Peanuts movie inspiration/ideas/relation to project

I just saw the new Peanuts/Charlie Brown and Snoopy movie (and loved it), and both thematically and aesthetically it's given me a lot to think about. The way the film is animated combines grainy cartoon-esque line work with vibrant computer generated colours and surfaces (e.g hair, clothes) and I feel that is works as a beautiful modern update on the old erratic line work of the Charles Schulz comic strip, without being garish or desperate like a lot of modern neon technicolor nightmare reimaginings (*cough* Thunderbirds *cough*). 

The film also had a lot of themes that I found refreshing and interesting, as a lot of children's movies today assume that children are stupid and just like bright colours and loud characters that fall on their arses a lot (*cough* Adam Sandlers Pixels *cough*), but Peanuts deals with themes such as self confidence, selflessness, the importance of being honest and general values of childhood friendship and family relationships. For this reason Peanuts will be a big influence in the way I choose to select and design a character, as I think a picture book is the perfect opportunity to tell a story larger than just what is on the page and hopefully get across a similar message that means something, which is the main driving force behind why I'm doing illustration in the first place. 

Project Proposal

Picture Book title or theme:
Dealing with ideas of growing up and how people grow up, but places stay the same.

Idea: What is your picture book about?
I'm not sure about what my actual title will be as of yet, but the theme of my picture book will be centered around ideas of the permanence of nature and the impermanence of human life, and how we grow up and change in environments that remain largely the same throughout our lives.


Intent: What are you trying to achieve with the tone and atmosphere of the work?
I want to make a book that is quite playful in terms of colour and character but perhaps gets darker, tonally and visually as it goes on, to express the message of impermanence that I'm investigating in this project.

Structure: How might this book function in terms of format, layout and sequence?
I definitely want to make a concertina book as it's a process I am unfamiliar with and want to learn, and I think a consistent visual journey of a landscape altering over time would be best expressed as a single long image with different aspects on each page to signify the passage of time, such as character changes, colour alterations etc.

These ideas are based on my research into:
My ideas are influenced by my own experiences growing up around Temple Newsam woods and having a constant connection to nature and woodland areas due to where I live, and how that relationship has altered and changed over the years as I have developed. I went to Temple Newsam for my field trip research and it was interesting contrasting how I remember a certain place contrasted with how it looks to me now. I also think the fact that it's winter is influential, as a lot of my memories are centered around summer, so it's a different experience seeing how winter affects the same places.

In order to develop these ideas, my research over Christmas will be:
Developing more detailed observational drawings to get a better idea of the tone I want my book to have, and going back on another trip to get more reference photos. I also want to start experimenting with character designs to include in some roughs.

What have you discovered about research over the last two weeks?
I have learnt that research can be a much more visually engaging and interactive tool than I thought, as my definition of research before this project probably would have been based around reading books and finding webpages related to whatever I was investigating. But the research I have conducted for this project has been much more personal as I have been researching an element of my own life rather than an unfamiliar subject. I also enjoyed being able to go out into the real world and observe real objects and areas rather than relying on secondary sources like articles or photos. I think that secondary research like that is good for finding facts, but the more real world research I've started to do is much better for gauging tones and feelings to convey in my work.

Which approaches to research did you struggle with? and why?
At first I would say that photography isn't mt strong suit as I prefer to do observational drawings, but this project has helped show me the value of good reference photos and how they can capture things that you may not have time to capture when drawing.

Which approaches to the research did you find beneficial? and why?
I feel that in the end my photographs are the best part of my research as they're the most extensive aspect, and I can use them to improve my drawings.

What could you have done differently during your research period?
I think that because the focus of my book is primarily dealing with personal themes like the growing up and development of me and some of my friends, I didn't really consider interviewing others on their personal views or experiences concerning Temple Newsam. This could have added some extra depth and outside viewpoints to my research, so I hope to utilise that method in the future.

What kind of media, skills, tools and processes are you going to explore?
I want to use this project as an opportunity to develop my ability illustrating backgrounds and creating tone through colour and composition rather than relying so heavily on character as I have in some other briefs. To do this I'll have to explore more wet media that I'm unfamiliar with such as gouache and paints.I'd also like to try screen printing again and try to apply that effect to some of my designs.

Temple Newsam Field Trip Drawings

I am happy with the drawings I completed while on my field trip as I tried to sit down and draw every time I came to a new or interesting area on my walk. I took a lot more photos as I wanted to get around temple Newsam while it was still light and get enough material to make some roughs out of, but I'll go again with just my sketchbook go focus more on drawing my environment. I think these drawings are a good starting point for the work I want to make in the final book, as I think they illustrate the sequence of my walk as I did stop and draw them every so often while I was going. Im quite sure I'll be using a concertina format for my book so this idea of a journey through the woods lends itself to that, as the background doesn't have to be broken up and can stretch across multiple pages. These drawings are quite sketchy and unrefined because I was fighting against the weather to draw them, so as the project goes on I'll be refining them using my reference photographs. 

Bull field trip photograph thoughts

I felt that this photo deserved a post of its own on my blog because the context of it defines everything I aimed to capture in this stage of research. The bull in this photo probably would've crushed some part of my flimsy body if I hadn't been familiar with the field I found it in. Turns out Bulls aren't mad on being unwilling subjects in illustration students work so it decided to charge me after I took this. I learned Bulls aren't so good at going uphill or jumping small rivers so thanks to said hill and river I'm alive. The fact that I was chased down by an angry bovine with enough power in its monstrous head alone to probably kill me is (weirdly) exactly the kind of thing that encapsulates what I have always felt about Temple Newsam. Being a huge woodland area on the outskirts of a massive urban city centre it has always seemed like a liminal place to me, a place between places that doesn't properly adhere to the rules of the outside world. A sense of strange contained almost-freedom defines my feelings for it, as you can go get lost in the beautiful woods for hours, but ultimately if you go straight in one direction for long enough you're probably never far from a kfc or a poundland. 

For these reasons I've always seen it as a source of weird creativity, and being chased by angry cattle is one of the strange things and memories i aim to adapt into humour for my book.

Temple Newsam Field Trip Photos

I feel these photos are a good base upon which to develop further ideas. On my field trip I captured what I saw with both drawings and photographs to get different interpretations of my surroundings. I think to really capture what I want my book to be saying I'll have to combine the aesthetics of my drawing with photographs taken of specific locations I want to deal with. I took a lot more photos that reinforce my ideas but I feel these are the ones that best reflect what I feel is working about my research so far. 

Shape Outfit Task

I struggled with this task as I feel that 3D work isn't really a strong point for me, so I aren't entirely happy with my outcomes as a whole. I feel that I need to further investigate shape based work as I'm not really that confident working this way.

I am happy with the flight suit outfit because I feel that one is more easily recognisable purely from shape, and I tried not to focus too much on making the whole thing symmetrical or measured. I think this asymmetrical aesthetic works here as this task was aimed to work with and around shapes to warp and fit them into images we chose, without just drawing them. 

Pre field trip thoughts

For the setting of my book the most immediately suitable setting that came to mind was the sprawling expanse of Temple Newsam on the outskirts of Leeds, that I spent basically all of my developing years wandering aimlessly. I have always had an affinity with the place as I grew up just outside the forest that leads up to the park itself. 

The main reason I wanted to explore this place from an illustrative point of view is because of all the history there. Not only history in a historical sense (I think that makes sense, I mean in the sense of it being real old and home to some historical figures and events) but in a personal sense, and not only for me but for tens of other people who all define my memories of it. I want my book to tell the story of what I remember of this place and what others remember, because the concept of assorted memories that are all separate to one another but anchored to the same place fascinates me.

I also find the idea of unreliable narration interesting, as I am certain I don't remember each time I went out into the woods, and I am even more certain that some things that happened there have only been exaggerated in my mind since then. I also want to look at the narrative from various developmental stages, as my perception of the place changed as I grew up, I once thought of it as an endless forest of secrets and hidden routes to nowhere, but returning more recently I know where the forest ends and becomes a motorway, I know where the land stops and becomes private with electric fences and anti climbing paint, I know where that one hellish spider infested tunnel leads to and various other restrictions that no child notices or cares about when exploring. 

In a sense of narrative, a big part of my work in this book will be associated with ideas of being lost and being found in several different ways, as I see these ideas (for me anyway) as two of the defining states of growing up; lost/found, innocence/experience. As Temple Newsam has always just been a staple of my life as much as school or the fridge, I have never truly considered it independently from an art-focused standpoint, so I'm excited to go and get lost again in familiarity with a fresh set of eyes. 

One Week Book

I found this brief actually quite challenging and didn't like it very much, but I think the skills of really fast idea formation and the use of screen printing have been useful now the brief is done. 

Although I need a lot of practice I enjoyed screen printing, I love the solid blocky effect you can achieve with it, and I find the process is interesting and satisfying. I want to use screen printing again in future briefs, but the fast paced nature of this one week has taught me if I want to do that I have to be fast and focused in order to get it sorted out properly. Some of my prints have pages that are out of alignment, and while the jagged effect works on some prints I mostly don't like how it looks. This is my fault as I lined some of my negatives up a bit wrong when preparing for screen printing, but at least I know to take more care when drawing up negatives in the future to avoid this. 

I was ill on the first day of this brief but our groups book is focused on Leeds Market and a simplistic narrative of a boy buying a hot dog mainly because we thought the condiment dispensers looked funny as if they were weird mustard udders, and we wanted to play with that. Although I didn't really enjoy this brief overall as I feel I didn't have time to develop a more solid idea, I did enjoy working in a group as everyone's work is unique and expresses a different more raw idea, but all of it compliments each other and has the same source. This is that dynamic that I think makes the book work, as it clearly has many influences visually but is all a representation of the same idea in different people's heads. 

Overall I'd say that I appreciated the lesson of time management this brief taught me, and the need for proper preparation when screen printing, but I think my work was underdeveloped as I was focusing more on the final outcome rather than spending time exploring different routes to take. 

Shape Ideas

I'm sort of stuck on this task as I'm not used to/a fan of working with cut paper and collaging shape. These roughs are justsome initial ideas I had concerning thinking of an outfit for a character to wear, and how best to visualise that outfit and the nature of the character while only using block shapes. I don't feel that confident with more three dimensional tasks like this so i aren't sure how this task will go, but I hope I can use it to gain more confidence in this way of working.

End of Module Self Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL403 Visual Skills	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Isaac Smith

1.  Whichpractical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?
The main skill I think I have developed in this module would be my understanding and use of wet media, as it was something I previously had not really considered to include in my work. I’ve developed my use of gouache and ink in my work and I think that it works well for my work as its a relatively quick and vibrant form of creating colour, and thereby has allowed me to include colour in my work, which before this module I did only sparingly. I hope to develop these skills further in the future to better incorporate colour into my responses.
2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this moduleand how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?
This module has taught me the importance of having an interesting idea that provokes a response before even beginning to draw anything in response, because an illustration isn’t an illustration if it doesn’t have a message to send, a lesson to teach or a story to tell. Before this module I feel some of my work to be devoid of this element as I might have been more focused on design and aesthetics, but now I see the value of having a good idea before embarking on any response at all.
3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these?
I think that my strengths in this module lie with my idea generation as I have tried to be quite exhaustive when coming up with ideas for responses, as the message behind the illustration is what I find the most interesting part about the work. I’m also proud of my blog as I feel that I have successfully documented my learning experience throughout this module and the changes in how I work and how I view other people’s work now.
4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?
I hope to develop my uses of different media, as I have begun using wet media in my work to explore different methods of image making, but I haven’t used any digital methods really very much, so Photoshop and Illustrator are two formats I will be familiarising myself with in future briefs. I also think I should further my sketchbook use as I sometimes begin working out of it straightaway, when I should use it more to reflect on and refine my work.
5. In what way has this module introduced you to the Ba (Hons) Illustration programme? This module has taught me the meaning of illustration in a practical sense; as in responding to set briefs and concepts to create work with an appropriate message behind it. It has also allowed me to grasp the idea of blogging to constantly self evaluate and develop, and I think that I have used my blog quite effectively to tell myself what has and hasn’t been working throughout this module.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance		x
Punctuality		x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

·         A printed copy of this evaluation should be submitted with your work.

·         A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work for this module and will provide the starting point for the assessment process.

·         You should also post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes for the Module Leader

Signature

Date: 15/11/2015

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover - final cover evaluation

I'm happy with my final cover as I think it works well to capture the exciting and dynamic themes I was trying to get across in my original roughs. I was considering using digital media for this but I decided against it because I wanted to explore more wet media after my use of gouache in the last brief, so I chose to ink the black areas with a fine brush. It was hard being meticulous with the brush around the electrical tendrils and the lettering as I'm not that used to working in confined spaces with a paintbrush but I think I did quite well to accentuate the white areas without going over any edges or inking the wrong area. I think the ink gets a bit splotchy in some areas which is something I can improve on in the future. 

I used a 0.4 electric blue fineliner for the electricity effect. I was considering gouache for the flat opaque effect but I couldn't work in that tiny a space with wet media without compromising the ink I'd already applied or messing up the designs I'd already drawn. I think I made the right choice as I've applied it sparingly on only the edges of the effect and it makes the white really stand out against the black in a stark contrast. 

I used smaller matrixes to draw my text, using the ones in my sketchbook as references, and I measured out a symmetrical grid on the cover for the allocation of each letter before I drew the actual design. I think this works to the benefit of the cover as the type is easy to read and fits well on the page alongside the drawing. To improve I would have further explored ways to fit on the subtitle and author name at the bottom of the cover, as I don't think they look quite as clean as the top, being as they're a lot smaller. 

Overall I'm happy with my cover as its allowed me to explore something that's more graphic design based rather than the character work I'm used to doing and have imbued in the other briefs. I'm glad that we got this brief as its given me another opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and work with a lot of factors that I've never really considered before (fine brushes, typography matrixes, symmetrical measurements etc) to make a piece that's very different from anything I would have assumed I could make a couple of weeks ago, but also I think, pretty effective. 

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover - development of type

I decided to commit to making the type as professional as I could by hand by ensuring that all the letters would be the same size and would fit into a series effectively by using type matrix grids. This is something I wouldn't have even considered if it hadn't been suggested during group feedback, so that exercise has been massively helpful in my development of ideas for this brief. I've tried to create a robotic kind of text with hard edges to allude to the science based theme of this book. Instead of making a whole alphabet I just designed the letters I'm going to need for the title itself, and I think that it's been really helpful in allowing me to explore my understanding of type and its importance within a design like this. I hope to be able to further explore this use of matrixes and custom alphabets in future briefs. 

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover - further development

Choosing to go forward with this electricity based 'zap' design, I have chosen to add a more complex representation of the laser blast and the surrounding electricity to get my point across about the exciting and dangerous nature of the word itself. I have also tried to begin estimating how I will incorporate the type into this piece, as I am probably going to use a grid to ensure that all the letters are the same dimensions and fit symmetrically with the drawing itself. I'm going to revise the actual thing shooting the laser as the hand I've drawn here looks weird from this angle.

I've also been watching clips from the Transformers Movie from 1986, as that features classic uses of lasers and laser guns in a variety of designs and differing effects. I explored a couple of different blast designs that I noticed in the film, but I think for the purposes of my cover that the electrical styled one works the best. 

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover - Roughs

I focused on arrangement of type and trying to create a sense of dynamic movement with this rough, but I think it might be too crowded for a book cover, which should be easy to read and interpret. It was my first idea so development from this point has been beneficial in the design of the rest of my roughs. I also feel that I should focus more on the specific imagery of the Ray gun for my cover as this rough is more dedicated to the type than the image. 

For this rough I again wanted to experiment with a flexible composition of type, but with less crowded arrangement and a more symmetrical alignment of each word. Every word in the title of my book has three letters, and from a design standpoint this is interesting to me as I'd like to use this brief as an opportunity to expand my understanding and use of typography in my work. 

This is one of my more successful roughs as I feel that it captures the essence of the book without being too crowded or overly complex. I took actual Ray guns and laser guns etc from old action figures that I have and studied their individual designs for this rough. I'm happy with how this came out as I feel all the guns I chose to include are recognisable and unique. I'm also happy with the composition as I tried to arrange the drawings in a way that would fill the page but without having to compromise the size or shape of the drawings to do so. I drew these out a couple of times to play with how each one would be presented on the page and how it would fit on with other corresponding designs. 

This idea was based on a thought I had when I was looking through the book and found a section to do with equations and studies of light by the author. I don't understand any of the science behind it, but when I saw the shape of the equation it made me think of a cartoon cannon, with the way it expands into a square shape at the far right and almost has a trigger shape in the upside down 'y' symbol (Im sure that symbol has a name but I really do not comprehend maths). I drew around the equation the shape I basically saw when I noticed it, with extra details added to properly represent it as a laser gun. I think this is a solid idea as it shows the viewer the dual nature of this book and how it literally explains the 'inner workings' of Ray guns. I don't think the type works on this particular design though and I'm not sure where else I could take this idea, so I don't think I'll be moving forward with this rough. 

This is the rough I'm probably going to develop for my final idea. I was deciding between this and my third rough but the group feedback we received on Monday helped me decide more in favour of this one. I've used the triple letter theme of each word in this design to make type that will hopefully be identical and symmetrical. I chose to have the 'zap' being zapped on the cover because it's an onomatopoeic word and it suggests excitement and danger, and it's the part of the title that caught my attention in the first place on the original cover. To develop this rough I'd alter the design of whatever contraption is firing the laser, and also alter the size and positioning of the text to make room for the authors name and subtitle on the front cover. 

Do Judge a Book by Its Cover - initial ideas

The book I've chosen is a study of ray guns and lasers in real life science and science fiction media, and while most of it is interesting, it is also full of heavy equations to do with things like light refraction that I will never understand. I've focused on imagery of science fiction for my initial ideas as that's the side of this book that interests me. I think that this is a good starting point for my roughs and I have a few ideas I'd like to move forward with, especially the thought of having a cover with ray guns from popular culture arranged around the title in a graphic design style. Id also like to further develop the idea of incorporating the mix of an equation and a laser gun into the design as it would represent the books grounding in both science and fiction. 

Line/Tone/Mark/Pattern

Sticking with the theme of classic Horror movie icons for this task I chose the figure of Robby the Robot from The Forbidden Planet for my tonal drawings. I thought the best way to get an understanding of how the character looks and his proportions and features was to first do a tonal study of him in pencil withvarying lights and darks.

I used this image as a reference for the rest of my drawings as I wanted to create a range of different tonal values on each drawing without just using images from the film as direct reference. I think this method has allowed me to explore and experiment within tone and not limit myself purely to pencil shaded line drawings. I used ink, pens, paint and sow pencils dipped in black ink to play with how different materials express light and dark in different ways. Although the pencil and pen drawings are more accurate to the look of the character, I think my ink drawings are stronger as they are a little more loose and I was focusing more on what the individual parts and mechanics would look like in certain lighting and setting rather than creating a super realistic representation of the character, as that's not really as interesting. 

I also tried expressing the character using no definitive like work and just using areas and patches of varied tone, and I think these work quite well as more expressive representational drawings, which again I find now to be more compelling than a straightforward shaded line drawing.