I would really like your help (please!)...

 So, I've posted before, that I'm currently trying to write the first draft of my dissertation. I'll give a but of background on what I'm doing for this, and then tell you why I need your help. The title of my dissertation is 'Does Simple Work? How simple can you illustrate a character while still keeping their personality and traits in tact?' So basically, I'm looking at exactly what the title says. I am really not the best figurative drawer out there, so I really struggle when drawing people in my work, so after talking with my tutor, she suggested this idea, which I think is a really good topic to look at, as not only is it interesting, it will also (hopefully) help my work, now that I'm going into my FINAL YEAR!!

What I would really like your help with is your opinions on some questions. Soooo, I've put together a questionnaire made up of 10 questions, the majority of which are open questions. So, if you have 10 minutes spare, please help me by answering this questionnaire here. If you have any questions or queries, or would just like to contact me, the email address for this is: laurasquestionnaire@hotmail.com

And, thank you!

Link to questionnaire: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MR25ZFH

**This questionnaire is purely for education purposes, all contact details will be kept private, and answers and names may/will only be used in my written dissertation. Contact details are only asked as a way of contacting if there is a issue with the questionnaire, or to get some more information if participant is willing.

I'M BACK! (AKA SORRY)

HI! Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I thought I would do just a quick post to get back in the swing of things explaining what I've been doing since the last post.
If you read some of my previous posts, you will know that I was currently in the middle of end of year assessments at uni. Well, they have now been and gone (thank God!), and after a few stressful weeks, I can now say I passed sceond year! Meaning I can proceed onto third (and FINAL!) year. Bad thing about passing, I now have to write a 5,000 word dissertation, which our tutors want a first draft of when we start back.

I am also currently in the middle of designing a website for my dad's roofing business. Now, I am no techology expert etc, but I am trying my best, and it seems to be coming along quite well. So, when it is up and running, I will post a link for you to see (hopefully it works in the end). I have also been doing research etc for my dissertation. My topic is 'Does Simple Work? - How simple can you illustrate a character while still keeping their personality in tact?' So I have been having fun trying to write that up, though it is nowhere near finished. And of course, I have just been enjoying my time off! So, sorry again that it's been so long, and hopefully I won't let it get that long again!

What makes a Princess, Grandma? (Finished roughs)

So, after several attempts, I can now finally show you my finished roughs for my story for the Macmillan Prize brief. It seems to have taken forever to get to this stage. I am now looking forward to adding colour and media to them, and seeing them come to life.

Pages 1 and 2

Pages 3 and 4

Pages 5 and 6

Pages 7 and 8

Pages 9 and 10

Pages 11 and 12

Pages 13 and 14

Pages 15 and 16

Pages 17 and 18

Pages 19 and 20

Pages 21 and 22

Pages 23 and 24

© Laura Stokes (2012)

I am finally at a place where I am reasonably pleased with these, and just can't wait to get some into Illustrator now and start adding textures.

So sorry...

My gosh! It's been a while since I last posted here. I'll take this time to apologise.

Just a quick catch up on what I'm doing at the minute...
Well, I turned 20!! No longer a teenager, and boy does it feel weird to think and say 'I'm 20'.
Anyway, we've only got TWO weeks left (including this week) until everything has to be in ready for assessments. SO, at the minute, I'm still working on the Macmillan Prize brief. Just trying to get all my roughs etc finalised now, so I can go into final media. It's a bit stressful at the minute, so in advance, please forgive me, if I forget to post on here for a few weeks, but I should be posting final pieces for Macmillan in the next few weeks, so you can all see what I've been working on.

What Makes a Princess, Grandma?

Our next brief is for the Macmillan Prize 2012. You have to come up with your own story, or collaborate with a writer, or use a traditional story (i.e. a fairy tale). Well, I'm not the best at writing stories, so I was concentrating on a fairy tale, first looking at a French fairy tale called Starlight, but I wasn't feeling very inspired by this after researching it some more; I then started to look at Cinderella, the other name known for this tale is 'The Little Glass Slipper', so I was trying to re-work the tale from the glass slippers point of view, but this proved more difficult than I thought, and then I started working the tale from the Fairy Godmother's point of view, but again, I wasn't feeling very inspired. I was looking through the Yellow Book of Fairy Tales, and saw one called 'How to Tell a True Princess,' which is The Princess and the Pea. Well, then I had the idea of a little girl, who's favourite story was HTTATP, and was asking what makes a true Princess, and lists off things in her imagination. Anyway, I have finally got it okayed, and can now start illustrating the tale.

A Day in the Lakes with Beatrix Potter

So, on Sunday I went to the Lake District for the day. You may have read in a previous post from last year, about my weekend in the Lakes, and that the Beatrix Potter Gallery was closed when we went to visit it. Well, this it has since re-opened, and so this is what we went to see.

The exhibition for this year is 'The Tale of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit."' This is from the website: 'To help celebrate Peter Rabbit's 110th birthday, our Gallery exhibition for 2012, is a fascinating look at how Peter Rabbit came about. Using a range of items from our Beatrix Potter Collection, seen together for the very first time, you can learn how Beatrix Potter brought Peter Rabbit to life and see the original art work used for the book's first privately-printed run.'

I saw these in real life!

Well, I actually saw the original black and white illustrations from Beatrix's very first published work. You could still see the pen marks, and scratches from the nip on the illustration. There also a few colour illustrations celebrating 100 years of Mr. Todd. These were so amazing to look at, you could see the brush strokes, and where she placed the watercolour paint. As amazing as the Peter Rabbit illustrations were, you hadn't seen anything until you saw the colour illustrations. They were truly inspiring and completely magical. The only downfall was you weren't allowed to take photographs, so I couldn't capture the magic. I would recommend anyone who had the opportunity to go visit the gallery; the gallery is even housed in Beatrix's husband, William Heelis' old office!

Hayfever time... part 2!

So, you may remember, I posted some hayfever packaging designs in a previous post. Well, I received some feedback on this, and so improved it, but have only got round to posting it on here now. Anyway, feedback was, the girl seemed a little obvious, and needed some more personality, the colours should be fun, and the dandelion seeds need to be made more of. Well, here is my (hopefully) improved design for the main medicine packaging and the bottle label: