My week at Central St. Martin's!

So for my big Christmas present this year, my parents booked me onto a week's course in Enhanced Illustration at Central St. Martin's College of Art in London, which I've been looking forward to for a while.

The course was geared around creating traditionally-produced images and textures, and using Photoshop's layering, colouring and rendering techniques to create illustrations for a number of different publications. We had four different briefs, which I'll list below.

It was taught by Illustrator and film storyboarder, and general professional Creative Bill Wright, who was a great tutor and really got everyone involved in a very positive way. I'd done a course at St. Martin's before, and the tutor had been a bit intimidating, so I was very pleased with the way this week was being taught - it was obviously intensive (we had to pretty much finish a new illustration every day) but it was done in such a casual, comfortable and engaging way that it didn't seem like very much work at all!

So, anyway...

Brief 1: Create a series of hand-drawn pencil images geared around the theme of either a workplace, kitchen or make-up table, and then compose them around an article template.

So I went for Kitchen, and the article name we were given was 'Kitchen Madness'. I didn't really like the font they used in the article template, so I changed it up a little with one of the fonts I had on my laptop. I originally was going to do a design geared around a drawing I did inspired by that iconic war-time poster of the housewife with the tie in her hair rolling her sleeve up, but in the end I decided a more cutes-y them might be a better shout. Here's what I came up with:

This is a bit rough, and I don't think its the best I could have done but as we had limited time and just the images we'd already drawn to work with, I think it came out pretty good!

Brief 2: Create an illustration based around an article from a newspaper.

So I (being the positive soul that I am) chose a story about a mental health patient who, due to apparent neglect by the NHS killed herself. The story was about the mistreatment of mental health patients. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to scan the story, so I had to draft the title from memory and added in some template text just to get an idea of how the composition would look on paper.

I did like it, but I maybe went a bit off-piece with the design...I'm not sure my style (at the moment) is quite right for editorial work, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn! I made this using some hand-made colours/textures that I'd scanned in, and an inked drawing of a figure. It came out looking a bit like it had been digitally made rather than traditionally created but as a stand-alone piece I don't mind it!

Brief 3: Create a reportage-style image, either from life or a photo.

Reportage is basically where the illustrator will either be present at the story (i.e, in the courtroom) and sketch whilst the story is happening, or draw from photos that are relevant to the piece. I found an old photo from Reading Festival in 2009 of me and all of my friends sitting around the campsite, though I changed a few things while I was drawing to make it more moody. I think it came out well, though I'm not great with watercolour really, and I'm not used to using a rough, messy style so it was out of my comfort zone, whilst a load of the other students were really used to that so I felt like a bit of an amateur. I like the finished piece though:

I inked the sketch I'd done from the photo, then I painted the watercolours on some tracing paper and put them together in Photoshop.

Brief 4: Create a series of three themed illustrations, using all the techniques learnt during the course.

I think this was my best one, to be honest! Fantasy has always been my forte, and this one actually formed from a doodle I was drawing while I was waiting for my watercolours from Brief 3 to dry. It began with a sort of wooden/stone-type figure, and then she became the focus of all three images. Her arm in the first image is actually because I couldn't find a position I liked it in, so decided to have it crumbling away instead. That, then, became the underlying theme (whatever the theme was, ha)

These definitely took the longest - I scanned the pencil sketches, painted in some basic colours with india ink on tracing paper, shaded with charcoal on some more tracing paper, then put them all in together. The watercolours were actually just the spare paper I'd used to dab my watercolour brush on, but that's why you should never throw anything away! The background was actually just the back of my sketchbook, which I decided I liked the look of so scanned that in and manipulated the colour!

Anyway, that's all that I have to report, hopefully I'll update again soon if I can get my life together!

Annie

xx

Biffy Clyro at the O2 (06/04/13)

Hey all,

So i've not been able to update so much the past couple of weeks, but that's largely due to dissertation work, aaaand the week-long illustration course I've been doing at Central St. Martin's in London. It's been a great week, though getting up at 7am every day and commuting into town was a bit of a shock to my lazy student system. The flat I'm staying in is lovely, though I'm under pressure to keep it clean. The greatest part is that I can see the Shard, and London Bridge from my window, they're only about five minutes' walk away!

So anyway, yeah, lots to report! I'll do a separate post on the Illustration course as there's lots of pictures to post up :)

First of all - since going to Foals, I had another stroke of luck and managed to bag myself a free ticket to see Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro at the O2. And, even better, they were being supported by no other than Alexisonfire's Dallas Green, aka City and Colour (such a deep band name ha.)

Has to be said, I know Biffy fans will call this blasphemy but musically I enjoyed C & C a lot more. His voice is almost otherwordly, really clear and piercing, and the acoustics in the O2 are obviously amazing. He did go for an odd choice of cowboy hat but I'm willing to let that slide as his music was so gorgeous.

I really liked 'Sleeping Sickness' and 'Grand Optimist', both of which are in my Spotify top played at the moment. My headphones popped out on the tube the other day and the whole carriage got a preview too. Spreading the love, in a way?

Biffy of course were amazing. Although their vocals weren't as clean-cut, they were no less enjoyable. I think I look for vocals in a live performance as I'm a singer (not a good one, mind) and that's what I naturally listen for. But their gig was great, they were all topless and heavily tattooed (definitely a pro), and were endlessly energetic. Simon Neil stayed onstage for the entire gig, and barely even paused to have a sip of water...amazing!

'Black Chandelier' is their new single, and it was really great. I was also very happy to hear some old classics from my 16-year-old obsession, like 'Who's Got A Match?' and 'Bubbles'. Even if you don't like the music that much, they still know how to keep everyone on their feet (we were in seated, and everyone was standing by about 5 minutes into their set!)

Anyway, it was a great night out, and though it was a bit bizarre standing next to my parents while everyone around us was dressed entirely in black and head-banging furiously, it was still great fun and I'm glad I got the chance to see them live, especially as they're in much higher demand than they were about four years ago!

Anyhoo, art-related post coming soon!

Annie
xx

Foals at the Royal Albert Hall: 28/03/13

Hey all,

So I thought I'd write up a quick post about my day yesterday, as it was very impromptu and really fun! A couple of days ago my friend texted asking if I wanted a free ticket to go see Foals live, and of course I said yes. They're also headlining Latitude Festival, and as I may well be going to that too, this was a great excuse to get into them properly before the festival.

I'd heard 'Cassius' from their first album loads before, as well as 'My Number' more recently, but I hadn't really listened to any of their other music. They were being supported by Efterklang, too, another band who are playing Latitude Festival, so it was definitely worth going to see them.

For 3.30 on a Thursday afternoon, the Royal Albert Hall was surprisingly packed. I don't think (festivals excluded) I've ever gone to a 'Matinee' Concert, which felt a little bizarre but in the end it didn't make much of a difference (And we probably got to watch them when they were slightly less tired, which is a plus-side). I'd never been to the Royal Albert Hall before, and on the inside, it seemed a lot smaller than the huge stadium-size venue I'd been expecting. However, the acoustics in that room were incredible. We were sitting at the front of the seated-section, behind the standing area and the techno-geeks with their laptops, but we could still hear everything as clearly as if we had been right up at the front.

Efterklang were really good, I hadn't heard of them before, but they're clearly making a name for themselves in the indie circles, and quite rightly. I think the highlight of their set for me was the final song, called 'Modern Drift' where Katinka and Casper synchronised vocals, and harmonised over the top of one another. I found a video via YouTube, if any of you would like to watch:

I can confidently say I'm looking forward to seeing them again at Latitude. They were really sweet, smooth and their music worked fantastically in the Royal Albert, where the acoustic was ten times the level of any other venue I've ever been to. Katinka's operatic backing vocals sounded incredible in the Albert Hall.

Foals, too, were great. I recognised more songs than I thought I knew, highlights being 'Inhaler', which they played during the encore, and 'My Number' which they played after their first song to get the crowd going. I was hoping they'd play 'Cassius', a favourite from about four years ago but sadly they didn't. However, it was a great gig altogether, and the Royal Albert was the last place I expected to watch anyone crowd-surfing. But Yannis managed it, clearly not satisfied with staying put in one place for too long, and there was a moment where he surged into the seating area, had a bit of a skip around and then fought his way back to the front. I'm not sure the RAH is the most rock-and-roll place to do that, but each to their own.

Foals, musically were really really great. I'd never expected their sound to carry so well, but I can now completely see why they've been made headliners for Latitude 2013. They have a sound that could easily fill a whole stadium, coupled with light and laser shows to rival Muse. I can't wait to see them again in July!

That's all for now, more art updates soon hopefully!

Annie

xx

A spot of tea and girling

So it's been a slightly more sociable last couple of days, which has meant less drawing and more contact with the outside world, thankfully. I was turning into a bit of a night troll.

Anyhoo, so my friend came round and I decided to show her a picture I'd started for her but never finished (I'm a great, consistent friend, obviously) and then decided to start finishing it in front of her (I'm also really good at hosting.)

So here's the finished product:

Playing around with textures is fun, I feel like it really enhances the drawing (and obviously there's a tea theme with this one.) It's also got an Alice in Wonderland theme because my friend is (quite rightly) obsessed with those books. I'm happy to say it's now her profile picture on Facebook, so clearly I haven't done too badly.

In terms of Photoshop, I used the same soft texture brush from the ImagineFX set I recieved, and then after colouring/shading etc. found this brilliant tea-stained paper texture on deviantart (which you can download here), played around with the opacity settings and the Contrast Levels until this emerged. I'm quite happy with it despite some obvious anatomy issues, but I drew the sketch quite a while ago so I've possibly improved since then.

As an endnote, here is a picture that Emma drew for me in return which I think is much better:

Anyway, off to bed (It's 00:52 and I'm supposed to be getting up tomorrow for Foals!)

Annie

xx

What I Wore (Sketch Edition)

So whilst scouring the web for blogs to follow, I found a little project called What I Wore Drawings, which is adorable. They've even got a book out now, which I'm tempted by but have no money to fund, sadly. Basically loads of really talented illustrators/artists post up a little sketch of what they wore that day, so I decided, naturally at about 2am, to do the same. I know the hand is rubbish but I think i got bored of drawing at that point and just decided to scribble.

So here's mine, with annotations (excuse the handwriting):

Also an excuse to play around with some of my new brushes from ImagineFX, they had loads of pencil/sketchy brushes that I thought I'd briefly experiment with. I don't pretend to be good at matching clothes up/wearing exciting things but I thought it'd be something fun to do while I'm working on my dissertation, which is loong.

Thanks for reading, I've got another pic in the works so check back soon!

Annie

xx

Look who's still up!

Fortunately for me, blogger likes to post in american time so no one can see how late up I am (though I've probably ruined the mystique of that now...)

I just thought I'd post quickly to show you all what hours of not sleeping have produced!

After hours of playing around with my new brushes, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. I usually paint underneath lines I've already drawn, but this time I drew on top of the sketch - it takes a lot longer but I think the product is as good if not better! The brush I used was a soft texture brush from the M Brushes packet I got in my ImagineFX CD, I think it'll be a new favourite!

Anyway, I should really really go to bed, g'night all!

Annie

xx

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ImagineFX and some new brushes!

Man is it cold. We had a bit of a nightmare with the heating earlier that has thankfully fixed itself. I had to sit and draw next to a fan heater for a few hours which was delightful.

Sooo, for my birthday I got a subscription to ImagineFX Magazine, which is (well, they say it is anyway) one of the No.1 publications for digital fantasy/sci-fi artists. And I'd been waiting for ages for an issue, (since the 19th of February, at least), and one finally came. It's their May 2013 issue, which is annoying because i really wanted to get the paper copy of the back issues, but I'm sure I can shed a couple of quid extra.

(Excuse bad-quality webcam image/backwards writing/unshowered hair)

Anyhoo, what I really like about the way they produce it is that you get a CD with downloadable Photoshop brushes and video tutorials on it, so I've obviously been nerding out at my finest and experimenting with them. I took one of the sketches I did yesterday and painted all over it with one of the sketchy charcoal brushes, and I quite like the effect it has. Obviously this is just me playing about and I may never finish it, but here's a snapshot anyway for proof:

Either way, it's pretty exciting (well, for me anyway). I'm going to keep practicing and reading all of the artist features, I'm thinking of doing a few of my own in the upcoming weeks. I'll post up the finished image if I ever get to it!

That's all folks, stay tuned!

Annie

xx