Week 3 - Workshop/Further progress

Today we were shown how to use Illustrator more effectively in order to make our Illustrations transfer digitally. We need to do this in order to put the Illustration on a banner (vinyl) for the festival.

We were shown how to do auto tracing and manual tracing depending on the art work scanned.

Our mentor for the workshop said we could use paint/pencil tool in illustrator to manually trace our illustrations. We were also shown how to use the paintbrushes, (not as stupid as it sounds) how we can make them into brushes/stamps, change the pattern sizes and separate them (if one) from each other.

She suggested to make our own patterns which would work better as we need it to transfer it digitally, as well as showing us how to use illustrator she made some suggestions with our illustrations, one being to stick to a limited colour palette to make it easier for the computer to register the colours.

I chose to take 3 of my most successful designs forward. The first one I chose was obvious because of how the illustration represents itself, with the feel that the wind is blowing the trees.

I used oil pastel for the background colour and used fine liner pens to create the trees over the top.

Again, I used oil pastel for the background and use a white gel pen to create a tree.

This illustration was created using watercolour only.

secondly I chose the overprinting trees because I really liked experimenting with printing and the process of it, to go out of my comfort zone and to have my tutor be pleased with how I had created the illustration.

Original Illustration

Overprinted Illustration

Week 2 - Progress

Today our lecturer put together a presentation to show us the kind of artists we should be looking into for our project. The artists they showed us have simplistic and witty designs, they recommended looking more into them as they might be a good influence on our work.
Paul Garland (best known for his Fashion Illustration,) Corita Kent also known as Sister Mary Corita Kent (best known for her role in the Pop Art movement,) and Sara Fanelli (best known for her children's picture books.)

I created some design sheets and some mock ups of some potential designs, so that my client could get a good idea of what kind of trees/forest I was creating for them. I made 5 different designs of stylised trees.

1. My first idea was to create something simplistic that is eye catching yet fun at the same time, I created a small background, with a tree silhouette in front.

I decided not to take this design any further, because it doesn't fit the brief, I feel as if these designs focused more on the background rather than the tree.

2. My second idea was to focus more on the trees themselves, and rather than have the trees as they appeared to be, I created an them to where they are swirling and curving around. The idea came from when I think about trees, I imagine them swaying in the wind and being free. Having them form into swirly trees.

I took this design forward because I liked how the trees were represented, and I feel as if my client from Hay would like them just as much as I did.

3. My third idea was an overprinting of numerous trees, the influence came from looking a forests and seeing how cloudy and mysterious they are during dark nights. Also trying to find different pathways in between the trees, made me look closer and gain further interest to the image, which is what I was going for in my illustration.

I chose to take this idea forward because the effectiveness of the trees changing transparency makes it looks like a forest and thats the effect I want on my banner.

4. Fourthly, I took some magazines and inverted the pages with patterns on to give it a lighter feel, I then cut out the magazines into tree-like figures, and placed them together to make it look like a stylised tree.

5. For my last design sheet, I used small dots using pen and paint experimenting with the different kinds of ways dots can be formed. The most effective way was to use pen. All trees on this page are made from dots (also known as pointillism.)

I did not take this design forward because I feel that it won't work as effective as some of my other designs, especially as they will be enlarged onto a banner.

Week 1 - Briefing for Hay Festival

Today we were given our new module, the brief that was given to us was called 'Hay Treedom.' It is all about the Hay Festival and celebrating 30 years of the Festival, to celebrate they are planting trees all across the UK. The main focus for this Illustration will be around trees.

The criteria for the brief is to create an Illustration that is simplistic, that engages with an audience of all ages (aimed for families) and is witty. They wanted us to think more about the Illustration rather than the background as the Illustration won't only be on a banner but may also be used as sticker sheets, because whilst at the festival my year of Illustration will be running a workshop for children. Looking more into the Illustration itself thy asked for lots of designs in minimal size to fit on then banner.

After getting the briefing I took to my sketch book and starting looking at stylised trees.

I researched into stylised trees and what kind of patterns they hold. 

https://uk.pinterest.com/kjillustrate/hay-treedom/