Project: Natural sciences; Exercise: A rose by any other name

Exercise: A rose by any other name

I  copied  this picture from Wikipedia as a part of my research for this exercise. I am going to draw a few more detailed sketches based on my pink flower unfortunately I have no knowledge about the name of it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower

 

 I am going to do more drawings based on this flower I had at my home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got inspired while watching Chanel Haute Couture Spring Summer 2015 Fashion Show on You Tube. The colours are really beautiful contrasting with bold white background. Another reason why I mentioned this fashion show is the shapes of flowers and the line is sharp and simple. This is wonderful inspiration for my project.  I will design my illustration based on similar idea.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2hGnyb1ju8

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t53oO9_GYLM&spfreload=10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to add some of the Chanel glamorous to my flowers therefore I used my glittery watercolours to paint them.   

 

 

 

day two

Today I would like to try something new with my illustration using the Photoshop. I am terrible in making comments while I use this computer program.  All my thoughts are hard to put on paper while I work on the illustration as is easier and quicker to change the concept on the computer but hared to remember why I made the change. I do not have any problems to make a comment when the illustration happens in organic way, when I do remember why the line or a dot I made happened to be in one or another place on the paper.  I am such an old fashion artist in that respect :)

 

glowing edges

cut out

invers colours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was nice to experiment with this illustration. I do not know if I managed to make any progress however I used one of the techniques gained from previous exercises. I scanned my illustration then I worked a bit on that with Photoshop, next step was to print it out on A4 paper to be able to work with black pen on details. This is how it looks like as a finished illustration.

 

I took an inspiration for the background from Chanel greenhouse from fashion show last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise: Drawing on location

Exercise: Drawing on location

I was invited to the party while ago where I managed to do a few illustrations sketching with the brown pencil and adding some vibrant colours with water paint.  Now I have time to reflect and ask myself questions about what I did over there. How did I feel when I was drawing the illustrations?

This is my first record of that event. I do remember the stressed I put on myself  just because I wanted to produced the illustration so everyone present at the place of celebration could enjoyed and be pleased with.  I did not where to start with.  I did not if I should ask everyone to stay still and not to move so I could draw every detail or should I crack on and draw what I have been witness off.

This drawing is very polite and kind of naive in style I think.  I can see the line is not as that important tome here as the facial expressions and some similarities of the guest I wanted to capture. 

 

 

 

This second attempt started to be more interesting as the composition became more difficult than on the previous one. I am happy with the pencil lines which made this drawing more relaxed. I definitely improved my technique already with the second illustration. The fear of being judged by others disappeared and I wad able to talk to myself while I was making the sketch asking what I want to achieved with this picture. What do I want to capture? What is the most important part of that drawing to me?  I can already see the different as the drawing looks more thought through.  The faces were less important at that stage. I decided to focus on differences between characters and personalities of that party. You can see that there was someone who was already tired and perhaps bit bored of the conversation, maybe? There was a lady who smoked a cigarette and two people simply enjoyed their food.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This third one is my favourite from all.  The lines are looser and relaxed.  I managed to focus on the activity that party guests were enjoying at that moment.

Project: Architectural illustration; Exercise: Architectural illustration

Exercise: Architectural illustration

After reading this exercise I went to the Bishop's Stortford to have a good look of the buildings and their surroundings. I did not know which one I was going to draw; however I knew I will focus on an old building that is surrounded by new one.  While I was walking I passed an old house which is the Registered Office of this town allocated very close to new buildings. I took a couple off pictures and did some quick sketches then went home to work bit more on this exercise.

I do know I struggled with perspective in the past therefore I do want to make this exercise more carefully. I will use a rural to make the lines straight as these drawing demands it. 

sketch one

I picked this sketch as an idea for the illustration. I have to make it looks tidy and neat therefore I am going to use the light box to trace the most important lines.  I am also going to draw it with the rural as I mentioned it before. Let's do it.  

   

sketch two

sketch three

 

drawing with more details  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am happy with the look so far.  This is a good base to scan and work on with the Photoshop.  My idea is to use some grey texture to the background and gradually reveal the contrast between the grey new buildings and white old house.

 

 

 

drawing with a rural 

 

 

This is my illustration in progress.  I have used small square paper painted with different grey colours for my background. . I am going to leave it for today knowing to come back later. Maybe this is the finished illustration already? Who knows? I started to make a colour white statement on an old building.  Maybe I should leave it as it is as i remember the comment from my tutor report of my Assignment 1 that the illustration was good already at the beginning of my work. I should know when to stop. The only thing I may do it with this illustrations is to crop it from the bottom of the illustration. I think the composition will look better without the empty space at the bottom of the page.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part Two - Reportage Exercise: Drawing on the familiar

Part Two - Reportage

Project - Reportage illustration

Exercise: Drawing on the familiar

I could not think about better subject to draw like my 21months old Leo. His day is always busy and full of unexpected events which are interesting to be capture on the paper. I started my sketch while he was still sleeping in the morning, where the play area was clear and unused by little curious hands.

I let him to spend some time amongst his toys then I have moved on to capturing his little activities.  That was more difficult than I expected as Leo was very busy and he could not stay still for a second.

I have mixed emotions with the outcome of this exercise. I am not happy with the quick sketches I have done using black water paint. Maybe is the fault of the medium I used or the fact that Leo was constantly on the go. Or maybe my lack of skills in asking myself what is the most important part of this exercise. Just because I was drawing and watching my little one I suspect this was the main issue as I could not get the distance to the person I was looking at and working with. I wanted him to look similar on the sketches as he is in real life but at the end I achieved totally opposite result in my opinion. I do remember the inner frustration when Leo was moving on to the another thing while I was still trying to capture on the paper his first activity. I do see there are some inconstancies in the style between one drawing and another which I am not happy with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment One

invisible cities

Day one working on Assignment 1

Research

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-special-indias-20-most-livable-cities-mumbai-is-no-1/20140106.htm#6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://files.neilgaiman.com/hello/50/1014/1024/ext_DQP_long_shot_00075%20copy.jpg

 

 

 
I know that the houses are very important based on the description given by Calvino; therefore I started my research from looking at the tree houses build by the birds and this is the best picture I have found.  The shape of the construction is quit interesting and unique. The other observation I can make is that the shape is dependent on the weight hang in the thin branch so the heavier the construction is the house will go more down.    

 

 

 

 Day two

This are the samples for my background done with the watercolours and some black ink.  Still do not know how will I use them for my illustration but at least I created a mood for this work.  The one of them has been painted on the hand towel I had from my NHS work.  Than you NHS for providing such an inspiration piece of hand towel :).  I do really like the texture it may give to my mountains possible.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I am in the middle of creating the foreground layer using the watercolours and some string for the ropes.  I hope to keep this quite bright as my background is dark enough already. I am aiming to scan all my layers and then work on them with Photoshop blending then nicely together. Will I get a good result? Will I be satisfying enough with the final illustration?  I do hope put enough effort to make it work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day three

Another day working on the illustration is looking quiet exciting as I planned to put some more different parts like moving baskets made from brown paper. I wish to make this more visible as I can see the pencil just disappeared under the layer of watercolours.  My goal for today is to finish the prototype of my foreground and background and work with both layers on the computer. I wish to create the illustration that reflects and shows my style so I could build up solid portfolio.     


                  

                                                                (work in progress)

 

                                This is a scan of  the  illustration painted with watercolours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I am not sure if I am happy with the look of it... I do like the 3D illusion I have achieved; however there is something does not work for me. Perhaps is the computer look of it? Or maybe the crisp colours and no pencil or brush strokes make me feel disappointed a bit.  I will give this illustration a chance and try to blend it with the rest of the layers.

 

 

 Day four

 

 

 

 This is my first look for the chasm. I do like the dark colours and the depth between one mountain and another. The hand towel looks great as the mountains.

 

 

 

 

 I changed the colours and the whole look of it. The mountains are tall and big but I lost the rough texture of paper I have used to build them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Now I am going to think about my work and come back after a couple of days to see if I still like my final illustration. There are parts I am not pleased with and for that reason I will give this image to rest.  Sometimes is good to put something on a side for a while to make a fresh observation. 

 

Day five 

 

Research  

 

I am not satisfied with my current work and I fill I have to start from the beginning.  I know I did not waste my time as it was very productive and creative process; however I know I can do better than this. I am capable of creating more professional illustration than the previous one. I think the problem was in the size of the paper I have used for my work. I used only A4 size paper to create the Octavia City which did not give me enough space to focused on details given in the descriptions.  I did not also use the perspective well enough and for that reason I decided to start again.

 I have been inspired by those You Tube movies and I would like to change the concept of my Assignment. I am not sure which part of those videos I will use in my new work but definitely they made me think about this work from the 3D effect. I wish to make my Octavia City more coming forward to the viewer and making it more 3D. Is it possible ? I am eager to try this challenge set up by myself. I am going to start from the sketches. Then I will work on mood board.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oig8e0RZQfw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6hKtvnYWRU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eu11jL6Oo4

 

Day six

 Research in progress

I took pictures of the constructions build from small but heavy ceramic objects to see how they look hanging above the big chasm. They are joined together with some pipe cleaners borrowed from my little son's creative box.  

Another way to imagine how the Octavia city may look like was to add some Christmas lights to my construction. It does look pretty from the distance especially when the main source of light is off and only little Christmas lights bright up the darkness of the chasm.  That gives me a different perspective and look on my work. 








 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day seven

My quite unique technique of creating the Octavia City is based on the spider web from pipe cleaners and some more which I attached to build a construction that looks like could potentially hold a big number of houses.  This construction is held by two knitting needles stack in to two mocha muffins my a good high-street British brand :).  I could create  great and interesting shapes by placing the light on the model which gave me great  strong shadow.  In this way I could play with the shape as long as I wanted. I was inspired by Caravaggio once I was watching a movie about him and the techniques he used to create his masterpieces.  This is the web side where you can find out more about his technique :

http://phys.org/news155889108.html


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is really hard to see the shadow that was on the paper as the camera gave very bright flash while the picture was taken.  

Day eight
 

Research

I needed some inspiration how to draw the mountains with the pencil and I thought straight about one of the best illustrators on the planet.  Alan Lee has been working on the illustrations to the Lord of Rings for years and this mood seems to be close to my illustration.  I managed to find a few illustrations from the Lord of Rings and Hobbit.  These are the nearest to my idea that is in my head.

Alan Lee -illustration to the Lord of Rings

          

 Day nine

 

 And here I am working another day on this illustration.  So far I am pleased with the depth that is showing. I draw a few houses on the separate paper then I traced them on the big paper by using the light box. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I suspected before this is good way to reveal the depth between the buildings and the mountains.  I am starting to be pleased with the mood of the illustration as well.  The spider web looks good to me.  It is not too flat as on the previous work. I am staring to ringing some houses to the front but making sure that there are some in the background.  I do have to remember that this is a construction build from the strings and brunches perhaps. I may stick some of a play dough to my spider web to see how the houses may look like. 

 

 

 

 
What a great idea with that play dough. I can see clearly now the houses in the back and foreground.  I do hope to produce fairly good illustration based on the observation of this model.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is drawing based on the model I  did with the pipe cleaners and some play-dough.

Day ten

At this stage I can build layer after layer by making sure that the house in the foreground is stronger than the one in the background.  If I need more strings or houses to make the structure look fuller and more interesting I can still do it as the pencil gives me enough freedom. 

I am getting the look I am happy with.  Now I wish to draw more quirky houses, possible more lines and work on the depth of the mountain and the chasm.  I have reduced the unnecessary pencil lines by rubbing some of them off.  In this way the illustration looks clear and sharper in some of the places.

I have added some more ropes to support the construction and the baskets hang above the chasm. I do like the look of Octavia I have created.  Still a lot to do to make this drawing a finish product; however I know I am going in good direction with this assignment.  I am going to work on the colours to add some depth and some sparkle in some places. Perhaps I will choose a dark pencil for the background as I have seen in one of my previous exercise about visual space where background was black and therefore the foreground was more visible.   

 

 

Day eleven

 

 

I have few things in my mind so I will better crack on as I really wish to see this illustration as a finish product. I am going to use black pen to sharpen the edges of the objects like houses and ropes.  I know this will be a time consuming part of my work.  Then I will add more colours to my illustration. Not sure what colours I will use yet but definitely they have to be calm and settle as the selection of my colour pencils is not really bright.  Anyway I do not see this work in really bright colours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I realised I am missing a strong support on the right side of the spider web. I have to draw another pair of ropes to make it look really supported.

 I will also draw a cloud possible also on the top right corner. I am thinking to use black ink for the parts like mountains or the chasm....( hmm...)I will try this idea hope it is going to add some depth and make the mountains sharper and add some edge to the final look. ..I am very excited as I am coming to the end of my project.  

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day twelve  



 

I was sitting in my kitchen where I had my little one drawings and paintings displayed on the fridge then suddenly got inspired by his work. I though this  is what I was missing in my work, The bright colours and creative mess was perfect to make my illustration complete. My toddler does not care where and what colour place and that is what we adults missing in our painting and drawings, this freedom and careless creative process of art. Today I am going to use ink to finish my Octavia City and to give that chasm more mess and depth what is needed. Tomorrow I would like add more vibrant colours using dry pastels.  Fingers crossed to make it look good. 

 

 

 



Pictures painted by my little son Leo ( 19months old ) and his mummy

 

 



 

 

 

I am very pleased so far with the outlook of that chasm.  I think it was a good move to use the ink and gave it more structure by placing it with the pallet knife.  It is time to go sleep but I can not wait to put finishing touches tomorrow.

 

Day thirteen

 

Dry pastels are great for making the colours more settled by smudging them with the brush or finger. I am going to us this technique and see what can I do with  illustration. 

 

 

Finished illustration  

 

 

My illustration is FINISHED !!! I am very happy how it  all blended nicely, the colours look great so fresh and vibrant.    I do hope I managed to meet the brief of my Assignment 1.  I do know I used my own perspective at the end of the day ; however I was allowed to do so.  The houses I my opinion came nicely as well as I did not repeat any of those shapes or at least I tried not to copy and make them more interesting. That was a great fun for me to built and explore their own constructions.  I feel like an architect creating little town for little people.   

 

 

 Right part of the illustration 

 

 

 

 

 

Middle part of the illustration 

 

 

Left part of the illustration