Outcomes

Tite Kubo

This is another one of my major influences, i've studied alot of his art work and am hugely aspired by him.


All of his artwork is made with drawings and editing on photoshop which is what I plan to do in my exam. His drawing are very simple but effective.

This is the front cover of a Bleach volume. Bleach is a Japanese Shonen Jump series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo.

Tite Kubo is a 34 year old Japanese manga artist and graphic designer/illustrator from Japan. He is world famous for his drawings for his famous manga Bleach. I have chosen to study Tito Kubo because I am a great fan of his work and think it is incredibly creative and intricate.

Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki after he obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper literally, “Death God” —a death personification similar to the Grim Reaper—from another Soul Reaper, Rukia Kuchiki. His newfound powers force him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife. Ichigo is clearly a superior main character and is shown through featuring on this front cover.

The first thing you are drawn to in the illustration is the sword. It is the main focus of the cover, this gives a good idea of the theme of the story. It’s obviously going to be about fighting, maybe some sort of martial arts looking at his gowns and white belt. I think this is what Tite intended. Tite has drawn Ichigo with a confident glary face, it implies to the reader that the character is determined and ready. The black robes he wears maybe suggest there is some evil involved but the white background makes him seem pure.

I think the front cover provides an introduction to the main character, Ichigo.

Evaluation of Exam Project

Firstly, I'd say this was one of my more enjoyable projects over the two years. I have learnt so much during this project including key skills in photoshop which may help me throughout my life. Before I started this project I had never used photoshop before and pretty much just relied on illustrator but now I feel confident in using both. Also, this project was fun because I enjoy and love drawing and this project allowed me to express that.
         At the start of this project the first thing I did was create a general mindmap and moodboard to display my ideas and thoughts on this project and to help me get an idea of what i wanted to do. In the end, I chose Illustration as my brief and then made a specific mood board and mindmap displaying my thoughts on doing illustration and showing previous examples and inspirations of this idea.
        After that it was time to have a go at it my self. I started planning my initial ideas using different medias and experimenting with different things and then i developed these ideas to mould them to how i wanted my story to come out. This included preparing all my outcomes and designing brief predictions of how they would look. After that I began designing my outcomes, I planned to do 4 pieces - a front cover, 2 smaller pictures and a big picture and this was ideal for what i wanted to do so i split the story up into 4 parts and began drawing out each scene. After I had drawn the scenes, I scanned them in and began to edit them. My teacher Jess Townsend was a big inspiration to the technique i used on photoshop. The technique involved taking pictures or creating my own textures, scanning them into a computer and using the texture to fill the images I had drawn. After I had put or the textures into position on my drawing i would then adjust the levels and overlap the drawing with 'multiply' setting. This would give an awesome effect and shown the drawing with the fill inside. The last thing I did was give my book a title and made space for it on my front cover.
       In the exam I recreated my outcomes I had already done this pretty much took up the whole of the first day, I experimented with different textures and referred back to my inspirations Jess Townsend and Alexandra Ball to get the right effect on my outcomes. After I had finished my pieces I began creating the layout of my pieces. I opened up illustrator and made the pages and front cover for my pieces and began the illustration process and writing the story, which was fun. After I was completely happy with my outcomes I had some free time so I began experimenting with more medias like oil pastil, acrylic paint, oils and newspaper to create a collage.
        I enjoyed this project it was interesting to do and required a lot of creativity and experimentation which im not afraid to try.

Long neck giraffe

This is my last drawing it shows the giraffe after his neck has been stretched by the monkey and returning to his village. The other giraffes are shocked and jealous of his neck and are wandering wtf happened. The first is the original edit. I used my own textures my mums bag for giraffe skin, scrunched up paper for elephant, 2 different carpet textures for grass + trees and wall texture for background. Made the sun using blobs with the paint. After I'd finished editing it i started messing around the gradient of the grass and sky to make it look more realistic, I like the outcome of it but I'm not sure what one looks better and what one I'm going to create in the exam.

I couldnt get a good drawing of a giraffe from a front view (on the left) so I used the image below to help me a bit and made it a little more 'cartoon-y.'

Experimenting with Other Medias

These are experiments I have done on a previous drawing. The first picture on the left I used watercolours to colour in the Elephant and for the background. I like the effect its a nice wash over the drawing, and the sandy brown background creates a nice texture to it. The watercolour idea was very much inspired by Babette Cole who does most of her editing and typography in her stories using watercolours which creates an awesome effect and isn't so reliant on computer generated styles.













The second piece I done was using felt pens shown on the right, I'm not so fond on this style I think it looks a bit uncreative and simple. With watercolours shown above you can create many different shades and it is very much dependent on how much water you use and the force you put into the brush. Whereas with felts I feel what you can do with them is very restricted and it looks abit plain. On the other hand, simplicity can create success if its done well and children are familiar with felt pens and could be more attractive to look at than perhaps water colours or computer generated colouring.

These are other experiments I have done, on the top left i created a collage made out of newspaper, on the top right i used afew inks to get the colours i wanted, bottom left I used chalk pastils which was quite fun and on the bottom right I used acrylic paints which I havent used in ages so its pretty bad but was enjoyable to do. The elephant below I created using a biro.

Tim Marrs

Tim Marrs is one of my biggest inspirations and the way he uses Photoshop to create his pieces is very similar to mine. Tim used watercolours in this piece and also used Photoshop after which I've never actually considered doing but the outcome looks awesome!

 Tim Marrs is an editor and graphic illustrator from London. With an illustration career spanning over 10 years, Marrs did a lot of work at the Humberside University and later on joined the Master of Arts (MA). The title of the cover by Tim is ‘Appeal to Reason’, and it’s for a band named Rise Against. My first impressions of the album artwork are that it’s probably against conformity and possibly disagreement with government decisions. I have chosen to do an analysis on this piece of work because I like Rise Against’s music and I the cover has always interested and baffled me and I have had the chance to look into it. 

            To be honest I feel this cover lacks true meaning or it’s much hidden but I will try my best to try and uncover it. The first thing that I am drawn to when looking at this is the man in a suit with a gasmask fairly near the middle. I think is symbolising that government are poisoning people with what they want done, conformity is caused and Rise Against do not agree with that, the man is protecting himself, taking cover against and ‘attack’ by government. On the right hand side, we see a baby with an ac adapter charger coming from it, I think this symbolises a sense of control by government. It implies a form of robot, it illustrates conformity, a robot does exactly what it’s told and the baby implies that this happens from the day theyre born; the scissors show that this attachment needs to be disconnected. I think the barbed wire shows security, maybe were trapped and we are under control and the dog running symbolises escape and freedom.

Tim Marrs has created this with pencils drawings and filled with shades of colour, I think the drawings are very creative and interesting. I think he has definitely tried to push the limits of the human mind and tried to make people think further than for e.g just a man in a gasmask. There is a message and meaning in his artwork but he has left that for the viewer to uncover. 

Ideas + Inspirations - Babette Cole

Babette Cole was born in 1949 and is now 63 years of age. She is an amazing English children's writer and illustrator. She has written over 70 picture books in her time and her best selling book Doctor Dog has been made into a successful children's cartoon series. Most of her books that she creates, are usually children's comedy books, at times a little bit rude funny like 'The Smelly Book' 'The Hairy Book' 'The Slimy Book' and 'The Silly Book'. Peculiar names but interesting books and the illustration is amazing and I can see why kids love her work.


Babette attended The Canterbury College of Art where she received a BA Honours. She worked at the BBC creating children's programs such as Bagpuss and Watch with Mother.

This is one of my favourite illustrations and books by her. Babette uses watercolours for must of her work which is incredible and inspirational and I will try and have a go and doing some of my pieces in watercolour after having looked at her work. The concepts of her books are awesome aswell like the personification of the dog as a doctor would be a big attraction to kids and has a huge audience.

Very Strong + Angry Monkey

This is part 3 of my story where the giraffe is strolling back to his village after being his neck issue was not resolved by the Wise Elephant. The giraffe is crying with his head down and walks straight through a banana in the angry monkeys hand as he was about to eat it. The banana is stuck in the giraffes ossicones and so the monkey pulls and pulls to get it back. I created this picture from a handdrawn picture I had created and then adding my own textures to it again. I was a bit  unsure on how to drawn a 'cartoony' monkey face so I got ideas and inspiration from an angry monkey from 'Family Guy' the tv show, the monkey is shown below. 

Another version I did using different textures and colours.

Textures

Wooden floor - Pillow - Pillow - Dressing gown - Wall - Leather Chair - Sofa - Wall - Wall - Table  - Carpet - Carpet

this is one of my favourites I have taken and will probably use it for the giraffes that i draw.

Wall - Duvet - Blanket - shirt - wall - basket - desk- paper - paper - floor - mums coat

These are some home taken textures I took with my camera. Im going to use some of these in my final outcomes.

The Wise Elephant

This is the second part of the story where the giraffe seeks out the almighty Wise Elephant, the elephant is shocked by the size of the small giraffe and unfortunately cannot offer any advice but tells the giraffe to carry on wishing and one day his dreams will come true.


Once again this is a hand drawn image, I had no help when drawing the elephant just my initial ideas, I filled the elephant with a texture I made from a scrunched up piece of paper. I like the effect its made for the skin. The sun I created easily just experimenting with the paint on Photoshop. And the sky was from part of a photograph from when I went to the Zoo.

Front Cover Attempt

This is my first attempt at a front cover for my childrens book (below), again it is very much inspired by Alexandra Ball, childrens story book artist. As you can see my original drawing of the cover is to the left << , and I have simply just added textures to the drawings very much like Alexandra Ball to give a very cool and colourful affect to the drawing. The textures for this piece were ones found on the internet but when I do this for my exam I will be getting all the textures myself. 

Development of Ideas

I had a mess about with my textures and drawings and came up with some interesting results! This style is very much inspired by Alexandra Bull who uses textures to fill her animals, trees and landscapes, its such a cool and effective way of filling items in Photoshop and its so easy to do!

The style of these pictures was taught to me by my teacher Jessica Townsend, her work is awesome and an inspiration to me. A piece of her artwork is shown below and as you can see my artwork here has been greatly inspired by the use of textures to fill items. (wood texture for floor, fabrics for clothing and curtains)

This is an easy process on Photoshop, all you have to do is duplicate the original layer and use the magic wand to delete parts of the layer you want and can replace with a texture. As you can see i missed part of the leg in the giraffe edit above, I improved on this in my other photoshop edits by messing about with the levels in Photoshop and making the lines darker and turning the tolerance down on the Magic Wand Tool.

Inspirations - Alexandra Ball

Alexandra Bull was born to an aerobics teacher and a countryside ranger, it was probably no surprise that she spent her early years with her brother running and jumping in the countryside. And to this day she is thankful for this as these great memories have helped her tell the tales and stories of her childhood and live her dream of being a storyteller for children. Alexandra Bull had a great love for art and she began designs work for mainly children and soon got a degree in illustration at Falmouth college of arts. 

Alexandra Bull is a huge inspiration to my work, I think her works incredible. Firstly, the simplicity of her work for e.g the picture above, the drawings are quite simple but the outcome is perfect. She uses a wide range of colours appealing to a younger audience greatly and the strong lovingness of animals is shown throughout the picture. Kids love animals and they're smiling and playing with the children which a child would love to read about. 

The thing I like best about Alexandra Bull's work, is her editting and illustration skills, many of the colours shown on the picture are not just fills of colour on illustration but are textures that she has scanned in and put into her image, I think this is incredibly creative and has an amazing effect on the picture. The tree in the above picture is shown to have been edited with a texture and it is interesting and not boring and the grass and the stares have also got textures added to them.

My Specific Mindmap

My General Moodboard

This piece is just a plot of thoughts relating to the briefs for the exam. I have included film inspiration, childhood memories and books I loved, wedding invitations and reality TV shows. I am quite familiar with reality TV so I could go for this idea, but I also have a love for the books I grew up reading and would love to give one a go at creating myself!

My Specific Moodboard

I chose to do a Children's Storybook, I'm quite looking forward to the task of creating my own characters and returning to my childhood thoughts when creating this book.

My Project Brief

Collecting Textures

Hat
<---
     

      Nancys
      Bag
      --->










Brown scrunched up paper                                         Spraypaint

For my project I decided I needed to collect some textures of different objects and things in which I could possibly use in my outcomes as an alternative to colouring in or just filling with a plain colour. I have created a number of textures that I can possibly use in my final design. The plan is to fill the animals with the texture I choose.
I chose the hat and the crosshatching to experiment with as an elephant texture and the brown paper and the giraffe skin like bag to experiment on the giraffe with.






Spray paint
<---

<--- Paint pattern             Watercolours

Paint
--->

Book plan ideas

 This is a rough sketch of what I intend my story to be about and what the pictures could be for each scene which il need to create.
The story was inspired by Aesop's Fables and
Tamaki Tales and should be quite fun to do. As I said this is only a rough sketch so the drawings below are bad but have given me an idea of what I need to do!

Ideas

These are drawings i have done of animals for ideas towards my final outcome. The one on the top-left i was experimenting with a biro.

Influences and Inspirations

Trying to think of a suitable story for my final outcomes became a struggle for me, I didn't know what to do and  I couldn't seem to think of any good ideas. But I came across a few websites which greatly helped me in my project the first one was called Aesop's Fables. It is an amazing website with hundreds of short stories for young children which was perfect for what I was looking for.

http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk

I had a read over quite a few of them and most of them have animals in which is great because I'd like to draw animals in my outcome and think they're appealing to a young audience.

My favourite fables I read were:

The Fox and the Lion
The Hare and the Tortoise
The Lion and the Mouse

All simple and easy with a great moral to each of the stories and would be easy to narrate with pictures.

Exhibition Review

We went to the Hayward Gallery to help us get some ideas for our A2 Graphics exam project. It was an enjoyable and interesting day, the whole I pretty much focused on just one particular artist named, James Dellar. His work was varied and consisted of political documentaries, exhibitions of British Folk art and the fusion of Acid House and Brass Bands. This fusion piece was called Acid Brass and the birth of the idea came from a mind map which connected the links between both the genres of music. I decided I like this idea of combining two opposites and am inspired by his creativity.

This is his piece, 'Acid Brass' I think its an amazing piece. Its not your every day piece of artwork and it reminds me of a mindmap of ideas. The way music is described and displayed on this piece is incredible, and its greatly inspiring as I have a strong passion for music! During the trip here, we were able to visit the artists bedroom and look through slides and holes and see pieces of his work.

           On a whole, the exhibition was a great experience for me, I am left inspired and influenced by James Dellar and I greatly appreciate his work. 

London Zoo - Photos taken

These were afew photos i have taken for my project, I went to London Zoo to get some ideas and it really helped!