Studio Practice: 2017

Monday, 15 May 2017

Summative Evaluation

All my projects have taught me something. And I think that’s what I feel most successful in with this module. Even those that failed taught me never to do that again as it wasn’t who I as a practitioner worked. This module showed me how Naomi Ronke (N.Ronke) The practitioner and Naomi Crompton the person differ. I am a lot more professional and confident within my own practice and abilities when I talk to clients. Because these projects have all had a similar goal of having to be ‘worth’ to be put into my portfolio. I have increased the standard of work I’ve produced by looking back on the last few years and basically doing the opposite of that. Allowing myself to fail and learn from those failures has been just as important as capitalizing on my strengths. My practice is one that thrives of a reflective self.

The aims of my project where to help me find which medium(s) I worked best in. Apply and develop said medium(s). As I have acknowledged and developed my Lino work I have been able to create work to both a quicker and higher standard than I thought possible due to projects such as Spook-a-week helping me develop a higher grade of Lino print and the Historical Editorials quickening the pace of my cutting method.

This alongside building up a portfolio of deliverable work to a client. Work that was going to get me jobs. My stretch goal was having this work actually land me a job. Which it has. Though I don’t measure the success of this project by that. I measure it by the fact that I can see myself sustaining my practice as my career.

Project Report

Final Resolutions

Old vs New Statement of intent

Sunday, 14 May 2017

FMP-Final and refinment

Here Are the final prints. I tried to college in colour but it wasn't that effective. The prints lost their presence. So instead I colour collaged to highlight similarly to how I'd done my other lino cut on my website.

I'm really happy with how these turned out. Especially with the two part print where I imposed dante onto the forest scene. I feel like all the skills and techniques I've developed and honed over other briefs came through in this final piece. I can say happily that I have no issue with this being the final piece I make for this course.

FMP -Character + Enviroment Boards

Here are the final environment and character boards. I had fun making these and would do it again but maybe with another project. Creating motr boards and learning how to clean them up better should help me create a succinct portfolio of character concept design.

Fmp Development

These are a couple of the developments for how I am doing with both the character design and the composition of the lino cut book cover and chapter inserts. I'm thinking of doing them in full colour utilizing the digital collage again.

I know I have to be fast with these because I only have a week + I've got a commission with a 5 day deadline as well. However I think I am confident enough in my own abilities and competent enough not to fuck it up.

FMP-Lione

Designing the Lion of the 3 categories of sinn. I had this Idea of him either having no eyes or teeth for eyes. Because of him being blinded by 'bestial violence'.

If I'm going to be honest I don't know what I'm doing here. I think I need to sit down and think about what my end goals are.

Initial Sketches

Here Are the initial sketches
I wont be putting the final Image on here
An important point with this work was talking to another character and narrative artist who understood the importance of composition and placement.

Friday, 12 May 2017

Christopher Brown

Christopher Brown is a Primarily lino print based illustrator.

Looking at the way he uses coloured paper to create collaged lino cuts, adding depth to otherwise flat, monochromatic scenes.

Similarly to my work it is also very historically based.

Using similar collage techniques I'm going to look at how using Lino and coloured paper can help create and develop an chaotic scene. Such as those described in Dante's inferno.

I want to play around a bit more with scenery and Lino after looking through some of Chris Browns work.

Anamatics

I've been watching a lot of animatics recently. Which Are kind of like more detailed story boards put into a video. I'm thinking about creating some post this course.

Spook-A-Week Evolution and Evaluation

The first spook a week was a continuation on the idea of humanised diseases . This one was based off cholera. With research into the origins of cholera, first originating from an isolated village in India which pertained a stagnant lake as it's only source of water. It was going to evolve into an editorial image the shape of the Ganges river cut into the reduction print.

This then evolved into the series due to the evolution in the way I began to cut lino. Seeing what was being cut and what was cut as line work allowed for more fluid carving. Also a sense of adaptability. Not focusing too much on the roughs as once you transfer them to lino the become something else.

The jester Print was one of the first that I just began to cut after sketching the general shape and composition of the image. I kept an idea of what I wanted the atmosphere of the piece to be and got to work.

From this I started to look at not only paper quality but how I did my lino cuts. I went from relief pressing to hand burnishing depending on how I wanted the print to come out. If i wanted a more solid consistent ink look but with more of the carved line coming through I would use relief press. For more texturised and 'authentic' prints I would hand bunish. Burnishing is better for small lino cuts (A5 and Below) while for larger ones.

For a while I was In a bit of a dead Patch. Focusing on cop but unhappy on the lino prints produced I began to focus more on my digital work. After a group critique about developing the lino cuts into scenes and doing different cultures monsters I settled on the idea of Looking at different Cultures vampires.

I only made one but, due to what this one represents and has taught me I will most likely make more outside the course. Using digital collage of three different coloured papers housing the same image I was able to blend them into one creating a atmosphere using not only the composition but colour as well.

Saturday, 6 May 2017

FMP

So Character design wise I'm going to focus a lot on making them fluider and more shape based than my usual characters. As I believe that a looser but consistent character design will allow my work to be less awkward and funner for both me and those viewing it.

I've decided to make finalised board out of some of these sketches as which could then be used for my character design portfolio.

Thursday, 4 May 2017

Penguin Brief- Lived and died in a fast and violent storm

The Penguin Brief went awry, very awry. Reading and researching the book was simple. I had a specific idea in my mind of what to do. However I was in a very big creative slump where I couldn't seem to make good work as I was struggling with my practice as a predominantly print based Illustrator. I, after finishing cop and not being happy with the end result. Decided to rebel against lino and focus almost solely on digital.

This didn't end well as I wasn't that enthused about digital either. As a result of that and a lack of guidance at the time I ended up producing this.

It was a very fourced piece that made me feel neither accomplishment of a development in my skill. I think sometimes you have to realise that forcing yourself to do something when not using the correct methods for your practice or any passion at all can kill a project and your drive very succinctly.

Lindt Brief

I work part time at Lindt. And a recurring sense of annoyance for me is the design packaging and branding for lindt. I see the potential the company has to become more contemporary and innovative with their design work. Yet most of the design work stays the same.

In response I designed a mock up poster for what was then the Easter. Choosing Digital collage as away of keeping a child friendly vibe to the rabbits while also looking cleaner more contemporary than most other design packages.

I showed said design to my manager who approved of my mock design. I have been put forward by my manager to be allowed internship at the Lindt design company. I'm hoping for a response soon from them as it would be a great opportunity for me.

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

FPM- Dantes Inferno

So with dante's inferno being part of the divine comedies I thought about keeping the chapter illustrations and book cover more serious but in the comic strips make dane and the demons a lot more humours.

The daemons for this have been heavily inspired by my trip to the prado museum where I saw some of hieronymus bosch's paintings. That has inspired the more ridiculous but still demonic creatures I have drawn within this. Dante's inferno is a great example of dark comedy and trying to translate this into illustrated form can be difficult to do.

Submission Passion Fruit

I found that colouring in shades of grey works better for me when I'm highlight and create more depth to characters. A rough approximation of the lighting on the characters also helps add depth to them. Digitally I don't think I'm competent enough to do full colour digitally. However I Have ways around that within other sides of my practice such as spot colour illustrations or traditional colour that mimics the fluidity of my line work.

These are the final character sheets and one enviroment board which I sent to Passion Fruit. the submission also came with an extensive description of the plot, character designs and themes of the story.

Block colour doesn't really work for me due to the fact that my line work does not mimic that solid clean form. I think thats why I have to start colouring the same way I line to get more effective pieces.

I Know my time management would have been improved if I had set clearer goals of what I wanted to achieve within a certain time frame. If I knew that I was going to do 2 character sheets 3 enviroment ones and maybe a mock up page. I feel I would have been more successful in both the production of work and getting into Passion fruit.

These type of competitions are something that I would definitely do again if given the opportunity. I'm going to look at more of these competitions after the course to help develop the comics side of my practice.

Monday, 1 May 2017

Spook a week to- no slepp

All of my spooks a week cumulated with the goal of getting a spot illustrating an episode of the nosleep podcast. A international horror podcast based in Canada. I sent them my work and got a reply.

They've asked me to so some work for them after going through my spook a week prints. I've been given two scripts to choose from and will be using the process that I have begun to use for my practice on this image. It's a 5 day turn around although I hope to get it done in 2. As I have my final project due as well.

Sunday, 30 April 2017

FMP- What we're doing

I've been talking out my arse this entire time and no one stopped me
Museums, felt like this is what I needed to do because this seemed like something I should do rather than what I wanted to do
Keep it simple what is the goal
New goal is to create book cover and inserts for dante's inferno with some character boards and proposal for maybe comic?

Clear goals allows for the expression and mass productiopn of work with a puropse which means it is more likely to be developed and presented better.

Dante's Divine Comedy Illustrated Seymour Chwast

Its Innovative but a bit all over the place
I'm Inspired by this graphic novel t to do something more than just a cover. Maybe the proposal for a comic??
The use of symbolic characters such as Minos the snake that judges where in hell you go is a smart use of character symbolism and future call back for first time readers.
While Chwast used a loosely based 20's theme I'd go for a more time accurate setting, due to style and personal creative license.

Saturday, 29 April 2017

Museum -FMP

I'm going to propose an exhibition using Dante as a gateway and his description of the 3 major sins. Represented by a lion, leopard and she wolf . The aim is to make three lino cut of these characters with the idea of having loads of artifact and antiques depicting the sinna around it.

She wolf was the sins of icontenance sins (lust-greed)

Lione Beastial Violence

Leopred Treatrus sins

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Character-Abandoing

So In reflection of the time I have available and the way I see this project going I have decided to abandon it. Professionally I feel like I dont have the time or focus right now for it. However I will be coming back to it after this module as more refinement of my character and background design should help me develop a better chance of being chosen within Anthology briefs.

However the concept of character design and boards is going to be taken forward within my FMP in some way.

Saturday, 22 April 2017

CMV-Final + Show

I'm really pleased with the final image. Even Though no one bought one at CMV i'm not deterred in the slightest. as I now know that my work Isn't suited for the CMV audience. It situates itself in a darker narrative section of the art work. And That's fine with me. I'll be selling these images on my website at some point, along side other prints of mine. I may look making a comic out of these characters. Who knows.

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

Vampire post

A big focus of this piece was detail. I decided I was going to cut every single hair on this monster after designing the final product.

What makes it different from a lot of my other posts is that this Illustration was made through multiple sketches and developments focused around the key characteristics of the creature I found from my research.

Hairy
Long legs
backwards feet
Large Eyes
Iron Teeth

In this case the large amount of character concepting and composition sketching was booth a blessing and a hinderance. At one point I got too lost in it. But taking a step from previous briefs where it got too much. I left it for about half a day and came back to my sketches. Looked over them critically and curated things in both the character designs and compositions that worked. Which is how I was able to get the idea finalised.

The way I put this all together was a using digital collage as a cleanup (slight enhancement tool). Realising that for me digital is the final 10% of a process. Which if done well takes my images to a whole new level. The importance of using digital sparingly is crucial for my practice, keeping my work to it's highest standard.

Wednesday, 12 April 2017

Editorial-Feedback

So I sent my Historical editorials off to suzanne , the art director of the BBC history magazine. She was impressed by my work. However said they already have a select number of illustrators they like to use constantly.

I'm not deterred however. In a few months I may send her so revamped or new pieces. And I have been sending my work out to other history magazines.

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

Editorial-Rest of them

With the time limit I'd Given myself I wanted to stick to a simple colour scheme that could be repeated throughout the other four illustrations. I chose simple black and white but with a spot colour of gold. Allowing for the sense of olden time luxury and the metallic highlight both stood out and blended in with the illustration.

Pros:

Created at least 3 well crafted and illustrated editorial pieces
Using spot colour allows for a good sense of dramatism
The technique really suited he tudor pieces.
There are some that have a strong sense of competition
I can create editorial work with a fast turn around time.

Cons:

Some images (opera) where too convoluted
sometimes less is more
Using a spot colour consistently would have helped some of the pieces in creating a focus for it. Not just in it's composition.
Sometimes just taking a step back and looking at the work you're doing + getting another person's feedback can be vital to the direction of a piece.

Monday, 10 April 2017

Editorial Pt 1

So I decided to jump back on the horse and set myself the challenge of doing 5 historical editorial illustrations within a week using lino as my main tool.

I had the following restrictions:

I didnt get to choose the articles

I had to work to an A5 Lino space in a Portrait format

With the first one On the war on Ireland I decided that A personification of the countries and Irelands resistance would work best to depict this complex scenario. A lot of complex information is best illustrated using either personifications of issues or simple symbolism as you want to create a piece of editorial illustration that goes along well with the article.

I wanted to be very careful with my colours here. I knew that even in black and white the british flag was easy to distinguish however the Irish one is more complex as the colours and order of them distinguish it away from other european countries. So i did research which colour codes the flag contained.

Trying to stick to a simple colour scheme based around the irish flag I was able to use the black and white element a highlight for the hero (ireland) and the villain (England). The composition of the piece pushed across the idea of a domineering antagonist and a weaker but determined protagonist.

All in all I think that this piece came out exceptionally well and has reignited my confidence in editorial work.

Sunday, 2 April 2017

Chatacetr design -Tradishional

On the more Traditional side I Found some issues in the drawing of the characters. I hadn't set myself clear goals which meant most of the work I produced was very lackluster. Similarly I found when colouring and inking most I had a issue with using the wrong lining tool or colouring equipments. I feel like I hadn't just left them raw the images would have come out cleaner.

Next time I would use the more traditional means again but with a clearer Idea of what i'm doing in mind. As I seem to work better with restrictions. However I would definitely use digital to clean up and refine my illustrations to a portfolio worth standard.

Thursday, 30 March 2017

Character-Digital vs Digital

The first image was done entirely digital with very flat colours . I found this to be very stiff after I lined it. The character lost a lot of fluidity after that and colouring it in did not help the final product. I did rush this because I felt like I just needed to get it over and I think my unhappiness with the illustration translates in its execution.

On the other hand I feel that the college image is definitely better with the textures and attention to detail allowing me to get the fantasy ideal across. The background on this feels so fantastical however due to the way it was cut and put together, similar to the previous image it lacked the fluidity my work usually had making it stiff and almost characterless.

Id do the backgrounds in the collage again. Maybe look at other ways of mixing traditional and digital together to create characters with more life to them.

Wednesday, 22 March 2017

Passion Fruit Part 2 -Research

Looking into this idea of setting it in mystical ancient Greece. Inspired by some of Sapphos poems as well. The idea of two lovers isolated on an Island, having to protect and alter. Mimicking my love of the greek mythos formula from when I was younger Is how I got my plot for this tale.

Using past research allowed me to spend more time drawing and mapping out developing ideas. Image result for Greek Islands

Sunday, 19 March 2017

FMP-Musings pt 2

So Through research and pre-known knowledge A lot of Medieval europe folklore is focused on the virtues and sins attached to christianity.

But in all honesty I'm going to make a series of prints depicting the narrative of the Marksman, a Medieval Germanic fairytale from 14th century in a series of prints. This could become a larger series looking into other tales and the 5 point tales they tell.

MAn gets bullets from stranger -> becomes wealth and gains his lady love -> she is killed by last bullet turns out stanger was devil man promises to be piese to see wife -> Immediately re marries -> is killed by skeleton of wife.

I want to limit the amount of Prints/ Panels to this narrative. Stirp it down to it's bear bones.

Saturday, 18 March 2017

Character Brief

So I want to do more character designs and look at different ways of using different media. I thought this will help me work out the best media for my quicker and more fluid character designs. I'm hoping to build up a portfolio of character design for more potential character design jobs.

FMP-Musings pt 1

So I've been trying to research some medieval events, tales or folklore but I cant really find anything.

To be honest I think it's because I'm being too vague.

I did however find some super fun and messed up stuff about Hera and here revenges.

Maybe do it about that?

I don't know. I'm gonna try and be more precise within what I'm looking for. I don't need to find a narrative to create narrative work.

History editorial- Reflecting on why I stopped this brief and why i started it back up.

After flip flopping around on the idea of creating a series of historical editorials. I have finally done them. With the time frame of a week to do them in. as a way of setting myself back on the right path.

After talking to Sól about my worries with editorial and her saying I don't have to do political in the moment stuff. I realised that I can focus my practise into an area I wanted. Using Sól to pick the articles for me. It forced me to work to the specifications of another not just myself and what I wanted to do. It was challenging but also allowed me to adapt the way I work to a brief and hone the way i create images.

All 5 Images where done in lino and finished in digital. It took a week to complete and I honestly feel better for it.

I swore off editorial, however I see know that that was a shortsighted vow that I'm no longer sticking to.

It is important that I still remember I have other Briefs to finish as well. So I have given myself till the beginning of Easter break to get one more of the D'n'D characters drawn up as well as complete my A3 African vampire print.

I know the week commencing won't be as productive as I want it to be. Due to having an boost in my working hours this week along side my practise. However I aim to use my time valuablly and feel that after working myself through the almost 3 month slump I was in this week. I'll be able to be a more productive, and reflective practitioner.

So after my talk with Ben about my FMP. I'm going to start focusing on gaining a solid amount of research to begin my project.

I don't want to flood myself with too much research so that i focus more on that than the creation and development of the work.

I've chosen to focus this project on one time period and fins several tales to illustrate in a Lino cut. Along side the chance of a series of smaller comic strips .

The focus however is on the 3-5 A3 lino cuts which tell either several separate stories or work similar to Hogarth's etching series in that they tell a tale.

I want to be more daring with this so I'm going to look at multi layered lino reductions, collage and paint on lino.

The focus of the two week commencing is to get the tales chosen and begin to draw the roughs and composition. as well as do miniature experiments with lino process.

Friday, 17 March 2017

Passion Fruit Project

So Olivia told me about this competition for queer artists to pitch an erotic comic to beyond press in hopes of getting chosen to create said comic (paid). Creating the initial character boards and scenic concepts for said proposals was new to me. I've always avoided drawing nude people because I was, weirdly worried what my family would think. However this project for me became a rather freeing one in that I did it because i wanted to do it. Rather than because I felt that I had to do it.

The sample bellow contains some of the initial sketches and the beginning development of the environment and scenes the characters created would interact with. I wanted to show a lot of interaction between the characters with each other and their environment.

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

Wine Label

Doing this wine label design with the quick turn around time allowed me to basically strip what my process when going from start to finish was. As A result I know how research even if minute comes into it as well as the importance of finding an angle to your brief that makes it easier for me to be at least excited about the work. Mine was trying to refine the digital collage more as well as transfer character work into a more commercialised projects.

Something that I learnt from this experience however was the importance of contrasting colours and referring to the colour wheel. As parts of the background eclipsed the foreground and at different points the faces blended into the background. I would Focus more on the colour next time.

The size I submitted the image at left much to be desired and made the images difficult to read. Although I uploaded it in the correct format I may need to look at the placement and sizing of images next time.

I don't think I'd do a competition label again however if I was commissioned I'd love to create another wine label.

Saturday, 11 March 2017

Paper Cut DIgital Experiment

I Began to mess around with digital collage. Looking at ways that I could use it to advance my digital work. This is my experiment piece. I'm thinking of using this technique on the wine label competition for talent house.

Monday, 27 February 2017

Out Of Order : Completed

4 Dnd Designs: Are going to be re-briefd as 4 character boards

Creepy Cryptid Lino cuts: Getting 3x Final Image prints done 1st is in progress

FMP: Need to blog initial concepts

Passion Fruit: Deadline 7 th Priority

Penguin Brief: Doing needs Final touches to front and extention to back cover doing 7th Also

Summary (What Needs to Get done this week)

Penguin Finished by Thursday 2nd

Passionfruit By Monday 6th

After Re Prioritise

CMV Cut + Print

The issue with cutting Lino is that sometimes you slip about 80% though cutting your lino and all you want to do is die because why is this happening.

However the more you deal with lino the more aware you become of good old adaptability.

The problem with reduction prints however is that as soon as you've recut for the next layer you can do no more prints of the first. Also you can sometimes cut out more than you need to. Which is why I always keep a photo copy of the lino cut to mark what does and doesn't need cutting.

I used two different techniques on these images. The first layer was hand burnished with a padded burnisher. Allowing for the grey ink to come out in an almost stone like effect. The second was the a simple relief print that allowed the solid black of the lining to stand out against the textured paper and first layer. This created (in my opinion) a gorgeous contrast in texture that the subtle differences in colour emphasised.