Helloo Strangers

It's been a while! 

I'll get down to it, my latest brief I've been set is a live brief from my own university Plymouth College of Art. Entitled 'Make Your Mark - Make It Here' it asks students to design a poster to feature in an annual campaign to promote the College to the public and potential students locally and nationally(!). It will also be the theme for our summer show and will be advertised across print, radio and online media. A big win if you're successful!

Lately I've been experimenting with a new drawing tablet I was lucky enough to get for Christmas and have been working on my graphics skills. My first ever piece doing this (pictured below) was part of a previous project for the Design Against Fur competition. I was quite proud of this bad boy! Turns out after a few years of refusing to delve into this practice and sticking to my guns with my much loved traditional way of drawing (pencil & watercolor if you're wondering), I have found a whole new way of life. No pencil shavings, no bits of rubber everywhere, no spillages... just you, the tablet and the laptop. Plus of the bonus of added effects in Photoshop minus the annoying process of scanning your work and trying to get a good digital copy. Bliss!

After discovering this I decided to continue the theme with this project. After all with only being given a week to design it this seemed the fasted option! So research time - time to crack out the Illustration Now 3 book..

Top Trumps

Who doesn't love top trumps? Not only do they bring back many many childhood memories... but they constantly surprise me with how many weird and wonderful types you can purchase in society today!

Our task was to select an artist, fit an image of their work in a top trump template and then score them in terms of their work. I decided to choose design duo M/M Paris as my artist because they too constantly surprise me with what work they will churn out next.... I consider them to be the Lady Gaga of the art industry. They use many different techniques when creating their work, often using the combined forces of photography and graphics. More recently they have moved on to collaborate with Kanye West to create silk with their graphics on to promote Kanye's new album. M/M Paris' other clients include Prada, Calvin Klein, Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Shell, Bjork and many others.

First Post

First post, thought i'd share with you some of my favourites artists...

KELLY SMITH

She inspires me as her drawing style is fairly similar to mine, but she incorporates the use of watercolour and other materials to make her work unique and even more beautiful. Not the slightest clue as to how I discovered her work when researching a college project because she lives and works in Tasmania! Seriously.

Her clients include Roc Eyewear, Vogue Australia, Portmans, Mambo Goddess and lots more. Studying her made me realise that this could be a possible career path for me as I was not aware this type of editorial work was out there. This is an area of illustration that I really enjoy and should maybe pursue in the future...

JASON BROOKS

Digital illustration is an area I have not yet gone into. Yes I've dabbled with the odd tablet, made a couple of drawings and animations I never want to see again... but Jason Brook's art is a whole new world I've yet to discover. I want to have a go at making these type of illustrations as Jason also started out drawing till he eventually found his way into digital art. His hand drawn work is similar to his computer based work as they both consist of women that share the same features (facially), yet they all seem to have something different. I'll be sure to put up some of my attempts when I learn some more computer skills!

DAVID DOWNTON

Click here for Vogue blog

David Downton work has always inspired me, not just because of his beautiful work and incredible achievements, but because he uses such different techniques to what I'm used to... encouraging me to think outside my perfectionist little box. His work consists of simple brush strokes that appears to have little effort, but the result looks interestingly realistic and sophisticated. You may recognise his work on the recycled handbags he designed for Marks & Spencer featuring models such as Lily Cole and Twiggy. I feel I can develop as an illustrator if I can be more creative with my techniques and use different approaches to an accurate representation of a subject like David, using simple but effective mark making. 

First post over, I can stop sweating.

Ciao for now!