Artist research Karin Soderquist

Karin Sodderquist is an Illustrator from Stockholm that creates images digitally. I looked at her work because her images look like they are composed of cut out paper shapes. some of her images are 3D and are made out of wooden sets, this links directly to my project as that is what i am going to do within my illustrations. Her images are different to what i want to create in my work but it still fits in with the simplistic style that i want to create. I have looked at her work and especially focussing on background and scenery because they create a 3D feel. Here are a few of my images that i looked at for inspiration.

Artist research: Rob Ryan

I decided to look at Rob Ryan's work as he uses paper cuts to create images. I thought his work linked to mine because he created 3D images using paper in different layers. Although his work is very different to mine it is really inspiring and incredible to look at. The amount of detail and intricacy within his images is unbelievable.  He creates very complex images that he cuts out of pieces of card. i looked at his work to get inspiration for the backgrounds although i decided to not do anything as complex as his work as i don't have much practice with cutting things out with scalpels, in the future i think i might explore this style more to see how it works within my illustrations. 
Here are a few pieces of his that i really like.   

Colin West Final image

I am doing the poem a king and a cat for my colin west piece. i had already drawn the male character but hadn't drawn the cat yet so i did that yesterday then composed the image on photoshop. for the cat i used pencil, coloured pencil, white crayon, water colour and fine liner. I decided to do the cat ginger as i thought it would stand out and make the image look fun. I really like how the cat turned out i think it conveys a fat lazy cat quite well. I also really like how the media that i used to create the image works. I think i have found what i like to use most and in the future will be working more in this style and using the same things to create my illustrations.

Here is the final image i am really pleased with it although i think it lacks a background. I left it out because in the original illustration there was no background and i thought it worked well. Also backgrounds have never really been my strong point so over the summer i am planning on improving this as it is important to making images feel complete. I think when my illustration is paired with the text of the poem it will look a lot less barren on the background.

Module 2 Evaluation

During this module i have learnt a lot about my own process in creating narrative illustration. I have found that with time management it is better to spread out the work load rather than doing a lot of work in a short amount of time. From this i have learned that i would benefit from making a proper work plan and setting myself smaller personal deadlines to make sure i keep up with the workload. I think that i managed my time to a reasonable standard, however following a proper time plan would have allowed me to have finish well ahead of the deadline, allowing more time to reflect on my work. I would have also had more time to annotate and research in more detail as my written work possibly suffered. 

With regards to character development i feel as though i could have done a lot more although i didn't have many characters within my story. Another thing that contributed to the lack of development was the simplicity of the illustrations. I wanted my illustrations to be simple as i feel that if i over complicated them it wouldn't work as well for the photographic technique i was using. I feel as though i did all of the development that was necessary for me to complete the project but it was not done to the extent that it probably could have been. 

Overall i was pleased with the final images and the final outcome of the book. I was happy because i was working in a way that was completely different to anything i had done before. and the whole process ran smoothly which is quite unusual for me as i usually have a few mishaps along the way.  

If i was to re do this module there are a few things that i would do differently such as:

•  More character development.
• Improve the layouts of my pages as some of the image became slightly stretched and distorted.
• I would maybe include more text as i only included a small amount of narrative and it could possibly be quite hard to follow if you don't know the storyline.   

Front Cover - unique horn

This is the front cover of my narrative project for the story unique horn. I decided to keep the font of the title quite hand drawn looking as the idea of the book is mixing hand drawn and real elements so i didn't really want to start including digital fonts into it. I also decided to have an ice cream cone on the front so when people start reading the story and see that it is about unicorns and ponies they will get confused as to why there is an ice cream on the front. I also decided to have the cone covering some of the word 'unique' to make it look more 3D like the rest of the book. I think this worked well as it is simple but still looks fun and interesting. 

Research Christian Aid advert

I was watching TV when a christian aid advertisement came on and i thought i would look at it again on youtube because it is quite similar to my current narrative illustration project, as it is made from drawn characters and backgrounds. I really liked this advert as it looks like it is drawn by kids but at the same time it still looks professional and works really well. it was interesting to see this advertisement because it gives me more ideas for where i could take the idea of photographing my illustrations in the future. Here is the Christian aid advert.

Research: 2D and 3D combined

As i am combining aspects of 2D images and 3D objects i decided to do some research into how this has been done before and how it turned out. One night i was listening to music and came across this music video from the song 'You've Changed' by Sia, the song is a bit strange but the video is great! The video showed 2d signs, props and words mixed with live acting. This video reminded me of the project i am doing now as i am combining my drawings with a few real props. The video also helped me out with text placement as it had a lot of hand written signs that would show words or numbers. It helped me to see where could should place text within my images for it to be comfortable and pleasing to the eye. i really enjoyed the video as it is unique and fun, i think it relates to my current project a lot because it has the same fun colourful look and feel about it that i would like my story to have.

Final unique horn photographs

Here are the final (un edited) Photographs for my narrative illustration. Next i will arrange these photos how i want them to be in the book and add things such as speech bubbles and other things that need adding in. I have also made a few images that aren't 3D they are just drawn and scanned in these are also going into the story but i will just add them in to the final stage of arranging the book. 

Artist research Kristyna Baczynski

Kristyna Baczynski is an illustrator, Comic book artist and designer from Yorkshire with a Ukrainian heritage . She creates cute character based illustrations that use bold lines and block colour. The things i like about her illustrations are the unique looking characters and the nice use of colour.
Baczynski also creates her own quirky zines and picture books. I decided to look at this illustrators work because for this current project i am creating a zine so i thought it might help me out with that. Because of this i decided to look at a few of her zines looking at the layouts and colour use in particular, this has helped me out with the layout of my zine. 
I have seen a few little zines of hers when i have been looking in book shops and a few of my friends own them. Every time i walk past one of her zines or books i have to look through it because I love the distinctive style of her drawings.  I was fortunate enough to meet this illustrator at a zine fair that i went to and she was really kind and friendly. She did two A5 drawings for me, Here are a few of her zines that i looked at for inspiration and the drawings that she did for me. 

Research Ladybird books

Over the easter holidays i went to south shields (i think thats where it was,) and i found a great little book shop. Most of the books in it were second hand but it also sticked lots of illustrated special edition books, it was great! They had a big vintage ladybird book section so i had a really good rummage around to find some really nice vintage illustrated books. I picked up some interesting and unique ones that i liked. I thought i would write about them a bit on here.
Lady bird books is a publishers that publish exclusively for children. They have a large range of books ranging from factual to fiction. They started making little children's books covering all topics and stories in the 1940's. These packetise books were a huge hit and modern versions are still made now. I like the vintage books a lot more than the glossy new ones. I picked up three books, here is a bit about my two favourites.  

Talk about animals:
I decided to get the book talk about animals because all of the different styles of illustration throughout the book and i really like animals. It was Illustrated by Harry Winfield and has a real fun vintage feel about it. I really like the diversity of images throughout the book, i don't think iv'e ever seen a book with such a wide range of styles through it. I also love the colour palettes of some pages as they are so unique and bright, for example some pages have sickly pink backgrounds and bright yellow in the illustrations. It is so different but so representative of the time it was published (around the 1940's.) Here are a few of my favourite images from the book.

Hannibal runs away:
What first attracted me to this book is the strange title, what makes it more funny is that hannibal is a hamster. I picked it up and the front is cute as it is a realistic illustration of a hamster. Im usually not to keen on realistic drawings for children's books as i feel they aren't as visually exiting, but the end pages sold it to me as they are a really nice style pretty similar to the style of books that no brow make now. They have simplistic drawings of hamsters using a limited colour palette. I love the way that these pages look and think they are done in a very timeless style as a lot of illustrations now have a similar style. Here is an image of the end pages.

Cecilia Alfonso Esteves

I was looking through the book 'Little Big Books' for help with research. I came across an artist called Cecilia Alfonso Esteves she creates collage pieces for children's books. Her work is really pretty and simplistic but still effective. I especially love the colour palettes used throughout her work. 
Esteves work is created by putting cut out paper shapes together to create images and scenes, sometimes her work is flat 2D and other times her images are made with 3D components and then photographed. I thought that looking at these would help inspire my own project because i am using simple cut out characters in my images and also because i am going to be photographing my final images. I also thought that her images of scenery and backgrounds might help to inspire my work as i still have to work out most of the scenery within my illustrations. although i am planning on using real life backgrounds these images might help me decide on what to have in the backgrounds. here are a few of her images that i really like.

Photo story board

As i have almost finished all of the drawings for my book but i haven't quite sorted all of the backgrounds out yet, I decided to photograph how the scenes will look but using a plain black background for now. This is what i have so far. I have the last few scenes to draw out and the backgrounds to set up then i'm ready for the final photographs to be took. 

Artist research John P Miller

I decided to look into some retro children's book illustrators because i love how they look, they have such a unique distinctive look that is instantly recognisable as retro. I found some of J.P Miller's Illustrations and fell in love with them so i decided to do some further research into his work. J.P Miller was born in 1913 and died in 2004 he was an illustrator that illustrated many children's books. He illustrated many books from the 'Little Golden Books' series that are still pretty popular now. I love the bright block colours that are used throughout his work. I like to use paint a lot throughout my work and looking at his images is really inspiring me to try out new painting techniques and colours. His work is so iconic of the time and i think it is adorable. Here are a few pieces of his that i love.