Assignment three

Assignment three

A graphic short story


The story of Paul and Gawel written by Alexander Fredro is my choice for this assignment. The main plot treats about two neighbours and their small misunderstandings caused mainly by their opposite personalities. 

Creating spider diagram should help with me clear up my mind and put all good ideas on the blank paper.  

spider diagram

Research


Judy Brown

I picked only examples of two pictures done by Judy Brown just to show how the character can show different emotions.  I like the illustrations of the crazy witch in black and white.  I really shows nicely the character of the witch where her nose is really sharp and pointy, she is very tall and skinny and that perfectly suits her.  Her outfit is as dark as the dark background and she nearly disappears into it.  Although she is a witch we can easily see that she is a friendly witch.

Paul and Gawel books research

There are a few book covers on the Polish market.  Most of them reflect the old look of these two main characters.  They refer to the classic look of clothes and other item like guns or furniture.  I wish to keep something from that style; however I will try to update it a bit.  I am planning to keep it fresh and I would like to make it stand out from the others.  I am still not sure which direction I will follow.  My favourite style of the book cover from presented under is the one dominated by red, where Pawl is above and Gawel is below.  I like the fact that the illustrator kept the location of the characters in a way that we can clearly see that one is on top and the other below.  The font of the letters looks really fun and interesting, so faces look well though through.

The main colour makes this cover really striking.

I absolutely dislike this idea. This one is defiantly not going to represent on of my characters. However I am happy to used and work with the water resistance colour ink so far.

I can see  my second attempt was more successful. I think I will use them form my assignment. They need more work but overall there is something about them I like.

After working on the character in my sketchbook I started to draw more precise parts of the illustrations to be able to scan them later and work with them on Photoshop.  It is good to use that fine black in pen, it really makes a difference.  I did not have to think very hard, each time I drew a line, to create a good shape.  I thought I would need some speech clouds of different meaning and use, therefore I placed all of them on one page to be able to scan them later.  These are the ones I will use later.

This next page contains most of the small parts and elements for my next illustration.  I looked on the internet for pictures of hunting guns, running dogs and rabbits and an old chest of drawers.  After that I was drawing and sketching them on my A4 white paper with black ink. 

This third black sketch is also for the later work on the computer.  I managed to produce the basic shape of a cloud, the sun, the moon and a question mark, also the scene of Pawel and Gawel talking to each other, and Pawel fishing in his room.  I do not know how they are going to look like as a finished product but so far I am pleased with the overall look. 

Today I started choosing the colours for my black and white illustrations. The waterproof ink I am using is very good for covering small parts of the illustrations. I have limited choice as the pack I bought contains 8 colours; however I can still mix one with another to achieve the one I want but this time I  think I will stick to the ones I already have. I like the bright colours as they are totally different from the one I normally would use. I usually go for the pastels.  

I have picked the red colour for Gawel's hair to make him bit more wild and crazy comparing with Paul's brown calm colour. Paul's green shirt and his blue trousers are an equivalent of calm personality. Gawel's clothes are full of temper and unsteady personality.   

My next few pictures show the work I have done with the feeling the white spaces of the characters. Mainly the colours are the same is just the combination may very. 

I really like this house. The shape looks simple quit and funny. I did it as an open plan so we could see what is going in side. I wish to keep each floor with colours that describe personalities of my two characters. Will I achieve the best result? I hope I will. 

I changed the concept while I was working with the illustration. I picked more vibrant colours to make the house stand out bit more. I think my decision was good for this illustration. Another comment I would like to place on my blog is the fact I found some similarities in the style of the house from my illustration and the Cloud Tower from CBBies "Sarah and Duck". I did not intend to; however I am very pleased with the look of it.  

I am working on the front cover at the moment. Nice bold colours make this cover stand out on the shelf I hope. I still have to cut unnecessary white paper.

I am looking now at my first attempt of the book cover and I am not sure if the colours I chose are good enough.  Yellow and blue looks to me like it is some sort of book to take to the beach.  It does not match with the red house.  I have to think again and try to pick better colours next time.  Am I happy with the font and size of the title?  Yes I am happy with the font, however the size could be a bit bigger I suppose.

I started working with the layout of my page one and I spent quite a lot of time erasing and pasting different parts of my illustrations. This is the best part of this process where I can think about my next move while erasing some unnecessary elements of illustration. This is the part of my work where I talk to myself the most asking what to do next and thinking what to leave and what to add. Just because I work in this way sometimes is difficult for me to remember what I wanted to do or what I was aiming to leave or add. That is why my blog sometimes lacking my comments.  

If you look closer there are small changes in their faces and small differences in clothes as well. This the page which I am pretty pleased with.  It looks clean and nearly finished. 

I managed to translate the original text and copy it to my page and pasted in the appropriate places on the page. I am hope that the font is visible enough to read.

Today I am planning to work in the same way on page 2 as I worked while I was creating previous page.  I will make sure that I am happy with the layout and the overlook of the page and the characters. I will spend a couple of hours on this process. 

I placed my characters one next to another just to show how they changed a bit after a few small changes. I think they are visible enough as for me. This is my biggest progress, knowing that the small changes will make a difference. I learned that through the exercise about animal farm where I have been asked to work on developing the animal characters.   

These illustrations show the range of emotions I managed to develop in this process. These are the one they were showing or expressing in the short story from being surprised to being angry and frustrated. 

Working on the book cover...

As I mentioned earlier, I was not happy with my book cover. There was something not working therefore I decided to star thinking about it again.

I am happy with my new idea however I am not convinced with this bright pink colour. Yes, it will stand out on the shelf however it looks too similar in terms of bright colour  to this book cover. I do not want to copy anyone idea. 

I managed finished the book cover. This is my last attempt of making any changes. As we can see there is basically nothing that is left from my first idea. The house is gone as I did not need it at the end. I have used the scanned wallpaper to use as a background for this cover as an equivalent of the wall. I hope this is clear enough to see. Another change is the fact I have two heads and Gawel's head is upside down to show where he lives. He takes bottom floor in the story; therefore I placed him underneath Paul. Another changed I have made is the title of the book which appears above the trumpet like is just jumping out from it. 

Assignment 3 - Being self-reflective


I started this assignment with researching on the internet some British short stories that are easy and moreover make a good work for this task.  There were a few I liked, for example:
However there was a Polish story which came to my mind instantly: "Pawel i Gawel" by A Fredry.  This short story was good enough for me to be confident to not try any other story.  It was funny enough and short therefore I knew I could not make it to complicated for the reader.
After researching on the internet for illustrations of Pawel (Paul) and Gawel I started with a spider diagram which helped me to clarify my ideas and thoughts.  After making the spider diagram I did an ideas board.  I usually don't make an ideas board but this time I thought it may be helpful, which is was in this case.
The Learning Log was more helpful than my sketchbook as I recorded most of my thinking on there, however I did fewer sketches than I expected and needed.  Did the research help me with the development of ideas? Definitely, as I was able to draw some parts of the illustration based on pictures collected on the internet like a running dog or a rabbit.  I was drawing partly from secondary and partly from primary resources.
This is the list of skills and media I have used throughout this assignment:
- black waterproof ink
- extra fine pen for ink
- waterproof colour ink
- fine brush
- pencil for the sketches
- Photoshop
It is very difficult for me to judge if I used all media and my skills successfully; I hope I did quite well.  I think that the line, shape and colour are integral to my work this time.

If we are talking about my work in context with other artists, I tried not to be influenced by any other illustrator.  I did take some inspiration from Judy Brown when I was looking at how to develop my characters, but that is about it.  I could not stop laughing when I discovered that somehow one of my characters looks like Kulfon , a character from a children programme I watched when I was younger.  There were some visible similarities, however I was not consciously trying to use any of his features while I was creating Gawel


  

My ideas developed gradually while I was working with Photoshop.  It was easier to do it this way.  Having established the basic look of my characters I could make some subtle changes in their look.  As I already had an idea in my head for the general look and feel of the character in my work, I did not have any need to consider various possible solutions.  I did not want to experiment so much during this assignment with colours as I wanted to keep it simple and very transparent so it would be clear to read.  Although I did make some small changes while I was working in Photoshop especially with the faces to give them a more professional look.  I hope I managed to make my final work tidy and neat.
As I was using a completely new medium for me, in pen and ink, I was absolutely impressed how different the illustrations can look only by using fine lines.  I simply loved this medium as it created a totally new look of my work.  I was looking for such an effect for a long time, and I have never been 100% satisfied with the work I did using Photoshop and a Bamboo Graphics Pen.

Assignment notes - evaluation p. 2


Describe your final outcome:
To describe my final outcome I may say that I am very happy.  Thinking about this assignment I am very pleased that I managed to achieve something different to my previous assignments.  Comparing these two works there is a difference between the number of lines and colours I have used.  This time I created illustrations that are simpler with fewer details.  This time was about showing some expressions and emotions up-close, which is something I learnt from the feedback from the previous assignment.  I feel that this work was successful for the fact of creating different art work in a new style.
I don't think I would do anything differently while working on this assignment.  Overall I find this work quite successful as a final product which made me grow as an artist.  I developed another skill of working with fine lines and some basic colours without the risk of mixing them.  I was planning to produce a nice simple illustration that is easy to be read and understood by the audience.  I am pleased as in my opinion I achieved my goal, however I am happy to take any constructive feedback about my work.

My future aims with my artwork now are working more on developing character.  I am starting to understand the process of creating the character no matter if it is for a children audience or for a more mature one.  I would like to throw myself into the creative process of the next projects I will be given.