WORKSHOP 8: telling a tale

I DIDNT REALY ENJOY THIS WORKSHOP TOO MUCH, I FOUND IT A LITTLE TEDIOUS AND DIDNT APPEAL TO ME. I MADE A ZINE IN THE END WHICH I FEEL DID END UP HOW I WANTED IT TOO, BUT I THINK IF I HAD CHOSED A DIFFERENT STORY ID BE MORE INCLINED TO FURTHER IT. HOWEVER THE PIECE I HAVE FINISHED I AM PLEASED WITH, IT HAS THE RUSTIC LOOK I WAS LOOKING FOR AND WORKS WELL.


ZINES

I have had a look into the zine industry, looking at styles I like and artists which appeal to me.

Wikipedia explanation of a zine:

''A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier.

A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 1,000, and profit is not the primary intent of publication.''

Zines can be completely hand made, which is a look i love. Like the two to the left that have been hand bound. I realy like the hand made rustic looks you can get from hand making them yourself.

Zines can also be created from a variety of media, Screen printed, hand drawn, computerised etc... I personally like the hand drawn zines the most, and the printed ones, they feel like they have more heart put into it.

They can also contain just about anything, from factual information to thoughts and day to day happenings. It can baisically be the feelings that person has put into a visual form. Something to consider when creating my own zine.

They are commonly used for comic strips, being an easy way to portray them.








Book binding


And also ways to bind my zine together, I need to see how to find a bind that will suit my story and zine together.

This image shows a variety of binding metho ds which have been attempted before in FDyr1
, i like the idea of side stitching, i feel it would work well with my zine idea.

Also possibly just stitching up the ends of the pages to keep it together.

I also like this idea, using a little ribbon and a couple of holes, i may possibly use this idea. Its effective and easy to produce.

There is also Japanese stab binding, but this hasnt worked out well for me in the past, so i wouldnt lke to use this again..

WORKSHOP 7: natural disaster workshop

I didnt enjoy this workshop much, so i dont think i will continue further with this one. It didnt engage me and felt a little boring.

LOOKING AT WIZARD OF OZ BOOK COVERS....




1.
I liked this image because of its vintage feel and detail on the characters. The colours are lovely and subtle, however i dont like the text, its very very bold, but the placement of it is quite nice.
















2.
I realy like the colour scheme on this image, they are very contemerary, and the simple shapes work well, there is no black used, just dark blues. I like the text on this book cover, it works well and is easy to read.













3.
I chose this one because it only has one character on the front. Wether this is the illustrators favourite character or it was a request to just have this one, it works. Its very simple and the hand drawn text is legiable and works well.














4.
This is by far my favourite. The characters are uniquly stylised and are placed with a border that makes them stand out. The two tone simple background works realy well, and the text suits the illustrations and colour scheme.








5.
I chose this one just because it was different. Its not my cup of tea but it is interesting. I like how the dark section in the corner has the flying monkeys coming out into the light area. The characters all suit their problems i.e. the lion is cowardly.

WORKSHOP 6: terrors of the night

I thought this workshop was realy good, i enjoyed it, it was good fun and involved a lot of drawing (whuch i like). My 'terrors' came out well, they fit when cut up into different creatures, which is a relief. I would like to look into the packaging side of things and how i would reproduce them.

I decided to have a look at 'misfits' games (baisically the mix and match card games) to see what styles and packaging came up..


I love the style of these misfits cards, its almost an old victorian style which was where they originated from. The image below is from a victorian mix and match game. I like how the style from this era has been continued into the modern day games.
















LOOKING AT PACKAGING...


The mix and match game is now widely used to teach children about everyday things like getting dressed, numbers etc..

The pack to the left is produced like a pack of cards which is quite a good idea, easy to transport and easily used.

The characters are child friendly and stylised.














DIFFERENT STYLES....



Theres this typical childrens information book feel, with block bright colours, and simple faces. All the characters are the same and very simplified.







Or the more contemperary feel like this one which i quite like as its more modern and fitting to todays illustrational favourites.

WORKSHOP 5: shadow puppet workshop

This workshop i didnt particularly enjoy, I wasnt interested in the subject and couldnt get into it. It was good in the sense that it was a new topic, that i hadnt explored before but it isnt something i would like to continue with and expand.


Shadow puppets....

'Isabella'
An artist who specializes in the wonderfu and amazing, and spends most of her time in an imaginary world. Her work is inspired by myths, fairytales, folklore and the like. She now runs her own little business selling prints, crafts, and other homemade goods.

I like her work because so much detail is put through in a single black piece of paper, i also like that she uses fairy tales and myths in her images.











Then there are these images created by 'Russ and Reyn' which i realy liked because of its creative-ness, using hand puppets to make a shadow, its interesting and very unique.

WORKSHOP 3: book cover workshop

This was one of a couple workshops i enjoyed enough to bring to a final piece. It was a little out of my comfort zone so i went for a style which was different to what i normal go for, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have created an idea for a final piece and will contnue to play around with and make a complete final item.

Looking at ilustrated book covers...


This is an image from 'The Illustrated book of ingredients', which i was particularly drawn to because of the patterning, being similar to the pattern work I have created as my front cover. I enjoy the simplicity, like mine, and how the colours are in a pattern formation.













This book 'Dinner for Two' , illustrated by Charles Harper, is particularly nice because of the colour scheme. There is an obvious colour scheme and the colours compliment each other and are pleasing to the eye. Again, its similar to the colour scheme i have used for my book cover.












I felt this book cover was nice because of its use of photographic imagery. The surrounding imagery is brought from the vegetables in the photo, in two complimentary colours which i think creates a very contemperary book cover.













This final image for a book about crab recipes is beautiful. The colours contrast together, and the watercolour crab is the main image of the book cover, explaining what the book is in an instance. Its quite a simple image, but its easy to distinguish and the text is legiable and appealing.

WORKSHOP 1: cockney rhyming slang

To start with i did enjoy this workshop, being able to come up with any design from all sorts of fresh and new ideas that pop into my head. However when it came to thinking about producing a final A2 image i started to get a little bit wary and started to waver away from it. However this is an area i NEED to work on and pushing through, and completing a final rendered image will only strengthen my ablilities.

Also choosing to go for macaroni, a material relativly unused by myself is leading me to broaden my flexability.


I had a look at a selection of artists in my sketchbook, and here i am going to look at materials themselves.

RAN HWANG

Instead of using ordinary buttons and pins to stitch up clothes, Korean-born artist Ran Hwang creates amazingly large installations of birds and cherry blossom trees. When you look up close, the amount of individual buttons is absolutly amazing, but if you look from the distance, the images moves into one jaw-dropping image.

I chose Ran purely because of the amazing detail that goes into her work. Her images are extremely large scaled, showing that to be able to manipulate materials like this, and macaroni,bigger is better when trying to acheive a higher level of detail. I also like the simplicity, with simple backgrounds, ensuring the eye is kept on the main peice itself.

SAIMIR STRATI

Saimir Strati, an Albanian artist creates world's largest mosaics out of nails, toothpicks or wine corks. He hammers thousands of nails or toothpicks on wooden boards to create breathtaking illustrations.

He has his name in the Guinness Book of World Record for creating world's largest mosaics.

Again, i chose this artist because of the vast differences in his materials used. He also works at a very large scale, showing that A2 or larger may have to be the was to create my final piece purely because i would not be able to get the detail into anything smaller.

The first image of the woman is created with just corks. This image is lovely purely because of the illustrational look about it, it manages to still look stylised whilst being a very un - versatile object.

The images of the horse are made from toothpicks, i chose to look at this image because of its reference to Macaroni pony, its interesting to see how the artist has managed to create tone and definition with a relativly unused object.