Progress on the ep cover

This is the progress on the front cover of the EP. There was a lot of pop culture references that the client wants me to include...

This was the information given:

"Seeing the person riding on top of the wrecking ball sparked an idea of getting a load of music and film pop culture references in there:

• That wrecking ball would obviously be a reference to Miley Cyrus's song
• An anaconda attacking the burger van where there are buns on display as a reference to Nicki Minaj
• A big "22" sign somewhere, or a blank space, or something to do with Shake It Off for Taylor Swift (22 would perhaps be easiest to interpret, but if you have any better ideas go for it!)
• Someone swinging on a chandelier
• A black guy standing on the Eiffel Tower for Ni**as in Paris
• For a reference to Lord of the Rings, you could draw the Fellowship walking up the volcano on the left background, or at least their silhouettes seeing as it'll be quite small, perhaps with Gollum crawling up some way behind them
• A Tardis somewhere amongst everything for Doctor Who
• A blonde woman (Daenerys Targaryan) with three dragons (black, green and red) flying above her as a Game of Thrones reference
• Some people flying around on broomsticks, maybe with the Quidditch hoops, for Harry Potter
• Some of the Toy Story toys
• A group of guys in leather jackets and girls wearing pink as a reference to Grease
• The front of the big boat poking in on the side with Jack and Rose doing their thing at the front of it for Titanic.  There could even be Peter Pan and Captain Hook sword fighting further down the ship to mix up all these pop culture references
• Someone fighting Darth Vader with lightsabers for Star Wars
• Olaf the snowman
• A group of zombies for The Walking Dead
• A group of women in orange jumpsuits for Orange Is The New Black
• Peter Griffin fighting a giant chicken for Family Guy, maybe Stewie with a time machine, or any number of the main characters doing the ridiculous things they do
• Kim Kardashian doing that weird thing she was doing with champagne on her bum in that photoshoot a few months ago
• Perhaps some famous memes, such as Kermit the frog drinking his cup of tea, or grumpy cat etc.  These ones might not be possible because of how detailed they might need to be to make them recognisable, but I guess it could be just as effective if they aren't recognisable - it's up to you if you do it and how you do it!
• Where's Wally?!  He's just got to be somewhere in a piece of artwork such as this

Also some private jokes (I apologise in advance for how ridiculous some of these may seem, they would take forever to explain what they mean!):

• In the sketch, there's a guy on a bike zooming past the stage - could he have a speech bubble or something saying "NIM NIM NIM!" inside it?
• Could there be a sign on one of the buildings in the city in the background saying "Pound Town"?
• Shakesduck... this was before I joined the band, so I'm not really sure what this is, but my understanding is that it's some kind of rubber/plastic duck.  I don't know, I'll text you the picture that I was shown as explanation.
• We have a band van that we call the "bandwagon", so perhaps some kind of clever, punny image of that
• A library (what we call our practice room) - not sure how this might be portrayed, maybe an old building, a bit like Leeds Town Hall, but with posters all over the walls?"

Progress on the Darts project

Muzeul Castelul Corvinilor (Transylvania, Romania)

The colours are getting better but the work looks almost clinical with the flatness and the colours. I feel that the colours need to be a less contrasty, warmer palette to attract viewers to this historical site.

Initial design

Here is my initial sketch for this competition. It has took me a while to do this as I am making sure my work isn't a straight copy of any images on google as they will be copyright. Instead I am trying to mix a few together. I was mostly focussing on getting the shape of this right rather than the colour despite the colours being horrendous! Next what I am going to do now I have got the basic shape, is i am going to start to focus on how the piece looks with the colours and textures etc.

DARTS Digital Art & Storytelling Competitions

I am really interested in this competition and feel that I want to complete this brief because of my interest in digital illustration and buildings. This will challenge me to step out and digitally draw a building and as a result I may win a competition and also have a really good piece of artwork on a historical building as well as gained skills in architectural drawing.

http://www.e-darts.eu 

"Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, the goal of the DARTS project is to collect stories about places and characters from some extraordinary historical locations (in Italy, Belgium and Romania) and tell them in innovative and creative ways.

All the partners of the DARTS project are located in beautiful historic buildings and so the idea came up to enhance these places by using digital art and creative writing. Two international contests are therefore promoted: one for young digital artists and the other for young writers.

The theme of the Digital Art Competition is to create artworks inspired by the history/events/characters of one of the three historic buildings. The artworks can be created by using computer or digital applications and devices: images, photography, paintings, videos, mixed media, installations, net art, augmented reality projects, video games, applications for smartphone or tablet, etc.

Each artwork can be submitted either by an individual or by a team. Multiple entries per individual or team are permitted, but each submission must be registered separately.

There is no entry fee.

Eligibility

Open to young people between 18 and 35 years old, of every nationality and sex. 

Prize

The awards ceremony of the contests will take place during two existing international festivals: the Ravello Musical Festival in Italy and the Storytelling Festival in Belgium, and one in Romania created on purpose.

Each winning artwork will receive a money prize of 500 Euro (approx. 565 USD) and the opportunity to stay as an artist in residence and have an atelier gratis for 2 weeks in an international environment.

Moreover, all the participant artists will have a personal social workspace with a blog in the DARTS website. In this way they can post information about themselves, their work, their creative process and they can upload images and video and interact with their own social profile."

More progression

I have done more work on these pieces and more specifically made a notable improvement on the first image. I did not realise but Kerry wrote that the name of the structural engineer (first image) was be called Sarah so therefore i had to change the child from a male to a female!! oops! This change was fairly easy, children look very similar at that age so it was just a case of changing the hair. I feel that I need to work into to the image more to achieve a consistent line weight across them. The first image seems to have much more presence than the second.

I did also ask Kerry if she thought the images were too detailed for the children who are ages 4-9. She said it was fine.

Contextual References

Here is another piece of reference imagery for this brief. The client spoke about how they liked wheres wally and if it would be possible to create a scene as busy as this.

I am going to have a go at doing this, in my rationale i detailed that I would try my best for all the briefs so that is exactly what I am going to do. This is also something that pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to try new things.

I was thinking how I can do this without it taking up lots and lots of time. I thought it could be worth trying to making a few characters, copy and pasting them around the frame and then colouring them differently. This could help me to work smarter not just harder.

Initial sketches with template

These are the initial sketches with the template. I am kind of happy with them. They are taking a long time because of the isometric perspective that we have chosen to design them in. Despite the time that it is taking, they are coming together well, especially the second one where i have spent more time on it. Research is essential for this work to make sure that it doesn't portray the wrong thing to children. We have checked with Kerry and she said she will point out if anything isn't informed well. So far she says we are doing really well and is really glad with the progress that is being made.

I am slightly wondering if the thought bubble is working and maybe if we need a separated past and present image (maybe just by taking out the two small circles).

Adam has been really good an created a template for us to work in. We decided on this template due to concerns about making sure that our range of practices were tied together in some way. Now we have this template we have a boundary to work in and I feel that this will draw all our work together. 

It is also notable that after

Visiting Leeds University

As part of research for this brief we were allowed to visit the Leeds University School of Engineering to inform ourselves more about the discipline. This visit was really informative and helped me to understand what engineering actually was, its not a dull discipline but it can be creative and highly innovative. We were allowed to take photos on this trip however we were not allowed to share them anywhere, including on this blog. I will however be able to use these photos as reference imagery for my illustrations.

This visit broadened my understanding of engineering and has spurred me on to show people (more specifically children) how exciting engineering can be. Sometimes just by simply understanding the purpose of a project, can give fresh ideas and bounds of motivation.

Initial chemical engineer design

This is my initial chemical engineer design that I showed kerry in the first meeting where we brought our work. She really liked it being isometric and went on to suggest we all made our work isometric. This will also ensure that our work looks similar and works as a set. 

Meeting with Kerry

Today we met with Kerry to speak about the project a and show her our initial sketches. 

Unfortunately I have been really ill this week so my sketches were very rough compared to others in the group. I apologised to Kerry because I probably wasn't pulling my weight enough. I will make sure that I am prepared very well for the next meeting.

-We decided that it would be good to have a thought bubble type thing to separate the present (the child) with the future (the adult). This will ensure that our designs always look similar despite our differing 'styles. 

- Kerry talked about her aspirations for this project, the different outputs that she desires for it to be seen. She thew a lot of ideas around including a billboard, trinity leeds, radio output, adverts and various other things!

- Kerry also thought about the idea of blowing up an image really big as part of the Festival of Science. We explained about vectors. 

-We agreed that the illustrations will be submitted by the end of november. 

Brief 6

Brief 6:
For this brief I must create a colouring book that shows children what engineering is and breaks any stereotypes that they may have. It must show a child/children going from where they are now to what they could be in the future. E.g a child could be playing with lego now and this could help them to be a structural engineer in the future.

Product:
A colouring book

Tone of voice:
informative, fun, engaging

Audience:
Children in schools (age 4-9)

Context:
A children's book to be available for download online as well as a to be found in the classroom.

Mandatory Requirements:
a4 size
fits 'bubble'
line weight similar to peers
Black and white line drawing

Deliverables:
3x drawings for the book (printing and collating is done externally)

Initial Brief

The initial correspondence with the client was a chat about what the work would be and how much it would cost. The client also sent some images that he refers to in the ISSUU document below- particularly the first image.

Designing a cover for a band is something that I have never done before so upon accepting this commission I know that it is going to be a bit of a challenge however it will be exciting, good for my design skills and working to this type of brief.

Here is part of the brief that I received:

" I sent you an email with all the details and songs the other day so hopefully you've received that alright. After more discussions the other day we have another idea for artwork (to add to what I wrote in the email) that I just thought I'd pass on to you in case you think you could do something cool with it... it's basically something vaguely similar to the Dookie artwork (one of the ones I sent above) in that it's full of people/ animals/ aliens/ machines/ literally whatever (but done in a very different way so it doesn't look like a rip off) all doing their own hilarious things in amongst themselves, so it's taking the idea of funny things that you only notice when you look closely), and there's a guy somewhere in there with a guitar speaking excruciatingly unconfidently into a microphone asking for attention or something.

That would be an idea for the Grant Me An Audience EP title, which is personally my favourite idea. I think that kind of scenario/artwork would work really well in the style of your cityscape piece as well actually. But anyway, sorry for the huge message, hope we've given you some food for thought with all this and the email, but at the end of the day follow any inspiration you have. Feel free to ask any questions you want! "

The brief still sounds quite vague to me so I will create a quick sketch of what I think they are after then get feedback on it. Sometimes when you give someone a sketch, they understand the idea in their head of what they are after just by seeing something in the physical. I have found that the client can then give more information as to what they want more of and what they don't want.

BRIEF 7

Brief 7:

‘Fight the Dice’ EP cover. I was asked by a friend to create an EP cover for their band also create a sleeve(s) for Secret 7 submission. (Audience: Listeners of that artist)

I want design an EP cover because it is something that I have never done before and the scope of the reach will be much bigger than a self directed brief. This will deepen my understanding on how to create a good EP/album cover and show me how to deal with a client and as a result make me a better and more experienced illustrator. The secret 7 covers will also be good for me for my skills in building images from text and creating concepts.

Product:
1x EP cover
3x Secret 7 covers

Tone of voice:
Suited to the music and its genre
For the EP it will be- fun, comical, intriguing

Audience:
Those who listen to the music

Context:
For the EP cover- online music stores, Soundcloud, gigs, festivals, social media.

Mandatory Requirements:
Must be standard album cover size and full bleed.

Deliverables:
1x EP cover
3x Secret 7 covers

6 Briefs

BRIEF 1:
Pick 1 article from the week and spend a 48 hours illustrating it.
It may be good to pick something like The New Yorker for articles or even the Metro.
This is good for my interest in editorial illustration. It will force me to work to a small timescale which will impact the way that I go about my practice in the future. It will prepare me for those jobs that need doing fast and efficiently in order to get them done by the deadline. It will also teach me time management skills when juggling other modules.

Here is a really good article that I have found on creating editorial illustration...  http://gomedia.com/zine/tutorials/tutorial-the-making-of-an-editorial-illustration-with-these-are-things/

BRIEF 2:
Choose a book series (of around 5 books) and re-illustrate their covers so they fit as a set.
Hunger games- The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mocking Jay
I think that redesigning these book covers would be a challenge for me and force me to think outside the box. I feel that the current covers are quite lacking in visual potential and could be redesigned into something really exciting. This would be quite difficult as i struggle with large pieces of text but I would love to get into book cover design so this would be a perfect brief for me to have a go at.

BRIEF 3: Live brief (already commissioned)
Create an EP cover for 'Fight the Dice'.
I was asked by a friend to design his band's EP cover. This is going to be something that I have never done before but the idea that I have put forward means that I can really express myself on the cover and create something exciting. This brief will give me opportunity to show off my skills (due to it being quite open) as well as having the challenge of trying to show of the band to the best of my ability.

BRIEF 4: Live brief
The book illustration competition 2016- deadline 18th January
 You must submit three illustrations, each of a different scene from the book and design a binding for War Horse (£15 entry fee)
This book will be quite interesting to illustrate as I have never really been into historical topics like the war for example. Often I find it quite a scary and daunting subject to tackle so naturally I thought it would be good to illustrate this book! It is going to be a test of my ability but it seems good to try push my self to come up with a response to this brief.

BRIEF 5: Live brief
Darts project- Digital Arts and Storytelling- deadline november 25th

"Be inspired by the stories of ancient buildings and create your artwork."

The task here is to create artwork for a building to provoke interest in that historical building. There are 3 buildings to choose from- Vila Rufolo, Landcommanderij Alden Biersen and Muzeul Castelul Corvinilor. They want digital artwork which is why i chose this brief as I feel that digital artwork is one of my strong points. Designing an image for promotion of a building/historical site is something that I have never done before. Focussing solely on 1 building will be really exciting and a change to what I do normally despite architecture being a love of mine.

BRIEF 6: 
Create a children's book illustrating different types of fish and exploring the species documenting where they are found and celebrating the unique qualities about them.
This is quite a big project but it could be narrowed down to just a poster showing different types of popular fish in a certain area (e.g the carribean reef).
This project with help me to explore an area that I haven't really looked at yet- wildlife. Some of the more exotic fish would be really exciting to illustrate and would challenge me to interpret complex information and simplify it down to an understandable graphic for children.