EP: The Two Ronnies

I was saddened to here of the passing of Ronnie Corbett. I've been a big fan of his since childhood and he will be greatly missed. I drew this quick image to post on social media as a mark of my sadness.

I also used this opportunity to continue my investigation into line weighting and shading. Whilst I feel that my line weighting is continuing to improve, my shading seems to have taken a step back. Ronnie Corbett's hair doesn't have the same visual quality that the hair of Clara did in my recent Doctor Who and Clara piece. I feel this is due to the lack of lines within the actual block of shading itself, which is present in the previous work.

EP: Crispin Orthotics - Design

After some initial research I set about making my design for an ankle orthotic. As stated I wanted to have a futuristic/sports feel to the piece so began by making a hexagon based pattern design inspired by my research.




After completing this I intended to place it on the back of the orthotic where the calf would be. However I thought, with it being the calf, why not mimic the muscle somewhat and have the hexagons fit in in a similar arrangement. So I readjusted the piece.



Following this, I applied to the design to a mock-up orthotic I had created and produced an additional array of colours for the design;



Whilst quite a simple design, I feel it is effective. If I were to need orthotics I would wear this design, thought that comment ultimately means little.

EP: The Doctor and Clara

Continuing my refinement of drawing using my knowledge of Rachael Slott's visual language, I yesterday created a new Doctor Who piece. Whilst unfinished, this piece shows a marked improved with my understanding of shading and line quality.

Although I am happy with the piece, I feel that the best part of the image consists of the characters heads. My understanding of how to effectively draw hair is really improving and I feel that it shows within this work.

EP: Crispin Orthotics Research

Here is the research for my Crispin Orthotics Brief. My intention is to create a pattern design with a futuristic sporting quality, the intention being for it to be used by those who have an affinity with Nike et al.

Here is the internet based research I conducted in preparation for the design;



Whilst in a running store later in the day I happened across a range of running shoes, with many having very interesting designs;





I don't consider this a huge brief, however research is still important. I'm intending for my pattern design to have a similar aesthetic to that of this blue Nike trainer.

This trainer perfectly encapsulates the feel I'm going for; a design that will appeal to those who have a feel for sports wear, possibly people who were previously gym enthusiasts etc.

EP: Revised SOI

Here is my revised Statement of Intent. The briefs have changed drastically since my last SOI, however Fred informed us that is to be expected.

EP: Iron Man

Recently whilst looking at some of Matt Taylor's work I couldn't help but notice the interesting texture he uses around lighting in his illustrations. For example, his Lost In Translation print;

I decided to try my hand at creating such a quality within my work using Kyle Webster brushes for an Iron Man sketch. Whilst the effect isn't as refined as Taylor's it did create an interesting visual outcome that I can potentially utilise in later work.

EP: Studio Brief 5 - Brief Sheet

Here is the revised brief sheet for Studio Brief 5;

EP: Studio Brief 2 - Brief Sheet

Here is the brief sheet for Studio Brief 2;

EP: Self Defence Guide Sketchbook Work

After yesterdays crit I went away feeling more confident with this brief and worked in my sketchbook loosely investigating the forms people in defensive stances. I feel that there is a long way to go still with this brief, but I now have a better understanding of posture in defensive positions.

EP: Peer Review - 17/03/16

Following today's tutorial I have decided to drastically change the course of this brief. This brief initially changed following my previous peer review where Fred suggested I drop the idea of making a full comic, or part of a comic and focus on character/environment design. However my work rate has drastically slowed down since then and I believe it is due to my interest dropping in the brief. This was one of the issues I faced coming into todays crit that I wanted resolved, another being what sense of purpose my work has.

Luckily my peers had some good ideas on how to move the brief forward. Rosie F suggested using my character of 'Red', whom I have already studied in depth, as a character in a self defence guide aimed at women. This resolved both problems I faced in terms of purpose and inflating my interest.

I am now looking forward to moving on with this brief, however I don't feel it has the scope to act as a major project for this module. Whether or not this is the case is something I will need to decided upon soon.

EP: Dave Brown

I recently came across cartoonist Dave Brown, who largely worked for the Independent. What appeals to me about his work is the vulgarity of it at times. I sometimes think that my Tory Chums work is perhaps too rude to have a wide audience but Brown's work is in a national newspaper, which puts my mind at ease!

EP: Ice

After discovering Rachael Slott's work recently I couldn't help but create a piece of work that includes several aspects of her drawing style. Slott shows a great understanding of how to draw and shade hair, as well as how to creating interesting variations in line weighting.

Whilst this quick piece of DC Comics character 'Ice' does show some of this qualities, I feel that a deep investigation is needed into this drawing method.

EP: George's Mask Slips!

Today I watched the Andrew Marr Show, a Sunday morning entertainment/political based show. His guest was George Osborne, who was at his most reptilian. He stumbled through questions from Marr, even getting angry with him at one point. I found this quite amusing as George Osborne often shows his true colours when backed into a corner. I decided to respond to this interview with a Tory Chums strip.

I chose to play around with digital tools as they are starting to become more prevalent in my work again and wanted to play with a different method of digital colouring. I found that the approach I took was someone influenced by Stephen Collins Guardian strips and his use of white to indicate light sources. An example can be seen below;



Whilst I don't think this method of colouring was a complete success, I enjoyed drawing digitally and the digital brush pen I used (courtesy of Kyle Webster), created some interesting line work. I feel that this could potentially be a better method of inking than dip pen with a bit more investigation.

EP: Alison Character

With so much attention being spent on the Red character, I decided it was time to focus on the other titular character of Beyond La La Land, Alison.

I wanted to drastically change the appearance of Alison as she was the character I was least impressed with in the initial issues I produced last summer. To do this I used the same character sheets I had used for Red;



I found her face particularly difficult to draw from the side and will need to remedy this in the future. Additionally I chose to make her hair shorter and change her clothes to that which she wore in the initial issues.

Following this I wanted to create a comparison image to gauge how she looked next to Red in terms of redesign, so produced this picture somewhat quickly. There are many elements of my recent drawing style missing here such as smother line work and a greater understanding of line weighting, but the piece wasn't produced with that in mind.



I feel that these characters are finally on their way to becoming something that I can market in some way.

EP: Fury Road LCA Film Society Poster

Adam recently informed me the LCA film society was planning to have a showing of Mad Max: Fury Road and asked if he could use the poster I made to advertise the event. I was happy to oblige and sent him a copy of the file. He put the poster up around the college (which I unfortunately didn't take a photo of) and included it as the banner image for the Facebook group event page (seen below).

EP: Crispin Orthotics - Briefing

Today I went to the Crispin Orthotics briefing along with a few of the others from Illustration. Orthotics are splints or braces used by patients to improve recovery, to feel more comfortable or to help their mobility.  The current designs have a very limited range and Crispin Orthotics know that students could create some exciting new designs.  Each winning design will not only make a difference for a patient, but the designer will receive a financial reward. I decided to take on this brief as I would like one of my briefs to be one that helps people and is less about commercialism.

With that in mind, it was an interesting briefing in which we were advised not to make work that was overly intricate due to print bleeding etc on certain materials. We also have to keep in mind that there will be image stretching in certain areas such as the heel of the foot.

Although they don't have a definite submission date as of yet, they suggested that it would be around the end of March, beginning of April.

We will receive a full brief early next week.