Six Degrees of Separation: Unit X @annetteprojectx - Tumblr Blog

Please Note:

The dates on each post represent the date when I made my notes on the topic - some posts were typed up retrospectively. View in archive mode for actual upload dates.

Final Outcomes

17.5.15

Since it’s looking unlikely that the last part of the final outcome will be completed before this blog is finished, I’m posting my final progress picture. I already have Maharajah’s colour scheme settled on, and I’ll be using the same methods and techniques that I used in the previous stories, so I can’t foresee any issues with completing the final illustration.

Overall, I’m pleased with the outcomes that I’ve produced for Project X. I believe that I took the brief and found a way to approach it that I would enjoy and that would fit into my style of working. By doing this, I feel that I’ve produced a final outcome that is unique, and successfully reveals some of the secret stories in Manchester’s history.

One of the factors that I liked best about the way my project turned out was the linear format that I ended up using. After all of my experiments with visual storytelling, I feel that I found a method that effectively told each story, including all of the main elements that I wanted, while also looking visually appealing on the page. Furthermore, I chose a method that would be less time consuming than creating a traditional illustrated book. This made sure that each of the three stories could be completed before the deadline, and shows that I’m finally getting the hang of successful timekeeping.

Another element of the final production that I thought worked well was the use of separate colour schemes. I was slightly concerned during the production of my outcomes that they would all end up looking too similar, which would make them less interesting to look through. However, the use of separate palettes successfully divided the illustrations, creating three images that were clearly part of a set but each had their own personality.

One element that I would like to improve upon would be the sizing of the three final illustrations. While they’re still at a larger scale than I would usually work with, the A3 size was still a little bit too small for the level of detail that I was trying to include. If I were to work on a similar project in the future I would definitely look at working on a larger scale. I would have to plan this ahead of time, as larger scale illustrations usually take me much longer to complete.

To summarise, I feel that my final outcome for this project was an effective way of responding to the Manchester brief. While there are definitely areas that I would like to evolve and improve upon if I were to attempt a similar project in the future, I’m satisfied with how it is presented at its current stage.

Project X Exhibition

14.5.15

The project X exhibition was a great chance to see my own work alongside the work of all the other illustration and graphics students. It was interesting to see the variety of different styles and approaches that had been used for the same project. I found that, for the most part, I could see a clear divide between the works by the graphics students and the illustration students. It could be interesting to collaborate with graphics students on future projects to see what a combination of the styles would create.

The postcards that caught my eye usually had some sort of repeating pattern, or lots of colour. This would be worth remembering for future exhibition pieces as it could help me to get my own work noticed more effectively. I was also drawn to postcards that featured illustrations that could fit into children’s books, but I think that’s more of a personal choice.

I was happy with the way that my postcard appeared besides the others – the pattern I’d used was bold enough to be seen from a distance, and I think that it drew people in to look at it more closely. There wasn’t too much white space. However, I would like to try a different approach in the future – using a more colourful, single image for a postcard might be more eye catching.

#Exhibition

Peggy’s Story

13.5.15

I’ve finished the second of my three images. This one depicts Peggy the leopard’s story.

The techniques that I used to create Peggy’s illustration did not differ much from those I used for Tilla’s story. I kept the same watercolour and fineliner method, and I transitioned between colours in much the same way.

I tried to make each line of the story work together - when one line curves upwards or downwards, I made the next line curve around it. I didn’t want to make this look too obvious or deliberate, I just wanted to give an overall impression of each line working cohesively to fill the space. I felt that this would look more natural than forcing each line to fit within an exact height boundary, and it also allowed me to work more creatively with the heights of the buildings and trees without losing the linear effect. While I believe that using a more controlled linear format, similar to that of my postcard design, would have made the stories look neater and more modern, that was not the style I wanted to portray in this project. I wanted these illustrations to be reminiscent of storybook illustrations, but just far enough away from chiildren’s illustrations to show that these stories aren’t all suitable for young children. Older children may be able to deal with the concept of animals being shot when they’re no longer useful, but it’s wouldn’t make a happy bedtime story for a toddler. I wanted the style I used to represent that.

The colour scheme that I chose for this story was based on the natural colouring of a leopard – yellow to brown to almost black. The yellows and warm browns suited the African landscape nicely, whereas the dark browns and greys suited the portrayal of her death and the cruelty of her replacement.

My next step will be to work on Maharajah’s story – the final stage of my unit X project.

#Peggy

Tilla’s Story

10.5.15

I’ve finished the first of the three stories. This one depicts the life of Tilla the zebra.

I switched from the landscape orientation that I’d used in my sketchbook to a portrait orientation, because I felt that by including a greater quantity of shorter lines there would be less wasted white space. It also made it easier to split the story into sections – for example, the first line shows her time in Africa, which ends when the line does. I’m hoping that this also makes the sections clearer to others, rather than just me.

I created this story using watercolours and fineliners. I wanted each line to have a definitive background and foreground – the backgrounds were there to ‘thicken out’ the illustrations, to add to the scenery, and to give the stories interesting individual touches. This section was not outlined and was painted more loosely, with almost a wash effect. The foreground told the story and included the main characters. This layer was outlined with a 0.5 fineliner. I learned that outlining parts of an image subtly, in a very fine pen, is an effective way of bringing those parts into focus without making it too obvious that you’re trying to do so. It’s also useful for covering up untidy edges, and neatening the overall appearance of an image.

In addition to this, I was pleased with the way the colour scheme I’d chosen worked with the story. The greens and yellows fit the African section well, and the movement towards greys and blacks helped to show Tilla’s removal from the vibrancy and natural comfort of her home. Even though she created a happy family in Belle Vue, she was still in a completely different environment to the one that she felt familiar with. The difference in colouring helped to make this more obvious.

My next image will show Peggy the leopard’s story. Since the watercolour and fineliner combination has been successful so far, and I want the stories to match, I will use the same technique in Peggy’s story.

#Tilla

Colours

6.5.15

Earlier in the project I decided that I wanted each story to have a different colour scheme. I’ve tested out a range of palettes for each animal, based on the colouring of each animal, their enviroment, and colours I naturally associated with each animal. My aim was to find a colour scheme for each story that could be easily recognised as relating to the species of animal, but also worked with the scenery involved in each stage of the story.

Page 1: Zebra palettes

I’ll be using the third row of colours for Tilla’s story. It’s a combination of the zebra’s greyscale colouring and the colours of their natural environment. I can use the yellows and greens for the African scenes, and the greyscale section to colour the Manchester section.

Page 2: Leopard palettes

I’ll be using the fourth row of colours for Peggy’s story. I like the soft, muted tones, and I think they’d all work well with both the African scenes and the cityscapes.

Page 3: Elephant palettes

I’ll be using the third row of colours for Maharajah’s story. Unlike the other palettes I’ve chosen, this one is bold and colourful and clearly differentiates itself from the others.

#sketchbook

Judy Taylor’s Stone Zoo

3.5.15

This weekend I visited Judy Taylor’s Stone zoo Exhibit at the Didsbury Parsonage. I hoped that the visit would give me some insight into how another artist had gone about portraying animals as a subject matter. Although most of Taylor’s work involved clay sculpting, which is completely different from what I will be doing in project X, I thought that there may be smaller elements of her work that could be influential to me.

One thing that I particularly liked about Taylor’s work was the use of colour. She adapts the natural colouring of her materials, giving her sculptures a rustic, earthy appearance. I feel that this adds to the natural feel of the subject matter, and has created an interesting textured appearance.

I think that the idea of using a limited palette, influenced by each animal’s natural colouring, could translate well into my own work. I’d like each story to have its own colour scheme, and it could be interesting to base each palette on the featured animal.

Postcard

26.4.15

For my A5 postcard I wanted to show the ideas and the layout that I will be using for my project - but I was aware that the small details of the drafts I'd created so far wouldn’t translate well to such a small scale. I also wanted to make sure that my postcard would stand out in the exhibition space, and that it would be easily seen from a distance. I decided to keep the linear layout and the buildings from the ‘Manchester’ sections of my drafts, as well as the zoo animals, but to make the buildings a lot bolder and clearer.

I started off with a watercolour version of the design, but once I scanned it into Photoshop it looked very bland and had messy ‘sketchy’ edges that took away from the bold appearance that I was aiming for. To combat that, I filled in the white areas in Photoshop to create crisp, clear edges, and enlarged the coloured areas slightly to keep the watercolour texture while hiding the pencilled edges. I also added in some white detailing to make the image more visually interesting. I left the animals as they were to maintain the concept of having two separate styles.

This technique is quite different to my usual style of working, and the final image came as a surprise to me. I was pleased with how ‘clean’ the layout was, and I think it contrasted nicely with the textures of the building. However, in the future, I think it would save me time to scan in plain swatches of watercolour and cut out and layer them to create a picture digitally, rather than drawing it out and having to edit and rearrange everything later on.

#postcard

Story Plans

22.4.15

This is the format that I’ve currently settled on for telling the story of each animal.

I haven’t followed a strictly sequential order in terms of the timing in each piece - the animals can sometimes be seen more than once within each line. I’m more concerned with using the placement of the animals to show what’s happening in certain parts of the story rather than just showing them in their final destination. I have to be careful to make sure that this isn’t confusing, and that the storyline is easily understood.

One of the main things that I like about this layout is that it can be ‘read’ from left to right, like a book. Since the whole point of my project is to tell a story, this fits in very well.

I’m aiming to create three quite large images, around A3 size. I’m hoping that this will let me include all the little details that I want to squeeze in, without shrinking them down too far to be easily seen.

My next step is to create a slightly larger draft image, to test how this layout would look on a larger scale.

#sketchbook

Experimenting

19.4.15

I’ve been experimenting with different methods of visual storytelling - trying to find the best method of explaining the histories of some of the Belle Vue zoo animals. I’ve looked at papercutting, watercolour, ink, pencil, and digital methods so far. Since I was unsure of the style I wanted to use when I started out, I thought the best option would be to try out everything that interested me in order to see which one would suit my project best.

I’m leaning towards telling each story as a single elongated image, rather than breaking them up into scenes and displaying them as a book or comic strip. This would let me spend more of the limited time I have left focusing on the details of illustrations rather than how I could put each book together. If I’m going ahead with this format, the bottom two designs may be the most suitable to explore further as a layout. I think I prefer the style of the pencil-drawn houses (bottom left) over the other designs. They have a nice texture to them, and I think that effect would suit this project well.

#sketchbook

6 x 6 Presentation

#6 x 6

6 x 6 Outcome

16.4.15

This is the final digital outcome of my 6x6 project. I printed the pictures onto slightly aged card to add to the dated effect.

In the end, I don’t think the 3D element came out as clearly as I’d wanted. The backgrounds were edited and ended up looking as though they had been drawn in rather than made and photographed. If I continue with this style I need to look into ways of making the backgrounds clearer, as I don’t want to lose the handmade element all together. I also wasn’t fond of the way the sepia tone showed up. I had considered using full colour instead, and I think that would have produced a better result. Still, I’m glad I tested it on a small outcome like this one - I’ll know to look for a different colour scheme for the main project.

One element that I did like was the appearance of the drawn-in characters. I like the contrast between them and the backgrounds, and it’s definitely something I’d like to look into in more depth.

#6 x 6

6x6

4.4.15

For my 6x6 sub-project I’ve been looking for a clearer way of telling the stories of the animals. I’m working towards creating a set of images that combine 3D and digital elements. I want to make the backgrounds of each scene in 3D, and draw the characters in with Photoshop. This fits in with my earlier idea of using different styles for the backgrounds and characters, and would also be different from my previous outcomes.

Overall, I’m working towards creating a series of 6 Polaroid photos, to give the impression of someone capturing Tilla’s journey from Africa to Belle Vue. I’m going to use sepia tone rather than full colour to show the age of the pictures.

#6 x 6

Storylines

30.3.15

This is one of the ideas I’ve been exploring for a story layout. The intention was to show the life story of an animal at the zoo in one continuous line. This is Tilla’s example, which tells the story of her coming from Africa, through Manchester, and into her zoo enclosure. While I really enjoy the visual appearance of this technique, I found it difficult to include smaller story elements in this format. This could maybe be easier if I were to produce a large scale piece, as I only made small test pieces to try it out. However, it might be the case that I’m unable to include everything I want within this kind of layout, and another technique may be more suitable to storytelling.

Between these two pieces, I definitely prefer the coloured cut-out version. I think the different textures and depths are much more interesting than the pen-drawn version.

#sketchbook

Pecha Kucha Presentation

25.3.15

1. Bus Stop Behaviour

2. All Saints Park

3. Didsbury

4. Stenner Woods in Didsbury

5. Belle Vue Gardens

6. Tilla

7. Peggy

8. Maharajah

9. William Grill: ‘Shackleton’

10. Oliver Jeffers: ‘This Moose Belongs to Me’

Oliver Jeffers

23.3.15

I recently discovered the illustrator and writer Oliver Jeffers, and I’ve fallen in love with his style of work. Not only do I enjoy it on a personal level, but I also think that I could use elements of it in this project.

In his book ‘This Moose Belongs to Me’, he created beautiful detailed landscapes with odd, quirky little characters who play in front of it. The different styles work wonderfully together in my opinion, and it really makes the characters stand out. I think this would be an excellent element to include in my project - I could use disparate styles of drawing for the city and the animals to show how out of place they are in Manchester.

Tilla, Peggy, and Maharajah

20.3.15

From my research, I’ve chosen three animals that I think would be interesting to include in my project.

Tilla the zebra: Captured on safari in Africa after her parents were killed, she was known for her friendly personality and her desire to be around people. This was very unusual for a zebra, so people flocked to the zoo to see her. She was reportedly ‘broken to harness’, and after being paired with another zebra she had 4 foals that lived with her at the zoo. I later found out that she had a foal while she was living in the wild in Africa. It was taken away by a resident farmer after she was captured and she never saw him again.

Peggy the leopard: Peggy was captured as a cub and brought to the zoo. She was ‘adopted’ by the Halle orchestra who paid for her upkeep at the zoo, and was very popular because of her cute kittenish appearance. She had a number of famous visitors, including Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother. As she got older, she lost some of her appeal to the public, and she was eventually shot as an adult when it was felt that she was stalking the zoo director and could become dangerous.

Maharajah the Indian Elephant: Maharajah was bought for the zoo at an auction in Edinburgh. After he broke the wagon that was supposed to transport him back to Manchester (apparently this was very unusual since he was used to travel and known for his docile nature) it was decided by his handler that he would walk back to Manchester. This served as a very successful publicity stunt for the zoo. The journey took a total of 10 days. Maharajah and his handler Lorenzo Lawrence spent a happy 10 years together until Lawrence broke his leg in an elephant stampede. Maharajah’s skeleton can now be seen in the Manchester Museum.

#sketchbook

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Six Degrees of Separation: Unit X