updated statement of intent

evaluation of my progress

My progress so far for extended practice hasn't been as good as I hoped, I misjudged how much time I would be spending on CoP and so let my extended practice briefs slide quite a bit. I began the year not really knowing what briefs I should be doing so set myself a range so that I could get a broad portfolio with book covers, book illustrations, food editorials, YCN, children's education. 

I started three of the briefs but didn't get very far with any of them and missed the deadline for one (war horse) because it was so close to the CoP deadline. I am annoyed that I fell so behind with this module as it was one I was excited about, but it just means I have to be quicker at producing work this term and be a lot more focused. I was really happy with my CoP practical outcome, it has made me more certain that I want to do educational based illustration for my big brief, also the process of digital collage with my mono print textures worked really well for my russian concertina so I will try and develop it further for this project. I have managed to turn out some work already this term for secret 7 which I managed to do pretty quickly which has made me more confident that I will be able to keep to my new deadlines this term. 

My big brief is quite ambitious as it will be quite research based, but that is what I really enjoyed about CoP - I like learning about a subject in depth and then responding to it, I feel that it where my best work is produced. I know I should be using the next few weeks to start working on the big brief but I want to get a bulk of work done for the other briefs as I haven't got much so far. Also all the deadlines for the competitions I am working on are beginning of march so this next month will be focused mainly on secret 7, penguin books and PPP with gathering of big brief research. Although I haven't had the best start for this module I think I will be able to bring up my work load a lot now that I will only be doing practical work and not essay writing. 

change to big brief

I've had a slight change of heart with my big brief - I still want to produce an educational book but the subject might change. I am thinking now to make it a book teaching children about dinosaurs. I saw a bit of the new David Attenborough documentary about the new giant dinosaur they have discovered and it made me pull more to this idea for a kids educational book.
I think it will be better than the natural phenomena because it is much less broad, it will allow me to focus on species and their habitats, how they survived, their fossils - there is lots of scope for exciting imagery. What I liked about the natural phenomena was being able to illustrate impressive natural forms and landscapes - which I can still do with this project. This subject matter means I can go into greater detail, as well as having more scope for promotional products appealing to children. 
This will be an interesting subject to research - I don't know too much about them but it will give me the chance to go to natural history museum for first hand research, and there are lots of documentaries and books on the subject - it will also be fun in terms of creating the dinosaurs themselves, with lots of interesting textures and shapes to play with. After coming up with this idea, it has made me more excited for this project than I was with the natural phenomena, which I felt a bit out of my depths with as it such a big topic with so many different scientific explanations. 

natural phenomena

I've started thinking a bit more about my big brief and trying to work out what I actually want to illustrate. So I researched a bit into natural phenomena and which bits interest me

PHENOMENON 
a fact or occurrence which is observed
something that is impressive or extraordinary

NATURAL PHENOMENON 
an observable event which is not man-made

Natural phenomenon doesn't just relate to the extraordinary, it can just be weather for example, but I think for this book it will be more appealing and exciting for children if it explains more of the impressive phenomena that happens around the world - that way it becomes less like a geography lesson. I've sorted the natural phenomena I am interested in illustrating into three categories - geological, meteorological and atmospherical optical.

I think it will be a challenge to illustrate all these natural occurrences but it will be interesting to be able to explore in more detail for some of the phenomena - like clouds. I've always been interested in the physical side of geography so it will be exciting to try and explain it through illustrations, and I think it is a subject which will be appealing to children. 

changes

I went back to the first design I did and made a few changes:

I tried adding clouds instead of a sun but that didn't really work. I think it just needed some depth, so I added some mountains like the other design:

That has definitely helped, and the sun looks less out of place. I don't think this is the strongest of all my designs but I like the dreamy aspect, it gives a different atmosphere to the other compositions. 
Also, after having made four designs for Chvrches I think I might use this design for Tame Impala instead as it fits well with the song - I was imagining trippy/dreamlike scene for the song, mainly due to the type of music videos they have. The popping up trees and mountains sort of matches with the bass-y beat of the song. 

chvrches 3

I did another album design quite similar to the second design I did, but I wanted to have a close up of the boat. I did it quite quickly, I'm not sure if I like it as much but it's good to see designs from a different angle:

It is a lot less busy and energetic - it still has the vibrant colours but a much calmer atmosphere as there is less to the composition. 
I wanted to do another design focusing on the couple:

I like the simplicity of it - especially the top design, that has the potential to be quite striking. But I realised I was more interested in the plants than the couple, so I made this design just the leaves:

chvrches 2

I tried out another of my designs which I think came out looking pretty good. I went for the idea with the river under the mountains, with the couple on the boat. 

I started off with mountains like my last attempt, but I think it needed more depth, so I added some lighter ones which has worked well.  

I made the couple cuddling on the boat, it definitely adds more of a romantic element to the image

I added plants and trees with highlights and layering to keep adding to the depth - it is meant to be quite a flat composition but with a sense of depth

I had some trouble with the water splash - I wanted to make it look like there is movement with the boat but I didn't know how much of the brush I should use as I didn't want to take attention from the rest of the image, I want it to be subtle

In in end I only had a bit of splash but added lighter bits to the river. I think the yellow parts of the mono print texture in the blue works well to create idea of depth in the water. Also the addition of the red trees makes the image less flat. I'm really pleased with this design, it is different to the colour palettes I usually use, it is much brighter, but I think it has worked well and relates to the upbeat, bubbly, electronic song. 

change to brief

I have changed this brief, I couldn't complete the work for the deadline so I have decided to carry out the Clockwork Orange Penguin competition in the same format as the War Horse brief (full front cover with three inside illustrations)

chvrches - clearest blue

I listened to the song a few times to get a sense of what the song was about/how I should respond. I want to do something vibrant and energetic for it as it is an upbeat song. It's about two people and love etc. so I might feature a couple somewhere in the design. Some of the lyrics, like 'light, it's all over us' and 'shape by the clearest blue' makes me think of nature and water - maybe a lake or waterfall?

These were my initial ideas:

These are the designs I narrowed it down to:

I want to keep the colour palette bright but also limited and simple. I imagine having quite a dreamlike scene.

I went for the colours purple, yellow, orange - they are vibrant but also have a sense of calm about them. I added some layering to the trees to make them less flat - which also gives a screen printed effect which I like. 

I tried out different background using photos of the solar system to make it more of a collage, but I thought it would all fit better if it was all my own textures, the photo looks a bit out of place. 

 I added a sun, I gave it layers but I'm not sure it works - I can't get the composition right. It needs something in the sky but the sun looks out of place. 

I added some highlights, the second image works better around the sun but I still don't think the sun works. I might leave it for a bit and come back to it with fresh eyes. Maybe if it was bigger and setting - like the example above, but with less layers. 
I like the ideas I had for this song so I might try out some of my other compositions. 

Music Brief songs

I had a look at the songs for secret 7. I knew a couple (John Lennon and Etta James) but I decided to have a go at the songs that would be completely new to me. I chose:

CHVRCHES - CLEAREST BLUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpFXXPruuqU

MAX RICHTER - DREAM 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwpWZVG5SsQ

JACK GARRATT - WORRY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFP3qh1x1Zo

TAME IMPALA - THE LESS I KNOW THE BETTER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBzrzS1Ag_g

changes to briefs

BRIEF 1 - big brief
This was going to be an educational book about space, but will now be an educational book about natural phenomena. I hadn't started any research on the space idea so not much of a change. It will be more focused on image alongside facts rather than a story.

BRIEF 2 - smaller competitions
I was going to combine my secret 7 covers with a clockwork orange, but because I've changed that book to a bigger brief I will be taking on one of the other books, I think the children's book 'emil and the detectives' along with at least 3 album covers/

BRIEF 3 - war horse/clockwork orange
I was planning on doing the folio society brief for war horse and had started some development but the deadline was very close to the CoP deadline and I misjudged how much work I had to do in the last few weeks before the deadlines. What I had planned for war horse was very ambitious which made me put it off a little bit, so annoyingly I didn't get it done at all. 
It was more annoying because I had taken time to read the whole book and was excited about doing a narrative brief which actually responds to the text. So instead I am going to expand my 'penguin books' brief. I will be making a front cover for 'a clockwork orange' for the competition but will also do three inner illustrations for my portfolio. 

BRIEF 5 - recipes 
I initially planned to illustrate recipes, which I then changed to illustrating food articles as it allowed for an editorial element within my portfolio. I will still continue with this but I want to make it more authorial. The few I have done have been all digital, but I liked my cut out sketchbook work as well, so I want to carry on with the sketchbook work and be more experimental with my outcomes, not just making them digitally. 

plan of action

I have a lot of work I need to get done as extended practice hasn't really been on my mind these past few months. So my plan of action for the next few weeks is:

- re-write briefs in more detail
- re-write statement of intent
- write stage 2 proposal 
- make some more mono print textures
- start secret 7 
- start reading a clockwork orange, and sketching ideas
- carry on with food brief in more experimental way
- gather initial research for the big brief