​www.pinterest.co.uk/ailsaellen7/uni-project-text-analysis-response/

For my final illustration I chose to use watercolour and inks to produce a warm, vibrant and celebratory feel to the piece. I included rays within the piece, along with a figure featured in the 'sky' as such, which provided the spiritual aspects, aiming for a mood of posession, power and visionary unrealism. The inks I used contain a shimmer element which I thought was very fitting for the magical, spiritual art direction. I was happy with the final outcome - with the focus being on colour communication I think I expressed the moods and feelings I was aiming for. What I learnt through the work of Emil Nolde, is that with the right use of colour, an illustration doesn't have to be particularly complicated to still express an effective outcome. 

As I surprisingly began to quite enjoy the poem, I decided to do a few more edits, using a William Blake approach. By the end of the project, I really liked reading the poem (after hating it at the start) so I wanted to do some pieces where the language was included. I used gold ink to paint out a sample of the poem and the staircase, and then edited it in photoshop, using paper textures and layers of colour to achieve a similar style to William Blake. I didn't spend a great amount of time on these but I was enjoying creating them!

I found this project interesting looking at the different body languages and how important these are to an illustration in portraying a message. I found it a bit of a challenge incorporating interesting compositions and perspectives with the main focus being on the figures body language so this was definitely a useful task.

For my 'angry boss' title I used scale as a bit of a factor as well to make the boss look more authoritative with the employee much smaller highlighting status, and I thought ink was a good choice as it's a more harsh material to link to the mood. The 'good news' thumbnail I chose to use ink as well as this is based in the 1950's so I thought I'd stick to black and white. I also tried to link the fashion and hairstyle to the era, and of course the style of phone. I thought the message was well portrayed with the figure jumping on the bed. For my 'mum can we go now' visual I decided to have a bored teenager, conveyed through the resting head on the hand, and blowing bubblegum out of boredom, whilst the adults enjoy their coffee leisurely. The 'anniversary' visual I decided the couple hated each other so much that one of them was stood up at the restaurant. While the woman is upset at the table, the balloon deflates further signifying the mood. I like the perspective I've used for the 'big jump', I think it's an interesting composition and I think the body language portrays the feelings of being scared and anxious well. Finally my 'genius at work' visual I have a scientist analysing their experiments closely. I used watercolour pencil crayons for these 2 visuals which I really enjoyed using and I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

I like the different perspectives I have used for these visuals above. I'm really happy with my 'tango' visual, I think it is quite a dynamic composition, and the checked cafe floor really stands out, along with the red dress. I think my 'vertigo' thumbnail is good at expressing wind, I used watercolour and ink for a loose effect. I like the diagonal composition of this 'ambushed' thumbnail, I think it really adds to the tension. I used acrylic paint as I thought this was the best material, particularly for dark colours and highlighting the relevant tones. For my 'the giant leap' thumbnail, I used a different perspective to emphasise the height which I think works really well. I used watercolour pencil crayons to apply colour to this visual, using a linear effect for the sky to link to wind and also the direction of the 'giant leap'. I added relevant tones, although the scan doesn't really show this well. 

For my 'system failure' visual I used ink and watercolour, using lots of water to make a fluid, space like effect. I had the figure falling out of the frame to further emphasise the physical struggle/fall. For my 'January sales' visual I used acrylic paint to figure out colours, and i wanted to highlight the claustrophobic aspect by filling the frame with people. I loosely added in brush strokes of colour to make a blurred effect, with the intention of making it look busy and claustrophobic. Also my use of cool colours allows the mood to be wintery which is ideal for January.
Overall, I found this a really useful project, particularly for thinking more critically about composition and varied perspectives. I think I could definitely do with some more practise within this area, specifically getting ideas down as thumbnails quickly and effectively rather than being so decisive in my mind before putting pen to paper. 

I took screenshots throughout my progression with the badge designs and the backing designs which I will display below and caption with explanation.​

Below are my final 3 badge designs, I am very happy with how they turned out. I think they look really convincing with the use of the drop shadow and the card texture. I learnt a lot during this project which was really good and I've definitely picked up lots of useful tips along the way, as well as being more confident with illustrator. 

I really like the effect of the paper textures and I definitely learned a few tricks with photoshop to make this look like a realistic old band poster - altering the opacity of layers, using the multiply tool to make the layers not look as though they're just sat on top of eachother etc. I was pleased with the outcome of these, however from an illustration point of view I think I could create a design which suits the title more - Tony mentioned in a group crit that I was missing a trick by not looking into scale, so I looked into this a bit further. I also decided I wanted to use photoshop to create a screen print effect, as this is something which I think could be really useful to learn about for future projects as well. 

I decided that I wanted to use contrasting colours to make the posters really eye catching and exciting, and I thought of producing a series of screen prints - one for each venue for example. I also had a play using half tone which I thought was really cool. I used it on the line drawing and even though the difference was subtle I thought it gave quite a good representation of screen printing as well as there were little gaps in the spread of colour, and it gave a bit of a speckled effect. This would work particularly well on a more detailed illustration but overall a good trick to learn. I played around with lots of different colour combinations and different fonts etc, below are screenshots of my progression. 

This is how my layers palette looked, I grouped everything to make each colour screen easier to find which worked well.

Here are my final screen prints, which would be a series - I produced 4 different ones for different venues. If I had more time, I wanted to look at t shirts, and how the design would be screen printed onto them.

He has a clear understandnig of perspective, and I really like the loose aspects of his pieces, good use of colour around the piece which ties everything together nicely. Here I produced a study in his style, I am happy with the detail I included however I think maybe I could've added some loose washes of colour around to add to his style.

The other artist I chose to look at was Ambrose McEvoy. ​

I love the spontaneity of these pieces, and their quick improvised feel. I found this quite difficult as it's not a style I'm used to working in, but it was quite enjoyable being able to use very loose marks. The pieces involve very atmospheric lighting so I tried to incorporate that within my studies.

I found Ivon Hitchens work quite different to many of the other artists. He really pushes the boundaries with his strong use of colour and mark making. It is very abstract and hard to figure out what the scene consists of. I really enjoyed the style of Ivon Hitchens, it was very loose and expressive and I had fun creating these pieces.

The other artist I chose to look at was Emma Carlisle. I found this a bit more challenging due to how abstract she is. I really love mark making so I tried to incorporate that in her style, using big brushes and a variety of objects to apply the paint. I looked at her instagram highlights for tips on painting and some examples of her acrylic work. I like how her style is messy and quite sketchy so I tried to express that aspect.

​https://www.instagram.com/emmacarlisle_/

Despite this being quite difficult to replicate I found it a really enjoyable way of working, and it inspires me to be more loose and free with paint. The variety of shapes and feelings which can be expressed through mark making I find fascinating and I think it's a technique I had almost forgotten about so it was a useful exercise.

I got a lot of inspiration from Jose Romussi who is an embroidery artist I have followed for some time. I love the way he uses embroidery to essentially mask identities and highlight different aspects of moods and feelings inside and outside the body.

For my other 2 models I tried to explore the other characteristics of these animals. I used tinfoil to create a more smooth and delicate creature, looking at the fragility and delicacy of the animals. I think these turned out really well and they were fun to produce, and weren't very time consuming.

The main brief of this task involved producing a drawing of a room in my house using pen and ink. Below, is my drawing of my living room which was inspired by Lucinda Rogers. I love the varied use of line thickness, and the way the shading gives a real sense of the antiqueness of the house.