ari oneill

HND year 2 creative printmaking

[arioneillart]

House Of Cards Evaluation

For this project, we had to make our own brief to work from and I think it created a good starting point for me as I immediately had ideas in mind especially in relation to what mediums I would use, colour palettes, subject matter etc. As my main aim for my cards was to focus on the show “Alice in Borderland” I feel like I responded very well to the brief as this show is something i’m genuinely interested in and so it came easy when producing work for this.

My first concept was based off scenes from the show itself and so I easily had a lot of ideas come to me especially as I had a lot of source material to look at for reference. I struggled more with my second concept as I was only focusing on one single word from the show and wanted to create an abstract interpretation of that, because of this I found it difficult to experiment a lot more as I felt there was a limit to what I could do. This set me back a bit as I went into this project intending to go forward with this concept as I thought it was my favourite but when it came to developing work for it I realised it wasn’t working how I wanted it to at all. Although I found it hard at first to separate my ideas into two different concepts, I feel it was particularly helpful to develop work for two different ideas as I didn’t realise my ideas would change so much as I continued working through this project and give me a completely different outcome from what I had in mind at the beginning. I really enjoyed working analogue and then developing that work digitally. Since we were working solely from home for this unit, it was really easy and convenient for me to continue producing work quickly this way.

I feel my time management this project has been organised well. There were a few moments I felt really unmotivated but after taking a day or two to myself I found it easy to catch up on anything I had to do and could easily get back into the swing of things. I stated in my brief that although the minimum requirement was to create a card for each suit, the reverse and a box, I aimed to create more than that on an actual physical deck of cards. I didn’t actually manage to do that. However, since I realised I enjoyed working digitally I felt it was only fitting to create my finals digitally and showcase them that way. Overall, i’m really happy with my finals and all the other work I created throughout this project as this isn’t something I would usually do. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone especially when experimenting with other mediums/styles and I think all that experimentation paid off as I love the final cards I made.

[arioneillart]

House of Cards Finals (Remediation)

Above is the full presentation of my finals all together as a whole set.

After deciding that I was going to go forward with my first concept, I realised that the mini card experiments I had done previously for each concept ended up being a big help as all I had to do was revamp only details of each card to complete them. For my spades card, I ended up combining elements from other card designs I had done previously for the same suit for example, outlining the horses head and added a blue glow around the figure. All of these cards where created from analogue experiments which I then edited digitally. I really love this way of working as I think its such an easy way to make all my cards have a cohesive look which is one thing I was really aiming to achieve. I also experimented with ways to show the cards symbols. My favourite was adding this glow around each of the symbols in different colours as I love how it makes the symbols stand out against the illustration but also still keeps in theme with each other.

For the reverse of my cards and the box design I chose my idea with the lasers as it was my favourite of the three other experiments I tried out. I noted that these lasers on their own looked a little plain and so I decided to add this ram skulk over top. I had experimented before with similar skulls on my hearts suit design but because I didn’t choose to go forward with that composition for that suit I decided to use this idea here. I really loved the lino prints I had done for my hearts cards and so i’m glad I could develop this idea through to this as I think it works really well on the box and reverse.

For the box, I used a monoprint I had done to show texture and cut sections out from that to digitally collage together and create the shape of this ram skull. I loved incorporating my monoprints into this as I think it contrasts nicely against the background. I also added a slight blue glow behind the skull to bring the same kind of effect that I used on my cards through to the outside packaging too.

For the reverse of the card, I duplicated the same ram skull print and changed the colours to create a 3D kind of look. I then went over top of that with just a black version of the same skull which I was surprised when it worked as well as it does as I thought the black would just blend into the background but im glad it actually stands out even more.

Overall, i’m really happy with the final product and I really enjoyed experimenting with a lot of different styles and mediums. This darker more thriller type of art isnt something im used to doing and so it was really fascinating to explore a new theme and push myself out of my comfort zone as I think doing this has paid off well.

[arioneillart]

Final Developments (Remediation)

After developing my two concepts I went back and reflected on both of them to come to a conclusion on what one I would be developing further into my final cards. Ive chosen to take forward my first concept as I feel like I still have ideas I can try out whereas, I feel like ive hit a stump with the second concept and I feel like the developments i’ve made so far aren’t as cohesive as a whole set which was the deciding factor when I settled on moving forward with the first concept. Although, I feel it was good to continue working on two concepts as it gave me a way to see what worked, what didnt and what I enjoyed using which I can bring forward and have this mindset when working on my finals.

When taking my first concept into final developments I will continue working analogue to digital as thats the way ive found works best for me throughout this whole project. Since I will be working primarily digitally this will be the same and easiest way to present my final cards, reverse and the box using either procreate or canva.

[arioneillart]

Concept 1 - Development, Box and Reverse

For this reverse and box, I took one of my monoprints and changed the colours to tie in with my theme. I like this set as I like the texture in these monoprints and I love how the red stands out against the black. I would maybe add something else overtop of this as it looks a little plain as is however, I can decide that later if I choose to go forward with this design.

For these ones I took my water sketches as I really love everything I made with this included and so wanted to see how it would look in this composition. I changed the colours on procreate so they both matched each other and I like how this looks however because of how I changed the colours I lost some depth that could be seen before in this water pastel study. The reverse of the card isnt my favourite so if I chose to go with this one id have to brainstorm other ideas for this.

This idea I hadn’t used in any card designs and so I thought if I tried it out it’d be more unique and stand out against the cards and so because of this, this design is my favourite of the three. Lasers are a big part of the show and so I definitely wanted to incorporate this somehow and I really like this outcome. It is a little plain so if I was to develop this further I would maybe include something else along with this as a background.

[arioneillart]

Concept 1 - Hearts Development

For this suit, I feel like my ideas and illustrations were so strong already from previous developments and so I primarily focused more on different compositions/layouts and so I could see what stood out the most to me.

On the first three cards I took the skull I lino printed, made the black ink darker and played around with different compositions and colour combinations. On the second card design I multiplied the skulls and added a red glow around them all which I ended up really liking the look of. As I liked this composition so much I brought it forward for another card layout except this time added into the background the leaf prints I done earlier. On the fourth card, I took the ink drawing of another skull and tried this out with the leaf background. I think this one works really well in this red and blue colour scheme and I think the skull stands out nicely against the background.

On the bottom row of cards I brought forward all my developments with fire included as this was my favourite idea from earlier and I love how all these look. The fifth card is a simple digital drawing of fire which I done primarily to show texture. The sixth and seventh cards, I wanted to play around with figures and silhouettes buy out of these two I think the sixth card is my favourite as the multiple figures is just so much more visually appealing to me. On the eighth card I wanted to compare these natural, organic elements I studied earlier along with the fire. This eighth one isn’t my favourite but it was still interesting to try out as I realised what elements from other cards I definitely wanted to include and what I could miss out on when developing further.

[arioneillart]

Concept 1 - Clubs Development

On the first three cards I took the imagery I done earlier of highway tunnels and added combinations of other drawings over top, I also experimented with different colour schemes on these ones. On the fourth card, I took my previous water pastel study as I really liked how it worked as a background, I then added an ink study of smoke that I edited digitally earlier on top of that and I really like this combination however, I wish I could have made the smoke look brighter but because of how I edited it before this was the best I could get.

I really liked this ink experiment of smoke and so I wanted to see what that would look like as the focal point on its own which is what I done on the fifth card and I ended up really loving how this one looks. For the sixth card, I also took another ink experiment, this one I done using watercolours and took it digitally to multiply it, change the colours of each layer and overlay them so it created an abstract mix of this blooming texture which I really like but I think this would be more interesting as the box so I may experiment more with this in the future.

On the seventh and eighth design, I took the experiments from before of the leopards eyes and tried out these two different compositions to see how they looked in conjunction with the suits symbols. Out of these two I think I prefer the seventh card as the one with multiple sets of eyes just doesn’t work as well in comparison.

[arioneillart]

Concept 1 - Diamonds Development

On the first two cards I simply took both of my previous digital experiments that I done for this suit to see a more minimalist approach and I actually really like the look of both of these cards. For the third and fourth cards I continued using different styles lightbulbs and laid them overtop of my water studies I done earlier. I really like the fourth card as I layered one of my collagraph prints over the chalk pastel drawing I done of water and so when I changed the colours, theres a lot of different texture now showing through from both layers.

For the fifth card I wanted to just use my collagraph prints and see how that would look when combined with the suits symbols however I think this one is a little boring and would probably work better as a reverse of a card instead. On the sixth and seventh cards I tried different layering techniques with my water studies and prints along with my ink lightning experiments. Finally, on the eighth card I took that same lightning study and combined it with the pastel lightbulb drawing. I really like the eighth card however I wish the background wasn’t grey but I couldnt use any other colour as all other experiments I tried just blended in with the drawings in the foreground.

I think if I was to take forward this concept id definitely develop one of the cards on the top row as they seem much stronger than the ideas on the bottom and I think the first four cards are just all very visually appealing.

[arioneillart]

Concept 1 - Spades Development

Going back to concept 1, I wanted to brainstorm ideas for each of these suits design also so I could compare both concepts and take forward the one I think is the most strongest and has the most cohesive design throughout all the cards.

on the first designs I went back to my horse head sketches from earlier and redrew them digitally so they were easier to work with. I then used these different drawings and combined them with backgrounds to create a finished looking illustration for each. Out of the first four designs with these horses included I think my favourite is the fourth one as I also added in a character from the show that I done studies of earlier and I really like how this looks.

Since I decided I liked the look of this character I brough the same drawing forward into the fifth and sixth cards designs, experimenting with different backgrounds again. I then took sketches of weapons for the final two designs and while I really liked this idea and how they look I feel the weapons on their own are just a little plain and don’t work out as well as I had hoped. It was helpful and interesting to look at other compositions that i could consider however, in this case I ended up really liking the illustrations with the character on them so I think when going developing this suit more id definitely be including him.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Development, Box and Reverse

Here I took previous developments and digitally edited them onto the template of a unfolded card box and reverse of a card to see what it would look like.

In the image above I took the half tone fingerprints study from earlier and I really like the abstract look of this when being used as a box cover and reverse. I think I prefer this design being used as a box more than the reverse of a card so if I was to choose this idea to go forward I would maybe alter the reverse of the card and add something else into it.

I think these abstract paintings I did work really well as the reverse of the card especially. I dont think the box with this design works as well but if I was to take this idea forward I would create a whole new abstract painting to use solely for the box and reverse which could make it look better

For this design I took the digital symmetrical illustration I created inspired by an ink blot test and zoomed into sections I thought were more visually interesting. I really like this design as its so bright and stands out a lot. I think the reverse of the card is the best out of the three and works really well.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Hearts Development

On the first three cards I took my previous experiments and added the symbols over top. My favourite of these is the third one as I just love how the red pops out from the greyscale background and how the glow from the symbols ties in with the illustration. for the fourth one I then wanted to try creating a more angular and geometric symmetrical illustration, without including the heart also and I think its interesting to see how this looks however, it is a little more plain compared to the others.

On the other cards I experimented more with the fingerprints idea I had as I wasn’t entirely sure how this would look when the symbols were included. Out of these for I really like the sixth and eighth card as I think the black background is just really striking and more visually interesting to look at. I really like the halftone effect I used in some of the fingerprints studies however I think it loses the actual texture and look of the fingerprints which is what I wanted to include. If I choose to go forward with this concept I think I have settled on using this fingerprint idea for the reverse of a card or the box as I am so unsure of it on its own being a suit design.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Clubs development

On the first four cards I took all my experiments from earlier and again, played around with how I could get the diamond symbols to tie in with the design. Out of these four I really like the second one as I havent really used pink much in experiments for this concept and I think its something different that stands out against the rest.

I then had this idea in mind of the speech bubble faces coming out from a phone however, by incorporating phones into this idea it ties more into being related directly to the show which isnt what I was going for however I still tried out different styles of this idea to see if I liked how it looked.

The fifth and sixth cards, I compared the difference with more of less of the speech bubbles and decided I really liked the sixth cards composition as it was less busy than the fifth one. I also liked the clubs symbols on the sixth card as I brought back this kind of shadow effect but tied in the colours to match the illustration in the middle which I think works really well together.

On the seventh and eighth cards I used the abstract backgrounds I had created before and repeated the same illustration on both. I experimented more with the colours on these two as I wanted the design to be the focal point and stand out from the background. I decided I actually really like this idea of including the phone as I think it looks like a more finished illustration than just the speech bubbles on their own even if it does stray slightly from my initial concept and idea.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Diamonds Development

On the first five cards I just took all the previous digital experiments I had made and played around with different suits symbols and how I can get them to stand out against the designs. While I didnt initally like the fourth composition on its own, the black and white symbols I added I really like the look of and stands out nicely against the background.

On the sixth, seventh and eighth cards I used similar imagery of the brain on its own without the numbers as I thought that the numbers in the background in the other card experimentations looked a little too busy. I drew all these brains digitally using procreate, trying out different styles. I really like the sixth and seventh cards because I think the colour scheme, when drawing digitally, just stands out really well against the black background but I think my favourite is the eighth card. I think the colour scheme is different compared to the rest and is very cohesive from the symbols to the actual illustration which I really like.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Spades development

For this whole concept, I wasnt fully convinced with all the ideas I had as I thought it wasnt a very strong concept when it came to actually executing work for it and so to try and see different final outcomes I took these 8 card templates and experimented with the imagery I had done previously to see what compositions worked best and what I could take forward if I ended up choosing this concept.

I numbered the cards to make it easier to understand when referring to how I made and came up with that certain card design. For the first two cards I took the same design I had digitally manipulated earlier and as I was happy with how this composition looked as a whole I ended up trying out different ways to include the suits symbols. On the first one I added a graffiti looking splatter behind the spades and on the second card I duplicated the spades, changed the colour to black and moved it behind the white one to make it look like it was a shadow. I really like the second one as I feel like it ties together both the black and white lineart from the hearts in with the spades.

In the third and fourth card I used the same single, basic heart drawing but tried out different styles for both. For the third card, I stuck with the blue colour scheme and tried to create a more abstract style of heart, focusing on block shapes of colour. I also added a blurry glow around the heart to try and draw more attention to the centre which I really like and I brought this blurry effect through to other developments in this whole concept.

For the fifth and sixth cards I took the same drawing from earlier and changed the colours, I also brought back this idea of the nerves I had as I thought the background on the fifth card was a little plain without anything else behind it. However, I think the red nerves are a little distracting to the heart as they are very similar in colour.

In the seventh and eighth cards, I used those abstract backgrounds I had created before and recreated a continuous line drawing of a heart in black and white lineart however I feel like the drawings just kind of blend in to the background because of the colours I used in the painting. I feel like this same thing happens on the eighth card with the nerves as they are the exact same colour as the background.

I wasnt too fond of any of these composition ideas as I feel like the heart imagery may be confusing when its my design for the spades suit. I still feel it was good to experiment with different looks of cards and styles that I can take through to the other suits composition experiments.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Hearts Development

The word for this suit is “Pyschological”. I immediately thought of ink blot tests as I felt that was the most obvious way I could visually show this idea. As I was struggling a little with coming up with imagery to include in this design I thought back to the show and one scene in the plot revolved around finding fingerprints and thought this would be interesting to tie in with this suits design.

The firsy image above shows where I tried to create my own ink blot art. I used different coloured inks and painted onto the page randomly and then folded it over to create this symmetrical piece. I then painted acrylics onto my own hands to use my fingers to paint with to see if I could get a print that actually showed the detail in my fingerprints. I tried this on both black and white backgrounds however I think the white one was more successful as the colours stand out more and if you look closely, can actually see some fingerprints.

for the first two images above, I took the analogue ink painting I made and duplicated it a few times to make it look more interesting and then digitally draw a heart over top of that. I liked the colours in the first image however I felt that it didnt fully tie into the colour palette I want to aim for and so I changed the same ink design to be grayscale and changed the heart overtop to be red and I love this one so much more as I feel the heart just stands out so much more. For the third image, I used the symmetry option on procreate and just drew randomly in different colours to create the look of an ink blot test. I love the look of all these pieces as I think the idea is so strong and successfully conveys the theme well.

Even though I loved the ink blot pieces the most I still wanted to experiment with this fingerprints idea as I could maybe develop these further into the reverse of the card or the box. In the first two images I played around withthe halftone setting on procreate and particularly like the look of the first image as I love how the red and blue contrasts so well with the black background. I then revisited the nerve idea I had to see if it would look good when combined with these fingerprints however I just think these two ideas dont go well together, atleast for a design for this suit.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Clubs Development

The word for this suit is “teamwork”. At first I wasnt sure what I could create to express this theme but I thought that a big part of teamwork and working together is communication and so I decided to do studies of abstract and more stylised types of faces along with speech bubbles to show this.

I started by doing quick studies of faces using ink, not spending any amount of time on any of them I just wanted to hint at the main facial features. I then took a gel pen to roughky sketch out the shapes of speech bubbles which I had planned to use digitally later and so I left these ones plain but I repeated drawing speech bubbles in the third image and this time combined both of these ideas. the third image is my favourite as I think it looks so unique and visually interesting.

Above are the digital experiments I created by combining together the empty speech bubbles along with the abstract faces I drew seperately. I liked the look of the green ink with the portraits however I wanted to see what the image would look like when on a black background and when I changed the colour of the speech bubbles to white the faces also turned to this pink/purple colour scheme and I really love the way this looks. I think the pink of the faces stands out and draws attention especially when it contrasts with the black, dark background.

I then took my other studies that I had yet to edit digitally and also changed them to see what these ones would look like with the b&w contrast. I really like this however with just the two colours I got a little bored looking at it and wanted to add a pop of colour in somewhere and so I ended up overlaying this white lineart on top of the abstract backgrounds from earlier and set it so that the colour would come through on the lineart parts and I absolutely love how this looks.

While I loved how the previous piece looked with the abstract background coming through to the black background, as it was so dark it made it a little difficult to see some of the facial features of some of the faces and so I changed it back to white but kept the background the same and love this piece even more as it looks so graphic and interesting. For the second image, I just layered the original black lineart over the background but I feel like it gives the same effect as the previous digital manipulations with the black and we lose some of the details as the lineart blends in with the background.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Diamonds Development

The word the diamonds suit is based off is “intelligence”. I went the most obvious way to try and convey this theme and so I ended up doing studies of a human brain and numbers.

For the brain studies I started by just basic line drawings and then I stamped thick layers of gesso using a sponge to try and create texture that would feel or look realistic. I then drew over top this textured section and I really like how the brain I drew on this part ended up looking. For the numbers, I used different colours of ink and tried out different compositions of layering the numbers over each other as I was still aiming to create a semi-abstract look which I think I achieved by laying the numbers out this way.

I then took my brain studies and experimented in procreate with colours and layers to see what kind of composition I liked the best. I brought forward the same background page I creates for my spades development to see the brain drawings by themselves and with a less busy background. Through these studies I realised that I really liked the bigger brain I done on the textured section and I also liked the smaller line drawings when done in a repetitive pattern however with this repetition it may look a little too busy or messy.

I then took this same repetitive design and played around with different colour schemes as I wasnt a big fan of the red/orange background. I really like these two images above however theyre not too exciting and a little boring to look at.

I wasnt happy with the background I was using and so I decided to incorporate the number studies I has done prior into these pieces along with one of the abstract backgrounds I has created earlier. In the first image I used only the numbers as the background but ended up changing the colours to tie in with the same colours I had used in these brain drawings. In the second image I kept the same composition but with this one I layered the abstract background so it could be seen in the same shapes as the numbers. For the third one, I kept the background the same as the previous but for this one I wanted to see the line drawings and how they looked when paired with this really strong and bright background. Personally, I think the second image is the best as the numbers are still hinted at even with this abstract piece over top which I really love the look of and I think the brain drawings work really well together.

[arioneillart]

Concept 2 - Spades Development

The word i’m basing this card suits design on is “physical”. I immediately thought of physical strain and health and so one way I thought I could convey that is by doing studies of a human heart and nerves.

I done the heart sketches using coloured pencils, posca pens, highlighters, felt tips and also experimented with a variety of line techniques just to see how many different ways I could make the same organ look. I then used leftover acrylic paint I had out to do a quick drawing of how I think I wanted the nerves to look. On the third image, I was interested in the idea of using my own physical ability to create a painting and maybe use it a a background or in some other way and so I used acrylic paint and a big brush to roughly apply and throw the paint onto the page. I really liked the idea for this third image but these colours didnt work out so well together and so if I take this idea forward id definitely use a different colour scheme next time.

Here I took my analogue studies and layered them over each other in procreate and played around with the layer settings to create these two images. I really like the look of these continuous line hearts I drew over top of the analogue pencil sketch after I changed the colours because I think it makesthe colours of the messy sketch below stand out. I also duplicated the lineart and changed it to be white in the second image however I dont really like the look of this one as I think it draws attention away from what ive already included in the piece.

As I said earlier that I wasnt happy with the colours I decided to digitally manipulate it and try out different colour palettes and I ended up really liking the blue. I love how the layer settings I selected for the heart sketch turns almost neon yellow and green when the colour changed and I think it draws a lot more attention to it when looking like this. In the second image I added lineart of the nerves idea I had previously and turned the transparency down so theyre just barely visible and I really like how this ended up looking.