Catcher in the Rye Book Jackets

My book jackets for The Catcher in the Rye. The first is aimed at an adult audience, young adults upwards. I have painted the background using gouache paints and collaged relevant elements later using Photoshop.

The second is for a graphic novel, aimed at collectors or people interested in them. Again originally painted using gouache and collaged imagery was added later in Photoshop. 

I have used typewriter styled typography for the blurb because it signifies the time it was written, and it mentions typewriters in the book too. In both I have tried to keep the quality of the gouache painting because it creates a distinct feel to the work.

I might change parts of these slightly before the degree show, though I'm quite pleased with the way I have managed to show hidden elements from the novel, which was my main ambition from the beginning.

Palmer Hargreaves Brief

This is my completed design for the illustrative brief for Palmer Hargreaves after their refurbishment. The illustration needed to capture the company as a whole including the new changes to the office. 

As they are an international company I wanted to emphasise this, so began by painting the word and creating a tessellation. I then collaged on top other painted elements which are relevant to the company and their new look. Looking on their website they are very professional so I created illustrations for things that make a professional company, for example, reliability, security, strong ideas.

Painted with gouache.

Size = 1920 x 1080 pixels.

'A Calendar of Tales' by Neil Gaiman

This is the illustration I created for the month of July in Neil Gaiman's 'Calendar of Tales', a story for each month from people's past experiences that have inspired him to write. 

You can read the story here: http://keepmoving.blackberry.com/desktop/en/us/ambassador/neil-gaiman.html?CPID=E70C215#Jul

July is my favourite month so I was edging towards that story anyway, but I liked how the story described an igloo made out of books, so that's what I focused on. I thought about making a scene with it, however, a lot of the images already submitted were scene like and I preferred it without when it came to the final result.

Collage edited on Photoshop.

Size = 24cm x 19cm

Working on A3

I've started working on A3 pieces of paper as part of my development for the FMP. This gives me chance to brainstorm as I go along and will also add to a portfolio, which in the end will hopefully look organised! It also gives me a chance to breathe from working in my sketchbook which is quite controlled.

Here are some pages deciding on materials for the main character which will go on the book cover. The top image is aimed at adults and the second is for a graphic novel. 

I feel grounded with this project, I just need to keep up the pace and make sure I fit in my own style at the same time.

Hawkwood Book Cover Comp

A few pages from my sketchbook for the Hawkwood book cover competition, since I've not posted anything yet. I'm currently changing my idea to create a better composition and overall aesthetic because the idea I had was too scene like, and I want to include collage to look exciting and be attractive to the audience which is 9-12 year olds.

Here I am looking at ways of drawing the two main characters, however, I want them to be quite anonymous since there is little description of them and it is for a mystery genre, so I want things to look ambiguous at this stage.

Panda Prints

After attending the Cyanotype workshop, I wanted to create my own prints that I could make easily. These aren't for any project I'm working on but I might apply the process somehow. I was experimenting with working with what I had and I'm quite pleased with the result, and of course it's also a fun process!

I chose a panda because I think its a widely loved animal and also when I think of pandas I think of the wwf logo. When my fabric paints arrive I want to print onto tshirts and tote bags and wanted to begin printing on paper to see what the quality would be like.

Cyanotypes

On Friday, I attended a workshop with the Photography society and created this Cyanotype. 

The process was very interesting and simple (once you have the chemical that causes the reaction), which only takes about 20 minutes in total to create. I also find the colour interesting, which you can manipulate in the process too.

Essentially, we collected natural objects and laid them onto a piece of paper covered in 'Ferric Ammonium Oxalate' and pressed them down with a piece of glass. We then went outside for the UV rays to make the reaction with the solution. You can see this happening as the paper changes from yellow to a greeny-blue colour. We then rinsed the paper in water and this is the end result.

Overall, an interesting process that I would be interested to try again if I had the correct equipment.