Applied Illustration: Project Report PDF

My final report on issuu, A summary of my journey through this module.

Applied Illustration: Project Report A2 Boards

Applied Illustration: Finals

I finally finished my comic the other day, it was relatively easy. 
working with gouache made it easy to transfer across to photoshop and by using levels it was quite easy to make it neat and presentable. 
I did struggle at first with getting the format right, the first print the pages were in the wrong place (with the first page being the last page and so on). This was rectified by just drawing on the printed draft which illustration I wanted where and then unfolding it to see where it should be in relation to what I was seeing on screen. 

It worked really well as a publication, I ended up making the cover myself rather than going to digital print. This was because I looked at some other illustrators who sell their works and it's often nice to have a personal touch. For me I used stamps to print the name and on the back described what it was, it added something more to each copy made. 
I bound it with red thread but chose to use blue stamp ink because I wanted it to stand out (and also to coincide with the posters use of blue). 

Applied Illustration: SUMMATIVE EVALUATION

Applied Illustration: Future Proposals

Although I only got time to make one comic, I still proposed a further 3.
Those three would centre around the story of Medusa and Perseus, with it being set in the 70's and instead of Medusa's head being cut off she becomes a celebrity with Perseus and the other gods envious of her.
Pandora's box - but set in the 80's. Perhaps alluding to some drug usage.
and finally Theseus and The Minotaur, set in the 90's where the minotaur will join Theseus as the leader of his heavy metal group.

Applied Illustration: Applying my illustrations to print

I would also propose to create a range of prints of my illustrations for sale, alongside the web comic or as an extra with the physical copy. 

These would I would like to potentially be screen printed for a limited edition (perhaps using gold accents in some of the flames and on the text, which would put the price at around £14-17) and then digitally printed for every day (£8-10). These would sell particularly well at print fairs or other festivals like thought bubble or Elcaf where people know there is a limited number for sale on that day and can see the quality and time taken to make in each one (which would then justify the pricing). 

Applied Illustration: Applying to the internet/apps

I will eventually apply my comic to the internet as well, i would put it on my website (currently under development sweethabits.wordpress.com ). I've checked and it does allow for GIFS.
I chose to mock up this page as this is the one I would apply gif's too (as not all bits of my comic i'd move). For this page I think there is possibilities for what could be a gif, the top left would be the silhouettes getting closer with the bike pulling up. Whereas the top right could be something as simple as a two frame gif just moving the flames.

After looking at Jen Lee's online comic, Thunderpaw. It has really inspired me to carry this on past this module.

Applied Illustration: Researching into possibly suppliers

OHH DEAR.COM 

This company is run by two graduates who wanted to create a community where illustrators and designers could sell their designs and be seen by a bigger audience without the designers losing out. They take a certain commission on the items sold but they have a large range and have designers best interests in mind. They have a really great range of items, so they would be perfect as a supplier as they have a big social media following and have targeted their audience (students, graduates, professionals) well. 

ETSY 

Etsy is another supplier where I could potentially sell my comic and other items. Etsy has a large target audience as they supply more than just arts and crafts. Generally fan art tends to do better on Etsy as people will search for items related to that, I'm not sure how well my work would sell on here without a strong social media backing behind it. 

PAPERCHASE 

Paperchase is a supplier that has both a store and a website. This would work well for me as theres more chance of someone picking up one of my designs in a shop, as opposed to having to go looking for it on the website. Paperchase however, doesn't sell comics so it would only be tote bags and posters that would be sold. Their target audience is very student orientated which is where I am also aiming for. 

FRED ALDOUS 

Fred Aldous is another supplier who has both a store and a website. I think I would probably do better on the website than in store on this one because they sell so many books in store my comic might get lost however online it might stand out more. Fred Aldous also sell posters online whereas not all stores stock them. Their target audience tends to be slightly older and more professional customers, however they have recently brought in student discount and hopefully that would bring in the target audience I would be looking for. 

COLOURS MAY VARY 

Colours may vary as a supplier might be a bit of a risk, although they are based in Leeds they don't have a massive social media following yet so that makes them only available to people who know about them and regularly visit the store or check on the site. However out of all the suppliers, colours may vary would be the most likely to stock my product as the owners would be more inclined to speak to me (as opposed to the big faceless paper chase). 

Applied Illustration: Applying my designs to Tote Bags

I then started thinking of where I could potentially apply my illustrations, I would probably use the poster images as the illustrations to apply as they were only two colours it would work quite well, whereas some of the red on red designs might not be as effective. 

I made a few mock ups of what they would look like on some different kinds of tote bags. These could be sold alongside the comic as an additional item, or if the comic went onto the web, there could be a small shop on the website where fans of the illustrations could buy them. 

Applied Illustration: Working in Gouache and creating the poster

I took the advice from the crit and started to work in gouache, I found that it was a lot easier to work with ink (didn't smudge as bad or ripple the page) and the colour was brighter. I started working in predominately red and white, when I asked about using another colour, other students disagreed and said that red and white was more unified. I soon created a series of small scamps that I would then take to photoshop to put in the A3 template i'd created. 

As I was getting to the end I realised I hadn't done very much character development for Hades, I went back to look at some research material. I wanted Hades to be the bad ass of the fifties, so he definitely had to have a motorcycle. My go to motorcycle brand was a Harley Davison (because what else would the Lord of The Underworld be driving?) so I looked into who was driving them at the time and what they were wearing. Elvis owned a Harley and he wore a lot of leather whilst still looking quite tidy, I also looked at Anke Eve Goldman's work. Anke - Eve was a famous german photographer at the time and she specialised in taking photographs of motorbikes. I really liked her style but it also gave me lots of reference images. From these I decided that Hades was going to ride a Sportster 1957 Harley, I drew him with black goggle/sunglasses to make him a little more anonymous when we are first introduced to him. 

As the other characters are all introduced on the first page, Hades got his own small introduction at the end of the book. It's the only text apart from the introductions in the book, this was down mostly to the size of the publication but also because i felt like too many words would ruin it and I wanted it to speak for itself which I think it does. 

I had decided that I wanted a poster to be included in the small comic book package I was making, but i decided to really compact it, having the comic book in a sown in hotdog (like the one I saw at the print fair) but with instructions to cut the thread after reading so that the A3 back of it would then be a poster that people could put around their rooms and keep after reading the story (by it being a hotdog means it could be transformed back into the story at anytime). 

After I had sorted all the storyboarding out for the comic, I decided that the ending would be the poster bit (where Hades rides off into the sunset with Persephone after saving her from Apollo and Hermes). This was the bit I struggled with most as I needed it to look more like a poster than just an extra section of the comic. 
I decided to create some background patterns, I created two designs and put each of them behind a picture of Hades and Persephone on the bike. The first being an oval with small forks and flames in to signify Hades presence, and the second just being flames (for hades) and leaves (for persephone). I liked them both so would probably just release it as edition 1 and edition 2 so people had the choice of the poster design they received. 

The decision to bring teal into the poster was just a suggestion by another student who felt like it would be a nice break from all of the red. I tried it out and liked it, I had also created my own font for the comic but for the poster I wanted something a little more stylised so picked a fifties - centred font. I chose the words "highway to hell" as it played on the song which everyone has heard but also the fact that Hades takes Persephone to the Underworld in the original version, so it gives people an inkling of whats going to happen next in the comic. 

Applied Illustration: Megacrit Feedback and Research

After the megacrit I got a lot of answers that I had been looking for.  I wasn't sure if moving forward with modern day characters was the right thing but there was a positive reaction to it. I left a note by my work asking people whether I should keep all 4 comics in the same time era (the fifties) or whether to span them out over more (each with it's own colour palette). Most people agreed that spanning them out was better. 
I also asked how people would feel about the story being slightly changed in order for Persephone to get a happier ending, again most felt that it was acceptable to do that. 

In my suggestions a lot of people put recommendations for movies that were adaptations of famous pieces of work. One was Joan Cocteau's Orpheus (1950) to look at so I could start to develop Hades as a character. I watched it and it was very tangible and I liked that it was in black and white because it made it easier to focus on the strange details. I knew I wanted Hades to be dark but with a fun loving side. 
I also looked into other adaptations, Brother Where Art Thou is an adaptation of The Odyssey which works really well. I also looked at West Side Story, 10 Things I hate About You, She's the Man and Baz Luhrman's Adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for some inspiration on where next to go with my work. 

People also encouraged me to try out gouache for a stronger colour than the current ink I was using and to consider composition, this included trying out ovals and various shapes to frame my characters. 

Applied Illustration: Developing Persephone

After talking to my group, I came to the decision to propose 4 comic books, each based on a modernised retelling of a classic greek mythological story. 
To start with I'm just going to create the one story and then propose what I would do for the next 3. 
The story I decided to experiment further with was Persephone as it was one of my favourite stories and it also has a limited amount of characters (if it was going to be small I don't want to have to create loads of characters). 




I started by drawn classical persephone, after looking at some references on Pinterest. However I quickly decided to start drawing her in a more modern way. I tried to think of what job she would have, as her and her mother are widely regarded as nature/fertility gods I thought it was fitting to have her in some gardening attire, with her job potentially to be working at a garden centre. I tried to make her more modern by cutting off her flowing locks and giving her a pixie cut. I kept drawing until I hit a version of Persephone I liked. As I'd been looking into lots of 1950s fashion of that late (just in my personal development, not for any particular project) I started drawing her in late 50's clothes. I really liked the idea of setting Persephone in the 1950's and keeping the rest of the comic books in a different era- 70's 80's 90's. (I decided to ask on the next mega crit day). 

I then started to design the other three characters in that kind of fashion style and think about how they would move and act in accordance to it. I also started to think about the story, in classical greek mythology, Persephone is lusted after by apollo and hermes after her mother Demetra boasts about her beauty, she is then captured (and in some texts raped) by hermes, who then keeps her in the underworld half of the year (winter) before letting her back to earth with her mother (summer). Although I liked the classic story, I made a note to ask my crit group how they would feel if I changed the story in favour of Persephone, perhaps having her saved by Hades rather than captured by him? 


I kept experimenting with the ink and after looking at Jen Lee's work, decided that a limited colour palette was something I wanted to keep in mind whilst creating this work. I enjoy working with ink, but it wasn't quite bright enough so I thought about perhaps trying gouache at some point. I started to draft what I wanted the pages to look like, in hotdog format before going to my crit group to ask their opinions on my revised proposal. 

Applied Illustration: Visiting Manchester Print Fair

I decided that I wanted to create a printed copy of my comic, regardless of whether I decided to make a web comic or not. I was really interested in zines when I visited Thoughtbubble last november and I wanted to create a small package, perhaps with a postcard and the zine alongside. 

I then visited Manchester Print Fair at the end of March, just for some inspiration and to meet some illustrators who are in the industry. I spoke to quite a few and looked around their work, as well as picking up some handy tips on where to buy cheaper materials. 

One of the things I took away with me was this small origami instruction manual, it was essentially a hot dog book but stitched in with a screen printed cover. 
After talking to one of my tutors, we decided to cut the thread to see the size of it and what it's dimensions were (so I could potentially create one myself). 

I discovered it was A3, so my next stop was going to talk to the print room technicians. They told me that there were a lot of deadlines in the next few weeks and that finding and keeping a screen would be hard. This put me off my initial idea of creating a screen printed comic (i thought about risograph but it was too expensive to buy one). 
The next stop was the I.T guys, I asked them how best to recreate it in InDesign and the advice they gave me was to just create it in photoshop as two separate A3 designs (using grids for the fold placements), save as JPG's, open in preview and print them that way. 

Applied Illustration: Looking into Web Comics - Jen Lee and Michelle Czajkowski

http://thunderpaw.co/comic/ch4/0433.html (Jen Lee's Web comic site).
http://www.avasdemon.com/


I had started to think about the possibility of creating an animated gif set as a web comic. I took a look into pre existing documents, the first suggested to me was Jen Lee's Web Comic Thunderpaw which had small but well placed gif sets in the comic. I really liked the limited colour palette useage as I think it added to the story.

I also looked at Ava's Demon (by Michelle C) but I liked this less, it was a more clunky web comic but it was crowd funded which was something I might consider when/if creating my own web comic. It is also updated every monday and thursday which I liked, I thought that was a good way to keep people involved and interested. I wasn't so impressed with her style of drawing or use of colour palette but I did like how she crowd funded for her web comic and had promoted it on various websites (having a tumblr running alongside the actual blog to promote it to a specific audience.).

Applied Illustration: Exploring Greek Mythology - Andromeda

After reading back on my feedback sheet I decided to try and home in on an existing text to illustrate around as it is far easy to illustrate something with developed characters than creating characters and a good storyline for this module. 

I first looked at the story of Andromeda (one a friend had mentioned earlier). In Greek Mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of a king Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia, when Cassiopeia boasts that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids (sea nymphs who often accompany Poseidon).  Poseidon sends a sea monster to ravage the kings land, Andromeda is stripped and chained naked to a rock as a sacrifice to the monster but is saved by Perseus. 

I drew a few ideas for monsters and Andromeda for a while but for me the story felt very long and I thought people might get bored reading about it. This lead me to start thinking about modernising a greek tale. Either by changing the time period or by slightly changing the story or the medium it was told on. 

I started to think about the possibility of a web comic and how that would work, I also started to think about creating a small publication. 

Applied Illustration: Sketching out first ideas

I did  a little bit of research into other artists before I started drawing out my initial ideas. I wasn't really sure where to start so I started with what I knew. 
I play the sims quite often and I just decided to sketch them and try to portray their personalities in what they were wearing and their stance/ facial features. 

After I played around with that for a while I made a very small comic on something that happened during the game play. From this I realised I quite enjoyed working with ink. The feedback for the use of the colour red and for using ink was quite positive. Although it was suggested that I try out gouache in order to loose some of the pencil lines in my work (as it is thicker and could cover it up better). 

Other things I had mentioned to the group was the idea of working with a more structured story, possibly something to do with greek mythology - The Odyssey or The Illiad