OUIL603 - OrnitholoSEE - FMP project boards & book preview

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT:

DEADLINE: 15.5.17

Book Preview

FMP - OrnitholoSEE - wrapping it up...

As far as submitting in time for the end of the module, its' time to wrap things up with the bird book. What with having to spend the best part of a week solidly making issuu presentation boards and doing all the 'admin' for OUIL603, any production of new birds for the book came to a halt, leaving me with final, cut-price tally of 14, fully-fledged bird images with accompanying writing. a books' worth, sure,but it doesn't feel enough - however here it be, in all it's a virtual book glory.

A lifetime away from the original 40 that i proposed - although i think we've all established that that was 'pie in the sky' thinking. With 6 more already in production the full 20 birds will be ready to go into the physical book come the end of the degree show, which will give me a bit more time to iron out any possible issues with content or layout. Even though i know it wasn't essential to make the physical specimen for submission, i do feel like I've come up a bit short, and if i hadn't been struggling so hard to make a simple design decision on the early stages i would've given myself enough time to get this printed for real.

Here's the book all ready to go on my Blurb dashboard.

Still, it'll give me something to work towards in the degree show - otherwise i'm sure i would've let the wheels fall off in the huge void that will be left in my life my having no more uni work to do.

In between all the constant blog posting, i did find a bit of time make some fun little extra bells and whistles for the book and it's spin-off printed products. 

18x18

20x25

All part of the proposal process. I also made a couple of test print of page sizes, so i could see how the text sizes were working out and also so i could make a decision on the book size. It was a toss up between 18x18 ( which suited the 'squarer' compositions, or standard portrait 20x25 - which i think is the winner. Most of the images I've done are geared to be a3/ a4/ 80x10, or any portrait ratio, plus i don't want to have to shrink the pictures down too much. Big and bold!

Belly band for the a5 print bundle with i.d card,

 if you can't imagine how that might work in real-life?

Branded belly band colour test prints.

Matching dust jacket design for the book

FMP - revised SOI

Anyone expecting all the whistles and bells proposed in my initial FMP proposal might be sadly disappointed - as they never really materialised, due to my underestimating of how much i could realistically get done within this timeframe, amongst the coursework for other modules - also sleeping, eating and life in general. 

Also, it came down to asking myself; "is making painted wooden laser cuts, and animations going to benefit the core imagery of the project?" and the answer would be no, it wouldn't have done. The project is about birds, how they look, what they do and how to educate people about some of them. So the focus turned to the quality of the drawn imagery and not so much on how much physical paraphernalia i could also make out of it and throw at people.

Turns out 'writing a book' takes up a fair bit of time on its own, without trying to be an animator and wood craftsman aswell. 

I have slightly revised my FMP project proposal/rationale/reference sections accordingly (see below).

OrnitholoSEE - book branding/logo...

As i needed to also design a cover/dust jacket for the book i took the opportunity to develop a quick bit of branding for the OrnitholoSEE series - just a simple little emblem that would sit nicely on the cover.

As future books could be about birds from other countries, the type of bird could change in relation to the given country. The logo would keep a similar look, to keep it cohesive with the original Canadian edition.see the UK verison, with a Robin.

OrnitholoSEE - losing/regaining perspective...

As the slog continues, i've totally lost all perspective with this project, and having a chat to classmates has woken me up a bit to what's actually expected of us in our submissions.

I've been beating myself in pursuit of trying to make the Blurb print deadline, so i can have a physical book finished, printed and delivered ready to hand it in with my development work.

But i don't need to?! It can be entirely proposed if i want - as long as i have mock-ups & proof of the work actually existing, completed and being in a position to be put into a book, then that's what i'll be marked on.

I've been so wrapped up in making a physical conclusion that this didn't occur to me - but now i've been reminded of the fact, i suddenly feel a whole load of weight of my shoulders, and that the imagery for this book is a bit more achievable that i thought yesterday.

Not so say i'll be taking my foot off the gas - i've still got a considerable amount left to do before i can reach the point where i can say i'll be happy with what i'm turning in, but re-gaining perspective has also given me an extra week back that i had intended to have all the images & text done by in order to send to print. I may even get away with not having to trim down the final bird tally any further than the revised 20.

ORIGINAL LINEUP

REVSISED LINEUP

I'll still have a number of physical loose 8x10 prints ready for submission, as they were also proposed in my initial statement of intent.

FMP - BLURB progress...

As i gradually begin to chalk up more and more finished bird images, and accompanying words i been looking into which custom book creating company to use. My parents have had holiday photo books made by Photobox before, and the quality is great, but i'm getting on with Blurb's 'create your own' interface (BookWright) a lot easier, plus the selection of book format is a lot wider so i'll be going with Blurb when it comes to getting the physical copy made up.

I'm leaning towards a 20x25 portrait format, with a dust cover. Have yet to make any decisions on the paper type, but they all look pretty Pro to be honest, and very affordable - i may even get a few done eventually, so i can keep one in my portfolio.

I cant wait to be able to sign this whole thing off by having it my hands, in a real book, like a real person! The 'tangible conclusion' is what's driving me on now, as i'm fast running out of productive steam right now - but i'm still going to have to knock out 2 birds a day (fully complete with type) for the next couple of weeks if i'm going to meet my target!

Sweet sweet Photobox discounts.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So i don't get myself in a pickle when it comes the undoubted last minute compiling of all the artwork and sorting all the typesetting on Blurb's BookWright self publishing tool; i've been laying out my pages as i complete them, so i can get to grips with it all. I mean, it's not massively tricky to get my head around, but it'll be one less thing to stress about.

I was scratching my head a bit about how the text should be aligned -after having a quick chat with Ben and i showed where i was up to and he pointed out that it should definitely be justified, as currently my type was wonky at the ends, and a bit unsightly. I thought it might be a bit of a ball-ache to get it all 'squared-off' but the justify tool on BookWright sorts it all out quick sharp! So now i have nice neat blocks of type on one page, and the image page opposite.

The tone in which i 'narrate'  the book is light-hearted and pretty much how i would talk about the birds in real life. I'd like to think my sense of humour comes across when reading the short paragraphs, and also some of the bird love i have with it. I've been a long time fan of Matt Sewell's bird books/drawings (below) and he's always been the benchmark i've been aiming for.Although with my graphic style im not sure i've got same sort of appeal.

Reading his books and the way he describes birds is pretty similar to how mine is going - you can tell he's got a real passion for the subject in his writing, and a quirky sense of humour. Even the layout is similar, but then again i'm not sure how many more innovative ways you can effectively lay out a bird picture book? 

At least my images look absolutely nothing like his, so i've not totally ripped him off!

FMP- OrnitholoSEE re-evaluation

I'd probably hit a low point with this project, but a new dawn & new day and i'm not as miserable about it all as i originally sounded. 

I put it down to to frustrations with what i was making VS what i initially planned to make, the (fast disappearing) amount of time left to do it - coupled with the fact that it feels like i'm spending every waking hour in front my mac, making slow progress when i really want to make something physical & a bit more instantaneous. I've made my bed, so i guess ill have to lie in it.

After an assessment of how much work left to do against the time frame to do it i got myself into a more positive mind set and went into beast-mode; spending the weekend solidly sketching and refining the linework of the 13 remaining birds, achieving my goal of 20 birds, all ready for scanning and on to the vectoring stage. I made more progress in two days than i have done in 4 weeks. It's funny what a looming deadline and the very real fear of failure can do to the motivation.

I also put the new enthusiasm down to the fact i stopped thinking about every tiny detail of the content so much, and whether it meant anything to anyone or if it was 'personal' enough - and just did it how i wanted to do it! 

Being able to spend a chunk of time drawing without being in front my computer was also much needed - and appreciated. Due to my bank holiday efforts I've put myself in a bit of a healthier position in regards to making the printing deadline for a Blurb or Photobox publicaiton.

I will still need to design accompanying cover image/logo,text and intro pics, so i'm not patting myself on the back too much yet.

FMP - Bored now...

so very bored.....

This FMP was supposed to be a self-indulgent project about something that we had a special interest or even love for - but I've somehow turned it into a monotonous, drawn-out affair in which i have lost almost all enthusiasm and motivation to do - and am almost resenting, because whilst I'm painfully slogging each bird image out, I've got a load of other quick turnaround ideas going around in my head that i would much rather be doing. I'm so frustrating. I though i was the sort of artist that would be good at making series' of images based on a similar theme. Turns out, not so much.


I'm bored of getting up every day and drawing the same thing, in less and less interesting ways. It's almost made me grow tired of looking at birds (obviously not, because birds are awesome) but the whole production process is wearing me down.

It's too late in the day to make a last-ditch switch to another project as i don't want to end up with two hadl finished submisisons - but after already facing the fact that I've had to half my proposed image count (40 down to 20) I'm also going to have to accept my initial statement of intent; with the planned animations and painted laser cut birds just isn't going to happen now. I'm going to have to produce 2 new birds every day for the next 2 weeks if even i stand a chance of having a book ready to send off to a printers to be professionally printed and bound. ( if i opt for the print dungeon i have a week or so longer) And thats not factoring in days i'll be away or working on my  PPP presentation.

Deadline breakdown:

• Submission- May 15th
• Days i'll be away from Leeds - April 28-May 3rd 
• Last date for professional printing/binding (7-11 business days) - May 4th
• Amount of production days left (predicted, if i do NOTHING else) - 12
• Birds left to produce - 13 (plus cover designs and page layout)

basically, I'M  PROPER F**KED.

So what started out as a project which would give me a chance to combine a mixture of hand-made, digital and animated elements is going to be a plain old collection of digital prints in a book (if I'm lucky) - that, because of the personal elements included in the pictures (as it was supposed to be a personal project) have no meaning to anyone else on the planet ( apart from my immediate family)

Brillant(!)

You can see why my motivation is rock bottom at this point. Spending day and night making pictures for a book that no-one will relate to, or even see will do that i guess? 

My final practical project of my degree has turned into an unadventurous, irrelevant damp squib.

I need to pull something special out for the Degree show, for my own peace of mind. I can't go out like this?!!

FMP - OrnitholoSEE production process...

With a decision finally being made as to which style i will be producing the bird images in, the production line mentality needs to kick in. With my process in place, from now on there is nothing except; EXECUTE > REPEAT > EXECUTE > REPEAT...from now until i finish!


Actually theres a little bit more to it than just executing and repeating, it's more like;

Reference pics/research birds > sketch > refine > scan >  vector > colour > research bird facts/add my own thoughts > file it, ready for book layout > NEXT...

The OrnitholoSEE production line process

That's all there is to it. Just have to do this 15 or so more times and i'm laughing.

OrnitholoSEE - the shortest book in the world.

Someone needs to save me from myself, now!

I've put the question out to anyone i've come in contact with tutors/students/family/friends alike, and i'm still no nearer making peace with myself and what style i should be making this bird book; 

1. Minimal Paper cut style 
2. Slick vector shapes with texture style
3. The IanF ,super-chunky vector & halftone signature style.

I KNOW I NEED TO STOP OVER THINKING IT!!!!!!!!!:(


There are pros and cons and reasons why i like all three variations and the same goes with the people i've asked about it. They like the way version 3 has my trademark style to it, but when i show them version 2 they have all replied "ooooh, i like that one". Largely because it has a bit if texture to it and comes across as a bit more hand made, even though it just as digital as the chunky black line style ive become know for...!? So i'm torn between the two. Both styles do a job and wold appeal to a certain market - all depends on what i want them to do, and for who?


Theres' a large part of me that really doesn't want to do deal with this anymore. It's gone from a subject and an idea i was looking forward to tackling, from a personal and professional point of view, to something i'v become totally disenchanted with and wish i could come up with something else. Trouble is, i'd only have the same conundrum with what style to use for it anyways. This is my nightmare with OUIL505 (Applied illustration) all over again.

There's no escape.

Matt had some great motivational words for me, which massively helped to nudge me in the way of a solid decision;

Staring defeat HARD in the face...(even with 2 months to go)

From the day we had to plan out our FMP statement of intent, action plans etc my time management and delegation has been absolutely piss poor, and i've missed every FMP deadline i've set myself. Since the (advised) decision to leave any plans i had to tackle smaller live briefs behind ive made a stuttering start with my Canadian Bird diary, and it is stuttering. 

The last two weeks, where i was going dedicate to sketchbook experimentation, has been interrupted somewhat by mural prep and painting, continued paid mural design work for Pete Barber aswell trying to work out my diary in order to fit in being an assistant on a number of his up & coming large scale murals around the country, also paid. Other smaller, quick turnaround and paying briefs have also come onboard, and the money factor is turning my head and motivating me more than the self driven uni work right now - which isn't a great thing to be admitting, but that is the name of the game right?! I WANT MONEY.


After taking stock of just how long (short) i have til the May 15th submission date, and doing some rough maths - the results don't make for good reading... heres a break down;


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

BIRD IMAGES I NEED TO DESIGN/DEVELOP/PRODUCE : 39 (plus working out background elements, and collecting bird facts and adding my own bird blurb)

WEEKS TIL SUBMISSION: 7
That's right up until the day before submission, which i wont be able to do if i actually want to get a physical copy of the book printed. Also thats not factoring the PPP3 presentation prep, Creative Strategy/Presence that still needs to happen - prospective on-site work with Pete Barber (he'd need me for 2/3 weeks) as well as literally anything going on in the outside world that isn't my FMP.

IMAGES I NEED TO PRODUCE A WEEK: 5 (based on a 7 day working week & not taking into account the odd days i already know i wont be able to produce anything due to family visits)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



Sooooo, its not looking too healthy, and the more i think about it (and more time i waste documenting it on the my blog) the more it seems i'm going to have to bite the bullet and have a serious bird cull - maybe reducing the final count by as much as half?! Perhaps down to 20 of my favourite sightings, but that kind of defeats the object of wanting to illustrate the whole list. 

Maybe i was always asking too much of myself to produce a 40+ page book, to the standard i demand of myself - and maybe if i hadn't been doubting my concepts so much to begin with and just got on with it earlier i might not be as much of a pickle. But i am and i can only really see two ways out of this;

• DO NOTHING APRT FROM FMP 24/7, ABANDON ALL OTHER MODULE WORK AND COMMISSIONS. (even still, its not gaurunteed id complete it all)

• COMPROMISE MY PRACTICE - switch to a much, MUCH simpler style, with less detail and craft. This would cause me to produce work that wouldn't normally be associated with me - i should be using my 'signature' style surely?

• SPEND ZERO TIME ON DEVELOPMENT - don't make loads of scamps, cut straight to the chase.

• FOCUS ON THE BIRD CONTENT - don't get bogged down in worrying about what other elements i could be putting in the background to fill the composition? 


What ever happens, i think i'm going to fact the fact that 40 birds ain't gonna happen - unless i totally lose all discipline and start churning out super quick,scruffy-assed paintings & doodles and submit them as part of the book (although a mix of styles might be more interesting!). 20 is probably more realistic, i will aim for that (it could be a proposed Two Volume book) anything more than that new total i can now look on as an achievement rather than a failure!

Also trying to spend less time on my blog posts, but the sweet irony is; the more work i actually manage to produce on this will only mean more bloody blogging..!?

LETS GO!

OrnitholoSEE (FMP) - as it stands...

Matt suggested taking these last two weeks to experiment a bit with how these bird images are going to look. Which i have done to a point (prepping and painting a mural has taken centre stage) - but it hasn't ventured too far away from where i originally going to take it. 

>>>>scamps/sketches/tests<<<<

As much as i like the idea of using 'real life', expressive paint strokes and splats is just isn't me, and it would feel weird to all of a sudden start making all this loose imagery with no carefully crafted linework or visual cleanliness; ie totally analogue. Although I've considered different, simpler ways to digitally render the bird so they appear a bit less digital, i keep getting the feeling that i'd only being lowering my production standards purely for the sake of making something totally different from what i usually make? 

II'mim going to draw and colour it in by hand so it looks digital, i might aswell save myself the time and DO IT DIGITALLY?!(i must've told myself that so many times by now)

As I've been pretty worried that there isn't enough concept or originality or scope to generate my own material (without referencing lots of already existing things) i've tried incorporating some of my own thoughts about each particular bird, where it was spotted along with some facts - nothing too long but just something that could accompany each image, possibly on the adjacent page?

I've still got a whole heap of reference imagery to collate before i can properly get this going, but the development work/testing i've done so far has been on a Spotted Towhee and has resulted in my first finished image, complete with bird blurb. 

>>>towhee pics<<<<

True to my recent working process, it looks & IS balls-to-wall digital. There's no denying that. I've also managed to keep the palette farily restricted - as much as i can with colourful birds. Limited myselfl to 5 colours on this one, using large scale halftones here & there, all contributing to my 'signature' style.

Looking at the result i'm happy - this lasts untill i scan through Instagram and see new work by Erik jones, Ken Garduno or Will Barras and I'm immediately back to hating what I've just done and wishing my work looked completely different and not quite so unspectacular!

Ben said it might be a good shout to do a mixture of styles - it would make it more possibly interesting and varied to look at, but less coherent and may just look like i'm trying too hard to be someting that i'm not?


Either way, I've got to stop overthinking and GET ON WITH IT?!

FMP - Progress (or lack of) / Tutorial with Matt...

As far as Extended Practice is going...

Small briefs and competitions / commissions from outside uni; i've been pretty prolific and have completed all the tasks outlined in my SOI to date.

Final Major Project;

Haven't really made a substantial start on a project that i'm not sure is even interesting enough to pursue. Would i only be making something that looks good? I do want to make a collection of bird illustrations which brings a more alternative, contemporary feel to the practice of illustrating birds.The Birds featured are all one ive spotted in real life, with my dad so there is a personal element to it. But is this enough to make anyone give a shit, beyond it looking 'cool'?

MAIN POINTS

• WHAT'S CHANGED - WHAT HAVE I DISCOVERED?

Using less colour and more considered palettes & composition.

Sometimes less is more - reigning in the amount of fine detail (in part). 

• WHAT DO I DO?
"Clean digital (via hand drawn) imagery". Matt & I are in agreement; i'm good at tackling briefs that have been given to me by clients or in competitions and also making worked referenced from things that already exist (pop culture, birds, tv characters). However this is leading me to struggle with generating much of my own original material, and i'm simply recreating these things in my own  drawing 'style'. 



• THIS WORK NEEDS TO WIDEN MY EXISTING VISUAL LANGUAGE.
Although technically impressive, nothing i'm doing right now is very innovative. A damning statement, but i couldn't argue. I'm not taking enough risks with my output -  this has mainly been because at this late stage in the degree, and with the FMP to concentrate on, i didn't think taking my visual voice in a drastically different direction, using unfamiliar techniques would be the way to go. It may confuse not only myself but the people looking at my work, having been used to seeing a certain style of process from me.

• WHY DO I LIKE BIRDS/WHY DO I WANT TO DO THIS?
Birds are something thats just always been with me - Dad would always have a pair of binoculars handy, and would give me a shout when he spotted an interesting looking one. Still does to this day. Like WWF wrestling, and Norwich City ive no reason to still be intersting in watching them, but i have done for years and years, and cant ever see me not wanting to (although Norwich City are pushing me pretty close at the moment!).

I want to introduce them an audience that is bored of seeing the typical watercolours, photo-realistic images of birds - and give them something fresh to look at.

The reasons i like birds are the same reasons i like particular art; Shape, pattern, bright colours, movement, charm. I'm ware (at its been commented on ) that my digital/vector work can lack character or personality at times. When i watch birds i see their different species personalities the way they jump about and behave, so getting that across in my work is something i need to try and do.

• Although id been hesitant in researching into other practitioner (bird and non-bird related) in case it lead me to get stuck in the research rut - Matt did give me some names i should look into. David Lemm was one, and i instantly loved his work. Minimal shapes and textures, with minimal colour schemes, documenting things he sees and places he goes. Couldn't be more down my street if he tried.



• MOVING FORWARD
Having created a substantial amount of work to this point with the smaller briefs Matt has suggested that i make the YCN  Roald Dahl Brief my last one (due March 22) so i can focus fully on the FMP. I should spend the next 2 weeks in my sketchbook working on the bird characters/composition/content for my proposed images trying to experiment with my process more, use different tools be inspired by other artists, maybe get some narrative involved or my own feelings about the birds i'm drawing.

Even go SPOTTING! My parents are coming up in a few weeks on a Northern Tour, i'm sure Dad will bringing his Binoculars with him -so we could go for some twitching action.

Final Major Project (FMP from now on)

During my progress tutorial , Ben had picked out how i used to overthink what i was doing too much, doubt myself and the work i was making, which would cause me to stall during or even before my projects had even started ;and how i much improved. 

I'd kind of forgotten about how that used to be the case - but he had a point, i was now (with out realising) worrying less about what others may be thinking about what i was producing, conceptually and visually. Especially with the Luchador COP project - i just got my head down and busted them out without looking back.

I think he might've cursed it though as, whilst researching some contextual references, and bird drawing artists for my OrnitholoSEE project, i had the old familiar fear come over me..! So many artists out there doing their thing, and so many of them have drawn birds in ways i wish i'd thought of! Am i going to be able to being anything new to the (bird) table..? I'd never be able to gain any satisfaction or pride if i produced something that looked like a poor-mans version of a Mike Mitchell 'fat bird' or josh brill super-flat vector design..? (Josh Brill's type layout is very similar to what i hand in mind also, annoyingly)

Mike Mitchell

Josh Brill

I always do this to myself- but if i get examples of all the bird work i like, get them in front of me, than i can get inspired as well as making sure that i don't end up making anything that looks too similar..?

>>>> artist mood board<<<<<<

But a new and improved part of me is just thinkin; "F@*k 'em, there plenty of bird styles to go around, nothings original anymore, just do what you feel is right..!"

Final Major Project - Statement of Intent

With Ben & Patrick (and myself) green-lighting my OrnitholoSEE project, i just had write up my Statement of Intent for my Final Major Project.

I was sideswiped by yet more 'Out of Order' print duties after my progress tutorial and totally forgot to submit it online before the 4:00 deadline - it was only really half done as i hadn't given myself much time to think to work out my Action plan/Contextual References/Research activity OR bibliography (was is a bit hard to do that as i haven't even started the project yet?!) as i had to submit a live brief the same day and figured that was immediately more important to get done.

But i had another go at it, to mainly sort out my action plan and set myself some deadline dates...

I also revised my Extended Practice Project Action plan from the 1st Semester to see which projects were now completed, still in progress or no longer applicable (ie: dead and buried).

1st Semester project action plan

2nd/3rd Semester project action plan