viscom illustration blog

I am currently study a BA HONS in Visual Communication Illustration. I have created this blog to record my development throughout my time in BCU (Birmingham City University). Creating a creative body of work to explore and expand my ideas towards my...

[culturenlifestyle]

Psychedelic Natural Landscapes Convey Loss Of Nature To Pollution

Melbourne and New York based artist Kate Shaw translates the noxious effect of mankind on their surroundings with a psychedelic landscape permeated in bright colors. 

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[georginamccavanaviscom]

Meaning Through Narrative The Moving Library

At first we were introduced to the idea of the moving library, and that this will be the first moving library in Birmingham. We were tasked to create an artists book, a book of our own individual design based around a narrative that we would collect in the outside world by the theme of “Eavesdropping”. At first I was a little confused at how I would collect my narrative through eaves dropping so I drew up a few mind maps to help get the wheel spinning. I am designing my individual artist book, for the public in the city centre, they are my target audience, I wanted my book to be designed for any age not to be targeting a certain age group. We were given a presentation about sketchbooks and publishing sites to research into, I feel this has been my foundation of the whole development of my work. Recording along the way what I have found upon my blog, I looked into no brow and also found their blog upon tumblr, so I reblogged a few images for influence and inspiration towards my work. Also finding various artists to influence the style of my work in print and style of sketchbook as I wanted may work to stand out from the rest. My best ideas formed from gathering my narrative online and from video bloggers upon youtube. I looked into gaming vloggers as they record their reactions to circumstances happening in a genuine manner, this is where I collected most of my narrative. Although my initial idea came from one of the first narratives I came across whilst I was at work in the toilet stalls. I had overheard drunk ladies gossiping about weight loss, which then got me thinking because I couldn't see the people speaking how can I interpret this? Then I thought of the phrase of “overheard” and thought maybe I could illustrate birds and nature overhearing us, as they are flying over us in the outside world. This was my best idea throughout the project and I kept this theme of making a book of birds and captions as if it is them thinking or speaking these narratives. I also wanted to illustrate people into my work, and have the narrative as a thought process. There were many other ideas such as exploring many other animals such as deer or, rabbits. But in the end I kept with my original plan so that I did not confuse and make my book too complicated. When choosing my subjects of study I looked into tropical birds for example budgies now a common household pet and parrots also a household pet. Reflecting what they think or just repeating on what they have heard us say. I began to create studies of these birds then, realising that I did not need their whole body as an image but just the head as it is them, that is speaking the narrative and concentrating upon the face of the bird created a more in depth response to the project. I then collected all my narratives after creating many studies and undergoing lots of experimentations with texture and colour towards the background for my images. I experimented in gold foil, watercolour, spray paint, masking fluid, rise printing and type press print down in the print room. For the production of my final designs, I had looked into many typography videos of calligraphy and came across gold foil tutorials, this sparked my creativity. So I then went onto amazon bought some gold foil a laminator, some print out transfers and ten tote bags. As I wanted to present my final book in a designed and printed tote bag. Unfortunately the laminating of the foil was unsuccessful I managed to successfully print my images upon the tote bag by ironing the transfers on. I then finalised my images upon photoshop and illustrator and then transferred them over upon Adobe indesign, this took some time. I have found some difficulty upon indesign though, my images have turned out pixelated on the screen even though my files are TIFF. format and are one 300dpi, I am unsure why but this is apart of the learning curve of development and I am learning from all mistakes that I make throughout all my projects to improve my work towards my future career.

[georginamccavanaviscom]

Final pieces handed in

I have now created a tote bag for my book which pairs nicely as I have printed an image from my book upon the bag. All work will be inside this bag for hand in and will go towards the moving library, I aim to create more to toe bags with various designs and if need be nearer the Time I can make more bags for the library.

[georginamccavanaviscom]

Here shown is the layout of my book upon on design the image to the left closest, has now been scrapped and I have created a new image in its place. This file is in a off format and can now be found attached on my memory stick.

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Here are my front and back pages for my book using my scanned in watercolour spray paint and masking fluid experimentation and enhanced it upon photoshop. Then adding type in black as a great contrast between two hues.

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[georginamccavanaviscom]

Here is one of my favourite images within my work...I scanned in my drawing of the parrot with the text of your amazing and wrapped the watercolour wash I created as its outline creating a rainbow effect. This shits the parrot well as it is a tropical bird and the narrative portrays the character of parrots as they repeat phrases.

[georginamccavanaviscom]

I wanted to develop the sunglasses and at first tried to create a pattern almost like a wallpaper design but later realised the dark tone of the image would clash with the narrative and type. So instead I developed it into a single image with a watercolour background and the narrative alongside it. The bottom image of the narrative this place I ratchet has been pushed aside as I thought it looked abit too much and it was just type.

[georginamccavanaviscom]

Here is my first page ...I wanted to use my spray paint and watercolour experiment as a patterned background and used my study of the lady contemplating as the subject. Mixing my work up a little bit so it wasn't just all birds. She is contemplating the thoughts of the narrative.

[georginamccavanaviscom]

Here I developed my initial idea of a bird collage which I created with watercolour and added detail upon photoshop then layering the image to create a pattern. I then adding a type called hello script, I lowered the opacity to 74% so that it was not clashing with the bright hues of the background. These pages being my opening and ending pages.

[georginamccavanaviscom]

Here are my risO print imagery that I crafted scanning in my work in black and white then choosing the colours of pink and blue as the ink setting to create these prints. I felt that the risO gives a great effect and would look amazing on gloss paper as an effect towards my book.

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I am desperate to use my print making skills on my graduation project! Foil printing.

[artistthingstosay]

She Leaves a Little Sparkle Wherever She Goes Wall Art Prints, Girl’s Nursery Print, Gold Wall Art, Wall art, Nursery Art, Prints, Nursery

[georginamccavanaviscom]

gold foil for a polka dot background, being a possible idea. Background and text. 

[surfacehug]

Gold foil print with LOVE letters, suitable for Mothers day gift idea, wall decor, Above the bed wall decor, Modern and Mininal by LoveWonderPrints (5.00 USD) http://ift.tt/1MbCEfj

[georginamccavanaviscom]

Experimentation

I have watched various videos online in tutorials of various different techniques in design which I am going to use in my development towards my final designs of my book. 

Such techniques as in using gold foil to create a gold aesthetic in image and text for my narrative. I have purchased a laminator gold foil today and some tote bags to transfer my designs onto towards presenting my final outcome. These will be used on Sunday to create various designs. 

[goodtypography]

Work by @icecreamsomeday #typography #lettering #type #goodtypography Follow us: @goodtypography

[georginamccavanaviscom]

I have now added some watercolour