Updated Adrian Mole Book Cover

When submitting to the penguin competition, the website crashed so they extended the deadline for a further two days. I decided to take advantage of the extra time and make some changes that I had wanted to make to the design.

I changed the layout of the author's name and increased the sizes of the image and the book title to fit the page better. I also added a shadow to the illustration to add more depth and a sense of a surface to which the books where sitting on. 

I think the composition works a lot better now. The text fills the page better, not leaving a lot of space which made it look unconsidered. 

Re-touched Illustration for the Colouring Book Brief

After submitting the illustration and the company getting back to me saying i have been shortlisted and sending them my personal tumblr link, they then contacted me again to see if i could possibly add more trees where the text was and have the text within them to connect it to the illustration. 

I definitely looks better than before, as i only left space incase they further specified a certain size font as this was not mentioned in the brief. As i am adapting this illustration further for myself, I was already going to fill the space i had left, so this wasn't time wasted.

Since I sent this, they soon got back to me asking for the original image without the text or white space, which I sent straight away. They haven't got back to me yet, so i am unsure on what they are going to do with the image as i know that it has to have text on their some where as it was specified clearly in the brief.

Shortlisted for the Papyrus Colouring Book

Front & Back Cover Design

For the spine and back cover, I wanted to emphasise the characters love for books and tie it in with the front cover as well. I thought the spine of the book looking like an illustrated book spine could be quite interesting but to carry this on, the back would have books stood as if on a shelf. 

I really like this design, I think it could be improved with more detail but overall I think the design works really well. I think it represents the character very well as he loves reading etc. and I think its unique.

Overall, I am really happy with this design although the changes I have discussed I will do before the deadline as I think it could really improve the overall cover.

Front Cover

Putting the front cover together, I once again tried to use a background colour for children but not too bright so went for a green, so was un-like other covers used previously for this book. I like the hand-type but Im unsure whether there could be a better way of organising it. I think the Authors name doesn't look quite right and i think its because theres a lot of unused space. I think I might try and make the type smaller and then have both words on the same line to fill the width of the book.

I also would like to add shadow where the boy sits so it looks like he is sitting on a surface, instead of hovering. 

Type for Book Cover

For the cover design, I really wanted to do hand-drawn typography, which is not my strongest suit, but I think it looks a lot better, especially on children's books. 

For the title I used a dip pen and ink and I actually really like the end result. For the Author's name, I hand drew it and then in Illustrator, I outlined it all and coloured in using Photoshop. 

I really like both, so I am quite happy that it wasn't a disaster.

Colours May Very - Keep Calm

After panicking about this for quite some time, i decided just to go with something simple. I have quite a dis-like for inspirational quotes, especially the 'Keep Calm and Carry On', so i decided to flip it on it's head and make this. 

It's not necessarily something that i really like that much as it doesn't have anything to do with my practice. Although, I did discover how to colour in Illustrator so I guess through the process i learnt something.

I found it quite hard to draw the crown in illustrator and keep it symmetrical, but I think it looks pretty good.

Overall, Im happy the brief is over but i would have liked to have made something that represents me more, but the theme just didn't make it easy for me to make something that resembles what I am interested in, but this would be the issues you would get when in the professional industry.

Papyrus Illustration

This is the completed Illustration which I submitted to Papyrus, I am actually quite happy with it. There are things that i will change when i come to extended the brief, such as i would like to use various sizes of fine liners for detail and perspective, the brief specified that we should use 0.3, which looks good but for small details or for parts of the image which are further away, i think using various widths would increase the overall look.

I would also like to add more details on the illustration, not necessarily extra objects within it, but add more detail to whats already there, I just need to keep in mind it is a colouring book, although with it being targeted towards young adults, i think added detail with the use of textures etc. will enhance the illustration when fully coloured.

With it being for a colouring book to de-stress people, I was constantly feeling cautious about there not being enough to colour in, for example, mandela patterns are normally used to de-stress when colouring in as they have so many different elements. So I decided to draw all of the leaves on the tree, not just for more things to colour but also i didn't want to just draw the outline of a tree shape, as this is not for children. This took a very long time, which I had not accounted for at all, but i do think it improves the image.

Re-thinking the CMV artwork

Doing roughs for the piece of work has really unmotivated me about the brief. Ive never really like the theme but i did like my idea as a response to it, although when drawing out possible compositions trying to portray my idea as a child would just didn't seem like something that would look good for an exhibition at all. 

Maybe I was over thinking it as i was using my left hand and trying to get that aesthetic, but i guess that it is the opposite of creativity. 

Now although i may make some work on the same subject, i think im going to have to change what i make for this exhibition, but I just dont know where to start with the theme without being very literal.

Papyrus Development

Before I start drawing the Image for the papyrus brief, I first had to plan the composition of the piece. I had already decided when doing my research what was going to be in the image, except i moved the footpath from what is going to be the second image i will make after the brief to this one, as i think it will work better at the edge as it will not cut up the middle of the composition when all put together and leave more room for more activities overall.

So far i really like the composition, i like the element of perspective within the drawing as it makes it a bit more interesting. I need to change the sizings of the different characters within the illustration but for now, it gives me a good idea of how and what it look like.

CMV - Experimenting

As i want to interpret the brief for colours may vary into something that fits well within my practice, the concept behind my idea is how i find the art education actually decreases creativity, instead of increasing it, which you think it would. 

I am going to produce a collage made from textures I made using media and techniques normally seen by young children, who are seen as most creative. (See Ted Talk on PPP blog)

Activities for Depression - Papyrus Brief

Although the brief asks for a short piece of text explaining how the illustration makes you relax, I want to illustrate activities that are known to help depression. I am really passionate about education or informing people and I want to use this brief and adapt it to my practice. 

I decided to carry out some research on what activities have been mentioned to help people with depression, and i have found that there are quite a lot. With me wanting to adapt the brief further with making two more adjoining A3 line drawings to make into a consetina colouring book, I will want to incorporate as many of these activities as possible. I have decided, instead of a city scape, which i was thinking of before, i am going to do a scene of a park, as many people, as well as myself love to go to the park when there is nice weather and i do find it really relaxing, like the brief asks. But more so, people seem to do many activities in a park which are mentioned from my research, which will be great.

Before planning any sketches or doing any compositions, i first had to plan what activities i will have in all of the illustrations, so i know what will be included in the one for Papyrus. 

Penguin Book Cover

I started to create the main illustration for the penguin book cover brief. I think this idea for the book was a lot stronger than the diary image i had been working with previously. I drew the outline in illustrator as i've gotten comfortable with using the programme since cop. I really like how it cleans up the lines for you and makes the image look a lot cleaner. I still haven't figured out what the best way of painting is in this programme but i am semi-confident with doing this in Photoshop, so to create the image i used both. Although the colours are quite bright, i don't like them to be too bright and over powering so i have tried to keep them muted to a degree. 

Whilst finishing the image on the cintiq, which i have increasingly come to like, i was given really positive comments from people within the class on the composition etc. So far I am also really pleased with how it has turned out and I have also included the Penguin logo on one of the books which I thin adds a nice touch to it.