Drawlloween 2016

Before we'd even drawn up our Extended Practice brief proposals & rationales i was underway with Drawlloween 2016 at the start of October.

It's an Instagram-based, drawing-a-day challenge based around Halloween prompt words.

I took this brief on in order to continue my digital-free drawing practice so gave myself some design limitations; 1. NO VECTORING; its a fast turnaround project so wasn't going to allow me to make endless corrections in Illustrator. Also, i wanted to draw them for real and not fall back on my Mac to enhance them. 2: The use of only 3 colours/bitmaps. The colours (rendered with Photoshop) were Black/White/Pumpkin. The designs are geared up to be taken on to the screen print stage, if i chose to, so halftones are dominant in the majority of them in order to make the most use out of my 3 colours. It also helped to make them more of cohesive set of images when it comes to displaying them or getting prints made.




It also gave me a chance to continue my improving practice of exhaustive development drawings - which in turn did contribute to me being beaten my time in terms of getting all 31 days complete, along with other pressing uni tasks. Looking back at it, maybe i did set myself a bit of a mountain to climb, but i've come out of it with quite a body of work, and also a set of designs that i can take on the next level of either screen/digital print. Having made it to Day24, i'm getting the urge to go and complete it, if i can find some spare time, but doing it in November/December would kind of defeat the object of the Halloween challenge.

Selection of development work

All in all, bit disappointed not to have completed it, but happy with the material i produced - and feels good to be investing some time into my pencil & ink work again. Also had the chance to give Cintiq & also Intuos Pro technology a trial run with a couple of the designs - but as much fun as i had with them, it's just not the same as going at it with a pencil. I do like making digital art, but i also enjoy making instant scamps, and i'm not really sure i want the two worlds to merge. It'll either be very digital looking or scanned-in ink work then rendered digitally, rather than digital drawings made to look hand drawn (for the time being).

Final images 1-23

After the positive feedback from Ben and a number of classmates on the project outcomes i'll definitely be taking a handful of them forward to be made as prints, possibly screen prints to get me in the mood again.

2.Demon. 

This guy will most certainly be appearing as a print in the not too distant future.

Lifting Tower Xmas Projection - animations tests…

After meeting with the Lifting Tower group, there was a talk about which designs we should focus on and develop for the animation. It was agreed that my '12Days' concept was probably a bit too complex and intricate to make into an effective projection image - but if i could combine the simple graphics from my 2nd concept and apply them to the '12 Days' storyboard then i might be in business.

So i set about simplifying the drawings into simple vector graphics, and doing some test animatics.

As far as a group project goes, i'm not really sure where this one is headed - as the two animators i've been grouped with have already made the graphics they intend to animate (well one of them has) so i cant see where they would need an illustrator.? My animations are pretty developed, as far a tests go, so wouldn't need a lot of tweaking if they got the green light. We've been told that we're not expected to make work that looks similar to our other group members, but they have to transistion smoothy - i just don't see how that can happen if we all have different styles of illustration/animation, that it appears we all individually want to illustrate/animate.

Travelling Man/Thought Bubble poster…

This came out of the blue and requires a really quick response, but is a great opportunity to get a bit of exposure and to be involved on the ThoughtBubble peripheries. Ideally, I would've like to have spent some time on a new piece, but I've got too much other stuff on my plate and don't want to half-arse it. 

Luckily enough I'd recently brought by RoboCop poster design back from the dead for a small LCA film society exhibit so I only need to tweak the colour scheme so it fits in with the specified palette we've been given. Looking forward to hopefully getting these displayed and maybe even flog a couple to make up the printing costs. 

Original OUIL505 version

'Resurrected' version

'Resurrected' version. White variant.

Travelling man version. Blue/Pink variant

Either way it 'll be rewarding (if it makes the final 16) to have rebuilt the design from scratch to finally get it out in public after looking like it would remain on the scrapheap for all eternity.

Statement of Intent (1st Semester)

I completed my finalised Statement of Intent for the 1st Semester. 

Think I've given myself enough to be getting on with (hope we weren't expected to propose10 briefs?!), without encroaching too much into the COP dissertation and practical work I'll also need to be doing at the same time. I've also made sure that some of them will involve a collaborative element ,whether it be with fellow students, practitioners or clients. I heard the word 'vanity project' mentioned by Patrick (not in reference to my proposal) and I'm a bit concerned that my chosen briefs come across as that? I mean, they all involve subjects that i have an interest in producing work for, but to anyone else they may not serve much purpose..?

There i go again, worrying about what i think other people want to see (or buy), rather than showing them what i want to make.

The D&AD briefs were announced on the same day, but initial thoughts are; I'm not massively taken with any of them right now. I've picked out a few of them to have a closer look at to see if they can't change my mind. Will also await the YCN briefs to be released on Nov1.

3 Modified Brief task...

• Modified from Existing Briefs •

Brief 1: FEATHUARY 2016    Deadline: March 1st 2017

(Modified from ‘Inktober 2016’)

Rationale: 

Drawing a week, for the whole of February of a bird, based on the word prompt list taken from 'Inktober 2016'. Words will relate to the bird depicted. Could lead to a small publication, individual birds could appear on apparel and stationery. Digital prints will be most suitable over screen print as they'll more than likely need to feature a lot of different colours.

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Brief 2: MARVEL – poster design    Deadline: April 1st 2017

(Modification of the Marvel Universe challenge by Threadless)

To honor our love of all things Marvel, we’re inviting you to design the next iconic superhero poster.  Just as every vanquisher of evil has limitations to their powers, this challenge has boundaries, so pay special attention to the guidelines below.

4 Designs (1 per week) may include only the following characters: Kingpin, Shocker, Green Goblin, Baron Mordo, Crossbones, Bullseye, Red Skull, Kate Bishop, Black Cat, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Wasp, Medusa, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Falcon, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Elektra, Punisher, Daredevil, Black Widow, Black Panther, Winter Soldier, Spider-Man, Spider Woman, Iron Fist, Venom, Carnage.

Keep in Mind:

• Designs should be based on comic characters only; actor likenesses and movie/TV-specific details are not allowed.

• No political or adult content (sex, smoking, drinking, etc.) is allowed.

• Characters outside of the Marvel universe are not allowed. 

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Brief 3: COMFORT ZONE ESCAPISM    Deadline: May 1st 2017

(Modification of a Jack Teagle brief, DigitalArtsOnline)

Create a narrative in 3 images (or through series of images or panels) that tells a story. To generate ideas and thoughts outside of your comfort zone, write a bunch of nouns, adjectives and verbs onto cards and put them into three sets, then randomly pick cards from each and create a narrative from your selection. Final images to be 4 colour, A3 screen printed.

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• MODIFIED BRIEFS • 

(of my own projects)

Brief 1: FEATHUARY 2016    Deadline: March 1st 2017

(Modified from ‘Inktober 2016’)

Rationale: 

Drawing a week, for the whole of February of a bird, based on the word prompt list taken from 'Inktober 2016'. Words will relate to the bird depicted. Could lead to a small publication, individual birds could appear on apparel and stationery. Digital prints will be most suitable over screen print as they'll more than likely need to feature a lot of different colours.

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Brief 2: SWEET YOOTH-DE LOOPS: animated gifs    Deadline: May 2017

(Modification of the monthly Loop De Loop gif challenge)

• 26 looping gifs featuring the redeveloped ‘a-z of confection recollection’ designs.

• It must not contain pornographic material, incite hatred or include defamatory or discriminatory content.

• It must be engaging to watch, both on the web and when screened to a live audience! 

• It has to loop!

• Your submission can be uploaded in either gif or video format (use vimeo).

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 Brief 3: 80’s CHILDHOOD TV CEMETRY Deadline: May 2017

(Modification of the Threadless/Quertee T-shirt challenges)

• 4 T-shirt Designs (1 per week) to include reimagined characters from children’s 1980’s TV shows.

• Designs to be mocked up & submitted on Threadless/Quertee, with ltd. edition presentation box)

• Poster versions of the designs to be made available to purchase.