Stage 2- YCN competition brief

Stage 2 for Illustrative Practices: 

Had to choose a competition brief to answer creatively with the intention of first giving in the outcomes for grading before adapting them if needed and then entering them.
I chose one of the briefs put forward by YCN, this was to create or update the back of some cereal packaging for 'Bear'.

I researched the brand, other packaging on the market and did some thematic research into some of the topics i could illustrate on the packaging.

Bear currently allocates one letter of the alphabet to each cereal packet, incorporating fun facts and interactive elements to really stimulate children and their interest at breakfast time.

I chose to carry on along the same sort of theme but exchanged the letters of the alphabet for the letter sounds of the Phonics alphabet. This is the main way children are taught to read, speak and listen across the country and i thought by adding these there is a greater number of creative possibilities to work with (there are 42!).

All of the themes i researched to illustrate on the packets pertain to the natural world. I think it is important to make children aware of the world around them and also i think this idea fits in well with what the Bear brand already enforce in the current products and their working ethos.

1. AI is for Rainforest.

I chose the rainforest because i could imagine it easily in my head and it had a great scope for adding lots of animals and lots of fun, interesting facts that i thought would appeal to children.
I chose to colour all of my designs on photoshop mainly because i am trying to get better at it, and i really like working this way at the moment, but also because i think this medium is the best way to adhere to the brand aesthetics.

I am really pleased with the outcome of this design. I have tweaked it since our presentation and group crit sessions by changing the composition so there wasn't too many gaps and changing the text too as it wasn't very readable before. It think the colours work well (i tried to use colours they had used before, with a few more added) and the animals are realistic to an extent but also characterised enough for children to enjoy. 

2. AR is for Arctic. 

Sticking with the natural, environmental theme i went for something children might not know too much about. Theres not a lot of colour in this design but i think that helps with enhancing the properties of the arctic landscape! 

                                                 

I really love the layers at the bottom of the design, i think it adds a great sense of depth and more things to look at and think about for the children. However, when i look at the design now i think it maybe needs to have a bit more detail, or some other narrative happening as i don't think there is enough on there to hold someones interest for very long! This is something i might adapt before i send it off for the YCN deadline. 

3. OI is for Oil. 

This was the first design i came up with and i just did not realise at the time how similar it would be to the Arctic illustration until i came to colour them. The content is different enough i think, even with the layers at the bottom because they tell a different story and they also create a running narrative and creative piece of linework which runs through all of the images. This was a conscious decision and i am glad i did it, i think it brings a new element of collectivity to the images and this is the kind of thing they were asking for in the brief, something to make children really excited to get the new box, something which makes it more than just a piece of packaging. 

I also really like the facts that i found for this illustration as i think they are things which will capture children's interests. However, i do think that i could have included some more (like my last design) and perhaps some more narrative in the ocean as the middle section is quite empty besides the text. 

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Although there are a few things i realise i could/will change about my images, overall i am pleased with the way they have turned out. I think/hope they are along the lines of what the brief was asking for and I think they can be appreciated a bit more when seen in context...

Adapted editorial 10

Based on the suggestions from the critique, I have adapted my chosen editorial and i am now really happy with the outcome. It took longer than i thought it would but i suppose i have just learnt to use the layers properly in photoshop for next time!!

In the critique session the general feedback was positive but i needed to neaten up the bottom edge of the image and take out a few unnecessary elements.

Editorial 10- chosen article

For this editorial i chose an article from the New Scientist magazine to illustrate. The article is short and basically explains how the melting ice (due to climate change) is sending bears into human camps etc searching for food and becoming potentially problematic.
I was a bit nervous about this one as it is the last editorial and i wanted to do a good job. Also, i wanted to colour it on photoshop and my skills are by no means top notch yet! Although, i am happy with what i have produced and think i am much better at photoshop stuff than before: Eg i used clipping masks for textures, layer masks for line colour and attempted to use different brushes and create shadows which i usually do not attempt to do! Think it turned out ok.

An extra challenge for this article was the fact that i had to create the layout pretty much from scratch because the original layout in the magazine meant that my illustration would have to be really small and i just didn't fancy that! Personally, i think i did alright with it!

Bonus Portrait

We could choose to do bonus portraits for the Great Editorial Race, a choice of Charles Dance and Donna Tartt OR Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
As a group we chose to do Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The only art direction was that they had to be depicted as they looked in the new film Gravity.
This is my final cover template:

I used acrylic paints to create my image and used photoshop to adjust the levels, contrast and saturation to make the black deeper and the colours more vibrant. You can still see the brush strokes but i kind of like that and the contrast it gives to the black silhouette style of the image. Overall I am really pleased with this editorial, especially as i haven't used acrylics in a while!

Editorial 1 - Fly catcher

This was my first editorial illustration for The Great Editorial Race! In teams we agreed on who was doing which editorials and i landed the first one! It was good fun though and i am pleased with the result.

The feed back for my illustration was mainly positive but noted was the fact that the title of the article was in colour and therefore the publication would obviously be using a colour printer and it would be almost a shame to miss out on the opportunity of using colour when sometimes you are restricted by these sorts of things. With this in mind i created this version: 

I am really pleased with how this turned out! I am growing more confident with digital colouring and it didn't take me long. I was afraid at first that the colour would detract from the line work (as it's quite detailed) but i changed the opacity and fill levels of the colours and now i think they actually help to enhance the line work.

And as i cannot leave anything alone....

did this version with dots in the background, i quite like it! I know i have crept out of the box a bit but i think it adds to the illustration. The nature of it being a plant just lends itself to growing outside of the borders.