Introduction to Illustration Reflections and SWOT Analysis

Before starting this blog, I completed my first project titled 'Introduction to Illustration'. The project was split into two parts with the first to produce a risograph outcome, and the second a digital one. Being used to getting a brief from previous projects I'd completed in my Level 3 Art and Design course, I was excited to get started. The brief was fairly vague and unrestricted, taking the form of a personality-type project. It was to produce an illustration compiling 6 topics relating to the student; Spirit animal, Anatomy, Talisman/ Lucky charm to name a few categories. From here a began mood boarding and mind mapped possible ideas I wanted to develop. I looked at many artists including Dabs&Myla, an artistic duo from Australia who create beautiful vibrant murals and commercial work for shop windows and branding. I learnt how illustration can be adapted to appeal to a wider audience which impacted my stories narrative to appeal to all. Since my intended audience is children I wanted to alter the brief slightly and create a children's book-style illustration with an accompanying description. This way, I was creating something beneficial for my progression and that I could possibly sell on an Esty store, or develop further into an illustrated story. 

After experimenting with layouts, settings and colour schemes I decided on quite a surrealist woodland environment.  Being interested in children’s book illustration, my artwork always takes an imaginative approach- in this case, there were huge colourful socks dangling from the trees; a giant’s footprint and the story of Terrence the tapir settling into his favourite spot gazing up at the moon. I love creating illustrations with a narrative, something for the audience to explore and feel immersed in the character's world, as a child I remember that was what always made a memorable story. Below is the completed Risoprint. I loved the process of layering different densities of each colour to create a unique colour from the 2 master pages. For this print, I used fluorescent pink and blue as they are the most iconic riso colours to start with. Their contrast create depth and layers well making purple shades- this can be seen mostly in the gradient sky. I really love how this turned out and enjoyed how limitless the colour schemes and combinations can be, with each print being slightly different.  The risograph process is one I'd wanted to try for ages as a lot of artists I like had been experimenting with it so I was excited to try it for myself and look forward to utilising it in future projects.

The second part of the project was to produce a dinner setting based on an established character from a list. We weren't allowed to include the actual character in the illustration, instead portray their personality through the environment and impact left on it. The list was quite extensive, with greek gods and fictional character such as Sherlock Holmes, Posidon, Snow White, etc. After looking into the history of each character I shortlisted them to King Arthur, The Tin Man and Goldilocks. I've always been intrigued by Arthurian legend so thought it would be interesting to look into the context and I already had some knowledge from reading and watching the TV series 'Merlin'. The Tin Man was another that stood out to me, I thought it would be an interesting challenge as his history is quite vague so his character could be altered- also a challenge as he doesn't actually eat anything, he just drinks oil!

With a good understanding of the three, I decided on Goldilocks as she would be more challenging with her many depictions to look at, I felt there was more scope. The original 'Three Bears' story was published in 1837 by Robert Southey. In Southey's version, Goldilocks is presented as a rude and dirty old woman which is altered in modern versions with a more innocent young girl to appeal to children. I decided to take influence from Southey's poem taking the woodland location, 1800's Georgian context and cottage interior. I wanted the piece to be time appropriate therefore I researched the time period and characteristics of the 1830's where houses were spacious and comfortable in contrast to previous years. Since the homeowners were bears and lived in the forest, I kept elements of a respectable home and altered in to suit materials they would have, wood, for example, would be used to make the furniture and whittled spoons. Southey describes the bears as 'respectable' so used this to reflect the contrast in behaviour and actions of Goldilocks. The bears home has been left in a mess with a smashed window and open door shown in my illustration to see how she got in. Since I couldn't include Goldilocks and didn't want all the focus to be on the bears, I extensively used the rule of literary three's in the bears living room with the photo frames, porridge bowls, spoon, cups and chairs, linking to the narrative surrounding the three bears. The furniture has small hints to the homeowners with bear curtain rails and size appropriate bear chairs. I produced the illustration in ink pens then decided to push myself to create an etching digitally. To do this I scanned in the pen drawing and set it up in a Photoshop document that could be sent to a laser cutter to be etched out of a 5mm vinyl board. I was worried that this wouldn't. turn out as organically as a traditional, hand-carved etching however the plate was perfect and I love the deeper contrast in the black etching to the pen drawing.

Goldilocks ink illustration

I think these two pieces showcase different skills and I enjoyed learning the new processes, digital and traditional, in the short time frame I've been on the course. Within this project, I've learnt the importance of lighting to add depth to a piece and paid more attention to the overall composition which I'll continue to develop over time. These skills are valuable moving forward so I look forward to the next projects and experimenting more with Risoprint.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

• Good use of media testing; ink, watercolour, linoprint and digital etching for the final piece. This was a new process combining the traditional methods of etching with digital laser-cutting machinery. 
• Strong initial research of 3 fictional characters, King Arthur, the Tin Man and Goldilocks- beneficial to explore different avenues before deciding on Goldilocks. 
• Made sure to look into the context of the story and take influence from the original story so the storyline was accurate and descriptions could be used as the foundations for my illustrations. 

Weakness:

• I feel this project was completed to the best of my ability and I managed time effectively for the two sections.

Opportunities:

• Since using the Risoprinter and learning more about how to layer colours to create alternate shades, I'm looking forward to utilising this in further projects and any personal work. 
• With the prints I created, I hope to set up an online Etsy shop to sell them and build more of an online presence which will benefit me through my degree and career afterwards. 
• In addition to Riso, I have a better understanding of digital etching so could utilise this to create etchings in a limited timeframe.