An adventure without end
Charlotte Fu
Introduction of ideabiook I was a graphic designer before I came to MICA. I was always so interested in illustration while I was working. I kept the habit of browsing illustration website and collecting children’s books or graphic novels for quite a long time, which helped me to get some fresh air from the mundane life. And I think drawing is a good way to help me better appreciate my life, living and people I like. I came to MICA, it’s because I want to systematically study illustration. I also saw some alumni’s works which made a deep impression on me. I hope I have an opportunity to publish my own book in the near future. I’m looking forward to finding my personal style and simplifying my illustration work. I believe studying at MICA will be a good way to connect with other illustrars. Looking back on the first year study. I appreciate every project I did. There are so many different ways to interpret illustration. Even though a lot of projects are not perfect, it’s the necessary process to break down things and rebuild new ones. It’s important to better understand yourself.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Fall Semester
Image harvest Sketchbook Paper-cutting Laser cutting Embroidery Self-publishing Typography Art market Spring Semester
Silly city Stop motion animation Pattern hand lettering Self-directed
Image Harvest “Image harvest ” was our first project at the beginning of the first semester. We collected ideas from our old works and reinterpreted them in a new way. I found that traveling is a major theme in my drawings, which I hadn’t noticed before I did this project. This gave me the idea to promote travel destination from my personal view. I used to collect information before traveling somewhere else. I felt bored of using google search as a start to approach a destination. I believe that to draw your travel experience is a unique way to explore a place. Not only because it’s my own experience, but also drawing tells a story in a way that reflects my own style.
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I started to draw based on my travel photos, which became a disaster. Detail in the photos distracted me from drawing the whole concept. I made a lots of sketches but the experiment was a dead end. After group critique, I realized it would be more interesting to draw from memory, which turned out to be a positive way to get rid of irrelevant images, elements, details etc. I really liked this project because it made me think about the message in a single image that I want to convey to my reader. I learnt how to make choices when I draw. It really helped me to simplify my work.
“ I started to draw based on my travel photos, which became a disaster.�
I kept trying new sketches that none of them satisfied me. Detail in the photos distracted me from drawing the whole concept. I made a lots of sketches but the experiment was a dead end.
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Sketchbook Project We were assigned to draw on fourteen different topics selected by our classmates. When we finished one piece, we would swap with another student each week. It made me feel nervous in the beginning, because I don’t usually collect ideas from a sketchbook. But when I started this project, I felt like I was really enjoying it.
work with. I didn’t really need to worry about the final drawing. It was a way to let myself quickly get fresh ideas in a free style. I’ve always wanted to experiment watercolor, so I’ve done a lots of sketches with watercolors in this project.
After I finished this project, I found it’s really practical method of reminding myself of ideas. Some of them could Compared with other projects around be developed as a larger project. As on the same time, this project was relax- long as I keep this habit, it will contribing because it gave me more space to ute to my personal work.
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Paper- Cut & Paper- Engineering Workshop Paper-cut is a fresh technique for me. For this project, I made a story based on the idea of how a girl finds happiness by shopping for her favorite things. At the beginning, I created two images— one is a view of the back of a girl entering a shoe store and the other is the girl standing outside the boutique, holding a bouquet of flowers in her arms with the new shoes that she just bought. I intended to show this character’s a cheerful feeling after she came out of the store.
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However, during the group critique, other students asked me why this little girl is standing outside of a shoe store holding flowers in her arms. I remade this work at the end of the semester by changing both of the images. I originally used the flipped pages format for the first time and ended up with two separate images. The most important thing I learned from the project is how to highlight the key elements in a picture, especially in narrative content.
Laser Cutting Project Laser cutting was a new technique for me. I was struggling while I did this project. by reviewing my drawings, I noticed that I mainly focused on drawing people, so I decided to make something about human body shape. When I started to draw the sketches, I was thinking that I could do a turning round shape, which contains two layers, each layer has different part of body. However, I quickly give up this 16
first idea, because I was thinking about something that people could interact with. Therefore, this idea came to my mind, which is separating people into three parts, each of which has a different role. The cutting process was not difficult for me. By the time I had colored several different pieces, I was really enjoying the whole procedure. The result was good, I might want to try more characters next time.
Embroidery Workshop The reaction piece for the embroidery workshop, I made a tote bag decorated with an undersea scene. I love animals, and I love to watch TV programs like Animal World which is a popular TV program in China. I’m always curious to know how those creature’s life are under the sea.
this material. I tried to use simple geometric forms to create the whole image and I arranged different layers of object to differentiate the foreground and background. I made the jellyfish with a fringe because I wanted people to touch it and feel it.
The sewing process was far more painful and time consumThe first idea that came to my mind was to use felt, because I ing than I had expected. Howlike the feeling of touching felt. ever, I got a lot of practical feedIt feels warm and soft. furtherback from others. I think I could more, the wide variety of avail- try using a wide variety of fabable felt color was also a reason rics to make the whole image that made me quickly embrace more rich if I had more time. 18
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Self Publishing Project This self-publishing workshop started with brainstorming our favorite novels that you’ve ever read in your life. I listed several books such as Lolita, Perfume, A Sage of Love etc. I was inclined to do A Sage of Love which is a story about a woman’s revenge for 20 years. She took revenge on her best friend by seducing her son to become her dream boyfriend because her best friend betrayed her and took over her first love.
develop one as a final piece.
We had to work in a matchbox format which presented new design challenges I had never encountered before. For instance, the Typeface matters, the proportion of the illustration on the front and back cover, the size of fonts etc. For the content of inside the box, I chose a leaf as a symbol that represents time and life, because the story’s major themes I had two ideas to approach the are life, death, and relationbook cover. One was a drawing ships. Moreover, I like watercolor media, So I wanted to use of the complicated relationship in the book, because there watercolor texture in the drawwere many people involve into ing. I also wanted to show the this story. The other idea was a story an obscure feeling. When depiction of a relationship be- it comes to color, I chose black and red to express the main tween the main character and her best friend’s son. Although I character’s contrasting emoliked them both but I could only tions of love and hate. 22
Typography Workshop selected two sans-serif fonts to cooperate with the main font of the poster, creating a clear graphic hierarchy and opportunities for rhyming. I also use some graphic elements to create dynamism. As for colors, I decided to use yellow because, for Chinese, the fall is a season I designed two different layouts. for harvesting, so yellow is alOne is really direct and straight ways related autumn and repforward. I obsessed with a serif resents ripening fruits. I also tested a blue and pink palette font which gave me a expreswith a cyan accent, playing with sion of both elegance and unthe concept by varying the procertainty. I think it would be appropriate for the poster. I also portions of each colored area. We were given this workshop in a half day then we were quickly assigned to do an open-ended reaction piece. I struggled a while then I decided to do a poster, because it was on the point of the opening of our image harvest show.
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Art Market Project Italy, India and Sweden. Each country has its unique Christmas tradition. Italians use the Nativity Scene to tell the Christmas story. In China, Christmas is often celebrated in major cities. In these big cities there are Christmas trees, lights and other decorations on the streets and My products are greeting cards in department stores. Around about how people in different Christmas time in Sweden, the countries celebrate Christmas. Each pack contains five different most common image is a girl designs, each card has an image dressing in a white dress with a red sash around her waist and representing a different country’s tradition. My goal is to make a crown of candles on her head. innovative greeting cards instead In India, instead of having traditional Christmas trees, a banana of conventional one. I think it or mango tree is decorated. is an interesting way to create Sometimes people use mango awareness of the different ways leaves to decorate their homes. Christmas is celebrated around the world. It turned out that the pack of The cards focused on five differ- five didn’t sell very well, but half of the single cards sold. ent countries: Australia, China, This practical project, our last before the end of the first semester, teaches us the importance of drawing and marketing. As an illustrator, we have to know how to promote our works, which is an important skill set.
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ILP’s stand got a really nice place to show our artwork.
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I prepared two kinds of packaging for the greeting cards. One type contained for a single card, and the other was a pack of five cards.
Silly City Project Silly city was a practical project in cooperation with Fresh Artists, an organization that amplifies the voice of children by promoting access to the transformative process of art making and by validating their talent and selfless concern for the well being of others. We were assigned to design the lesson plans which is the description and explanation of the class. We
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A booklet for teachers.
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I did a dictionary for both teachers and students. Which contains the rest of the information of content.
considered design the presentation of the course content , including the hierarchy of the content, and created illustrations. When I first got the matierial, I had no clue where should I start. I began with research into architecture style and city planning. I experimented with sketches of architecture using watercolor and pencil. After the first group critique, I understood better the goal of this project. I also got inspired by other students. In the end I divided the content into three parts: the first part is a booklet for teachers, the second part is a pocket dictionary
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The worksheet for student, I made few spot illustration in the worksheet.
for both teachers and students, and the third part is a worksheet for students. For the teacher’s boolet , talking about the booklet of teachers, I carefully reviewed the content and then decided to visually differentiate the headings, quotations, tips, caption etc. I wanted to make the content easy to read even though there was a large amount of text. I only made several spot illustrations for the worksheet. The remaining content, definitions of terms and examples, I put into the small dictionary which I thought would be easy to carry. 34
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Pattern Workshop For me , pattern is a new way of looking at illustration. My subject is a series of tea pots. I used to draw objects which I think is a way of making ordinary objects more interesting. I explored three teapots patterns based on different pieces from Britain, China and Japan. Personally, I like tea and tea culture. The shape, patten and color of the teapots are vary because of local culture. The British teapot is very colorful. I made the Chinese teapot a blue color scheme because the majority of traditional decorated pattern on the surface of teapot are blue. A lot of Japanese teapots were made by iron and ceramic. So the color used to be black, grey and dark blue, which gave me a feeling of tranquility. 36
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Stop Motion Animation The stop motion animation was a cooperative project in which we worked with another classmate to complete this project together. Even though time was really short, I was excited to try out new technique and ideas. It was only a two day workshop on the weekend. We used the first day to experiment with different materials and finished the final piece on the second day. My partner, Ryan, and I discussed the basic idea on Saturday night and quickly decided to use paper-cut42
outs to do the animation. We made a storyboard first, so it was a smooth process when we prepared the elements on the second day. For a lot of the time, I cut objects while Ryan was shooting, or Ryan moved objects while I controlled the camera. It was a really pleasant experience to try new techniques and play at the same time. It was also a very long process and we encountered many situations that we’ve never expected before we did this project, but finally we learned from the experience.
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Hand Lettering Hand lettering was an exciting project for me—I’ve been waiting this project since the beginning of the semester. We started to this project by brainstorming and using different materials to develop ideas. I’ve always been interested in cats, so the first idea came to mind was the variety of cat’s body shapes, which gave me a strong kernel of an idea to start with. Then I added a second idea, which was a girl’s quotidian life. This was the one project during this semester that didn’t make me struggle at all. I finished sketches quickly and then moved directly to working on the final piece. But it was also a new way of approaching illustration in a fresh way. 46
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Self-directed Project The self directed project was the last project during spring semester. I planned to do a children’s book about bird’s lives in the city.
tables, not because they are hungry, but they are playing a game among themselves to see who is the most courageous or daring. I didn’t feel confident about telling this story and I had a hard time structuring it. After a few attempts at drawing sketches I was stuck and could not figure out how to continue. Instead of continuing with my first idea, I decided to draw a simpler story about feeding birds, based on personal experience. I tried hard but it became a really long process.
When I’ve traveled I’ve made it a point to watch and feed birds in cities and parks. I’ve noticed that the birds in each city have their own character and reactions to people. The quick pace of city life make city dwellers too distracted to notice the most beautiful things in our lives. Birds are also city dwellers, they are our neighbors, and In the end I’m still not satisfied they too are playing a role in with the story, but at least I was the life of the city. able to learn more about using imagery to tell a story and exI began with an idea about periment with texture. how birds steal food from cafe 50
I struggled a while when I started this project, because I’m not confident about telling a story. Also, I’m not clear about where the story goes and ends. 51
I forced myself to keep drawing until I felt something about the story.
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When I stucked, I tried to start a new story which is the personal experience of feeding birds. Even through I was not sure if this is a good way of exploring the story, but I believe I could draw more because of the unique experiences based on true feelings.
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I didn’t finish the story but I had a great fun of experimenting the texture.
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CHARLOTTE FU 2017