Major Project Evaluation

Looking back on the last several weeks of work, I'm fairly proud with what I've achieved; although when comparing my initial proposal to the actual final outcomes, it is clear to see that my work does have some significant weaknesses.
To begin with, I'm happy with the creative aims of the project. I chose a story that has a personal appeal to me, and that kept me engaged and determined in the work from start to finish. Choosing to create a book was an ambitious goal, considering I have had difficulties in the past with similar work related to narrative illustration. But I think it was important for me to strive to create something that had a purpose beyond superficial aesthetics, since I have always found storytelling appealing, and (trying to say this without sounding obnoxiously pretentious) am interested in making art that has a deeper meaning to it-something to express my beliefs/interests. I feel that my research into the story itself helped a great deal in informing the character of (I felt) the main protagonist, Big Bad Mr. Wolf. His appearance gives him a personality that I don't think is often portrayed in other versions of the tale: he is an endearing, misunderstood character, despite his devious actions against Little Red Riding Hood; in a way, I wanted to get across in my images that he is a product of his loneliness, and the confusion between his animal instincts (to hunt and eat prey) and his desire to dress up like a gentleman and be human.

Since the importance of the story research was particularly in looking at the metaphorical analysis of its message, planning the narrative was otherwise simple, and not a problematic part of the project. I wrote a version of the story myself which deviates very little from other generic versions; hoping that the images themselves would be the more significant factor in making it stand out as something of my own. My visual research was mostly focused on the setting of the forest, which I think made sense as most of the images would use this scenery as a background, and I feel very lucky that I managed to wander round such a beautiful German forest as inspiration, and use the actual tree branches I gathered there as the trees in my woods!
Technically, I'm pleased with the development of my working method. Although the thought of creating a wolf that could be mobile enough for a successful animation was scary at first, I'm happy to say that I pulled it off! My animation demonstrates the movement I wanted to be able to achieve, and I think as a stand-alone object, he is probably the best creature I've made as yet. In fact, it was hard not to get carried away taking a million pictures of him and making images based solely on his character! I think I did a little bit, actually, but it proved to work in my favour as I'm now the proud in-house illustrator of this year's college newsletter!

 Little Red Riding Hood was also a success, and has a surprising amount of movement herself. Sadly, she wasn't ready in time to be involved in the animation side of things, but as I viewed her as a less significant character, this didn't bother me too much. My problem-solving in her production involved risk-taking, using a material I've not had practice with (modelling clay), which probably should have been tackled at an earlier stage to allow for experimentation, but the gamble paid off. Creating the forest also required some quick thinking when I realised the tree branches were too heavy to stand well on their own, but picking the mod roc to stabilise the structure was a wiser decision in this case as I've had plenty of experience using it before (just not for this course!) I think the research is evident in the production of the woods, and the atmosphere of the final images. I'm happy that the illustrations convey the story effectively, with the tone and atmosphere I wanted.
However, despite the fact that my production methods have evolved positively, I am still lacking confidence in the relevant computer software needed to really bring my work together and make it cohesive for its set purpose (in my case, the obvious part that's missing is the arrangement of the pages and the text together, ready to be printed as a book). I'm also disappointed that I didn't complete the drawings I had planned to place in between the full illustrations. The drawing side of the work became forgotten about, when originally I wanted to integrate them effectively with the photographs. I still aim to complete this eventually, and although it's sad that I don't have the final product ready to be marked as part of my degree, I'm happy to now spend a little bit more time perfecting everything before I will send it to be bound professionally. (The pressure is on because I know certain family members have been requesting copies!)
Professionally, I think I have obvious strengths and weaknesses. My organisation skills still need a boost. I feel that if the work had accelerated quicker in the initial few weeks I would have found the production towards the end much less stressful. But personal circumstances also intervened and had a terrible effect on my motivation. Although I've had an extension, I still feel the negative impact of this is evident in the standard of my work. I was aiming high, but I've accepted I couldn't quite get there; at least I tried my best. I would just love to know what my best could have been! (Life, eh). Aside from the work itself, I've still been keeping my blog updated regularly with critical posts about myself and also looking at contacting the industry and learning more and more about influences and inspiration. I have identified artists who are achieving success in the kinds of 'niches' I'd love to get into (who unfortunately haven't responded to my attempts at contacting them), but attending the craft convention earlier this term opened my eyes to the fact that there are helpful people out there who will show interest in my work. I just need to maintain my enthusiasm for what I do, keep making, keep getting myself out there and ultimately not give up on what I'm passionate about.
In conclusion, the end of this project has been a bittersweet victory for me. I'm relieved that it's over, and positive about the future, just frustrated at my short-comings this time round. It still feels like a valuable learning experience. Although I think I've developed a strong 'illustrative voice' which feels like me, I am still refining and improving myself, which will probably be an ongoing process for some time to come. This isn't necessarily a negative thing, just something that will require perseverance and a strong belief in myself. As long as I can get that confidence back, I think I will be ok...

New Business Cards!

I ordered some new business cards in time to put on display at our show. I got a mixture of Leon the Lion designs and ones of Mr.Wolf, and I'm really happy with how they all look! The information on the back is up-to-date with my professional email (emily@emilydenison.co.uk) and new website address (emilydenison.co.uk). I had no idea how many I'd need to order, but they've been disappearing fast this week, which has been a confidence boost! More will be needed for our travelling show...

Putting the characters together

Here are some test photos I took of Little Red Riding Hood and Mr. Wolf together so far, using his alcove as a back-drop. I'm pleased to say I think they work quite well together!

And I tried them with a sepia effect...like an old fashioned family photo, which I'm also happy with...

Making Little Red Riding Hood

I finally got round to the big task of creating my human character, Miss Hood!
I put this off for a long time as it's something I've been terrified of doing, and the process has involved a lot of risks, with little time to experiment and improve. As it stands, she is almost finished. Once I have her looking in a state I'm happy with I will take a few practice photos alongside my wolf, and the scenery, to see if anything needs changing to make her look better in context.
So, I began by creating the basic shape for her body. Instead of using wire alone, like the 'skeleton' of my wolf, I used part of an egg box to speed up the process, and avoid how fiddly using wire at such a tiny scale would be.

The focus at this point was mostly on the strength of the legs, and the shape and support of the feet so that the figure can stand easily...

Then I started making her clothes, and made sure her size was appropriate next to the wolf. I'm happy that she looks tiny and vulnerable next to him.

Next it was time to strengthen the body...

I made the decision to use mod roc because I wanted to add weight to the figure, and I also knew it would be possible to improve the shape quite easily with this material (i.e. building up curves slightly on the bottom and chest, and pulling in the waist while the egg box cardboard was dampened). I avoided placing mod roc over areas I want to be mobile, so the legs are still able to bend at the knee, and the arms will be constructed with a more flexible covering over the wire.

I was still very worried about how I was going to do the face! At such a small scale, it would be a challenge no matter what method I used. I considered building up the basic shape of the nose and cheeks with wire, then working over it in mod roc or paper mache, but it seemed too fiddly and with unpredictable results. It was time to try something new: plasticine! I made a trip to Fred Aldous to browse their selection of modelling clays. There were so many different kinds, I didn't know which one to pick; after a long time I settled on a small pack of skin coloured Staedtler 'Fimo soft' modelling clay.

This was my first time using this material in my illustration work, and I had very little confidence when approaching the face construction. It felt impossible at first; I was just squashing the clay into the hollow gap I'd left and hoping it would somehow shape into an adorable character. I was unsure if I'd be able to achieve a realistic style, or whether I should deliberately simplify her features. I attempted the former with a picture of a girl's profile silhoette as reference.

[Girl's profile silhoette by Darren Whittingham]

This basic picture really helped with shaping. I added clay to the top of the head and managed to mould the nose and chin (quite well for a first try I think!) I tried to do this quickly-I thought if I spent too much time messing around with the face shape I might spoil it and frustrate myself trying to make it perfect.

She was ready for the oven! I baked the figure at roughly 100 degrees c for 30 minutes. It was hard to find information on whether it was safe to bake mod roc, so I kept rushing to the oven nervously to check it hadn't cracked, but thankfully it came out fine! And the plasticine was solid and ready to paint.

The colour of the plasticine seemed a bit too dark for how I wanted the complexion, so I mixed a paler colour from acrylic paint for her head and shoulders.

The hardest part was tentatively painting the features of the face. I kept having to wipe off the paint and going over it again, but I'm pleased with how she looked at the end of the day.

Once she has arms and hands to hold her basket full of grandma goodies, I'll be almost ready! 

Progress

I've been spending a lot of time recently making the forest scenery that will be the background for a lot of my illustrations in Little Red Riding Hood. This hasn't been an easy process!
The first step was gathering the twigs that would represent the trees. The next was to figure out a way of making them stand up. I came up with the idea of building them a wire base that they could rest in. Making the mesh was tricky and I had a lot of scratches on my hands after this...

The next problem was the weight of the trees in the wire. they had a tendency to warp the shape of it and it wasn't a very sturdy set-up, so I decided to strengthen the base using mod roc.

I added paint to the mod roc so that the white wouldn't show through after I put the knitted wool over the surface (as the grass/vegetation).

Keeping in touch with what inspires me...

At this late stage I'm hurriedly planning the size and layout of my book. In my initial storyboards of my images I automatically drew out rough boxes in quite a 'wide-screen' film friendly format. I'm not entirely sure why I did this, but I seem to be naturally comfortable thinking of images in terms of being a scene, like a landscape camera shot. I've needed to reconsider this as it isn't properly taking advantage of the book format. In my talks with tutors it has also been brought up that I should aim to create something that appeals to the child in me; something I can really connect to. So, I've been looking at the books I enjoy the layout of for inspiration. My favourites are old storybooks that appear quite decorative in their design, such as this collection, the Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak:

Here the illustrations are linked comfortably with the text in the book with decorative flourishes, either around the images themselves or alonside them around the titles. Everything looks neat and cohesive, which is what I want to be able to achieve! I think the size of these books is also a big factor in their appeal. They feel like precious objects as they are so small, and reading them is a personal, private experience (not particularly suited to sharing). Until I have taken the photographs of my scenes I can't finalise what size I would like the illustrations to be exactly, but I'm hoping they will be suitable to be viewed as quite small, similar to this.

Portfolio Review with Craig Oldham

I got in touch with Craig from the Manchester based design company Music. My class were briefed by him last term for the ongoing Fishtank competition to decorate their studio. Here's what he said:

'Emily, hello.
Thanks for sending through your book.The studio is somewhat crazy at present so please forgive my somewhat brief feedback.
If I'm honest I prefer the more three-dimensional pieces in your book.It would be better I think to show more of these (as in more views on them).Also, treat them as objects and try shooting them better—think more about the context of them, should they be in the kitchen, in the set, or should it just be about the object? Do you need hands in there? Is there a completely different context? What was their intention? 
Thinking about this will help your 'storytell' better in your book.

Hope that helps.All the best.
Craig.'

His feedback seems to reflect most people's reaction to my work, in that he is drawn to the most 3D pieces. His advice about shooting them better is also a valuable point and it's something I will definitely look to improve. However, I feel that not being able to meet him for a review of my physical work may have hampered his understanding of it. Maybe this suggests that I need to arrange certain pieces better to let the work explain itself. The suggestion that I need to treat my creatures as objects makes me feel that I need to think carefully about how to convey a narrative in an image using 3D characters in future- obviously this will be particularly important for the images I'm creating at the moment for my book. I don't want the animals I make to be seen as stand-alone objects all the time.

Portfolio review with Matt Bray

Today I sent Matt a message asking if he could take a peek at how my portfolio was looking, and he very quickly got back to me saying to send it over, and I'm pleased to get a super positive response!

As I've never shown him my work before, I was unsure what he'd make of my style, seeing as his own is much more digitally based, and in my opinion, far more polished and professional looking. 

Here's what he said:

'Hey Em,I’m loving your portfolio! You’ve developed a lovely style that comes across as fresh and unique as well as personal and sensitive. My favourite two pieces are: ‘Life Stories’ and ‘Leon’. I think both pieces are great examples of the warmth and fragility that your work has. I also think they’re both good examples of the two different approaches that your work seems to have:The fist approach being the use of 2D pencil drawn figures in 3D environments; the second being the knitted characters.I love both approaches! I think they compliment each other beautifully.I’d also love to see both approaches put together: the pencil drawn characters and the knitted characters- I think they would work together really well I’m really impressed by your portfolio and the high standard of your illustrations! Hope you enjoy these last few days of uni and keep up the awesome work All the best,Matt'

 Leon

I'm glad Matt specifically identified two pieces that I am particularly proud of, it's encouraged me to trust my own judgment regarding the quality of my work. I'm pleasantly surprised that he was not only drawn to the hand-made characters, but also the drawn elements which I so enjoy (and miss!) doing. The fact that he talks about combining the approaches is great too, seeing as it has been an aim of mine for the development of my work, and it's definitely something I will be striving to do as time goes on.

Hopes, Fears and Opportunities (Part 2)

The final term of my degree was ideally going to be the time where I perfected my practice and created something that was a truly successful culmination of my skills and experience throughout the past three years.
Unfortunately, as has a habit of happening, things didn't turn out as wonderfully as planned. However, this time has been valuable nevertheless, and I still feel I have learnt a lot. Experience itself has in a way hampered the smoothness of my progress, as it has opened up new options that have left me feeling uncertain about the paths I want to take, and I feel I'm questioning my work a lot more now. In a way, this is good, as it hopefully means I will continue refining myself for the better. But at this point, fast approaching the line between student life and the professional world, it is worrying me that my confidence is so wavering.

In Part 1 I discussed confidence issues and how I didn't feel as accomplished as my work was in 2nd year. I still feel the same way. I'm proud of what I've produced, but it isn't at the professional level it needs to be. It's the final week and I'm terrified at the amount of work I've to produce in order for my book to be a success for our degree show. The reason everything has become so last minute, however, isn't due to laziness. Because of personal reasons I've been unable to work at my full potential for a number of weeks during this project. It's frustrating that at such an important time in my life I've not been physically or emotionally at my best. I've refused to accept defeat because of this, but I regret not being able to achieve my full potential as I had hoped after the disappointing results of last semester.

In a way, deciding to create a picture book has made life harder for me in terms of the completion of professionally finished pieces, as I don't have a finished product at all until all the work I've done is refined into a book. The most labour-intensive part of the work so far has been the creation of my wolf character, and because of this, I think it's worth taking advantage of him as much as possible, for other uses apart from the book itself. My animation is a good example of this, and I have also created pieces made from photos of him for a college newsletter image. For the final show I might try and adapt the book illustrations slightly as well, to make them 'poster friendly' and have more of an impact on their own, so they can be printed larger and put on the wall.

As I have mentioned in previous blog-posts, I would have liked to incorporate print-making into the production of my illustrations. However, due to the unplanned time constraints, this hasn't been an option. Using drawn/print-made imagery alongside my made objects was an important goal of mine. I've been trying to merge the two ways I enjoy working which don't always blend completely successfully visually, and during this project I've not ended up having the time to achieve this. Instead, I've resorted to using found objects to speed up the work (e.g. real twigs to represent the forest). If I had longer to complete the illustrations I would like to draw extensive amounts of scenery to make paper cut-out transfers to place in amongst my made objects. The only project I can refer to where I feel this combination was successful is the Life Stories brief from last year. And the obvious difference this has to what I'm trying to achieve now is that the characters are the drawn element and the scenery is made. I don't know how effective swapping this combination will be, as my experimentation and development hasn't been thorough enough.

My proposal plans haven't changed throughout the project as I have never doubted wanting to achieve making a book. I wanted something precious and for my work to be bound lovingly as an object, like the objects that will make up its contents. From the beginning, I knew that planning and meeting deadlines was going to be my biggest challenge. Time keeping and planning each week carefully to avoid being over-indulgent in the made element production was always going to be important, to keep focused on the bigger picture. However, even with perfectly made plans and a disciplined pace of production, the work will have suffered because of the reasons beyond my control. I've had to adapt to make up for the lost time, but I will not be satisfied with work that is rushed or not a decent standard. So, I've had to accept that the work I will be handing in at the deadline will very likely be incomplete. I will continue working after the deadline and focus on making the work as good as it can be for the show.

Looking to the future, I'm very uncertain how my career will develop. I'm happy that during this semester we've been encouraged to develop professionally by building websites. I hope that in future I can rely on this site to draw attention from people that might be interested in commissioning me, or at least get in touch with me and open doors to potential opportunities. I will also look into how to professionally sell my work online. As well as hand-made animals (I plan on beginning to make a series of endangered African ones soon in my free time) I would like to sell things that can be produced more quickly and therefore sold more cheaply (like the notebooks I made to sell at the print fair). Furthermore, I don't think I've learned everything I need to create my work at its best. I want to continue developing my skills in animation and print-making after I've graduated. Also, although self-publishing and self-employment seems like the most logical route for my work to take, I will not rule out the chance of editorial commissions entirely. Just because there seems to be quite a narrow style margin that suits the industry, it doesn't guarantee nobody would be interested in something a little bit different (I hope!)

I had hoped that attending the taster day in Preston for designer/makers would help give me a more solid idea of what might happen after I graduate. But in truth, the strongest message that was reiterated throughout the day was that new graduates looking to start a career in such a business just need to grab every opportunity possible. Luck and determination have large parts to play, but you can make your own luck by working hard to achieve what you want. I hope that in the realistic scenario I'm facing (i.e. moving home for a while to get some money saved, and a part time job to keep me alive when I move out) I will have time to remain really involved in the illustration world. I want to stay passionate about what I love, meet people, see things and stay inspired!

Drawing from (still) Life

Since I've been making my animals it's been interesting to see how their character can develop into a 2D format by drawing the models themselves. I first discovered a successful way of doing this when I did a watercolour painting and ink drawings of one of my 'inventive characters' last year, the friendly stoat. This is a way of developing my characters I haven't explored enough at my time on this course.