail. However, this had not worked out well as I felt I had lost connection with the original theme, and whilst illustrating it, I did not have a style in mind that I wanted to achieve, so I had lost more and more confidence in the whole piece as I was going. With the timeframe and still having other projects to complete, I felt myself caring less and less about this project and with the direction that it was going, I had not enjoyed the thought of it at all, so I had made the decision to just cut it off before I spent any more time on it. When I had tried to make the piece better, I just felt like I was polishing a turd, so just felt there was no point in carrying on.

I do like the concept behind this piece as I do feel it is strong, but I feel I need more time to play around with the imagery within, illustrating something that I am proud of, as opposed to just getting the piece done and out of the way. I believe as it is a strong message, it does deserve strong imagery as well so that it is able to best communicate the specific message to the audience.

As well as this concept, at a later date, I would like to come back to the others as well, maybe working more outside of the theme of unity, as I feel I will have more freedom, being able to play around a bit more with the imagery as I will not need to try to make the concepts work towards the theme and be confined to it.

 

Reading List

Russell, M. (2019). All together now: Tales of Unity. [online] Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/melon628/all-together-now-tales-of-unity/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

Time to Change (2019). Be in your Mates Corner. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/men-mental-health-coaster-twitter-viral-time-to-change-campaign-suicide-depression-a8319796.html [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

List of Figures

Carney, L. (2018). International Women’s Day. [image] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BgCmATIjtVb/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

All other images are my own unless stated otherwise.

Idea proposals đź’Ť Semester 2

Carrying on from the previous post, for the projects during semester two, I want to…

Produce chapter illustrations for ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.

In this project, like with the Wizard of Oz project I have planned, I want to create work for a younger based audience, which I have not had a lot of experience working within the past. With this project, however, I want to create work for teens as opposed to children, working in what I believe to be more of a mature style, taking inspiration from John Tenniel’s illustrations in the original ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll.

As well as giving me more experience of working with a younger audience, (in a different approach to the Wizard of Oz project) I believe this project will allow me to play around and develop my skills with some printing techniques, such as screen printing, Linocut printing, etching, etc, I believe it will allow me to take full advantage of the facilities available to me within the college, such as the laser cutter, to create a plate in which I can print with.

 

Take part in the Association of Illustrators – World Illustration Awards.

In comparison to the other competitions I want to take part in, this one has multiple categories in which you can apply to. As well as children’s illustration, you also have the option of creating work for an editorial category, advertising, design, etc.

Like with the other projects, I believe the outcomes I create for this brief will help in expanding my portfolio of work throughout the year. At this moment in time, I am swaying more to the editorial category, as I feel it will allow me to work in more areas of the industry. For this category, I would potentially create an illustration for an article, trying to entice the viewer to read the article, but not give too much information so that the reader already feels like they know the story.

 

Create work for the Cheltenham Illustration Awards.

This is a competition that I will be taking part in for my third year in a row. The brief that they announce will have a specific theme in which I will have to work with, creating a narrative based illustration which will relate to or have been inspired by the specific theme.

In previous years, the themes have been ‘tales through others eyes’ and ‘tangled tales’. I believe the competition is pretty open in the sense that you are not limited to what you can potentially create. For instance, last year I had created my illustration using photography and embroidery, whereas in the year before I had created a surrealistic digital painting and a looped animation.

Because of the flexibility of this competition, being able to explore the theme and work in any possible medium, I am excited to take part again next year, but hopefully next time my work might actually be chosen. If not though, I will still enjoy the experience, and the work I create will still contribute to my portfolio.

 

The two projects which I want to do over the course of the year are…

Concentrating on branding and start to form a business, preparing for my career once I have left the comforts of college.

This project would include creating new business cards, forming a new set of portfolios, including a handheld a3 one, a website and a new portfolio book, these will also include all of the work that I have created over the year as well.

As of my potential business, I will be creating an online store (potentially in collaboration with one of the graphics students) and for this, I will be creating content that would be sold their, ie prints, pins, clothing, mugs, zines, stickers etc.

In the final month, I also plan to set time aside so that I can get ready for a final show, with this, I will possibly create new content to be put up in the exhibition, and this will also be the time in which I can start to order everything, so that it will come in time for the final show, such as the portfolio book, business cards, and any merchandise that I may have created with outside businesses.

 

And finally, I want to work on the weekly comics that both me and my partner had created together over the holidays, we named this collaboration Melon and Lime Comics.

Me and my partner have always been interested in mini-comics, most commonly from artists such as Ketnipz, Sarah Andersen and Catana Comics, sending their comics to each other saying ‘this is you’ or ‘me’, and we had even started to come up with our own ideas for potential comics, that we knew we would make someday, but had always kept pushing it off to the side, at least until summer had came. We had not really planned for this collaboration to go further than between the two of us, but one day, we decided to make our own Instagram and try posting the comics on there, to see if anyone else could possibly relate or find humour within our designs.

We have currently got a small following of 40ish people, however, I believe as we post more, our audience will eventually start to grow more. The problem is, as we are back at college, it is going to be more challenging to create content, as we are both going to struggle with time. So, this is why I wanted to incorporate this project into my year, so that I could allow myself the time to work on the comics, without feeling guilty because I am not going ‘college work’.

I do have high hopes for this collaboration as I feel we do have the potential to someday be at the level of the artists we admire, such as Ketnipz, Sarah Anderson and Catana Comics, but I feel it will only do well if we are to put the work and effort into it.  I do love working on these comics because they are personal to my relationship, but I believe the themes are open enough that a lot of other people or couples can also relate to them. This collaboration has also allowed me to expand my work, exploring outside of my comfort zones, such as working with characters, minimalism, creating narratives and I have also been able to incorporate humour into the designs, which is something that I don’t believe I have ever done in my work before, or have even attempted to do before. Because of these developments within my own type of work, I am excited to continue working on these comics, seeing where else they could take me and what else we could potentially create in the future.

 

As these two last projects will be worked on over the space of the whole year, (I believe on Fridays for the branding project and Tuesdays for the comics) I will be solely keeping the progression, development and any potential research used, all updated within my blog, so you can keep your eyes peeled for those updates in the future.

 

Bibliography

The Association of Illustrators. (2018). World Illustration Awards. [Online] Available from https://theaoi.com/world-illustration-awards/ [Accessed on 20 Sep. 2018]

Cheltenham Illustration Awards. (2018). Cheltenham Illustration Awards. [Online] Available from: http://www.cheltenham-illustration-awards.com/ [ Accessed on 20 Sep. 2018]