Illustration and Digital Skill: Techniques

Our workshops are proving to be more helpful than I originally thought they would be. On our very first, we learnt how to create our own workspace: rearranging the windows of photoshop and setting up the tools we would be needing, whilst discarding those we didn't. 

I had never known to do this before! I've always worked with the way photoshop is set up originally, and have always felt frustrated when I've had to open tools and leave them in the middle of the screen. Clearly I didn't know as much about the software as I thought I did.

We then looked at Tonality and Colour, simply changing a womans clothes, hair, hat, and adding makeup. This is something I knew to do before, as in the ye old myspace days I was often found in a dark room retouching photos for myself and my friends. It was definitely nice to be reminded of this skill. 

We then looked at the pen tool: something I dread. I've never been good at keeping a steady hand, and I had always tried to select via the pen tool in freehand, which always turned out awful. I had no idea that holding shift would create a straight line, or that I could create better curves by holding onto the pen tool and moving it. (I understand my explanations are terrible, I am very sorry!) I found that difficult when trying to continue a line where a curve was, and it not wanting to head in that direction: but was told that the simple step of pressing Alt would make that disappear. Far, far easier than I ever thought!

We also looked at creating a clipping mask, which if I am 100% honest, I still have no idea how to do -- Illustrator and I just don't seem to go well together, and I definitely need to work on that. During this tutorial we were also shown where and how to find pantone colours on illustrator. In future, this would be much easier for things such as the branding brief we were given before: I was having to find out the HTML code for each colour so it was all coordinated, whereas just using a pantone colour and being able to save a selection is so much easier, and quicker.

We then experimented with the magic wand, and the quick selection tools, playing around with the refine edge button (that I didn't even know existed!) and had possibly far too much fun with a statue's head. I know that I needed this step for my final piece as it is going to involve a lot of cutting images from their backgrounds, due to using real images of a Suffragette parade, so this was possibly the most helpful step I learnt. I also looked into a few other ways of doing this, such as creating a mask and painting over the image: when the mask is added, the image is all that is left, and the background has been cut away. Quick, simple, and Beth-friendly.

My personal favourite tutorial we learnt was creating a magazine spread. Editorial has always been interesting to me: in many ways, it is the area in which I would like to specialise. I look at a lot of magazines such as Oh Comely, Company, Kinfolk, Lionheart, who are all very artistic and creative and it is an area I absolutely love. So in learning better skills on inDesign was definitely the highlight of this module for me.

I feel that these workshops have truly helped me better my skills: especially with on hand help. Internet tutorials are great, and extremely handy, but having someone there to talk to and explain certain steps so you grasp it better and truly understand what it is you are doing is so much easier to remember.

Durham Lumiere

I headed to Durham's Lumiere festival -- modern art is extremely confusing to me, but is also an experience I love. I feel it's important to go to these kinds of events, especially when studying an art and design degree, as it's usually in keeping with the times and trends. I'd never been to this before and it was wonderful to see Durham lit up and decorated in pieces of artwork, like above, a sign that was above the streets saying "A Place Beyond Belief" by artist Nathan Coley, which recalls a testimony of a woman from 9/11.

The two pieces above caught my eye. As it was during the run up to Christmas, a tree was placed in the middle of the town, created solely out of plastic bags to show consumerism and our addiction to plastic bags, making us consider the environmental consequences of these which are so often discarded, at the time of year where we purchase more than any other. This was complimented by plastic bags acting as christmas lights hanging above the streets, and though quite a daunting and downhearted message, it was truly quite beautiful. On the right is something much more up beat and lively, a piece called "KeyFrames" which was men illuminated and dancing on top of the former Durham Miners Hall. It was very quirky and fun and had most people laughing and dancing along.

As usual, the Cathedral was lit up and played a story of it's history, called "Crown of Light." Featuring images from the Lindisfarne Gospels, it was incredibly beautiful as it spanned the images across the whole front, with movement and music helping to bring it to life. I was in awe.

The very first piece I saw was these tents. It truly set me up for the rest of the night: extremely quirky and cute, El Sol was a tribute to Durham's brass band heritage, and was interactive and ethereal. Each tent had an image of a musician and played music as you walked passed. Apparently when looking above you could see the significance of the way the tents are laid out.

It's really quite wonderful to see these kinds of events happen so close to home, and I felt I learnt a lot about Durham in an unusual way, whilst also having a lot of fun. Museums are great but are found everywhere nowadays, so this is a great way to get everyone learning and interested in heritage: especially as Durham is such an old city, with a lot of architecture remaining from hundreds of years.

llustration and Digital Skills: Research

Our research task was to carry out an in depth visual research into other illustrators. Again, using my pinterest account to collate the images in one place, I looked at certain illustrators whose works I already knew such as Silvia Pelissero, Sophie Blackall and Gregory Euclide.

In the case of Sophie Blackall, I thought she would be a great example to look at as she personally illustrates stories into wonderful pieces of artwork which are simple and easy to read. Sophie takes anonymous missed connections that are posted on Craigslist and turns them into very ethereal, warm artworks: the kind you could see in a childrens book, very simple and strange. She incorporates Chinese ink, watercolour and sometimes photoshop. Looking at how others take stories and portray them visually is helping to see the ways I could personally portray my own London story: Sophie manages to portray a story of any kind without much explanation, solely relying on the imagination of a person. I feel that's something I'd like to incorporate into my own work.

What's also interesting about Sophie Blackall's work is that she works mainly with people, stories that capture the spectrum of human emotions: raw and longing. It's that that I feel I need to capture due to my story being about feminism and women fighting for their rights.

Silvia Pelissero, otherwise known as Agnes Cecile, creates monotone and heavy illustrations using enamel paint. She uses movement throughout all of her illustrations, which compliments her style of work, capturing a story and emotion within. They mainly focus on portraits, using colours that reflect these expressions: changing to bright for intimate illustrations and cold and monotone to express natural and raw.

Personally I think colour can sometimes be quite overpowering when used in bright and vibrant shades, but when looking in these images she has toned that down using white lines to out line the different paint strokes. This small, simple addition creates a dynamic that is brilliant within her images and looks extremely beautiful.

Gregory Euclide uses paper arts in his work. I know of him due to creating the album artwork for Bon Iver, but after researching more in depth I found that he was in fact a teacher, and began creating art on his whiteboard in class, as seen below. Incredibly, most of these took 25 minutes to create. He focuses on landscapes, creating realistic and detailed imagery, to very surreal and bizarre. He integrates painting and elements of nature into his work to create authenticity: looking at the more intricate details, he has often crumpled the paper to create texture and movement whilst adding structures, leaves and bark to create 3D imagery. A lot of this aspect is lost when photographed, though despite this they still look incredibly charismatic and intimate. he also uses very natural and organic colours which follows the theme of the imagery.

All three of these artists produce very different styles of work, though I feel I need to look more in depth in terms of mixed media and digital illustration. That being said, I already feel quite inspired by Sophie Blackall's style which I believe I could incorporate into my own image, possibly taking the use of pastel colours which are very soft and whimsical, and use that colour palette myself. I definitely want to look into more artists who are similar to Gregory Euclide, building up a dynamic by manipulating paper. I think this is extremely interesting, though I also need to remember that this module and brief is about developing digital skills, and can not all be hand rendered.

Illustration and Digital Skills: SWOT Analysis

Before starting this project I thought it best to create a SWOT Analysis to know exactly what it is I want to accomplish and where I need to expand on.

Strengths
I personally think my strength is photoshop. I have previous experience with the program and used it quite often in my first project, therefore I feel quite confident when using it.

Weaknesses
I feel Illustrator is most definitely my weakness. I've never used the program before, and I think subconsciously I've always tried to avoid it. I want to learn skills via the workshops we are going to be given throughout this module and practice until I feel more comfortable with the software.

Opportunities
Having workshops to learn and apply our skills is an opportunity: being taught by many who have spent their life using such technology and programs is helpful, especially when they are on hand so often -- I intend on taking full advantage of my lecturers knowledge. Also having the software at home and on my own computer is an advantage as I can keep on top of the work I am producing and make sure I am up to speed. 

Threats
Forgetting / not backing up my work, or similarly, forgetting to save and possible crashes to computers. I've had this happen before far too many times and feel I've grown quite wary of technology due to this. Another threat is not meeting the deadline, so time keeping and organisation will be key. 

Illustration and Digital Skill: Brief

Our second brief is on Digital Skills Acquisition. We are also required to create an illustration narrating and portraying famous stories of London: fact, or fiction. My initial choice of story was Mary Poppins, as it has so many different aspects of London within, but I found it difficult being so broad. It is also quite overdone, and I felt I would find it difficult to create an original piece without looking similar to a movie poster or something already produced. I created a brain storm on the story, and chose one of the strings within: The Suffragettes. I feel the Suffragettes is quite an interesting one as the bravery of women is what helped me to have the freedom I do right now. As a female it is a story that has affected the way my life is, and allows me to live the way I would like to live, therefore being very personal. I want to make the outcome feel feminine and strong, though I'm not too sure which direction I would like to take with this yet.