Forge Art Magazine submission sketchbook development

I saw the Forge submission as an opportunity to really enjoy a brief and cater it to some of my own interests- the brief is incredibly open and as it as a feature of me, I suppose what would be wanted is to see what I'm really into.

The theme of "relief"  gave me a few ideas:

• I had been doodling and drawing from dancers for a while, and the idea of being lifted and supported fit into the idea of being relieved.
• In general I wanted the image to have a calm, soothing tone. Driving home at night I saw a warm scene within a cold towerblock (the stairway seen from the outside) and I've been trying to recreate it in an image but keep struggling to get the mood/ how it should look. Though it stayed with me, it was fleeting and I can't really remember what it looked like.
• So I went back to the dancers. It was also a little more 'explainable'
• I also had in mind mountainous and rural scenes- thinking of the calm in wild nature, and personally, how I often feel relief when I am back in rural areas.

 

• The plot at this point is to draw these dancers, and to paste them on to a rural background. The dancers will be quite simple, and the background heavily textured.
• In my mind the dancers will look a little out of place, but in a plotted way. 

Forge Art Magazine invitation

 BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06

OUIL603 Extended Practice

BRIEF TITLE: Forge Art Magazine Submission

Brief

Requested by Forge Art Magazine to create a submission for their next edition, under the theme of “relief”. Forge is a magazine designed “to give exposure to young artists and celebrate the work of artists making a big impact on their respective fields.”

Product	Tone of Voice
One 12x9 inch illustration based on the theme of “relief”. Three images can be submitted and one will be chosen.	“Relief” Initial ideas: ideas of calm, support, and being lifted. Stylistically, I imagine they are looking for something exciting. This is a showcase, looking for innovation, or at least is open to the new.
Audience	Context
Readers of Forge Magazine. People interested in art, design and music. Publishing young people, which may well mean their audience is too.	Printed publication, and online edition.

Additional information/Considerations I noticed that amongst the previous features that people approach the briefs quite loosely, and it’s quite open to artistic license. It could be an opportunity to create quite a self-indulgent image, or at least, be experimental.

Mandatory Requirements	Deliverables
One 12x9 inch illustration	Three 12x9 inch illustrations to be submitted, and then one will (hopefully) be chosen.

Thought bubble zine! final outcome

In a literal sense, the zine was quite successful in that I sold almost all of the copies at Thoughtbubble, and am also continuing to sell them [online].

I'm fairly happy with the outcome, but I feel like I learnt maybe more things to not do next time.

• The transluscent vellum cover is a nice touch that adds interest and A LOT of people commented on, but mixed with the particular brand of toner I use it also rubs off on the hands. It's... an immersive art experience...
• The project was rushed, and I didn't plan a lot so I feel that, tonally, the pieces are disjointed. I tried to separate them to make this more intentional. I think the planning lies as much in the writing as the drawing, and it is certainly a different process to mix words and pictures (and the unspoken narrative).
• Regardless I do like the lo-fi aesthetic produced by the rush, and don't regret making messy or simple drawings for it. It works for the comic format, in that it is efficient to make and read. It's also garnering that use of movement and freedom I've been seeking in my making.
•  I don't see it as my (main) professional practice, but I've been making silly strips similar to these and posting them online to [instagram] and so on, and they have had some pleasant feedback. It's the personal feeding into the professional etc. It's about finding that tone of voice- humour, daftness, sincerity etc

<more images of the comics/ an Issuu of the whole publication, though I don't really want to publish it all online when I also want to sell it>

editorial: It's Not Ok (Boston Globe)

After discussing with Ben that it isn't wholly necessary to rush these editorials for the sake of it, (at this point it's more about understanding the thought processes and making something NICE for the portfolio) I decided to spend a little more time on this piece.

But then I took a little too long on it. Maybe.

The idea: 

• the article itself was  very much about the linguistics of "OK" and not a specific physical phenomena, which gave the piece some room to not be in a particular. There also wasn't a very clear cut conclusion at the end of it.
• series of images of people "not ok", some in more serious situations than others. A small touch of humour or at least lightness in some bizarreness, but still trying to achieve a sombre-ish tone of voice.
• the images would work as a set, so compositionally are similar. The idea is to gif them as a series, or to order them as a comic- which I gather is becoming more popular in contemporary editorial.
• there would also be a space in the comic for text. Ben has been telling me about how it can be important to give art directors and designers space within an image for them to work with to. It's about relinquishing control.

I didn't spend too much time on the ideas stage, but as I began to colour I decided to test myself with more complicated ways of working - thinking about dramatic lighting, shadow, and unlimited colour palettes. This took longer than expected, and at this point I only have three of the five images completed.

Due to other commitments and being away this week I won't be able to complete it this week either, but I have a start to it, and whilst I'm away I can spend time maybe sketching some simpler ideas for other editorials. It has been suggested I try the challenge of spot illustrations. Time wise this could also be beneficial.

These two images came out more similar than I anticipated, and so the third sticks out like a sore thumb. The other two images would introduce more variety but I could work on the colour schemes to make them ALL more similar

 

The two remaining images

In going to complete five full illustrations within one piece I don't think I have given myself enough time to consider deadlines, and individual composition and value. Originally I had intended to keep them simple, which would have been fine if not better, but got carried away, resulting in a series of uneven images.

INDESIGN WORKSHOP

File > New > Document

• (don't need to use Book option)

Slug:

• sits outside of the bleed area, generally about 2cm. Printable area.
• put crop marks, printers marks, fold marks here etc. Good for concertinas/ gate folds

SR sizes: A size but a bit bigger, i.e. printing full bleed A4, could be printed on SRA3 (including trim marks)

Reader's spreads: how the book will look when it is printed. We work as reader's spreads and InDesign will arrange for printing (printer's spreads)

Easy way to create printer's spreads for a simple saddle/pamphlet stitch (1 starts on the right, then zig zag along the grid until you get to half way through) (start again the other way round) e.g.

L/R

8/1

2/7

6/3

4/5

The spreads also all add up to the final total of pages +1

Even = left, Odd = right

FILE -> PRINT BOOKLET for printer's spreads

PRINTING IN SECTIONS:

• the maximum, really, amount of sheets you can put together in a saddle stitch is 8
• layout the work in reader's spreads still
• file > print booklet > keep the same BUT  just divide into ranges to make it nice and small and foldable

PERFECT BOUND:

CREEP/ MARGINS:

• with heavier stock and too many pages the pages can creep at the side, and when trimmed the information can get lost (particularly in the middle)
• make a mock up with the same paper and measure the amount of creep from the folds
• make the creep value -X mm

IMAGE PREP:

• 300DPI
• actual size
• CMYK or greyscale
• save as .tiff or .psd, not .jpegs!
• put all images into one folder

File > place

• creating a frame in advance:

(F) is the keyboard shortcut. You then file > place as before

But this can affect the resolution, if the image is not the same size as the frame. This can be edited

Edit the size by percent, based on the information in the link information (how much it has been scaled up or down)

Actual and effective PPI must be 300 by the end of this!

PACKAGE FILES

For printing all files must be together. InDesign has a handy FILE > PACKAGE option, which also has option to add instructions and contact details!

If including a PDF file "press quality" is the highest. Include an IDML file as this can be opened on all versions of InDesign. 

HANDY!

commissioned painting

I was commissioned online to paint a jaguar! The brief was incredibly simple and open: she wanted a jaguar, after seeing my tiger paintings. With that, I didn't experiment too far visually from what she had been looking at, though she was happy (and wanted) something loose and fun. It came at a particularly nice time when I hadn't really been doing as much visual work as I had wanted, and a nice warm up back into things...

(And some nice money)

The next step: go bigger

Thoughtbubble zine: development of ideas

I knew from the beginning that I was restricted on time (a few weeks alongside other ongoing projects) and with that didn't have a lot of time to spend grandly thinking of a narrative, so I decided to make something of several smaller strips. I knew I wanted to make a comic, as I have little interest for zines that are just collections of standalone images. They need something more, or they need to be GOOD.

I began drawing loosely, essentially doodling what came to mind. I was very stuck for ideas, but as I drew tried to think about how I could arrange a few strips together. By theme? By character?

I thought I could make a whole strip about one character but knew, with the natural tone heading for apathy and dryness, it would come off as a Klaus rip-off.

I decided that it would be daft.

I made the comic of "evolution" and the series of the girl doing sport, and thought I could categorise a few comics as school subjects. The intended audience was never children, but that didn't mean the characters could not be children. I was reminded of the children in the beginning of Virginia Woolf's The Waves, so utterly complex and long winded and un-child like. I liked the idea of their profundity but not me being profound. To poke fun at the thinkers. To be silly. 

The actual process of drawing the comics were immediate, I would note down an idea and draw it with little care for composition etc- it was a matter of time, but in honesty, I also enjoy the immediacy of the wonkily drawn comic. It's like you can see the author's processes too, and feels personal.

<some actual images>

commissioned painting brief

This brief is very open and small but is a brief nonetheless!

 BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06

OUIL603 Extended Practice

BRIEF TITLE Commissioned Jaguar painting

Brief

I have been commissioned to make a painting of a jaguar. The commissioner saw my paintings of tigers, enjoyed them, and wanted something similar for herself to go in her new home. She is very happy for me to be experimental, or at the very least, non-conventional in my big cat drawings, as prior.

Product	Tone of Voice
One 12x9” gouache painting of a jaguar	Fun! Exciting! But homely enough to not be out of place in a residential area.
Audience	Context
Caroline, and anyone who visits her!	Original painting, in the home

Additional information/Considerations The theme/idea itself is very straightforward, but there is plenty of opportunity for it to be a visually exciting image. And whilst it is not particularly complex, I can see it feeding into my practice- as an exploration and practice of technique.

Mandatory Requirements	Deliverables
One 12x9” painting	One 12x9” painting