Commissions:
First,
for my website commission, I really struggled with finding a style I liked to
work in and creating something that the client wanted. It was interesting to do
an illustration and then have time to go back over it and really pick it apart,
as I wasn’t rushed into something else straight away.
I
found that taking a break or gathering inspiration in the middle of a project
really helps, I find myself slowing down because inspiration has gone. After I
added pattern and stopped trying to make it look realistic I really enjoyed
working to that brief. I was really excited to try out a ‘day of the dead’
themed skull, after watching the animation ‘The Book Of Life’.
If
I had more time on the commission, I would try to add more patterns in it or
try a different angle of the skull to make it more interesting.
My
other commission was an assault regiment patch for a jacket. I was really
excited to do something new, as I have never tried to design a team logo.
However this also made it difficult because I had to then wait after every
stage for the whole team to see it and give me feedback, which took a while.
Overall, I found the project rewarding and I didn’t have to change much with
feedback so that’s always good. If I was going to re-design it, I would make it
have a lot more patterns in it, and I would take more time to make it look
detailed and exciting.
‘Go
Wild’ Card Design:
This
was my favourite project to do as I enjoyed it the most. In this project I
discovered that I’ve really missed painting, and that I love arranging a
variety of objects on a page without having to draw them separately. However
scanning it was a problem as it was A3 and I only had an A4 scanner, so I had
to stick the image together.
I
think this project was really successful. And the only thing I would change
would be to do a set of cards and not just one. I think a set of cards like my
‘go wild’ one would look great.
Main
Project; Greek Mythology Zine
At
first, I was really looking forward to create a whole zine dedicated to mythological
creatures. But after realizing how much time I had, I decided to do a whole
storyboard and only 4 finished double page spreads.
I
had quite a lot of trouble with the double spreads because when I blew the
thumbnails up to light box them, they were way too spaced out which I really
didn’t like. So I did a side project (mentioned below), which were the three
fates but as vignettes.
My
solution to the spreads was to make the illustration have big borders; this
also allowed me to have the fates’ thread trailing off into the border, which
created a sense of continuity.
I
tried to make the style look like paper cuts, by creating a lot of shadows on
the piece. This also made it look like a stage set.
Overall,
I’m happy with how they turned out, but I would’ve liked to spend more time on
them to really make them look good, with different textures and to look at
stage sets to see what else I could do to improve them. It would have also been
nice to make the other scenes and finally make a book out of it. I’ll
definitely consider it if I’m doing a project like that in the future.
Side
Project; The Three Fates
Although
this was a quick project on the side, I’m really pleased with how it turned
out, and it seems to be a strong part of my portfolio. I painted the fates with
watercolours because I knew how successful it was in my greetings card project.
This mini project reminded me how much I love doing vignettes. It links in with
the style of my greetings card project, which ties it all together.
If
I had more time on this project I would consider doing more mythological
figures in that same style and have their name underneath, like an educational
book for mythology. I would really enjoy that, a possible project for the
future.
