Commission Work - HOLLOWBEAK Album Artwork/ Evaluation.

Shortly before we broke up for Easter, through David, a fellow student was referred to me with an opportunity to design and produce an album cover for his band "Hollowbeak." I was rather nervous at first when being asked to do this, again my fear of letting someone down or not producing what they wanted was all to great. But once I spoke to him a good few times it was clear he was rather easy going and had lots of straight forward ideas, and the more of those he had, the better for me. 

Evaluation.

I think when doing this piece I was very nervous to produce something the best I could considering it was a more “graphic” project than what I would normally focus on. Despite this, I went on and created, step by step, different elements of the album cover until the final project was complete. I began with using a pencil and ink as initial sketches and then uploaded them to my computer in order to digitally line it and colour it up. Another aspect I was rather nervous about was the colours that the client had described, as we all know I’m stuck in my simple and pastel colours. However, using visual research from comics and cartoons which use the same style and colours as what I was going for, I felt much more confident in what I was doing. I also ended up creating a gradient like effect on the wings of the bird through blending and painting in a purple/grey and bright green together, much like you see on pigeons and parakeets. And although I was just creating the separate images to go on the album cover, I mocked up this idea to symbolise what I myself was going for in the final outcome.

I think there are a few obvious strengths and weaknesses in my work for this project: one of my weaknesses for this piece is that I don’t pretend to know a lot about graphic design, with all of its confusing measurements and such, which is rather apparent in this piece. However, I do feel as though I did make a good attempt as setting out the elements I had, given the tool I had. One of my strengths for this piece was definitely the creation of the image itself, the bird-like monster which I was given the task of creating looked really effective against the dark and creepy background, giving and eerie and grungy looking effect on the whole image, I used a water colour effect on this bird to give it a vibrant, but washed out (?) effect at the same time.

Something I can take away from this project is definitely working in a darker canvas, and being able to make colours stand out against those backgrounds in a tasteful way without making it look too distracting or off putting. 

Hollowbeak and it's Artwork can be found on Facebook.

Live Project Week 1 Reflections.

UPDATES:

Monday 24^th of March: Have been in correspondence with client and have brought up a number of ideas, which they approved of. Had the idea to bring up a Surfing theme behind the “7^th Wave” name – will look into water patterns and surfboard designs to put into practice.

Tuesday 25th of March: Drew up 4 ideas, rather than the initial 3, in order to show specific details and changes through the ideas. I chose to go rather literal with what they asked for, rather than giving my own interpretation of it, as they were quite clear in what they asked for. 

Client was pleased with these outcomes, although I did urge them to point out ANYTHING they felt was out of place, and no offence would be taken it they didn't like or approve of anything. 

The same day they emailed me back which one they wanted and drew on necessary changes that they would like to be applied, which were few, but would make a large change to the layout of the logo. They also stated they would like the colours to be ever-so-slightly more vibrant against the grainy background.

Wednesday 26th of March: Once I had received the feedback from the client, I then went on to make the changes they had asked for, which included enhanced colour and changing position of a few of the individual pieces, and this was the final outcome. 

Thursday 27th of March: Went to meet up with the client in person with regards to another logo that they wanted me to design. From that meeting I took away the relevant information to design a logo based on a comic-book style, onomatopoeic piece. And straight away I looked into a mixture of  

Batman slapstick noises and the works of  Roy Lichtenstein. I came up with these ideas initially, but decided to go all out and look over  a range of fonts, baring in mind I had to stick with these colours. I also found that the image on the left was rather difficult to read, as the colours 

blended in together and the outline wasn't thick  enough to distinguish the letters from the background. 

I then decided to try out a different font, which could distinguish between the font and the background colour. I personally think that this font is so much better than the previously used one, however, a meet up with the client is still needed in order to see their opinion on it. 

Friday 28th of March: Met up with the client to discuss the ideas that I already had. And upon reflection, the client asked me to try out a few ideas from a totally opposite approach, something along the lines of a more clinical theme. 

Live Project: Week 1 Plan - 24/03/14

Self-Initiated Study Plan Week 1 "7th Wave & Bang On Catering" Logos.

For my self-initiated study, I have chosen to create a number of varied illustration and design pieces to add to my portfolio. These images will show the development in not only my personal skills but show what I have earned when it comes to illustration and digital painting over the past two years. I will do these images on a weekly to half-weekly basis depending on how fast I work, and document my timing and initial outcome by creating thorough timetables and simple evaluations/explanations of my work as I complete them.

Monday, 24^th of March:

This week I will be creating two logos for a local catering and coffee business. My aim is to provide the company with logos based on the information they have given me about the company, and my own research into subjects behind the naming and colours related to this subject. I also plan on having multiple meetings with the clients in order to keep them updated with my progress and ensuring that they are happy with what I'm doing.

Days:	Monday 24th	Tuesday 25th	Wednesday 26th	Thursday 27th	Friday 28th	Saturday 29th	Sunday 30th
Work to Complete	Research into “7th Wave” title and the meaning behind it. As well as corresponding fonts attached to this subject.	Draw up 3 initial ideas for the 7th Wave title, and email client accordingly.	Upon client’s reflection I will complete my finished piece, based on any changes the clients want to make.	Search into possible themes for clients “Bang On Catering” logo – into comic book and Batman theme.	Create three ideas for the Catering title and email client accordingly.	Upon client’s reflections on the ideas, complete final pieces based on any changes made.	Final meet up with client to discuss final image and payment.

Skillset and Job Roles/ Individual Learning Plan.

There are a number of jobs, in the animation industry, that I am interested in once I leave college: 

A Digital Painter:

http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_4106_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Digital Painters need a good eye for both detail and colour. They must be methodical and conscientious about follow up, have good computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. More senior artists need to understand the Animation process and should be able to use the relevant software, but new entrants can expect to be trained on the job. They must be able to take direction and to work as part of a team."

• As it states in the quote above, Digital Painters must have a keen eye for both colour and detail. - I feel as though this is something I am always working towards and improve on every time I create a piece of work, as the situation I am currently in is that every new piece of artwork I create is my favourite, and when I try and replicate that in my next piece, it ends up being improved upon even more. And that is something I think is vital as a Digital Painter. 
• It also states in the quote that Digital Painters need to have decent computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. At first i felt as though this was something I most definitely needed to improve on, as I was always reluctant to try software I hadn't used before. However, now that I have been weaned into a number of different programmes such as After Effects, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Cinema 4D, I feel as though I can quickly move between programmes and get a general feel for them quickly. 
• Finally, the quote also states that Digital Painters must be able to work as a part of a team. When I first started the year I know for a fact I was rather reluctant to engage with people I didn't know, as the childish thoughts of "What if they don't like me?" would spring about. But now I do feel much more confident as an individual and as part of a group and I feel as though I can take charge or show direction when necessary. 

Concept Artist (2D in Games Design.)

http://www.skillset.org/games/careers/profiles/article_4733_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Usually using traditional materials (eg pen and paper) rather than computer software, the Concept Artist sketches ideas for the game worlds, characters, objects, vehicles, furniture, clothing and other content. They also suggest level designs, colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. They are usually very good at perspective drawing and architecture. Although not involved in creating the actual game art, their concept will determine the look of many aspects of the game."

• One of the key aspects of Concept Art is that artists would be using pen and paper rather than a computer. I feel as though this is something I can definitely work towards, mainly because as my digital skills have developed, my traditional drawing skills have also improved, especially when it comes to facial expressions and features of the face and anatomy. However, I do lack some confidence when drawing in a traditional format, mainly because of the lack of accessibility when it comes to mistakes (in other words, I'm lazy about cleaning stuff up.)
• Another point that the quote makes is that Artists would need to be able to draw objects, either everyday or something unique, and that is something I need to work on a lot I think, starting with scenes such as cityscapes and alleyways!
• It is also stated that Concept Artists must also suggest level designs colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. This is something I really want to work on not only with my personal work, but to have under my belt when applying for jobs too. And recently I have been taking a lot of care into my colour schemes, not only constraining them to a certain degree, but using colours that I wouldn't normally that also work together. 

My Individual Learning Plan.

Here, I am addressing some of my weaknesses and  how I plan on over-coming them using simple and effective methods:

• Time Management - As I may have made clear throughout this blog, I get distracted by absolutely ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. I consider this a very serious problem when it comes to my work and it's something I've been trying to knuckle down on since the start of the year, and within the past few months I've found a solution. What I've been doing is cutting myself from any from of television, DVDS, videos, and online distractions (Facebook/Tunmblr/Twitter.) And I have done this by finding a website that completely blocks me from accessing specific websites for a certain period of time, no matter how hard I try or what proxys I use. It's been literally fantastic! I've found that I quickly get over the urge to pop up Facebook and forget the internet even exists for a while, and even when the amount of time I'm blocked runs out, I'm still in the mind frame of doing work and just continue on! I also listen to the radio a lot, so as to keep my mind occupied with someone talking, but not enough for me to reply or try and look something up. 
• Confidence in my own work - It's no secret that I get anxious to the point of no return when I'm urged to talk about/present/contact people about my work, and it got to the point where I was convincing myself I wasn't going to be able to get a job once I leave college. So to conquer this fear I decided to take at least a little step forward and begin to talk online  about my work. The reason for this is that being on the internet is a whole world away from real life, and if I do something to embarrass myself or I don't get a reply or I receive some sort of message I don't want to is all helped by one word - "DELETE." I've started a "F- this" kind of attitude where I might as well try something and if it doesn't work I haven't technically lost anything, I just haven't gained either, and that's good enough for me. 
• Loss of interest in work - There have been a number of times where I have completely lost any motivation towards my work and it's left me feeling awful, run down, and wanting to discontinue my education. Although I know I'll never be able to bring myself to quit, it's left me feeling awful and down. So. in a way to battle this, I will be making myself try something completely new every time I create a piece of work from now on. I have started to do this with new pieces of work and because all of these pieces are things I want to get right, learn from, and display and show people, I have ended up being so much more interested in my projects and love the final outcomes of my work. And when it comes to personal pieces, I'm hoping this process will help me improve my workflow and over all style every time I'm painting and drawing! 

Opportunities I am going to pursue.

• The Northumberland National Park - Even though I was in the middle of a project, I went ahead and designed a small character for the competition which took place back in December. I feel as though that small live project was the starting point in my new work flow, as I'd been looking at a number of Artists in the Juxtapose magazine articles online before hand. I also found that looking through other artists work does not make me jealous at all, it literally spurs me on to create something as good as what I've seen and is a great motivation. 

• The Young Illustrator's Award 2014 - I plan on taking part in this competition as an Illustrator and will document all of my workflow, which hopefully depicts my new style well and gives and insight to my thoughts throughout the project. 

• Illustration Friday - This weekly competition will definitely enhance my timing issues, as the projects are only a week long, and finding inspiration, obtaining materials, drawing and painting in just a week will actually get me setting my priorities right and have me planning around a few different things, which can only help me at this point. 

• Anxiety Awareness Week - Although this isn't really a competition, anxiety is something that controls every single aspect of my life down to the very last minute of every day. And I think it will be rather therapeutic to do something art related for that week. I do have plenty time ahead of me as it isn't until May, but noting it now for the future will help me plan. 

SWOT Analysis for 2014.

Strengths:

Knowledge of Digital and Traditional methods – Can use both traditional and digital means to create pieces of work, with a basic to well-practiced understanding of software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Paint Tool Sai.

Self-Taught – Didn’t conform to traditional, and inconsistent methods of teaching when at school and took to the Internet and nontraditional artists as a basis, giving me a broader and extensive amount of inspiration.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Open to Ideas and Alternatives – usually listen well to alternative ideas both when I’m struggling or not. Usually the best advice is given during group work and tutorials, and comes fro a lot of different practices.

Took Risks during Animation Process – I was advised during our Digital Skills Application project to try out a number of different ways to create animations, using a number of programs such as Cinema4D and AfterEffects – which I hadn’t really used before.

Improved Upon my Digital Painting Skills – During my Essay on how digital painting has affected the Art industry, I learned a vast amount on other processes of Artists workflows that have influenced me, in more depth.

Went out of my Comfort Zone when Making characters – In my most recent animation project, I decided to use animals as my cast, and not humans, to get out of my usual comfort zone and “go to” characters.  This gave me many more challenges when it came to animating these characters.

Improved Time Management – Since using personal timetables, I have become much more aware of work I have left to do and am able to complete work much more on time.

Weaknesses:

Time Management – I tend to give myself less time than I actually need, sometimes resulting in my work being to a lesser standard.

Working using Scale and Measurements – Have a tendency to unintentionally lose or alter the scale of my drawings when creating walk cycles, not a concise tracer.

Confidence in my own work – Lack of confidence or satisfaction with a number of my drawings, leaves me rather fed up of them, and they tend to be something that needs to be carried on through a project. And can sometimes lose interest in the project.

Lack of varying characters – I tend to stick to the same kind of characters, the majority of them being human and don’t feel as though creating more inhuman characters is a strength of mine.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

STRESS – I take too much upon myself and don’t allow breaks between the amount of work I do, which tends to leave me in a work induced coma, unable to figure out which load of work to do first.

Can get too attached to my work – Working on digital illustrations and animations for clients other than friends and familiars, has shown that I must not get too attached to my work, and can’t take criticisms of that work too personally either.

 Opportunities:

http://illustrationfriday.com/category/contestsprojects/ - Competition done every Friday, I fell that this competition would benefit me, as it gives me a major time limit to help improve my time management problems.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/index.php - A more challenging competition where I would have to “conform” to the rules, as it is designing the cover of a book for someone’s book cover.

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function. – Have completed this project and gained the ability to produce an animation which is timed perfectly to music, something I hadn’t been able to do before.

http://www.illustrative.de/award/award/ - The Young Illustrator Award 2014 is something I want to try out, purely because of the amount of subjects (which relate to illustration) such as Visual Art, Pattern Design, Graphic Design, Animation and Comics.

http://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize - The Macmillan Prize 2014, is a competition set up to stimulate new work from young illustrators when it comes to designing book covers. I think that this project would be perfect for me because of the fact that the company are looking for a very specific kind of design, and it would test my illustrative strengths to their full potential.

Threats:

Other Commitments – Making time for both work and commitments outside of work could be challenging due to the extent and amount of work I sometimes get given.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Panic and Anxiety – Worrying and panicking about certain aspects of my work can make me forget about other parts of work. I have also missed important days of college due to panic attacks

Which have cost me dearly.

Creating a Facebook Page.

Last summer I chose to try and get my work out there more and make a Facebook page for my Artwork; 

I was rather hesitant about making something like this, purely because of my lack of confidence and scared of what people I know in real life may think of it. But I thought I might as well try and say I've done it. 

Looking back on how many people have taken an interest in it, how many requests for Artwork, and friends I've made over-seas from this page, I think it has been a real success and probably one of the best decisions I've made this year. I also think that it has given me a lot more confidence with the work I produce, as well as taking any criticisms on my work.  

My Page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/EmmaInglisIllustrations

Dave Correia

Dave Correia is an American Artist, who partly runs the company Zero Friends, along side Alex Pardee. 

I find Correia's work to have a very distinct style, one that can't really be confused with many others and this works greatly in his favour. His style encompasses very delicate paint work, and usually is usually very figure based, them being the centre of the attention and the main focus of the piece. I wouldn't say Correia's work is an example of new techniques with regards to painting, however, it is clear to see that he has been heavily influenced by comic books, video games and horror books, which are very popular in his pieces with regards to content and style. He is also able to play the harsh comic book style down well with his soft pastel colours which contrast with his content so well, making them seem more "delightfully dead" rather then gory and non-aesthetically pleasing.

 

Although Correia's work could well pass as digital work, his workflow actually consists of traditional methods. His immense attention to detail enables him to provide a both life-like and fantasy explosion of textured and deep images depicting all manner of shocking yet beautiful imagery, all brought together by outstanding colour schemes. He doesn't seem to have any boundaries when it comes to what he paints, as he doesn't seem to have a set theme of what to create other than including the heavily detailed skin/fabric, which shows rolls and creases so well. 

I feel as though researching through Correia's work has definitely influenced me to start drawing and painting more traditionally,

mainly because I think I can achieve a bit more control over my traditional work, and sometimes using only digital workflow can hinder my concentration and I would be more likely to get sidetracked with other ideas. Another aspect I really love about Correia's work, and what I would like to apply to my own, would be his use of symmetry and using that aspect to fill in space that would otherwise be left untouched.

 I have a habit of creating rather strong figures in my work, but then lack largely in my attempts at backgrounds and scenery, and this is also something I would like to focus on in the future.

Project 4: Week 6 Reflections.

Week 6 Reflections.

Days:	Monday  3rd	Tuesday  4th	Wednesday  5th	Thursday  6th	Friday  7th	Saturday 8th	Sunday  9th
Work to Complete	Continue with my documentation.	Finish off my 3rd ident, and render out onto my hard drive.	Finish documentation and put together 3 Idents in folder for hand in..	Finish documentation and put together 3 Idents in folder for hand in..	HAND IN.	Documentation	Reflection.

This week I will be concentrating on creating my last ident, completing my documentation and handing in my work. 

Monday 3rd March: - Completed all my documentation up to date 

Tuesday 4th March:  Continued with animating my third ident and completed it to render out. 

Wednesday 5th March: Gathered all of my work together and prepared for print, as well as finishing off documentation. 

Thursday 6th March: Printed out documentation and had everything ready for hand in.

Friday 7th March: HAND IN.

Project 4: Week - My Final Idents/ Evaluations.

Evaluation of Using Cinema 4D.

For this project, we were asked to create 3, 5 second idents, containing mixed media and high definition live footage to put together as a group for the DCM (Digital Cinema Media) 2014 Ident competition, To do this, we would have show our detailed workflow containing our efforts of creating abstract footage, compositing it in Cinema 4D onto live footage that we have shot ourselves, and then display our hand at post production editing in Adobe After Effects.

As a whole I think the word that I can use to describe my time using Cinema 4D is perseverance, as I'm never rellay that confident with using this program and am usually reluctant to go further than I need to with it. But using all the different effectors and tools to morph and create shapes of literally anything I could think of, really made me much more confident with using this piece of equipment.

One of the issues I had with Cinema 4D was being afraid of just messing something good up that I had created, as we are always told to just play around with the program and “do what feels right.” However, this time, especially when creating my creatures for the Euphoric piece, I totally agree that using as many different ways to create something as you can is just a golden rule that one must abide by to get anywhere with this kind of software. 

I also am very reluctant to use anything considered close to “abstract” so this module was definitely a challenge. Despite this, I really enjoyed focusing on creating pieces of footage that didn't have to be based on anything real, because a lot of the time I would never get the subject perfect, just close to what it was meant to be, and in this case there weren't any rules like that.

In the future, I am to handle equipment like this much more confidently, and not being afraid to mess anything up as there is literally an “Undo” button on the top of the screen. I also want to continue using abstract footage and using compositing techniques in order to create more intricate and detailed pieces of work.

Evaluation of using Adobe AfterEffects.

For this project, we were asked to create 3, 5 second idents, containing mixed media and high definition live footage to put together as a group for the DCM (Digital Cinema Media) 2014 Ident competition, To do this, we would have show our detailed workflow containing our efforts of creating abstract footage, compositing it in Cinema 4D onto live footage that we have shot ourselves, and then display our hand at post production editing in Adobe After Effects.

As a whole I think I have adjusted to AfterEffects really well, and have learned that there is so much more to post production that editing footage together. I have gained knowledge of using time correctly on this software, and have also learned the valuable fact that visuals can’t just be changed by editing the brightness and contrast.

One of the only real issues that I had with AfterEffects was the use of masks, and although I did look for a proper solution at the time, the only reasonable thing I could think of to do when masks were resizing themselves, was to render out and re upload footage back into it, which technically did work. I had a lot of fun and gained loads of knowledge about changing the visual effects to suit a certain mood or emotion, as I’ve never really tried that before, and it’s definitely something that I’ll try again.

I would definitely like to keep the skills that I've gained from this module for the future, as I’ve learned that although getting used to the skills may take some time and effort to master, they are really worth it when it comes to the quality of my work and how mundane and boring my work would have looked had I not ventured on a bit more with it. 

Project 4: Week 6 Plan - 03/03/14

Project 4: Compositing.

For this project I have been given the task of developing my animation, compositing and editing skills which will inform my studio practice. This will involve me animating and compositing elements to form a concise series of 3 idents for an intended use of broadcasting. 

Monday, 3rd of February:

This week I will be concentrating on creating my last ident, completing my documentation and handing in my work. 

Days:	Monday  3rd	Tuesday  4th	Wednesday  5th	Thursday  6th	Friday  7th	Saturday 8th	Sunday  9th
Work to Complete	Continue with my documentation.	Finish off my 3rd ident, and render out onto my hard drive.	Finish documentation and put together 3 Idents in folder for hand in..	Finish documentation and put together 3 Idents in folder for hand in..	HAND IN.	Documentation	Reflection.