IF: Lesson

I chose to create a digital painting on photoshop and illustrator of a first music lesson.

This is my first development images of the picture.

IF: Cultivate

Originally i had planned to create an image with tools used to cultivate. However after trying this idea i didn't think it worked well enough to enter it as this weeks illustration Friday. I then looked into how we 'cultivate' relationships. So i decided to combine practicing my life drawing skills. I also came across a song by Passion Pit which had the lyrics 'Let our love grow tall.' I felt this fit the definition of cultivate so i also included this into my final piece. I created the final piece by first sketching the couple out, i then used a 0.8 graphics pen to begin shading the hair as well as creating an outline for the rest of the image. I cut up newspapers to create the lyrics 'Let our love grow tall.' which i then stitched to my page. The image looked a little bland in just graphics pen so i decided to add paint. This shows step by step stages of the image before the final image i had entered.

IF: Stir

For this weeks' topic i decided i wanted to do stir in the sense of commotion amongst people. I decided to do a panda for this weeks illustration which when first looking at this image this may not be clearly obvious how it reacts to stir. Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago. I created this by sketching out a panda before putting it into photoshop and gimp to colour digitally as well as using illustrator to create a smoother outline for the panda and the spoon.

Screenshots of my progress:

Finished image:
After the group critique i have been told to experiment with the tonal values.

Illustration Friday: Warning

Wanting to continue experimenting with sewing i decided to try to create a sewn image of a lighthouse. I had this as the lighthouse sends out a warning light to ships/boats to guide them into the harbour and to stop them hitting rocks or from hitting unsuspected shallow tides.

the second photo is to show what stitching i had actually used and the use of different threads.

After having my work looked at in a group critique i now know what what improvements i can possibly make to my work. These being to create more darkness in my stitching as with my use of light my lighthouse didn't show up to well at the bottom. Also when using my lighting i could have also put paper behind to direct my light in line with the actual warning light i had stitched instead of creating a large piece of lighting at the top.

Illustration Friday: Layers

For this illustration friday i have created a stitched cupcake, i created two versions of this but have only included my successful as i feel my other cupcake design wasn't thought through that well.

I created this cupcake in three layers, the case and then ending at the cherry on top. I created this using a sewing machine and then used a lightbox to create light through the image as well as using my blue studio lights to experiment with more lighting.

I have included all my different experiments in this post.

Experiment one- less light.

2nd Experiment with darker lighting-

Experiment three- Continue to use the lightbox and use of blue studio lights

Last Experiment-

After having my work critiqued i was told to create more colour with my stitching by possibly stitching coloured paper into my work.

Illustration Friday: Surrender

For this topic i wanted to create an image that was personal to me. After thinking of numerous ways that i could portray surrender, i looked at the meaning of surrender which means giving up. I came up with the idea of 'giving up' on life after suffering with an illness. In the form of one of my dogs who died due to cardiomyopathy. The image was sketched onto brown paper and then i used pencil colours to finish the image which took just under six hours in total. I also created another image which i created with paints but i felt was a lot less succesful therefore i put forward this image to be my Illustration Friday.
After a group critique i was told that i need to draw more of the dog into the image (although what i'd drawn as my picture was all that was available that in the photograph i had used.) It was also made clear that without reading my blog to see the story behind why i chose to draw this for Surrender it would be unclear as to why i had chosen to draw my dog.

Illustration Friday: Dusty

After thinking of numerous ideas i could use to relate to the word 'Dusty' I decided to go with the idea of drawing Dusty Springfield, i did this as i feel drawing people isn't my strongest point and in this task i wanted to try and improve that. I first roughly sketched this picture of Dusty Springfield in pencil and then decided to complete the drawing in coloured pencils.

When looking at this work i feel i need to work on blending my colours more, i need work on the composition of facial features and i also need to work on how i shade areas.

After having my work viewed in a group critique i have learnt that i need to work on the composition of facial features.