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For our final project this semester, we had three weeks to complete three projects, spending one week on each.
Portraits.
The first project I decided to do was the portrait brief in which we had to create portraits based upon the photography of the @earthsworld instagram page. The whole point of this project was to trust our gut and get to making finals quickly so I only spent a small amount of time developing ideas before moving onto finals.
Portrait 1.
Portrait 2.
Portrait 3.
Portrait 4.
In Context.
Cereal Box.
To create my cereal boxes, I began by collecting together image research using Pinterest.
I then made a list of potential names for my own cereal, as I wanted to completely make my own rather than basing it off existing products. I then began sketching up quick thumbnails for some of the ideas I had.
I then took the thumbnails I was happiest with and dealt with them on eat a time.
Magic Crispies.
To start my first cereal box, I took the thumbnail into Procreate and worked colours onto the sketch so I could figure out what works best.
I then began creating what I thought was my final at the time.
At this point, I thought that I was finished, but the box design still didn't feel right. Then during feedback, it was pointed out that it looked more like a book cover rather than a cereal box. I then went back and played with the scale of the design elements, and reconsidered my logo slightly so it stood out more.
Then after some further feedback, I added a little bit more cereal into the bowl and adjusted some final details.
Monster Crunch.
As I was happy with my process for my first cereal box, I also went through the same steps for my second and third one.
Smooth Brainz.
ABC Book.
For my final chunk of these quick projects, I decided to take on creating pages for an ABC book, basing my alphabet on breeds of cats. I first decided on the cat breeds that I wanted to use for A, B and C and then began my Pinterest research.
I then collected together some reference images of the cat breeds I wanted to use.
Abyssinian:
Bengal:
Chartreux:
Thumbnails.
As I had really gotten into a rhythm at this point of my process and how I develop my ideas best, I used the same process for all of my pages for this project. I began, with thumbnails, then worked on top of them to decide on a colour scheme, and then finally created the finished art work.
Colour.
Finals.
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For this project, we have been given 4 weeks to create 2 submissions for the Penguin 2021 Student Designer Competition. The contest requires us to create wrap around book covers for their selected book titles, following the guidelines that would be in place as if the design was being used in publication. The three books we could pick from were 'Murder Most Unladylike' by Robin Stevens (Children's Fiction); 'Diary of a Young Naturalist' by Dara McAnulty (Non-Fiction), or 'Girl, Woman, Other.' by Bernardine Evaristo (Adult Fiction).
I decided to create covers for 'Murder Most Unladylike' and 'Girl, Woman, Other.' as upon immediate reaction they appealed to me most. Also, I want to illustrate for children's books so I thought it would be smart to specifically take on the children's fiction choice.
Murder Most Unladylike.Research.
For this brief option, not only was the requirement a wrap around book cover, but also to create a series logo that can be applied onto all of the future books too.
I started by carrying out research of the book, so I understood the plot and the way that it was written. After that, I narrowed down my plot notes so I was left with a very brief summary of what the story was and what the cover needed to capture.
I then started to do some visual research using Pinterest so I understood and had reference for the kind of imagery that I wanted to include on the cover in order to effectively encapsulate the feeling of the story.
Cover Design.
I then began the thumbnailing process for the cover design.
This section took me quite a while as I kept getting frustrated and feeling stuck, so I ended up leaving the thumbnails for a few days and coming back to look at them again. When I looked again, I actually did think that I had come up with some good ideas, so I took my favorite design and began playing with the colours.
At first, I wanted to go for something a bit more girly and playful feeling, however, I didn't feel like it captured the tension and murder mystery side of the story so I began testing more warm colours instead. These colours I felt worked much better for the feeling I was trying to evoke. I also slightly altered my design to feature the two girls on the back on the cover rather than the murderer's silhouette so that the representation of their friendship was also featured.
Cover Artwork Development.
I then moved onto creating my final artwork and adding parts of the text so I had an idea of the font that I wanted to use. To select my chosen font I looked at book covers from the 1930's and image searched using 'whatthefont' when I found a cover font that I liked.
Logo Design.
For the logo design, I wanted to create something that felt like a school reward sticker, but with the feeling of the 1930s. I began by collecting together some 1930's logo imagery on Pinterest so I was more confident with my references.
I then started to sketch up some quick ideas until I landed on something that felt right. Once I had an idea I was quite happy with, I played with the design a little more to see if I could push it any further.
Then I moved onto playing with colours. I wanted to find something that was reflective of the 1930s designs that I had found in my research, but would also work on the cover that I had created.
I felt that the teal colour I had decided on would compliment the colours that I had selected for the cover, and also not distract too much from the overall cover design. I didn't want to go for something very stereotypically feminine as neither protagonists feel like 'girly' girls, so I decided to create smaller pink details featured on the more neutral background.
Logo Final Development.
I began creating the logo using the more blue colour scheme that I had come up with, as initially I felt that it worked the best. However, when looking at the front cover colour scheme, I didn't think that the blue fit very well, and would be too distracting, so I decided to try the more teal colour scheme that I had came up with. Overall, I think that the teal colour was much more effective, and called back to the more washed out colours that were used in the 1930's.
Logo Final.
Book Cover Final Development.
To finish this cover submission, I collected together the cover artwork and logo and placed them both together to create the final piece. As I was doing this, I spent a little longer playing with the text to ensure that it was all legible and all inline with each other. I also realized at this point that I had forgotten to add the path and the road onto the cover, so I also made sure to create that so there was no missing elements.
Initial Cover.
Final Cover.
After further feedback I amended my cover with any improvements I was given in order to create my actual finals spread.
Girl, Woman, Other.Research.
To start my research for 'Girl, Woman, Other' I listened to the audio book on BBC Sounds so I understood the plot and style of writing. I then found this relationship map online so I understood the links between the characters as it was quite complicated and difficult to remember.
I then moved onto creating a Pinterest research board. I started with general artwork, and then went onto looking into African artwork and wax patterns on fabrics.
Cover Thumbnails.
Next, I moved onto creating thumbnails in Procreate, by mocking up the dimensions into smaller proportions, and then drawing on top so I had an accurate idea of the space I was working with fir the cover.
Of all of my thumbnails, I really liked the idea of intertwined bodies to represent the interlinked relationships in all of their forms: familial, friendships, romantic etc. I didn't fully feel confident on any of the ideas I had gotten down yet, so I decided to push around the one that was my favorite at the time.
I was very quickly happy with the main illustration piece of the cover, so I ended up spending most of the time figuring out where I wanted the text to go.
The next step n the process was to figure out my colour palette. 
At first I wanted to go for something more feminine looking, but I quickly decided that it looked too similar to my protest pack project from last year, so I tried the more earthy colour scheme and felt that it had much more impact and was more successful. As I had extra space once I had chosen my colours, I used the extra space to play with some ideas to enhance the background.
Cover Final Development.
As I knew that I would only have 17 layers on the template document provided by Penguin, I decided that I would create my main illustration piece on a separate canvas so I had as many layers as I wanted. This worked out very well for me as I prefer to keep layers mostly separated while I work, so I didn't have to worry about finalizing parts of my illustration before I was ready.
Next, I took the finished bodies illustration and moved it onto the cover template from Penguin. The background was very quick and easy to get down as it was pretty much just blocked in colours with textures created on top of it. so I was able to move onto playing with the text and deciding on a font.
Initial Cover.
Final Cover.
Similarly with my other book cover, I took on my feedback from my first set of finals and worked upon any improvements. For this cover, I mainly had to alter the colours so they were brighter and had more contrast, add to the back cover, and change the shades of some of the character's skin tones for the main illustration.
In both cases for each cover, I was much happier with the work after I had worked on the improvements I was given.
Our first project given to us in third year was to collectively create a book containing exquisite corpses. We each received four character prompts, from which we had to design and illustrate the character in a way in which they could be cut up into sections and mixed with other characters. We also had to decide the ways in which the book was made and put together as a group. I was really looking forward to this project as it was very free, with not much direction aside from the short prompts, so it was possible to take the characters in any direction that you desired.
The four characters I received were: Drew Ackerman Profession: Podcast maker. Notes: is possibly the world's most boring man. The 45-year-old from California is so boring, in fact, people who listen to his podcast are tipped into a state of total unconsciousness, usually within minutes of hearing his nonsensical, monotonous rambling. Susan Random Profession: TV War correspondent Notes: Famous for wearing full body armor. Roberta Hood Profession: Outlaw Notes: Robin Hood's forgotten elder sister. Multi-tasker, could do everything Robin could whilst also cooking, cleaning and sewing. Resented Robin's fame and propensity to 'snag' his tights. Amédée Connepa Profession: Dancer at the Folies Bergère Notes: Invented the Can-can when a wasp lodged in her bloomers. Dimensions of book: - 170 mm by 297 mm - 99 mm by 170 mm (section size) General Research.Exquisite Corpses.
I had a fairly good knowledge on what exquisite corpse art is so I didn't need to collect tonnes of general research. Once I had a good understanding of how the sections worked and came together I felt that I was ready to move on.
Character Design.
I found the Art of Adventure Time book in the library which I found to be massively helpful, specifically looking at the character design pages. It gave me a good point of reference to start from in character design, and felt appropriate as the majority of the characters in the cartoon are weird, and abstract.
I also collected some inspiration together on Pinterest.
Drew Ackerman.
I started with Drew Ackerman as I had the clearest initial idea in mind when I first saw the prompts for each character. For all of my characters I took a similar approach to what I used last year in terms of development as I felt it worked very well for me. Therefore, I started with Pinterest research.
I followed with my initial sketches for my design ideas.
Then I did some colour scheme exploration for him.
It didn't take me long to feel happy with his colour scheme so then I moved onto creating my final. For all of my characters, I decided to go with my usual drawing style and technique that I use on procreate as that way I felt comfortable in my abilities to play with shapes and stylization. It also meant that I knew which brushes worked best for creating specific details and textures.
Final.
Susan Random.Pinterest Research.
When I first read through the prompt for Susan, I honestly had no idea where to start so I gathered a selection of different images on Pinterest.
Character Sketches.
I didn't find the Pinterest research as useful as usual so the sketching stage took me quite a while in comparison to my other characters. In the end, I did manage to pull everything together in a way that I felt worked.
Colour Sheet.
I wanted to go for a formal, militant colour scheme for Susan so this stage was rather straight forward, it was mostly the smaller details that I needed to figure out.
Final.
Amédée Connepa.Pinterest Research.
I knew a little bit about Can-can girls before I properly researched them and the aesthetic surrounding them. However, the image research stage was crucial, especially for understanding and gaining a knowledge of the clothing worn by Can-can girls around the time that the dance was created.
Character Sketches.
As an action was described in the prompt, I really wanted to focus on getting the body language correct so you could get the feeling of movement in the illustration. After I had decided on a pose, I quickly got down the characteristics and details that I wanted to include.
Colour Sheet.
For the colouring, I knew that I wanted to take inspiration from some of the old photographs that had been rendered, as I thought that the colours worked really nicely together, and would evoke a playfulness in the illustration.
Final.
Roberta Hood.Pinterest Research.
Roberta's character was also one that I had a rather clear idea of the direction I wanted to take her when reading the prompt. I immediately thought of Madam Mim from The Sword and the Stone, as for both personality and body type, I felt that she reflected the kind of character I wanted to create.
Character Sketch.
The sketch for Roberta was the most straight forward out of all of my characters as I was pretty much happy with her as soon as I was done sketching. I think as she was my final character, I had a good sense of how to implement the prompt into the character, meaning I was ready for colour almost immediately.
Colour Sheet.
The colour sheet was also rather straight forward and quick as I had Robin Hood to reference from. I wanted to make the clear link between the two characters, so replicating the colours seen commonly on Robin's character was an easy decision.
Final.
Finals in Motion.Front and Back Cover.
Izzy and I collaborated on the front and back cover, both using Procreate and then piecing the two elements together. We were inspired by old book covers.
Finals.
Izzy created the decorative elements of the covers, and I did the typography.
Final Assembled Books.
Mocked Up.
I wanted to do a mock up as well just so the final book looked a little neater and cleaner.
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