MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Sketches and Doodles by Edwin Rhemrev

So, in the last post, I was saying that I needed to add character to my drawings. Anyway, I found a GREAT blog about an illustrator who is AMAZING at adding personality and character to his drawings.
Find his blog here:
http://rhemdoodles.blogspot.com/

These are thumbnails he created for re-designing the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz

Victoria Ball

This illustrator's work is just gorgeous! I love the way she puts character into her characters. This is something that I need to start considering, as some of my drawings can look a bit stiff and boring. Victoria Ball is a good example of how to do this, so I find her work very interesting.

Her website is:
http://www.victoria-ball.co.uk/index.html

And the agency which represent her is:
http://www.illustrationweb.com/illustrators/home_large.asp?artist_id=3343

Illustrator funness!

So, lately I have got into using Adobe Illustrator. Now I have never used this before, and just started playing about on it, but since we were given the Monster Munch brief at uni, I have really started to rather enjoy playing around on it, and the quality of the finished product. These are some of the final packet designs that I designed for the Monster Munch brief:

 Anyway, this is something that I am hoping to expand on, using Illustrator in my work. I came across this illustrator called John Paul Early. Most of his work is done on Illustrator, and he really gets across the 'funness' of a character and his their surroundings.

Check his work out at:

http://www.illustrationweb.com/illustrators/home_large.asp?artist_id=39&tc=1292526562673

Tatjana Mai-Wyss

Came across this children's illustrator at a great website, called http://www.childrensillustrators.com/. It lists LOADS of children's illustrators that I have found useful for research and reference.
The illustrator I came across is called Tatjana Mai-Wyss, and her work is lovely. Very feminine, and girly, but it is the sort of work I like to look at.

Check her portfolio and info out at:
http://www.childrensillustrators.com/illustrator-details/tatjana/id=714/

Character Development

So, today was the day that our character development work had to be in. The final piece that I decided to display was the picture below. It is influenced by the works of the children's illustrator Tim Bowers and the previous illustrator Kim Niles, and is based on my dog, Wooley; a cocker spaniel.

I like this drawing, as I like the stylising of it, but after considering what my style of drawing is, I think I am a slightly more realistic drawer, with a touch of stylisation. Slightly like the drawing above maybe, but slightly more realistic. I will try to post a picture of what I'm on about, as soon as I know myself!!

MOnStEr MuNCh - My First Time at Photoshop

So, we were given a brief for uni to basically re-design the Monster Munch brand to create it more appealing to students age 18-24. I have NEVER used Photoshop and Illustrator before, and so I thought that this would be a good place to start with this brief. Well, this is my first attempt at a Photoshop and Illustrator illustration.

I am struggling with this brief, and would really appreciate any advice, tips etc. Thanks.

The Picture Kitchen Studio

Came across this children's illustrator. The colour palette and the way she creates people, really stood out to me.
Check out her website at:
http://www.picturekitchenstudio.com/
And her blog at:
http://www.kimsponaugle.blogspot.com/

All Together Now... "Awww!!"

I couldn't believe it when I was looking for artist work to inspire me for a new uni brief (a character development brief, where I have chosen to draw my dog), and I came across this children's illustrator. Her work is sooo CUTE! It's adorable! I fell in love with it straight away. I will definitely try to use her influence in some of my work for this brief.

Check out the cuteness:

http://kiniart.com/index.htm

Katharine Asher

Katharine Asher has worked with lots of huge companies, such as: Max Factor, Elizabeth Arden, BBC and Mail on Sunday. She seems more of a fashion illustrator at first glance, but Asher has dealt in different aspects as well.  I like the way she approaches her work, for example, just a simple brush stroke can turn into a strand of hair, or an arm or leg.

Check her work out:

http://www.illustrationweb.com/illustrators/home_large.asp?artist_id=3295

Mai S. Kemble

Found this beautiful children's illustrator, called Mai S. Kemble. She specialises in watercolour, which if you've read any other posts, I LOVE the effect of. What I like the most about Kemble's work is the way she make's her characters's look alive, and brings their personality off the page.

Her website is:
http://www.maikemble.com/Site/Welcome.html

Her blog is:
http://www.maiskemble.blogspot.com/

Mural Galore!

While on the Drawn blog, I saw an entry on murals, and this took me back to when I was asked to create a jungle mural at a local primary school for the school's library. Just thought I'd reminisce...
http://thedailywh.at/post/1424517000/magnificent-murals-of-the-day-s-rivas-painted-a
I created the wall with the elephant and lion on.

Drawn

Came across this excellent blog the other day. It's called Drawn, and is designed especially for illustrators and 'anyone who likes to draw.' I've found some really great stuff on it, and has introduced me to artists I hadn't come across before.
http://blog.drawn.ca/

Portraiture

Last week, we were drawing each other's portraits. Now this is something I HATE doing, as I can never get the portrait to look like the actual person. I always think they're going to take offence from it!!

Anyway, I found this blog that provides lessons for drawing the human anatomy. It shows you different parts of the anatomy in different positions etc. If you're like me, and really struggle with this, it might be worth a look.

http://designlesson.blogspot.com/

Tale of Three Brothers

So the other weekend, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1. Was a great film, but one part in particular stuck out to me. The animated sequence of The Tale of the Three Brothers was just amazing; the flow of the sequences and the colour palette was excellent (in my opinion). The sequence was directed by Ben Hibon.

Would recommend seeing it, even if it's just this part.

Watercolour Beautifulness!

Came across this artist who's work is just BEAUTIFUL. I love the effect watercolour creates and his work demonstrates just how gorgeous watercolour can be.

Check him out!
http://www.hellociaran.com/

He also has created various ink animals, which reminded me of when we were playing with ink, dip pens and water brushes.

Find them here:
http://www.hellociaran.com/inkanimals.html

Hand Drawn Type

So a few weeks ago, we were doing a project on typography and The 10 Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda. I have never really studied typography, so this was new to me. We had to choose one of these laws and produce 20 (yes, 20!) design sheets with this law on, changing the type face etc., to get the message across to an audience. I found this difficult, as once I had completed my first initial ideas, I struggled to come up with new ideas, and started to repeat the same one. I am not looking forward to getting feedback on this project  : (

Another mini-project we did to tie in with typography was hand-drawn type. We were given 4 phrases and had to play around with type to create the effect of the phrase with just the type-face (some of the phrases were bath tub wrinkles, and pink Cadillac).

Found these videos of an artist called Luca Barcellona, who links in really well to hand-drawn type, as these videos are of him hand-drawing type. The fluid movements of his work leaves you hypnotized, while the final piece is just as beautiful and hypnotizing.

http://vimeo.com/16695937

http://vimeo.com/16965530

http://vimeo.com/12733075

My First Blog!! & An Intro to Me

Hi! Thanks for looking at my blog. This is my very first entry, so feel very honoured if you're reading this!


Just to tell you a bit about myself. As you've probably guessed, my name's Laura. I am a first year student at the North Wales School of Art and Design, studying for a degree in Illustration for Children's Publishing. It is very different from the sorts of things I am used to, I think this is due to the fact that I came straight from an A-Level course, whereas a lot of other students on my course have completed an art foundation course, but I am coping. Sure, the work load gets very stressful, but I keep reminding myself that it will be worth it in the end  :)
Apart from this, I am enjoying the course, and have loved some of the things we have been doing, but also hated some briefs. 


We have now finished Module 1, and started Module 2 this week. Just a few of the assignments I was given at the beginning of the course:
An architecture assignment (drawing a list of buildings in Wrexham), which I really liked because I realised just how much goes into making a building, not just bricks and cement; People in Wrexham assignment, which was OK, I don't really like drawing people, especially portraits, but this wasn't that bad; Build a 3D city (based on the architecture assignment), this brought out the technical side to art, and made us think a lot about composition and nicely brought together the last 2 assignments; and getting to grips with Photoshop and Illustrator (both of which I have never used, and not very good with at all :( Another thing that will take time and PATIENCE, I suppose). We were also given an animation brief, and this is the assignment that I really disliked!! We had to create an animation based on the building studies we had completed for the architecture assignment. I ended up completing a zoetrope strip. I don't know why, but I really didn't like it. It didn't agree with me.


ANYWAY, we also made our own sketchbook, which I LOVED making!!! From cutting the pages to size, to binding them together with cotton and needle, and through to making the hardback cover. Even though it was a bit head-frazzling at first with all the instructions, once I got the hang of it, I loved it!! I definitely plan to carry on with this, (that is when I have any spare time!).