Pinchas Sharr - Wind and the Willows

Whilst in New York last year I picked up a book on Pichas Shaar, his work reminds me of Picasso and his works tells stories.  I am looking at his work for inspiration for Wind and the Willows, as there are characters and animals within his work.

Wind and the Willows

I am currently working on the latest project called 'Wind and the Willows' which is a competition based brief for Penguin Books.  The task is to create a book cover that sets the scene of the story, and draws readers from all ages to read the story.

I have not yet read the book, however it's en route to me via Amazon!.  Once I have read the book I will have more of a understanding about the story, characters, settings and senses from story.

As a starting point we have been asked to create a 'Sense of Place'.  The beauty of not knowing the story is the unknown and that's the approach I wanted to take initially.  In my 'Sense of Place' sketchbook I have been collecting images, mark makings characters and images that suggest or make me think of wind and the willows, I just want as much content as possible to play with and have made a start creating the characters from other images for more of a abstract feel/individuality.

Projects like this are the ones I love, I get carried away due to freedom and also the timescale is fairly long.  I just plan to play and explore in my sketch book,  I am due to attend a tutorial today which will give me more direction/feedback.

Wonderful Maja Sten

I discovered Maja Sten the other day through one of my friends at university.  What beautiful work it is, very character based, fun and surreal with lots of faces everywhere!.  Some of her work would be great reference for the next up and coming project of 'Wind and the Willows'.

Learning Curve

I recently had my assessment tutorial for the 'Dialogue Ignites Change' module.  My grade reflected the work I did for Gay Straight Alliance and Map of my Weekend projects.

The first project 'Map of my Weekend' was right up my street as I had the freedom to play, explore and make which is when I am most productive and feel that I am being myself, without restrictions and taking risks!.

However the Gay Straight Alliance project was a different story.  If I am honest with myself I found the brief very challenging and difficult.  I feel that I found the subject matter tough also, I really felt like I was focusing so much on pleasing that I compromised my visual style, which hindered my outcome and level of work. 

Initially I saw this as a negative, being the perfectionist that I am, however my tutor reassured my that this isn't a negative it's a strength to be able to identify that my work is located best in it's own content and that I am more of a author-strator and respond best to wide open briefs with space for freedom and risk tasking, briefs such as 'Sinbad' and 'Invented Persona' were a joy and felt very 'me'.

Looking back I am glad that I have had a difficult brief as it's made me realise the things I like to do and what I do best and the briefs that maybe don't fit my style/way of working!.

Ready for action !

I very much look forward to returning to university next week.  I have had a lovely christmas break and feel refreshed, with a new art room in tow ready for action!.  I feel excited about the new brief that I shall learn about on my return, this brief will be a long one and will take me upto the end of my second year, I can't wait to get stuck in and be creative again!, which reminds me I must start drawing and collecting again very soon.

Alongside the final brief, I plan to get involved with much more voluntary opportunities and get as much experience as possible under my belt, In addition I look forward to making contact with Illustrators in the industry and start thinking about making and selling handmade things such as trinket boxes, cards and books on arty sites such as Etsy and Ebay.

Here's to a very busy and hardworking 2013!

Happy New Year!

I have been joining in all the Christmas festivities lately and have enjoyed a nice break after a frantic few months of moving house, decorating, essays and quick turnaround briefs!.  Today is the last day of 2012 and what a year it's been, I passed my first year and progressed into second year, I have also enjoyed volunteering at GROW Manchester and the Just So Festival in August, they have been brilliant experiences and I have learnt so much from them.

I also lived a life long dream of visiting New York with university, I am still speechless about that place! It was another world and I hope to go again in the future.  My knowledge and understanding of the Illustration world is growing more and more as I move through the degree and it just makes me more and more hungry to reach my goals and ambitions!!.

My new art room is all good to go and I'm very excited for the final brief of second year, which I will learn about in my return to university in January.  But for now my fancy dress costume is hung up in the wardrobe ready for tonight's new year celebrations.

Happy New Year to All!

Self Evaluation: Dialogue Ignites Change

I have decided to start posting 'reflection' posts after each module, firstly to get into a routine of doing it, and secondly as a record of my progress through my degree so that I can look back and identify on areas I have done well in or areas that may need a little work.

I have just finished the third brief for Gay Straight Alliance which is the final brief for the Dialogue Ignites Change module.

I found this project the most challenging so far due to sensitivity of the project and ensuring that I communicate the relevant meaning that both visuals and non-visuals will get.  The visual problem solving was very challenging in the way I had to represent a stereotypical perception and also the reality, but then I questioned what was reality? and also people are so diverse!.  I found it easy to discuss my challenges and progress with clients from the GSA as they were understating and sympathetic to the challenges we faced along the way.  I also found it a real confidence boost when they liked my ideas!.

I just kept drawing and drawing ideas in rough and developing ideas, that way ideas kept popping up in my mind and ideas stemmed from one another.  I also think meeting with the clients helped as they narrowed my choice down by selecting two of my ideas, Mr Gay Buns and Gingerbread Men!.

At present I am making final drawings of Mr Gay Buns and the recipe and then I shall add colour on Photoshop so I haven't had client feedback on finished ideas as of yet, I will post more on this later.

This project has been challenging but a great learning curve in terms of problem solving visually.  Doing projects like this are really interesting as the push you out of your comfort zone, inspire you to learn about other people and cultures and also get you out of the university bubble.

There are some images from my sketchbook on my previous post about the GSA Project Research.