Scale

Starting to actually design my postcards properly from my initial roughs I realised that although my ideas were to scale I wasn't sure how they would look at the actual size - some elements may be too large or too small, especially in vector format. I condensed some of my imagery down to include just one main object - the car, instead of the house as well. This worked better for the focal point of my composition. I think this communicates the feel of this place in particular as it is described as a 'graveyard for vintage cars'.

Fan Art Poster - Initial Sketches

Initially, I made a list of possible things I could base my initial designs on. I narrowed it down fairly quickly to work on Pan's Labyrinth, a spanish film about war and the imagination of a young girl - Ofelia, it has been and remains one of my favourite films. The imagery within the film gave me a lot to work with and as the imaginative part of the film is filmed in a blue hue lighting, ideally I would like to incorporate this as one of my two colours for screen printing. I am very excited about this task and hope that I can do the film justice in my final print design.

I definitely want to include the hands with eyeballs in the palms - This is probably, for me, the most iconic scene from the film so I want to include this imagery somewhere in my design. The central character is Ofelia and I really like how the film follows events from her viewpoint, so I want to make her the main focus of my image.

Forbidden Places - Library Book

I took out 'Forbidden Places' from the library which consists of one man's journey to many abandoned places in the world. The places which were the most disturbing to me where the ones that had objects left in the rooms as if someone was using them. For example, a chair or some wellington boots. I also enjoyed looking at the pictures of dark eery tunnels, compositionally I think these were some of the strongest examples shown in the book. This book may also help me when it comes to deciding on colour schemes for the final designs.

Development

Thinking through Drawing

Taking my initial ideas forward I am trying out a variety of different compositions of the same themes. At this stage, I am literally just jotting down every idea that floats into my head. I am finding this very useful - thinking through drawing, I think I am starting to realise what Matt means when he says this now. Drawing the same ideas different ways makes it easier to see what I want to communicate and how I can do this through placing different things in the frame.

Taking my chosen places, I looked at photography from those areas and found some fascinating imagery taken from abandoned places. I sketched out some of the main elements in order to incorporate them into my designs.

I did a quick test of cut paper in my sketchbook to see what an idea I had for Seneca Lake could look like using vectors as shape. As it stands I don't want to include line work but maybe an overlapping of colour for where tonal areas would be.

Initial Ideas

I drew up roughs straight away for the places I thought had the most potential for a final postcard design. I was drawn to the places with more obscure stories behind why they are abandoned and those that held exciting imagery for me to work with. Starting with more than 4 cities to develop has helped me to narrow down which ones I would like to take forward. Some of the cities/places I thought initially would be great to illustrate were a lot harder to design, whereas some of the ones I thought were a tad dull actually turned out to give me more ideas and less obvious outcomes.

Abandoned Cities

Abandoned Places - Most Interesting

Ordos, China

Pripyat, Chernobyl Disaster

Mirny Diamond Mine - Eastern Siberia, Russia

Farmhouse - Seneca Lake, New York

Gulliver's Travels Park - Kawaguchi, Japan

Hashima Island, Japan

Underwater City - Shicheng, China

Wonderland Amusement Park - Beijing, China

El Hotel del Salto - Colombia

Christ of the Abyss - San Fruttuoso, Italy

Kolmanskop or Kolmanskuppe, Namibia

Novi Cidade de Kilamba (or Kilamba New City), near Luanda, Angola

Copehill Down, Wiltshire, England

Guantanamo Bay
Easter Island
Keelung, Taiwan
The Namibian ghost town, Kolmanskop
Holland Island in the Chesapeake BayI
M. Cooling Tower, Belgium
Amusement park in Berlin, Germany called Spreepark
Pompeii

Research So-far

I have been very intrigued by places that appear to have no people inhabiting them at all. There is something a bit spooky and interesting about them, there are many crazy stories behind why they are abandoned. I had a chat with Jamie who showed me entire cities in China which are uninhabited which I found a great starting point for my project.

Depth

Line of Sight

In the session today we looked at many different practitioners and the use of depth, line of sight and variations on viewpoints. I found this exercise very helpful in identifying these things in a less obvious way. In my own work I think I have been including and making use of these techniques without realising what it was or how my composition can be improved by my understanding of these things. Being able to lead the viewer's eye from one part of an image to another is a useful thing to grasp when constructing an image in the early stages.

Sean Tan

This image in particular really interested me. The viewpoint from above, as if in the eye of the fish/bird, was a great variation on how an image can be perceived and how depth can be added to communicate something in very dynamic unusual ways. Several lines of sight are also included in the composition which draws an audience in to different aspects of the image as a whole.

Seasons - Library Book

Seasons - Blex Bolex Enchanted Lion Books

As it is the beginning of a new project, I decided to take out some books from the library. I am a bit nervous about this brief as it forces me to work in a way that I am not used to at all, however I am definitely up for the challenge and am excited to see where this could take my practice.

Looking at 'Seasons' has been very helpful to gage how to approach a brief where the outcome will be vector based - before now I had no clue what vectors in Adobe Illustrator where or what they could achieve. Examples from certain pages have shown me that work needn't be very complicated to be effective as a means of communication.

Greetings from... Task 1

Today we were set a task right before we were given our new brief. I have actually become accustom to using cut paper throughout my last few projects and I want an opportunity to really embrace this method of working, I feel like I can really experiment with placement and shape when doing this - which helps me with composition and creating a simple way of communicating an idea in the most minimal way possible. I think sometimes I over complicate imagery for no reason at all and I would like to continue to learn different ways of stripping it back. 

Brief

To create 4 Postcards based on cities of your choice.

Final outcomes must be produced using vectors.

140mm x 210mm

Overall Thoughts

I have learnt a lot during this project about the ways in which I like to work and what is most successful in creating a mood or conveying a message to an audience. I actually think that using cut paper and shape has been something I am including more and more within my work and want to keep experimenting with in future projects. I think the challenge with this brief was to create a digital, 3D and drawn version - therefore I felt a bit restricted with what I wanted to use in comparison to what was required. That is why I do not like the drawn image at all, it felt very rushed and I would have liked to have created a set of 3 using the cut paper method - where I would have enjoyed testing layers and adding dimensions to my imagery.

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/267260559115466689/

Nancy Liang

http://www.brwnpaperbag.com/?s=gif

I was really drawn to Nancy Liang's work when browsing illustration blogs. The animations within the gifs are fairly simple but extremely effective in what they are communicating. I feel like I could have learned more from this kind of approach and not tried to take on too much too quickly. In future projects I really want to learn from this and try to minimise what I include within an image, just leaving what is necessary to communicate the relevant messages within the images. Compositionally, I really like the inclusion of a line of sight and scale within this gif in particular. The little man next to the house and the moon all add to the way the image is percieved as a whole.

GIF 3

Finally produced a gif I am pretty happy with today, I think I was right to focus more on subtle movements. I also decided to use a background i made during the Mono-print Workshop down at Vernon Street. I think more of a tonal background compliments the atmosphere of the imagery. At first the flickering of light annoyed me but I quite like the subtle changes of lighting as the wind blows the leaves across the frame. There are things such as continuity that I would like to have changed but I have two more gifs to do so I think I should get a move on!

GIF 2

I produced this gif very quickly in comparison to the others. I wanted the background to be very sketchy and full of movements next to the static foreground. One of the answers that came up a lot to the question I asked - when do you feel most thoughtful, was when doing work or at Uni. I wanted to base this gif on the feeling of not having any ideas whilst you start a project (blank page).

I took what I learned from the test gifs I made of rain, which was mostly made up of coloured pencil drawings and textured effects to create movement to the sky. Overall I think I could have spent more time researching the different colours of the changing times in the day, but as this was my last gif I am rather pushed for time at this point. I think I could have executed this idea much better with more testing and input.

GIF 1

Surprisingly, I am happy with the digital gif. I thought that this one would be the most time consuming and more difficult for me to execute well. I am finding that I am getting more confident when using a Wacom tablet and I think this is reflected in how speedy I was when drawing this out on Photoshop, although I think using a sketch underneath as a template was also very useful.

Colour Palette

I consciously used a very monochrome colour palette, thinking about being awake in bed at night time, most of the things I can see are very dull and dark, and very little colour is visible. I wanted to highlight the experience of this within my gif. Also, I think I need to learn a bit more about the relationships of colour and how we perceive them before I tackle something whilst still achieving the same tone.

3D Gif Experiments

I made a new gif based on what I learned from the test gifs I created using this character. I thought maybe using a duller tone would highlight the bleakness of what I wanted to convey to an audience. However, once I had put them into gif format the colours dull anyway so I don't think the filters are necessary. I also prefer the orange-ness of the scarf in the original imagery.

Digital Gif Development

Composition

To start the digital gif I drew out a rough plan of what I wanted my final composition to look like. I found this extremely helpful as a guideline when it came to drawing out my ideas digitally. Since working in this way I am a lot more confident using brushes and tools on Photoshop that I had previously avoided.

Change of Idea - What do I want to say?

At this stage I was going to include some eyes underneath the bed, although I think that would make an interesting image, my aim for this brief isn't to portray a sense of fear. I want to show the time of night when your mind is racing and you can't sleep even though you really want to, something I think all creatives can relate to a little bit - Especially me towards the finalisation of this project.

More Test Gifs

I made some Gifs today. Recently I have been a bit more distracted than usual, I think this may be down to a lack of thought for the current project and house hunting! However, I got a bit more of an idea for what I want my imagery to convey and how to achieve this. The next step is where I can go from here, I am not quite sure if the collage element counts as 3D or drawn imagery. I will have to experiment with the rest of the images I want to create.

Maybe I should make more understated Gifs? I think more subtle changes in the hair or slight wind effects may create more of an atmosphere. I think maybe I am spending too long on one particular idea though and should try to branch out a little.

Out of the ones I made I think my favourite was the scarf one, but the lighting annoys me and I think I can execute it better with a bit more subtlety. I think it shows more of a thoughtful stillness to the figure, the second one is a bit too fast-paced I think. I also think the scarf doesn't look much like a scarf because it randomly flies back on, I want to include wind so maybe a few leaves and slight movements of hair and scarf will be necessary.

Print Workshop

I really enjoyed learning the differences between the types of print today and am eager to discover more ways to produce an interesting print. I think I will use one of my outcomes for the background of a gif, maybe the 3D one?

Although I have done basic printing before, I have forgotten most of the processes and different techniques I can use to produce imagery, so today was very helpful in refreshing my memory.

Difficulties with GIFS!

So I feel like most people are loving this kind of brief but I am finding it really difficult to portray something meaningful in so little time and with no set narrative or research taking place. I attempted to quickly conduct my own form of research by asking my peers when and where they feel most thoughtful. This gave me something to go on and base the majority of my image making on. The biggest challenge for me so far is finding something that is both captivating and meaningful to an audience. I don't know, maybe I am over-thinking!

Paper Crafting

Experimentation

I have enjoyed testing out facial expression and translating this within my image making. After the last project I was itching to continue with creating shapes and paper cutting. I find this way of thinking about an image easier for me to describe posture and play around with placement. The three-dimensional aspect is also something I really like as an effect, it creates depth and a hand-made quality that survives a digital process. With flat drawings I find that sometimes when edited digitally something about the authenticity is lost.

Idea Party

Frames

I have been frantically drawing out compositions of how I want to produce my work and how I want to approach each idea. I have found that having to assign each idea to either digital, drawn or 3D has been a challenge for me. I keep coming up with ideas that would all work for drawn but not necessarily for 3D, I need to find a way around this.

Laura Carlin

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/468726273698506421/

Laura Carlin's work depicts a certain tone and expression within her work. As this is something I am always striving to achieve, I studied the way each image within 'The Promise' is composed. There seems to be something behind the character's eyes and a hidden story. Hopefully I can loosen up a bit with the way I approach media and the choices I make in this respect.

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/468726273698506430/

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/468726273698506425/

Test Gifs

Composition

I am starting to think about the square frame format and where might be the most effective placement of my images.

Rain Textures

Today I decided to create a test gif from my sketchbook drawings mixed with digital that depicts some kind of tone I want to be present within my work. I have found this exercise very useful and now understanding that a movement and atmosphere can be created with just 2 different frames.