Hannah Lou Illustration

An illustration student at HCA documenting my degree work

[hannahlouillustration]

Exhibition Plans

I tried out a few different ideas, and I much prefer the designs with the added items, as I think this is just more exciting to look at, and relates to collections more. I prefer the one on the far right hand side, however that will depend on what we can do with our exhibition space, as this will rely on being able to put a hook and a shelf on my space. If I can’t put a hook and shelf on the space, I will just simplify it to the middle design. Possibly adding some polaroids to tie in some more uni room decor. 

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Experimenting with Animation

In a tutorial, we discussed the idea of experimenting with animation using my comic panels. I made the animation usinf photoshop, and kept it very simple. I included tiny movements in the image, such as the flashing light on a laptop, the steam coming out of a mug, the hanging plant holder swinging etc. 

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More Four Panel Comics

I got to work planning out and making my other four-panel comics. 

They werent supposed to be based on anyone in particular, but with hindsight, I’ve realised they were defintiely influenced by people that I knew. 

This one was unintentioanlly inspired by 2 friends of mine combined. I liked the idea of this perosn being kind of edgy, with punky hair and an interest in vintage things. I imagined this student to study graphic design, and have an interest in photography which they would use in their designs. I had this character introduce a few things to the room, two of which would stay in the room for the next person: The matress and the rug. 

This second character was really fun to design a room for, she was heavily influenced by my friend Chloe. I thought that this student would be a fine art student, and would have lots of fun colourful prints and a pride flag on the wall.  At this point, I was thinking about including some physical objects in the exhibition with the images, so I included a jacket that I own in this image. I think it would look really interesting to have the jacket in the exhibition with the four panel comics. This character also introduced the bedside table that would show up in the rest of the images. She would end up taking the rug with her though. 

This character was unintentionally inspired by my music student friend Milo. I like the idea of this character being a bit of a stoner and would have the room covered in tapestries and hippie posters. 

That lead on to the original image, which I added a few things to from the original version. 

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Yet another change in direction.

Once I had started planning out my graphic novel/ comic, lots of work from other modules with much shorter deadlines piled up, and this module had to take a back seat for a couple weeks. However, this meant that it would be very unlikely that I would be able to complete my graphic novel before the deadline for the project. Especially given the fact that I am incredibly inexperienced with comics. I realised that I had really chosen the wrong project for myself. I work much better with fast-paced projects with a small amount of outcomes, as I get bored working on loads of similar images. By trying to do a comic, I realised that I never want to make comics or graphic novels. I downsized my outcomes to ensure I got them finished by the deadline and so that I had time to experiement with them a little. 

I still really liked my four-panel comic I did for the Sapce workshop, so I decided to take inspiration from that and create 3 or 4 more 4 panel comics repeating the narrative but with different characters. I am aware that it wasn’t as poetic as a graphic novel, but it was the same concept and somethign I could work on quickly and enjoy more. 

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Starting To Plan Out My Comic

I started to plan out the layouts and order of my comic. I thought about the possibility of doing each section in different styles to suit the person that would be in the room at the time, so if a student liked video games, it would be done in a video game graphic style, or if the person was a photography student, their panels would look like photographs taped or hung up etc. 

As a starter point to plan out my comic, I did some research into different comic panel/ graphic novel layouts. I looked at some graphic novels and books I was already somewhat familiar with such as Thornhill by Pam Smy, The Rime of the Modern Mariner by Nick Hayes and the Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. 

None of these were the sort of thing that I was going for style-wise but it really helped to look at the page layouts. The Rime of the modern mariner was particularly helpful to me. 

I then started to look at some graphic novels with a similar theme to mine. I found one called Here by Richard McGuire which was really interesting as it sort of had the same concept as my comic, of the same place throughout time. However, McGuire’s book took this idea right back to the beginning of time, jumping back and forwards through time to tell lots of different narratives. I wanted to achieve something similar with mine, however I didn’t want mine to go as far back in time, and I wanted it to have a different layout, as I didn’t want to just copy the exact way that McGuire showed the different times. 

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A New Project Direction

After today’s Formative assessment tutorial (18/03/21), my project seems to be growing towards a new direction. 

In our conversation, we talked about projection of yourself in a space, and we joked around about university accomodation and how different people add to the space. Using my uni room as an example, there are clues to the previous inhabitants of my room, such as the chips inside the radiator, and the dirty hair bobbles on the bed frame, and weird marks on the walls and carpet, and the broken wardrobe. I am interested in (but also worried to think about) the stories behind my room, and I am thinking of creating some sort of comic or series of images that reflect this intrigue. It will be related to my previous work in this project as it will be about the personalisation of space and different peoples clutter and treasure, and it will also allow me to use my imagination to come up with stories and characters, which is an exciting new challenge for me. 

I will also be able to link it with my PIC research, as I will be looking at how the spaces are lived in, and the everyday use of the space, the REAL space, not the pinterest perfect interiors. 

I will use last weeks four-panel comic as a starting point and try to experiment more in the medium of coloured pencils, as I think they give the image some personality and there is an energy and speed in the image. Also, it allows me to work fairly quickly and produce a lot of images pretty quickly. 

I think this will be a fun challenge for me, as it allows me to work out of my comfort zone and experiment with my practise. 

[hannahlouillustration]

Some Paintings of Maximalism

I started out by doing some paintings of maximalist interiors. I used references from Pinterest. My plan was to just get the hang of painting interiors which I liked and once I had used references, I could start to invent my own interior spaces. 

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Space

This weeks focus was on representations of space. 

We looked at several examples of interesting representations of space including The Mappa Mundi, Renaissance paintings, architectural plans, google maps and more. 

We then had a look at how inverted perspective is shown in examples of art around the world, such as inuit art and in persian miniature paintings. We did a little drawing exercise inspired by this style of art, where we drew a random line on the page then tore off a section of the paper. This forced us to not use correct perspective. We then sat for a moment and observed our space, focussing on all the senses, not just sight and then represented this on the page.

My first attempt was a little dodgy, as I focussed on the sounds and smells around my space, but I wasn’t very happy with it so I gave it another go. 

I quite liked the second one so I played around with it further and included some collage elements.

After this exercise we were tasked with creating a four panel comic about space. I chose to relate mine to my project by showing the narrative of me moving into my uni room and personalising the space so it felt like mine. 

I was quite happy with how it turned out in the end, and I think it shows the narrative fairly successfully. 

[hannahlouillustration]

Writing a Brief for Myself

This week we had to bring our various ideas together to create a brief for our collections project. 

By using the project machine I eventually came up with the idea to create a short book celebrating maximalism in an attempt to convince people that making everything grey and minimalist isnt always the route to happiness. 

I will try to lay out the project so that I do roughly 2 to 3 illustrations per week inspired by different aspects of maximalism. I will find articles about maximalism and do some editorial illustration, as well as doing my own research into different aspects of maximalism and creating a range of illustrations in different media. 

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Material Thinking Workshop

My notes from this morning’s lecture. 

Task: Create an A4 image inspired by collections. Don’t plan too much - just use material thinking.

My A4 image was inspired by the things I collect around my workspace. I just started drawing some objects that are around me then just kept drawing, filling in the gaps where I could. I also adapted the colours of some things so that the image would look nicer overall. I quite like the final outcome. I like the messiness and lack of organisation of everything. I have scaled things up and scaled things down and not really worried about perspective at all, and I think it makes for quite a cool image. I think my favourite details in the image are the polaroids and stamps, and the japanese soda bottle. I’m not really certain why, I just think the shapes and details in those sections look really sweet. 

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Drawing Exercises

In this drawing workshop, we had different drawing prompts to draw an object in our collections. I used my small collection of origami dragons for these prompts, and also pushed myself to use media that I am less comfortable with, as my go-to drawing materials are drawing pencils and brush pens/fineliners.

These were the prompts:

Draw just the negative space around your object.

Draw an object but draw it upside down (and turn your reference upside-down too).

Draw an object as small as you possibly can, aim for microscopic!

Focus in on one area of particular interest and enlarge it on your page.

Notice reflected light, form shadow and cast shadow.

Draw your object minimally, using just shape and colour if possible.

Use directional lines to give your object volume

Think about perspective, how your object recedes.

Try altering or distorting the perspective

Draw your collection any way that you want to. Try and think about your direction aesthetically as an illustrator, but also which qualities from the collection you want to make a part of your visual language.

I set myself a timer for 10 mins on each one, most of which I finished with plenty of time to spare. However with the reflected light drawing, I gave myself a little longer as I really wanted to give it a good go. 

These were my outcomes:

I am most happy with the reflected light drawing, the upside down drawing and the simplified drawing, as these are unusual drawing techniques that I think really worked for me. I also weirdly enjoyed the warped perspective drawings because I enjoyed letting go of what the drawing “should” look like. 

Overall I really enjoyed this workshop. It allowed me to be experimental and try new drawing techniques, and I really enjoyed working with the form of the origami dragons, as they were really fun and kind of difficult to draw. They could be a possible “collection” for me to focus on throughout the rest of this project. 

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Artists who collect pt.2

Jonny Hannah

Illustrator Jonny Hannah paints pre-existing objects so that they look like they are a part of his world. I like this take of not drawing pictures of objects in a collection, but instead creating a collection by painting on objects that were previously unrelated. 

Peter Blake

Peter Blake is well-known for his contribution to the British pop-art movement. His work is characterised by references to pop-culture and images of the time, but he is also clearly a man who collects and is influenced by his collections. 

This got me thinking about how artists are influenced by the objects they collect and the weird and wonderful things that adorn their workspaces, so I took some photos of my own workspace, with the intention of creating some still life paintings of the objects in my workspace that influence me the most in my own work. 

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Artist who Collect Pt. 1

Stuart Haygarth

Although he is a fine artist and not an illustrator, I was inspired by Stuart Haygarths flat-lays. I liked how he colour-grouped the objects and I tried to do a similar thing myself in some of my photography. I also like how he re-purposes and adds value to waste, for example creating chandeliers out of trash found on the beach. As someone who is passionate about the environment and sustainability, this really inspires me.

Jim Golden

Jim Golden is not an illustrator either, but he is a photographer who also inspired some of my flat-lay photography. I like how he lays out similar items in a very organised way, as I think it makes the objects really stand out and look amazing. 

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Design Thinking Workshop

For this workshop, we were introduced to the idea of design thinking. 

My notes from the workshop were as follows:

- Design thinking - designing stuff according to what people need. ie. making choices to create something as practical as possible for the customer. 

- Chindogu- An item that solves a very specific problem in a persons life. 

Examples of Chindogu ^ 

We were tasked with creating a piece of cindogu for a class-mate. I paired with Amara and interviewed her about the small problems in her life. 

- She struggles to get herself off the sofa and to bed in the evenings - Sofa-bed combo?

-Struggles to carry multiple plates/cups/mugs when cooking - crockery rack?

- Struggles to dry her hair without her arms aching - Hairdryer tripod?

To find a solution to Amara’s problem of drying her hair being exhausting, I need to invent a device that will save her arms from aching when she dries her hair. 

These were some of my initial ideas. 

I then played around with some card and came up with this mock-up design. It is made of card and headphone wire. 

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Collections Initial Primary Research

22/01/2021 

I am very excited about our new module. I also feel as though I have a tiny head start as I did a project about collections in college, where we had a very very similar brief. This meant I was able to call back to my previous work for ideas to develop further. For example, I had started a few different ideas in my project in college, including creating some line drawings of various collections my family have, collecting objects by a loose theme, and collecting things by colour. I thought I would start this project by calling back to some of those ideas, so I played around with photographing various small object collections.

I originally layed the items out just on my floor, but I thought they needed a bit of extra oomph, so I rearranged the items so that they were against a black backdrop (just some black drawing paper). I think this made the objects pop a little bit more, and I’m really glad I did this. 

I started off by grouping things on and around my desk by colour. The most common and most striking colours were bright blue and orange, so I experimented with those.

After trying that, I gathered together some of the collections within the house. 

I really liked how some of these turned out. I especially like the Paint tubes and the Beer Mats together, I think this is because they are all the same sort of shape, but just with little differences. I think this makes the image look nice and cohesive.

I experiemented with a bit of digital artwork inspired by my last and favourite photo. I drew a few then ran out of time and had to go do something else, but when I came back to carry on I actually quite liked how the gaps looked, they make the image look as though it could be a book cover, with the gaps being left there for text. 

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Peter Pan Illustrations

For this speedy, one day project, we had to create an illustration inspired by Peter Pan by J M Barrie. It could be any section of the book, and I decided to base mine on Neverland. I always loved the bit in the 2003 film where Peter, Wendy and her brothers flew towards neverland and you get to see the island for the first time, it is always a really exciting moment to me. 

I had a listen to the audiobook and drew up a small sketch of what I picture neverland to look like. 

From that idea, I painted the different sections I wanted seperately using watercolour. My plan was to then assemble them and add some extra bits digitally. I wanted to do this so that it would create a more mystical feel.

I tried out a new technique with my watercolours on this piece, using salt to create unpredicatable patterns in the paint. I think that this was particularly successful in the moon sections, as it gave the illusion of craters.

This was the finished product. I assembled the image then painted the clouds and stars digitally. I wanted to do those sections digitally so I could make them look as though they are glowing slightly. 

Overall, I am pretty happy with the final image for the time frame. Although, if I were to add more I would possibly experiment a little more with the cloud seas, and attempt to get the look of waves in some parts of the cloud. 

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Green Man Project - Part 3 - Creating Merchandise Designs

I knew that to create the merchandise, I needed to put my characters in a surrounding. I knew that I wanted to put them in a forest, as it just felt right instinctively, so I came up with a rough idea after a lot of playing around.

I worked on this grey background as it allowed all the colours to pop and allowed me to see what the design would look like transparent, as it is the same grey in the background on photoshop. 

I had one long design to wrap around cups, mugs and cans; and one more square one to go on t-shirts and bags. 

Overall, I am pretty happy with these designs, however, I wish I could have figured out how to make the characters interact with the landscape more. I tried to make this possible, but every time I changed the silhouettes of the characters to make them interact, they just looked a bit dodgy and not quite the same, so I decided to go with the original, passive silhouettes and vowed to try and learn how to do this at a later date. Overall I think it still looks fine with them in passive positions, it was just a shame I couldnt make it work. 

From there, I played around and attempted to see what my designs would look like on the merchandise. 

If this were official merchandise and I were to include the beer company logo and text, it would go in the negative space in the middle of my design above the butterfly.

If these were offiicial merchandise and I were to include text in my design of these shirts, I would put the main GREEN MAN text up high on the t-shirt, on the chest area, then I would carry my design onto the back and iclude the list of performers and events on the back along with my design like a traditional band tour t-shirt. I think this would be fun because you would have a memory of all the acts on the merchandise, which I think would be a fun thing to look back on if you bought this merchandise. 

It defintely took a lot of playing around to get the designs to look right on the products, but I’m pretty happy with how they look compared to previous merchandise designs for Green Man festival. 

If I had more time and the resources to do it in the time, I would love to try actually making some of these designs and actually printing them onto some t-shirts and tote bags, as I think they would look really cool in real life, however for now I am happy with the concepts on their own.