Assignment 1 – Say Hello

For this assignment I have to design a greetings card to send to my tutor that would show a bit about what I like, what I am interested in, what inspires me and what materials I like using.

I decided to draw up a wordstorm. I tried to think of all the things associated with me such as my favorite films, favorite artists, my hobbies, things that are important to me. I then did another one to concentrate on aspects of my personality.

 

I’m not sure how I am going to incorporate these ideas from the wordstorms into an illustration.  I’ve figured that I need some inspiration from somewhere.

• Look on Internet for other greeting cards, personalized cards.
• Ask friends and family what they think about when they think of me….bit of a scary thought.
• Look at things you do on daily basis i.e. feed cat, eat, and sleep.
• Look at things I don’t like.
• What kind of person am I?

I found this site on the Internet where people were asked to describe themselves in 5 pictures.  This seems a great way of giving people a quick glimpse of what you like or what your personality is like. There were photographs, magazine cuttings, packaging and drawings. I particularly like the idea of using different materials and cuttings. I’ve decided to give this a go myself and see if I could list 5 things I would use.

• Photo of cat
• A still from Tim Burton
• The label from my favorite wine
• Shopping receipt
• Image from horror film.

That was a lot harder than I first thought. I’m thinking that I don’t really have anything that’s that interesting after all and don’t think this would be of interest to anyone, also wouldn’t show any creative ability if I was to just stick things down.

Looking back at the wordstom again I have managed to pull out some points that I think really give an idea of who I am and that would look interesting in an illustration.

• I love animation and horror so could draw things that scare me, scary trees, dark places.
• My cat is very important to me and is with me on a daily basis – Draw my cat besides me.
• I enjoy listening to Tori Amos playing piano. Could draw piano, music notes, music book, music sheets.
• I like to draw trees so could draw trees and make them  look creepy and alive.
• I like working in fine liner- work in fine liner to show tutor the medium I prefer to use.

I have sketched some ideas using the list that I made. I really liked the idea of using trees and making these trees look alive and scary.  I thought that I could draw myself walking through a wood with the trees trying to reach for me. This would incorporate my love of horror and my enjoyment for drawing trees. I’ve also decided that I should include some form of music notes or possibly a scary piano that is coming alive like the tree. I am going to include my cat in the illustration. My aim is going to be to keep the illustration fairly dark and a little sinister but more like that from a children’s fairy tale. I am going to paint the illustration once I have decided how it will look, I have not decided how yet but I will be using watercolors.

I’ve put together some images that I  have been sketching and come up with an illustration I like (See below).

I like this composition and style. I am unsure on certain aspects of the illustration such as colour and detail. It needs to be deeper in colour when I come to my final piece. It also needs a little more detail. I want to give it the style of the old fairy tale books I use to read when I was a child. It needs a bit of mystery about it. I am going add extra detail and a little more colour to see how this looks.

I think this looks a lot better and clearer so I will use extra detail in my final piece. I have added a little more colour but it still doesn’t look how I want it to. I am thinking that I need to go beyond using browns and greens for the trees and bushes and I need to add a touch of purple and blue to give it some magical fairytale look. I am going to start my final piece keeping everything I have learnt in mind. I also need to make sure this fits well on a greetings card.

Final piece

Final thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. I found it really difficult coming up with ideas and working out what I wanted my tutor to know about me and then trying to incorporate this into an image. I found this the most difficult part. Once I had started though I realized that I found it a lot easier to progress on with other ideas and put them into action. I did a lot of research whilst working on this assignment, most of it was trying to discover who I am and what I like but I also researched into how other people describe themselves and in what way. I was happy with my final piece, although it looked nothing as I imagined when I first started the assignment. It showed who I am with an illustration of me, it showed my cat, and incorporated the creepy element with trees and the piano and also fitted well on to a greetings card. I think the border worked well around the illustration. I was happy that this assignment allowed me to draw in the style I feel comfortable and to uses the mediums, which I prefer. I usually have an issue with drawing figures but I think I have improved with the figure I drew of myself. I think that I just needed to be able to draw in the way I enjoy, however I realize I am not going to be able to do this all of the time. I feel I achieved the fairytale look that I was aiming for; this was achieved by using colours I wouldn’t normally think to use. I spent quite a bit of time on this assignment and my time management plan went slightly down the pan, I need to improve on this. In all I am pleased and this is my favorite piece that I have produced on the course to date.

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