PART 5: ASSIGNMENT 5 - Seven days

SEVEN DAYS

Ideas, 1st brainstorm: 
Time lapse photography, 7 photographs of a plant or flower unfurling.
7 days of scenery - same landscape, different weather, moods, colours. (pattern for fabric design).
7 days at Green Beans cafe - photograph/draw the same table at a cafe with different people sitting at it - book illustration 
7 days on the road: the same figure travelling down a long dusty road, on foot - editorial illustration.
7 days on the beach, or 7 days of mothering - or 7 days through the eyes of a child... (book illustration)

Moodboard:

Seven days on the beach - editorial

Melons by Lebanese painter Daud Corm [Accessed 19 November, www.commons.wikimedia.org]

Seven days, seven meals? Different melons are a nice idea for an editorial illustration

A baby's face was the start to the mothering idea. I had done a sketch of an infant some time back which helped the idea along. [Accessed 15 November, www.lightscoop.com]

Earlier sketch of an infant, exploring the birth and growth concept.

Source: www.wesharephotos.com [Accessed 12 August 2015]

Source: www.floeckscountry.com [Accessed 12 June 2015]

Exploring the idea of hatchlings and their growth into fully fledged birds - flight.

Thumbnails:

After my tutor's notes - I have taken this assignment much further exploring different creative options as my first attempt was very rushed and unfinished with gaps and seemed incomplete.






I set myself a concise BRIEF for: Seven days

• Work to A4 format. 
• Target audience: Parents of children, and internet users
• Context: Social/print media campaign
• Client: Innocence Awareness Society for Children (Registered charity)
• Message: The illustration must educate and inform in an entertaining way

Spider Diagram: I uploaded my spider diagram, a brainstorm of ideas for different possibilities. This was probably my strongest reference for the assignment as it opened doors of creativity that would've been accessible otherwise. Reverting back to and looking at it here, I have explored different angels.



My themes for other ideas that have come from this: 

• 7 phases of building (architectural)
• repetition of stillness in different colourways
• a comic strip (looking at Calvin and Hobbes)
• a coffeeshop: one table over seven days
• Metamorphosis: a bird hatching and flying

VISUAL METAPHOR: I played with ideas after sketching some of the above themes and made use of thumbnails to annotate different ideas and their application.

• The sketch at the top was an idea for an Inflight magazine for their editorial taken from the spider diagram - a bird hatching and growing over seven days then taking off for flight with the last picture an aeroplane. The bird and plan carry the same collage colours as the airline.
• The middle drawing - a building project for company marketing material or editorial - an architectural drawing in seven days - from my spider diagram. Application: gum paper torn into little pieces (mosaic) (yellow on black) and stuck onto black paper.
• Bottom - a comic book strip inspired by my Metamorphosis brainstorm/spider diagrams....

Artists:
Evan Turk Source: www.evanturk.com
Squares have been used in comic strip format and the yellow is predominant, tells a story.




Above, www.veronicalawlor.com [Accessed 12 June 2016]. Note: use of line in different inks, each element is observed in part and as a whole and the observational marks of the lines are part of the drawing. They provide visual info.... I probablly wouldn't apply this technique here.


My initial response for the assignment were the seven drawings below for a marketing campaign about drug trials: I feel this lacks context, and leaves several of the requirements of the assignment unmet. As a solution I took this much further.

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

DAY FOUR

DAY FIVE

DAY SIX

DAY SEVEN

Working further for contextual ideas for some of my themes: I started playing with the idea of metamorphosis and its effects on society. I scribbled some narrative below for various campaigns for illustrations for digital and print media marketing ideas for visuals.

Below: A childhood internet awareness campaign.

www.harrietrussell.co.uk [Accessed 28 May 2016]

I looked at the collage of the lady with the stamp for a head and got the idea for the bodies for my characters: use collage cutouts maybe of computers and cellphones to convey the I.T Internet message. Or use collage at least within the frames to convey the message.

Source www.breadandjam.it[ Accessed 28 June 2016] - Harriet Russell

A diagrammatic drawing conveying information.

This assignment presents similar problems to those in Part 3 - A diagrammatic illustration Making A Cup Tea

I experienced an issue with how to present the drawing logically and convey a message visually in the layout.

I have looked to the illustrator of the Calvin and Hobbes Series for a layout solution - Bill Watterson

Above: I photocopied the 'boy to ostrich' drawings until they were an eighth of their size and began to play with placement using colour underneath. I had in mind to use a comic strip format much like the one Evan Turk has used in his illustration posted above.

At first I pasted the characters onto a white background but couldn't resolve about how to treat it so that it had structure. See Steve Simpson's treatment of random sketches in his sketchbook. He frames them with a dash of watercolour in a square shape.



See my first attempt to resolve this in the same way below: I copied each portrait into rows to clearly demonstrate the visual changes - a metaphor for how the internet can change a person on the inside - reflected visually on the outside.

I applied paint techniques like Steve Simpsons and realised the capacity for creativity with watercolour. The paint stained the portraits in different ways and I was happy with such a creative outcome. Brushtrokes suggest texture and pattern through colour where there was none before. Don't think I could have achieved this with another medium.

I realised I had left out the 7th day and gave it another go in InDesign.

I added another dimension to the layout underneath in an oval shape with the explanation of the 7th day, an analogy for creation. A metaphor for, 'look what the internet has created in a child who was not protected, he has grown into a very strange being.' Also, 'an ostrich who is in denial and sticks its head in the sand'. The word UNDO is a computer term and I have played on that also.

I experimented with another layout also in Steve Simpson's more graphic design style using blocks of colour.

I wanted the type to fit and balloon into its tight space so chose to hand draw it with each word different for the sake of texture and decoration, like Steve Simpson's 'cat':

The layout has changed and I have used gum paper for the blocks of background colour. I added depth to each portrait with black pen and a hand drawn font with additional Adobe printouts in the expression 'Sshhhh..'




The characters needed more definition and the type of the end needed contrast. I used more of Steve Simpson's reference to choose colours and type that worked.

I added colour to the type on the right hand side and a flower which serves as a link to all three colour blocks and a diversion for the eye as it travels from left to right to follow the logic of the layout and visual message.

In my final version below I have added more type on the left side to show that there are seven days and that the last day is filled with a message. I chose to photocopy the ostrich onto pink paper to contrast with the message.

FINAL




Summative critique

I have achieve two very different layouts for a digital/print marketing campaign for a charity concern to highlight that children need protection from the internet, something that has the power to change an individual and in odd ways. I did this through the use of portraiture where a baby grows into an ostrich and shows its process through the use of pencil sketches.

The initial start to my project was a challenge as I did not explore many alternatives. I believe I need to experiment more with different media. When tackling a brief I tend to take the conservative route.

After looking at some very valuable illustrators' work such as Steve Simpson and Veronica Lawlor, suggested by my tutor, I have found a new way of working with colour. I am very enthused by this as I recall at the start of my course the dilemma and curiousity I had with colouring. 

Using watercolour in short, intense bursts over waterproof pen has been a great revelation!

One problem I often encounter is that of drawing many elements together as a whole. I had to rely heavily on other artists for guidance on a way forward: I have found Steve Simpson's work extremely helpful and his sketchbooks are open, honest and informative.