History of love brief FINAL

I was quite happy with my final design for this piece, I didn't want the main focus to be too much on the hand gestures as i thought that may be too obvious so instead i incorporated them in a more subtle way and focused on the typography that related to the text.

Here is my final design:

And here are some progress shots of the cutting out process:

For the final design I chose a pale blue background, just to make the text more friendly and less harsh. I think the colour really worked nicely and made the image soft and inviting.

And this is how it turned out :)

Thanks for looking, I hope you like it :)

History of love brief

My latest brief is to create an illustration based on a piece of text from the novel "a history of love".

The text doesn't really show any events or describe much, but it talks mainly about how hand gestures were used as the first human language. 

I have sketched up a few small ideas after looking at some research.

I decided to take this piece a little differently and will hopefully be creating a cut out piece of work, inspired by the artists:

Rob Ryan 

&

Julene Harrison

You can see a sneak peak of the kind of design I plan to do in the image above :)

I'll post some more photos of my progress at a later date :)

C'ya soon :)

Fish and birds final piece.

For the final image of my fish and bird project I used watercolour paint, posca pens and chalk.

I'm really happy with the outcome of this image and had a lot of fun with the freedom of the brief. I enjoyed being able to use my own style and create a piece I was excited about. 

Here are some images of the final outcome.

Thanks for looking :)

Fish & birds project

The brief we were given for this project was very well... brief. The brief was to create a piece of work based off a receipt, which had the items of eggs and sardines on it. I used influence from the receipt to come up with an idea and because the brief was so open it meant I could create something that suited me and my style.

I started to draw up my final copy of my idea in a bit more detail and to the size I needed it. I still need to add parts to it but here the basic design. 

I need to add to it and then will eventually get round to painting it haha so I'll be sure to post a picture of the final outcome.

Thanks for looking :)

Getting perfection frustration...

I don't think perfection frustration is a real thing, but thats what I'm going to call this.

I always find myself getting really frustrated when an "idea sketch" doesn't look perfect or exactly what it looked like in my head. This becomes quite a big problem and very demotivating and time consuming. SO, I have to deal with that. I don't know if anyone else gets the same frustrations as me at this point or if it is just infact me being crazy and silly. But I thought I'd share a few tips/tricks that help get me out of this situation.

1. Look at other artist "idea/preliminary sketchs" and compare them to the final piece.

This helps no end because it reminds me that a lot of the time they look completely different, so not to dwell on it.

2. Write notes on what i DON'T like about it/what to change about it.

This just helps to remind me that it doesn't matter, I can change the things I don't like further down the line.

3. Write notes on what I DO like about it.

This helps me to realise that it isn't that bad and helps to motivate me a bit more.

4. Go to a different drawing and work on that, then go back to the other piece with a fresh outlook on it.

This saves time and gets more work done. I also find it helps me to regain and refresh my ideas on the piece.

5. TELL MYSELF TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT IT! I know it won't look that bad in the end!

This one is a big one and quite difficult to do sometimes, but it is needed. It also gives me motivation to fix it and get on with making it look better.

I know these are probably all obvious and silly things but sometimes I have to remind myself to do them. So this post is kind of a reminder to me but also anyone else who might get the same feelings as I do.

If anyone else has any other tips on how to get out of this frustrating time or any tips to help with artist block or anything to do with creating art haha please share them with me :)

Thanks for reading :)

Phone case

I was getting bored of having a boring black phone case and seeing as finding interesting and pretty cases for my phone is pretty much impossible, I thought I'd create my own little design.

I used white acrylic and white posca pens on a plain black case (so it doesnt wreck my phone incase I want to sell it in the future) and this would all be great, I loved the design and was happy with the outcome, BUT it rubbed off so easily with constantly picking it up and putting it in my pocket etc. So I need to find a different way of applying the design so it stays for longer! Trial and error is definitely needed. This time it was an error, though good while it lasted :) 

But I love the idea of "jazzing up" an old phone case and creating something a little more interesting and different to look at than a boring case.

hope you liked it, and if you have any ideas how or what I can use to keep the designs on let me know please :)

thanks,

Lino print

This piece is from an older uni project in print making. It was part of a sequence of images including 2 prints (a lino print and an etching) and 4 drawings. However I really loved the outcome of this image!

The process of creating a lino print is pretty simple, You draw your design on then remove the parts you don't want to transfer onto the page using a lino tool. But remember, when the image prints it will flip. 

The printing process is also pretty simple, all you have to do is transfer into onto your lino then press it onto paper.

This is my finished result :)

I really love this piece, i think its quirky and cute and it fitted really well with the other pieces in the sequence.

hope you like it :)

Pintrest & Tumblr

After hearing about the wonderful website that is PINTREST for quite some time, I finally decided to create an account and see what all the fuss was about.

I now know exactly what all the fuss is about haha. I haven't been able to get off this website for the past few days! There are so many amazing craft ideas, and art posts! And I love the way the website is set up, so that I can "pin" anything that inspires me to my own page and keep it there for reference. Its also great because most the post are linked to either the original tutorial site or the artist page! This website is so great for inspiration! And its great for organizing your inspiration too, by being able to have more than one "pin board".

This site is really quite great!

http://pinterest.com/zoefraser94/

If your interested in looking at some of the stuff I find inspiring here's my page ^^^^

Another website thats also great for this kind of thing is TUMBLR, I post mainly tattoo inspiration stuff on here but also anything else that strikes my eye! 

And again my page on tumblr is http://aintnoheartwithoutart.tumblr.com/ :)

I love these websites and post on them quite regularly :), there really great because they also have apps for your phone and ipad so when I'm bored on a bus journey they safe my sanity haha!

Hope you like them :)

More books

So the past few weeks, I've found a few more books to add to my collection.

They were all bought from Waterstones and since I purchased them fairly recently you should still be able to get them.

The first book I managed to pick up on sale :)

I really like the work of Tim Burton and own quite an extensive collection of his films. This book takes you through the making of his films. Its a really interesting read.

I then picked up another of the illustration now collection from Taschen.

This book is great for researching new artists and getting new ideas for different techniques, styles and materials. Its always good to see what other professional work is being produced.

The last book that I purchased was a bit more expensive but I literally couldn't resist it. Being a lover of all 

disney/pixar films, when I saw this book I couldn't really put it down.

This book shows the process that was involved in creating the Monsters university film. I love learning/seeing how things are done behind the scenes of creating films and designing the characters we all know and love. This book is one I am finding particularly helpful with my current project because it shows the process of creating characters. I am so glad I bought this book.

I'll be keeping my eye out for more interesting books to add to my little growing collection and I'll be sure to update when I do but for now they are my more recent finds :)

Hope you liked them.

Book covering

Since having to find a place to put all my belongings after moving home for the summer I had a bit of a clear out in my room, and found a few old tops I never wore, but I didn't want to waste them and just throw them away so I decided to cover some boring note books that I had lying around and make them look a bit prettier. 

I really liked how these came out and they were so simple to make!

What I used:

PVA glue (which held perfectly well)

Scissors

Old paint brush (to spread the pva)

Card

Old fabric

Note book

How I did it:

Step 1: Choose an old top/tshirt/fabric that you no longer want. Be really sure that you dont want it though, once you've cut it theres no going back!

Step 2: Place the book over the fabric and cut roughly an inch or two around it (its always better to more fabric than needed just in case you go wrong). Also make sure you only cut through one layer of fabric.

Step 3: Place pva clue onto the cover of your book and spread it around with an old paint brush. (Make sure your cover is too thin of the pva will warp the cover page, if it is make it a bit stronger by sticking thicker card down first.) Then place your fabric over the top and smooth it out, be sure to leave fabric over the edge.

Step 4: Turn the cover of the book over and place pva glue on the edges of the inside cover. Then fold the excess fabric over and stick down. Don't worry if its not overly neat, it will be covered later. To ensure that it was stuck down strongly I placed another layer of pva over the edge of the fabric that had been stuck down.

Step 5: Once step 4 has dried, turn your cover over again. The seem down the edge of my book was a bit rough so to make it nice and neat I took one of the ties from my top and layed it over it. I then stuck it down opened my book and stuck the excess down on the inside cover too, basically repeating steps 3 and 4.

Step 6: To make the inside cover look neat I simply cut a piece of card to size and stuck it on top. This hides all the excess fabric underneath and was really quick and simple to do.

Step 7: I repeated these steps on the back cover of the book too. Then added some small buttons to the corner of the front cover as small decoration. I stuck them down using pva glue which seemed to hold them fine. Ideally I would have used a hot glue gun but I didnt have one to hand. 

That was how I created both my books, it was very simple and easy to do and a fun little project that made good use of some cute tops. It also left me with spare fabric from those tops that I can use again in the future.

 I really liked how these books came out and I think they would make cute little hand made presents if you were shopping on a budget. I used stuff from around the house and only bought the note books which were pretty cheap anyways.

Hope you liked it :)

Catch up & Skulls

Hello, so I haven't posted on here in a while due to not having my laptop :( BUT its back now, so hopefully I should resume posting regularly again. 

So what have I been doing in the last few weeks? Well its been pretty hectic and I took a short break away with my boyfriend and his lovely family. Its safe to say it was well needed. And I found that being away in different surroundings helped to give me a bit of inspiration and motivation to get on with my character designs. I've been doing a lot more research and planning of what I want to do with my characters and hopefully will be posting a few images of that progress soon (once its looking a bit tidier and understandable to people with normal human brains).

I've also been trying to get a few art projects completed in my spare time, that I have had on the go for a while now. 

One of those projects was to create a sugar skull or day of the dead skull for my brothers new room.

I found this skull in the garden section in wilkinsons quite a while ago and thought I'd pick it up to use in a art project like this.

 However for me to be able to work onto the skull I had to make some adjustments. 

The skull was very roughly formed and didn't have a smooth surface for me to draw on nicely. This meant I had to kind of resurface it. Which was a pain, but I managed to do it using the wonderful techniques of paper mache (which I haven't used in a long time but it seemed fitting for this project). 

Once the skull was smooth I used a pencil, a white posca pen, and black and white acrylic paint to place the design onto the skull. I really loved the outcome of this piece and it was so much fun to create. I'd really love to do some more of these and make a small set, it also made a great gift for my brothers house warming.

I hope you liked this little crafty project :) and again sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I will be posting more from now on :)

Artist styles

So one thing we have been asked to do for our summer project, is to incorporate other artists styles into our own character designs. 

So today I did a small study of Mavis (from the animated film Hotel Transylvania) in the style of Karl Kwasny. Luckily for me, he had already posted a small tutorial on his tumblr page of how he does his work step by step, which was pretty handy when it came to doing my own study. 

This was my first attempt at creating anything like his work and the image lighting isn't the best so don't judge me too harshly, I will never be able to create work in his style to his ability but this was a fun little piece to do and i did enjoy his way of working.

When reading up about his work I also learnt that he often goes into photoshop and plays around the image in there too, I haven't done that here so it isn't quite as polished.

Close up of step 3.

Close up of step 4.

I was quite happy with the outcome (from the piece in person, not so much with the photgraphs) and I really enjoyed working in his style. I used pencil for the original sketch and then watercolour paint for the rest of the image. 

I really want to practice working in that kind of style because I feel this could have been a lot better, but for a first try... it will do :) 

Hope you liked it,

Art books

So one thing I love to do, is look for books (specifically ones with a lot of pictures haha) on artists thats I like. I would love to say my book collection is extensive, however its really not (books are expensive!) but the few that I do own, I really love to sit and look through when I find myself wanting inspiration or motivation.

I really want to grow my book collection because I find they really do help me, but heres some of the ones I already own, they really are a great source for research and inspiration.

Book title: Mexican Graphics

by korero books (text by Antoni Cadafalch and general editor Dr. Alderete)

I orginally bought this book after getting a brief to design some characters (one of those characters was a wrestler) and I found it helped me in my research towards my design. But another reason that swayed me to buying this book was that it was full of fun and creative day of the dead designs. As you know, skulls are a love of mine and making them even prettier with lovely designs and patterns only attracts me to this book more. 

Book title: Illustration Now 

by taschen book (editor Julius Wiedemann)

I purchased this book at the Tate modern gallery in london. I really love illustration (hence why I'm doing a degree in it) so I thought I would pick this book up for future reference, its full of loads of interesting illustrators so really good for research and ideas.

Book title: Dark Inspiration 

edited and published by viction:ary

This was another purchase from the Tate modern also. I'll be honest when looking around at the many many books there, I found it hard to find ones that really stood out to me to buy (I wanted them all but I'm not that rich) UNTIL... I found this gem hiding away, and I am so glad that I did find it! 

What really drew me to this book was the name. I summed up the kind of work that I love so simply, and the cover also blew me away to be honest. 

But then when I looked through it I came across one of my favourite artist. BEST FIND EVER! It simply made my week and its been one of my favourite books ever since.

Book title: Art by tattooists 

by jo waterhouse published by Laurence king publishing

As I've mentioned, I love tattoo art, its a big inspiration to me, so when i came across this book I got quite excited. I find it really interesting to see what tattoo artists do on a different surface than skin, with their own ideas and without the pressure of perfection (knowing its on a customers skin forever). I really enjoyed looking through this book and theres some great images in it.

Book title: Femina & Fauna: The art of Camilla D'errico

by dark horse books 

Camilla D'errico is one of my favourite artists so when I saw this book, I took the opportunity to get it so that I have a physical copy of some of her portfolio, which is great because I don't have to constantly go on the internet to see her work. This book is truly beautiful and really shows off her work and style in such a fitting way and shows an insight into how she creates what she does. 

Book title: The book of skulls

by Faye Dowling published by Laurence King publishing

I don't think there's much explanation needed as to why I purchased this book. The answer to that is in the title of the book alone, and if you read my last few posts you'll know why that is haha. This book is pretty awesome, it has everything I love and is a great way of showing how one object (or subject if you like) can be used in so many different ways. I really love this book, its so creative and inspiring, showing there is always a different way of working with one subject. 

So those are a few of the books I've collected over the past year or so. I really want to get some more so I had better start saving some pennies. Hope you enjoyed those :) 

Also today, my laptop was playing up a bit and decided to just open up some of my bookmarks, but it reminded me of this glorious website http://theinspirationgrid.com/ so I will leave you guys with that :) ENJOY!