Noughts and Crosses- more sketches

The problem I'm having with this brief is that i want to keep it quite simple and use bold symbolism but their have already been a number of iterations of covers for this book that have use the same idea. most if not all the precious versions have depicted the noughts and crosses, usually in black and white. When the books title and narrative use symbolism the design ideas for the cover tend to be fairly route one, definitely in this case anyway.
I thought about the division depicted in the book could be depicted using the mathematical symbol. One of the noughts could be replaced by a cross and the bar through the middle can clearly represent the divide between them. This simple, bold basis could them be added to and experimented with textures and elements from the story. I did think of adding a noose but that would most likely be giving away too much information about the story.

things to do
- experiment with colour and composition
- could make the symbol into a face/character
- change the bar into a knife to symbolise backstabbing and deceit
- add text

Club 27 image research

Club 27 ideas

So far I have a couple of ideas I want to test out based on the career of Amy Winehouse.

The first is based on back to Black. The idea is simple, a black background with Amy winehouse with a mic stand highlighted by a spotlight. I want to use the negative space of the black background to create an intriguing composition. The text on the illustration could be black (dark grey) on black. She was heavily into jazz and I would like to create an atmosphere like an old Jaxon club in the composition.

My second idea is based on an interview with Questlove (the drummer from the roots). He talks about Amy Winehouse teaching him about jazz (something he thought he was already very knowledgable about). He says she had the idea to form a supergroup made up of herself, Questlove, Raphael Saadiq and Mos Def. I would like to make an album cover for that proposed supergroup. I don’t know whether to think of a name of the group myself or just use their individual names. I like the idea of making a cover for an album Amy Winehouse wanted to make, celebrating a group of amazing musicians and the possibilities of their combined work. I want to look at the covers they were featured on individually and famous jazz/collaboration covers. The hiring talked about selecting a specific part of their career. This idea does not fit that exactly but I think it celebrates something she wanted to achieve and her ability to cross genre boundaries in music, bringing musicians and fans together.

North bar/St Gemma's Hospice- Tintin Brief

North bar- Tintin Brief

This is a link to a brief set up by North bar to help raise money for St Gemma's hospice. It is not an open brief, instead it asks interested creatives to send in a link to their portfolio and they will select artists to take part. The brief is to recreate 24 Tintin book covers that will be displayed in the bars and made into a book. Hopefully i will be selected to take part in the brief. I will just have to wait and see what happens. 

The 27 Club

I want to complete an album cover for The 27 Club brief. I don't want this to be a huge time consuming project but it is something I would like to work on to challenge myself. Last year I worked on an album cover and got the tone of the illustration completely wrong for the subject matter. I think being able to adjust my work and understand the tone needed for a specific subject is very important and that this will be a good challenge for me. I have chose Amy Winehouse from the list provided in the brief and will start working on roughs.

The brief asks for in an illustration that is 27 x 27cm
The illustration can be based on the artists as a whole or could be about a specific part of their
life
I need to be careful with the subject matter and make sure the illustration is respectful to the artist
A short rationale of the piece is to be included with the illustration
The deadline is 3pm on 1st march

Submit to the27clubinfo@gmail.com

Carmelite development 3- colour tests

- experiments with colour using Procreate. I have been working in black and white a lot recently trying to get used to using a new way of working. This brief has forced me to break that pattern as It calls for colourful illustrations.

- At first I wasn’t comfortable and I think the colours are off in the earliest illustrations. They look a bit dull and lifeless. The later illustrations look much more appealing. I think flat colours can look too sharp when created digitally but adding texture seems to soften them and also add more depth and a feeling of hand made illustration to them.

- I think I have tried to do too much with some of these illustrations and it has detracted from the main focal point of the character. Adding lots of detail to relatively small items within the scene changes the eastheitc and doesn’t benefit the composition as the detail becomes lost. I need to simplify the composition and concentrate on elements that have a greater impact or importance to the narrative. I want to use texture and perspective to add depth, and use the reflections on the water to ground the landscape onto the white background.

Noughts and Crosses- sketches

first sketches playing with the symbols of noughts and crosses attempting to show the separation between black people (crosses) and white people (noughts). I wanted to show the noughts being viewed as less that the crosses. I also wanted to highlight the 2 main characters and how they we connected to each other and because of that, in a way separated from both groups. I thought of contrasting black and white lines to make up a composition of a face from both groups using the symbols of noughts and crosses for the eyes. One of the lines could continue around the entire cover to act as the line found on many penguin book designs. There are two other elements of the story I thought of including in some way but I am not sure if that will give away too much of the narrative. I think it will depend how I put the image together. One of the main characters is hung at the end of a book, just as they declare their love for each other. I thought of making a portrait combining both characters with a noose around their neck. showing how it effects both of them. The noose could also be symbolic of the effect of their relationship. At the end of the book they find out they are going to have a baby but the baby is not born until the sequel so I don't know if i can include a reference in this cover. I want to keep roughing and more further away from previous covers.

Noughts and Crosses- Penguin

The Noughts and Crosses covers as well as its sequels ten to be mostly if not entirely made up of bold contrasts between black and white symbolising the narrative of the book. Another obvious inclusion id the symbols of noughts and crosses on each cover. It is tempting to continue these trends through my design and maybe moving away from them entirely would be a bad idea, however I would like to create a cover that stands of from the rest while still representing the main features of the book. The cover i have looked at on the most part I would not call particularly appealing or intriguing. The look more like school text books. The use of black and white makes the cover bold and create bold contrasting shapes. The designs are similar to street signs with their contrasting colours and use of shapes and symbols. I would like to create a cover that has more depth and texture, something that feels more hand crafted and adds more personality. I want to make the book appealing and intriguing, these covers appear quite cold. The difficulty will be making communicating the serious nature of the book with the correct tone of voice. I am going to rough some sketches and experiment with compositions to begin with. I tend to get carried away with creating finished images too early so in this process I want to rough out a large number of ideas before going any further.

Reflection (2000 word blog 1 of 4)

The main focus of the module so far has been on the Carmelite Prize brief. I have been roughing out page layouts trying to find ways to make a seascape varied and dynamic. I have been using rocks to add some structure to the composition.  I want to keep the sea mainly as negative space and use the waves lapping up on the rocks to signify the expanse of water around them. The use of negative space allows me to illustrate the difference in scale between the sea otter and the landscape, without the otter getting lost within the composition.

The book’s narrative centres around the adventure of a young sea otter trying to get to the horizon. I want to use the horizon line and the rocks to communicate the massive scale of the landscape compared to the tiny sea otter. To illustrate in this way I will need to make the best use of the limited components of the landscape (the sun and the rocks protruding from the water). I will need to make sure that each individual page is carefully crafted to illustrate the perspective and highlight the distance between the otter and the horizon. The horizon needs to seem like an attainable target to the otter but one that keeps moving further away as she swims towards it, so I want to keep a consistent distance between the two.

I started out illustrating the book as black and white as I have found using tones rather that colour to be a productive way to familiarise myself with handling new processes and media, but the landscapes look very bleak. I need to break the habit of relying on tones alone and start using colour so that I can push my practice forward.  This project gives me a good opportunity to develop in this respect.

I have been struggling with the character design. I am still unsure about the characters I have created so far. I cannot decide whether to make them more realistic or more cartoon-like. I think moving away from realistic illustration will allow me to experiment more with the entire compositions, use of colour, etc. One thing I have discovered so far is that otters are hard to draw. If the proportions of the character are at all misjudged they look very strange. I have tried accentuating some of the characters’ features and they either look like other animals or just look wrong.

I also want to make sure I can successfully communicate the emotions and actions of the sea otter throughout the book. The little otter feels happiness, loneliness and fear as the story progresses, and I need to make sure I am able to illustrate her feelings clearly to the audience.

This project has become the main focus of the module.  Now I would like the opportunity to work on a variety of briefs centred around children’s publishing so that I can experiment with a wider range of characters, settings and narratives.

Carmelite development 2 - black and white

I have been working a lot in black and white recently as I am trying out new processes and digital programs. I find it easier to work in black and white (tones) at first before experimenting with colour.

successes
- texture and depth of rocks as well as their suggestion of the water around them
- compositions using the sky to highlight the horizon
- use of scale and distance (although main character can become lost

things to think about
- black and white landscapes seem bleak
- do the more cartoon like characters match the landscape
- is black and white appropriate for a childrens book?
- can I demonstrate emotion effectively with characters