Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION OUIL603 Extended Practice
Level
06
Credits 60
STUDIO PRACTICE Statement of Intent Name www.s-hargreaves1316.blogspot.com Sophie Hargreaves Date 13/10/2015 MODULE DEADLINE: 19TH MAY 2016 Rationale Throughout this module I want to become more confident in my skills as an illustrator. I will be focusing on specific areas to refine and develop the quality of my work. As well as developing the practical aspects of my practice, I will be developing my overall professionalism. This will include how I present physical out-‐comes, propose those I cannot create myself and my ability to talk about my projects. By the end of the module I want to have a clearer idea of the sort of illustrator I will be when I graduate and a portfolio to be proud of and represents my skills. Themes / Subjects Practicing professionalism is fairly straight-‐forward and to do this, I will be allocating more time to presenting final outcomes and considering what sort of presentation is most suitable. For example, photographing a physical piece of work, producing presentation boards or choosing an appropriate stock for printing. Within the briefs I set myself I want to explore publishing once again. In level five I don’t feel as though I did enough work with book illustration, character or smaller publications such as zines. On the back of this, I will also be investigating product and packaging to get a better understanding of commercial illustration. This will include developing products or packaging for a specific brand; print requirements or restrictions and which materials and production methods would be most suitable. I want to explore character to an extent, through zines and book illustrations because it’s a part of my practice that I have never really refined. I draw a lot of characters in my personal sketchbooks but they very rarely make it into my final work. A more overarching theme I want to investigate is my voice as an illustrator, I am interested in how I can combine the way I draw – which is quite bold and girly – with social/political issues I am concerned with. Products / Methods of Distribution Specific products I am interested in making are book covers and inside illustrations, zines, greeting cards and illustrated home-‐ware. These are all quite commercial areas of illustration and I feel that although they could do with some improvement, they resonate with the strongest parts of my practice.
Practical Skills / Media / Formats
In order to improve on my practical skills, I intend to work with traditional media and digitally. During level 5 I particularly enjoyed working with screen print, so I am planning on revisiting it in the collaborative greeting card brief. This would be the most appropriate way to investigate foil flocking or inks outside of the CMYK spectrum. Another relevant skill to develop within this brief would be brush lettering and my overall use of brush and ink so that I don’t always rely on brush pens. For the packaging based briefs I am interested in exploring repeat pattern. This can be done both digitally and with traditional media, so I intend to use a mixture of the two. This way I can play with overlaying shape, texture and adjust colours accordingly. For the book illustration brief, I want to primarily develop my digital skills. This includes digital painting on Photoshop, using textured brushes and hand made textures I have scanned. I always feel as though my digital illustrations look somewhat flat and unrefined, so I am really keen to develop this process. Brief 1: Deadline Competition: Book Covers & Inside Illustrations 18th JANUARY 2016 Final: 5TH APRIL Rationale: I will be answering The Folio Society’s Book Illustration competition, which asks for a cover design and two inside illustrations for Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse’. I intend to expand the brief and produce the same outcomes for 5 books in total. Potentially this could be an on-‐going brief – it depends how much I feel I have improved. Brief 2: Deadline 5TH JANUARY Greetings Cards 2016 Rationale: The initial idea for this brief is based on an old Tigerprint competition brief which I will be adapting. I will be investigating brush lettering and other traditional processes to create a range of greetings cards. The range could be expanded from simple greetings cards to cards for most occasions (Christmas, birthdays, Easter, thank-‐you’s, weddings etc). What I want to get out of doing this is more confidence in my illustrated type and improve the quality of my hand-‐made work instead of relying on Photoshop to clean up. Brief 3: Deadline 5TH MAY 2016 A Zine A Month Rationale: The aim of this brief is to produce a zine a month for the length of the module. Each month I will draw based around a theme, which might be social, political, a specific colour, tool or word. The point of this is just to keep me making images and to do something with them that is more unrefined. This will stop me over-‐thinking a theme or a particular drawing and rely more on my initial response. Putting the drawings into a zine format will make me consider how these drawings can reach an audience and what I am trying to say.
Brief 4:
Deadline
1ST JANUARY 2016
YCN Briefs Rationale: The point of picking up a YCN brief is because it was set by somebody else. It requires me to answer something real world to a professional standard that may be slightly more challenging of my skills. The deadline is much more absolute so it will force me to be more disciplined with my time management. Brief 5: Deadline 10TH MAY 2016 Hallmark Creative/Colouring Book Pages Rationale: Expanding on an old Hallmark Creative competition brief which asks for one colouring book page, I intend to produce one page per week. Once again, this project will span the entire module so that when I have finished, I will have a complete colouring book. This is an area of publishing I am interested in and it requires a lot of patience as adult colouring books tend to be very detailed. I will be essentially investigating the whole process of creating a book, from initial sketches, outlining, cleaning up, printing, binding and proposing a point of sale/audience. Additional Project Proposals:
Illustration Friday to keep me drawing and responding to something every week. ‘Inktober’ throughout October. Contextual References • Mel Stringer Zines • Gemma Flack Zines • Paperchase gift cards
RESEARCH ACTIVITY:
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Read War Horse & watch recent film
RESEARCH ACTIVITY:
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Identify scenes from book that I want to illustrate Produce initial sketches for inside illustrations and binding design
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
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Gather contextual references for greeting cards and illustrated type
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Practice illustrated type/brush lettering on various stock
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
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Initial ideas or sketches for YCN Lush brief
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS / TEXTS - (Harvard Referenced)
MAGAZINES / JOURNALS / ARTICLES – (include publication date and details)
ON LINE REFERENCES / WEBSITES / ARTICLES (include specific urls)
OTHER REFERENCE MATERIAL (Films, events, exhibitions, conferences)
ACTION PLAN – use this section to identify specific tasks that you need to complete in order to resolve the brief. Brief What do you need to do? 1 2
Deadline
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BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice
BRIEF TITLE The Folio Society’s Book Illustration Competition & Extra Brief Create three illustrations and a binding design for Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse’. Apply this brief to 4 other books to develop book illustration skills. For consistency, I will be designing covers and inside illustrations for four more Michael Morpurgo books. These will be: • Kensuke’s Kingdom • The Wreck of the Zanzibar • Why The Whales Came • Running Wild I want to make the book covers look consistent so that they will work as a set. The Folio Society competition deadline is 18th JANUARY 2016. Product Tone of Voice Book cover design for ‘War Horse’ and three ‘War Horse’ is quite a serious children’s book inside illustrations accompanied by the relevant about friendship and loyalty throughout WW1. quotes. These themes should be reflected in the Use same deliverables for 4 more books. illustrations whilst still being appealing for a younger audience. Audience Context Primarily children aged 9 to 13. Re-‐design/re-‐launch of Michael Morpurgo’s The judges at the Folio Society. books. Additional information/Considerations: How can I make them work as a set? I will need to consider colour palettes, materials used and production methods. Mandatory Requirements At least one binding design [140x203mm with 20mm bleed] including spine [25mm x 203mm, design must start 12mm down and there must be 10mm either side for hinges]. Three inside illustrations for at least one book [portrait, 197x137mm or 203x143mm for bleed].
Deliverables 5 binding designs, 15 inside illustration designs and presentation boards for each book.
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice
BRIEF TITLE Greeting Cards Brief Create a range of greeting cards for numerous occasions using illustrated type and other traditional processes. Product Tone of Voice A range of greeting cards for: birthdays; Celebrative, fun, hand-‐crafted, thoughtful, Christmas; congratulations; get well soon; seasonal. graduation. Audience Context People who shop at card/stationary stores such Birthdays, wedding season, family occasions, as Paperchase, roughly aged 18 to 35. Christmas. Additional information/Considerations: Production methods I want to explore – brush lettering, screen print/foil flocking Mandatory Requirements 25 greeting card designs. 5 occasions, 5 designs for each.
Deliverables 5 Christmas cards, 5 birthday cards, 5 congratulations cards, 5 get well soon cards and 5 graduation cards. Possibly extend range to gift bags/wrapping paper and tags.
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice
BRIEF TITLE A Zine A Month Brief Produce one zine every month until the end of the module. Each zine will have a theme which could be a single word, colour or something social/political I want to discuss that month. I am leaving the themes open for now because the idea of the project is to respond to something current and I can’t really determine what that might be. I will make the images throughout the month and then have the finished product finished by the 5th of the next month. Final Deadline: 5th MAY 2016. Product Tone of Voice At least 7 zines, between 8 and 16 pages, Lo-‐fi, fast responses, opinionated, girly, monochrome, each on a different theme. challenging, promotional. Audience Context Primarily young adults aged 18 to 25. Exploring my thoughts and voicing my opinions in a way that can be distributed in a low-‐cost way. Could also be sold on Etsy, at zine/art fairs. Additional information/Considerations: Consider coloured paper, texture, current issues, format (hotdog booklet, saddle stitched?), could these be sold in future? Colour of stock? – what if I want to make a colouring zine? – it would have to be white. Mandatory Requirements 7 A5 zines
Deliverables 7 A5 zines on various themes.
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice
BRIEF TITLE YCN Lush Brief 2014/15 Brief “Reinvent the way that our Emotional Brilliance products are branded and packaged”. Create new packaging and label designs for at least two of the products in the Emotional Brilliance range. Product Tone of Voice Eyeliners, Lipsticks, Eyeshadows • Fresh & handmade • Ethically sourced • Unique • Playful • Informative • Fun Audience Context Reinvent the way some of the Emotional • Predominantly women and young girls Brilliance products are packaged aged 15 to 35 • Will have used Lush products before and want to incorporate their makeup range into their daily routine. Additional information/Considerations • Friendly and non-‐judgemental • Personable, not prescriptive • Main competitors are MAC, Benefit and NARS Mandatory Requirements Deliverables • Must be made from recycled or readily • Packaging designs for at least two recyclable materials products in the Emotional Brilliance range • Must include the Lush logo • Proposal/Presentation boards • Must include product information such as ingredients, legal requirements (weight etc) • Same font family (Helvetica Neue) • Should be sympathetic to the black and white packaging used in other products in the Lush range
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice
BRIEF TITLE YCN Lush Brief 2014/15 Brief Create (at least) one colouring book page per week based around a consistent theme which can be bound into an adult colouring book. Explore illustrated text, quotes, character and pattern. Product Tone of Voice Adult colouring book. • Fun • Interesting/Detailed • Relaxing • Playful Audience Context People aged 16+ who enjoy colouring as a • Would be sold at bookstores like pastime or method of relaxation. Waterstones Additional information/Considerations: • How do I make this different to existing adult colouring books? Mandatory Requirements • At least one page per week • Must be suitably bound and trimmed • Inside illustrations to be black and white
Deliverables One, fully bound and covered adult colouring book with roughly 24 fully illustrated pages to colour in.