Year Evaluation

So the first year of this year has now (unofficially) passed. There has been many ups and downs throughout the year and this is my summary of the year so far. 

This current module has been a real struggle for me, I haven't really enjoyed it and only in the past week I've liked even any of my drawings which is a real shame as at the start of the academic year I felt like I was making so much progress and having so much fun whereas now I'm not. I definitely agree that I can overwork myself and pressurise myself too much but one of the biggest issues for me this year has been my time management- the academic side of the course isn't something I struggle to do (I enjoy writing and researching) however trying to do 20 weeks worth of work in 3 isn't efficient and put my drawing work to almost a full stop, meaning that in catching up with that side of things my narrative illustration fell way way behind.

I didn't feel inspired by much and was getting really disheartened with myself, I've lost a lot of confidence in my abilities and I think that this summer will be spent trying to win that back which hopefully won't take too long. I'm still not 100% happy with the illustrations I will be submitting for this module, I think I could have done better and that I've let myself down a bit, but I have really tried my best and the fact that I will be handing any drawings in at all is an achievement in itself (to me at least). In all honesty there will probably not be anymore blog posts for this module, I haven't been able to do the work I wanted this past weekend and so I'm still finishing artworks to hand in on Wednesday: however I am comforting myself with the fact (excuse?) that this year will not count towards my final grade, and I wholly acknlowedge the fact that it is due to my own shortcomings that I've suffered, especially again in regards to time management.

The first module was much more enjoyable as the focus was more on actually drawing in a much more relaxed way. It was something I didn't have to think about and this is why my drawings from there were so much better than the more recent ones. I think I've reached a good landmark with my still developing process though, as using digital means for this narrative illustration project is something I didn't expect to do. Even though I am veyr experienced in using digital media, for most of the year I've focused on traditional techniques and this result has encouraged me to be more open to try things I think might not work. The risk in changing my project so late definitely paid off; instead of having 10 drawings I really hate, I have 10 drawings I like that have gave me a starting point for defining my own style, which is something I was really stuck on. 

I have felt as though there was too much emphasis on finding a style to stick with in this first year, I was panicking that if I didn't find a style this year I would be struggling throughout the rest of the years in this course which is something I obviously wouldn't want. In the end I just thought 'sack it' and stopped thinking about trying to create a specific 'style', I just let my drawings speak for themselves. Another thing I realised is that perhaps my 'style' doesn't have to be an exact way of drawing- instead it could be a series of processes combined that produce the same feel as each other to make them recognisable as my work. 

This year has been a steep, steep learning curve but I think I have grown a lot as a person during this and that I can use this years experience to ensure these mistakes don't happen again, in education or in the industry. In September I will be coming into the building armed with an academic year planner and an armful of pencils and I'm going to throw myself into the work and really try to keep my head above the water.

Cover Pages

I wanted my cover to be bold, simple and effective. I chose a neutral colour for the background as I didn't want to distract from the moose illustrations. I chose the moose because the 'very mooseful' plaque could be interpreted to mean that the book is useful (even though it's a nonsense book). 

Another reason I used the moose was because the twinned images meant I could keep a theme between the front and back covers, again keeping it simple but in my opinion quite effective indeed. 

Final Image- Good Homes for Kittens Spread

Final Image- The Goldfish

Final Image- The Oyster

Final Image- Moose

Final Image- The Bat

Final Image- Beetroot

I added the poem to each of the final images, to add a better sense of completion. I think the addition of the poem really finishes it off.

I'm glad I took a risk in this project and use a digital process, I think it's really effective for this style of drawing. 

Good Homes for Kittens

These were my final sketches for the kitten poem. I tried to give each cat a different personality and character, along of course with different poses and colours. I was happy with each of these drawings, especially cat #5, #4 and #6.

The Goldfish

For the Goldfish poem I wanted to draw it from a much different perspective to Collin's. I wanted the goldfish to be looking down upon the sardines in shock/ melancholy. At first I wanted to produce a fish-eye effect in the drawing but this was proving too difficult and so I drew it straight on.

Moose

Moose was a poem I was looking forward to doing although I wasn't sure how I would execute it. So I started drawing moose from photos and from my mind to try and spark an idea. I didn't spend too long on these, I just wanted them to be quick and loose with lots of feeling.

Eventually I came to the idea that the moose could be a mounted head with a sign proclaiming it firstly 'not mooseful' and then when used as a coat hanger, 'very mooseful'.

To make life easier for myself and to make the image look its best, although I drew a whole head, I planned to digitise one side and mirror it to produce a symmetrical moose head. This also meant that there would be minimal changes to make for the second moose head, which could be done wholly in Photoshop.

The Bat

The Bat was the next poem I illustrated. There wasn't much I could be funny with in this poem so I just drew a bat flying through trees at night in the same style. Again I will digitise this although I will most likely add more detail to this than I'm planning for the others. This illustration will be quite large, maybe 3/5 of the page, but the poem is short so the layout will work well.

Beetroot/ The Oyster

The first poems I tackled were 'Beetroot' and 'The Oyster'. Since reading Beetroot, I had images in my head of a guy serenading a beetroot, practically declaring his love for it. This was the idea I picked for definite after doing some other little sketches at the bottom. 

Because the self portrait for London came out so well digitally, I decided to continue in that style for these works. I'm not sure if it will become my style yet but at the moment it's definitely something I'm exploring. 

The Oyster poem describes an oyster who is happier when he is moister. I had an idea of either a happy oyster in a shower or at the bottom of the ocean. I liked the shower idea but the drawing of the second oyster was better in my opinion, and so for my final image I combined the two drawings.

London Self Portrait

For the exhibition at the Coningsby Gallery in London, we were required to submit a grayscale self portrait that was 50mmx50mm for a small pocket sized zine.

At first I tried sketching from a photo I had taken of myself. I was trying to get it realistic and looking like me, but halfway through I decided to scrap it because it wasn't going anywhere good. Taking the same approach as I did to the current module, i.e. not taking it way too seriously, and I doodled an idea of me looking down at a kitten which I actually really liked. It had a humorous element to it and looked like me so this was the sketch I was going to use.

I redid the sketch and refined it more, using a fineliner to define the lines more. I scanned it in and digitised the drawing, producing a portrait which I really liked because it looked smooth and professional but there was still a hand-drawn element to it.

Changing Tracks

Throughout the project, although I've been making progress I was constantly unhappy overall with my work. The Witches, although a good idea in theory, left me feeling uninspired and unmotivated and it was really difficult to do anything I felt was worthwhile.

However I was really enjoying drawing for the Colin West poem submission, Good Homes for Kittens, and so I decided to change my chosen book from the Witches to The Big Book of Nonsense. 

I have also chosen a different poem (Beetroot) to submit to Colin West so I can use Good Homes for Kittens in my main project, giving me a total of six illustrations out of the ten needed. 

Final poem choice:

• Good Homes for Kittens
• The Oyster
• Moose
• The Goldfish
• The Bat

I think that approaching this project with a more relaxed attitude and with a bit of humour will be the best way to go. I kept finding myself overthinking the illustrations I was producing for the Witches which made me tense up and did nothing for my drawing, whereas if I was just doodling little ideas for poems they were turning out really nicely. This is a turning point in defining my process (which was another thing I was having difficulty with) and is something I will have to consider in future. 

Character Sketches 2- The Grand High Witch & Co.

Instead of pushing on with the boy sketches, I turned my attention to the Grand High Witch and the others as I was looking forward to drawing these much more and thought I would be able to produce some drawings I was happier with for this. 

I started by doing some really quick, loose sketches of 50s style women and different clothing, like the shirt-dress, a pencil skirt and a halterneck swing dress. 

I liked the middle drawing of the GHW, she looks almost like a cross between Grease's Frenchie and Rizzo. This was the sketch I wanted to refine more, which I did below. I first drew the Witch in pencil and went over this in black Fineliner to emphasise the lines. I photocopied the drawing so that I could experiment with colour.

I experimented with watercolour paints and some different colour palettes. Although the brown and green theme looked nice, it definitely didn't scream 'Super hot and powerful Witch Bitch' which is what I was aiming for, while the sassy blue and red theme nailed it. The only thing I would change about it would be her hair- jet black would look a lot more sophisticated, the red hair is too soft and girly for a powerful witch. 

I did two more really quick doodles of other witches wearing everyday clothes. I purposefully made them different to the Grand High Witch as these witches are more run-of-the-mill while the Grand High Witch reigns supreme over all others.

Character Sketches 1- Boy

The first character I started sketching was the Boy. This was because he was the main character (alongside the grandma) and although he is only an actual human for maybe one third of the book, I felt that it was important to accurately capture his character through clothing and expression.

The character I conjured up in my head was a slightly mischievous looking boy with ruffled hair and a gangly frame. He wore shorts and a striped t shirt with boots, a very typical outfit for a rambunctious young boy in the 50s, practical clothes which were fit for all the rough and tumble he would be getting into.

The first sketch I did was the portrait in the upper left hand corner. I didn't like this much as the drawing looks rather forced and too similar to the drawings I did in the past of this character- I wanted to get away from those drawings completely.

I started sketching possible outfits for him in the middle and these led to the boy sketched on the right hand side. I liked the little vest and shirt combo, children of the 50s were usually dressed like miniature adults so this is a perfect design for him. I tried to give him some discernable features that would make him unique in his 'mouse form', such as plenty of freckles which would appear as mottles fur, an upturned nose and a calflick in his hair. This led me to do some little sketches of his mouse form which are the drawings I like best of this page because even though I was relaxed when drawing all this the mouse sketches look a lot more natural.

Brainstorming

So because I set a theme I first did a little brainstorming in my sketchbook to help me get some ideas down. I was thinking about things like the setting and the characters, from the clothes to the hair and other fashions. I also thought I could try looking through old family photo albums to see if I could draw any inspiration from those pictures; it would also add a more personal element to my work. 

The setting I thought would be best for this kind of theme was a beachside hotel, with big tall windows and featuring gorgeous Georgian architecture. To gain some inspiration for this, there are some seaside towns near where I live that I could visit and take photographs of and draw the buildings there.