APP Words: Author's Signature

[8]

One of the things I mentioned on my previous post was that I needed to add a little signature of the author's name, so I spent a while just sketching out different signature styles before finally deciding that I'll place this on the bottom of the ampersand. I had this idea in mind for a while but actually seeing it confirmed this placement choice.

APP Words: Further Development

With my rough composition now done I can focus on sketching what would be the final design. This means that once I have done this sketch I could then annotate areas of improvement before moving on to drawing everything up on either Illustrator or Photoshop, or by my Inkling.

I'm still undecided on whether or not to just draw the "Never give in and never give up" design on it's own with the Twinings label hanging what would be the edge of the travel mug. Simplicity is always best, but I'm not too sure if it'll be eye-catching enough for my target market. To try and help me out I shall draw this design up on Illustrator/Photoshop/via Inkling anyway with the tea leaves pattern in the background, and place it alongside my other design. For now it's a bit too early to decide on anything just yet.

APP Words: Banner Idea Development

[8]

After picking some chosen designs I decided to take my banner idea a step further to try out some different styles for the banner and for the type. This is because I had gathered some feedback from my classmates and from my sister - who would fall in my target market - and they said they really liked my calligraphic writing, so I wanted to incorporate that into my banner design. 

The first thing I did was try out drawing the banner differently, and I took inspiration from both infographic posters and chalk lettering banners for this. As you can see, I spent a lot of time thinking whether or not to try a straight banner rather than a swirling one as it'll be easier to draw up on the computer. 

I then focused on placing the type within the banners and have the ampersand in the middle to connect the two sentences together. This was when I realised that maybe the straight box wasn't good for this layout because the ampersand was very smooth and curvy, so the straight box heavily contrasted. I also wanted the banner to reflect the fluidity of tea, and so went with the curvy one in the end. [8]

APP Words: Letterpress Posters

[3] [5] [7]

I'm getting a bit worried that I haven't been able to experiment with different styles as I wanted to, and I realised that it's because I'm starting to hit a brick wall in terms of inspiration. To help "cure" this I went onto as many websites I could and started to collect lots of images of letterpress posters. This is because during my research on the Industrial Revolution in my previous year I pointed out that people were very interested in an assortment of decorative type, most notably "3D" type, Egyptian and Fat Faces. 

My collection is all on my pinterest board, Typography, but I've included some images below on the ones that I find most inspirational.

Inspirational Posters

http://letterology.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/verso-of-carte-de-visite.html

I'm hoping to feature a quote in some sort of banner, and I've mentioned in a post that I would like to try out different banners styles. This poster is a perfect example of type on a banner so I'm giving it a special mention so that I could always refer back to it if I'm stuck.

However I find that each sentence is broken up and I find myself pausing after reading each banner. If it had just been one banner with different twists and turns then the writing would've flowed a lot better. I shall take note of this when I develop my design!
The breaks created could, on the other hand, make it easier for the viewer to read the advertisement. If this poster was indeed on display during the Industrial Revolution most of the public were unable to read very well and so this makes it more readable for them.

APP Words: Developing Sketches - Chosen Ideas

I'm at that point where I could start highlighting aspects that I find could be developed further and incorporated into the final design, so I went through the whole of my sketch pad and put little gold stars next to each sketch that I liked. 

I would like this idea to be the centrepiece of my design, and I could imagine it being right at the "front" of the travel mug. I want to experiment with more type styles though as I feel I haven't really explored into different typefaces and how they are usually displayed on banners. 

APP Words: Developing Sketches 2

I really liked the look of the banner, and after having a look at some of the motivational quotes I had collected previously I just roughly sketched out the words and ampersand that I wanted to draw on it. I left this for a while and continued to experiment with different hand-lettering styles, playing around with a set of micron pens I had purchased.

APP Words: Developing Sketches

To make things easier and keep to the flow of this blog I shall be doing separate posts every time I do my sketches so that I can see my progress and how that relates to my research. It'll also help me to pin point the areas I need to brush up on so I could get it done as quickly as possible to ensure I have more time to develop my final sketch. [8]

I spent the whole day yesterday at uni drawing lots of doodles and sketches and flicking through my typography album on Pinterest for inspiration, and I annotated my sketches where I was inspired by someone's work. This was quite a relaxing way of sketching for me because I didn't have to go off and analyse an inspirational piece and then sketch, but just sketch, write down the source of inspiration so I can go back to it after I was done. This meant that I could just focus solely on my ideas and get me 'in the mood' for doodling.

I've taken some of my previous doodles to develop here, especially those that I think I might carry across to my final sketch although I'm not too certain just yet what I'll include.

Conclusion:

I really like this method of sketching ideas because I was able to continuously generate them without getting bogged down by the thought of not analysing inspirational works just yet, because I could always do that at a later stage as I had written their names in the annotations. 

I think I might continue to do this in later sketches and then create a big post at the end of all of the images I drew references from, making note of them in my sketchpad or create a mood board on Pinterest. As you can tell in my sketches above I've made some progress in hand-lettering, especially when it comes to how each letter sits and is arranged. I've definitely leaned more on sans-serif styles and 'chunky' writing. 

My next step is to look back at my motivational quotes to help me come up with some quotes of my own (if I do choose to go with my own quote). If not I shall just pick a handful of the most inspirational ones that fit within my design.  

[n] Learning Outcome

APP Words: Doodles

I watched a video interview on Steve Simpson and this really inspired me to go back to my childhood hobby; doodling. I just loved drawing doodles in the margins of my school book, and the way that Simpson has assembled his illustrations made it appear like he was bunching up a group of doodles. He creates such perfect compositions, and his cartoon characters just shows that illustration doesn't mean that everything has to be extremely perfect in terms of anatomy, but cartoons are acceptable as well! This was really inspiring for me because I am a bit of a perfectionist and got bogged down by the thought of having to draw 'perfect' characters... Now I can simply draw cute and funny little cartoons. 

This is the video in question:

It's just so inspiring! Especially when they show his little sketches, which he also does in his portfolio so that we could see how he managed to put the illustration together. 

After watching this video I decided to do some quick doodles in my sketchpad of almost anything related to this project. I tried out using different coloured pencils but it seems that they didn't really show up on the page as well as I thought, hence why it's difficult to see them in these photos. 

APP Home (AOI): Drawing the Characters

Now that I’m working on sketching the characters I shall look up on Google for some reference images and to also find out some little details about them so that I could jot it down in my sketchpad and use as inspiration.
Most of the inspiration for my characters was taken from the bullet-points I had constructed when reading on London folklore. It was easier for me to jot down these notes at that time because I find that I often produce images in my head when reading.

Mood Board

Image sources: http://downloadwallpaperhd.net/cat-wallpaper-hd/; http://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/05858-ginger-cat-sitting-looking-round; http://www.alertstillness.com/2013/05/11/boy-sits-overlooking-the-sea/; http://dgsmith.org/tag/matthew-shepard/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/50305674@N08/galleries/72157623942802815; http://www.northamptonshirewildlife.co.uk/npton/sys2.htm; https://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/goldeneagle/index.aspx; http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Golden_Eagle/id; http://birdart.lanius.ro/flying-raptors-paintings/368; http://eagleman6788.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/the-mystery-of-collective-intelligence-stunning-2/; http://sorrowolf777.skyrock.com/1378867860-Jack-Talon-a-Ressort.html; http://lindowyn-stock.deviantart.com/art/Dance-with-Me-3-43670262; http://www.layoutsparks.com/pictures/disney-0; http://www.visualphotos.com/image/2x4543542/a_young_woman_holding_a_bowl_of_soup; http://liam-stock.deviantart.com/art/Black-Magic-22-129082887;  http://rpartridge.deviantart.com/art/Spring-Heeled-Jack-2-179489163; http://www.portlandmaine.com/event/sherlock-holmes-camp/; http://www.mhpbooks.com/lawyer-set-to-challenge-the-sherlock-holmes-estate/        

I made sure to collect as many references as I could because I didn’t just want to copy them, but adapt them into how I wanted the characters to be posed. I focused more on the birds because I wasn’t very familiar with the species – especially goshawks and starlings – and it was important that I could see the differences between each one for when it comes to the sketching stage.

Sketching

Taking all of these references into account I then started doing some sketches, using the ‘line’ technique shown in my storyboard research.
At the corner of the page I jotted down some notes I took when looking at these reference images, and also when I briefly researched into the three different birds to understand the hierarchy between them.

Conclusion:
With all of my characters sketched I can now place them ‘within the scene’. I have decided to not do the Blind Beggar’s Daughter because it resembled Disney too much, and I wanted to choose something that isn’t similar to other stories. This is why I had decided to do Sherlock in the end because it would be nice to include a better-known narrative to show that they all take place in London.

APP Home (AOI): Sketching London Landmarks

Looking at my research that I had done previously, I picked out and printed some of the key landmarks that I wanted to include in my illustration and drew right next to them. 

I also made small annotations next to my sketches and photos that I needed to take into consideration when drawing my final image.

Conclusion:

I realised that not all of the chosen buildings would fit on the page so I decided to leave out the Sea life centre. This is so that I would have more space for the characters and I also wanted to include some form of transport into the piece. 

The most difficult building to draw (even though they would all be quite challenging) would be the big Ben and Westminster Palace, because they are incredibly detailed. I haven’t drawn buildings before so I would need to make sure I draw them as accurately as possible… Although hopefully people wouldn’t mind if I missed out a thing or two!

APP Home (AOI): Experimentation with Different Media

Wacom Inkling

My first experimentation was to see how well the Wacom Inkling works. I am a big lover of inking and line art, and because I find it difficult to do that with a tablet I had received this Inkling as a birthday present. I haven't yet used it properly so this was the perfect opportunity to see how it works.

To use the Inkling I had to attach the little 'box' to the top of my piece of A5 paper, turn it on, and then started to draw. Every time my pen was registered it sent off a signal to this 'box', and flashed green. 

It was actually really easy to use and so I got used to it relatively quickly. Once done I just detached the 'box' and then connected it to my computer using the USB cable provided. It then brings up Sketch Manager and from there I could choose to either open it up on Photoshop or Illustrator. It converts it to a vector in Illustrator, but as I would like to mainly focus on painting digitally in Photoshop I opened it on that software.

It had placed different sections on different layers, just as I asked it too. All in all, it was pretty successful!

Conclusion:

This experimentation was very successful and I would love to try out the Inkling again, and yet I found it quite difficult when doing the shading. This shows that I wouldn't be able to go into as much detail as I want to, and unfortunately I wouldn't be able to thicken any lines as it doesn't come in different nib sizes.