Sara Petrak Professional Development Portfolio
MA Illustration
Section 1 - Curiculum Vitae Section 2 - Presentation - Skills check Section 3 - Reflection on Tutorials and Critiques Section 4 - Contacts with Industry Section 5 - Reflective Discourse Folder Section 6 - Personal Bibliography Section 7 -Statement of Practice Section 8 - Research Methods, My Creative Journey Section 9 - Reflection on development of practice
Section 1 - Curiculum Vitae
Name: Sára Petrák Date of birth: 10. 05. 1990 Tel: +36 30 653 6330 E-mail: petraksari@gmail.com EDUCATION Bournemouth Art University, Bournemouth Master of Art - MA Illustration Budapest Metropolitan University, Budapest Photography (BA)
20152012- 2015 2009 – 2011
Art School of Buda, Budapest Photography course accredited special education certification: Photographer Animation course Life drawing courses
2006 – 2009
High School of Városmajor, Budapest Certification: High School Diploma
2005 – 2006
High school of József Attila, Budapest English language year
2006-
Castle drawing school, Art School of Buda, Budapest drawing, painting courses
COMPUTER SKILLS Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Bridge , Adobe Indesign, Adobe Premier Pro, Lightroom PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2015 2014-2015 2014 2010-
commercial photography – Carneol Design commercial, food photography – Fioka Restaurant FLASHBACK Photo- photographer assistant photographer works: events, weddings, studio photography
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITONS 2015 2015 LANGUAGE SKILL English German
Portraits of Kapolcs - at ‘ Művészetek Völgye’ Art Festival, Kapolcs, Hungary ‘Kisunokám!’ – BA degree project, Fuga Center of Architecture, Budapest, Hungary
– advanced oral and writing skills – basic oral and writing skills
Section 2 - Presentation Skills check
Date : 11. Nov. 2015
Skills List
1-5
Action
Progress
Communication
3
join group discussion and tutorials
present my work to tutors andother students
Verbal - written
3
develope ways of discussin my practice
tutorials, critiques, writting my PDP
Photoshop
4
develope my skills
join ps worshops, rework my handrawings digitally, draw digitally
Illustrator
0-1
develope my practice
Indesign
3-4
develope my practice
join workshop, draw digitally
Printmaking
3
develope my practice
join workshops, use it regurarly in my practice
Photography
5
Technical Skills
use more in my practice
use it with my drawings
Date : May. 2016
Skills List
1-5
Action
Progress
Communication
4
join group discussion and tutorials
present my work to tutors andother students
Verbal - written
4
develope ways of discussin my practice
tutorials, critiques, writting my PDP
5
develope my skills
join ps worshops, rework my handrawings digitally, draw digitally
Technical Skills
Photoshop
Illustrator
1
develope my practice
Indesign
5
develope my practice
join workshop, draw digitally
Printmaking
4
develope my practice
join workshops, use it regurarly in my practice
Photography
5
use more in my practice
use it with my drawings
Section 3 - Reflection on Tutorials and Critiques
Assessment feedback
for Strategies for Practice: Identification
Date: 03/02 2016 Body of work & presentation An honest and articulate presentation. (Using Powerpoint on presenter view may be a more useful format for tracking time and using prompting notes.) You successfully describe what inspires you to draw. This includes reportage, characters and animals. Imagination and humour is a good foundation for the work. However you do not describe this work in an academic way, there is a lack of objectivity and depth to the language you use to describe your work – which is something you can learn with practice, observing your peers and tutors and how they present, alongside reading and analyzing other artists work. Character is an important part of everything that you draw, even the landscapes have character and these have the potential to be married together for more cohesive solutions. Thinking through process has potential in the works, but there is sometimes the habit of moving on to a new colour way, strategy or process before fully reflecting or pushing the medium to its limit. When you work with photography you are more objective about your composition. You are beginning to broaden your awareness of a need for diverse compositions and viewpoints. Primary research has definitely been an asset in your journey and has brought in a playfulness when responding to the people, objects and places of your own environment. Your War Horse images demonstrate a requirement to address the text in your working process earlier on, rather than addressing concept later. You are resourceful in how you produce your images. Eg. Drawing from train journeys. Photoshop shouldn’t be relied upon as the only tool to compose your work. We would encourage you to consider approaches such as photo etching, half tone screenprints, solar plate etching, photomontage. Please book a session with Laura Hamp as soon as you can to try these methods of making. lhamp@aub.ac.uk. Storytelling is definitely something you have a natural ability for and we would encourage you to develop this further. Your characters have charm, wit and the potential to be well loved by your audience. For someone who has never studied drawing before, we are happy with your progress after only one unit. After your presentation we discussed the possibility of getting some experience in art direction. This may be some work experience you want to pursue. If it is, please speak to Hayley or one of the other tutors about opportunities.
Assessment feedback and Study Plan discussion with Hayley Potter Even though we have not received our assessment feedback yet, we have already got our new brief for the next unit which is going to be very exciting. We have a tutorial with Hayley about our Study Plan for the Master Project 1. I am a bit confused about it, because I have not decided yet what I am going to do. Tutorial Discussion: I told Hayley I am interested in narrative, and storytelling - book and children’s book illustration. She said my characters and landscapes have potential and storytelling is good for me so making a children’s book could be good project. I am interested in creative writing but as this is going to be my first children’s book illustration project, we agreed it would have been too challenging to me to write my own tale and make the illustrations as well. So I have decided to work with an already existing, well-known and classic fairy tale as the Puss in Boots.
Study Plan for the Puss in Boots Ma Illustration During the first Unit I had the opportunity to challenge myself with various materials and techniques in the process of making illustrations. As this field of the art was quite new to me, at the beginning of the course, my main goal was experimenting and experiencing the method of using different manual and digital platforms. While I was working on the ‘Who am I ?’, and the ‘War Horse’ briefs, I enjoyed most not only playing with various techniques and creating different characters and worlds, but I have also become very interested in book and children’s book illustration. On the one hand, the feedback from my assessment was that my characters and my landscapes drawings have potential and would work with children’s book illustration. On the other hand, according to the feedback, I also have a good ability in storytelling as I have used quite limited palette in my drawings which could work well in narrative. So what I would like to take further in the Master Project 1 and 2 is children’s book illustration. I have been already keen on learning more about narrative, character design and book illustration. Illustrating the fairytale of ‘Puss in Boots’ will be my Master Project 1. I am interested in creative writing but as this is going to be my first children’s book illustration project, it would have been too challenging for me to write my own tale and make the illustrations for that, so I have decided to work with and illustrate an already existing, well-known, classic, original fairy tale. I have chosen this story because I have been already working on my ‘Cat Hotel’ project during the first Unit, which was not only my most favourite series of work but it could be also a good starting point in illustrating the fairy of Puss in Boots. I have already had different kind of cat characters, sketches and technical ideas from my ‘Cat Hotel’ series which is useful in the progress of building up the world for Puss in Boots in this Unit. I would like to reinvent the story, his character, research the location where he lives and create his whole world in my point of view. I would prefer to mostly be playful in my illustrations and move away from a more sophisticated style. My most important goals in my Master project 1 and 2 are visualising humour and finding my own voice in illustrating books. Humour is a very important driver in my illustration practice so I would like to improve myself further how can I express it better in my work. My other goal would be to be able to use digital and manual mediums properly and confidently and acquire a basic knowledge about graphic design and typography. My selected audience is primary school children, between 3 and 12 years old. Researching is a very important part of this Unit and I am going to start my work with it. As a first step, I am going to research in the library about the art of visual storytelling and how to make a picture book for children. Studying more about the original fairy tale of Puss in Boots, researching the history side of it, and exploring previous illustrations about it includes the process as well. To compliment this, I am very interested in the psychological aspect of illustrating for children, so I intend to read and study about it more. I have been always interested in psychology during my documentary photography practice as well, so I am very looking forward to involving this science, in my children’s book illustration too. I am going to visit ’Waterstones’ and other book shops looking at contemporary children’s book illustrators works and keep up with any kind of exhibitions in London and nearby which is related to narrative and children’s book illustration. I am looking for films, animation movies, bookshops, exhibitions in galleries and museums which can influence me and contribute to find my own way and be successful to implement this project. As I have had experience in photography I may use my photography skills to this project so studying and exploring those artist’s works who use photography in their illustration practice such as Sara Fanelli (‘Dog’s book’) or John Birmingham and Oliver Jeffers works could be useful references to me.
Researching theory, how to draw animals, how to create characters, and different personalities to them are very important in order to achieve my goals to be successful in children’s book illustration. I will definitely explore animation books and more about moving characters and acquire a basic knowledge in storyboarding as well. I plan to draw and sketch cats to become familiar with their habits, movements and individual characters. I will use some elements of my previous ‘Cat Hotel’ project to form the basis of my drawings. A few years ago I had chance to attend a short animation course with the Oscar Winner director, Ferenc Rofusz in the Art School of Buda. During that course I have obtained a basic level in making short animations, and how to move characters and draw them from different angles and settings. However, it was just a short period of time and just a little insight into the world of animation, but I still believe this experience, such as having a basic knowledge about moving images and characters, going to help me in storytelling and illustrating narrative. We watched the movie of The Triplets of Belleville during the course and I loved the characters and settings, and its whole scenery still influence me in my illustration practice, and going to be a role model forever. From technical point of view, I would like to use and mix different kinds of colourful materials such as pencil, ink, watercolour, and watercolour pencils and also digital elements. Experimenting with using photos could be good idea too. As I have not got relevant drawing experience, I intend to attend all the life drawing sessions and maybe extra ones in order to help my project to understand and be aware of movements, shapes and spaces and ask our teacher technical advice about what should I do in life drawing to contribute successfully my master project. I would like to attend some BA tutorials as well to develop my skills and use different materials properly. I also plan to sign up more Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials and workshops to be able to work with these two programs during my project. Typography is another important aspect in the process of illustrating a book. I was considering to get contact with graphic designers, and going some of their tutorials and workshops to gain a basic and confident knowledge about book design, typography and the relation between text and image. Researching theory, how to draw animals, how to create characters, and different personalities to them are very important in order to achieve my goals to be successful in children’s book illustration. I will definitely explore animation books and more about moving characters and acquire a basic knowledge in storyboarding as well. I plan to draw and sketch cats to become familiar with their habits, movements and individual characters. I will use some elements of my previous ‘Cat Hotel’ project to form the basis of my drawings. A few years ago I had chance to attend a short animation course with the Oscar Winner director, Ferenc Rofusz in the Art School of Buda. During that course I have obtained a basic level in making short animations, and how to move characters and draw them from different angles and settings. However, it was just a short period of time and just a little insight into the world of animation, but I still believe this experience, such as having a basic knowledge about moving images and characters, going to help me in storytelling and illustrating narrative. We watched the movie of The Triplets of Belleville during the course and I loved the characters and settings, and its whole scenery still influence me in my illustration practice, and going to be a role model forever.
From technical point of view, I would like to use and mix different kinds of colourful materials such as pencil, ink, watercolour, and watercolour pencils and also digital elements. Experimenting with using photos could be good idea too. As I have not got relevant drawing experience, I intend to attend all the life drawing sessions and maybe extra ones in order to help my project to understand and be aware of movements, shapes and spaces and ask our teacher technical advice about what should I do in life drawing to contribute successfully my master project. I would like to attend some BA tutorials as well to develop my skills and use different materials properly. I also plan to sign up more Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials and workshops to be able to work with these two programs during my project. Typography is another important aspect in the process of illustrating a book. I was considering to get contact with graphic designers, and going some of their tutorials and workshops to gain a basic and confident knowledge about book design, typography and the relation between text and image. Creating the setting, drawing spaces, developing a new world are going to be another challenges. My plan is get to know more about how to develop setting for a book, drawing spaces, interiors and exteriors and using photos as they would be useful steps in this part. As I have studied photojournalism during my BA, I have a relevant experience in storytelling with photos which could help me in storytelling, in creating compositions. During the next period in the course I was planning to have some real work experience. I was considering an internship in an illustration studio, and getting contact with children’s book illustrators, studios, and agencies as well. In my opinion, beside my project identifying and entering competitions in book design and children’s book illustration would be useful to me too. So I am keen on searching competitions and design awards in London. All in all, I am very enthusiastic about illustrating a fairy tale and developing myself into a successful in children’s book illustrator.
Tutorial with Joel Lardner 15/03/2016 I signed up for a 1:1 tutorial with Joel Lardner. I have never had a chance to show him my work before so I was looking forward to our first tutorial. I was curious of his opinion and suggestion about my work from the first unit and I had also some questions about the Puss in Boots and the process of making a picturbook. I have prepared some of my animal characters and other sketches, and I also took my digital presentation of my body of work from the previous unit.
He said my drawings have lot of potential, he liked especially my fox characters. I am very happy because he told me that my drawings have sense of humor, and they have wit, but he was not satisfied with the idea of my master project going to be the Puss in Boots. He suggested that I should make a picture book of my Cat Hotel series. He really liked the idea and according to him I should make it in a similar style as Marc Boutavant’s books or Richard Scary’s picture books. I told him I would love to do that but I have already finished my study plan for Puss in Boots and Hayley agreed on my plan. So he told me he would to speak with Hayley. I was confused a little because I thought I would make the Puss in Boots, but I realized Cat Hotel would be a much more personal project and I would be really happy to do it. So I am going to rewrite my study plan and action plan and as a first step I am going to the library and research Marc Boutavant and Richard Scares works. I was very happy and enthuasiastic that I can actually make a picture book, especially as I can improve my Cat Hotel project. I would love to illustratete the Puss in Boots too, but after the tutorial with Joel, I realised that Cat Hotel would a better solution at this time.
Study Plan Ma Illustration Master project 1 Cat Hotel
During the first Unit I had the opportunity to challenge myself with various materials and techniques in the process of making illustrations. As this field of the art was quite new to me, at the beginning of the course, my main goal was experimenting and experiencing the method of using different manual and digital platforms. While I was working on the ‘Who am I ?’ and the ‘War Horse’ briefs, I enjoyed most not only playing with various techniques and creating different characters and worlds, but I have also become very interested in book and children’s book illustration. On the one hand, the feedback from my assessment was that my characters and my landscapes drawings have potential and would work with children’s book illustration. On the other hand, according to the feedback, I also have a good ability in storytelling as I have used quite limited palette in my drawings which could work well in narrative. So what I would like to take further in the Master Project 1 and 2 is children’s book illustration. I have been already keen on learning more about narrative, character design and book illustration. Illustrating my Cat Hotel series in a picture book will be my Master Project 1. I am interested in creative writing but as this is going to be my first children’s book illustration project, it would have been too challenging for me to write my own tale and make the illustrations for that as well, so I have decided to take further my Cat Hotel series and keep going the drawing part of it, creating new scenes, characters and situations. I have chosen this project because I have been already working on it during the first Unit, which was not only my favorite series and loved to create the characters using my sense of humor, but it could be a good starting point as I have already had different kind of cat characters, sketches and technical ideas. I would like to invent the whole world of it. Building my Cat Hotel, I drew every kind of room and place, such as restaurant, bar, spa, tea room, every place which could be in a real hotel too. Creating different cat characters and their personalities as a residents of the hotel. I intend to illustrate little stories in the hotel situation. My goal is developing the location and design the whole cat world in a witty and ironic way. From the narrative point of view, my method is going to be illustrating different scenes and the main line of the book going to appear automatically. I would prefer to be playful in my illustrations and move away from a more sophisticated style. My most important goals in my Master project 1 and 2 are visualising humor and finding my own voice in illustrating books. Humor is a very important driver in my illustration practice so I would like to improve myself further how can I express it better in my work. My other goal would be to be able to use digital and manual mediums properly and confidently and acquire a basic knowledge about graphic design and typography.
My selected audience going to be primary school children, between 3 and 12 years old, but as humor is the most important driver in my practice, I would like to create a book which could be entertaining for adults as well. Researching is a very important part of this Unit and I am going to start my work with it. As a first step, I am going to research in the library about the art of visual storytelling and how to make a picture book for children. Studying more about picture books, researching illustrators, such as Marc Boutavant’s and Richard Scarry’s works. I am interested in the narrative side of these picture books, and also the compositons, the characters and the situations. All in all my plan is exploring the process how to make a picture book. To compliment this, I am very interested in the psychological aspect of illustrating for children, so I intend to read and study about it more. I have been always interested in psychology during my documentary photography practice as well, so I am very looking forward to involving this science, in my children’s book illustration too. I am going to visit ’Waterstones’ and other book shops looking at contemporary children’s book illustrators works and keep up with any kind of exhibitions in London and nearby which is related to narrative and children’s book illustration. I am looking for films, animation movies, bookshops, exhibitions in galleries and museums which can influence me and contribute to find my own way and be successful to implement this project. Visiting different hotels with my sketchbook in Bournemouth, exploring the atmosphere, sketching little scenes, and the guest characters going to be an important step in the researching process as well. I would like to watch also the movie of The Grand Budapest Hotel from Wes Anderson. As I have had experience in photography I may use my photography skills to this project so studying and exploring those artist’s works who use photography in their illustration practice such as Sara Fanelli (‘Dog’s book’) or John Birmingham and Oliver Jeffers works could be useful references to me. Researching theory, how to draw animals, how to create characters, and different personalities to them are very important in order to achieve my goals to be successful in children’s book illustration. I will definitely explore animation books and more about moving characters and acquire a basic knowledge in storyboarding as well. I plan to draw and sketch cats to become familiar with their habits, movements and individual characters. Nowadays, I have moved to a new house where a cat lives as well. Her name is Denise. I think it is a very good opportunity to study her habits, and movements and I can see that she is going to be a big inspiration to me in this project. I will use also some elements of my previous ‘Cat Hotel’ project to form the basis of my drawings. A few years ago I had chance to attend a short animation course with the Oscar Winner director, Ferenc Rofusz in the Art School of Buda. During that course I have obtained a basic level in making short animations, and how to move characters and draw them from different angles and settings.
However, it was just a short period of time and just a little insight into the world of animation, but I still believe this experience, such as having a basic knowledge about moving images and characters, going to help me in storytelling and illustrating narrative. We watched the movie of The Triplets of Belleville during the course and I loved the characters and settings, and its whole scenery still influence me in my illustration practice, and going to be a role model forever. From technical point of view, I would like to use and mix different kinds of colourful materials such as pencil, ink, watercolour, and watercolour pencils and also digital elements. Experimenting with using photos could be good idea too. As I have not got relevant drawing experience, I intend to attend all the life drawing sessions and maybe extra ones in order to help my project to understand and be aware of movements, shapes and spaces and ask our teacher technical advice about what should I do in life drawing to contribute successfully my master project. I would like to attend some BA tutorials as well to develop my skills and use different materials properly. I also plan to sign up more Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials and workshops to be able to work with these two programs during my project. Typography is another important aspect in the process of illustrating a book. I was considering to get contact with graphic designers, and going some of their tutorials and workshops to gain a basic and confident knowledge about book design, typography and the relation between text and image. Creating the setting, drawing spaces, developing a new world are going to be another challenges. My plan is get to know more about how to develop setting for a book, drawing spaces, interiors and exteriors and using photos as they would be useful steps in this part. As I have studied photojournalism during my BA, I have a relevant experience in storytelling with photos which could help me in storytelling, in creating compositions. During the next period in the course I was planning to have some real work experience. I was considering an internship in an illustration studio, and getting contact with children’s book illustrators, studios, and agencies as well. I am also very interested in Art Director possibilities and as I have experience in another art field as well, it could be a good idea to try myself in this area. Beside my project, identifying and entering competitions in book design and children’s book illustration would be useful to me too. So I am keen on searching competitions and design awards in London. I am really looking forward to build my cat hotel and create scenes with typical hotel cliches. All in all, I am very enthusiastic about illustrating a picture book and developing myself into a successful in children’s book illustrator.
Action Plan date: march. 2016. Start from 2nd of March Week 1 3-6 of March: Visit library and Waterstones to research about children’s book Week 2 8th of March: Speed sharing session PDP 10th of March: Panel discussion, ‘Theatre of Animation’ 10-13 of March: researching about storytelling, picture books, psychological aspect of illustrating for children’s, drawing Denise every day Week 3 15th of March: tutorial with Joal 16-20 March: research , sketches - start to do sketches for 18 pages - email Jenni and JR for photoshop and Illustrator tutorials before Eastern break Week 4 21-27 of March : -keep going with sketches, -research about character design, building characters - get contact with graphic designers - research typography, and book design - email Hayley for tutorials Week 5 28 - 31 March : Eastern break starts - keep going with characters, and pages at home - experimetn with different frames, and scenes Week 6 1-3 of April: - complete the first few pages, make few final character options read about moving characters, animation books Week 7 4-10 of April: Eastern break ends - complete pages from 1 - 9 - scan the completed pages
Week 8 11- 15 of April: - email Jenni and Jr for illustrator and photoshop tutorials - keep going with pages - have tutorials with graphic designers Week 9 18- 24 of April: -sign up for tutorials with Hayley - scan my completed pages work digitally in photoshop and illustrator - complete the page of 10-12 pages Week 10 25 - 30 of April : - complete cover page - work digitally - complete the page of 13 -14 pages - start work in indesign Week 11 2-8 of May : - scan cover page - conplete the page of 15-16 - scan and work digitally Week 12 9-15 of May: complete the page of 17-18 - scan it and finish it digitally - meeting with Ornella (graphic designer) Week 13 16-22 of May : complete every pages in indesign - (printing process) Week 14 23 - 29 : finishing everything ( printing process) 31st of May : DEADLINE, hand in
Master Project 1 :
CAT HOTEL
After the first Unit I had a few new ideas about the Cat Hotel and already had some doodles that I made during the last brief. I am pretty lucky because I have just moved to a flat where a cat is living, called Denise. Actually I have never had a cat before so on the one hand, I was quite enthusiastic to have a chance to observe a cat’s life and habits day by day to my Cat Hotel project. On the other hand, I think she is going to be a very good inspiration to me and also a good model for my observational drawings. It is really difficult to start a project like this, as I have not had experience in making a picture book. So my first step is going to be to start a new sketchbook and make observational drawings regurarly about Denise.
Sketches about Denise
She is an absolutely crazy cat which is why I really love her and why she is a perfect subject. Drawing her helps me to create new ideas for the hotel. I usually use the sketches as inspiration for different scenes.
Even though I love to draw her, drawing is still challenging to me because of the lack of my experinece in using different techniques and materials. I am experimenting which I am finding really fun. Mostly I use watercolor pencils , pencils and ink for my drawings about Denise.
Sometimes she acts strangely, but I think this isnpires me the most. I made different type of drawings of her and I experimented with lines, colours, and different styles. I think I prefer just the one line drawings of her because her character is expressed more in those drawings.
As well as drawing I also often take photos of her to use later on as referecne when finishing my drawings.
I tried to draw Denise every day. I can use these doodles later when I am going to create the scenes for the cat hotel. For instance, a few weeks ago I was working on something in my computer and Denise just came there and sat down in front of my lap top. She was stareing at the screen and she looked like as she would have used my computer, not me. It was a really funy moment and then I have decided cats going to use computers in the Cat Hotel.
After a while I noticed I needed locations for the hotel and so I tried to draw these. From the first Unit I already had some ideas and sketches so I tried to use them and my sketches about Denise as references. I have experimented with different materials because I could not decide what materials I am going to use for the final versions. So I continued to do this - make different versions and use different styles - to see which way could work best. During the Eastern holdiay I made two different scenes. First is a room with a cat who is lying on the bed and just facebooking. I used water colour pencils, and water colour. I really enjoyed working with these materials. I used some of my photos of a hotel where I previously shooting for a weeding in Budapest. I loved the design and the style of this building, so I will definitely use my photos as reference pictures for the following scenes as well.
My other idea was to make a restaurant scene where the cats could have dinner in the hotel. I used ink in the character design and watercolour to give colours. Although I have not finished this piece yet it is a little different in style than the other one. It has more contrast but I could not decide which way works better so I was really looking forward our group tutorial with Hayley.
I am going to use these photos as reference pictures to finish the background and the whole room.
Group Tutorial with Hayley Potter Date: 19. April 2016
I prepared all of my drawings, pencil sketches and ideas about the following scenes from the hotel.
I showed everything what I recently made. I was quite happy because they liked my ideas and my drawings. Hayley said I could build a real Cat Hotel as a doll house. While she was watching all of my drawings she said she wants to see all of the rooms in the hotel. However, I was confused as I do not have a narrative and I miss the text, but she said each of my drawings has their own narratives so not to panic and keep drawing. It is a quite complex project because I have to design the landscape and the characters as well. I also asked about which style I shoul use in the following scenes and they absolutely agreed that my lines are really powerfull so I should work with any style where the line is dominant. Hayley also mentioned do not be afraid to leave whight spaces on my drawings which i will try and do. She also suggested to visit the National Library in London, and check on some artist books and zines.
Section 4 - Contacts with industry
FLASHBACK studio In my future I would like to work as a photographer and as an illustrator as well. I had studied photography in my BA, I have more contact with the photgraphy industry than with illustration. I was an intern in the Flashback studio in Budapest fo 3 months. This Studio is the most professional photo studio in Hungary . I have some personal contacts with other studios and photographers as well. http://www.flashbackstudio.eu/ ABCUG - online news portal Andrรกs d. Hajdu A few weeks ago one of my teacher, Andras D. Hajdu from my BA course, called me to offer me an amazing opportunity. Andrรกs is a multi-award winning photojournalist and multimedia creator. His primary interest has always been documentary photography. He has compiled and published a large number of photo series reflecting on the realities of life in Hungary and eastern Europe, several of which are multi-year projects. Over the past years he has worked as a part-time photo journalist for abcug.hu, an online news portal in Hungary, and dedicated the rest of his time to projects that go beyond day-today photo journalism. Now he is moving to Africa for 4 months from May 2016, to finish one of his projects, and he asked me to substitute him all of his running work at abcug.hu while he is away. As I am living abroud, I could not acept the offer but it could have been a wonderful opportunity. I discussed with him that I am going to call him when I move back to Hungary beacuse he has a lot of contacts in the photography industry.. http://abcug.hu/ Freelance: One of my plans for the future is builting up my own photography studio, and website to work as a freelance. have previous experince on different fields of photography, I have numerous reference projects in order to create my own website and business.
Illustration Currently I am interested in chilldren’s book illustration, book design, editorial. I was researching on the internet and in the library about some agencys, studios and competitions in London. The Bright Agency I really liked The Bright Agency. The agency is about illustration for picture books, fiction, novelty, educational and children’s publishing. http://www.thebrightagency.com/our_approach mail@brightgroupinternational.com
You Can Now YCN is a curated, creative network. They help creatively minded people and organisations to make new connections, to learn and to grow. They explore a tightly curated edit of illustrators, photographers, designers and animators to discover talent for their next commision or opening. http://www.ycn.org email Nick Defty at YCN — nd@ycn.org Penguin Random House UK Design Award 2016. Your chance to win a work placement within the Penguin Random House Design Studios as well as £1,000 in prize money. Students may enter a maximum of one design in each of the categories: Adult Fiction Cover Award Title brief: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Adult Non-Fiction Cover Award Title brief: How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran Children’s Cover Award Title brief: Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner http://penguinrandomhousedesignaward.co.uk/index.php
NOBROW Nobrow is an independent platform for illustration, graphic art, and art comics in the UK and abroad as well. Since its inception Nobrow Ltd. has sought to make great design, ground-breaking art and narrative, luscious production values and environmental consciousness central to its mission. They have striven both to bring fresh, young talent to wider audiences, as well as to remind the world of the great talents that have been producing stunning work for many years. http://nobrow.net/ sales@nobrow.net
Section 5 - Reflective Discourse Folder
Lecture 2: The
Illustrator and the Book
Date: 24. Nov. 2015 Lecturer: Hayley Potter As I do not know much about book illsutration, I hoped that this lecture would not only be very useful for the War Horse brief, but for any other book projects as well. Hayley collected us the ‘Golden Rules for Successful Narrative Illustration’ . I made notes to use them after the lecture: - research the history, politics and culture of the time. - invest time in your developing world. - be aware of your elements of your world - Invest time in developing my characters – grounding them with observational drawings - Research photos of that time – historical momments, uniforms, buildings, machines etc.- E H Shepherd war drawings! - internal logic - draw characters in different positions, situations John Tenniel – Alice in Wonderland Lisbeth Zwerger – how she represents fairy tales - be aware of the composition - consistency: Andrzej Klimowski – comunicating stories ( book: World in Image) - character consistency : - Shaun Tan – The Arrival - the role of the illustrator: - think about your audience - connecting your audinece - limit your palette - using pallette: Angela Barrett – Beauty and The Beast – use other colours – consider the atmosphere - the tone consistency - foreground, middleground, background – consistency - something happens outside the page! - Composition: Sara Fanelli – Wolf, Pinokio, Dog Book, Sometimes I think sometimes I am, The Onions Great Escape - Audrey Niffenegger illustration to The Three Incestuous Sister - Further Research: - The National Art Library London - London Artists Book -Waterstones -The British library
CAT HOTEL - a reflective TV programme I am working on an illustration series called Cat Hotel. I was inspired by a television programme I had watched a few weeks ago. It was about a lady who was a huge fan of cats so she has created in her house a Cat Hotel. She had almost 100 cats and she cared for them if they were humans. This programme was surprising and amazing and made me think about what fanatic people are capable of. This issue had a significant impact on me so I could not stop imagineing a real Cat Hotel. A hotel, with every possible service which is usually used by humans quite often in our world, but the only „unusual” thing would be that this hotel’s residents would not be humans, they would be cats. I was such enthusiastic with this idea and, furthermore, it could be a good solution for the first part of our ’Who am I?’ brif. Besides, I could experiment with different materials for this project, which was one of my primary plans for this unit. My research began with researching cats, movements, characters on the internet for my observational drawings and experimantation.
As there were not any cats around me I used photos to my first observational drawings an sketches.
Afterwards I drew them in different situations. At the beginning, for the first ideas I used pencil. I have not decided whether I wanted to use black and white, or colourful materials in this project so I used different materials.
Next, I experimented with ink, and I used colours as well, but I was not keen on the lines..
So I redrew the cocktail bar scene with more colours and fewer lines.
I made more sketches about different situations, scenes with pencil, and then experimented with watercolurs, and watercolourpencils.
I also tried what Hayley suggested me at the last tutorial, so I recomposed my drawings digitally and reused elements from my other drawings.
Christmas had impact on not only me, but on my Cat Hotel series too, so I made some christmas cat characters..
Working on more situations, and trying to create the consistency in the series is my plan in my following works at the Cat Hotel.
CAT HOTEL - chapter 2. After the first Unit I had a few new ideas about the Cat Hotel and some doodles from the last brief. I also now live with a woman who has a cat and find her an inspiration most days. I draw her a lot and so this made me think of how humans and cats live together.
Human - Cat relationship Although I was not a big cat fan before but now I love living with a cat. I realise she has a very special, funny and curious personality and that she is also very tactile. To be honest I secretly think she is a human because she is always acting like one. She inspires me a lot and that is why I would like to create a whole cat world like a human world because I can really imagine each cats as different human personalities and people as cats. Nowadays, wherever I am going somewhere, talking with different people, going for shopping, sitting in a pub with friends, I try to imagine the people surround me as they would be cats. I mean I have been staring at them sometimes and discussing with my frineds how they would look and act if they were cats. I make notes every time about the new ideas for the hotel. I really love working on this project because I can use my sense of humour which is the most important driver in my illustration practice. I would like to create something which is funny but which is also clever. This project is not only an ironic look at the life of cats but also a parody about the fanatic cat owners, human habits and behaviour of both. Since I have started this project whenever I met a cat owner, or a cat fan I take notice of how that talk to, about and treat their animals. It is interesting that they treat their cats as if they were humans and as if their cats were their own children. I am not saying that this phenomenon existing just with cat owners, dog fans could be way too fanatic as well but now I am concentrating on cat owners. (Maybe my next project will be a dog hotel!) There are so many examples where a cat is more than just a pet and part of the family. As we know there are so many jokes about single women or old ladys who are living with their cats, seen as lonely, without a man etc., Cats could be a family member or replace a family member who has gone or dies. They could be a very good companion and a cure against loneliness. For instance as I mentioned I am living with a cat, Denise and her owner, Judith . She is a middle aged lady living by herself because her son moved away to another city. It is very noticable that she treats Denise as her child and I can see that Denise is obviously filling a hole in her life. I think that even though it is very human and nice phenomenon, there are some people who can become crazy and way too fanatic. As my basic idea come from this idea, a TV Show about a lady who has a hundred cats in her home and creates different rooms for them. The different scenes from the Cat Hotel is influences by this phenomenon but it is more an ironic approach to cats, and of cat owners. And of course it is always a rich subject to put animals in human situations.
Vogue 100 exhibition date: 11 February- 22 May 2016 Vogue 100. A century of style showcases the remarkabe range of photography that has been commisioned by British Vogue since it was founded in 1916. I was unbelivable to see the story of one of the most influental fashion magazines in the world. The exhibitones features iconic images a few of my all time favourite photographers such as Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Tim Walker.
I did not use to be a big fan of fashion photography but recently I started to be interested in it. It was absolutely amazing to see how style and fashion has been changed since 1916 . I think fashion photography and illustration are very close to each other. Even in this exhibiton there were several illustrations as well, and they were working very well with the photos. Maybe in the future I am going to try myself how can I involve my illustration skills in taking fashion photos. During the exhibiton I was concentrating on the coloures and the stories of each photos. It was very inspiring to see how the narrative exist on each pieces. I was also very interested in which elements were used to tell a story and how was the compositons created by the photographers. I think all these experineces support my Cat Hotel project.
PHOTO LONDON exhibition date: 19- 22 May 2016 I am very happy to had the opportunity to attend Photo London yesterday. However, I enjoy to study illustration as a photographer, taking pictures, and the field of photography are playing a very important roles in my life. I have recently started a new photography project. I am working on a visual diary about Bournemouth beach I go to the beach every day if it is possible and capture what I see. I think the beach is a very interesting place and a very rich subject for taking pictures. I also realized this project helps me in my illustration practice as well. I am more confident in framing when I am taking pictures and since I have started to practice photography again, I think it supports my skills in Cat Hotel, when I am creating different scenes, and compositons. Every time when I attend a good exhibition, no matter it is a photography or an illustration one, it supports my visual thinking. All in all seeing interesting pictures, compositons, stories support me even in my Cat Hotel series. As I am currently little bit struggling with drawing spaces and framing in the Cat Hotel, I focused on compositons in this exhibiton. I also tried to explain myself if I liked a photo, why I do like it and why the compostion working on it.
Andrew Esiebo Untitled
Dawit L. Petros Utitled
Salvatore Rubbino
pres-
entation 09/03/2016 As I am very interested in children’s book illustration, I was very happy to have the opportunity to attend a presentation by amazing children’s book illustrator, Salvatore Rubbino which was organized to Level 4. He presented some examples of his books such as ‘Walk in London’, ‘Walk in Paris’ or the ‘Emil and Detectives’. Seeing his working process was very instructive. I liked the progress how he works. Taking several photos, and reportage drawings are his research process which I usually do as well. He also gave many useful advices for our practice such as the contrast is a good way to create pictures. In his character design, he try to find drama an tension and also refer of his own childhood, and the last but not least, he is “looking”. He has even a mirror in his studio to help to understand and visualize the body language and different mimics. He suggested to draw as may as we can in our sketchbooks and photocopy our favourite pieces and maybe put it in our studio’s wall. According to his work he has a very good sense of humor which is a very important driver in my practice as well. I really like that he uses quite simple shapes to catch characters and personalities even on his observational drawings. Notes after the presentation: Feed my imgaination: - drama, tension, memory, looking, contrast “ Make the connection, push my practice and create something new!”
Screen printing 22/04/2016
Rebeca, Harry, Martina and myself had the chance to go for a screenprintig induction last week. I was quite curious about this method of making images. I took my sketchbooks with me to use one drawing from them to experiment with this technique. Screen printing is a versatile and physical technique which allows the transfarence of ink onto many different materials such as paper, ceramics, textiles, glass, wood and plastic. Erika was so nice and helpful and she explained everything about the process. This printing technique works especially well with simple, bold shapes but great results can be achived by layering colours in more complex ways. We chose a black and white Cat Hotel drawing from my sketchbook to screen print it. We had to scan our drawings, make it absolutely black and white in photoshop and then print them again.
Workshop with Rob Nicol 13/04/2016
We had 40 minutes in the library to find 1 image of each prompts below, either as a photocopy or printout. - a texture - an interior space - a pattern -3x characters -5x objects
“Not only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday.� Woody Allen (1935-)
Even though I did not like my final piece, it was an absolutely useful workshop. Rob helped us a lot, and gaveso much useful advices. We had 1:1 tutorial with him as well which was great too. We discussed the Cat Hotel, he recommended a few books and techniques which could support my project. I am glad to attended not only the workshop, but the tutorial as well. I hope it is going to be other workshops like this in the future.
Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson has perhaps the most conspicuous and unique visual style of any popular American filmmaker. Because of this, a whole vocabulary has developed around criticism of his work. “Doll house,” “pastel,” “twee,” “whimsy,” “fairy tale,” “filigreed toy box” — pejorative or complimentary, these are the words what we use to describe his films. And however accurate these descriptors are in providing a sense of the look of Anderson’s films, they often don’t account for the reasons for Anderson’s stylistic choices.
The film tells the story of Zero Moustafa (Tony Revoli), a lobby boy at the illustrious Grand Budapest Hotel in the fictional kingdom of Zubrowka between the wars. He is taken under the wing of M. Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), the Hotel’s famous concierge, who, besides being a great concierge, has a penchant for sleeping with the hotel’s rich octoand nonagenarian guests. When one of these lovers is killed, the police accuse M. Gustave, and he and Zero undertake to clear his name, even as they’re pursued by homicidal thugs and the police, while the whole country is on the brink of war.
This movie influenced me a lot. I spent hours researching about how do they get the look of it, the colour palette, the characterisation. I red several articels and analysis about it’s visual world, and style. Obviousliy Wes Anderson is the most important person who is behind all of these elements. His filmmaking style and attiutde is very representative . It’s all so perfect and orderly and detailed — in sound design, set decoration, camera moves, acting, characterisation — everything is connected to Wes Anderson filmmaking attitude. So what’s most impressive about The Grand Budapest Hotel is the fact that how he created the whole world in and out. Everything that we see on the screen it is his creation. Starting with the newspapers, bus lines, currency and all the way to the pastry box designs. Some elements are slightly seen in the movie, but the amount of details that the director created is overwhelming. It is incredible that we can freeze the frame, zoom in and read the article in the made-up newspaper.
Cinematography The cinematography aspect of this film is especially extraordinary and unique. I focused on this part the most not only to support my illustration practice as creating framing and the compositions in Cat Hotel, but on my photography one as well.The framing throughout the movie is consistent and very unique to Wes Anderson. We can see a lot of symmetrical compositions and shots that are constructed to reflect the perspective of a specific character in a film.
TYPOGRAPHY Annie Atkins. Annie Atkins is the film’s lead graphic designer responsible for making all the graphic props to vivify the fictitious called the Empire of Zubrowka. Atkins meticulously hand-crafted almost every of piece of ephemera shown on camera. She looked at hundreds of pieces of design from Eastern Europe at the beginning of the last century as reference. For Trans-Alpine Yodel, Zubrowka’s local newspaper, Atkins designed almost 40 variations before the final was selected. Each issue had to be typeset with different stories, dates, and the correct weather forecast following the plot. Anderson wrote all the articles for the paper.
COLOUR: Colours The two timeframes presented in the movie, the 60’s, and the 30’s are lit differently and the production design choices differ as well. For the 30’s, we have more reds/pinks color cast in the over image and a bit harsher light. For the 60’s part, the image looks warmer and tinted towards yellows and oranges.
Framing and Compositons The compositons and framing inspired me the most in the Cat Hotel from this movie. I have some sketches about how I have started my project influenced by the Gran Budapest Hotel compositions.
However, these pieces mostly just developmental ones, it helped me to make the final ones for the Hotel leaflet
Researching in the Library After the first tutorials with Joal and Hayley I have started to visit the library regurarly. I have checked several books and picturebooks. I researched all the Marc Boutavant and Richard Scarry’s books from the library. I am going to mention some other picturebooks that I pleased as well.
APRIL THE RED GOLDFISH Marjolaine Leray This book is a very good example what I would like to do in my future practice. I pleased the style of the drawings they are very simple and funy with just limited coloure palette. Not only the drawings, but the story is very simple as well. The simpleness represents the magnificence of this book. I also appriciated the style of typography and I think it is working very well with the drawings. Probably I am going to make the Cat Hotel book in the similar size and format in the future.
The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers I have known some of Oliver Jeffers books already because he isnpires me a lot. I love the style the characters and the coloures in this book and especially the compositions. He is so playfull with framing
Artists
Marc Boutavant Marc Boutavant was born and brought up in rural Burgundy, and now he lives and works in Paris. His education started with biology studies which was followed by an art/communiction school. He is best known for his children’s book illustration. He is an illustrator of numerous books for kids, such as Le Sapin, Another Night Before Christmas, or Mouk. These works are produced entirely digitally . ‘I used to work late into the night with a zero pencil and acrylic paints but one day, suddenly I was free. I could contruct shapes and colours, move them about and do what I wanted with them. ‘ said Marc Boutevant. So he changed his way of working digitally. He works entirely in Photoshop using just a few tools. On the subject of style, he says at the beginning he was to concerned about self awareness in terms of the visual identity and stylistic qualities in his work would be destroying, that ’knowing more would be bad for inspiration’, but now he feels able to ’grow in it and make it grow’. I really like his style and how he creates worlds digitally. The harmony in the shapes and colours and characters inspire me a lot. Although I believe the traditional, analogue techniques are more seductive but I would like to improve myself to work digitally as well, and his work is a very good inspiration for me.
Not only in my childhood but ever since Christmas was always a big impact on me. I loved that magical world and all the Christmas stories, tales and animation. The Night before Christmas shows that absolutely magical world to me. In my practice I would like to build another worlds as well.
Another Night Before Chritsmas written by Carol Anne Duffy, John Murray,2005
In Le Tour de Mouk ( Mouk’s Journey, Albin Michel Jeunesse, 2007) I like all the characters because every one of them has a distinctive and convincing sense of personality.
Le Sapin written by Hans Christian Andersen, 25 All the elements of his stories, the characters, coloures, shapes, the way how he develope a world is quite amazing and inspiring.
Laura Hughes Laura is a contemporary children’s illustrator. Originally she is from Bath, but she studied illustration at Kingstone University and graduated in 2005. Nowadays, she is based in London and is represented by The Bright Agency and also she is one third of Studio Mama Wolf: an independent, small creatice collective. She has worked with a many clients around the world, including Random House, Waitrose, American Greetings and Blue Rabbit Books. Her work one of my biggest inspirations currently. Her style is really close to mine, and her subject areas as well. She prefers to work traditionally and uses all sorts of materials to create her work but mainly use paints, inks and sometimes finishes her pieces digitally.
Not only, do I admire her characters, but also the sense of humor in her work and her techniques as well. The coulours and the textures are really strong and her narrative ability.
I have come across her work on the internet when I was researching for my Cat Hotel project because she has also some funy cat illustrations. Not only her cat characters, but all her other character design inspire me a lot.
Ronald Searle Ronald William Fordham Searle (192-2011) was a British artist and satirical cartoonist. Searle was born in Cambridge, England. He trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) for two years. Although Searle published the first St Trinian’s cartoon in the magazine Lilliput in 1941, his professional career really begins with his documentation of the brutal camp conditions of his period as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese in World War II in a series of drawings that he hid under the mattresses of prisoners dying of cholera. Searle produced an extraordinary volume of work during the 1950s, including drawings for Life, Holiday and Punch.His cartoons appeared in The New Yorker, the Sunday Express and the News Chronicle. He compiled more St Trinian’s books, which were based on his sister’s school and other girls’ schools in Cambridge. He collaborated with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth books (Down With Skool!, 1953, and How to be Topp, 1954), and with Alex Atkinson on travel books. In addition to advertisements and posters, Searle drew the title backgrounds of the Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder film The Happiest Days of Your Life. After he moved to Paris in 1961, he worked more on reportage for Life and Holiday and less on cartoons. He also continued to work in a broad range of media and created books including his well-known cat books, animated films. Searle did a considerable amount of designing for the cinema, and in 1965, he completed the opening, intermission and closing credits for the comedy film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines as well as the 1969 film Monte Carlo or Bust. In 1975, the full-length cartoon Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done was released. His cartoons and characters are amazing and the satiric style is brilliant and very close to me.
After my presentation in December, Hayley suggested that I check Ronald’s Cat drawings. His Cat Books are very similar than my Cat Hotel project it was very interesting to see the similarities. I can learn and have inspirations from his Cats, they are wonderful.
On the one hand, the sense of humuor appaer in his cat illustrations which is one of my main goal to express humuor with my drawings, on the other, the character design, the lines and the style are so impressive. He is one of my greates role modell. It was such as inspiring feeling to see these drawings at the first time, when I have already started my Cat Hotel project, and I realized my inspirtaion from the world , my goals could be very similar as his was in the field of illustration.
PHOTOGRAPHY I am currently working on a photography project as well. It is a visual diary about Bournemouth beach. I go to the beach every day if it is possible and capture what I see. I think the beach is a very interesting place and a very rich subject for taking pictures . It is not only a great feeling to practice photography again, but this project helps me in my illustration project. I am more confident in framing when I am taking pictures and since I have started taking photography again, it supports my skills in Cat Hotel, when I am creating different scenes, and compositons.
I have started this series on the instagram, and then I found it is going to be a deeper project than I thought previously. So now I use my camera, not my phone and later on I am going to make a book and maybe an exhibition . I am going to continue this project until I am staying in Bournemouth . Martin Paar’s beach project is inspireing me.
Section 6 - Personal Bibliography
Blake, Q. (2012): Beyond the Page. London. Tate Publishing, a division of Tate Enterprises Ltd Boutavant, M. (2010): For Just One Day. London. Tate Publishing Boutavant, M. (2009): Around the World with Mouk a trail of adventure. London. Tate Publishing Brazell, D. and Davis, J. (2014): Understanding Illustration. London. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Elwick, E.(2011): The Princess and the Sleep Stealer. London, MacMillan Children’s Books. Garrett, C. (ed.) (2013) Vitamin D2: new perpectives in drawing. London. Phaidon Gregory, A. (2009): Amelia’s anthology of illustration, Amelia’s House Hughes, T. (2010): The Iron Man. London. Walker Books Ltd. Jeffers, O. (2007): The way Back Home. Great Britain. Harper Collins Children’s Books Leray, M.(2014): April The Red Goldfish- A Goldfish searching for meaning of life. London, English Phoenix Yard Books Ltd. McCorquodale, D. ( 2009): Illustratde Chilldren’s Book. London. Black Dog Publishing, Ltd Nodelman, P. (1988): Words About Pictures, The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books. USA, Georgia. University of Georgia Press Rees, D. (2014): How to be an Illustrator. 2nd ed. London. Laurence King Publishing Ltd Salisbury, M. (2007) : Play Pen New Children’s Book Illustration. London. Laurence King Publishing Scarry, R. (1988): Best Bedtime book ever. London. The Hamly Publishing Group Ltd. Scarry, R. (1977): Busiest People ever. Uk. William Collins Sons and Company Ltd. Scarry, R (1991) : Storybook dictionary. London. Hamlyn Children’s Books Williams, R. (2009) : The Animator’s Survival Kit. London. Bloomsburry House
http://Philip Conklin is a co-founder of The Periphery. http://www.theperipherymag.com/the-grand-budapesthotel/ http://www.origo.hu/filmklub/blog/kritika/20140320-kritika-wes-anderson-a-grand-budapest-hotel-cimu-filmjerol-werkvideok-a-film-forgatasarol.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Budapest_Hotel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuBU0XLPduU http://timeinpixels.com/2015/09/cinematography-ingrand-budapest-hotel/ http://laurahughes-illustrator.co.uk/ http://ycn.org/ http://www.pentagram.com/#/home www. booooooom.com www.grafiks.com www.pinterest.com www.behance.com http://snask.com/our-work/# https://www.penguin.co.uk/ http://penguinrandomhousedesignaward.co.uk/index.php http://abcug.hu/hogy-futja-47-ezerbol-cigire-es-kolara/ http://www.thebrightagency.com/ http://beach.london/ http://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2016/01/13/annie-leibovitz-trying-very-hard-to-take-a-photo-of-angela-merkel/
Artists, magazines, movies: Alison Lunie Angela Barrrett Annie Atkins Annie Leibovitz Apartmento magazine Avedon Bill Waterson
Oliver Jeffers Penguin books Quentin Blake Richard Scarry Sara Fanelli Shaun Tan
Casabella magazine
Sylvain Chomet : The Tripletts of Belleville
Dazy Clark
Tim Walker
Ronald Searle
Wes Anderson: Grand Budapest Hotel
Jim Jarmush John Burnungham John Tenniel Kate Alizadeh Laura Carlin Laura Hughes Lisbeth Zwenger Martin Paar Marc Boutavant Mincho magazine
Wes Anderson Wrap magazine
Section 7 - Statement of Practice
Statement of Practice During my photography studies I challanged myself in different fields and ways of taking pictures. I completed BA Photography course at the University of Applied Sciences, Budapest, specialising in documentary and photojournalism. I am curently continuing my studies at The Arts University of Bournemouth where I am taking an MA in Illustration. My favourite photography subjects are portrait and storytelling. I am interested in people, their characters and their stories. I use the same influences in my illustration practice, but my main aim is to express humor. Humor is very important to me and key for everything in my life. My main area of interest is creating stories, building other worlds and passionately inventing different characters. My process is informed through a love of experimentation with drawing, characterising animals and people inspired by the world around me. My prefered materials are watercolour, water colour pencil, pencils and inks. The driving force in my practice is the sense of humor that I experience every day in the world around me and my love of drawing as a way of recording it.
Section 9 - Research methodology My creative journey
Researching in the Royal Norfolk Hotel Bournemouth Harry showed me a few hotels nearby where I could research for my project. We spent one day in the Royal Norfolk Hotel. I made a lot of sketches and took photos with my camera to record the furniture, different spaces and patterns. The style of the hotel was perfect to my Cat Hotel.
This research was a very relevant part of my making progress. I used most of my sketches as reference to create the final pieces. I focused to make very detailed drawings, and fast sketches about spaces as well.
I finished my drawings at home and I experimented with placing cats in the compositions. I also tried to put colours but I did not like the result but I thought at first I am going to make the compositions, and then I can experiment with the colours.
Framing is still quite difficult to me when I am drawing, thats why it is very useful to make these reference sketches.
Research on the internet In addition, I researched on the internet and checked several hotel’s website to find reference photos about different rooms in various style.
I used these photos mostly to create the compositions on my drawings. I also get some ideas about what kind of furnitures may present in a hotel room.
For the outside look of the Hotel I researched photos of old castles, and palaces on the internet. The Grand Budapest Hotel also influenced me at this point.
I used different elements of my reference photos to develop scenes and characters.
Colours I was struggling and experimenting with the colours for days. It was a really hard process to reach the final style. Working in the studio was so useful and convenient because Harry and Lisa helped me whenever I became stuck with something. It is interesting how my making process and my attitude have changed since the beginnig of the course. I did not used to like work in the studio in the first months of the course and now probably the studio is the only place where I can do my best work. I experimented with water colour and watercolour pencils. I sketched more compositions and ideas in my sketchbook and photocopied them. I experimented with different styles and the textures. This piece was not my favourite one. I did not like the results any of them somehow so I tried to experiment further and try the colours on different pieces as well.
I knew that I wanted to colour just some parts and details of the drawing and not all of it to bring out caertain details.
I decided that colours should be lighter, and not to be as dominant as my lines . I also realized it is working better if I colour the cat and some little details on the backround because he is the main point of my drawing, not the chair. So I decided this is going to be the way how I am going to colour my other pieces. I devised a process where first I photocopied various copies ofmy drawings, and then coloured different parts of each pieces. After, I chose the best one, and redrew it to a watercolour paper.
When I was satisfied with the drawing and the colouring on the last version on the water colour paper, I scanned it in and finished everything in photoshop.
Composition For the composition and the framing, as I mentioned previously I used my sketches and photo research images. When I hat an idea of a scene, I made a fast, rough sketches about different compositions in my sketchbook.
Making a broshure Even though I had several final pieces, I realized during the making progress it is going take more time making a picturebook. So I have decided for this Unit I am going to make and advertisment for my Cat Hotel, a Hotel brochure.
Resarch in hotels I have visited some hotels in Bournemouth again, and collected some brochures for refernces.
I made different catgories from my drawings to see how could I group the them together to make a broshure. I had to choose those pieces from each groups which are working together in a book. My graphic designer friend, Ornella helped me to chose and create the layout of the leaflet. 1. Lobby area
2. The Rooms
3. The Restaurant
4. Tea Room and the Bar
5. Spa area
6. Pool
I know that the cover is going to be my drawing of the hotel. And we agreed with Ornella that the first page is going to be the director of the Hotel. On the second page we thought we are going to write a Welcome message, but after a lot of consideration as I do not want to put to much text on the broshure and the cats speaking ‘cat language’ anyway, we researched on the internet how can we say ‘Miaow’ in different languages.
Research in the V&A visit the National Library in London I reserached about artist books and zines. It was an extraordinary experi-
Julie Chan You are here. This books is based on the allegorical idea of life as a journbey of chance and fate, the book is stored in a carrying box. The leaves of the book fold out to make a map which surrounds the codex
Mimi Pond and Betty Davis
Thomas Larry Bad dream Book
Larry B. Thomas Pocket Book.
Section 10 - Reflection on development of Practice
“Who am I ?”
Bournemouth Living in Bournemuth is a new adventure and it is having a huge impact, not only on my personal life, but on my practice as well. Moving to another country is not any easy issue, but it could be very useful. I grew up in Budapest, and I studied photography before my MA. So moving to a smaller city and studying in very new subject area, all the changes I have been through since September completely changed my life. On the one hand, illustration is very different to my photography practice. After moving to Bournemouth to study Illustration I have slowly become more ballanced and it has made my practice more relaxed and balanced. The city and the environment here is more relaxed and it influnces me. Whenever I am drawing or painting, it is calms me down and makes me relaxed. So my point is, at this stage of my life, all these facts resulted that it is easier to concentrate better on my work than at home in Budapest. The process of how I work has changed because my whole life has changed. I loved living in Budapest, I miss my home, my family, my friends, but I am happy here because I can study new things and challenge myself, even if it is not easy. On the other hand, it does not mean that I want to give up on my photography practice. At this stage of my life I enjoy drawing, learning new skills and living in a calmer environment. As a photographer, I am more social, more extrovert and active which is important to me. So at this point my progression is so interesting and I am curious what can I achieve by the end of my MA. Not only moving changed my practice, but the fact of changing an art field too. It was quite hard to start this course becuase I have never studied illustration before. Even though I studied another field of art, and everybody told me that could be very usefull in an illustration course, I was struggling at the beginning of my MA because I have not got a huge drawing experinece.Not to mention, I always worry to much and I can hardly trust in myself. So ever since I was born I have had self- confidence issues. So It was quite difficult to start our first brief. All my classmates are so talented and amazing, and inspire and motivate me. What Paul said to me at our first tutorial has changed my attitude and I became more confident because somebody give me posotivie critique. The funny part was I did not remembered this part of our discussion, my classmate Lisa told me after the tutorial what Paul said to me. He told me, it was quite hard to belive that I have never studied Illustration before because I can draw very well and he told me just keep going because my lines have lots of potential. It was a quite important moment in my progression. After the tutorial I became more enthusiastic and I have drawn more and more. All the tutorials and critiques have helped me a lot in my development and have given me more confidence. Currently I am working as much as I can and trying to find my voice. I am interested in chilldren’s book illustration, book design, character design and narrative so in the next Unit I would like to research and challenge myself in these fields.