I keep a book of Quentin Blake’s illustrations on my studio desk for inspiration (and awe), as I really love his work, and how he uses a combination of ink and pen to create these impactful compositions and sketches that are just as strong in greyscale as they are in colour. The imposing figure of Miss Trunchbull in Matilda in contrast to the tiny figure of Matilda, the gentle streakiness of the rain that perfectly imitates the way the world looks when its foggy and misting outside, and the darkness of night illuminated by the moon in The BFG, are all such perfect ink washes, and I’m very excited to try using ink!

For this workshop, we were told to experiment with ink washes, which was my first time using ink. I started by sketching some initial ideas for what I wanted my subject to be, using a fineliner pen and drawing to the full size of my sketchbook (a5). My initial idea was a child on a dark street, illuminated by a lamppost as I knew I wanted to use the different opacities of ink to give the impression of light. However after talking through this idea out loud, I realised how threatening this would look, and involve questions of why a small child is all alone outside in the darkness, which was not the impression I was looking to create. I then briefly explored the idea of a child in a playground, however I didn’t really like my sketch, and it wasn’t very balanced proportionally, especially as the detail was mainly in the background. I started sketching an idea of a child’s bedroom, featuring a patchwork quilt, a dollhouse and a train set. I liked parts of my first composition, especially the way that the curved train set formed a sort of leading line that connected bed-train-window-dollhouse x repeat (or some version of that). However the shelves weren’t well proporioned, so I created a second page with smaller drawings and quick ideas of elements to include.

I redrew my sketch out again to a5 size (first image), mainly focussing on learning how the ink applied and how different dilutions of water ink produced darker or lighter washes. I quickly moved on to trying a larger version of the same sketch in a4 (second image), without looking too much at the final result of the first one. This was definitely the wrong move in hindsight, as if I had taken the time to look more at how the first ink wash looked, I would have been able to correct mistakes I made that appeared in both. Although I liked the light in the first picture, I should have picked up that the dollhouse was far too big, and blocked where my light should be travelling. The same thing happened in my second one, and changing the lamp stand made the composition weaker as it was the wrong light for the space, with too heavy a base and the doll house was even blockier. However I learnt more about how the ink applies, and it was smoother with a more gradual light path on the bed and wall, while the first was like an animated torch light and less realistic. I was able to correct one mistake that I noticed in my sketches and first ink drawing, which was the way the bed was centred from the wrong perspective, and was able to move it to against the wall. I really liked the patchwork quilt in my second wash, as it reminds me of old illustrations I used to see where the children in the books had all of these homemade, colourful quilts that I loved. I would definitely like to explore more with ink wash, as even though neither drawing was perfect, it made my line work so much more complete and resolved, with more of a finished final look. I also preferred working to the a5, smaller size as being new to ink, it’s tricky to keep the level of diluting the same for large areas like the floor. This will hopefully be something that I get to explore more of in the future!

pantry shelf tour (video of my line art food shelves)

I have begun to explore the idea of interactive illustration, and how I can turn a flat illustration into a physical object that can be picked up and turned around. I began by sketching some ideas for my theme of childhood, such as a little pop up room where a character could be placed or a narrative would be told. I find it helpful to write down my thoughts as I’m illustrating, which often means that my sketchbook is disproportionally writing to illustration. I tried to combat this by visually displaying each idea along with my notes. I also considered creating a long continuous illustration however the technicality of displaying and also creating a consistent piece on a large scale was too difficult. I had recently bought some pop up books, so I had drawn out a few ideas that could have a more visually 3D effect, but I wasn’t inspired by these, and wanted to come up with a different idea. I changed my method, and began thinking of something that I wanted to draw and how I could turn it 3D, rather than the other way around. I decided on making a little illustrative pantry shelf with cereal on the highest shelf, as a nod to a childhood memory where I always had to draw up a chair in order to reach the cereal cupboard. 

I used a stock cube box that I had, and drew out the measurements on a piece of paper so that I could insert it cleanly into the box. I was inspired by childhood memories of Quentin Blake’s sketchy style of ink drawings, and so I knew that I wanted to draw loosely, without a pencil line or closed lines. I looked up product photos of shelves so I had some idea of composition, but mainly drew shapes that were abstracted versions of boxed products or bottles. I cut off one of the sides of the box so that it appeared to be more cupboard shaped, and stuck the completed illustration inside. I used a leftover piece of paper for the top of the box and drew a simplistic grid pattern as I didn’t want to detract from the main illustrations. I was really happy with the final result, and although I considered painting the stock cube side plain white, I quite liked the upcycled/ recycled look that it resulted in. I knew I definitely wanted to explore interactive illustration more, and do more with food shelves in relation to childhood as they were lots of fun to draw. 

My next idea carried on from the cereal cupboard idea theme, except this time I wanted to turn an illustration into a 3D object, such as packaging. I wanted to keep to the small theme that I was working on, as I really enjoy working to a small scale. This time I began to create a physical cereal box that could be opened and closed. I knew I wanted to create this digitally as I could change the colours easily and print as many boxes as I needed for my shelf. In my previous workshops, I explored the idea of a 3D room, making paper technology and furniture, so I drew on what I learnt from that. I constructed a small paper shelf using cardboard and masking tape for the cereal boxes to fit in. I wanted to use a more limited colour palette so that I could swap the colours around to create different versions. As the scale of the product was to be dollhouse sized because of the childhood connotations, I made a quite illustrative design that didn’t include a lot of details and featured mainly shapes. I used a crayon texture digital brush, making five different colour versions and printed it on watercolour paper for additional texture. I hadn’t realised I was running out of printer ink, so the colours came out different than they did on my tablet, but I was happy with the final version. I definitely want to explore more 3d and interactive pieces relating to childhood in the future, and look forward to my next projects. 

The task for this workshop was to create an a3 illustration using gouache, where we looked at examples of Laura Callaghan’s work. This was my first time using gouache, so I was rather worried as I don’t enjoy painting due to the texture and inconsistency of application. I started off by thinking about how I could create a design that had a character in it but didn’t detract from the background. I started sketching some quick character ideas that I had, using a long nose as a prominent facial feature, and two curly ponytails as I wanted there to be a link to my childhood theme. I came up with a few ideas for the characters outfit, however I ultimately settled on keeping her all one colour as I thought that would match my illustration best. I began thinking about some of my memories as a kid, such as going round supermarket shelves and always being too tall to reach any of the items on the shelves, as well as always wanting to get all of the sugary foods, but not being allowed. I drew my idea, of a kid being surrounded by all of these unhealthy foods at her level on the floor, and all of these other nameless items on the shelves above. I had initially started to complete the shelves in my sketchbook, but as I had other ideas for a project surrounding food shelves, I thought that it would be a better use of my time to figure out what colours I wanted to use.

I wanted to learn from my last experience of colour, where I used far too many with too little thought, so I wanted to do some research first. I looked at some of Laura Callaghan’s illustrations, and came across one also in a supermarket, however I was not planning on using line work for my piece. I also found this old illustration of Harry Olsen’s that I really liked, as well as Jacqueline Colley’s single shelf. I really liked the risograph look of Jacqueline Colley’s, as well as how limited her palette even though it was all so well spaced out. I decided I wanted to use risograph inspired colours, which was a decision that I definitively decided on. I also loved how Nicolaas Kotzé’s work didn’t look like a limited colour palette in a negative way as it was all so well spaced out and planned.

1. Laura Callaghan for zeitmagazin
2. Harry Olsen from ‘Seeing is Believing’
3. Jacqueline Colley’s ‘Supermarket Sweep’
4. Nicolaas Kotzé’s ‘Survival Kit’

I drew out a large a3 sketch of what I wanted the final piece to look like, using the black marker from Fru’s workshop. I had originally planned to paint over the top of it, but realised quickly it wouldn’t work due to the density and bleeding of the marker. I scanned my drawing and edited it so that the white background and back of the items were removed. I then started to colour map on procreate, as it was the easiest way to figure out where I wanted the colours to go, and see if they were all evenly spaced so that one colour didn’t dominate or became over represented.I was happy with this, and decided to progress on to the final painting.

I pinned my marker drawing to a window and traced over it in pencil, correcting some more wonky parts or uneven spacing. I now had a pencil underlay that could guide me as to where I wanted the colour to go. I had to mix all of my colours, which was also a new experience, as I was using the studio’s gouache that had limited colour options. I wanted to work colour by colour, rather than product by product in order to avoid the paint drying out. I used a printed out version of my digital colour mapping and set to work. Quite honestly, I hated the process quite vehemently, it was messy and difficult to accurately place my lines with a paintbrush, and the most frustrating part was the inconsistency and the continual dipping back into the paint. I desperately missed pens that you could draw with, without refilling. I considered giving up quite a few times, but I managed to get through it after spending multiple hermit days over the break on it (don’t recommend). Although I didn’t like it at the time, it was quite nice to see the photo progression as I finished a colour. I hadn’t mapped out what colours I wanted the foods beside the child to be, and it was only a decision that I made whilst doing the blue that it would be in the same colours. I missed more than a few spots in my initial colour layers, so I did have to keep reactivating the gouache in order to fix it, but luckily I had just enough. After some discussion, I decided to paint the child the warm yellow that I used for the items, as it made it a happier illustration, and avoided problems such as blue = sad, red = horror. Although I did manage to complete this task, I don’t think gouache is something I will be using for later tasks, as it was more stress than happiness of completing it.

Although I was reasonably happy with my final illustration, I did want to do a brief experiment where I changed the size of the character to see how that changed the feel of the illustration. I turned the whole background tones to be red and pink, which left it feeling very ominous at the different scales. Whilst it is good to digitally experiment, this one definitely made my illustration look worse.

This was a workshop task that we did with Fru. We were told to go around the university and draw ‘hidden viewpoints’ – corners and little places that stood out to us as forming a composition. We were told to only use black and white mediums, so I chose to work with a black marker on white paper.

Day 1 of 2.

Each drawing is a5 in size, a set of 8. I didn’t want to use a pencil before drawing, and jumped straight in with my marker. Some drawings and sections are more imperfect than others, but I really like the loose style and how you can see a little bit of my movement in each illustration.

1. BD Block Square Wave cafe, by the doors
2. Out the window of the foundation TADF studio
3. Out the window of the foundation graphic design studio
4. Corner of TADF with fabric forming shadows
5. HJEM cafe entrance inside BSOA art shop
6. HJEM cafe standing from opposite
7. By the lifts of floor 4, chairs propping door open
8. Corner of the foundation graphic design studio

Day 2 of 2.

For this task with Fru, we used our drawings to make a little accordion book with the title ‘Hidden Viewpoints’. I wanted to use my third sketch as the title page as it had a natural rectangle for putting it in. We used a white sheet of paper to take quick product style photos, and set them up beside the window to show them with natural light passing through. This was a really fun exercise in observational drawing and finding composition, and I really liked my final outcome.

After finishing my previous colour designs, I wanted to briefly explore an idea that I had on procreate. I had been thinking about the stars as a light source, and wanted to try turning them into one digitally. I experimented with the different multiply and subtract tools, as well as gaussian blur and bloom. I created a series of three flat images and three animations as an experiment of the stars and inside of the fort lighting up. I was happiest with the first, bluest image as it was clearest, whilst the second was more of the colour of a swimming pool reflection, and the last one was too muddy. Although I don’t do animation, it was interesting to see how you could turn a traditional flat image into something more interactive.

animation 1

animation 2

animation 3

These were the designs that I did on photoshop, initially focusing on cleaning up the scanned image. We were told about all of the different tools that we needed for photoshop in order to clean up an image, as well as changing the overall colour of the image with the adjustments bar. I had some fun experimenting in the tine we had in the pc labs, and found it interesting to see just how much colour can change your image. These first six of the blanket forts were after I had cleaned up the scan, as well as changing the hue to different levels. I quite liked some elements of the different images, but I thought that the sixth one was the most consistent, as it looked like a night time scene of a sleepover or midnight snack trip. I also tried to do the same with my garage library chute, but found it harder to make it look nice, most likely due to the scale of how small everything was. I had more success with changing it all to one colour such as red, green or blue, and I preferred how that looked. As I had added colour, it was more interesting than just line art of those colours, as inside each line was a different shade of that colour that I thought looked nice. Overall, it was definitely a very useful exercise in learning what not to do for colour, and an introduction of some basic photoshop features.

We were tasked with a group project where we were to make a collaborative house, with each person in the group drawing two or more rooms. We were encouraged to make the rooms as quirkily shaped as possible, and to stay away from simpler square or rectangle rooms if possible. I was given two very strangely shaped ‘rooms’, one of which was more of a tunnel, however I’d never done anything like this before so I was interested to see what I could make with it. My first room was at the bottom of the house, in the basement, so there were theoretically no windows or light sources. The long wonky geometric rectangle Thing, was to lead down to the basement’s other room, of which I was not in charge of drawing. My plan for this six week module is to focus on the theme of childhood, and we had been told to incorporate our chosen theme into the rooms if possible. I considered doing a child’s bedroom, but it felt wrong to do that in the basement of a house, so I re-evaluated. I came up with a blanket fort room, because what kid wouldn’t love a huge blanket fort. I also loved Laura Carlin’s designs, as her use of stacked objects and items was so cleverly done, and I enjoyed her use of scale.

I began sketching out my design, deciding to turn the rectangle space into a sort of vertical abstract garage with piled cars, bikes, chairs, tvs and wheels that looked like they had all fallen into a crack that had opened up underneath the garage, and everything had fallen in. I wanted everything to be of a similar size, like in Laura Carlin’s designs, however I made sure that at the very bottom was the largest car as I thought it was the best use of the space, and also emphasised how ‘wrong’ the scale was. For my blanket fort, I wanted to add little stars around the fort as there were no windows or lights, and thought it could add a more childish element. I didn’t want to add the details of the blanket or cars in pencil, as I preferred to freehand that in pen so that it could be as loose as possible. I also decided to turn the wonky rectangle into a space that also had a library on top, as the long narrow line at the very top was difficult to work with. I then drew a rough guide as to the shelves where I would add the books in, and included a tiny little chair.

I really enjoyed doing the line work for both the blanket fort and the library/ garage combo, as that kind of fine line work on a small scale is exactly what I enjoyed doing, and really regretted not doing for my first workshop in illustration. I had not anticipated how long drawing each of the tiny books would take me, but after a while it did become quite therapeutic. I was able to add all of the details of the blanket fort in pen, and although I messed up a few times in repeating the pattern, it was less noticeable after completing.

I dreaded adding colour, as I do typically only work in black and white. I settled on colouring pencil as I thought that would allow me to make the colour less patchy and more solid, however I really struggled with it. I didn’t entirely dislike both final outcomes, however I didn’t think through the colour palette enough, in future I will use a more limited scheme or plan the colour out better. My line art was much stronger than my colour, however we will be doing a lecture on photoshop where I can experiment with changing the colour around a little. At Ashling’s suggestion, I also completed a version that was all colour, no line, and it was closer to the kind of childish theme that I had in mind. I think that the line versions, and the colour no line, are both stronger final images than the line no colour. I have also included the pictures of my illustrations when they were on my wall.