Cuttle Fish Agree's

Bye Bye

2009-09-22T19:35:00.002+01:00

"I must leave now and...Never return!"

Bye Bye Year one blog.

Year Two

PR3: Process Recess 3: The Hallowed Seal

2009-09-11T17:14:00.003+01:00

So a new book came into Ok comics the other day and I was pondering through it while sleeving up new comics. It's pretty far from a comic book but as a piece of art work, it's a stunning book: PR3 By James Jean.

Details:
248 4C pages
6 " x 9 " HC
$34.95 US funds (Got it for £20 because I work in the shop. British retail is £30.)
ISBN 978-1-935233-03-9

Well worth the buy I thought and very summer project-ish.

Polaroid

2009-09-02T19:18:00.003+01:00

This is one of the pages in my Summer Journal, and yes it's about my cats. Sorry. Crazy cat lady.

First off, let me tell you of my idiocity in making this page. I'm sat there with Photoshop opened, frustrated that I couldn't make these fake polaroids look as if they where on a wall in a bed room somewhere.

....After several hours of terrible outcomes I was struck by lightning. Or something painfully similar. I printed out the polaroid's, stuck them on the wall with the printed text and took a photo. TADA! the effect I wanted to achive in the first place.

Looks good prtined out as well...If I do say so my self.
The kid is my sister.

Taxonomy

2009-08-20T19:42:00.002+01:00

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification.

"Taxonomy is a method of organizing content. For example classifying music by genre could generate this list: classical, jazz, rock. A single area such as "classical" might be further classified as concertos, sonatas, symphonies, and so on."

So what happens when I do it with Type that I find around my house? Comic, book, packaging. Can I get even further by grouping all of the single letter's together so I have page Of G's and E's. (Or in my case X's by the look of it...whoops.)

Do I only have to photograph the type, can I draw it myself and have page coloured with pencils, another only out lined?

I've really been getting into type and logo of late. Racking my brain's to come up with a decent logo for my own uses proved difficult. I kept staring at the piece of paper and the lettering that had no connection with the actual theme. It's time consuming, but it's great having other inspirations around me. It also shows the field I want to go into to, the sort of Graphic Design I want to reach towards.

It might work, it might not but that's the whole point of "trying".

As well as the logo/type book I've been making my own record of summer through image and illustration, including some type. Picture's too come.

Pic-A-Nic

2009-08-10T13:45:00.003+01:00

I have to show you this:

link

Look at his little smile. =3=

More serious posts to come. ;D

Oh The Perks...

2009-08-06T18:11:00.002+01:00

....Of working in a comic book shop.

I think I died along the way to Leeds...really...

Books leant to me by the guys at work: (...I really do think I died somewhere. Don't resuscitate me.)

- Defoe 1666
- Scott Pilgrims Precious Little Life (just finished it...pretty amusing)
- Planetary
- Mesmo Delivery
- All Star Superman Volume 1 (Why yes....DC...it looks very lonely in my room)
- Batman: The dark knight returns (look SM's got a friend...)
- "Hey, wait..."
- Scalped
- The league of extraordinary gentleman, century 1910
- Trip Wire

Spent like an hour sleeving up the new releases...I'm pretty sure there were at least a 100 Buffy issues (pff, I took a wee bit longer than I should have and read a few of the new releases. Who wouldn't?)

Then I helped Oliver with the pre-order stuff that needed to be taken to the post office, which is now my job. =3

And the last hour was spent pottering around the shop reading everything on sight.

Over all. YES!

It's made me realise that I don't know as much about comics as I first thought I did. Eleven or so years doesn't seem so much when you nail it down to what I primarily read e.g X-men, DW ect. I've never really given other book's a chance. So now I'll get too.

And I read Deadpool before my boyfriend. *smug*

Ive also just been told by my friend Karl that if I don't read strangers in paradise he'll never fogive me...so that's another one added to the list.

Thankyou to Luke for the heads up that they where advertising for help. =3 I owe him!

Terrible Yellow Eyes

2009-08-06T18:05:00.002+01:00

For all those "Where the wild things are" fans out there. (and I know your there.)

Found this cool little blog showcasing a collection of works inspired by the beloved classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Here are some of my favourite piece from the site:

Akk, there's too many too chose from but seriously, check 'em out.

Oh Facebook

2009-08-03T20:02:00.005+01:00

So I was flicking past on the old FB when Craig posted a link to Ollie. Being an inquisitive type, I clicked on the link which took me to this rather amusing little article: Where Photography meets illustration.

(Look....no face brought you a present...)

They are awesome! I love the way that some of them don't even look like illustrations, but part of the photograph it's self.

The Artists name is Dmitry Maksimov, a Russian Graphic Designer. I also stumbled upon his Live Journal full of more ace little wonders.

A one up on the Beef Jerky Business Cards I think....Biscuit train tickets! (My high school Russian is limited...)

Not sure whether this is classed as design for print, or not. Oh well...I wouldn't mind the train so much if they where giving out free biscuits.

Summer Project: AWAY!

2009-07-25T16:37:00.002+01:00

I now think it's time to really buckle down and work on my Summer Project. (Not that I haven't been doing so but sorting out the house and work kind of came top priority for a few weeks.)

I've decided not to move blog's but just to stick to this one. It'll be good to show my progress and means I won't have to fiddle around with unnecessary changes with other websites that I have linked too.

After finding last years summer project I was over all appalled at myself and so this year I am going to try and up my quilty and quantity of work. So far there isn't so much of a subject...other than the going on's and the random stuff that's happened over the last few weeks. It's probbaly going to be in journal form using illustration but I'll decide more about that on Monday.

I'll be sort of putting everything else on pause for a few weeks to make a good dent on work I need to do and what I want to achieve.

But I'm looking forward to it and to year two. Bring it on!

2009-07-25T16:29:00.004+01:00

Greetings! Hope everyone out there is a having a decent summer despite the erratic change in weather. Before I do a summer project post, I wanted to share this Graphic Designer with you all.

Florian Nicolle

He's a 22 year old Designer and illustration from France and at first I was only aware of his Illustration stuff:

I think what's drawn me towards his stuff is what draws me towards Skottie Young. The sketchy, un controlled way they both ink their pieces. But I'd check out his design stuff too. ^^

We Were Once Many

2009-06-04T19:15:00.003+01:00

David Charles Haller (Legion), Professor X's very estranged and bizare son. (With his wild and crazy purple hair I wanted as a kid)

In lue of his upcoming magical coming back to life in New Mutants #1 that I got my hands on yesterday. #2 comes out today but I won't be able to get that till next week. Not that it's David speaking but...let's see what the writers do this time.

His left eye is green while the right eye is blue. (But I flipped the image after painting it -.-)

Legion quest 2 came out in '95, 3 years before I started collecting comics. But once I got my grubby 9 year old hands on it, he steadily became one of my favourite X-men. =3 Ahhh Nostalgia.

Legion (c) Marvel Comics

Edit: Why does my header keep going missing?

Where It's At...

2009-05-30T15:11:00.003+01:00

All OUG103 (Design Practice) work is on my DP blog: http://designpracticeofleigh.blogspot.com/
This include type and Grid.

PPD work in on this blog.

Edit: Apparently my PPD stuff is on both blogs. Sorry.

Portfolio/Presentation

2009-05-19T16:15:00.000+01:00

Somewhere in this mass confusion of life and kittens, I've found a little bit of time to slave over this digital portfolio. It's been sort of hard for me because I have a tendency to look back at my old work and really dislike it. However, I've decide to push myself and the following are some of the piece I've chosen so far. It's not everything yet, there is some stuff I need to re shoot or re print out (cats like to sit on degree work and crumple it, who knew.) :

Mailshot: No news is good news part 2
The first part of this brief was to do make three posters on a subject chosen from the Guardian Newspaper. I chose the train fair article as it was quite appropriate to me. However, I really disliked the final results for them but I persevered with the mail shots that where of the same subject and tried my best to keep it simple but affective. (By the way, I burned the guardian posters....)

Visualisation and Ilustration Elective Final
For my illustration elective back in February we had to pitch a movie (existing or fabricated) in anyway we saw fit. I have a guilt pleasure for classic litrature and Nicholas Nickelby is one of my favourite novels. I chose to illustrate one of my favourite scenes but I wish I had been able to do more scene. Maybe when I concour Time.

How To...
Possibly the best thing I've done to date is the "How To" breif? I'm not sure if everyone else will agree but I liked how I was able to approach this brief in several differnt ways. In the end I went for satire in book form and the people who have seen this really got a kick out of it. I now wish I had done more pages to make the book a little thicker.

Adam's Font: A typeface for Adam Townend
Adams Font. This was a difficlut brief for me to wrap my head around until it clicked with me and I simply got on with it. It's certainly more affective than the original letters that I had in mind for Adam which where : Spooky looking and very unlike Adam. After that little insight I spent the following weekend re inventing the work I had already done and shifting it a new direction.

Convince/Persuade us
Group work from the begining of the year. I wanted to include this to show how far I (and the rest of the class) have come int erms of what it is to be a designer. We all thought these where really well done (or atleast I did) and our letter was voted as the best so we must have been doing somthing good. I'm now not as over whelmed with group work, as we're all in same boat. (more or less)

To Be Included:

Colab Work (DS Books)
Book Of 100: The Marvel Superhero Handbook
What is A line
Red: Series Of Ten (Red Characters)
Pure Poster

Mini Manifesto

2009-05-12T19:13:00.001+01:00

This is my 5 point mini manifesto as discussed in a PPD session.

What I want to be as a designer;

What I used to be as a designer:

Terrible if I’m being brutally honest. I had no sense of direction and everything tended to look one big unfocused mess. I would close off my ears and refuse to listen to good critique because I believed people did not “get where I was coming from.” I thought I had graphic design down but if that were the case then I would not be on the course.
However, when looking back at my work a week or even a month later, all the flaws would start to shine through. I see the mistakes in my work but most of the time, it’s too late to fix.

What I am now:

There is this little box I have called “Leigh’s safe place” where the harsh world of graphic design can’t et me. I need to move out of this comfort zone but so far I seem to be taking never-ending baby steps. When looking at my work, I still feel very insecure about showing it. Sticking it up on a website or a blog is no problem but standing there in the room with it with others makes me see it as the audience. Sometime this can be a great way of critiquing yourself. However, I see it as not yet worthy and it frustrates me when people don’t see it the way I do.

Three things I want to become:

Better at having more pride in my own work. Not to an egotistical extent but to be able to look at something I have achieved and made and to be able to say I did a good job about it. Not to dwell so much if one person out of fifteen don’t like it because I can’t please every one.

To realise that I’m not always going to be designing for myself. Of course you can have a little bit of your own personality in your work, but so much that it dominates the piece.

Taking in good criticism and using it for my own advantage. If it’s being given to me then I should use and not brood on the fact that not everybody “liked it.”

Illustrators

2009-05-05T10:49:00.000+01:00

I need to start practasing my anatomey and general illustraion skills some more. But ere's some work I really apprecaite. (Though will never achieve)

http://danielauhlig.blogspot.com/ : Daniela Uhlig

http://tjandamal.com/ (she doesn't give her name on anything, but i know she's a graphic designer from Texas. ='D ) http://bigbigtruck.deviantart.com/ :

Cocept Proposal: The Newbies!

2009-04-28T19:24:00.001+01:00

What is the problem?
The the first years come into all this sudden money that they have not bee used to before. Silly spending ensues on non essential goods and their food budget is cut considerably. Up until the next Loan installment, not everyone has enough money to eat.

What are you going to do about it? (identify, inform, promote)
I intend to Promote a ration box for the 1st years that they can use in case of emergency's.

How are you going to do it?
By researching various existing ration boxes from all kinds of backgrounds. Also looking into what cheap pre-packeaged food exists in the current market. (nothing that needs to be frozen or refridgerated.)

A Brief History of the Grid

2009-04-25T12:44:00.008+01:00

From a natural point of view:

Vitruvian Man; "The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture. Other artists had attempted to depict the concept, with less success. The drawing is traditionally named in honour of the architect."

The Modulor is a scale of proportions devised by the French, Swiss born architect Le Corbusier (1887–1965).

From This:

(Leopoldo Metlicovitz, “Fleurs de Mousse,” 1914.
Advertising poster for French perfume.)

To This:

But this is al very well and said, but design with the grid system has come along way:

A more modern theme which would work better for craigs interview piece. Apart from the Warcraft spread, I think the other 2 work exceptionally well but i think the two black and white pieces work better.

Layout Brief: Craig Fawell

2009-04-25T12:29:00.003+01:00

In the few weeks leading up to Easter break, we've been having type and grid workshops. These have been very insightful and I've now realised that I have only just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to these kinds of layouts.

Now all of this knowledge I have gained on the anatomy of typefaces and the correct way to measure grids and columns has to be presented in an article based on a fellow designer. I was paired up with Craig who I have rarely spoken to since Septmeber. I took this as a good thing because I'm not very good at mixing with people. It was insightful because I had judged him wrong in the begining. I believd him to be one of these "football" types but as it turns out he doens't have that much interest in the sport.

He comes from a small village just out side of Leeds and enjoys going to the gym on his days off. A really nice guywho presented himself to be very calm, pleasent and insighful. He enjoys contempory Graphic Design and belives that such design should have meaning. He's not just about making somthing pretty of preseting facts and Figure. An opinion man at heart, he wants to get out there and shout it to the world! (In the form of Graphic Design ofcourse)

The interview I did with Craig went faily well and I am now to design threes dps' (double page spreads). One of these has to be an introduction piece of around 500 words. Next will be the mian body of 1, 500 worlds and the last will also have 1, 500. It's allot of words for a person i've spoken to about 3 times but luckily I'm good at making things stretch. (Besides...we can copy pasta.)

The tag line needs some work but I was thinking: "Facts and Figures are for calculators. Show me the opinion and I'll show you Graphic Design." .... It needs work.

Too True...

2009-04-03T09:11:00.005+01:00

I couldn't have put it better myself Jamie.... No really I couldn't.

But all humour a side, there's a few artist I want to feature and have a small rabble about their work. The first Is this guy: Michael Choi

A superb Marvel artist who, in my opinion, draws the prettiest looking X-men ever. I mean, this guy needs an award, he made Logan look man pretty. So far, thats a hard thing to do with a tiny hairy canadian man. He's working on the new and "messiah war" for Marvel and Oback is ging to go kick ass on his lines, her colours are almost painting like.

Allot of the time it's not the writer that can make the story work, art has a big hand in the deal. I'm currently feeling that way about a certain canceled story line. Maybe if the art was more tolerable...But then I realised; no. The story was terrible.

Mark Brooks is also another favourite of mine. There's just something animated about his works, if the budget was high enough then his art would make epic animation. I'm so looking forward to the new arc of Young Avengers, this time though it's dark reign. There is somthing almost Wither like about the guy in front, something I pointed out on the new line up. Maybe because Brooks did the New X-men artwork...maybe I just want Wither back.

(More later when I'm not coughing my guts up from a chest infection.)

End Of Module: Self Evaluation

2009-04-01T08:45:00.002+01:00

OUGD 104
Visual Language/What is A line

Self Evaluation:

I belive I struggled a little at the begining of the "What is a line" project as I was conffused as to what I should be doing. This was my own fault for not asking questions and simply thinking It would be allright and maybe someone else would bring the point up. I was grasping at straws on what to do and kept putting off the work. Because of this my work suffered and I have not produced enough work for 4 months.

Luckily In the last few weeks I bucked my act up and got my ideas together and have produced somthing I am fairly proud of. I wish I had made the decision weeks ago to make the poster/book so I could have a series on them. It was either make one or a set. Having just two of three would look bad. This also gave me a chance to make an initial mock up of what I was going to make.

The crits helped me to an extent because I am still stuck in a stubbon mindset that I don't really need to listen to anybody elses opinion. I do take things that people have suggested on board but I don't always include this in my documentation or even my work itself.

Even though I have a final resolution, I belive there is not enough delelopment work to back up my initial ideas. I felt that the other briefs were more of a priority, and because it was a long project I thought I had time to do it, which is really not the case. I should of taken time out more regularly work on this project.

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I already knew about perspective drawing from various art classes over the years, but it's always good to go back over things that I have forgotten about. Also, I can now apply these perspective grids to basic letter forms and shapes.

In this module I have also been able to improve on my drawing skills. As illustration/technical drawing is something I really hope to improve it has been a really good opportunity to practice. I know feel allot more confident about quick exercises like pictorgrams.

I have also learnt differnt ways to represent what I think with quick exercises. For example, making animals from basic shapes and various letterform with limited stock. Some of these where really affective and I think they stand out more than if I had drawn them with a pen/pencil.

I feel that my photography has also improved as now I'm more confident in technical knowledge than I was before. I still have not quite figured out all of the settings but it is somthing I am slowly working on. I am using my own camera as much as I can to document what I am learn and these can been seen through out my blog.

What approaches to/methods of reserach have you developed and how have the informed your design development process.

Through out this module I have researched spersific things for my "What Is A Line" project by the typical use of the internet but also by using my own family files. I have learnt not to rely souly upon the internt and have also checked books out on techincal drawing and perspective.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I have kept an ongoing documentation of this module on my blog and have documented what I have learnt/created. This has helped me to manage this project more and has further reinforced certain rules I have created for my self.

I also feel that my initial making skills have come along in these last few months and the final piece for my "What Is A Line" is a fairly strong piece of design.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

It is not nessisaraly time management that I have a problem with but my inability to look at things and go: Right, I need to be doing this now! I plan on writting more To Do lists and to ban my self from certain things like the computer/my books/comics untill I have done a suficient amount of work on the module. This way I will not be rushing on hand in day to get everything up to scratch.

I have change my initial idea more times than I really needed to. At one point I was in two minds over which way I was going to take this project and becasue of it, there does not seem to be enough work for the spercific topic I have chosen. If I had stuck to my original idea/thought of the final one nearer the begining then I would have more deleopment work.

I need to loosen up when it comes to my drawing. In the lessons with Lorenzo I wa so busy trying to make them look decent that I did not do as much as I should. It was supposed to be about the ideas and not the actual craftman ship of the drawings. I need to learn to work more freely but to also keep it neat. Currently it is somthing I am working on in all aspects of my work whether is is for Graphics or my own work.

Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Decide on what I am going to do fairly quickly. To not dwindle on several possible ideas that are not going to work/go anywhere.

2. To have more worksheets and to document evreything inside a note book.

3. To think of the audeince and context before I start on a project. This way I will not be grasping at straws for what to do.

4. Keep my worksheets and all work neater. I have an tendencey to let things get ruined and so I have to re make them.

5. To not worry about making somthing look neat, but to simply get on with the idea at hand. I can always come back and work on it later if I do not think it is up to scratch.

How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= exellent, 4= very good, 3= good, 2= average, 1= poor

Attendance: 3

Punctuality: 4

Motivation: 3

Commitment: 3

Quantity of work produced: 2

Quality of work produced: 3

Contribution to the group: 3

100 Things To Draw Challenge

2009-03-22T18:39:00.002Z

I set myself a challenge last year to draw at least a 100 things with separate themes. I failed miserably and only did 3 out of a 100 and they where crudely done.

So I'm going to try and do it again, and I'm going to set up a new blog for it. (They'll look really bad and will clog up my Deviatnart art if I put them all on there.) It will also be good for geting me to draw more. I tend to go through phases of what I want to do. (read, draw, write). I once didn't draw for three months and it made me rusty.

(will link the new blog here in a bit)

Some Great Work...

2009-03-17T21:41:00.003Z

Some pieces of art and graphics I've stumbled across of late.

All art can be found over at Devaintart.com

First and for most, one of my favorite comic book artists: Skottie Young. His style never ceases to amaze and amuse me. Marvel is doing a series of Wolverine covers done by different artist drawing in the style of old school artists, he picked Edward Gorey. (Another great and differnt artist)
Skottie Young

Some likes Pocky a little too much I think. I can really see the style all the way through this design. However, it's adorable and a part of me still knows it's female and I have to grin at grahics like this.
designslave.deviantart.com

I thought this was sort of sweet, sorry.
1saint.deviantart.com

I live near this guy, it was quite peculair to find him over on DA. We where making CVs last year in my ND class and I was over whelmed by this design which he knocked in no amount of time. He's got a a real eye for design and I actually see him being big in the world of Graphic Design.
weyforth.deviantart.com

And because I like the look of good logos that work well. Besides, i like the colour scheme.
schakalwal.deviantart.com

Badass...

2009-03-15T12:18:00.003Z

There's a really cool cartoonist over on Devaintart who drew my main character for me:

Annoyed character is annoyed... ;D

http://javas.deviantart.com

How Too...

2009-03-15T12:14:00.001Z

More Information on my Design Practice Blog:

I had no binding tape so I used masking tape, magic tape and...*cough* toilet paper. It worked just as well so...

My sewing on this thing is appalling but it held it together so that's all that matters for the mock up version.

The first cover I made was streaky from ink running out and then bubbly from the glue so that was binned. The second one was the wrong measurements so that's now part of my experimentation work...But the 3rd one, after tips from my class mates...worked perfectly.

I have some typo's to fix on the main content of the book and then it should be complete.

What Is A line: Take A Million and one! Part 6

2009-03-09T17:23:00.004Z

1. I am going to make a continuous time line using one solid black line that flows through the differnt periods of the dinosaurs. (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous)
2. It is going to be presented in an accordion fold book.
3. There is going to be information on each dinosaur underneath it's outline.

(I hope this is enough for the statment of intent and for the three rules. I'll come back and add to it if not.)

Don't Panic!

2009-03-03T22:59:00.000Z

For more information on this brief see my design practice blog: http://designpracticeofleigh.blogspot.com/

My comment: Children are often thought of as Pure... Children are growing up far too fast, defined by the mistakes and beliefs their Parents put on them. They are almost warped into these little machines that need to be updated and programmed on a regular basis. Unfortunately, machines can break.

I had ten minute to upload it and had written nothing, so word vomit happened.

Overall I am not pleased. I like the shorter briefs, but....I think it could have been better. Going to re work it for submission. I really appreciated the the helpful comments about working with differnt paper to print the design on. I'm also going to look into defining it more as an image.

Don't Panic: http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designaposter/entry/?id=5544

Some Epic Links.

2009-02-21T11:13:00.005Z

So the other day I was feeling notoriously sorry for myself and decided I'd whine about it over on DA. My good friend over there gave some hints and tips for my art work and just general Graphic Design. (He's American, but roughly did the same course as us.) Many of you will know these sites, e.g twitter, cafe press but I thought over all the list was epic and handy to have.

From the Karl man himself:

"OK... this is kind of a long list and it's really only a few things I have on my delicious account ( [link] ). If you aren't familiar, it's an online social bookmarking site, where your shared posts are listed for other users and theirs are also listed where you can find them.

I also see a lot of potential for Twitter ( [link] ) as a promotional tool.

Ok, let's start with the Graphic Design blogs.

AG Design [link]
BODO [link]
You the Designer [link]

Blogs for working freelance
Freelance Switch [link]
Dumb Little Man [link]

Not too familiar with Speckyboy, but this [link] looked like it might be interesting, so I bookmarked it.

And places to bid on Freelance gigs.

Sologig [link]
Behance [link] (more of an online gallery/social network...)

Promotional things, in the event you decide to go the Webcomic route.

Reviewme.com [link] (not just for Webcomics, though...)
Webcomic Promo Guide [link]
The Webcomic List [link]
The Webcomic Network [link]
Smack Jeeves [link] (Webcomic hosting.. also [link] [link] and that thing DC was doing)
Project Wonderful [link] (Actually for cheap ads)
Webcomics Asylum's Promotional Articles [link]

Tutorials for Photoshop and other things...
Good-Tutorials [link]
Vandalay [link]
PSDTUTS [link] (there are also about 5 others in this cluster which apply to other programs and the like...)
Six Revisions [link]
PSD Fan [link]

Articles that may be of use.
Accounting basics for Freelancers [link]
Beginner's Guide to Freelance Business Processes [link]
How to win jobs on bidding sites [link]
Building a killer online portfolio... [link]

And of course, Cafe Press [link] and Kuler [link]

If you decide to start up a Twitter account, PSDTUTS and the associated pages all have accounts that point out new tutorials when they go up. Also a LOT of comic writers are on there... I can be found at [link]

I think I've dropped enough for now, though if I wanted to I could probably go on.. lol"

So go crazy, use them. Or don't. Most of this will mean nothing to allot of you, but I'm sure as hell glad I had that moaning journal. XD

And If I see one more thing related to Twilight, I'm going to have to gut something just to make myself feel better. ¬ ¬...Really, I'd rather pull of my eyeballs through my arse then ever have to read that again.

What Is A line: Part 5

2009-02-20T22:00:00.005Z

"And On The 5th Day, God Made The Velosorapter"

I've been meaning to update this all week, I swear. I just have a heck of allot of new horror books to get through.

But for the "What Is A Line Brief" I had a fantastic idea. Though I have to thank Stephen Fry and my year 11 science teacher for originally telling it too me.

"If the history of the Earth began on January 31st then Dinosaurs would begin life on December 5th and would all be dead by the 24th. Humans would start life at 5 minutes to midnight on December 31st."

I think I'd love to make a 12 month calender....I'd have to look at the history of the earth and put into ratio with the above statement.

Also...this picture makes all the sense in the world. I want one.

What Is A Line Continued! Part 4

2009-02-12T20:15:00.007Z

From my crit the other day I have been looking at various forms of family trees/time lines and stuff like that.

So first off I looked at the usual history of the earth:

I'm an Evolutionist...I like science. I also don't like to think there is a freaky old man sat on a cloud judging me when I try to look at stuff on the internet.

I digress. The poster is in German and I never paid attention in German but you get the basic jist of it. I do like the fact that we all came from a common ancestor. We are ickle wiggle worms deep down.

Then I looked at the history of man, always a good one:

I think that man needs a bigger computer desk.

Then from then I looked at Nintendo like Will suggested:

I love that stuff like this DOES have a time line, of some sort. I'm also quite the geek and I like seeing how character designs devlop.

End Of Module Self Evaluation

2009-02-12T19:35:00.002Z

Module: OUGD102 ? (it is 102 or 202)

1. What Practical skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

In this module, I have used a wide range of skills I have learnt how to bind a book using the perfect bound method. I had wanted to do perfect bound originally for my final project but opted for spiral bound instead. This was because of the whole “side kick note book” I had at first.

I have also tried to use more illustration in the project, as it is something I really want to start working with more. This means I will have to start practicing my illustration skills.

2. What approaches to/methods of problem solving have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

As research has been the main focus for this module, i have tried to push myself further than past briefs. This is becasue research is not my strong point. The way I look at it, it is but compared to what other people produce, research wise, is always greater. it was something that was picked up on with my last submission. I knew who my target audience would be and so I stuck with my concept of using known characters. I did think to use my own characters but I belived that this would only confuse people. (For this kind of book I did not want to ahve it both ways. I knew that most people would ahve no idea who many of the characters where but I would have felt it was cheating if I have put in my own.)

When i started I did not quite know what direction I would ahve lied to ahve gone in. As usual, it's the end of the module and I suddenly have all of these ideas. What competely stumped me was that I could have simply made a comic book. This had not even crossed my mind. (Which was very strange...)

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

The research i collected was rather useful for the purpose of the book. However, I think the actauly writting content of the book is one of my strongest points. I have used friendly language and my own banter to urge readers to turn the pages. The illustrations where not as strong as i had wanted them too be and I did end up falling short and using past illustrations of mine.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

Not nessisarliy a graphical error, but I do have to try and work on remembering to run my things through a spell checker. And, as ussual, I have run out of time or mis judeged how much time I actually have. I also think that i could have worked on the art work more and spent more time on it.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Go for the obvious idea. This was pointed out to me that sometimes you just need to sit back and try and get out the obvious. I'll try not to go for the "Killer Idea" and maybe that way I won't be stll stumbling along in week 3/4.

2. Document my things more photographical and to update my blog with this information. This way I can better organise my ideas and refer more easily to previous work.

3. Work with more stock and more binding ideas. Not to just get one idea and think that that is what i have to stick with.

4. Store away each project when it comes to the end. That way I will know where everything is and I'll be able to file it better when it comes to submission.

5. Print this evaluation out and keep it in sight so I know what mistakes to avoid and what I am supposed to be doing to help myself.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance 4
Punctuality 4
Motivation 4
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 3
Contribution to the group 4

You're The One That I want!

2009-02-11T08:39:00.001Z

PITCH IT JAMIE! PITCH IT TO MARVEL NOW!

By Jamie Smart, Author and artist of "Fantastic Mr. Bear."
I have his old drawing board ;D

What Is A Line: Part 3

2009-02-10T14:42:00.002Z

Statement Of Intent:

For my "What Is A Line?" project, I am going to look at family tree's and other such times lines. I've always been interesting in this kind of stuff and finding out who I am. It also helps that I already have a certain amount of family history knowledge, and the know how to make a a fairly decent standard tree. (See Past Posts)

From the crit I've just had, there was allot of feedback about perhaps looking at this from a more data approached angle. Along with the sex, age ect I could have a number of information about each one of my relatives. There was also an idea about an event trigger tree, how one thing links to another.

Other ideas where to look at evolution times likes and even the tube system for the way the data is recorded.

Let's see if we can get this show on the road~~~

More Lines! Part 2

2009-02-04T17:54:00.002Z

"It needs more LINE more TONE" *scribble scribble* = My year 8 art teacher who was a mad French woman. My cousin put caly in her coffee every lesson and she always drank it ;D

By Cidaq over on DeviantART:

(On The Line made with ink and water colour)

There's just somthing about this piece that always makes me smile.
The crow: What the fuck do you think you're doing.
2nd crow: Leave it out Dave...

I also found this guys sub gallery over on DA: http://w34a.deviantart.com/gallery/#LINE

He's from Croatia so his English isn't taht strong but from what I understand it's done with a normal light bulb and a camera. Standard stuff really but I think they have a really nice affect.

And though it's not great artistically, it makes up for it by being accurate and humorous:

You Are My Home...

2009-02-04T16:36:00.000Z

"The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" By Charles Dickens.

(Tl;dr but please try...)

For my Illustration Class we where to put across that we where proposing for a new film in what ever way we wanted. I choose to promote NN in a comic book fashion.

I've read the original and I have the 2002 film with Jamie Bell (Smike) and Charlie Hunnam (Nicholas) and it's one of my favourite story's by one of England's greatest writers.

I also looked at the work of Adrian Alphona , a Canadian artist who worked on Volume 2 of "The Runaways". So the art work is highly based on his way of penciling though I don't think I did it an ounce of justice. (Their shoulders are too stiff.)

I think that if a comic book was to be made of NN, then One) I'd love to script it XD and two) Alphona would have to pencil it. Mostly because he has such hilarious looking things hidden away in the Backgrounds of his work. I also like how he draws tall people and not so much the buffed out superhero.

I worked with a couple of textures for this piece. Mostly becasue I'm lazy and secondly, becasue I wanted to try something different so the character is the only one you're focused on, very much like the original story. (Though at some stage I went mad with it and now It doesn't quite have the affect I want.)

I also get the gayest vibes off of this very innocent little wording. *coughs*

Smike:where will you go?
Nicholas: Perhaps to Liverpool. I could find work on a ship. Do not be anxious. Before I do anything, I will get you to your home. Where is it?
Smike: ... You are my home.
Nicholas: Smike!
Smike: Please, may I go with you to the sea? I will be your faithful, hard-working servant. I will. I promise I will. I want only to be near you.

I did in the book as well, but that was only becasue Nicholas wakes up with Smike wrapped around him in a barn in the middle of Yorkshire. But despite that, it's a story I favour more than any X-men saga it's self. Which says an awful lot for me, I.E a geek.

Textures:
http://sheisprettystock.deviantart.com/art/Antique1-81703246 ,
http://insan-stock.deviantart.com/art/texture-20-70066569 , http://mourningstocks.deviantart.com/art/Old-Paper-1-22865437 , http://myruso.deviantart.com/art/Victorian-grunge-V-81146561
Art Work (c) Me
Characters (c) The Estate of Charles Dickens.

PS: Colours may have Royally screwed up becasue it was made with print in mind (CMYK). I've had to change to RGB to post it on the Internet.Which took forever to change! Bah...!

So..What Is A Line? Part 1

2009-02-02T18:40:00.002Z

For my "What Is A Line?" brief I have been looking at family tree's. Mostly becasue it was the first thing that came to mind but also because it's something I've been interested for a while now.

I have a lot of information on the Wortley side of my family which is my Dad's side. Not so much my mums side as that...well, it's hard to track.

I have a copy of an on going tree going back to the 1700's. It's in complete but I think that will be a great starting point:

(I'm the oldest granchild and great grand child on both sides of the family ;D)

So I think I'm going to do something based around this, but first I'm going to look at some existing family tree's that take on a more graphic feel.

However, looking for these types of tree's all I could Find where Harry Potter related things...Like the Black and Weasley family tree. That's all well and good but...XD Oh well, i'll find something.

Also....SNOW. FIVE INCHES!

That is all.

Tom

2009-01-30T11:09:00.001Z

A doodle of Tom:

Done in the corner of my book, but he liked it so...

One Last Thing!

2009-01-29T22:31:00.000Z

Two Adverts which are epic wins:

I know the second one was done with stop animation. The children did all the eye movements, just not quite so fast. XD

Ahh yes. I remembered growing up with Spike (Buffy) and The Rock doing very peculiar things with their eyebrows.

So I met a comic book artist today...

2009-01-29T21:54:00.000Z

An illustrator by the name of Frazer Irving. I have the Iron man comics he did and the Civil war front line one. It was kind of refreshing knowing someone professional depends on sorely photoshop and a waccom tablet for their art. Illustrator bugs me and painter irritated the hell out me...no, I'll stick to PS. If it's good enough for Irving, then it's good enough for me.

It was also neat seeing his old old work form when he was not much younger than me and how he's progressed as an artist over the years. I too can't stand milk bottles on a wall and had many arguments with my ND teacher last year who believed comics where not an art form or a graphic design form. (Stupid...)

I also admit that I now want to read Klarion the witch boy...which is DC ¬ ¬... Oh well, it was time I broadened my Horizon anyway:

And I didn't Fan Girl out on him...

It'll be a few years until I can save up for San Deigo/NY comic con...and even then, another ten years (or more...yes more) till I want to show my stuff. Because write now, my 3 weeks old sister can puke better things.

Book Progress And All That Jazz...

2009-01-29T20:49:00.000Z

So far my idea has changed more times than my socks, and I have allot of socks. Last week Lorenzo suggested the idea that instead of a 100 comic book characters, that I should have a 100 comic book concepts. (Something I couldn't explain to Jo in crit, which is never a good thing to be able to do.)

For Example. A mutant is a concept and so is the idea of wearing capes or being an alien. To me it was fantastic idea and I jotted down as many concepts as I could think of before having to scour Comic Vine (It's a slow site, not your computer). The nerds over there have categorised as many concepts that crop in a wide array of comics. However, as I know more about Marvel that any other publisher, I've decided to stick to that. (Though I'm looking at a DC tittle at the mo ¬ ¬...I feel sort of dirty but it looks interesting...)

(They're in the wrong oder...Sorry ¬ ¬) But going from bottom up, they where some of the first idea's. But I thought I thought it looked very restricted and wanted something more free and personal.

Then I remembered a quote along these lines: I'm sorry, I left my super hero hand book in my other tights(!) *warning, Wiccan Sarcasm ahead*

Dug out my young Avengers..read it then realized I was supposed to doing work. XD:

So now my book is going to be based around a note book. As if someone was studying to be a superhero and needed a handbook. You just know it would be this note book type thing that's been passed from side kick to side kick. (Even though Marvel have had a no side kick policy since buckys death...that seems to be changing. Why yes, I am a nerd, thanks for noticing.)

I was wondering what kind of media I could print this information onto and I had a ponder in the liabry and came across a brown paper sketch book:

(Well it is brown...camera whited it a little...so did the groovy throw we have ;D)

I had a blonde moment and couldn't figure out how I was going to get all the pages off. For some reason i thought I could only get the cover off. Thanks to my mum, I figured it out ;D

Don't worry, there is a method to my madness and I shall get this to work how it looks in my head...somehow...ukk.

More Funky: What Is A Book?

2009-01-23T06:47:00.001Z

So looking around the Internet I came across these books. It sort of followed after what Fred mentioned about a book not having to be book shaped.

"The Death Stairs of Manhattan"

"The Emperors Clothes"

"A quirky little duster made from philosophical texts"

I'm also rather fond of old books that you can buy in charity shops that can be draw over/on.

And who said books even need words?

The Amazing Booklet

2009-01-21T12:06:00.000Z

I decided over X-mas break to research and categories a 100 comic books from my collection. About half way through counting another page I wondered why the hell I chose the subject, but i persevered like a good little student and I got it done! With very little ink left in my printer too ;D
-----------

I had no weekend...I had no sleep...I spent so much time on this booklet yet it some way, it doens't look very much. In an other way, it looks as if I've done a heck of allot.

Each page was individually done, each picture had to be found and cropped. I had to scour the internet to find info on all of the characters because unless they were Marvel of DC, they didn't have a data base. I just. DX I miss counted, I went over so I have to re do the middle page at some point.

My response was helpful, that maybe I should re work the colour a little. (I'm not a fan of red either, I thought it just looked iconic.) I didn't add a contents page because I had no room or spare pages to do so. They basically wrote everything I would have done If I had more pages...

Though being told it was too Niche was rather irritating. Who else is going to read a booklet of comic characters unless they're into that thing.

No matter how graphically pleasing a booklet on handbags is, I'm still not going to read it...

There where some good idea's though about grouping characters/teams/publisher and all that so I'll take that into consideration for when I make my final book/s. I'm not sure whether I'm going to do one of two or more of these things. And as I'm not much of a DC fan (don't judge me ¬ ¬) so I may just stick to Marvel...who knows.

(I just had to convert from CMYK to RGB to post this...otherwise everyone would have been blue and purple =D)

Techy Wecky Stuff:
Format: A5 portrait
Pages: 32 plus cover pages.
Cover Stock: 100gsm red card
Page Stock: 80gsm copier paper white
Typeface: Calibri Bold 11pt, regular 10pt and Andrew Warren 2.0 with white fill and 4pt black stroke.
Binding: Stapples baby~~~

Links:
Marvel Database
DC Database

What Is A Book?

2009-01-15T10:35:00.000Z

I read an awful lot of books/comics and most of the time I'm drawn into reading them from already knowing the content. However, what I really like are interesting looking covers like this one for example:

I like a bit of steampunk. There's just something a little odd about the fact that it could actaully work....*cough*...want it:

But that's not a book...unfortunately.

Book Of 100...

2009-01-15T06:28:00.000Z

Statement on intent.

1. State the title and focus of your work in response to the brief.
I'm presuming this is for our week brief (to produce a 32 page booklet of some kind)...So if it's wrong, I apologise. My title is going to be "A 100 known and clearly very unknown comic characters." Possibly until i think of a better tittle. I'm going to have 30 pages filled with a 100 comic characters, inked and coloured with their Codenames. As they needed to be double pages spread for what I am achieving I will have page 1 and page 32 free for contents and a disclaimer page. (As the art work is not fully mine. They will be freehand copy's of original work to same time/brain power.)

2. Identify specific area's of research that you intend to investigate and the methods that you will use.
I have been researching many of the artists who have drawn these characters over the years and also which writers have their current run (if any). As some of the characters are deceased or currently unused, they too will also be identified.

3. Identify specific practical methods and technical process that you intend to use in order to visually develop your ideas.
I will be using illustrations that I have done over the week. They will be sketched in pencil, inked with various black pens and then scanned into Photoshop to be cleaned and the flat colours to be laid down. The names and numbers will be added in Photoshop as well as coloured backgrounds. I will explore the idea of how to colour fast, whether I do whole sections or leave some with our colour in the Background.

4. What methods will you use to evaluate the progress and success of your work?
I will evaluate the success of my work by group responses and to gather information on what I could do to improve my work.

This guy rocks:

Cakey Cakey!

2008-12-17T17:21:00.000Z

Hannah J and I teamed up for epic cake making for Typogateaux. We are awesome like that and so was the cake making day. Here's the fun hectic mess:

HJ Making cake better ;D

KILL IT!

Yum?

Lovely...

TETRIS!

Hannah doing the tedious job of icing....

By the end of it we had made 3 cakes. A practice one. The Tetris letters and the Base.

Then HJ painted the letters with food colouring and added the black lines around it. If we had a bigger baking tray then it would have been longer...but we didn't...OH WELL!
The cooliest looking cake evar!

My Booky Wook

2008-12-17T17:12:00.000Z

I'm a fidgeter and I can't stay still for very long, so making this was a little hard for me. (even though we where stood up.) It was long and tedious but I don't mind getting covered in glue so i suppose that's okie.

Not bad for my first try I suppose. Please Ignore my kitchen things and various animals in the Back ground. I am not a photographer ¬ ¬.

FEEDBACK! and those questiony things...

2008-12-13T13:14:00.000Z

Oh yeah, forget to post this. I got 57% for my first module which is a 2:2. Just above average and I am a OK with that!

Honestly, I thought I was on the road to failure with the next stop being re submission. I suppose it comes down to me being rather pessimistic, oh well.

Evaluation Questions from previous Brief.

What problem did you identify?
That there are high burglary rates in student populated area's.

What evidence did you find to support your decisions?

* 75% of students asked know others living in Leeds that have been burgled.

* 20% of students become a victim of crime each year because students own more expensive consumer goods per head than the rest of the population.

* 76% of surveyed students in accommodation have over £2000 worth of consumer goods in their own bedrooms.

What methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take? (categorise your research using primary, secondary, Quantitative, Qualitative)

What methods did you find useful and why?

What methods do you find problematic?

How did you overcome this?

How will you address these issues in future?

What research didn't you carry out that would have proved useful?

What five things would you do differently next time?

List five things you feel you have learned about the design process over the past two weeks?

I'm not usually a picky sod but...how is spidey doing that through his suit?

Ahh who cares:

I can die happily....

Research Breif

2008-12-13T13:01:00.000Z

So this week we have been working in groups. And what a toughty subject we had; Disturbia and Negativity...fun!

We decided that we would work on making students around Leeds aware of the high burglary that happens around student accommodation. It was really interesting becasue I hadn't been previously aware of how high the risk was. Makes me glad I live in my cold cold house.

The solution to the problem was flyers, stickers and maybe a small booklet to inform the public. The resolotions we displayed to the class have a really good graphic feel and I am esspecialy proud of how well the whole thing worked together. (Despite us doing the all serperatly at home.) We made a facebook group so we could share our work over the night so we could give each other feedback and the likes.

Typeface: century gothic with the kerning set to -75
Colour scheme: all shades used had to be taken from specific colour codes e.g. magenta- C878B2 & cyan - 718FC6 ( however we all agreed on replacing the magenta with a darker reddish shade, we also experimented with yellow) Though I had Memory stick problems i.e losing it, so i kept with the pink and blue.
size: A4 - square format 21x21

We sort of run out of time to go out into Leeds and interact with the public domain but this is what the weekend is for, after cleaning of course. ¬ ¬

Our public facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43399120949

Group Blogs:
http://heatherbradleybagd.blogspot.com/
http://www.ianprenticebagd.blogspot.com/
http://katedyer.blogspot.com/
http://mitchgibbonsbagd.blogspot.com/

They're not the greatest looking things in the world but I think they work rather well. =3

What A Mess

2008-12-11T11:38:00.000Z

Nearly two hours into a photoshop workshop and this is what I produce....I feel so dirty:

The balloons are my own. This is how hard core I am. (note blatant sarcasm)

Anita N Friends...

2008-12-03T17:19:00.001Z

I'm really into my books and I'm currently reading an on going Horror series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter is a series narrated by the title character. At first I didn't think I'd like the 1st person aspect but Hamilton really pulls it off.

Anita lives in a fictional St. Louis much like our own, save that, not only are things like vampires and shapshifters real, but everyone knows that they're real and they are considered citizens of America, much like normal humans. The novels follow Anita's ongoing conflicts with the supernatural as she attempts to solve a variety of supernatural mysteries, come to terms with her own abilities, and navigate an increasingly complex series of romantic and political relationships.

On top of that ir's really gory...A four month old baby being eaten by a rougue zombie for expamle! =D

The other year though Marvel decided they would try their hands at turning the series into a collection on comics. Starting with the first book: Guilty Pleasures. (a vampire strip club ;D)

My best friend in Texas really got me into the series but she didn't know about the comic version untill I sent her one for christmas last year. XD

(Looks so homoerotic...Philip Died though DX)

The artwork is astounding though and I'm really looking forward to getting volume one some time before new year. DX...The second volume, book 2: The laughing corpse (vampire and Zombie comedy club...go figure) has started up and I bought the 1st issue the other week...Can't wait for number 2!

I'm on book 3 now, "the circus of the dammed"...do I even need to tell you what that is...No. I'm terrible with books and comics...once i get into them, I never stop...

Out Trip To Homebase!

2008-12-03T16:53:00.000Z

I decided to have a research trip to Homebase with my mum today. She needed some new bathroom things anyway and I needed picture of Baths the wrong way round. Besides, the bathroom suites at Homebase are a lot nicer than my own council one. =D

(hehe man toilet...)

(Now I know where my Nana is getting all her doody toilet seats from...)

I also thought those where pretty doody looking...Shame about the packaging though:

At first I thought they where okie looking, but then I sort of went: Uhh, the hell...Maybe it's the graphic Designer in me or maybe I'm just a picky bastard...I dunno, It gets the job done I suppose. Sat in the car I was looking at a Homebase leaflet and I immediately picked out that the photo was pixeltated and they had used the drop shadow option on photoshop...Mum called me sad...

My revenge!

(And my baby brother concealed beanth!)

100 Photo's

2008-12-03T16:20:00.000Z

This research brief was NOT FUN! At first I thought it was going to be easy peasy and really fun too boot. Alas, i counted my chickens before the eggs hatched. (don't hold me too that, i like throwing random phrases out there.)

But I got it done in the end but I didn't realise that I had duplicates so I'm going to have too look back on that before module submission. Animals are people too so they where put under the poeple category. I didn't want them shoved under objects thankyou very much!

So here they are roughly in uder. The picture of the boy is my brother Kyle as no one else in my family wanted photo's taken...But my brother is a poser so that was rather handy. We where then put into pairs and I was teamed up with Charlotte who I've never really wokred with or even really talked to before. it was good, she's a good a laugh and we evetually got through the day.

We decided to categorise Ross's Photo's my light outside to inside starting with the lightest and ending with the darkest. Ross has a man pout...

And for Pearls we decided to be really really adventurous and catergise her photo's alphabetically. We regretted it...it was a stupid idea but we finally got them all in order on the table. I ate a peanut butter sandwich and we watched everyone put their photo's up on the wall. Jo asked us why we wheren't putting them up and Charlotte said very truthfully that we had no blue tack...God dammit we had ten minute to put nearly 200 photo's up on the walls...

I have no idea what category Lyndsey and Anthony put my photo's into and I kept forgetting to ask. XD

From that catergoisation and the little list of idea's my group and I made I decided to go with Bath time. Why? Because I didn't want to be predicable and so cartoons or superhero's...no matter how interested I am in those category's. Besides, I get to research toilet phobia!

The Black Panthers

2008-12-03T15:56:00.000Z

So Last Friday a group of us from the course went to the Black Panther expedition in Manchester at Urbis. I went there last year on my ND course and it's such a mad looking building that I had to snap a picture of it.

(The worlds lasrgest greenhouse. Gardeners everywhere experience wet underwear)

The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966 and they played an important part in the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers believed that the non-violent campaign of Martin Luther King had failed and any promised changes to their lifestyle via the 'traditional' civil rights movement, would take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced.

My electives teacher says he remembers the group of black American athletes being sent home after they raised their hands and fist saluted in protest. It must have sent such a rush through the crowd and I wish I had been alive to witness such a bold and courageous movement.

(In the book I'm currently reading the same sort of rights campaigns are being carried out for Zombies and Vampires. "And when it's over Zombie is a zombie is a zombie." This is why I shouldn't be allowed to read horror books and then go visit a museum. -.- But it just shows that this movement inspired not only Black Americans, but everyone everywhere.

I don't know about anyone else but I was appalled that this kind of imagery was allowed in newspapers. Of course at the time, nobody cared for black rights or anybody's rights. Heck woman have only had rights in the last hundred years or so.

It was a really stunning expedition and there is far too much on the political side I could write here. On a graphic design side the pieces where great and the way they where also displayed around the room where very well thought out.

But it's kind of a kick in the teeth that many of these people who campaigned, not only for black rights, but for the general rights of human beings, never got too see Obama being elected...

What? You thought you where going to escape the comicy goodness. Pff.

Visual Studies...

2008-11-26T10:06:00.002Z

So I really enjoyed yesterdays lesson, mainly becasue I didn't have to cut and stick any more pieces of paper. -.- I was all glued out. DX It was a really enjoyable lesson and we all got a random object/word and of whatever was in the room and we had to record that in some way. I got "Pens" and at first I was like, what am i supposed to do with that...then I stopped thinking and it came to me. So I doodled:

It's supposed to be really random and bad...yes. But I got to draw buildings in the sky and Audrey 2 and my idea was to put the pens up against the doodle and snap pictures of it. That way I would have two forms of media that work together. Like so:

It works, sort of. It's very spur of the moment so It's not as if it's the greatest looking piece in the world, but it's not too bad for what, an hour? Esspeically as Hannah Stol-borrowed my camera to take her own pictures. XD

Nobodys told me I had the goofiest looking grin in the world. ¬ ¬ Thanks guys, thanks...

Ooo and for the "what is a line" brief, I have the cooliest Idea in the world, now If i can just motivate myself to get into it. I hope it won't be too much of a tangent. 0.o

Moduel sumission...

2008-11-24T07:18:00.000Z

These last few weeks have been crazy. I have never done so much work in such a short amount of time. Unless you count reading the whole of the Marvel civil war back to back until your eye's start leaking. I'm not sure the counts as work though.

I've had briefs that I've loved, briefs I've hated and ones I've genrally just fucked up. The work could be so much better, I feel. And last night I had a small tantrum in my living room and collaspsed on the floor...due to tripping over said unsorted folder. Mother made me take a walk to cool off and I got it with a rock by a ten year old. Yay for my shitty council esate.

I've made some really good friends on this course and I think i've come out of my shell more, unluckily for some people . I'm not the most conventional person in the world and I can't sit still for more than fifteen minutes, but I'm yet to walk out of a classroom and wander like I did so many times last year. This course must be doing something right if you're keeping my attention in tact.

As long as I pass this module, I'm not too fused. I'm not looking for the greatest grade, neither will I ever achieve one for a long long time. But If I pass this year and get onto the 2nd year, I know I'm doing something right.

Mail Shot!

2008-11-24T06:58:00.000Z

My mail shot was posted in the letter box on Saturday at 3pm...it clearly isn't getting to Leeds until tomorow (Tuesday). This is becasue it freaking snowed at my end of Yorkshire. -.-

I only realised the other night that I had not up loaded anything about my mail shot, so here we go. First I wanted it too tie in sort of with the guardian posters. They kind of did, but as i never fiannlised the colours with the last brief, I have to do it with this one.

I decided to go with somthing simple. I wanted to make a point that it was unbelivieable that it costs less to get a plane from Manchester to London than a train. So I used little signs with the prices conviently on the back.

I did have a little card telling people a quote and an opinion but in my crit they thought it would be a good idea to make it into a train ticket, so I gave it a go. I couldn't belive I found the same font that the actual train company use.
(No counterfitting train tickets Leigh -.-)

It's not as good looking as other peoples but it's good enough for my target audience. Meh, maybe I'll get to illustrate some characters on another brief. I'm sick of looking at trains. Oh wait, i have to catch one in 20 minutes. -.0

Visual Stuff...

2008-11-22T21:38:00.002Z

This stuff is still confusing to me but I'll give it ago anyway.

Synecdoches: I know what it means, it's just hard trying to explain it. It's like replacing words with something worded visual, for example; I bought myself some tunes or I bought myself a new set of wheels.

But finding something Visual for this is proving tricky. The closest I've found is a picture for a Micra car and on it a man is cupping his groin. It's supposed to convey that driving the micra is like a slice of life...
Testicles = Life
Lovely.

Metaphor: Why am I so stumped with this? The closet i can think of (thanks to never mind the buzzcoks) is 50 cent opening a a bread bag with a lot of money falling out of it. Bread = dough = money.

Metonym: A metonym is a symbolic image used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning. Like Jesus's cross.

And seeing the white house makes you think of the president...I think of a slurring ape but the guys got unill January to hall his crap outta there.

Adam's Font...yet again. XD

2008-11-22T18:11:00.000Z

Yeah I re did the whole thing. ;D The mock up sheet and A3 piece will be uploaded when I go home as I left my camera cable in my house and I'm at my boyfriends mothers, forgetful leigh is forgetful. Also, I'm not renting an eskimo suit to go back out into that weather.

So here's the A3 poster instead:

(The black looks shit becasue this illustrator is fucked
because for some odd reason all of the colours have reversed.
This is what I get for posting a CMYK format on the Internet ;D Learn from your mistakes...moron)

(The right colours, but now dammed thing is blurry. RAH DX)

It looks, if I do say so myself, a hell of a lot better than the original font and I hope Adam agree's and likes it too. It's called Dammit Adam because he likes Blink 182 and I happen to like "dammit." Why not go for Adam's Song instead? Excuse me, have you heared those lyrics. I don't want the poor guy to kill himself.

(here's the A1 sheet, the first try and my mother slippers)

Angels and Airwaves is crap. By the way...
And I shall have up a post about the mail shot tomorow....Poor blog, I negleted it.

Text to Mother: Don't buy any DS games from now untill January.
Mother rings me 2 seconds later: Why not?
Me: urm...
Mother: I was thinking of buying you proffesor layton for your birthday.
Me: shit I was thinking of buying it for you for labour (it's boring and pianfull, DS games are fun dammit!)
Mother: We can link them up!
Me: yes, just what we need when the baby is being poped out. "I got a high score!" "Your baby Ms. Richmond" "Oh yeahhh...cheers."

I love my mum.

"Look Papa....Fire!"

2008-11-19T09:43:00.000Z

Here's an a pretty awesome picture my old RP buddy Billious over at Deviantart did for me:

And human parents thought bed wetting was a problem.
Sasha and Leeland. =3
LOVE IT BILLY BOY! <3
I thought it was hillarious that the majority of comments this piece recived was: D'awww cute...
I'm pretty sure Lee's flamible hair doesn't find it adorable!

YAY My Dream Job!

2008-11-16T22:55:00.001Z

Pff, Literally in my dreams.

When I started this piece I never intended it to turn into a front page of a comic book. o.0 Originally, It was going to be landscape format with Leeland (my marvel OC) on one side and Murial of some sort on the wall. I might still do that, but my mind wanted it to go this way for now. XD

So I made it for the most recent Babel Fish Chapter "The Salmon of Doubt" , which i have not updated in forever . Hopefully the X-mas holidays will give me some time.

Everything was made in Photoshop CS2 including the logo's...I hate bar codes. lol at almost bowling shoes. They where supposed to be high tops.

Visual Studies...Thing

2008-11-12T15:06:00.001Z

It's bad news when you actaully forget what the hell the brief is called. There must be a bit of paper around here somewhere with the information on but...My house currently makes "How Clean Is Your House" look like Buckingham Palace...Before hand. *shudders*

Anyhow, have some images made out of paper. Blinding Bright Paper!

(It's chair and table you perverts.)

I wasn't so fond of this lesson, mainly becasue I'm not to good with the whole cutting and sticking thing and ahving fun with it. Sometimes it's good to feel like a child but I just could'nt get into it. However, I did like this weeks =D

I made a bunny, a teddy bear and a worm. Life is good.

(I have created a new Digimon. BEHOLD: Plushiemon!)

(I didn't take a picture of the Teddy so have a screaming worm instead.)

Paul Kepple and other such...stuff

2008-11-09T19:12:00.000Z

So we've been doing a brief of poster design for the guardian articles we researched during reading week. I decided to go with the train quote as it seemed rather relevant too me. Damned rail people sucking away my moneys. ¬ ¬

Anyhow. During the crit on Friday, Johnny, Vicky and pearl all agreed that as my posters had an almost "toilet door man feel" I should try and incorporate that into the poster with the train conductor. I'm going to elaborate on "Toilet Door Man" and ensure you (and myself) that they weren't just calling my work shit.

This is Toilet Door Man:

And his lovely wife in tow there as well. Now trying to think of an artist like this stumped me for a few hours until I remembered about a set of books I had kicking around my bedroom.

I present:

I have tonnes of them, but I remembered about how the artist used those kind of Mr. and Mrs Toilet figures in his work so I went stalk-searching for him. =D

Kepple's website and he has some really funny illustrations knocking about on there. Here are Just a few:

I've changed the colour scheme for my posters as someone colour blind put on my crit sheet that "perhaps change the black." I distinctly remember picking BROWN!

Also, if you type "Cuttle Fish Agrees" into google, my blog comes up first. Failed meme is failed.

I have also found that making Pixel Base Dolls at 3am after a long shift at work is very therapeutic. I am the barmaid that polishes knives and forks at midnight in a haunted pub kitchen. ¬ ¬

"Give me those big anime eye's!"

Frost Bite...Ouchie...

2008-10-29T17:19:00.000Z

So for the past few weeks I've been working on an off a non uni project for a Razor Kid Contest. (Yes I am that much of a Geek)...
I did it traditionally at first and I was working on it at uni when I wasn't doing anything else. (Like I should have been doing. XD)

My scanner, for once, decided it was going to work but then it killed the colours on the picture and made it look dull and falt. ¬ ¬ So I went against what I originally decided and Digitalised it in Photoshop CS2 using the pen tool. It is my friend. =3

So here is the "Tradional" piece:

(minus Crayola and Biro. XD...Which I shall upload when my brother goes to Cadets as I've stolen this from him for a few minutes.)

And here is then Digitalised:

Please excuse his dodgy looking hands and my laziness not to bother sahidng it.

Red Is...Iconic

2008-10-23T11:42:00.000+01:00

To me, the colour red is iconic and stands out more than any other colour. I have decided to use characters from story’s/comics which I think Iconic but not everyone else may do.

I started to look at characters that I knew like Hellboy and Little Red Riding hood who are well known for their “red” colour. I then progressed and started to look at other characters like Deadpool who wears a very well known red costume and the not so known Scarlet Spiders.

From there I started to think of other characters that I knew somehow had the colour red incorporated into either their name/persona or their overall costumes. For example, Edward Elric, from the Japanese authored comic “Full Metal Alchemist”, has a very distinguished Red Trench coat.

I have looked at existing images that I either have or have found on the Internet. Certain characters like Little Red Riding hood can be interpretated in many different ways but other like Deadpool have a very fixed appearance. (It all depends on which artists have drawn him as opposed to an artist drawing him in his or her own unique and characterised way.)

So I was inking and colouring my ten pieces of work today and I knew straight away that not many people would get where I was coming from. Many people don't know the characters but I thought: What the hell. I've never done a project just for myself and on my ND course my teacher hated anything to do with my own interests.

So here are the characters I drew and why I choose them.
1. Wiccan: (Billy Kaplan) A marvel character who wears a red shawl in homage to his mother the Scarlet Witch. (see the connection yet?)

2. Edward Elric: From the Japanese comic "The Full Metal Alchemist." In his younger days he wears a very Iconic and flamboyant Red Trench Coat. He's also searching for the philosophers stone which is sometimes called the blood stone. (See! See! There is a connection.)

3. Hellion: (Jullian Keller) An X-men character who used to wear a red training suit and the word hell also makes me think of the colour red. Where he got his original name was from the Massachusetts Hellions (a rival Mutant group whose costumes where also red)

4. Little Red Riding Hood: What...You need an explanation? Well all right, it's such an Iconic story that can be interpreted in countless ways.

5. DeadPool: Wade Wilson. A very Iconic Red Suit and when every I think of the word "deadpool" I think of blood. (maybe it's just me. o.0)

6. Hellboy: HB's code name is Red. How much more detail do you want me to go into here?

7. The Scarlet Spiders (Team Red): After having a delightful disagreement with Ben lets clear one thing up. This is NOT spiderman. Nor is it THE scarlet Spider or SpiderMan in his armoured costume that Tony Stark made for him. It is one of the MVP clones. 'NUFF SAID. (This geek gets pissy with the little details.)

8. Icarus: (Jason "Jay" Guthrie) CannonBalls little brother with red wings and matching hair. A character wasted in New X-men when he was pointless killed off with a good handful of other characters.

9. Carnage: (will explain this the best I can) Cletus Kasady shared a cell with Eddie Brock (venom) on Rikers Island prison. Symbites reproduce asexually and the offspring got into a cut on Kasady's hand and there for Carnage was born. When he killed someone he was known the write "Carnage Rules" in their blood on the walls. Precocious little scamp, ain't he? ;D

10. Marvel Comics: The logo from the late 80's early 90's and then first one I initially grew up with. Marvel Have always had the iconic red colour. (Unless they're doing a character promotion. *shrugs* Who really knows how these comic peoples minds work.)

(mine and Pauls work.)

I added a green background to some of the images after Jo pointed out that it would make the red stand out more. I only got half of them done with the time we had left but the full complete green against the roughness of the felt tips made it stand out more.

On a minor note, and it's a point I do feel I have to bring up. It was brought to my attention that in the crit one of the pieces of work was taken down in a way that no piece of work should be treated. I found this terribly rude and disrespectful of said person taking down the work of another student who had worked really hard all week to produce a great body of work.

Simply Put: TREAT OTHERS WORK WITH RESPECT! (and they won't have a small bitch about you later...kay? =D)

A great Logo, If I do say so myself.

2008-10-17T19:26:00.000+01:00

So I'm currently really into a great comic by Marcus Almand called: The Razor Kid. It's a about a young boy genius who lives in a world where the paranormal is recorded and measured in an almost police like way. Alex Tanaka learns the hard way about life when he witness something horrific and it results in his arms being ripped off by something you wouldn't like to see in a dark council estate alley. So armed with a set of cybernetic arms, Alex must tread carefully around the world of the supernatural as: The Razor Kid.

Look, it sounds and looks better than what I've put but I just wanted to show the logo designed by Kyle McHenry. (Freelance Artists, doesn't actually have a site. XD)

I love how the "razor" aspect has been incorporated and tech theme that runs with the protagonists personality. So in a way it relates to the personality font I was designing last week. I'm going to take a leaf out of McHenry's book as he nailed this logo so well.

(Art work by the lovely Javier Burgos Arroyo)

The bad thing about Razor Kid is that i favour the villains more than the "heroes". XD The "sons of nowhere" as they are called are a bunch of, putting it politely, fucked in the head teenagers. They where mutilated and warped by this insane lady doctor who makes my blood run call. You're getting something right Marcus!

And because Ian "FrostBite" is my favourite villain:

Oh Shi- Cuttle Theory!

2008-10-16T22:19:00.000+01:00

We had colour theory on Monday and I was a spazz and left my camera 50 odd miles away I shall do a small piece on it now....with Adams Photo's. Thankyou in advance Adam! =D

I really dislike the colour red but I was highly surprised how many red things there where kicking around my house. I think I stuck Captain Mar-Vel in there for the heck of it, but he fit rather nicely in my pocket. Anyway, I digress. I loved the fact that where was such an odd assortment of red things including my favourite; the red splatty heart!

(You spin me right round baby right round. Pete Burns you sexy beast!)

(Coca-Cola have in no way endorsed this image. If you try to sue I'll have to give you my pocket fluff. =3 )

(Because I like the colour blue...)

Alphabet Soup: Adam's Font

2008-10-16T17:51:00.000+01:00

So the two weeks for the fonts that we had to create for our partners. I have to admit that I am extremely disapointed in my own font that I made for Adam. Due to my poor time keeping skills, and this weeks a total head mess, I didn't quite get the affect I wanted. The layouts sheets I did for the letter forms looked a whole lot better than the ones I eventually showed at my crit.

The letters look so much better in colour and less "spooky" as to what some people thought of them. I actaully didn't see the creepy/Halloween feel to the letters until it was pointed out. I thought perhaps the "C" looked a little monsterfied, but nothing to the extreme of blood and slime. -.-

The personality traits that really stuck out for me from Adam was his quiet and artistic side which i tried to incorporate with his over appearance. He's a rather tall and bold looking guy, but not a mean or intimidating way. So using the guitar hero font (as Adam likes his guitars) I made them bold and some of them tall. The serifs where rounded off to give a softer feel and the counters where supposed to look like paint splatters.

However, having my crit and from the responses i received I've decided to try and go back to the original guitar hero font and perhaps dine the paint splats more so they look less like slime or dripping blood.

Adam's font he made was fantastic! I thought it really did incorporate quite a few traits of my personality. My clumsiness, my fidgeting and agitation and my almost split personality. But the bold characters behind the almost shaken ones represent that; don't worry I am all here...too an extent. =D

I also liked how the comic book aspect of my personality had also been so well incorporated into the font. All the alphabet together doens't show this very much but on the name badge he made for me, you can see it quite well.

(The only chance I will ever have an excuse to photograph my own chest)

I'm going to work more on Adam's font over this weekend and in my spare time until the hand in of the module. There is so much more I can do to it and now I have over peoples input I'm sure more ideas will come about.

The Print Rooms...Full Of Wallnutty Goodness

2008-10-08T17:52:00.000+01:00

Oh what a day. I'm not one for lino printing or any of the printing crap to be fairly honest with you. It's a nice affect and you can bulk up your folder really well with various hack jobs and I think that's why I dislike it so much. (It's like sticking a random doodle in your folder becasue you thing it will help your folder's weight. It will do, but overall it will look shit.)

However, today has been a rather enjoyable and I think my preconceptions of Print Making where flawed becasue we where rather restricted in what we could do on my ND. (In York...hint hint, don't go there.)

So I our DP1 group became rather messy, the guy was fairly amusing and we all got to know each other a little better.

(Ooo what a mess. It's worse than Barnsley.)

I think after almost five hours the majority of us where sick of seeing mono print and where bored out of out minds. However, doing this introduction has opened up a lot of doors and techniques we can use later on in the year and the following years to come.

(Pretty colours =D)

(...Pollock? Is that you?)

(A rather Gimpy looking H)

So overall there was some great pieces of work being produces and I might dabble in this area for my work again but I'm overall not too sure. It isn't the mess that bothers mess. (If you think that, you've clearly not seen my house.) But I'm not sure, perhaps when we do screen pretending next week my opinions may change.

And Lastly. Somthing to make you all think twice about "cute babys", I present to you: My Baby Brother due in December.

Seriously. DX

Hmmm Alphabet Soup (contains E Numbers ;D)

2008-10-04T15:40:00.000+01:00

We had a brief this week just gone, to develop 10 x A6 resolutions which communicate our interpretation of a word assigned to to us.I got compress -.-; and i would like to burn the randomize box for that because i suddenly hit an art block at the same time which was full of epic fail.We pretty much had free reign on what we could do so i picked the most conservative looking thing EVAR! According to my crit i had one idea and just ran with it. I'd like to make a point that i have a note book here full of so much more it hurts and you know it.

(HYSTERICAL)

(Our Charming Wall Of Shapes)

I felt so sorry for those who received shapes like hexagon and star, as I got circle and rectangle which to be honest with you...was piss easy. For this quick brief we had to make the alphabet out of these random shapes.

(Mine would be the shit ones in the middle)

Comics ARE Graphic Design!

2008-09-25T17:55:00.000+01:00

I tend to get into this debate allot when people ask me what I want to be when I'm 'older'. (they to tend to say 'grow up' but then I tend to ask them if they want said pint they have just paid for tipped over their heads?) I always say that I would love to, one day, be a Graphic Designer who works with image and illustration, mostly comic books. They tend to give me this dumbfounded look that comic book creation is not graphic design, to which I always think that they must be very ignorant or down right stupid.

These kind of debates where nearly always brought up by my ND Graphic Design tutor who would hate anything that was not to do with canals, birds or screen printing. All of which I'd rather see the back of. GO BIRD FLU! GO!

She would tell me that I was on the wrong course if I wanted to include an illustration in my work and would constantly call my comic books manga (japanese art form) to which I would get seriously annoyed.

Many of the illustrators that have Marvel Comics contracts have their background in Graphic Design. The art of making the comic book its self usually falls upon a team of five or more people. You have the writer, the script writer, the penicler, the inker, the coulourist, the type setter and so on and so forth. One person is not just handed a brief and told to come back in a month with a finished product. The effect would be simply terrible.

Alina Urosov is one my favourite female illustrators. She had this amazing abilty to simply make her work flow and her characters always look so flawless and liquid like, it's as if you are watching an animation instead.

See how the type setter hasn't had to awkwardly work around her work. They most likely only communicated over the phone or email but it always seems to work. Urosov has kept the typesetter in mind when she made her illustration.

And if that isn't a perfect exaple of graphic design and typography, hen I don't know what is.

Group Work So Far

2008-09-25T12:32:00.000+01:00

I'll be honest. I'm really terrible at making blogs. They usually compose rants about marvel writers I would like to personally hurt or about nonsense that only I understand and expect everybody else to know exactly what I'm talking about.

So as to not hurt your brain as reading my crap tends to do that, here is some work my 'A' group and I have worked on for our presentation.

At first we where going to go for the real propaganda feel, but then after much debating and a crit that made us feel like kicked puppy's, we went for a different approach.

I suddenly had this brain farted idea that each vowel could respond to an era and to think of a word that incorporates said era. For Example. People took allot of drugs (ecstasy) in the 90's and ecstasy begins with E. For some reason though I can't seem to make it sound any simpler.

The whole presentation is about how 'A' has always been in charge since it's creation and that if any other letter was to lead, everything would simpler go down the shitter. *cough* Thatcher *cough*.

(the lovely Ross documenting the work)

So there you have it.

Another Website to keep track of.

2008-09-16T11:42:00.000+01:00

Oh the Joy (!)

When I told my boyfriend i had to make a blog for uni he gave me such perplexed look and asked me why in a rather condescending tone. I told him my course was just cool like that and where was my cup of tea!

Now here is some some pretty art by one of my favourite artist's Skottie Young:

"Been thinking of starting up a super hero porn site...nothing too rude, i mean tasteful naked shots of SUE RICHARDS...when's she VISIBLE, 'cos otherwise, DUH..."