YCN, UK greetings : experimenting with photoshop

Normally I would not consider creating a whole image only using photoshop, as I really value a sense of the handmade and texture in my work. However, in experimentation I found that by using applications like 'multiply' and 'colour range' to simulate monoprinting textures I managed to create something quite effective. I like the contrast between the blobby and digital aesthetic of these simple drawings with the simulated print media textures; as I think it produces something quite contemporary but still with a sense of the human hand at work. 

I also think that this digital aesthetic is  highly appropriate to the context of a 'greeting card' - looking further on wrap most of them are made digitally or are certainty put through some digital process in order to finish up. 


GOING FORWARD:
I'd like to continue developing some more work like this to see if it would be an effective process to create images for all the products within the collection. If so, this may be a big step in the making of  my final outcomes. 

Study task 6 : Sound - Lilli Carre (and others)

• This animation uses everyday real sounds such as street noise ect. to interact with the abstract imagery of Lilli Carre's illustrations. 
• What I find interesting about this animation is the fact that the sound dictates the movement, as the components of each image seem to react and interact with the soundtrack. I also like how these are really simple and subtle movements. 
• I think the idea of using real life sounds, instead of music or a voice over, within my sting could be really appropriate to the themes I am exploring with relation to Murakami's work as it creates this interaction between the mundane and the abstract.   
• It opens the new concept of considering how the sounds I use to interact with my images could reflect Murakami and his world as a person and author? --> sound of: someone running, jazz, a jazz bar, smoking, silence, writing, reading, commuting, cats meowing, the ticking of a clock. 

http://lillicarre.com/films#/id/v156780

This animation, using bird noises, similarly creates this interaction between real sound and abstract imagery; however towards the finale of the video this interaction ceases to exist as the sound is manipulated to become almost haunting, and abstract in itself - maybe this is another thing to consider - the manipulation of sound - in order to emphasise the theme of otherworldliness within my stings.

Printed Pictures : Final thoughts and evaluation

I thought I was going to enjoy the longevity of this brief but in actual fact I think it may have been a bit of a hindrance. I feel that during the last few weeks before printing my finals I became disheartened and disillusioned with the images I was creating - the simple effect of having looked at something for too long taking over. A part of this, is that I have been struggling with balancing my time amongst all the modules we're currently working on, which means that I have not been able to fully commit and immerse myself within this project as I would typically like to do. From this I have definitely learnt the value of timetabling my time, however I feel this is something I still need to get better at going into the new year. 

My slight disappointment in my final prints I think definitely stems from the loss of a sense of the handmade, created through the digital manipulation I needed to do in order to convert my development prints into five final screen print positives. In reflection of this project as a whole I do prefer my experiments over my final outcomes; however the unpredictable and messy aesthetic of my monoprints or linos did not seem suitable or sophisticated enough to be a justifiable final outcome for such a substantial project. In consideration of this I therefore do standby my decision to screenprint my final five prints. 

Something I have really enjoyed within printed pictures is the sense of this being a very personally driven project, without having the concern of a particular context or audience in mind. It has allowed me to see the value of personal briefs within an illustrators practice, as I think it does make you evaluate more closely what you are trying to convey and achieve through your work. 

Printed Pictures : final megacrit

NICE COMMENTS :)

• The way you have combined printing processes - screenprint and lino - is super effective and looks really sophisticated. 
• Love the combination of graphic images and monoprint textures and lino, colour palettes are beautiful. 
• Wowza, love all your development work and it all came together so beautifully in the final prints! 

What I especially appreciate from these comments is how people noticed the different elements of print within my images as I wanted my finals to have a strong sense and sophistication of print process. 

POINTS AND THOUGHTS

• On my sheet I posed the question 'how could I progress my practice/work?', and someone responded with - 'Think about what you want to convey. Try something new'. 
• This comment really made me think about a struggle I've encountered this year between the kind of work I do - quite abstract, graphic - and the work I really love seeing which is often quite naive and playful but still focuses on shape, colour and texture. 
• Maybe I need to commit a project to experimenting within this other aesthetic to see which one I prefer?? 
• In the crit I also noticed how much loose and fun experimentation people had done to develop their images. I wish I had done something similar within my own project - like collaging printed elements and creating images using cut paper or gouache - instead of just thumbnailing and developing my images digitally or through print.  

Evaluation of final 5 prints

WHAT I LIKE:

• I think they work well as a set of prints; achieved through the running colour of blue throughout as well as a similar aesthetic - in terms of image content, texture and the simplicity of composition. 
• The overlap of colour and textures create great visual interest.  
• I feel fulfilled with the sophistication of process I used to create these final prints. 
• The figurative aspects of each image create a sense of narrative and abstract otherworldliness, whilst in contrast the photographs inject some reality and transparency to the theme of each print. 
• Even though the prints are abstract, there is an aspect of symbolism to the second colours and components within each image. I like how the meaning is not obvious but the images are all derived from individual concepts (not random). 

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

• I think through generating my screen print positives digitally I lost a sense of the handmade in my final prints. If I were to do this again I would experiment more with using chinograph, ink or other materials to create my screen print positives. 
• I would have liked to achieve more effective colour overlap in my prints, to bring a 3rd colour into the mix - maybe I should have used a colour palette closer in tone? 

Printed Pictures : experimenting with coloured stock

When screen-printing my final five prints I decided to experiment with using coloured stock, each colour being a variant tone of the second colour within the image. Some of the results I think are really engaging and vibrant, however I think leaving my finals to be on the snowdon cartridge looks more professional and allows the prints to work more cohesively as a collection.

5/ final print 'Ears'

• This print is inspired by constancy of characters within Murakami's novels that are either deaf or have some kind of irregularity to do with their ears/hearing - misshapened, lopsided ears. 
• Within this print I really wanted to create the idea of silence or white noise which is symbolised through the variation of textures and wavy lines representing sound waves. 
• I used a monoprint of simple abstract faces in order to refer to the fact that this concept originated from characters within Murakami's novels. 
• In research I also found that people often associated 'blue' with silence as it infers peace and 'coolness', as well as loneliness. 
• I think this concept of mellowness or lack of 'noise' is emphasised through the fact that this print is left as only one colour, and the horizontal composition. 

4/ final print 'Cats'

• This print refers to Murakami's personal love and relationship with cats, and them consequentially being used as a constant motif in many of his novels. 
• I probably struggled the most with this print conceptually and compositionally, however in final reflection of all five it is most likely to be my favourite. 
• I really like the zig-zagging composition of this image, and I think visually, for me, it emphasises the contrast between reality and otherworldliness most effectively. 
• I think there is also a real Japanese and quirky feel to this print which makes it interesting.  
• Out of all five, however, the bitmapped photograph in this print is the least visually effective and I probably should have adjusted the levels or used another photo in order to achieve a better result. 

3/ final print 'Time'

• This image explores the motif of time within the Murakami's novels, but also refers to the content of his memoirs 'What I talk about when I talk about running' in which he explains his relationship between running and writing, and his structured, healthy lifestyle. 
• His healthy lifestyle is represented through the outlined shapes of banana bunches, and my use of the colour green known to symbolise growth, nature, endurance and a universal signal for 'go' (referring to his passion for running). 
• The monoprinted clock containing stairs refers to how Murakami uses time in order measure improvement within his running. 
• I think the the diagonal composition of this image achieves a sense of the passing of time, and the simple shapes are interesting in the way they echoe the lines within monoprint and bitmapped photograph. 

YCN, Uk greetings : focusing on florals!

I've decided to use the flower characters I have been developing throughout this brief as the focal point of my collection. I think trying to include animals, the sun ect. was too confusing and if further developed would have meant that my final outcomes would not work cohesively together. This theme offers just enough variation to make each part different, but similar enough, and encompasses my intent of producing something fun and cheerful. 

Moving pictures : Project proposal

2/ final print 'Fish'

• This print is primarily inspired by the raining fish in Murakami's novel "Kafka on the shore", but also the prominence of fish as a motif within his work. 
• I decided to adopt quite an abstract approach to this motif by only giving the suggestion of fish within the image.
• I did this by using the simple silhouettes fish heads and textures of waves and scales all made through monoprint - which I think works quite well and is far more interesting to me than using a simple drawing of an actual fish. 
• I feel this also helps to emphasise the feeling of otherworldliness I wanted to create throughout all five of my prints. 
• I really like the simple structural nature of this images composition, broken up by the fish heads moving up across the image leading the viewers eye across the page and referring to this idea of 'raining fish'. 
• I choose orange as the additional colour for this print in inspiration of the colour of Japanese carp, which feature in the bitmapped photograph, so as to give a subtle reference to Murakami's homeland. 

1/ final print 'Women and moon'

• Within this print I explored the theme of female sexuality and parallel worlds within Murakami's novels. 
• The movement between these two worlds is represented by the multiple moons within the image and the theme of feminity highlighted by my use pink. 
• I think the composition of this print is particularly effective, the positioning of the woman and her gaze leads the viewers eye into the image and emphaises the idea of 'looking in' to these two parallel worlds. 
• Out of all the photographs in my five prints I think the bitmapped photograph of the moon is certainty the most striking. 
• When screen-printing this, however, I continually struggled with finding the right registration. It seems a shame not to get a fully perfect print, however the overlap almost adds a 3d effect to the image and seems hardly noticeable to anyone but me.  

Printed pictures : Screenprinting my finals

• I am really happy with the results of my first final screenprint. I think the different textures have translated really well from my digital positives onto screen and the colours have come out really beautifully. 
• For the first print I decided to experiment with lots of different tones of white stock. Originally I thought that the prints would look best on the more muted white tone of the somerset paper, however in reflection I think the stark white of the snowdon cartridge looks best - and will be the one I will probably therefore use across all five of my finals. 

PROBLEMS

• With this print I had real problems with the registration of my two layers, which I think was caused by clicking 'scale to fit media' when I printed off my positives - so by the time I was putting ink to paper  this became unavoidable. 
• So probably, if I have time between now and the end of term, I will reprint this to achieve a better and cleaner final image. 
• Another problem I found, which is one to keep in mind when printing my other four finals, is that the colour of the paint looks slightly different in the pot than when printed. 
• I am happy with the final colours of this print, however the pink is slightly lighter than I expected it to be - to avoid this test the ink on paper before printing. 

Final development of screenprint positives

• I have been continuing to use photoshop to develop my final screenprint positives using textures from my mono and lino prints. 
• I have found using photoshop in this manner to be a really valuable exercise, as by having each component as a different layer it has allowed me to easily refine each composition to my liking. 
• Breaking up the background behind into simple textured shapes have made for much more dynamic and effectively balanced compositions. 
• I think this is because it means the colour does not dominate the composition, achieving a balance and interaction between the components and this 'hoovering' background. 
• Adding texture into these blocks of shapes also seems effective in drawing the image together into a cohesive composition. I think the contrast between this digital colour and the textured nature of the printed components and bitmapped photographs was too stark.  
• I like how I am developing a clearly defined concept to lead the visually content of each image, and I think they look most effective with a collective colour running through all five, with a second colour being different for each one to give them individuality. 
• The only concern I have now is whether the mixture of textures within these positives are going to effectively translate into screenprint, as I don't want the final prints to appear poorly crafted. 

Revised Brief Selection

After the mega-crit I realised that I am spreading myself too thin within this module and would be most effective if I just focussed on several of my chosen briefs. So I have decided to eliminate 2 of the briefs I made in my original selection (the batsford prize and Loop de loop), to leave the 3 I am most passionate about and have developed the most thus far. 

It seems a shame to leave these briefs out; however taking into account time considerations and the work I need to complete within other modules, the number of briefs I originally set myself now seems unrealistic. 

My three final briefs:

Penguin Random house : In Cold Blood

YCN : Greeting Cards

Secret 7

I think completing these 3 briefs will give me a substantial amount of work to hand in with response to the module. They also offer the opportunity to produce a breadth of work spanning across a number of different commercial contexts, as well as allowing me to both capitalise on my strengths and widen my skill set.  

Study task 5 : Storyboarding

• I found this task really useful in kickstarting the development of the ideas for my 30 min animated sting. 
• I liked the constraint of having the 5th frame a preexisting image we made during this project, and the other frames working towards deconstructing or constructing this image. It made me think that a looping affect within my animation - the 1st frame and end frame being the same - could provide a strong sense of narrative and finish. 
• For the task I focused on five different images I have created during this project using monoprint, as I am not at the stage of having finished my finals yet for printed pictures. 
• I think using components within these monoprints, however, would create a stronger sense of the handmade and texture in my animation (something I would like to achieve), whilst still keeping continuity between my prints and the sting. 
• I think that some of the transitions I achieved within these storyboards are really effective and would like to develop them further. 

YCN greeting cards development

I would like to continue to focus on this idea of 'nature' because I think it is a subject matter that evokes positivity, beauty and calm (atleast for me it does). I am also trying to achieve a sense of playfulness and cheerfulness to my work, through giving a essence of naivety to my drawings.

I am struggling with making all the separate products work as a collection without making them seem very repetitive. I think in order to progress within this project I need to start generating more 'stuff' - ideas, thumbnails and mock ups surrounding this theme of nature and positivity.

I have also been playful around with ideas for the name of my collection such as 'Nature and Nurture' or 'Nurture by Nature', but these are just first ideas that popped into my head.

This project reminds me of what I did for Cop last year, linking reconnecting with nature with increased mindfullness and serenity - I think using similar textures and simplicity of composition that I achieved within these images could also be really effective for this brief and I may therefore return to a similar method of image-making.

Penguin random house : What makes a good book cover?

Previous winners of non-fiction award

• Designer concept : The book cover design takes inspiration from feminist non-fiction novels of 1970s and 80s. The highlighting of certain words stems from the concept of Caitlin Morgan taking a pen to this 'dated topic', as the content of her book starts a new conservation about being a women. 
• Judges comments : 
• "Bold, clean, refreshingly simple", "I love the confidence and assertiveness of this design"

• Designer concept : The concept derives from the feminist theories within the book, such as the 'cost of sexism' and gender stereotypes. The cover has a funny and witty tone of voice to connote Caitlin Moran's use of humour. 
• Judges comments : "It made me laugh and it's visually intriguing", "It reflects the content/vibe of Caitlin Moran's book perfectly"

Reading the judges comments in response to these winning designs was very useful. It is clear that they favour simple, impactful and clean designs that use concepts which derive directly from the content of the book. 

Classic covers

Looking through the classic covers of "In Cold Blood", this one really caught my eye. Similarly to the previous winners of this competition, it is a striking and impactful design which communicates the content of the book through a simple but effective concept. 

In evaluation of these book covers I am gathering that in order to be successful I need to create something that focuses on :

• Simplicity
• Use of typography 
• A concept directly inspired by key themes/content of "In Cold Blood"
• Reflects Truman Capote's tone of voice. 
• Is visually intriguing and draws the reader in to picking up the book. 

Penguin Random House "In Cold Blood"

Penguin, being an internationally recognised publishing house, it's student award is very prestigious and offers a high level of professionalism. I would like to apply myself to producing work to this industry standard as I feel this would be a very valuable exercise for my current practice. 

I have selected the non-fiction award which consists of designing a book cover for Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood", a story of the murder of a family in Kansas at the end of the 1950s. Having either read or studied the two other books, I felt selecting one that I had no previous knowledge of would allow me to produce ideas with a fresh mind. In consideration of the often graphic and simple nature of my imagery, I also thought that non-fiction books as a subject would be well adapted to my image-making process.

This brief does offer a number of challenges - such as the emphasis on a strong use of typography within the design and the need to illustrate the dark and chilling content of this crime novel, both of which I am not familiar with in my current practice. The existence of these problems, however, in responding to this brief offers more reason for me to complete it as I believe that improving my skill in the use of typography is an important step in making myself a more well-rounded creative practitioner. It is also important for me to diversify the subject matter I am able to successfully approach as an illustrator. 

KEY POINTS OF THE BRIEF: 

• The design should be bold, maybe even shocking, break boundaries and remain true to the chilling content of the book. 
• The cover needs to have an imaginative concept and work cohesively as a whole; however the front cover still needs to be able to stand on its own. 
• It should appeal to a contemporary readership and be appropriate to the marketplace, whilst still having a point of difference against it's competition. 

REQUIREMENTS:

• All images need to be free of copyright. 
• The design should include all the cover copy supplied, designed to the specified template and incorporate penguin branding as well as additional elements such as the bar code ect. 
• Submitted as : PDF at 300dpi, CMYK, 5mm bleed, trim and crop marks included, 5MB file max.

Responsive : Mega Crit

• Love the simplicity of your nature sketches, these could definitely be developed into a brief for children, Roald Dahl? 
• Try adding some type and colour to your cards
• Get sketching! 

GOING FORWARD: 

• I think the basic gist is that I need to start moving on responsive. Doing research for my other selected briefs and developing images through sketching and thumbnailing. 
• Looking at other peoples work, a lot of it has been very quickly resolved and developed. I think I am building too much emphasis and apprehension around these competition briefs, and just need to take the approach of just doing! getting stuck in! 
• In the mega crit I also really enjoyed looking at peoples work in response to the YCN, Roald Dahl brief - and someone made the suggestion that my work for the greeting cards brief would also work really well within this context (children's publishing)
• This is not something I really would have considered before, but now think that it would be a really appropriate brief to develop this naive and playful drawing style I am trying to bring into my practice. 

Development of screenprint positives

I have hit a wall in the development of my images, as everything I make I feel lacks visual cohesion. Before I have spoken about isolating texture and contrasting this against solid colour, which has worked for me before but for some reason within these images it seems too stark. Maybe I need to consider adding texture into the background, or breaking up the solid colour in order to balance with the textured components?

When creating these images I have also been thinking about colour - as I think a third colour (as in the fish image) breaks up the image a little bit whilst still keeping the print 2 colour because its only a variation in tone. Adding this, however, would mean printing 3 layers which is extra labour as well as technically not making the print 2 colour, maybe? I could print onto coloured stock, however I think having the white in the images is really important aesthetically, especially for highlighting the photographs.  

GOING FORWARD :

• Keep experimenting 
• - try breaking up the solid background and adding texture from existing monoprints. 
• - try to create effective colour overlap in the prints to make a third colour. 

Thumbnailing : final compositions for prints

I have got to a point now where I have created a number of different components/images through lino and monoprinting which I can then use to create screenprint positives. I have done some thumbnailing to figure out the final composition of each image; however there is only so far this can take the development of my images as they are quite simple and graphic as well as rely on consideration of colour overlap, texture ect. I need to start playing around on photoshop, combining these images together along with my selected photographs.  

Aftereffects workshop IIII

KEY POINTS

motion paths :

• How to orient a layer to its motion path : Select layer - layer window --> 'auto orient' 
• How to make speed even throughout keyframes : select all keyframes - right click --> 'rove across time' (then can adjust without pressing alt)

switches :

• Shy : use it to simplify layer menu so you can focus on the ones you are working on. Click for ones you want to hide, and then hide/unhide them using master switch. 
• Dotted line : click to adjust quality of layers to make playback better (not best way of doing this tho)
• fx : use to turn on and off effects on layers. 
• Motion blur (3 circles): to turn on put on layer, and then switch on using master. It makes objects blurry to give the effect of fast motion. 
• Adjustment layer (ying yang symbol thing): make a solid layer to the size of the full composition and switch on adjustment layer. You can then apply an effect to this layer, and this will affect anything below it in the layer menu. (good way to apply an affect to whole composition e.g. adjusting levels of image)
• Mode menu - same as photoshop, can use multiple, overlay ect. 
• Trkmat - this works with the transparency of images, and works like mask layers in photoshop) 

This is an example of what can be achieved through using the trkmat switch - I think this technique could be really useful in the making of my final stings as I can see now how it could work really well with the way in which I like to make images.

Adding effects to layers :

• 'Effects and presets' - can type in what you want, or scroll through, then drag the effect onto the layer you want to use it on. 
• You can keyframe an effect - effects will appear as a drop down menu, as transform would do as well. 
• Turn off an effect to improve playback. 
• To delete an effect, select window in project menu and press backspace.

Nesting compositions :

• You can drag images into composition button, and make a composition that size. 
• You can make isolated animations/movements in one composition, and then nest this into another. 
• If you were to make the 30 sec animation you could make 3x10 sec compostions, and then nest these into one 30 sec and add transitions. 

(To copy everything you need into one folder: File - dependencies --> 'collect files')

Aftereffects session III

KEY POINTS:

Repeating a series of keyframes:

• Copy keyframes, and paste them alongside later on. 
• Right click on keyframe --> toggle hold keyframe (holds object so it does not transform until next keyframe, prevents yoyo effect)
• cmd + d : to duplicate 
• Change position of layer that already has positional keyframes - Click on arrow to get in line with first positional keyframe and then move. 

Parenting :

• Parenting means the selected objects and then all linked to the 'parent' object e.g. raindrops to the cloud. Which enables any transformations you do of the parent object to be applied to the whole group (except for opacity). 

Audio :

• Import as you would a normal file (can only be imported as footage)
• To trim - double click and this will allow you to view it in its own window. 
• To adjust sound - Properties --> audio levels. Use waveform to understand the audio level (48.00 dbls = no sound)