Tag: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

We need to talk..

Ok, so since the end of Semester one I feel I have been slacking on my blog and not posting as regularly as I had. I believe this is because after the last hand in, I was so stressed that I felt I needed a bit of a break, one that I didn’t necessarily have the time for but kind of took anyway.

In the first couple of weeks I did create two pieces of work, one which was a commission (I believe I mentioned that I would be working on this in a previous blog post, ‘Evolution of the Cat’ click here to read) then the second piece I had worked on was for a ‘draw this in your style’ challenge on Instagram which you can also read about by clicking here. So technically I had been working, but not on the projects that I was supposed to be concentrating on, such as the live briefs and personal projects I had planned, like illustrating The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, focusing on branding (creating a website, portfolio, promo packs, merch and products, etc).brow2

At the start of the year I was also given the chance to have my work in a local exhibition ran by ‘A Canny Collective‘ which I felt was a great opportunity as I gained a lot of experience from both creating illustrations and setting them up for the show, then on the opening night I was working on the shop, so I also gained the experience of selling work in a more personal setting, selling one to one with the buyer as opposed to over a website. If you would like to read more about this exhibition, what I created and how the night went, I have made a blog post about it so again, please click here if you want to know more.

SO, now with the work that I’m actually supposed to be working on. I have currently been creating illustrations for the Wizard of Oz but throughout I have been struggling with the styles and techniques that I’ve wanted to use. I did initially create 5 basic sketches which at the time I did see some flaws, but with the pressure of time, I got lazy and just ignored them and thought I was ready for the next stages and that maybe the flaws would get better once I coloured the pieces and added more textures. After a well-needed discussion with my tutor, he knocked some sense into me and I knew that I had to stop being lazy and make the changes that I was choosing to ignore.

From this discussion, I started taking photos of me and my boyfriend to use as reference for the characters and I started using more images of animals and floral elements where needed. It’s fair to say that my sketchbook became a lot fuller as I was sketching different poses, angles and options for each illustration (I think this will be the first sketchbook in a while that I’m actually proud of, as I more recently I have just been going straight into digital work as opposed to sketching traditionally first). Once I was happy with the sketches, I started to create new layouts for each of the illustrations, keeping in mind my talk with David and how I should think about the narrative of the piece when trying to compose specific characters or elements.

After the thumbnail layouts were down, I started sketching the pieces digitally once again and the reference photos I had taken did come in very handy during this process. I then printed the pieces off, showed them to David, mostly for reassurance before I took them any further, he did make some suggestions, for instance with the Tin Woodsman piece, he suggested that I reframe it so that it would be more of a closeup shot, which I do feel helped convey more action between the characters as the previous layout did seem quite open now looking back, which may have looked more calm than what I was intending.

Once I made the adjustments suggested I went to the light box and started transferring the sketch to paper and once lined I’d add in the textures. For this process I used pencil, I started with a 4H for both the lining and the textures, then when I needed darker areas I used a 5B. After testing multiple pencils in my sketchbook, I mostly liked the H’s as they gave more of the texture I wanted, whereas the B’s were more soft so they gave more of a smooth texture.

After I had completed the traditional part of this project, for now, we shall see if I need to go back and do anything else, I scanned in each illustration, set it within the document size that I wanted and now they are ready to colour.

This is the point I’m currently at, but during the colouring phase, I do want to record the process as I feel it may be satisfying to watch and I do want to start posting speed painting videos online, potentially streaming the process online as well through twitch.

The main elements of my to-do list at this moment in time is to:

  • Complete my Wizard of Oz illustrations
  • Start working on AOI’s Northern Illustration competition (more on that coming soon in a separate blog post)
  • Create an illustration or sequential piece for Cheltenham illustration awards (I will go into more depth and make a blog post about this too)
  • Focus on self-branding, this leads on to the next point which is..
  • Creating a portfolio book. I still have the pages from the one I made last year, so in the new one I will just be adding my more recent work, but I definitely want to change my old cover, hence how this links to the previous point as I need to focus on what my brand is and how best to communicate that through a cover.
  • Creating a website. I hope that I will be able to show my portfolio and have a working shop on the site.
  • Making work for the final show. I don’t necessarily know what I want to create for this yet or if I’m just going to use work from one of my current projects, but once I get a better idea of the space, how/if we’re framing our work, I may have more inspiration as to what I can create.
  • The last on this list is merchandise. For the final show, I did want to make new products that I could potentially sell on the night, whether this is new prints, T-shirt’s, enamel pins, badges etc. The reason this is last however is that I feel it should be my last priority as the work above has more consequences if I don’t manage to complete them.

 

Bibliography

A Canny Collective. (2019) [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt19GO7lEG5/ [Accessed on 03 April. 2019]

All other work is my own unless stated otherwise.

Current Artist Research Pt.1

Tina Nass

She is an illustrator who I would like to potentially take inspiration from when creating work for my ‘Wizard of Oz themed project. As her work is very textural in style, (as I believe she uses pencil for tonal work, then scans the design in and colours it digitally) I felt if I were to create work in a similar method, I would be able to create work that may appeal more to a younger audience, as they could potentially recognise the textures as mediums they use too.

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Figure 1 – Tina Nass, 2017

Another reason that I had chosen this artist, is again, because of the methods and techniques she uses. As I have been playing around with traditional and digital skills in my own illustrations over the holidays, and I have been enjoying the process of doing so, but have felt that my designs have been on the more ‘sketchy’ side, not being up to my usual standard of quality (even though I do love the outcomes), I wanted to take inspiration and learn from Tina Nass’s particular process, to potentially help in creating more refined designs whilst using these techniques.

 

Nuria Tamarit

Like Tina Nass, I believe Nuria Tamarit works in a similar process, creating all of her linework and textural qualities by hand, then colouring the designs digitally. I will be using her work as well as Nass’s for inspiration during my ‘Wizard of Oz’ project, however, I will be taking more inspiration from her characters rather than her textures or methods.

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Figure 2 – Nuria Tamarit, 2017

Her characters will typically have a cartoon aesthetic, with exaggerated anatomy, especially in the limbs. From looking at some of her pieces, I would say that she creates a lot of Amazonian type of figures, as they are lengthier in the leg, and thicker proportioned.

When taking inspiration from her work, I will be playing around with my own characters proportions and anatomy, seeing which areas that I can potentially exaggerate as to possibly give the characters more personality, for instance, when creating the cowardly lion, I could give him more of a barreled chest, as he is supposed to be a fighter, and I feel this element would help to suggest that quality.

 

Audra Auclair

Audra Auclair is one of my favourite artists, I have mentioned her countless of times in previous projects throughout this course, the art and design course beforehand, and I may have even mentioned her within my secondary school projects. I am in love with her work and proudly own 3 of her prints and the book ‘fragments’ that she had made.

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Figure 3 – Audra Auclair, 2017

My reason for mentioning her yet again within this course is because I wanted to take inspiration from her inked illustrations, (especially from figure 3 to the left) for my own inktober designs. As I will be creating flower people/pixie type characters, I would like them to be quite delicate and soft in style, so I will try to take inspiration from this specific piece of work, creating my own characters with similar line weights, as I feel the use of fine liners within this piece, has possibly made it even more delicate, as it is less heavy than a brush-tip pen, which she has also used in the past.

 

Bibliography 

A. Auclair. (2018) Instagram [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/audraauclair/ [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]

T. Nass. (2018) Instagram [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/tinanass.illustration/ [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]

N. Tamarit. (2018) Instagram [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/nuriatamarit/ [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]

 

List of Illustrations

Figure 1 – T. Nass. (08 Oct. 2017) Instagram [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ_bykbnumO/?taken-by=tinanass.illustration [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]

Figure 2 – N. Tamarit. (10 Sep. 2017) Instagram [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3yMX6gcfx/?taken-by=nuriatamarit [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]

Figure 3 – A. Auclair. (23 Nov. 2017) Instagram [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb2QKFoFHUT/?taken-by=audraauclair [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]

 

Idea proposals 💍 Semester 1

For my final year of college, we have been given free reign to choose what projects and live briefs we want to participate in over the next year. I have decided to do four projects per semester, the commercial projects being shorter and the personal projects being longer. This will allow me to work to an industry type of deadline during the commercial projects, but create more developed/refined pieces for myself and portfolio within the personal projects. I  also want to have two more projects that will run throughout the year, which I will be working on at least one day per week.

In semester one, I want to…

Take part in Inktober.

For the month of October, I will be creating an inked illustration on a daily bases, posting them on Instagram and hopefully end the month with 31 illustrations, if I do not falter or give up beforehand. These illustrations will all later be compiled into a zine/book, to later be sold on an online store.

I want to take part in this challenge so that I can develop my skills and gain more confidence with ink mediums, especially with my line control. I feel if I were to gain more confidence with this medium, I will be able to use it more in future projects, hopefully making my digital designs look less static, more organic and more unique to myself.

 

Create children’s illustrations for the book ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’.

I chose this story to illustrate as it is a children’s book (which I believe is more commonly known as a movie) and I have wanted to create more work for a younger audience, as I have not done this a lot in previous projects, so feel it will help me expand my portfolio.

With the stories themes, characters and it specific colour palette, i.e. the ruby red slippers, the yellow brick road and emerald city, I believe with these elements, I will be able to create a set of illustrations unlike any of my previous work, filled with fun characters, vibrant colours and most importantly to me, the pieces will have a narrative, with characters interacting with one another and interacting with the scenery around them. I know I have not created any narrative pieces within my portfolio of work so this project will help in filling that area in which my portfolio is lacking.

 

Take part in the Penguin Student Design Awards competition.

This is a competition in which I will design a book cover for either a children’s book, an adults fiction, or an adults non-fiction book. As of this moment in time, the stories for each category have not been announced yet. However, once they are, I believe I will most likely be working with one of the adult books. This is so that my work for this project won’t clash with any other work I may create during this year, for instance, I already have in mind two child based projects that I want to take part in, so I feel if I were to choose the children’s book category for this project, the designs would potentially clash with one another. So, by choosing an adult book, I will be covering more audiences, hopefully helping expand my portfolio more.

 

And finally, in semester one, I plan to enter the House of Illustration – Book Illustration Competition.

Again this is another competition in which I will be designing a book cover, however, I will also be designing illustrations that will be submitted alongside it. In comparison to the previous competition mentioned, from looking at previous years entries, this competition seems more sophisticated in style, so I believe when I create my own designs, I would be working to a higher standard, possibly catering to a higher class of book lovers. Again, I believe this competition will allow me to expand my portfolio, creating work for a different audience and possibly working in new styles, but this will be determined once the specific story has been released.

Bibliography

House of Illustration. (2018). BIC 2018: Winners Gallery. [Online] Available at: https://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/get_involved/bic-2018-winners-gallery [Accessed on 20 Sep. 2018]

Penguin. (2018). Student Design Awards. [Online] Available at: https://www.penguin.co.uk/company/work-with-us/student-design-award/student-design-award-2018.html [Accessed on: 20 Sep. 2018]