In the last week i have been asked to choose a specialism within which to study at uni... unsurprisingly i have chosen illustration. I feel that this is the area of design within which my work fits and the area that i have the necessary skills to make a living. 

This is a quick write up i have produced about the kind of career path i would like to follow and about how i may be able to achieve a career in this area....

I am selecting the Illustration route. The kind of work i produce is primarily hand drawn or painted and i feel that this is also what i am best at: my work on the obs and coms module last year was probably my best of the year alongside my book project, both of which feature in my blog. These were both computer free projects and i think that the standard of the work i produced and the marks i received reflected how much i enjoyed working on these two projects. Coming from a fine art background i am far more comfortable working by hand than on computer and although i do have the skills i need to get my work into a digital format, i much prefer the analogue approach to design.

I am particularly interested in conceptual illustration, story boarding and artist's work on films, the skills set required for this kind of work is...

excellent illustration skills;

effective communication skills;

ability to visualise perspective and 3-dimensional space;

a keen interest in design, architecture and film;

ability to visually interpret other people's ideas;

ability to be flexible and to adapt to change when requested;

ability to work as part of a team;

knowledge of the requirements of the relevant Health and Safety legislation and procedures

A knowledge of film and how different effects are achieved

As a freelance job conceptual art is not restricting, i would also be able to work on other projects in time of low work. I realise that there is not much opportunity to get into this line of work but i feel that developing skills to attempt to achieve this will in no way restrict me in other lines of illustrative work.

Some practicing conceptual illustrators and story boarders include...

Crash McCreery 

Nathan Schroeder

James Ward Byrkit

David Russell

Miles Teves

Martin Asbury

An important group concerned with British artists and film is the British Film Designers Guild.

My definition of illustration would be... Visually communicating ideas and designs, whether your own or somebody else's, through the use of analogue techniques. 

A plan of action to achieve my ideal job in illustration would be firstly to work on figure drawing skills and attend life drawing classes, secondly to try and adapt my skill set to include new techniques that i will learn studying illustration. I find my work has a definite style and i tend to work with the same materials mostly, although i don't think this is a particularly  bad thing it would be useful to be able to adapt my style to produce a wider range of work for a portfolio. Thirdly i would like to get a placement with a practicing illustrator, ideally one working within the areas i am particularly interested in so i can learn more first hand about the industry.

I have learned over the past week or so that a lot of designers trade on a reputation, i would imagine this is particularly important for someone working freelance. Therefore i think it would be necessary to work on a few free jobs, perhaps get involved in some student or independent films to try and get a positive reputation and also to make contacts which in the future may prove useful. I also think that to be successful i must keep in touch with other areas of design such as typography as i will undoubtedly have to work with these at some point in the future. Improving my computer skills would be useful also as i think this is probably my weakest area.

 

I thought id write a bit about what I'm working on improving at the moment...

the large majority of the work I have presented is black and white, although I work in colour it is not usually my favourite work. This makes me seem narrow minded or perhaps incapable of working to the same standard in colour. I aim in the future to work at this and to produce more colour and experimental work and hopefully ill have time to upload some of my more vibrant work in terms of colour on here soon.

I also find that my computer skills working with programs like photoshop are not the standard of other designers and although I by no means want specialise in computer work I feel that I do need to improve my skills so that they do not let me down when it is necessary for me to use them.

Here's the final poster i produced for the project which the church drawings were taken from...

I felt the drawing was striking and that the typography would look out of place if it were not done very simply. I used the same materials to do the writing and used my own handwriting, i wanted it to blend with the drawing and not draw the eye away from its detail.

The poster was blown up to A2 size and is currently on display as part of an exhibition of the project on the moor in Sheffield.

I've never been a big fan of more experimental work such as these pieces but i had seen this technique and decided to give it a go and it turned out to work pretty well...

these two were done with coloured ink splattered across a template of the outline of the original  drawing with a tooth brush

the one below was painted with a tooth brush around the template

and above is the original pencil drawing that the others came from. I personally prefer the pencil drawing but i can see why the others may have their uses, they are certainly more eye catching and demand a bit more from the viewer in terms of deciphering the full picture.

Here's some drawings i did at a local derelict church...

They were part of an observational drawing module but i think its useful to have some observational drawings as part of a portfolio to demonstrate some basic skills anyway. Having come from more of a fine art background this project gave me the chance to really showcase what i consider to be my strength, my drawing skills. As a fully analogue project i really enjoyed working on it and managed to produce some of what i think was my best work of the year

I think drawing pens definitely give me the best results especially in drawings such as the ones above, however there is something very simple yet satisfying about producing a good pencil drawing. I tend to use a range of B graphite sticks, basically the same as using pencils i just find they better suit the way i work.

Heres some pages from a short book i made for a uni project last year

The book was about film noir...the images are taken from classic and modern films

that fit the noir genre. The text is taken from various sources and details the themes

and stylistic elements of the genre

I hand inked the pages to achieve a more unique look

the book was made without the use of a computer. I prefer the less polished look

that i got

In the assessment i was marked down for the font i had used and the way the text is presented. I think this is a fair judgement, i was working to a deadline and felt that the images were more important and i spent most of my time producing them. 

With the text the idea was to use a font that resembled hand writing and contain it in comic book style boxes so that it was not lost in the images. 

Overall i was pleased with how the book came out and perhaps sometime in the future i will be able to re-visit the text and produce a final version of the book.

One of my pieces for uni this year, a poster for 'buy nothing day'. My poster is based pretty heavily on Robert McGinnis's posters for Stella Artois 

I decided to study design as a practical way to study art, by this I mean that at the end of a design course there are options to work as part of an established industry. Whereas with a straight fine art course it becomes very much a make it on your own profession at the end of study. 

I also find there is a broad choice of focus when studying design. I personally enjoy the illustration, poster design and photographic elements of my course the most and hopefully I'll manage to specialise in these areas after my study. I would love to be able to make a career working in a similar way to Gruau and McGinnis producing hand illustrated posters and designs. 

Here's a couple more drawings, im planning on turning these into paintings when i get the time.

I thought id take a bit of time to explain how i work and what im trying to achieve in my work. I'll start by explaining where i get the sources for my most recent work...

At the moment being a student i don't have much access to models so i have started to base my drawings (such as the ones above) on photographs from the 1960's. As much as I would like to be using real life models this method does have its advantages. Firstly there is no time limit within which to complete initial sketches but also the models are already dressed in the eras clothing in which i want my pieces to be set. A further advantage is in the poses the models are in which are again more authentic to the era than i may be able to achieve with life models.

As far as materials are concerned i always start in pencil or graphite sticks, I then have the option to move onto ink and brush, drawing pens or paint. When painting i usually work in acrylics, (hopefully some of my painted work will find its way onto here before too long). I try to do all my painted work on canvas as I like the texture it gives to a piece.

I thought id start presenting some of my own work with some recent sketches...

The two pieces (above and below) are fairly polished with some colour added to the eyes

to give some impact to the drawings

I worked in drawing pen on all of the above pieces, i find this to be the technique im most comfortable with

The second Designer that is influencing me at the moment is Robert Mcginnis.

I only recently became aware of his work making links between his recent work on the 

Stella Artois advertising campaign and his work on the early bond film posters 

There is a warm 60's feel to McGinnis's work 

His representation of Connery as Bond is iconic and played a large part in

the early stylization of the Bond franchise

The inclusion of text on the back of female figures became a key feature in McGinnis's work

His recent work on the new image for Stella Artois drew my attention to McGinnis work.

I especially like the 60's Riviera look Stella and McGinnis have created.

Im new at this but i thought id start with a look at a couple of designers that are influencing me at the moment...

The first is my personal favorite Rene Gruau, working predominantly as a fashion illustrator and poster designer Gruau developed a sophisticated and elegant style often using only a few strokes to depict a glamorous scene.

The above shows Gruau's skill at combining image and type

Gruau's poster work for le Lido is some of his most striking work

This piece 'Ortalion' shows Gruau's stylish use of composition and sparing use of colour