APP: Figuring Out My Interests (Possible Ideas)

Figuring Out My Interests
Alongside my dissertation I shall be working on my APP (Advanced Professional Practise). Before I want to even think about what kind of products I'd like to produce in relation to the brief, I will create a list of all that I'm interested in. I'm going to go as broad as I like, because when everything comes together there 'should' be some connection between my interests.

This is quite different to how I normally approach the brief, and it's mainly because we weren't instructed on what to produce by were given a list of themes: Arrival, Identity, Words, Conflict, Adventure and Home. So hopefully my list of interests would be able to adapt to these themes!

Image Sources: J.R.R. Tolkien: "The Hobbit"; George R.R. Martin: "A Game of Thrones; Magazine spread of Sayoko Ozaki from Happie NUTS; 11 Untranslatable Words: http://blog.maptia.com/posts/untranslatable-words-from-other-cultures; Natasha Cousens: "Life's Breath Entwined" http://natashacousens.com/; Homer, "The Illiad"; Jacopo Tintoretto: "Athene and Arachne" http://www.jacopotintoretto.org/;
 JDarnell: "The Little Mermaid" http://jdarnell.deviantart.com/; Feross Aboukhadijeh: "Travels in Japan" http://feross.org/japan/; Schin Loong (Luciole): "The Four Beauties" http://luciole.deviantart.com/

1. Reading
I love reading; I had even managed to go through most of the books in the children's department in my library's hometown, and even though I have forgotten most of those stories I can still remember some of the plots. They were mostly fantasy and how-to guides, and above are a few of my current favourites (although I have included The Hobbit which I read as a child).

2. Art & Illustration
Alongside being obsessed with reading, I really enjoy drawing and try to find as much time for it as I can during my spare time. I love Art Nouveau as well as "pretty" artwork, and am a great admirer for digital art (although I'm not that brilliant at it myself).

Little Dove

I don't understand why people don't like Sansa Stark.
If you think about it, she's in a terrible situation; most of her family is dead - and at the hands of the people she's surrounded by - and she's being tortured mentally and physically on a daily basis. Yes she might be a little naive and she was a bit stupid during the first season but she was only a little girl. She still is a little girl, really.

Tools Used
Watercolour pencil and paint to produce this. I wanted to initially use the no-line technique but couldn't help myself but reach for the ballpoint pen.

Artist © LizJOwen
Character © George R.R. Martin

Step by Step

1. The sketch on "normal" paper. 

2. Transferring of the sketch onto watercolour paper using the window as a backlight. Should really get my hands on a light box...

3. "Painting" the face using watercolour pencils. 

4. Painting the doves with watercolour paint, making a lot of mess in the process. 

That's all for now!

Lizzie.

To-Do List; Goals for the Year

For the past couple of weeks I have been job hunting; I know that I've still got a year at university to go, but I like thinking ahead and getting prepared for when I enter the "real world" of Graphic Design.

I wrote up some of the points that each job required such as having advanced skills in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign, as well as being able to take a project from concept to completion. Then I set myself a little to-do list for me to do whilst at university so that I could brush up on my skills or learn something new.

To-Do List:

• Blogging - Needs to be updated regularly meaning that I need to do more projects/research; be written professionally, and whenever I do do a project I would need to show my whole process
• Possible Projects - Packaging Design (would be either a large project or series of small projects); Hand Lettering; Editorial Illustration & Design
• Try out Web Design
• Practise drawing - different styles & techniques

I realise that there is quite a lot on my list so I'm going to break everything down and do them in small steps. Blogging will come with practise because although I do have a fashion/lifestyle blog, it will take me a while to figure out the best ways to blog for Graphic Design and Illustration.

And for all of the other points... I'm going to tackle them one by one instead of mixing projects and getting confused as I do also have to think about my dissertation and university projects. 

I guess that's all for now! Until next time,

Lizzie

Recent Update: What I'm Working On

Hello all!
I'm currently working on my art trade with my friend Tori, and thanks to my lovely mum who bought me a new printer & scanner I am now able to scan all of my works in!

Here's what my art trade looks like so far... I've just been able to complete the inking stage.

Now onto the painting stage!

Recent Paintings

Completely didn't realise that I hadn't put these up on this blog, so here is a collection of my most recent paintings, from oldest to newest.

Click here to see my process on Tumblr

This was an Art Trade with my friend Annie who asked me to draw "something with antlers" and she liked the whole fantasy idea, so I decided to do something that represented the woods.

My all-time favourite series is Sherlock, and after doing a 10 minute sketch (as shown below) I wanted to take it further and practise using watercolours. I haven't really painted without relying on lines before so it was something completely new to me!

This was the sketch I did of Sherlock whilst on a holiday in Germany, where I didn't have anything else but pen and paper. 

Personal Project: Pirate Birthday Invitation Design

I can't believe it; I've finished, I've actually finished it!

Brief: To design an invitation to celebrate a five year old boy's birthday, who wants to host a pirate-themed party.

You can see my process on my previous post here. Be warned, it is very detailed as I wrote it as I was researching and designing this.

Personal Project: Birthday Invitation Process

WARNING: Very detailed!

I have decided to come up with my own little project to keep me occupied over the summer, and this time I aim to design a children's birthday invitation. After much thought I have created the following brief:

To design an invitation to celebrate a five year old boy's birthday, who wants to host a pirate-themed party.

With the brief done I can now start my researching process.

Moodboard
Even though I know the theme of the party I want to take a look at other children's invitations so that I could pick out some of the aspects they have e.g. what kind of wording they use, how the illustrations are set out etc.

Image sources: http://theplaygroundph.tumblr.com/post/54599950750/ethans-mom-asked-me-to-design-a-safari-themed (2) http://www.behance.net/gallery/Childrens-Party-Invitations/7243961 (2) http://www.behance.net/gallery/Party-Invitations-and-Thank-Yous/5029201 (2) http://www.behance.net/gallery/AHOI/9145117 http://www.zazzle.co.uk/pirate_and_mermaid_invitations-161898138254790990 http://www.zazzle.co.uk/boy_and_girl_pirate_invitations-161852976881709458 http://www.zazzle.co.uk/jungle_safari_photo_birthday_invitations-161268921838798133 http://www.zazzle.co.uk/old_macdonald_eieio_farm_barnyard_birthday_invite-161670174034418123 http://www.zazzle.co.uk/pirate_boy_birthday_invitations-161301535145411190 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Camilles-Birthday-Invitations/1255209 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Kids-Birthday-Invitation-Party-Kit-Vintage-Retro/9829079 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Football-Shirt-Invites/2601131 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Wesleys-First-Birthday-Invitation/8513167 http://www.behance.net/gallery/High-Tea-Party-Stationery/8769561 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Birthday-Invite-for-Tvisha/4573945 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Minnie-Mouse-Birthday-Invitation/5835769 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Birthday-Invitations/8490621 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Baby-Bobber-Birthday-Invite/5292731 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Vans-1st-Birthday-Invitation-Design/9416387 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Invitation-for-1st-Birthday-Party/5237913 http://www.ballisticblue.com/number_five_invitations/9708fa8d01584757bd1a2a23f0b9fc5e/ http://www.ballisticblue.com/wizzy_wizard_invitations/67f46d0e9e1f4e73862c06684858ce52/3/ http://www.partyrama.co.uk/pp/Invitations/Boys_Invites/Dear_Zoo_Theme_Party_Invitations_-_Pack_of_10.html 

Inspirational Artists/Illustrators

I'm going to take a break from my mini project - which I'm hoping to complete today! - and write about my current inspirational artists. This is mostly because I'm really into illustration and drawing lately and looking at my inspirations really makes me, well, inspired!

First off is Angela Rizza, who I have talked about waaaaay back during one of my university projects. She is still an inspiration to me because I've fallen in love with the intricate detail in her lines, and I feel that there is a similarity between our styles as we both love lineart/inking and prefer to colour it on Photoshop rather than doing the lines on there as well. It's so amazing to finally find someone who does the same thing you did a few years ago, having given up on the idea because I was so depressed that I was the only one.

Update

Hello!
Just going to give you all an update on what I'm doing: absolutely nothing. Well, that's not entirely true because I have been browsing around for inspiration all work but in terms of projects I haven't really completed any.

I've been in a bit of a design rut because I have been mainly focusing on art rather than design, having just completed my Cherry Blossom Painting. I think it's really relaxing to go back into drawing again especially because I have time to do it, so design has taken a back seat.

However today I had the idea of creating some birthday invitation designs, and right now I'm trying to decide on a theme. Hopefully I'll be able to complete this mini project by the end of the week! Although it'll all depend on whether or not I overcomplicate things...

Here's my to-do list then for this week (and perhaps next week as well):

• Art Trade with Annie
• Birthday invitation design
• Portrait painting - digital or traditional

Trying not to make the list too long or it'll be near impossible to complete!

See you around!

Under the Blossom Tree II

Been up since 5.30am thinking about this piece when I thought, "What the heck, I might as well finish it!"

Et voila, here is the final piece.

This was more of an exercise to see how much I've improved in terms of drawing and painting, as I decided to redo an old favourite of mine which you can see on my deviantART page here.

Here's both versions placed side by side so that we could see the improvement:

It's crazy how much my style has changed! I've moved away even more from the anime/manga style (in 2010 I was beginning to move away from it) and I have improved in my anatomy. I think my choice of colours for the skin is more realistic as well.

Here's a WIP:

Guess that's all for today! Thanks for reading.