Anna Jean Graphics

My name is Anna McDonald and I am a 20 year old BA Graphic Communication Student at Loughborough University. This blog contains my workings and research from both my Foundation and BA. My Foundation was at UAL Camberwell 2012-2013.

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As part of my project whilst on my Erasmus Year in Wiesbaden, Germany, we had to write and illustrate a children’s book. I decided to do a re-telling of “Cinderella” set in the Modern Day, where it is the Prince wishing to go to the ball and not Cinderella. 

I aimed to make it inclusive, attempting to reflect modern day England as well as including nods to existing figures, for example, the man in Camberwell who enjoys taking his pet duck for a walk. 

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A practice piece in image drawing using my computer tablet in photoshop.

It is based off a postcard of Strahov Library in Prague.

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Screen Print from a photograph taken on holiday to Dresden in 2012

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An Etching of a “Computer Bug” created as part of the “First 48″ Project for university around the theme of “Technology”

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Image created using needle and thread on cloth from a canvass bag.

The image was created as part of the First 48 Project at University around the theme of “Technology”

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A series of monoprints based on Peckham Highstreet.

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In this brief, we had to create an animated gif response to Prague that could be theoretically used for tourism purposes, but still had to have a deeper more complex meaning - so for me, the Library was something that really stood out, and the more I thought about it, the more I understood why. Library’s represent access to knowledge, and during various points in Prague’s history, this access has been denied - and even today in many building you’re not allowed to enter the main part or take photos without a license. They don’t sell books or postcards about certain historical places either. 

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A Selection of Photos from my recent tip to Prague with my university. The aim of the trip was to explore the city and discover what interested us beyond the concept of cheep booze and drugs. The brief was to collect research to produce an advert encouraging Young Professionals to visit the city. 

I found the sheer Romantic Nature of the city very inspiring, and fell in love with the concept of being surrounded by so many old and Art Nouveau buildings which gave a real Fairy Tale feel to the city.  

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Some sample pages from the Part B Ebook Project, which looked at creating an EBook of the Arabian Knights tales. I chose to go down a more illustrative angle, taking inspiration from graphic novels and comic books. 

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A piece of work created as part of a project to create 48 uniques images in 12 days, based around the concept of "Conflict", "Communication", "Technology" and "Self", this piece was inspired by the on going conflict in Gaza, which was very prevalent in the news at the time. I hoped to illustrate how the conflict was ripping apart the community and destroying the lives of others. I also wanted to demonstrate how it was affecting both Muslims and Jews, and how the nations would be stronger if they were able to work together, and if people could understand their shared humanity and herritage. 

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A series of illustrations created for Hands Christian Anderson's "The Ugly Duckling". They were created using hand-cut Lino and traditional print techniques, with some editing in photoshop to enhance certain elements. 

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Response to the theme of "Conflict" 

I was inspired by the recent controversy surrounding the WWI memorial at the Tower of London, with journalists arguing that it didn't indicate the true nature of the war and was all too sedate to act as a true representation.

Here, I've tried to emulate a blood splatter or gun shot wound by dropping ink from above to give the splatter effect. My aim was to show the nature between how we remember in a tasteful fashion, and how we should not forget how those people died.  

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I began drawing out what one of the stories might look like if it were a traditional children's' comic but with an adult twist in the way the characters are treated in the end.

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I'm beginning to understand the story here, and work out what images will work where, and where the story is going. I am beginning to try and work out what style of comic I might be interested in creating.