peer review

We had an informal peer review to just look over OUIL603 as a whole and see if we are hitting the module requirements - mainly looking at the blog. I got some good feedback, they said the blog mostly looked fine - it is well evaluated, regularly updated and shows research and a good process of thought and production. But I could improve by showing more sketchbook work as that really helps to illustrate the journey from development to final piece. Also I need to label more clearly, so I have gone back through my posts and labelled each project: brief1, brief2, brief3 etc. rather than having 'food illustration brief' and 'clockwork brief' which can get confusing. It was a good chance to see everyone's work - there is a lot of it and it all looks really good which is exciting! 

magazine mock ups

The point of doing these food editorials is that I wanted to imagine them in magazines, and actually existing in the real world. I have already mocked up a few examples on food magazines that are online (the Guardian online) but I haven't don't any in print yet.

I realise it is quite optimistic to think a food illustration would get such a big space over a photo of the dish, but I like how it looks - they both came out quite striking against the text, and fit in well to the format.

context

I wanted to put the animation and book design into some more context, show where the animated book trailer might exist, so I mocked up some examples:

An Instagram post - it could either just be the photo of the book, or have sniper of the animation playing on the Penguin Books account. 

Banner ads on book buying sites such as amazon

Pop up windows where the animation can play on book dedicated sites like Waterstones, promoting new books

A themed bookmark that comes along with the book

timeline

Palaeozoic Era

So I started on the timeline, just before I started I realised I didn't actually know enough about the timeline of events so had to do some quick research. I want the timeline to be informative but not too complicated - just show what was around and the evolution of events. I looked up some dinosaur timelines and the results were pretty bad:

All the educational timelines are either really busy and confusing or just really dull, so I have decided to make mine busy in terms of there is a lot going on in the scene but it is still clear what animals existed when, and the text will be clear at the bottom. I want it to be educational and informative but also fun and interesting to look at - a well crafted art print as well as a learning tool.

I have started with the Palaeozoic Era, moving into the early Triassic, which is the time before the dinosaurs appeared, it was 542 - 248 million years ago. Within this era there are lots of other periods like the Cambrian and Permian periods. The era goes through lots of changes; the earth goes from having no continents and just loads of small islands in a very big ocean to forming bigger landforms, soft-bodied life forms evolve into bony fish and reptiles, and plant life starts growing on land. The era goes through multiple mass extinctions which wipe out loads of species before the dinosaurs even arrive. Moving into the early Triassic there are reptiles and mammal-like reptiles who rule the land before the dinosaurs and even when there were small dinosaur around, which I thought was pretty interesting. The timeline of evolution is a very important area for children to learn about, but also really interesting I think - so I want to illustrate this fascinating period well and convey it as such. 

I have basically finished with the Palaeozoic/early Triassic Era now, and I'm pleased with how it has turned out - I think I have managed to make it look pretty pre-historic! It is difficult to show such a big amount of time in such a small space; I didn't want to spend too long on this era as the main foci is the dinosaurs, so I am illustrating the movement from volcanic land into green forests, and small boneless organisms into reptiles. I also put a pre-historic crocodile in there as I didn't know they existed and ruled before the dinosaurs - I think thats a pretty interesting aspect! I put in some small dinosaurs running away in the background (Eodromaeuses) which began to appear going into the mid-Triassic period, I made them small to convey their minimal presence. 

I have started moving into the end of the Triassic/early Jurassic which had the first birds, swimming reptiles, a few well known dinosaurs, plants but also mass extinctions. I want it to be busy with lots going on.

finished animation

Emil and the Detectives book trailer from Astrid Weguelin on Vimeo.

I got the animated book trailer finished! I added a train sound effect in the background which I think really helps. I also made the transition from each figure much smoother - also the added money makes it a bit more exciting. The quality isn't as good as it could be because it was such a big file I had to export it on another app. Also the colours are a bit washed out which is annoying. But I am pleased with it, and impressed with myself for getting it done in about two days! I have added both this and my Orwell animation from last year to my website; animation is something I want to carry on with so I think it is a good idea to have a dedicated section on the website to point attention to it. I want to try and make some simple animations/gifs with my Secret 7 designs, I think their graphic, simple compositions will work well with movement. 

portfolio

I had a tutorial with Ben about portfolios, he suggested getting a landscape portfolio like this one.
He also suggested spreading out my work much more, that way it allows the work to breathe and be properly viewed. So instead of putting three prints on one page, maybe out two and then have a enlarged on opposite. Also, print on nice paper, that as well as the portfolio will be expensive but it will be worth it. 

tutorial

We had a group tutorial which was useful, it got me to really focus in on what I actually need to do for this brief. I haven't done much at all for the big brief for a long time, most of easter and the first few weeks back were spent on PPP and finishing off my other 603 briefs but they're basically done now so I can properly focus on dinosaurs. I was getting a bit worried about this brief as there is a lot I want to do and not actually that much time but Fred told me to work out what I need to do and what would just be nice added extras. 

So I have worked out that the necessities are:
- the timeline
- the activity book
- small info books on dinosaur groups

What I want to try and do as well:
- interactive map
- simple animation 
- posters

This has made me feel a bit better, knowing that I can just mock up the things I don't manage to do. Although after doing the Emil and the Detectives animation I was quite looking forward to animating the dinos so I will try and fit it in. 

secret 7 exhibition

I went to the Secret 7 exhibition at Sonos Studios to see my design! It was exciting to see it exhibited with all the other great designs - I saw a lot from this course which is so good! Although it isn't the best exposure as it's an anonymous exhibition, it is still a great thing to be a part of, and a good chance to make some completely image based work - and I can say now that I have exhibited at Somerset House and Sonos Studios!

animating

emil and the detectives wip from Astrid Weguelin on Vimeo.

I have started working on my animated book trailer for Emil and the Detectives. I was putting it off for ages because it's been such a long time since I last did any so I thought I would have forgotten everything. But I got into it pretty quickly! I wanted the sequence to be quite simple and focus on the chase and I thought showing that through trains would be a good setting as that is the main setting for the beginning of the book. It does look very simplistic but I quite like the naive aesthetic, I feel it fits well for the young audience. 
This is still work in progress; I want to add all the other kids chasing the man, add sounds and make the smoke move more. I had some trouble with rendering the video, the file was just way bigger than it should be so I couldn't upload it anywhere, but after some help form the technicians I managed to get it down which is a relief. 

It has been quite confusing to make as I have so many elements, it is difficult to keep track of them all. And when I change one thing I have to go back and change all the other bits - it can get quite frustrating.

Because I have inputed each boy and ech bit of money as a separate layer, I am having to make each bit move individually. Also getting the timings right so that the boys chase the man, but in a way that isn't too slow or too fast - so all the figures are on screen at the same time for a little bit while also giving the impassion that they are chasing them. It is a good thing I want it to look quite jagged and naive because I don't know how I would have made it to run really smoothly - animating people running is really hard. 

extra bits

To finish off the clockwork orange brief (brief 3) I have made some promotional material. I follow Waterstones and Penguin on Instagram and they often post pictures of new books with a relevant pattern behind it, like this:

So I decided to make a pattern out of bits from my last lino print as well as some bookmarks:

They are all quite simple but work well I think. The eye pattern was especially successful, I really like how that turned out - very simple but bold. So I entered it into the 'Feathr' wallpaper competition which looks for more illustrative wallpaper - something a bit more interesting that usual wallpaper. This design is quite dark but I think it could be popular. 

last lino

I finally got round to printing my last lino cut! This scene shows the main character Alex caught by the state and forced to watch the horrible videos. It is probably the most famous scene so I wanted to make it look a bit different - not make it too obvious, I think the eyes surrounding him make it darker. I am really pleased with this one turned out, it is very clean and the red bits match up pretty well to the black. I had some trouble with it at first because the red wouldn't match up at all:

In the end I had to cut into all the eye designs so that I could see through the gaps where I was placing it, and that seemed to work well. Also I made a mistake on all but one, with the small red eye on the right (which is where it should be), I managed to put it on the left with all the other prints. It is only a tiny mistake that no one else will notice but I feel it makes the composition a bit uneven. I'm also thinking about adding some red wires to the chair to make it more 'clockwork orange-like', so I might put the red in the right place then. 

I think they all fit well together - the first two are very lively with the characters jumping around doing criminal acts, but the last shows him slumped, defeated and repressed by the state. They all have quite a creep undertone, the limited use of red helps with this. I used Somerset paper for the last print and it turned out really nice, so I want to go back and use it for the first two prints, so they are consistent as I am considering selling them. 

This brief has been very substantial as lino cut is very time consuming, but I am really glad I did it as I now love lino print! 

oranges + lemons

I wanted to do another quick food illustration but not responding to an article, just one for fun. I really like how it came out though, I think the colours all work well together, and it's quite a nice composition. I love drawing fruit, so I might start building up a collection of fruit drawings and have a section on my website. 

octopus

Grilled Octopus with Aubergine and Peppers

I chose another recipe from the Guardian food section to illustrate - I thought it would make sense to make the brief consistent by only illustrating from the Guardian. I decided to go for something a bit more abstract this time and I think it has turned out pretty well.

I was initially making it relatively neat and more pattern-like but I think it works better with the unequal tentacles - it is more expressive and energetic. I wanted to make the octopus look appealing, as it is something many people are quite squeamish about. With all the peppers and parsley sause drops it looks quite flower-like which works well to make it appealing. 

I mocked it up on the Guardian site; with recipes the photo of the food is pretty necessary as people need to see how it turns out. So I thought the illustration could work well as a lively decoration down the side.