Gabriela Art and Design

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Final Evaluation.

Since the beginning of the module, I have enjoyed what I was doing all the time. I am really happy with the illustrations I have created - they are based on a theme that I enjoy working with, they are in my style. I have never done before a series of illustrations related with the same motifs, so I am extremely happy I finally got to do it. And I know for sure, if it wasn’t for this module I wouldn’t have done it.

As far as the book is concerned, I am quite happy with the result as well. I have never done a hand-make book before. I found it extremely hard in the beginning contacting publishing agencies that no one agreed on what I wanted and constantly told me it can’t happen. I also did not expect in the middle of the module, or almost at the end, my other collaborative part, the author, to tell me that I need to release the book by myself. Including editing the text, positioning the text, making the layout, printing it, etc.

In terms of managing my time during this module I think I started off well, and tried to keep everything on time as much as possible, and creating as much work as I could, and with the best quality. Unfortunately, a lot of obstacles appeared which slowed me down with at least 2-3 months, which almost made me quit the course this year. Eventually though, I said to myself that what I have done so far is a lot, and that a final push could totally finish it.

Things to improve:

- With the little experience of being a book illustrator and communicating with another person, the author, I feel like there could have been more understanding and more communication. This is one of the most important parts of collaborating, if not the most important. 

- Making more illustrations I had the idea and the will to make more illustrations, but due to some health issues that prevented me from doing them, I had to accept the fact that they are not going to be as much as I wanted them.

- Managing my time in terms of learning new skills and practicing it. Making a hand-made book is totally new for me. Although I enjoyed the process a lot, I felt pressured all the time that I do not have the time. If I have started researching that earlier, making the books would have definitely been a more enjoyable experience.

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Screen printing book cover.

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Screen printing more cards.

The three designs that came out well. I screen printed them 20 times each, with my details on the back.

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Cutting the cards on the guillotine.

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Printing cards.

I decided to print the little cards on some other paper as well. Those are the ones that did not come out well with the screen printing process. When they are regularly printed as images on a bit thicker glossy paper, the quality is not lost and they look like the originals, just as smaller sizes.

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Successful result.

Those three designs came out quite well. Some of the detail was lost, but still the quality was good and it looked more like a print like a stamp on the little card. 

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Printing experiments.

After the three designs that did not come out well with screen printing, I decided to go to a stationary and ask on what type of paper they could print them.

One was not as thick as I wanted it and was almost completely white in colour, which also did not meet my expectations. The other one was a paper I chose, but it was thicker and the printer found it really hard to print on this paper. As a result, it got stuck too many times and the quality of the image was a bit ruined. 

Also, the details on the back of the cards were turned upside down on the paper that I liked. Because the printer did not recognise it, it also printed it not as it was meant to.

After those trial printing sessions, I had to make the decision whether the cards are going to be with good quality but on thin paper, screen printed with good quality but with loss of detail, or printed on thick paper, but with bad quality since the printer did not recognise it.

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Unsuccessful results.

The other three of the designs did not come out well with the screen printing process. This is because the lines were really tiny and the ink dried out too quickly in them, filling them up. So when it came to printing them on paper, the lines just didn’t want to come onto the paper and the ones that did, were too plain.

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Screen printing the little cards.

I chose a certain type of beige cartridge paper. I cut it in small sizes for the little cards and prepared a screen. 

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Trial printing of pages.

I did a trial printing of the little cards on normal paper. The quality was good and the density of the black ink was good as well. I also printed on their back my details and they came out where they were supposed to be.

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Little cards. 

I had  this idea of printing my illustrations on little A6, or even smaller, cards on cartridge paper. I put them on photoshop and resized them, making three of each design on one page. 

The cards will be free for people to take. Also, they will serve as professional cards with my details on the back. I have included my instagram page, my behance page and my e-mail address.

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Final book cover.

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Finalising book cover.

After I did the illustration, I scanned it and put it on illustrator and photoshop to write the text. I chose the same font used in the book for the poems - just a simple one. 

One problem that occurred was that if the text was centred, one of the leaves from the illustration covered it. I tried to cut this one part of the illustration and move it somewhere else, but it was too visible. So, as a result I left the text a bit on the right, but it is just slightly noticeable.

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Final cover illustration scan.

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Developing cover illustration.

I am using again black and grey ink with a nib pen. This is a medium I have been using all the time for my illustrations.

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Developing the cover illustration.

The size of the illustration is around A4-A3. I decided to make it bigger so I have more space to work in. I wanted to make them really detailed, like the other illustrations. Also, when I scale it down to the size of the book it will look even more detailed and intricate.

The idea for this type of book cover mostly originated because I wanted the cover to display what’s inside of the book. So, when someone looks at it and doesn’t have a clue what the book is about, despite this it makes the person interested in the book and wants to pick it up.

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Starting a cover sketch.

My work is based around nature illustration anyway, so the cover is not going to be a lot different than that. My idea was to illustrate different flowers and plants around the shape of the book on the cover, so that it draws people’s attention. Most likely the name of the book will be written in the middle, which the flowers illustrations will surround.