Zine Ideas

After looking through the drawings I have done over this summer, a few themes cropped up which I think I would enjoy working with to create a zine. 

• Cacti / tropical plants (I have plenty of reference imagery from Majorca and Tropical World)
• Statues (inspiration taken from statue drawings I did in Budapest - focus on females probably - ghostly figures - also have reference material from Russel-Cotes Museum)
• Birds (tropical?)
• Tortoises (I like drawing tortoises)
• Fashion magazine girls (portray them in a certain way - maybe put a twist on it but would need to think about that) 
• Architectural features (intricate windows and doorways, could work with scale and use of space, lots of photos to use from Budapest, Vienna and Prague)

These themes all seem very random and go off at all different tangents but they are just my initial thoughts. Some of them are purely because I have realised I enjoy drawing them, for example it might be sad but I think tortoises are super fun to draw. These themes need a lot more consideration but at the moment I think the ones with the most potential are the statues or the fashion mag girls. I am concerned that some of the others would make nice drawings but not have the quirks and impact that I feel a zine might need to be successful. 

More Drawings

I have tried to keep my sketchbooks organised by topic, mainly around holidays or visits to places. This sketchbook has just been for anything else I felt I wanted to draw so theres a bit of a mixture here. 

Drawing from observation at Kirkstall Abbey

Drawing from reference photographs taken at York Castle Museum

I drew this pug from a reference photograph found online and was really happy with how detailed the original black and white drawing turned out considering it started out as a quick sketching task. I scanned it into photoshop and played around with colours until reaching this outcome. I feel my photoshop skills are improving now I have the program on my laptop and I can spend time practicing using it in my own time. 

I also made a Redbubble account as an effort to try and get some of my work out there and maybe make a bit of money in the process. I'm not sure how this is going to go but theres no harm in trying. 

This is the tote bag product with my image of the pug on it. 

I started getting into this so carried on using my sketches as a starting point for some digital editing and then uploading onto the site. 

Cat silhouette ink drawings. 

I scanned these in and arranged them on Photoshop so they fit into a square tile. I then used this to make a repeat pattern, shown below printed onto a fusion cover. I also adapted the square into a birthday card for a cat-loving friend. 

More drawings from reference material found online. Animals and wildlife is a theme that I always seem to come back to, I particularly like birds because of the wide variety of shapes and styles they come in and how they can be recognised by this. 

Drawing from observation

Budapest, Vienna and Prague

I think this trip has been one of the best experiences of my life so far. Spending only a few days in each location meant that we made the most of every moment we had, we packed our time full of city walking tours, visiting significant places, eating traditional food and experiencing the nightlife. Because we were filling our days with so many things, I didn't get the time to do as much observation drawing as I would have liked because we were always on the move! I found myself mainly drawing in cafes or restaurants, at the hostels in the mornings or evenings or when we were waiting for trains and busses. 

BUDAPEST

Hungarian soldiers - I drew these from photographs I took during the 'changing of the guard' and put them together in this composition, I like how it is unbalanced, it makes it more interesting to look at. 

Most of the statues I drew were white and I wanted to get this across in my drawings without just leaving it black and white. Adding a bold colour background with pro markers made these drawings stand out a lot more. I think they look quite ghostly, especially because of the eyes but I think the pops of colour make them more playful. 

Cafe sketch

I photoshopped this when I arrived home.

Refugees at Budapest Train Station

I did a few quick sketches of the refugees outside Budapest train station while we were on our way to catch our train to Vienna. Being on holiday, I wasn't up to date with the news at all so I didn't realise that this was such a big issue although when I got home I realised the full extent of the problem which we had only caught a glimpse of. 

 

VIENNA

Building sketches

Flo is my friend who lives in Vienna and was our hostess, tour guide and translator - she's fab so the least I could do was sketch her.  

Metro sketch

I quickly tried to sketch this man on the metro but it was a bit bumpy so I took a sneaky photo and worked on it later on, I hope thats not creepy. 

This is a drawing of the inside of the library at the business university in Vienna. It was so modern and such a contrast to the historic buildings in the city centre, its design came as quite a shock! 

Statue drawing

I'm getting really into drawing statues now, some of the positions of the people could work together really well to make entertaining scenes and situation. 

I like this collection of windows. Most of the buildings had really different and interesting window designs. I think this might be a good idea for a zine as its a really simple thing but its sometimes nice to pay attention to the mundane. 

I edited these drawings on Photoshop later on and made them into a repeat pattern which I actually really like. I don't have a good feeling about using pattern as a theme for my zine but I guess its something to consider for the cover or inside cover. 

PRAGUE

Prague Clock Tower

Statue sketch

Drawing of the Charles Bridge from another bridge further up the river. I used different thicknesses of fine liner and also pencil to try and capture how far away the different things were, the ones further away fade into the distance more as they are lighter.