Highland Cow Drawing

I drew this Highland Cow image as a gift for my Dad's birthday. I used a few images found online for reference but I cropped the images to just the head because I wanted it to be a floating spot on a blank page. I really enjoyed spending time paying attention to detail with this piece, it made a change from the fast pace and quick turnover of the work for my modules. This took me one evening and I was really proud of what I managed to produce in this time. I wanted to give the original drawing as a gift bit unfortunately I managed to drop my pen and it made marks on the paper, so I had to scan the image into photoshop and edit these out and then get it reprinted. 

The print is a bit smaller than A2 size and I have made smaller copies at A4 which I might try and sell at some point. 

Detail closeup

Zine - internal images

To produce my final images, I scanned my A5 images in at 600dpi and then enlarged them to print onto A4 cartridge paper. I didn’t want to lose any of my image quality by scanning and rescanning so I thought this was the best way to do it. After printing these images onto cartridge I painted over them in ink to add the cat elements. Some other lines needed to be worked over so that the distinction between scanned areas and fresh ink wasn’t too detectable. 

 

As for the images I was drawing from scratch, I just completed these in my sketchbook and scanned them strain from there. I felt this process was less interesting because I was selecting images of models to draw with the preconception that these need to fit my theme which made me discard some possibilities very early on. Whereas with my previous drawings I was restricted with the fact that I already had these drawings and I need to find an interesting way to make them involve cats. 

I wanted a few breaks in the patters of just one figure or portrait on each page - I had originally planned to include some male faces or some shots of feet but after thinking about this for a while it felt random. It was around this point that I had a brainwave for the name of my zine.. ‘ The Catalogue’ which I thought was appropriate because it takes on the form of a fashion catalogue but it would be very easy to emphasise the ‘cat’ element in the type. Continuing with this thought, I thought a few images could show accessories or jewellery, zooming in on specific parts of the body to break up the repetitive imagery. 

I decided on an ear at first and thought how I could adapt the usual piercings and then I moved on to hand jewellery, thinking of rings and bracelets that could exist. I used asos.com as inspiration for this, both the creation of the accessories themselves but also how they are usually displayed photographically.

Thats my final images for the inside of my zine complete, I just need to make a cover not and think about how I am going to lay these out on InDesign. I am pleased with my internal images, especially because not long ago I was feeling so lost for a topic and I thought my zine was going to end up really plain and boring but now I have an interesting theme and some images that reflect the way I like to draw.

Zine development - crazy cat fashion girls

To kickstart the new idea for my zine, I did a few roughs of people whose clothing or accessories could be adapted into cats. 

I also made a quick plan for the order of my pages - I realised that most of the images were based around women and I was struggling to think of ideas for men. This made me want to adapt my idea so it was just about females as I think this would be the main audience for a zine like this. 

To get started with making imagery, I photocopied some of the drawings I was already happy with from the fashion sketchbook a couple of times and started drawing over them to see how they could be adapted. 

I’m not being lazy by using drawings I already have, I just want to work in the most efficient way because I have a lot of other work to be getting on with as well. I don’t see the point in trying to redraw these images when I already have a few that I am really pleased with and they have already been drawn at the correct scale. Obviously I will need to draw a few more though from scratch.

This exercise was a really quick way of getting my ideas down and it has given me some inspiration for new drawings as well.

This is a revised storyboard just based on females. I felt like the zine was very repetitive by just having faces and figures all the way through so I want to have at least two pages where this trend is broken. One of which I have decided will be of some polaroids of men who are supposedly attractive because they have cats incorporated into their image as well. I might have to think of some visual symbol to include here to make it clear that these are being seen as potential ‘love interests’. 

I am feeling a lot better about my zine now I can see how much I need to do. It is looking more like a manageable task and I just need to get on with it. 

At the moment I don't think this zine needs a title because I think the image of the cat on the front and back will catch the attention of anyone interested in cats and will give enough information about the overall theme of the zine without including any type. 

The Crit-chen

We decided to set up a crit session at home, in the kitchen, hence the title ‘crit-chen’. 

Five of us spend two hours talking through things we were struggling with and needed advice and opinions on, and also giving feedback to others about their work. 

For me, it was my zine that I was struggling with the most and an idea for a more specific topic for my context of practice module. I received some really good feedback and ideas for my zine and this session was crucial to helping me decide what I am going to do for it. 

The others looked through my simmer sketchbooks and I tried to pick up on which drawings and themes sparked the best reaction. 

• The cat silhouettes could be used on their own for a really simple zine just about cats. 
• It might be good to combine the cats with something else to give the zine more substance - cats wearing hats? something silly. 
• I have used some of my drawings over summer to make patterns and I could maybe look more into this - this could be easily combined with my drawings of fashion models because I could insert patterns into these on photoshop. 
• A colour scheme of black and white could be restricting for pattern and it may not have the impact I desire. 
• I have drawn a range of different subjects over summer and drawn the same thing over and over again, particularly in my tropical world sketchbook. Maybe look at the ’20 ways to draw a tree’ book and other similar books for inspiration about typologies based around different themes.  
• The collections of bits and pieces from Budapest, Vienna and Prague are detailed and impressive but it is quite  a big task to fill so many pages with this much content in the amount of time I have. 

This was all really good feedback and it made me feel like the work I had already done had a lot more potential in it already. I agree that what I had been doing so far was too much work, and this coincides with my feedback from Ben about my work. However, I came out of my crit with Ben thinking that I would just make a book of drawings of fashion models out of magazines but the more I thought about it, I wasn’t happy that this zine would have any impact or encourage any connection with an audience. 

I’m not quite sure how it came about, but somewhere in conversation I combined the cat and fashion ideas which sounded like a silly idea but I thought it could make some interesting imagery. 

I don’t like cats. I don’t like things with cats on them but I know a lot of other people do so therefore it would have a more specific audience it would appeal to. I think this brief is the chance for me to do something I wouldn’t normally do, its a bit of a silly idea but I want to have a bit of fun with this zine and I want it to show in the final outcome.

I need to start drawing. 

I think having a crit at home was really beneficial to a lot of us and it cleared up a lot of the things we were stuck on or getting stressed about. We need to keep doing it to make the most of living as a house of illustrators! 

PPP Session Notes

DRAWING / IMAGE MAKING / ILLUSTRATION

Illustration: communication and problem solving.

Trying to communicate something, driven by a problem.

Can anything be illustration?

What can illustration be?

Where is illustration?

Trying to define illustration just brings up more questions.

Focus on the questions and asking more questions, not the answers.

PRODUCTS / CONTEXT / FUNCTION

Illustration is a complex term to define. It can be many different things.

What do I WANT illustration to be? - to fit in with my personal preferences

What do I NEED illustration to be? - to work within the industry

Change and growth - continual investigation and asking questions will direct my practice in a personalised direction.

ILLUSTRATION IS A JOB.

Does that mean that all illustration has to have a price tag?

Commercial illustration - will this impact on creative freedom?

What makes me, me, in this industry?

Publishing and books design

Editorial and reportage (either brief led or documentation with an individual direction)

Character and narrative

Product and packaging

Retail and merchandise (shops, merchandise products)

Object and environment (wall art, community based, etc)

*They all crossover.

Constantly experience as much as you can.

Have a bank of inspiration.

Still learning - developing knowledge, skills, values, preferences.

Behaviours, how am I motivated? Commercially/ethically/both.

Combination of formal and non-formal learning.

How do I know when I've learnt what I have needed to learn?

The link between what I WANT and NEED to learn.

College teaches me what I NEED to learn. I teach myself what I WANT to learn.

Independent research should be continuous.

Creative people answer questions with more questions. Explore and make decisions.

A lot of these cross over into numerous categories but they connect with each category in a different way. For example…

BOOK - in relation to publishing… what makes the book itself, the cover, the inside illustrations, etc.

- in relation to retail… all about selling, what makes a product sell, the promotional products around it, merchandise, etc.

CHARACTER  - in relation to narrative you have to invent a world for the character to exist in. 

- in relation to product it is more about the aesthetics of the character. 

Build up my own catalogue of resources - what is illustration to me?

Zine Feedback

Feedback from Ben

I had a chat with Ben in the studio about my zine because I was really unsure which direction to take with it. He looked through my work so far and liked some drawings for almost all of my ideas. He reminded me not to make this too complicated for myself which is probably what I was doing by making detailed line drawings from my holiday photos. This chat made me realise that I have other briefs going on that are higher priority than this one and although I want this zine to be good and something I am proud of, I don't want it to eat away at too much of my time. Maybe consider using some drawings that I am already pleased with in my sketchbook so that I am not starting totally from scratch. 

Feedback from group crit

In my group crit today I asked my peers about what they thought of my zine ideas and they basically agreed that I was making too much work for myself even though the detailed line drawings were good. They liked the sketchbook from my holiday around Europe and thought I could use some images from here but I realised I would still have to draw all of these out again because it was such a small sketchbook and they would lose their clarity when enlarged too much. 

What next...

I will go ahead with the ink drawings I have done from photographs of models in fashion magazines because these have received good comments and I do like them myself. I need to experiment with photocopying and working out the lighting and contrast becauseI never normally use a photocopier and I want to see what effects I can achieve. I already have about six images in my sketchbook which I would be happy to use as they are which is a bonus. I feel a lot happier about this now that I can see the workload as achievable in the time frame. 

Zine Development

These are some drawings I have done working from my sketchbook for Budapest, Vienna and Prague. I really wanted to draw something detailed and invest some time into something because I have been doing a lot of loose, sketchy work lately. I was feeling inspired by looking at the work of Lee John Phillips.

   

After doing these drawings I scanned them and started playing around with them on photoshop. Using only greyscale, I played around with how I could make them look more interesting.

After doing this I realised I had spent a good few hours drawing out these images and moving them onto screen. Although I like some of the outcomes I have produced, I am doubting that this is a viable option for my zine because of the amount of time it would take to do this 16 times. I do like a challenge though... 

People In Their Homes - Leah Goren

I think that this blogpost will be more personal than I usually am about my work but seeing as this is personal AND professional practice, I think what I am learning here about is relevant to my development. I have been following 'People in their Homes' on Instagram for a while now, it is a series if photographs and interviews about how practitioners exist within their own personal space. It is only recently that I visited their actual website and read through the complete interviews. 

An interview with LEAH GOREN - by Vivien Lee

When asked about the difference between working at home and in a separate studio space she responded that it feels good for her to wake up and having a place to go. It allows her to be sociable with her studio mates and try and keep her life separate from work, even though they still intertwine sometimes. I found it interesting that her studio mates aren't solely based around illustration as a practice, one is a graphic designer and the other works with textiles and sewing. 

When speaking about rituals and routine she said she was inconsistent. It gives me some confidence to read this because it makes me think that its okay not to work a 9 to 5 day because I know this doesn't work for me. 

Ladies Drawing Night is a project that Leah runs alongside Julia Rothman and Rachel Cole. She describes it as 'a break from work without considering it work'. They are working on a book based on the ladies drawing night sessions. This made me think about what I do to take a break from work and the truth is I don't think I take a break enough. I need to invest more time in doing work for myself and my own development rather than restricting myself my saying that I don't have time to work on anything other than the course briefs. I think this will help to keep me sane and not get so stressed, and it will still be a productive exercise. 

Looking at the photographs accompanying this interview, I have realised that I need surround myself with more creative material at home, both things that I have made and like and also work by other people who I admire or inspires me. 

I am going to continue reading these interviews because I find them interesting and enjoyable. So far I have always used PPP to look at practitioners' ways of working but I think it can be equally as beneficial to see their ways of living as this creates the environment that inspires them.

Zine topic

I read an article about zine making on rookiemag.com because I’m struggling to think of a workable idea for my zine. The article spoke about how zines usually have a controversial or niche theme which is not commonly found in mainstream media. Zines have a lot of power as they can spread messages and ideas by bypassing mainstream media. I think I have been too caught up in thinking of an amazing argument or concept to put forward with my zine and I think this has been what is holding me back from getting a topic sorted and getting started with it. Instead of taking this route, I think I just want to make a book of good drawings around a certain theme as this aligns with the work I have done over summer well. 

After deciding on this, I was reminded of some work I saw over summer which really interested me. It was a story of a man who’s grandfather had passed away and left behind a shed full of tools and bits and bobs. Lee John Phillips took inspiration from this and set about drawing every single item (over 100,000) in the shed. I thought this was a really heartwarming story of using drawing to remember something or someone and the drawings are so clean and crisp and arranged so neatly on the pages, they really conveyed the idea of the shed being absolutely full of things.

This summer has been one of the best I can remember so I want to use my zine as a way of remembering some of my experiences. This is quite a personal topic and I am concerned that other people won’t connect with my book if I make it too much about me so I think I will narrow it down to my travels in Hungary, Austria and Czech Republic as these fit into a theme of european countries. Similar to the sketchbook about the shed, I am going to focus on objects (and architectural features) and fill the pages with things that trigger memories for me and things that I found interesting or beautiful. I have plenty of my own photographs to work from which is good because I will feel at the end that this zine is 100% mine. 

I may use some drawings that I already have in my sketchbook but I will need to do a lot more drawing from photographs for this. At the moment, I am imagining this zine emulating a well organised sketchbook/journal with so many details packed into it that you notice something new every time you look through it. 

I think I desperately need some feedback on this brief and soon because I need to get an idea straight in my head before continuing. The group crit for the summer brief at the very beginning of the semester wasn't really beneficial to me because my comments sheet got lost underneath someones sketchbook so I barely got any written feedback. This was disappointing because I normally take a lot away from these sessions and the suggestions make me think about potential directions. 

Who am I? Why am I here?

5 things I have learned so far on the programme

• I have learned more about my own personal interests and preferences in regards to process and media (I don't like adobe illustrator).
• Everyone responds to a brief differently and has their own ways of working - there is no right or wrong and I understand that everyone does things their own way so there is no point comparing my own work to someone else's because they've probably taken a different route. 
• That I find it easier to work from reference material rather than drawing straight from my mind. 
• To be less precious about my work, to work looser in a sketchbook and be less afraid of getting things wrong. 
• That research and understanding of a topic is key to well informed concept and illustration. 

5 things that I want to know more about

• How to make contacts and approach people about work, business conduct and laws.
• What its like when I graduate - particularly about working for agencies or collectives.
• How I can make my work have a place and purpose in the world.
• The best method of selling my work to make money. 
• Traditional printing methods, I think this could push my work in new and exciting directions. 

5 skills that I think are my strengths

• I think using ink is one of my strengths, it is probably the medium I am most confident with (in the form of a pen or ink and brush).
• Time management, I keep myself organised and this worked to my advantage in first year. 
• Self motivation (although this may just be a sign of it being the start of the academic year and i'm still in keen mode).
• Research, both visual and written. 
• I set myself high standards and the amount of work I demand of myself challenges me in each module. 

5 things that I want to improve

• Although my skills in Photoshop have developed since the beginning of last year, I still have a lot to learn. 
• My confidence in approaching practitioners and companies to ask questions or advice.
• Minimising procrastination and time wasting.
• My up-to-date knowledge of world news and issues. 
• My personal sketchbook, I seem to forget about personal work once I have set briefs to get on with and I think investing a bit more time in my personal sketchbook and drawing for enjoyment will help me develop more as an individual and also keep me sane!

5 practitioners that demonstrate my interest in illustration

• Julia Rothman - I like where her work exists and the crossover between drawing,  illustration and pattern. 
• Olimpia Zagnoli - her work reminds me to break things down and simplify them which is useful when I'm developing ideas because I tend to over complicate things
• George Butler - he is a reportage illustrator, and I too like to record locations and experiences with drawing. Butler's practice also reflects my desire to go and see new places and find out what is going on in the world. 
• Paul Blow - My work shares very few similarities with his but his concepts are something I really admire; concept is definitely something I want to work really hard on in second year. 
• Emma Bridgewater - I like how recognisable her work is, how she works to please and satisfy her audience and how the range of what she does not has spread so far beyond just ceramics. 

5 websites/online resources that demonstrate my areas of interest within the creative industries

• creativesafari.com - I like browsing this website for inspiration and enjoyment, the work spreads beyond drawing and illustration to print, photography, 3D, etc. The shop site for this is ohdeer.com which is a site where I can imagine my work existing in the future. 
• handsomefrank.com - An illustration agency website including the likes of Jean Jullien and Emily Robertson. 
• varoom-mag.com - the articles on this website are not only good for improving my general knowledge of art and design but can also provide inspiration through reading 
• pinterest.com - this is pretty general but I do use it a lot for inspiration, images to draw from and for research purposes
• ted.com - this is all part of me educating myself about the world, it makes me think about but current topics and how my practice can stay relevant and maybe work towards making a difference. 

Made You Look Documentary Film

We went to Hyde Park Picture House to watch 'Made You Look' which was a film about creativity in the digital age, and then listened to a Q&A session afterwards. 

The film spoke about links between digital and analogue image making techniques and how they can battle against etcher or work together in synthesis. It included loads of interviews with interesting opinions from practitioners working in the industry now. It was great to hear them talk openly about their practice, some had very strong views against digital media and others were more accepting of it. 

What I gathered from this film is that it is totally up to you what media you choose to work with as long as it works for you and you are getting enjoyment from it and managing to support yourself with it. The film related strongly to my context of practice essay from first year and I actually referenced some quite from the trailer because the film wasn't out yet. 

The Q&A session afterwards got me thinking about life after university and being in the big wide world by myself trying to get a job and make some money from what I have learnt and what I do. Similar to my conclusion in last years essay, I think that it is down to personal preference what media you use for your work, but with the ever-rising use of the internet as a means of communication, it will be impossible to avoid digital forever if you want to be succesful in the years ahead of us.