Page #15

Page 15, the final page with 5mm bleed.






Thomas.

CMYK vs RBG

CMYK:
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
CMYK is a colour model that is often referred to as four colour printing. According to this site, which is referenced at the end of the paragraph, CMYK is mainly used for offset printing, as well as full colour documents.

http://www.color.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/CMYK.png < image reference at this link.

RGB:
RGB stands for Red, Green and blue. In some cases it can be quite difficult to convert CMYK to RGB, and vice versa.

RGB is a technique in which red, green, and blue are combined to produce different tones, such as yellow, cyan, and white.

http://www.cantalupiusa.com/site/images/rgb.jpg < image reference at this link.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CMYK.html








Thomas.

Nobrow Print

The other day I purchased a limited edition print from Nobrow. It is a piece that is by Robert Hunter, who wrote and illustrated the book, 'The New Ghost".

I payed £53 for the piece, and I am very pleased with it. I love the colours, and the tones of different blues.

My copy in particular is print 30, out of 100 limited prints. This print is in its second edition, but is different to the first, the gradient of 'pink' is slightly different on each one, making each individual print unique.

I am waiting for the piece to be delivered, and in the meantime, I will provide a photo of what the print looks like.

http://www.nobrow.net/10487 < image reference at this link.

Thomas.

Yuko Shimizu

Yuko Shimizu is a Japanese designer/illustrator who is known for creating the Hello Kitty franchise. I chose to research her due to this point, as Hello Kitty is a franchise that appears to be oriented toward the children's market, particulate of the female gender.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Yuko_Shimizu_20100702_Japan_Expo_2.jpg < image reference at this link.

She is based in Manhattan, NYC, and is an instructor at the school of visual arts.
Some of her clients include the GAP franchise, Pepsi, DC, and The New York Times.

http://paperbotz.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/hello_kitty001.png < image reference at this link.

This very simplistic character has proven a successful franchise, and is known around the world.


She claims that she got started in illustration by self promoting her work, whilst she was in school. She states that every time that she created new pieces and work, she would upload them to her website.
Her artistic career begun by her receiving magazine work, which went on to larger jobs.

On the site that I am looking at, she lists some great points for new, and upcoming illustrators to take note of. I will directly quote her words below this text, as I feel that the information included is very important to me, and also may be of importance to others who view my blog posts.

1. "Build a really good website; It doesn’t have to be elaborately designed. Just make it user friendly, organized and show who you are as an artist. Once you are out of school, you need a real website and not just a blog.
2. Update your site as often as you can. Website that does not get updated often is worse than not having a website, especially in the early stage in your career.
3. utilize social-networking skill and promote your site and work well. You are young, and you know how to use them better than I do.
4. Get a real e-mail address. Free e-mail address makes you look like an amateur. Get “mail or your name@yourdmain.com”, you can even forward that to your gmail. At least you look like a pro to them.
5. Learn to write good e-mails. E-mails are often recipients’s first impression of you. Don’t be a spammer, don’t be a stalker. Don’t write like if you are text messaging a friend. Ask politely if you are asking stranger questions or favors.
6. Do research on whom you want to work with. Make your own mailing list by visiting newsstands and writing down information one by one. Sending cards is a good old fashioned way that stil works. 50 hand-picked names on the list works a lot better than 5000 random names on a list you buy."

Quote reference can be found at this link. > http://yukoart.com/category/qa/

Yuko features her self on various social media, and this is really important in this era. Social media can be a 'free' way of self promotion, and allows for a larger potential audience.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yuko-Shimizu/113407815290 < link to her Facebook page.




Thomas.

Heart Agency

The heart agency was founded in London, in the year of 1994. The agency takes on many existing and emerging artists and illustrators. Due to the success of the agency operations were expanded to the US in 2002.

http://pickmeuplondon.com/render_img.php?id=1041&key=d9fc375219b58a06af1ce0dddfb18601&square=1 < image reference at this link.

Some of the illustrators represented by Heart, include Ben Kirchner, Nick White, Andrew Martin and Lara Harwood.

http://www.heartagency.com/artist






Thomas.

Page #12

Page #12 with 5mm bleed.

Thomas.

Andrew Coningsby

Andrew Coningsby is the managing director of the Coningsby gallery, situated in London. He is also part of the executive team for the firm, Debut Art, which specialises in artist promotion.

http://dbprng00ikc2j.cloudfront.net/work/image/335867/qg7swq/20110715032911-outside_for_FB.jpg < image reference at this link.

Coningsby founded Debut Art in 1985, and in 1994, he founded the self named Coningsby gallery.
He is also a board member of the AOI, (association of illustrators). There is a blog post discussing the AOI in more detail in the blog.

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=57671299&authType=name&authToken=X-sQ&goback= < image reference at this link.

http://www.arutai.com/icon5/featured.html
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=57671299&authType=name&authToken=X-sQ&goback=





Thomas.

Elcaf

ELCAF is an illustration convention that is operated by the company, Nobrow Press. 

The term stands for 'East London Comics and Arts Festival'. The first convention was held in 2012, and since it has been held every June. This year In June, will be attending, and I will do some reporting research on it for the summer to keep me busy.

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/elcaf-2013-poster-540x836.jpg < image reference at this link.

The convention is all about displaying talent from upcoming artists and illustrators on the London scene, as well as the UK.

The convention offers illustrators chances to mingle, and see other artists work, it is open to illustrators and general public alike. It features comics and prints, most of which are for sale. Past venues have included an area for refreshments.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ELCAF.jpg < image reference at this link.

The above photo is from a previous ELCAF expo.

http://www.nobrow.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ELCAFPOSTER.jpg < image reference at this link.

http://www.aqnb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ELCAF.png < image reference at this link.

Thomas.

Association of Illustrators

http://www.theaoi.com < image reference at this link.

The AOI, known as the association of illustrators, is an organisation, that work to promote modern illustration, and are a non-profit trade group. There are a number of noteworthy illustrators who are within the group, some of these include Ralph Steadman, Sir Quentin Blake and Raymond Briggs.

The association was created in 1973, and the AOI works with a multitude of other organisations, such as universities, freelance artists, and other company and organisations. The AOI's ethos is to improve commercial and ethical conditions within the creative (illustration) industry.

The group aids in emerging illustrators, and supports, as well as educates illustrator's careers.

The association operates via their webpage, and also by various different types of social media. Some of the links to their sites are to be placed below this text.

• https://www.facebook.com/theaoi?ref=profile < Link to their Facebook page.
• http://www.theaoi.com < Their official website.

Andrew Coningsby is notably a board member of the association.








Thomas.

Evaluation of Module

This module has been my favourite to date so far, in my opinion. I have really enjoyed having the freedom to write my own narrative, and place it alongside my own illustrations.

I was a bit confused at the start of the module, with which route to go down, however once deciding what path to take, it allowed for an easy, and enjoyable module.

I feel like I have learnt a lot about the narrative side of illustration. For example, I know that the industry standard of bleed is between 5mm and 10mm (0.5 - 1cm).
I also have learnt the difference between DPI, PPI, as well as the differences between CMYK and RGB colour formats.

The text above, just highlights a few things that I have been taught from this module.

A few things however, that I wish I could work on better in the future.
For example, I wish that although my time management is much better than what it was in module one, there is still room for improvement. This should also be taken into consideration, when module three runs alongside visual culture theory. I will try to stay on top of my assignments in a more efficient way, for September.

Some reminder notes that I used this module.

I feel that through the life drawing sessions, my skills in human form have improved in such areas as the nose, and facial shape, however, there is much room for improvement, and I will be practising over the summer months so I will be set for returning in september.

My photoshop skills have improved dramatically throughout this module. I no longer cringe when I hear the word photoshop, as I did during module one. As a photoshop 'newbie', I felt really intimidated with the amount of buttons and information on the screen, however now I feel comfortable with most of the basic features. For this module I have mainly been using Adobe CS6.






Thomas.

Book Final

This is my final wraparound book cover.

The spine is centred where the back and the cover fold. It is yellow as it is a wraparound style. The book will be quite thin, and is 17x23cm.

Unlike the draft, (which used different illustrations) this new cover includes a new back illustration, as well as the blue circular shapes, which I feel creates a more appealing look, especially for children, which is what my target market is.

I decided against getting my book professionally printed by a publisher, such as epubli (http://www.epubli.co.uk/book/book-printing). Even though through a quote, it would only have cost £10 to print and be delivered, I much prefer the feel of a nice, matte hand assembled book. It feels much closer to an actual Nobrow book in my opinion.

The book cover with an inlay will be included with my module portfolio, and sent for assessment. I am very proud of my book so far, and I will be fully printing it outside the module.





Thomas.

Great Video on Nobrow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejy4bLCH8nA

This video (link provided), is part of a youtube series, that is tours the NBHQ, and interviews the key leaders of Nobrow.

I would have embed it into the blog, but for some reason I appear to be having issues with that process.

I found this video very interesting, and it helped to provide a greater insight into the company that is Nobrow press.

The successive parts can be found on youtube alongside part one.





Thomas.

Evaluation of Book

Throughout this unit, as you know, I have been developing my own book, based on a Nobrow brief set by Sam Arthur, (see below).

Front

Back

Inlay.

My selected target audience was the children's genre, and I researched into this. Once I found my target audience, I began work on developing the characters that would feature in my book. I went through several sketchbooks, that featured many doodles, sketches, and fully fledged drawings, in order to get an idea of what my final illustrated characters would look like.

I created two books on canines, and one on rodents, both were very helpful in allowing me to make my mind up about the characters.

I aimed toward the start of the module, to create a fully completed, printed book, however, I have decided to focus more on completing the brief's criteria, as a final printed copy of the book isn't required.
I will tweak, and print the book over the next coming weeks, outside of the module timeframe, I would still love to see the book, as it would appear finished, and this is my motivation.







Thomas.

Last Group Crit

Today is the last group crit of the academic year. I don't have much to show at this talk, but I do have the opportunity to show off my Colin West poem illustration, a Nobrow print that I have received, and also the self portrait sine illustration for the London exhibition.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update:
I showcased all three of what I wanted to display.



Thomas.

Page #11

Page #11 with 5mm bleed.

http://petsbunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/images-hamster-266.jpg < image reference at his link.

Thomas.

Life Drawing Session #3

Yesterday there was another life drawing session, again of the female form. It was of the same model from the last session, again female.

It is the first time we have had a recurring female figure, and this is interesting because I can experiment more, as I already have existing poses of her from earlier.

Below are some of my favourite illustrations from the session.

This was a very fun session, that I enjoyed. It was probably one of my more favourite life drawing sessions, as the model was very engaging to draw.

The class instructed her to pose in a variety of poses that reflected upon their narrative project.





Thomas.

Professional Delivery

All work that an illustrator produces, needs to be delivered professionally to their client once completed.

This goes for both traditional, and digital based work.

One way in which work can be delivered professionally to a client, is by adding a bleed to a final illustration. Usually in industry, the standard is 5mm, and I will produce a sample of this 'bleed' below, that I added to an existing illustration that I created.

I will be submitting my final illustrations via both digital, and physical formats.




Thomas.

Ping Pong Balls

For the London exhibition, I was given 10 ping pong balls to decorate and personalise, as a quirky way of developing 'business cards', for the show.

I decided to go with a themes of flowers, as this will not only tie in with my narrative illustration work, but also with the themes of my London exhibition.

The flowers will be developed using fine liner and watercolor paint.

On the back of each ball, there will be text displaying my name, as well as the new illustration contact email, which is called ...

Thomas.

Self Portrait for Zine

I have finally completed my self portrait zine for the Coningsby exhibition in July.

I will admit, I have found this task one of the most challenging of the module. I have already created several sketches, that I never felt happy with, so I thought today I would have another shot at creating a piece, as the approaching deadline is may the 19th.

I created this image with a biro ben, and a marker pen. I did not take note of colour as I already new that this illustration would be presented in a black and white format.

I used a photo as reference to this piece, which I took especially for the illustration.

The thing I like most about this illustration, is the hair, the facial layout, the simplicity, the style, and the eyes. What I don't like however, is I think the nose is a little bit off centered.

This illustration will be submitted digitally to be in the class zine.

The illustration after being cropped down into a square format, at a size of 5x5cm.

The zine has been published to the required specifications, of 300DPI,  CMYK colour format, and finalised as a JPEG.


Thomas.

Blexbolex

The French illustrator known as 'Blexbolex', (born 1966), has in the past created work, (featured in such books as 'Popo Colour' and 'Comix') published by the print company, Nobrow. He is multi award winning, and he has a unique style, which I myself personally find interesting to look at.

http://www.bedetheque.com/media/Photos/blexbolex.jpg < image reference at this link.

Although he has French nationality, he has a studio in Berlin, Germany, from which he works from.

http://www.nobrow.net/273 < image reference at this link.

'Blexbolex' has a simplistic style, that he uses in most of his illustrations. The image above perfectly displays this. His techniques involve combining illustration with industrial printing techniques. 

http://grainedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/blexbolex-1.jpg < image reference at this link.

He started publishing some of his work, in 2006. His first published book was based on a book from the detective genre. 

Thomas.

Life Drawing Session #4

The other day, the class had the last drawing session of the academic year. This was a new female model, who was interesting to draw.

However, personally I found her poses quite boring, the previous female model was much more interesting in my opinion, she engaged more with the class, and chose a wider variety of different poses, something this new model did not do as much.

Below I will detail a few examples of the work that I produced during this session.

 < My personal favourite.

At the very start of the first life drawing session, my confidence was almost nil, however, over the course of the year, I feel that I have become much more engaged, and more confident. I have also improved quite a bit in terms of mark-making, and anatomy. I believe that I am well on track to finding my own personal style in illustration, however there is a massive amount of room for improvement, of course as always.

Lately I have noticed that my primary tool in illustration, has been pen. I have been using pen for professional purposes for quite some time now, and I have to say I now feel much more relaxed, and in control with this media, than I do with for example, pencil or paint. I believe pen allows me to be much freer with my lines than any other type of medium, maybe it is because I know that I cannot erase pen.







Thomas.

Page #8

Page 8 with a 5mm bleed.





Thomas.