Utensia: Day Five – Critical Reflection

12th Dec 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Today has been the last day of our illustration project; I’ve created a final outcome and finished it!

I’ve taken the little oven and its notebook counterpart from day four and finished the notebook up. This meant cutting out a rubber stamp of an oven, and I created a rectangle block stamp to act as a block colour background to make it a two-part image.

I printed this a number of times and in a number of different ways throughout my hand-bound notebook, completing the book.

This image is an ideal close-up of the oven stamp. You can see it printed over creases, vertically, horizontally, off-the-edge and in a variety of colours too.

I took a higher quality image of the notebook in the oven for the sake of the final worksheet as well.

What do I feel was successful in the project?

I have to say I’m incredibly pleased with the way this project took me. I like the whole of the final notebook, with its eclectic colours and torn newsprint making it busy but aesthetically pleasing. The fact that some of the pages were sewn through gives the viewer another material to interact with and I feel it lends it a homier feeling. I like the look of the oven, with the string hobs inspired by my media experimentation in week two. I like the colour of it and the watercolour surface makes it interesting.

What do I feel was less successful?

The inside of the oven wasn’t particularly developed. You can still see pencil outlines for the net shape, and the bottom panel has “BOTTOM” in pencil across it (me trying to orient myself when I was still at net-stage). It was also quite flimsy, a problem I’ve already identified. If I’d settled on making the oven, I should have invested in a sheet of cardstock rather than wrestling with layers of damp watercoloured paper!

Did I develop my ideas thoroughly? Why or why not?

Interestingly, I feel as though I developed my initial ideas quite a lot. The process’ movement from a flat illustration through to a 3-D, interactive piece was one of considerable experimentation and research.

Of course, there will always be other ways I could have developed my ideas. I could have worked with other media, e.g. wool, food, metal, etc. Some of this is bordering unrealistic considering the time and material limitations, but in an ideal situation I could have gone on and on with experimentation.

I could have done more research into colour. My work always just fell into blues and turquoise during this project, because to me it felt bright and also reminiscent of a kitchen. I had a little colour inspiration (see Simon Costin’s studio work) but it never made its way into the spotlight of consideration.

Utensia: Day Four

5th Dec 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Inspired by a number of artists, my research and work is bringing the illustration project near to a close.

Before the day, my research into papercraft and pop-up work led me to work for a few hours and create a few 3D experimental media iterations.

Above are three iterations of possible interactive oven doors based on various drawings from my initial ideas or media experimentation sheets. Note the zigzag texture was inspired from Samuel Shumway, my researched papercraft illustrator!

After a conversation with Louise, I was determined to create a little notebook that would fit inside the final coloured 3D oven. I have decided it’s a complete little experience for the viewer: getting to take something out of the oven after opening its door, and then getting to open that again and look inside!

The notebook is concertina folded with paper-covered mounting board I took from small offcut board scraps. The inside is mixed media_ brown paper, magazine, masking tape and coloured paper all glued together in ragged strips to create interest. After taking this image, I actually ran it through a sewing machine a few times to add stitch as further interest.

An image of the final 3D oven with its precious little clear window, perfectly sized to house my book.

beep beep beep! Notebook’s ready! Maybe you need tiny finger-sized oven mitts to take it out safely.

What was successful and why? In this section, I was proud of how the oven doors came out. I especially liked the zigzag texture, clear oven window and little wooden handle. In terms of the book, I’m proud of how textured the inner pages are, and also quite pleased with how straight I ended up getting the pages and mounting boards despite assembling it from so many separate pieces.

What was less successful and why? The final oven’s construction was needlessly laborious. This was a material limitation: all I had to hand was paper or cardboard, no cardstock which would have been an appropriate midpoint. I was also fuelled up on so much inspiration and so little money that I could neither have waited for nor bought the materials I wanted. I worked around it by reinforcing four of the six net panels with another layer of thick paper, meaning it’s quite structurally sound now.

Where will I take this? After Stephen Fowler’s work inspired me in terms of small-scale bookbinding and stamping, all I have left to do is find myself a rubber or two to carve some stamps into! I’d like to populate my little notebook with relevant stamps of ovens or grills. After that, Christmas is so close I doubt I’ll be continuing further.

I hope once completely finished with the project to create one more blog post of critical reflection on the project as a whole.

Artist Research: Stephen Fowler and Rubber Stamping

5th Dec 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Stephen Fowler came to the university to give a talk on illustration this Wednesday. He was a really unique, interesting person!

The work of his that interested me the most was his experience in rubber stamps. He has a book published on rubber stamping, and the talk he gave really inspired me. I like the idea of basically a small-scale, informal lino cut printing. It sounds like it was personally made for me.

This was some of my favourite work. I don’t actually think it’s Fowler’s but it’s still a good example. The block colour underneath some form of detail really interests me, like a two-step process. I also love that it’s bound into a book.

The concept of using rubber stamps in small hand-bound books really appeals to me. Critically, the research has already come in useful because I’m making something similar to this for my Utensia illustration project.

Printing on all sorts of things to personalise them makes me smile inside and out.

The colours used for these pigeons and the small scale it’s on made me fall in love with this sheet of stamps instantly. If I stamped something similar and used an unthreaded sewing machine to perforate the stamps, perhaps…

Some more examples, including on stickers which again really appeals to me.

Interactive illustration in general seems to be where I gravitate, be it on stickers, stamps or in books. Even my recent papercraft in the Utensia project has been inspired by the idea of my little ovens having interactive doors.

Where can I take this research? I’ve already started making work inspired by Fowler’s talk, but I can see it taking centre stage in a self-directed project. Any subject might suit stickers or stamps… after quite a few years of being pushed hard to work bigh because “scale shows confidence”, Louise supporting small scale illustration feels awesome!

Utensia: Day Two

1st Dec 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I realised suddenly that I’d not made a post summarising the second day of the illustration project! Although it’s out of order, I think it was an important enough day to include.

The second day focused entirely on media experimentation. As a class, we made a list of lots of possible media we could use – anything from paints and pens to food and rubbish – all of the extremes that could be experimented with in illustration.

I broke out of my usual style completely and got really stuck into the experimentation. Louise was pleased to see that I’d not clung to my old ways.

This is a portion of the worksheet I created. You can see examples of wire, buttons, coloured pencils, string, watercolour, acrylic, cut paper, beads, sequins, pencil, crayon, candle, pen, white charcoal pencil, etc.

What did I get out of the day? The day really freed up my mind, and I created totally non-judgementally. I was really proud of how it turned out just because I worked so freely! It’s a feeling and an ability I want to keep. Armed with new research from the past week, I’m hopeful that I can take the experimenting spirit and work in such a varied way again.

Utensia: Day Three and Research: Samuel Shumway and Simon Costin

1st Dec 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

In the morning, Louise held a group evaluation in which we put out all our work and, in pairs, appraised each other’s work so far. I worked with Will and took notes on what he said after taking a look at my work.

What we decided I needed to work on was:

Filling up the white spaces on my media experimentation worksheet. Hopefully, I will create a papercraft oven and some of this exploration will fill up the rest of the sheet.
Researching more deeply into where my work is going. In the time since last Thursday, I have completed some research and will finish this blog post with it.

Louise mentioned my experimentation sheet was very door-heavy. This was things like cupboard doors, ovens and hobs, kitchen cabinets etc. She suggested that maybe I look into doors more closely, and their deeper meaning. I looked around online for a while and compiled a list along with images of famous doors in pop culture history – that is, books and film. Those will be collaged in my sketchbook over some pages as visual inspiration.

I also collected a few images relating to the papercraft route I might potentially take. I really like the idea of having a small interactive oven, with little doors that open. My research took me to an illustrator that really interested me – Samuel Shumway.

Shumway is a stop motion animator and prop designer as well as illustrator. The works that interested me were his small papercraft creations.

I like the bright colours and the uplifting feeling of his work and the way he photographs it.

The square feeling of this lasagne is what I’ll hopefully go for with my little oven, but a but simpler…

My research into Shumway helped me get an idea of the overall feeling I’d like my work to communicate. The use of paper and his way of working is one I’d like to try out in my project.

My research also took me to another artist: Simon Costin.

Costin is a set designer, but his work is so varied that he’s incredibly hard to define. I found some of his work from the Museum of London interesting.

You can see the busyness of this layout, and how Costin has created a three-dimentional scene with an incredibly illustrative feeling to it.

Photographing in different lighting is something I’ll have to keep in mind. His artwork kind of reminds me of the illustrations by Chris Riddell, e.g. Ottoline and the Yellow Cat.

These lino cuts are totally different to the work shown above. I like these for the brightness of colour and how they make me feel. The blues and greens are saturated and uplifting, and the print itself is bold. I might try a colour scheme like this when creating my little paper oven.

Critically, Costin’s work has helped me think about where to take the project practically. He’s given me ideas in terms of colour pallette, and I might take inspiration for texture and shape in this or future projects. E.g. the lines of wooden buildings or the brick textures, or the wooden paneling of the tudor-esque houses.

Utensia: Day One

19th Nov 201919th Nov 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Last Thursday, we started the illustration project. I picked an extract from the Wizard of Oz about a kingdom full of kitchen cabinets and equipment to illustrate.

The three week project is going to consist of experimentation and a lot of research.

Here are some examples of picture references I used to create an initial ideas sheet:

If I end up making it into university today, I’ll take and attach a photo of the finished initial ideas sheet.

What was successful about the day? I liked that Louise encouraged us to work quickly, and make as many scratchy doodles as we could. I felt like I couldn’t make any mistakes, no matter how crappy the drawings looked.

What will I do to continue the project? Ideally, I’ll research a relevant illustrator or two. In terms of physical work, I’m creating a ton of thumbnails for potential compositions; this Thursday we’ll be experimenting with a lot of different media. Then I can combine the best media with my favourite thumbnail to produce the finished illustration!

These are thumbnails produced for the next week in my self-directed time. I will ask friends which they prefer and I have a few preferences myself!

Personal Growth: Hospital Walls Brief

14th Nov 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I had a little spare time the other day, and looked at Peepshow.org.uk for some successful illustration projects in the professional world for inspiration.

I found http://www.peepshow.org.uk/illustration#/university-college-hospital/ – this is a project done by the organisation to brighten up the University College Hospital in London. The walls in several areas of the building were printed with bright, uplifting illustrations.

It wasn’t in my style, but I thought that that was exactly why it would be good to try and fulfil the brief in a similar way.

This is an example of some of the work in the hospital.

I established visual motifs in the art across all of the walls. This included things like:

Bright colours (hues, primary, secondary colours)
Blocky, print-like designs
Themes that children might relate to
Basic, bold shapes and silhouettes

This is the page of my reflective journal that illustrates my thinking process.

I created an illustration in Clip Studio Paint that attempted to fulfil the brief.

This was designed to fit a jutting piece of wall, e.g. one hiding pipeworks or something similar.

What do I believe was successful? I like the darker green wave over the green hill. It’s like stylised shading I stumbled across while experimenting. I also love the pink cactus-like plant in the background, and the white flowers on it.

What didn’t work, and how might I improve in another attempt? I feel like the teal and the purple just didn’t sit right together. I was married to those colours, and should have tried more out instead of being stubborn. It’s just a bit too much of a wacky colour scheme for how simple the image is: imagine it were more complex, I could have a purple creature in the top corner that tied in with the low purple hill and created a better composition. As it stands, it’s a bit naive and jarring.

If I’d had more time, I’d have created multiple illustrations exploring different aspects of the brief. But there’s a bit of a limitation on my time now I’m doing uni-set briefs; I just thought I’d include a post about this so it doesn’t get lost.

Illustration Extension: Order and Chaos

6th Nov 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I really liked one of the sketches I’d created during the illustration workshop with Louise. I uploaded the sketch onto Clip Studio Paint and lined it digitally.

I then went online and did a little snoop around some colour palettes. I found one I liked that was quite muted and cool; this attracted me because I sit quite comfortably in warm colour palettes for illustration. I copied it in and used the five colours (and slight shades) to colour the illustration.

Other minor changes I made after that was to place a texture over the colour layers, change it to an orange and set the layer effect to multiply, then reduce the opacity a lot. I like a little bit of texture over my art.

I also took the whole (merged) colour layer and moved it very slightly to the left, then corrected any shaky lines. The slight skew appeals to me. I think this is a little inspired by Quentin Blake, who colours messily to a successful end.

I then experimented with layer effects to create some other versions of the illustration. This step is always fun for me!

This is with a Difference layer effect over the whole illustration. I can’t remember what colour I used to get this warmer palette, but I admit this version is my favourite. The other illustration just feels a little lifeless. Ines said she thinks this one feels like an early morning!

This is with the Exclusion layer effect. This one is great, because it makes me feel like it’s actually night time. I like that dark patches appear light and vice versa.

Overall, I’m happy with the illustration. The final one I would personally present is the orange one; the definition is clear and it gives off some cool vibes.

I’ve been having a think about what could push my style. I think I need more background work, or a larger basis of reference for backgrounds. I practice drawing backgrounds when I can in my sketchbook. I also need more practice drawing different body types. Some bodies, no matter how well drawn, are less aesthetically pleasing than others in terms of curves and how dynamic I can make them. I’m working to rectify that.

Artist Research: Quentin Blake

4th Nov 20194th Nov 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I carried out some research on Quentin Blake, a very popular artist famous for illustrating for Roald Dahl. All the images here are credited to him.

I chose three images, because I have something to say about each of them.

This image is a full coloured illustration. It is unlike a lot of Blake’s work because the subjects are in a defined context (the grassy hill and the grey sky). The colours are also less saturated than Blake’s other work.

This is from the children’s story Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. Although it’s a children’s book, Dahl based it on an adult’s book he had written called Champion of the World.

The plot is quite dark for a Dahl book (although young children might not notice or mind). The significance of this is that in my opinion, the illustrations arguably match the tone of the book. Look at the quick, sketchy marks used to create the grass. The whole diagonal composition leads upwards; these show how hard the wind is blowing. The grey sky is quite sad too.

The illustration pictures a happy moment against quite a bleak background. In relation to the plot (Danny and his father making the most of a very poor situation), I think this illustration is very poignant.

That being said, it is a children’s book. All I can say in criticism of the illustration is that perhaps its bleakness and lonely feeling might put a young child off or scare them. Danny’s dad has so much kindness in his eyes, though, that it’s unlikely.

Here, I love the way motion has been pictured by drawing a sketchy beak in a whole circle.

In Quentin Blake’s Drawing book, Drawing for the Artistically Undiscovered, Blake puts a lot of emphasis on pace in illustrating. He states that if you want to draw something fast (e.g. a running horse or a pelican spinning), often literally drawing it fast will add to that effect.

I like this a lot, having read it as a young child and remembered it for many years. I’ve seen it time and again in my own art when I realise I’ve been labouring an illustration without any need, and start again with a far more dynamic result.

Look at the colours here! Anyone who’s seen my Willy Wonka painting will know I have a soft spot for this story. He’s described on Blake’s site as “the most wondrous inventor in the world”.

This is a very exciting moment in the book. I think it’s Charlie first meeting Wonka (but there’s a chance it’s right at the end of the story as he wins the chocolate factory). Everyone has heard Wonka talked about, and we all feel like Charlie does here as Wonka exceeds all of our expectations as a wonderful character.

Looking at the semiotics: the yellow surrounding Charlie in his clothes and ticket ring out happiness. The green and purple and blues of Wonka are all saturated and let us know exactly how eccentric he is. Finally, the yellow and purple key colours might make someone think of Cadbury’s, an existing chocolate brand, or of a Wonka bar (which is purple, white and yellow). Everything screams sweet wrappers. I feel like I could take a bite out of this illustration and it would taste like chocolate.

All these colours might have hurt or become confusing if there were too much background, so I think Blake was right in leaving white and only including the barest mise-en-scene to let us know we are talking to the candy man himself.

All this makes me want to go and watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Sources: (You’ll have to excuse this, but it’s a crude attempt at Harvard referencing. I heard we’d have to use it at some point, and I am nothing if not a swot).

Quentin Blake 2016, Gallery: Illustration, Quentin Blake, viewed 4 November 2019, <https://www.quentinblake.com/gallery?f[]=field_gallery_category:169>

Blake, Q 1999, Drawing for the Artistically Undiscovered, Klutz

Illustration Paperwork Reflective

24th Oct 2019 by turquoisecho ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Today, Louise led an illustration workshop working heavily with coloured paper. We had to make some geometric cut paper work and some torn work as well as a little (merciful) drawing. We had to create 12 variations of the same concept: I chose “chaos and order”.

Below are the 10 illustrations I made in class, ordered chronologically as I made them.

I feel inclined to give you a break here… there’s an awful lot of pictures. Allow me to insert a hastily googled one liner joke to entertain you.

I recently decided to sell my vacuum cleaner … all it was doing was gathering dust. (peak comedy.) Continue scrolling if you please.

A6 square, cut. I liked this one a lot. It was made once Louise said I could make the “order” more ordered, and the “chaos” even more chaotic. This looks like an album cover!

A5, drawn. This is Antonia sleeping soundly and straight, and Mitzi (a legally certified Mess) spread-eagled over the whole bed. I don’t think this is actually how they’d sleep most nights, but I do like how tolerant Antonia seems of Mitzi’s absolute tosspottery.

A5, drawn. This is Techo’s desk opposed to Mitzi’s desk. It makes me happy… I got to think about what Mitzi would have on her desk properly! It bought her back to life for me a little.

Was my exploration purposeful? Yes! Although it wasn’t my dream workshop (which would have been drawing-centric), I understand the point of it. Working to one concept so many times really pushed me… artistically and emotionally. It helped me look at new ways of doing the same thing and forced different thoughts into my head.

Were the media and techniques I explored successful? I would say so, simply because they were a new way of working. I’m keeping some of the ideas from today in my illustration extension (see below), because some of the colouring ideas will likely be very blocky (a la paper underneath drawing look).

The restrictions of the rules Louise set were frustrating. I hear other groups were far heavier on the drawing side, and I feel I would have enjoyed that more. I might actually have gotten more out of this workshop though, considering all I ever bleeding do is draw!

How am I going to take this further? I’m going to open my drawn illustrations in Clip Studio Paint and line them. I want to line them a couple of ways and colour them a few different ways as well. E.g. with my normal pencil tool and style, or with slightly offset colours, or more abstracted blocks of colour behind the lines highlighting the most important shapes. I’ll cut these out and make a full design sheet. Stay tuned for a second edition of this bloggie!

Gemma's Art

I talk about what I do and make, why I do and make it and how I could have done it better.

Tag: illustration