Current commission work

Resently I have been making a logo for a charity and have worked planed to make the buttons for ebay companys,I'm getting a taste of work in the real world and have also aranged to sell t-shirts with my colleagues.

My degree show

I have made a web blog that logs what im doing as an illustrator.

End of Term Review

BOY XOOX IMAGE FROM PERSONAL PROJECT

During this term, I have been developing my skills and working on my own illustration style. This has moved me to take a graphic designers approach because I’ve been following the design principles. There were five main projects this term and each had differing outcomes.
For my personal project, I wanted to create a working library of objects that were interchangeable allowing me to re-use elements wherever a design aloud this. So eyes could also be wheels and so on. What I found out about this is there are limitations to how much a detail an element can hold. Testing them help me understand what worked. A lot of symmetry and paternal worked well, it was mostly the simpler ones with forty-five degree angle triangles, squares and circles. I produced some posters using this method and I used a grid and a black illustrator outline. This gave very structured designs that had a bold directness due to their uniformity. If I continued to work this way I would have to answer most if not all briefs set directly objectively. This directness pay off due to shape relation, this is a good thing for me to grasp for later projects. As far as reference goes I have been looking a lot in pattern books and generally simple design like building blocks.
The next project was the times cover project, I started by drawing ideas that I thought would work with the design system I created. It was funny that I had to remake most of the shapes again as they were not fitting into place, so there were some design issues emerging because I wanted it to look dynamic and slot together better, Also I used new shapes because I wanted it in colours that related to the project, in this case science. To add more dynamics I re-used a black line for the three spot images and drop the black line for the cover. This then made me think do I even need the black line, it isn’t adding to anything maybe it was just a comfort thing for me to see it.
We then got given a short one week brief, It was for Lloyds TSB and let you decide yourself what area of banking you would illustrate within set restrictions. After several sketches I decided to illustrate a man placing with giant building blocks that spelt out the word excel as I work to an idea that I have set till it has a message but makes you want to be part of whatever it is. I felt this was one of my strongest images this year as it conveyed no real answer but a sense of achievement.
After that we did a project with Andy Martin about seasonal winds for a calendar. This one I felt I didn’t explore to the best of my abilities as my sketches weren’t thought about fully so I should have spent more time on them. I wasted time here making shapes for a bad idea and therefore failing to create a design that works visually.
The last brief was for a competition, it was optional as to which one you choose. I went for the Monster Munch brief as it seemed there weren’t many rules and it allowed me to be very playful or creative. The brief noted bits of the time period and an aspect I liked was about Atari games. So my main concept was a monster munch game type thing. I don’t yet have flash game designing skills so I made a video of what it might look like instead. I wish I hadn’t spent so much time on the animation as I could have made lots of mini toys, key-rings and stickers. There were other game related ideas I had like a life size monster munch game with a huge dice and masks to put on. During Christmas I want to carry on making some of this stuff even if it’s just at a mock up stage and feel I should try to uses a bigger budget for this kind of project.(wood or plastic or huge prints)I’m still learning.

Working to a new style

Currently I have been working on a style that has a symmetrical/Tessellational parts. To help me create such works I will make a illustration libaray this will consist of objects that in most cases will be interchangeable, for example there will be folders of eyes, head shapes and hair. When these are put togther thay will formulate the head of the image. In some cases like the eye folder these will dubble up as wheels or a repeate pattern. This consept is one way of makeing lots of charactors with out having to re-make the same object over and over. Another good point is that the re-useable items are archieved systematicaly and are therefor easy to find. Ultmatly I will have to sample test them and hopefuly thay will be come as good as the example image that I have put up on this blog.

Two artists I intend to research in depth during the project are Ryan Hughes and Henning Wagenbreth, both use archiving systems to crate there work. Henning Wagenbreth has even taken this idea to the next level by creating a keyboard command process that involes typing with the keypad to place objects. Other areas I will research are the historys of pattern, structure, symmetry and graphic design. I still want to keep a childish and playful charm if possible and will most likely explore game-design of postmodern theory.

If all goes well and my libaray of imagery pays off fully and is vast enough, I will be able to work for editorials, design books, storybooks and game charactors a large slection of illustration. And some of this work will be available on a website thats soon to come.

Paint Drip (Full size when Clicked on)

This is one of the mark-making images from last year. I miss the freedom of mark-making, I want to push myself to do more. Anyway, I made this by changing the colours on photoshop, it makes a decent computer background. I like it, however it's moving a little away from illustration but maybe the diversity doesn't matter.

Wildlife Background (full size when clicked on)

I made this image by re-using old college work and new illustrator files to get this effect. The purple character (Ste) was designed to have a mirror effect. The worm guy (Gerard) is supposed to be sinister looking even thought it was made in illustrator, as I was looking at Gerard Scarfe's imagery beforehand, so something he did had initiated this twisted evil spark.

Shipman

Its a space ship and a man in one. Idea came form henna beads and tanker tours image. I know its a bit crude but at least its getting in the thinking mind set.

Secret Citys Project

This image is from a project where you could pick your own path, it was very open and let you be creative which was good, giving you lots of options. I firstly went on trips to gather research, at urbis there was a Hidden Manchester exhibishion by Andrew Paul Brooks. This work was of underground/up-high shots of Manchester. So from this i had the idea of hiding objects in things. Then i was looking at plumbing and body systems which is how this image progressed. The elements were put to gether in adobe illustrator.

Drak Attack

Cityscape design, for a animation brife these where the background elements I used. Just simple hand crafed card shapes.

My toy town

This is something I was working on during the easter holidays. Playing with block shapes a texture from a bag. Kind of thing I would like to do.